Walking an Ancient Path
61 episodes — Page 2 of 2
Suspicious of Praying to Saints, Part 2
In this episode Lynnette talks about veneration, Christ’s breaking the barrier between heaven and earth, the early Church’s understanding of one united Church, and three reasons to ask the saints for their intercessions.
Suspicious of Praying to Saints, Part 1
After spending most of her life in a saint-free space, the idea of asking the saints to pray for us didn’t come easily to Lynnette. In part 1 of this two-part look at the subject, we’ll consider the objections to asking the saints for their prayers, the scriptures that reveal their awareness of us and involvement on earth, two categories of heavenly intercessors, and the concept of one united Church.
The Sign of the Cross: A Neglected Weapon of Prayer
As a child, Lynnette watched people make the sign of the cross on TV—a foreign, superstitious, and Catholic thing to do. But it is actually a powerful weapon of prayer that Christians have used from the earliest days of the Church. Let’s reclaim it!
The Forgotten Space between Christ's Burial and Resurrection
Lynnette grew up with Good Friday and Easter. Nobody in her Protestant past talked about what Jesus did in the in-between space on Holy Saturday. By celebrating Jesus’ Harrowing of Hades, we reclaim the fulness of the Paschal message and Jesus’ victory over death.
Halfway There: Refreshment for Weary Lenten Pilgrims
A few days ago we celebrated the Sunday of the Holy Cross. In this brief episode we consider the Church’s intention to encourage us in the doldrums of mid-Lent as we struggle and look ahead to Christ’s victory over death.
What a Priest Really Thinks about His People During Confession
How can I tell my priest what I really struggle with? What if I keep failing and confessing the same things, over and over? Lynnette interviews Fr. Theodore Dorrance, from St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church in Greenwood Village, Colorado, about the priest’s point of view and the spiritual freedom that comes from authentic and honest confession.
Cautious About Confession
In this fifth installment in “Stumbling Stones on the Orthodox Road,” we examine public confession of sins in the Scriptures and in the practice of the early Church. We also consider the significant differences between Roman Catholic and Orthodox understandings of the Sacrament of Confession and describe what a confession appointment looks like.
Extreme Prep
On Sunday we began the Triodion period, a three-week season of readying ourselves for the forty days of Great Lent. In this episode we examine the Church’s purposes during this long warm-up period, when we begin to limber up hearts and minds that have become stiff and neglected throughout the year.
Stumbling Stones on the Orthodox Road: Canned Prayers
Except for reciting the Lord’s Prayer, written prayers are virtually unknown in non-liturgical Christian churches. Isn’t it cheating, or somehow unspiritual, to use “canned prayers”? In this episode, we explore a few drawbacks of spontaneous prayer, and with help from some AFM content contributors (Dr. Jeannie Constantinou, Fr. Barnabas Powell, and others), we consider the benefits of praying with the wisdom of the Church. It’s not an either/or proposition, but both/and.
Four Sunday Morning Struggles
Issues in our own hearts can make it difficult to enter fully into the Orthodox worship experience. Lynnette identifies four common struggles among newcomers to the Faith (as well as old-timers): confusion with the unfamiliar, intellectual understanding versus real-life parish experience, the effect of “palate training” on our expectations of worship, and our need for inner healing.
Intro
Lynnette Horner introduces herself and explains the focus of her new podcast.