My Theology/Religion Book TBR

 This year I made the goal to read 10 Orthodox books that would either relate to theology, saints, or some other way. Because I want to makes sure this goal actually happens I made a list of the 10 books I need to read. I am allowed to read other books in addition to these 10 but I have to read these 10. I find when I make a list and am specific with the titles I am more likely to actually complete.

So far I have read 3 of my goal books and am in the middle of another of my books. I have been going through a bit of a reading slump with COVID going on right now. But here is my list of 10 Orthodox books to read. I will note which ones I have completed and which one I am in the middle of reading. I might give some information on why I picked some of the books as well.

1. Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia by Lvubov Miller
I actually really need to get moving on reading this one as I have actually borrowed it from a friend. I always feel nervous borrowing books from people as I am such a mood reader and I feel nervous when I take too long to work through a book.

2. Reclaiming the Atonement: An Orthodox Theology of Redemption by Patrick Henry Reardon -Currently reading
This one has been on my TBR for a while and I was first drawn to it as I am still working through gaining a deeper understanding of how the Orthodox understand atonement and redemption and how it differs from the western understanding. I highly recommend this book so far from what I have read which I am about 80% through. I also ended up purchasing more of Reardon's books because I enjoy is very in-depth but at the same time accessible writing.

3. Bread & Water, Wine & Oil: An Orthodox Experience of God by Meletois Webber
So part of why I selected this one is because I was able to purchase it on audible for an audiobook. I try to either listen to church music on my way to services of a theology book. I also have been experimenting with if listening to theology books will help me to read more of them. I was intrigued by the description of this book however as I am always looking to better understand how Orthodox views of God differ from other Christian views.

4. Orthodox Worship: A living Continuity with the Synagogue, the Temple, and the Early Church -Finished
I got this one as it was recommended to me by Audible but I really was interested by it because ever since I read Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist (Catholic author but so much good material) I have been interested in understand the Jewish origins of Orthodox theology and practice. I feel like I need to reread this book actually as I do not think I fully processed all of the information in the book.

5. When the Church Was Young: Voices of the Early Fathers
Another Audible selection but I recently saw Hank Hanigraf did a podcast on this book so now I am extra intrigued by it. I will say that I am interested in gaining a better understanding of the early church and the theologians of the time.

6. At the corner of East and Now: A Modern Life in Ancient Christian Orthodoxy by Frederica Mathewes-Green - Finished
This one I selected mostly because I find Mathewes-Green to bean and easy to read author and I wanted something a little more soft and easy to read. Perhaps a bit less hard-hitting than other books on my list. It was also on Audible and the author was also the narrator which was very enjoyable.

7. Everywhere Present: Christianity in a One-Storey Universe 
This one I selected because it was on Audible. I can't remember if there was any other reason for selecting this book but I am interested in reading it.

8. The Orthodox Church by Kallistos Ware
My parents read this book when we became Orthodox and I have wanted to read it for a while and it is a bit of a classic in the Orthodox world but I have not gotten around to it so this year will be the year that I read it. I even ordered my own copy to annotate from Powell's bookstore.

9. Resurrecting Easter: How the West Lost and the East Kept the Original Easter Vision by John Dominic Crossan & Sara Crossan - Finished
So I purchased this book from Bookoutlet when I found it accidentally and I was very interested to read a non-Orthodox person's view on Western versus Easter Pascha/Easter. This book also focuses on religious art history which I was very intrigued by. I will say that there were some interesting tidbits in it about the history of how the Resurrection is portrayed. I would recommend this book.

10. Christ in the Psalms by Patric Henry Reardon
I selected this one originally because of the author and it seemed a good one from my reading list, however, after reading his other book I am even more excited to read this one. I am also intrigued by it more now having read bits and gained a better understanding of Christ being in the Psalms and the Orthodox Church's relationship to the Psalms. I am planning to read through the book of Psalms while reading this book as well.

What are some of your reading goals? Do you make specific goals with a specific list of books or do you make a goal and then go without a plan.

Liturgical Calendar

With everything that has been happening with COVID-19 in the world, it has highlighted even more how important the structure of a liturgical service and calendar are in providing stability.

I have generalized anxiety that has gone up and down over the years but I have noticed it gets worse when my life lacks structure and stability. Such as when I worked a job that had very inconsistent shift times week to week. However, I have always held on to the fact that when I go to an Orthodox church service I know the structure of the service and what will happen. I am familiar with the hymns and prayers I feel a sense of peace, comfort, and stability with this. Not only with the services themselves, but also with the liturgical calendar. It is a predictable structure of the year. I know when feast days are, when fasting periods are, and particular saint's days. I appreciate also the level of structure that happens in monasteries and how they structure regular prayer time, while not something that I as a layperson have used or implemented I appreciate the daily structure that it can provide.

What amazes me even more than just the peace and comfort that the liturgical structure and calendar provide for me personally is how it has impacted communities in the past. I took a Medieval Christianity class in undergrad and my professor talked about how churches and monasteries would ring bells during services to let people know they were being prayed for while they were out working. This would have been so powerful to think about how others are praying for the life of the world even when you cannot but also provides a kind of schedule structure to the day and the community. Feast days also would have played an important role in communities and church parishes were a center for village life. I can only imagine how in the Medieval period when things were chaotic the kind of peace and comfort liturgical structure brought to people.

Lastly, when I participate in a liturgical calendar and structure I feel strongly that I am not alone. There are so many other people involved in that same service in the past, present, and future. Which is part of Orthodox theology that liturgy takes place outside of space and time.

Much love and prayers for you all

Tea, Coffee, & Jesus

I have a wonderful friend who gave me this mug that is probably a perfect expression of who I am. I love Jesus and I also love coffee. However, in the picture, I am drinking a spiced citrus tea. I love all kinds of hot drinks.

My faith means a lot to me and I strive to follow it. I often feel like I fall very short in that aspect. I know I do not pray nearly as much as I should. I want to read more scripture or theological books but again I struggle to make those goals. There are so many ways I want to be better in my faith. I am afraid though that perhaps if I do start to pray better or read devotionals more that I will become proud and puffed up which I won't say I don't struggle with pride now.

I love being an Orthodox Christian and going to confession. I don't have to struggle alone. I can first of all find healing in the sacrament of confession and through a priest, I can find advice and spiritual support. Most of all I love the whole community of being an Orthodox Christian. We do liturgy together. We cannot do services as individuals they are meant to be done and have to be done as a community. We all participate in Eucharist together in community.

Spiritual in School: Wearing a Cross

My cross and medallion of the Theotokos

One of the things that I have come to do while in college is to wear my cross and now a medallion of the Theotokos every day. I didn't wear a cross every day because I only had my baptismal cross, which is not the highest quality of cross so I was afraid it would fall apart and wear out. Also, it is gold and I am not big on wearing gold every day. It just is not practical and doesn't feel humble to me the way silver does. That might just be in my head though.

I attended a Lutheran-affiliated University that is very liberal and social justice oriented. I love the school. When I started wearing the medallion most people would ask me about it and say how beautiful it was. I was then able to talk about it and explain it to people. Everyone found it interesting and such. I have never had a negative experience wearing it at my school. I think it also offers an opportunity to talk about my faith if people ask questions.

I will admit I have been nervous wearing this for job interviews and Americorps interviews. However, I have not found it to be a problem and no one has made a point to tell me that wearing it would be a problem. I do live in the Pacific Northwest which may be part of the more accepting attitude.

Thank you for reading have a wonderful day.

Valentine's Day for me

My family after being baptized and taking communion for the first time. :) 

Valentine's Day is the anniversary of when my family and I were baptized and chrismated into the Orthodox Church. It was Forgiveness Sunday and the beginning of lent as well. It was overwhelming and incredible.

This year is the 7th anniversary and I have grown in my faith and my understanding of the church. What I most love is how my participation on the liturgy and life of the church has grown.

The blessing of the waters for baptism

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's day and celebrate those you love. 

Spiritual in School: The College Job

a picture from when I worked for catering

So I have worked a few different jobs now in my college career and I will write a different blog post talking about each of them. My first job, and the one I want to talk about today, was with the catering department on campus. I worked for them for two school years and two summers. It was not a fun job, quite frankly it was a really sucky job. But what can you do when you are a college student desperate for a job?

But this is a series about being spiritual and practicing orthodox faith while in school so why talk about a job? For one thing my first boss(we went through a lot of bosses and supervisors) found out I was an orthodox christian and asked me lots of questions about it. He had been learning about it from a class that he was taking at the university and was excited to me a practitioner. I lived out my faith through the job by answering his questions.

I know also that I had questions from co-workers, mostly along the lines of "what is that?" and "I have never heard of that?". Even in the sucky food service job that I worked through college I was able to share my faith. I am not one to just go about announcing my faith but when I asked I answer. I am a more "actions speak louder than words" and I hope that how I treated my co-workers and performed my job was able to speak about my faith.

Much love

Spiritual While in School: Let us Attend

My parish decorated for Palm Sunday

As you may have guessed this post is about church service attendance. It is the most important thing that you can do. Through attending church we are spiritually fed by the service and by partaking in communion. It is way to set aside time to participate in prayer and worship. Attending church can also be beneficial for destressing. It is something we are familiar with and know the rhythm of the service. It can be a time to clear our minds from our worldly cares and focus on the heavenly world.

Make a commitment to Sunday morning liturgy and strive to attend that the most. Vespers and an occasional evening service are good to attend as well once in a while. For Holy Week there are so many services but not everyone can always make it to all of them. I try to aim for all the evening services prioritizing holy Unction and my personal favorites. Often when I know holy week is coming I try to get ahead on some of my school work that I can so that I am not stressed about school while trying to attend services. When I was working for a particular catering job, I would request the evenings after 5pm off for religious reasons. Because the schedule changed form week to week I just had to give far enough notice in advance.

I understand the struggles of attending church there have been many times when I have not attended because a final project was due or finals were coming up. I have also not attended church because of work. I worked a for catering for 2 of my college years and if I worked a 7 hour shift on Saturday I would come home exhausted and none of my homework for Monday done. I didn't go to church the next day unless it was a feast day. I have one particular summer memory of working a 50 hour work week in food service and that Sunday being my first day off and I just needed to sleep. I wish I had been better about church attendance but it is the past and I know I can only go forward and keep working on it.

Much love

Historic Day

I feel is would be remiss of me to not post about the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage. It made me so happy to open my facebook and see all the posts. I don't think I can put it into words. Now there are equal marriage rights for all.

I know a lot of religious people are upset about it. However, I know that it is prohibited by certain groups. I think that what needs to be understood is that everyone can get a civil union that gives all equal rights, but the holy sacrament is part of the church. I believe in the separation of church and state. We do not live in a christian nation therefore rules that apply to christians to not need to be forced onto those who are not.

Overall I am so happy that the gay couples I know that now have equal rights across the US. However, as some have pointed out, LGBT+ issues are not over with this and there are many other issues. Such as job discrimination, abuse, youth homelessness, and conversion therapy that still need to be dealt with.

Been a While

So..............

School really takes a lot of my time leaving little time to for fun on the internet. When I do have time I must admit I don't spend it writing post instead I spend it doing things that require less thought. I don't like writing post for the sake of writing posts. I want to write something of value for others to read.

Some cool stuff has happened at school. I got to play in a ton of concerts this semester and sing with a choir. My piano teacher said that I was a performance monster this year. I have had some very good classes this semester with some wonderful professor.

Also a monk from a local monastery came to school and I got to have my picture takes with him.

I wish I had some more interesting stuff to say but I just lack the time to create and organize a topic. Maybe I will have some inspiration to write a fantastic post at some point. 

Love

Elizabeth 

Lent has Started Today

Lent started today. You must either think fell asleep for about 2 months and have only just woken up or I am just a very confused person because duh, Elizabeth Lent started last month. Well for the Western church yes. For the Orthodox though Lent started today.

Why did lent start for us on such a different day and so much latter? Well there is a long and complicate answer for that and there is also a shorter answer. As I am not entirely sure exactly of what the long complicate answer is(though I have an understanding of it) I will just give you the shorter one. We calculate the date for Easter/Pascha differently. Well not so much differently as we consider when the Passover happens and set the date to be after the Passover. The western Church does not. Hence we have Pascha after Western Easter most of the time. There are times though when we have it on the same day.

That answer was a little longer that I thought it would be.

Anyway now that that has all been explained. Lent is a time when we make a much stronger effort with our spiritual life. Weather it be through fasting, praying more, or spiritual reading. You can also give something up for lent like internet time. I have done that however I have decided not to this year as I really have not been spending a lot of time on the internet anyway(as evidenced by my last posting date).

I would like to pray more during lent, I would also like to read more spiritual books. I generally consider myself a well read person, but as far as spiritual books go I am sadly lacking.

The most important thing to remember though is that Lent is a time for repentance.

Blessings
~Elizabeth

Day 30 — How many icons you own?

I own one icon. My family owns several, but I have one that was a gift to me.

I am sad that this is the last day for the challenge. I have really really enjoyed doing this.
I hope you have enjoyed it!

Day 29 — Share any funny Orthodox moments you noticed at Church

Are these moments that are humorous? I have a few of those. I the one that comes to mind though is when I watched a little boy take off his shoes and socks, and then put his socks on his hands. His socked hands the proceeded to have a conversation. It was extremely cute. :)

The first time we came to church was the Sunday of the Elevation of the Cross. We had never been to an Orthodox service before, we had no idea what we were walking into. So at the part of the service when every one prostrates. My family had no clue what was going on, we were very confused and had no idea what to do. It is quite humorous to look back on.

Day 28 — Your favorite Orthodox radio station/internet radio station

As I live in America there are no stations on the radio that play orthodox music sadly. :(

However with this age of the internet we do have access to radios on the internet. My favorite is Ancient Faith Radio. I enjoy many of the podcasts, and my whole family loves the music. :)

Day 27 — Your favorite Martyrs

St. Stephanie 

And also the Russian Royal family.

Day 26 — Your stance on Ecumenism

I didn't even know what this was until it came up on the this challenge. I had to research it to see if I had a stance on it. Having done that, I dream of having one Church in the world and to have unity, but not at the  compromise the Orthodox faith. I would like to see the whole word in the Orthodox Church but I don't think that will happen in my life time

Day 25 — Your favorite tumblr Orthodox bloggers

My favorite Orthodox Tumblr Bloggers are..
Simply Orthodox
Orthopraxis

And since this post is for blogger I will post my favorite Blogger Orthodox blogger.
The Morning Offering

Day 22 — What does Orthodox Christianity mean to you?

It means true to me. It means life. It means love. It means family. It means being able to take care of others. It means practically my whole life to me. There are so many things that Orthodox Christianity means to me I don't even think all of them have words that I can express them with.

Day 21 — The Last Orthodox book/study you read

The last Orthodox book that I read was was The Orthodox Way by Bishop Kallistos Ware. A very good book. I would recommend it to orthodox and nonOrthodox that are interested in the Orthodox church.

Day 19 — Ever considered ordination/entering monachism?

It has vaguely crossed my mind. I have never given it(monasticism) any really serious thought or prayer, which I probably should. I know of several people who are looking at the monastic life and becoming priests. I guess it is just something that has really crossed my path in a way for me to take a second look at it. I know I should.

Day 20 — Your favorite Father of the Church

St. John Chrysostom. I always enjoy his quotes, and he was very good at expressing himself.