Category Archives: church

St. Joanna the Myrrhbearer

church, homemaking, housework, icons

Today’s my name day, the day we remember Joanna, one of the women who followed our Lord Jesus around during His earthly ministry and helped take care of everyday needs. I don’t know what kinds of work those women did on His behalf, but perhaps it might all come under the broad category of hospitality?

In the two week period of which we are approximately in the middle, I have eleven different house guests coming and going. There isn’t much that makes me happier than creating a comfy and welcoming space for people who are away from their usual routine. 

I like to put fresh flowers in the bathroom, and give the lodgers space for their suitcases and stuff. In weather like this I open the windows wide so that fresh air will greet them, and I give them choices of fat or thin pillows for their beds.

Jesus said that the Son of Man had no place even to lay His head; that was a particularly difficult hospitality challenge. It’s a joy to remember St. Joanna as I prepare one more room this afternoon for people I love.

Here is what is on the Orthodox Church in America website for this woman whom we remember today:

Saint Joanna the Myrrh-bearer, wife of Chusa, the household steward of King Herod, was one of the women following and attending the Lord Jesus Christ during the time of His preaching and public ministry. She is mentioned in Luke 8:3 and 24:10.

Together with the other Myrrh-bearing Women, St. Joanna went to the Sepulcher to anoint the Holy Body of the Lord with myrrh after His death on the Cross, and she heard from the angels the joyful proclamation of His All-Glorious Resurrection. According to Tradition, she recovered the head of St. John the Baptist after Herodias had disposed of it.

Saint Joanna, pray to God for us!

This chock-full week in June…

church, food and cooking, , , , ,

In church, we will soon be celebrating Pentecost, on the 23rd of June. Last night was the Leavetaking of Pascha service that I love, the last time we would sing “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death!” in the services until next Pascha. Tonight the Feast of Ascension began; until Pentecost we greet once another with “Christ is ascended!” and the response is, “From earth to heaven!”

loaves proofing

Between now and October 1st our parish has many feast days, so our team of communion bread bakers has a busy season ahead. Yesterday three of us worked at making the large loaves used in the altar, and the photos show some of my efforts.

just after sprinkling on some curry spices

At home I’m reveling in glorious vegetables. In the last few days I’ve juiced lots of vegetables raw, and also made big batches of kale and Turkish Green Beans and stir-fried Asian vegetables.

My recent favorite way to cook sweet potatoes or yams is to roast them at 450° or 500° with coconut oil and curry powder. I don’t measure anything, and have used varying amounts of all the ingredients — also different blends of curry spices, plus a little salt. It doesn’t seem to matter if I stir the spices in at the beginning or partway through the baking. I bake them till they are tender. And then I eat them like candy.

Pippin sent me a link to this photo journal of grandmas around the world and the food they cook. I am considering what dish I might pose with were I asked to participate, and what clothes I could wear that would make me look half as cute as the Bolivian grandma in the collection….you’re right, it would take more than clothes. I love the way the women arrange the ingredients so artfully in the “before” photos. An example is below.

 
The Egyptian grandma looks pleased.

From our son Soldier we got a link for a short film you can watch online (less than 15 minutes), about a man in the mountains of Ecuador who is The Last Ice Merchant. It’s always a joy to see footage of a human soul taking satisfaction from hard work well done.

But progress means that people can get factory ice cheaply and the old-style ice he sells has become a specialty item. It’s not likely anyone will want to take up the cause of nostalgia once he is gone. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the ice he hauls down the mountain is sweeter than the cheap and more convenient blocks.

The last ice merchant

Another man whose character inspired me this week by way of the movie “Searching for Sugarman” is Sixto Rodriguez, a singer whose music never took off in the U.S. His two records failed to sell, and he lived simply and humbly for decades after, not knowing that his music was hugely popular and motivating and successful in South Africa. When his fans there discovered that he wasn’t dead as rumored, they brought him to that country to do several concerts.

Rodriguez

Suddenly he is famous — but he didn’t lose his endearing simplicity and generosity. I was impressed at how he seemed to have passed his gentle spirit on to his daughters who are also introduced in the film. I liked all but one person in this documentary, and I liked Rodriguez’s voice very much, and a couple of his songs.

There you have my happy hodgepodge. Oh, and here is what my Mother’s Day lily looked like when we got back from Oregon.

We rejoice with the dead and scatter eggshells.

church, death, nature, Pascha, quotes,

Grave with exuberant rockrose

Today is Radonitsa or The Day of Rejoicing, Tuesday of Thomas Week in the Russian tradition, though some Orthodox churches visit graves on Thomas Sunday. My parish doesn’t have a churchyard (yet) so we don’t have a gathering in the church with traditional foods, as is the Old World custom. But several of us joined nuns from the nearby skete at a cemetery not far away and sang a service of remembrance, alternating with joyful Easter hymns. It was a warm day on a dry hill; the sun was toasting the weeds underfoot and making them smell like cookies in the oven.

The Resurrection icon at top shows several elements that signify the ramifications of Christ’s rising from the dead, and every version shows in the center Christ pulling Adam and Eve from their tombs, from Hades. David and Solomon and Abel and John the Baptist and others are featured – we all are raised with Christ, as the church books explain:

“Having previously celebrated the radiant feast of Christ’s glorious Resurrection, the faithful commemorate the dead today with the pious intent to share the great joy of this Pascha feast with those who have departed this life in the hope of their own resurrection.

“This is the same blessed joy with which the dead heard our Lord announce His victory over death when He descended into Hades, thus leading forth by the hand the righteous souls of the Old Covenant into Paradise. This is the same unhoped-for joy the Holy Myrrhbearing Women experienced when discovering the empty tomb and the undisturbed grave clothes. In addition, this is the same bright joy the Holy Apostles encountered in the Upper Room where Christ appeared though the doors were closed. In short, this feast is a kindred joy, to celebrate the luminous Resurrection with our Orthodox forefathers who have fallen asleep.”

My own parish comes out of a Russian tradition (though we are presently mostly Americans without Russian ancestry, and part of The Orthodox Church in America.) So we keep this day, which even St. John Chrysostom mentions in the 4th century. After the short service we all walked around scattering eggshells on graves and calling to those who have fallen asleep, “Christ is risen!”