If you like the book Everyday Saints...

Mr. Husband and I loved
reading Everyday Saints
out loud in the evenings...
*
We were given this book,
May God Give You Wisdom!
as a gift earlier this year.
It contains the letters of
Fr. John who is in the book
Everyday Saints.
*
This book of letters became my reading for
Great Lent.
*
We have just begun reading it out loud
as our new book to share together.
It's a great way to have some spiritual reading
in one's day and something we
really treasure about our days.
*
Fr. John figures prominently in the book
Everyday Saints.
(You can read about Fr. John here from the
Everyday Saints website).
*
You can see more about the book of
Fr. John's letters here,
where the author of Everyday Saints,
Archimandrite Tikon,
writes an essay about Fr. John as
one of his spiritual sons.
*
Mr. Husband and I just began reading
this book out loud in our evening
reading time.
We are already loving this book
of Fr. John's letters...
If you can get your hand on a copy,
count yourself blessed!

Wednesday ~ Surprised by Sunshine and Many Other Things

Whew.
Just 1.5 weeks left of Lent.
I realize every time I think of Pascha
I am thinking of Pascha in Ottawa.
I have no categories for how it will be at my
new church
other than that it will be the same joy
the same liturgy
and the same
Risen Christ who has overcome it all.
*
That said,
I am realizing once again that I miss Ottawa
or rather that there is grief in moving places
even when for the most joyous of reasons.
This book review unexpectedly tipped me off to
this realization again.
*
So the quotation that
I blogged about earlier today
and that I re-posted as the next picture
really caught my attention:
the sentence towards the end
A great deal of work is needed in order to build 
the house of our soul...
*
It was back in the earliest days of
Mr. Husband and I's still young marriage
that I first came across this,
when the monk told me via a translator about
how frustrating it can be when trying to make
the house of one's soul and seeing
it crumble again.

It is a really incredible quotation;
I read this book usually late at night and
often it speaks to what I need to hear.
Such a gift.
Not all letters in it apply to me directly
as he writes to all sorts of people
but yet I learn from each one. 

I did not know of this concept
but with Christ I am being taught
that I can at least endure to the end and
strive to keep going in the right direction...
My spiritual father in Ottawa,
once when we were discussing
St. John's Book,
The Ladder of Divine Ascent
told me
when I could see no progress in my own self:
it is a blessing to just be on the ladder.
*
I really miss my Ottawa spiritual father.
*
So, the meal I made last night was wonderful!

Tasty
Simple
and enjoyable!

And with leftovers!

We had almonds for protein together...

 

Lastly,
I made this dish cloth a while ago,
just wanted to mention. :)
And the ones I made for my Aunt J.
were received this past weekend
for her and Uncle D's 50th wedding anniversary in
Ontario!
I wish I could of been there
but I talked to my Aunt J. twice recently and all
of my Aunts on my Mom's side said
that Oma would of been so proud.
*
I hope to make Koek today or tomorrow
and must go on a walk as I was not expecting sunshine
again today!
*
This cake looks wonderful for the Bright Season -
H/T: Mary.
Loved this tale of one of my new blog friend's
first time knitting in public.

Patient Bearing of afflictions

Mr. Husband and I were given a book recently
by Archimandrite John Krestiankin
of the Pskov-Caves Monastery in Russia
entitled
May God Give You Wisdom! 
The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin
which I have been reading over the last days...
his letters speak of many things...
one of the themes that struck me is the
 speaks of enduring under one's Cross
without murmuring
and with faith and hope in God.
*
I am enjoying these letters;
I find that I often find letters by various holy people
in the Orthodox church to be very uplifting.
You can read parts of these letters here.
*
Listening to this podcast by Fr. Thomas Hopko
today while I try to clean our home,
I found the same theme...
salvation will be found through endurance of affections.
*
Fr. John Krestiankin was, it seems, asked many times by many
people for their life path in the
traditional Orthodox paths of either
marriage or monasticism.
He spoke of both being of a Cross and
of the cutting of one's will.
*
Fr. Thomas Hopko speaks of bearing with
each other in love and being kind to everyone.
*
I found myself thinking of many of those who I love
who are married with children
and how there are a lot of every day afflictions that
we endure ~ now a lot of my friends have young children
and that has it's on challenges of exhaustion and not much
if any break from the constant effort that is called for
in the raising of children.
*
Or others who are in
increasingly difficult work situations
or are in other painful and grief-filled situations.
*
Or those who are just trying to make their way
through things and find life currently bewildering
and without clarity or focus.
*
Or those who are suffering from illnesses.
*
Or those needing work...
*
Or those who are in more than one of the above categories.
*
There are many struggles in our life...
*
This theme continues throughout this year for me ~
those who endure to the end will be saved.