Toolkit for Spiritual Growth: A Practical Guide to Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving

A Toolkit for Spiritual Growth..... There is so much to learn about the spiritual growth in the Orthodox faith!

From the Bookseller:

Are you a new Orthodox Christian, confused about what you need to do to grow in your Faith? Or perhaps you've been Orthodox for some time but could use a refresher course in basic spirituality. Popular podcaster Fr. Evan Armatas explains the fundamentals of the three-legged stool of Orthdox practice—prayer, almsgiving, and fasting—in terms that everyone can understand and implement.

During Lent 2025, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts was scheduled Wednesdays for 6:00 P.M. A Lenten Potluck  and discussion followed at 7:00 P.M.

It is strongly encouraged to discuss spiritual material with your spiritual father, father confessor or spiritual mother.  The book is available in the church library and bookstore.

Holy Fools: The Lives of Twenty Fools for Christ

 What can we learn from saints who are “fools for Christ?” From the bookseller:

The existence of "fools for Christ" in the Orthodox tradition mystifies many people, even some within the Orthodox Church itself. People often wonder what purpose these sometimes comical and oftentimes tragically misunderstood saints serve in the life of the Church—especially given their unconventional and seemingly bizarre behaviors. In Holy Fools we begin to gain a better understanding of these saints' curious manner of serving Christ, as we learn about the extraordinary lives of twenty of the most well-known fools for Christ in a series of brief hagiographies.

It is strongly encouraged to discuss spiritual material with your spiritual father, father confessor, or spiritual mother.

Wonder book that we discussed in November 2024. 

 

Orthodox Book Discussion

There is so much to learn about the crucifixion of Christ!!!. The Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ are central events in our salvation. Yet few Christians have a good grasp of the first-century historical and religious context in which the Crucifixion took place, nor of its true significance for the people of that time—and hence for our time as well. Biblical scholar Dr. Jeannie Constantinou puts modern readers in the center of the events of Christ's Passion, bringing the best of modern scholarship to bear while keeping her interpretation faithful in every particular to the Orthodox Tradition.

It is strongly encouraged to discuss spiritual material with your spiritual father, father confessor or spiritual mother.  The book is available in the church library and bookstore.

 

Orthodox Christian Book Discussion

Excerpt from Christos Yannaras: The author of this book, Maxim Vasiljevic, bishop of Los Angeles, does not write to teach or to make known opinions, views, acquired information, or wise conclusions from the study of wise texts bequeathed to us by the Fathers of the Church. The aim and purpose of the writing here is to …invite (the reader) to touch the empirical truth of the Church and to make him a participant in these empirical (truths). 

I would dare to say the "logic" of this book is to transmit experience and not just understanding.”

 

Sampling from the Table Contents

The Flame of Our Lady’s Hair

An Athonite Elder’s Theology of    Surprise

Repetition of Sin and Innovation of the Spirit

Seeing the Invisible

 

The Way and Chinese Christianity

Culture, Politics, and the Consolation of Theology

Dostoevsky as a Messenger of Life

Hagia Sophia’s Uninterrupted Liturgy

The book is available in the church bookstore and library. Please note:  It is strongly encouraged to discuss spiritual material with your spiritual father, father confessor or spiritual mother. Visit: https://hocalibrary.blogspot.com/.

 

Orthodox Book Discussion

Restoring the  Inner Heart: The Nous in Dostoevsky’s Ridiculous Man  By  Mary Naumenko

Excerpt: What is the nous? It is the God-given organ implanted deeply within (our heart) that is very receptive to the true reality of things. It is often referred to by the early Christian fathers as the “eye of the soul.”

From the Bookseller:

Written close to the end of the great writer’s life, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s short story The Dream of a Ridiculous Man tells of a transformation of the heart and a journey from despair to joy: a joy that can be known by all through the experience of God that transcends a simply rational discourse. The spiritual metamorphosis of the title character is examined in depth in light of the ancient concept of Nous as it developed from the Greek philosophers to the Christian fathers. By comparing the “Ridiculous Man” to similar characters in Dostoevsky’s writings (e.g., the Brothers Karamozov), the author shows how an Orthodox Christian understanding of the Nous underpins Dostoevsky’s writings in turn guides the reader toward a truer vision of humanity.

The book is available in the church bookstore and library. Please note:  It is strongly encouraged to discuss spiritual material with your spiritual father, father confessor or spiritual mother. Visit: https://hocalibrary.blogspot.com/.

 

 

 

 

 The Prayer of a Broken Heart

by Father Paul Abernathy

 

What do African American spirituality and Orthodox Christianity have in common? More than you might think. Drawing on both his own background as a biracial convert to Orthodoxy and historical resources that span St. Athanasius to Frederick Douglass, Fr. Paul Abernathy details the many intersections between these two traditions, including a redemptive understanding of the Cross and a faith shaped by suffering and persecution. In so doing, he points to a new path whereby Orthodox Christianity can uniquely answer the spiritual needs of African Americans.

About the Author: Fr. Paul Abernathy is an African American Orthodox Christian priest and founding pastor of St. Moses the Black Orthodox Church in the Hill District, a predominantly Black neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is the founder and CEO of the Neighborhood Resilience Project, an Orthodox Christian nonprofit focusing on building resilient, healing, and healthy communities through Trauma Informed Community Development. He is a nationally renowned speaker whose work has been featured on NBC, ABC, CBS, BBC, Ard (German) TV, and NPR. Fr. Paul is a U.S. Army Iraq War veteran and holds master’s degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary.

The book is available in the church bookstore and library. Please note:  It is strongly encouraged to discuss spiritual material with your spiritual father, father confessor or spiritual mother. Visit: https://hocalibrary.blogspot.com/

Book Discussion (Date TBA) Dialogues with Patriarch Athenagoras

 

From the Foreword by His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros

Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras is one of those rare hierarchs who has shaped profoundly and permanently the destiny of world Orthodoxy. Throughout the twentieth century, from his ministry on Kerkyra (Corfu), in America, and ultimately as Ecumenical Patriarch, his initiatives and determination to serve the most vulnerable as a fundamental expression of our Christian faith, have proved an inspiration for many Christians, regardless of denomination or confession, over many generations. Fifty years after his repose, Orthodox Christianity sill lives into his vision. 

The translation of these unique Dialogues with Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras  was long overdue. I am particulary happy that this publication is taking place during the centennial celebration of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. In deed, before his election to the See of the Mother church of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras presided over vital developments of Orthodoxy in America for over a decade, profoundly shaping the identity and nature of our presence in this country.