Why Mary is the most important human figure in Christianity

Transitioning from Protestantism to the Orthodox Church a bit over a decade ago was for me a fairly seamless one. I was already well versed in the different theological positions and met the cultural surprises through research prior to my first visit to an actual church; however, I definitely got hung up on the Church’s…

Some St. Palamas for this first day of Great Lent

This morning I opened to a passage from St. Palamas which seemed eerily perfect for this first day of Great Lent. He writes of God’s “incomparable grandeur of compassion,” in that He promises to give us the reward of eternal life for us simply “toiling on our own behalf.” Using a well worn Christian analogy, we…

“Preparing Worthily to Depart”: On being a Christian in crazy times

I stumbled across an untitled “hymn of praise” in St. Nikolai’s Prologue of Ohrid,* last week which pulled me out of a funk, the type of funk I get into only when I pay too much attention to the news. I’ve never been into religious hymns, per se, even Orthodox Christian ones, but this one…