Confessions of a Former Halloween Junkie
Earlier this week, I got a phone call from my sister. We live three hours apart, and with eight young children between us, phone conversations are tricky and limited. Even with a 3 day old infant, though, my sister sounds chipper as she reflected on this summer-to-fall transition we find...
Honey, what shall we do with our kids on Halloween?
All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. (1 Co 10:23) Spending all my childhood and early youth in native Romania, I have to admit that I am not (yet) emotionally involved with all the...
“Is Saint Nicholas Real?”
While listening to an entertaining radio drama about what to tell your kids if they ask you whether Santa Claus ~ St. Nick is for real. To show our deep appreciation of your support, we have an icon of St. Nicholas linked below for you to print and place in...
What is Christmas to You?
I went on a quest the other day to find out what Christmas truly was. From my usual sources, I got conflicting information. I could not discern if it was a religious commemoration, or another official national holiday, or quality family time, or a very good occasion for shopping. There...
Our Children Reveal Our True Priorities at Christmas
The Christmas season has arrived, and I find myself thinking about my most cherished memories from every Christmas prior. As a mom, I find it important to pass along as many of these treasured traditions to my children as possible. As I was thinking about this, I was wondering if...
In Love with Excess
Sponsored By: Orthodox Christian Counseling Institute (OCCI) As we enter the Christmas season, Dr. Randa Anderson, a member of the Orthodox Christian Counseling Institute in Chicago, talks with Fr. Chris about our infatuation with excess. With insight into our desire to indulge, they also discuss the benefits of prayer, fasting and almsgiving...
In Defense of Hallowe’en
As I recall, I was always a black cat—not so much because black cats were thought to be evil and witch’s familiars or anything. I just loved cats, and so thought black cats were cool. My neighbour usually dressed up as a hobo, but me—I was always a black cat....
The Walking Dead
Every year at Halloween, Americans entertain themselves with television shows, movies and weird stories about the walking dead. It is a strange fascination, probably because we do not like death and do not really know very much about it. We no longer bathe the bodies of loved ones who die,...
Ancient Christianity Confronts Death and Halloween
I remember well walking the streets of our cozy steel-mill suburb of Pittsburgh with our two- and four-year-old sons in a wagon, flanked by our neighbors and their children as we went off trick-or-treating. Without leaving even the first block, I thought, “Toto, we aren’t in Kansas anymore!” Whole front...
Liberty and Technocracy: JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, and an Orthodox Fourth of July
July 4 on the Old Calendar would mark the feast of the Royal Martyrs of Russia, the last Orthodox emperor and his family, slain on the Fourth of July. That coincidence brings up the meaning of Orthodox ideas of government in relation to what C.S. Lewis decried as modern technocracy,...
