Frederica Mathewes-Green
Author
Description
Discover how icons can become part of your own life of prayer.
Encounter twelve of the world's most significant Orthodox icons with one of today's best-loved spiritual writers as your guide.
"The Open Door provides an open window into a radically different approach to spiritual formation, one that is more ancient/Eastern than modern/Western, one that feels refreshingly new as well as seasoned, rich, and time-tested." -Brian McLaren, author of Everything...
Author
Description
The Classic Story of a Family's Pilgrimage
into the Orthodox Church
Veiled in the smoke of incense, the Eastern Orthodox Church has long been an enigma to the Western world. Yet, as Frederica Mathewes-Green discovered, it is a vital, living faith, rich in ritual beauty and steadfast in integrity. Utilizing the framework of the Orthodox calendar, Mathewes-Green chronicles a year in the life of her small Orthodox mission church, eloquently illustrating...
Author
Description
Why are modern Christians so indistinguishable from everyone else?
How come Christians who lived in times of bloody persecution were so heroic, while we who live in safety are not?
How could the first Christians fast valiantly, but we feel deprived without dessert?
How did New Testament believers pray without ceasing?
How could the early Christian martyrs actually forgive their torturers?
What did the Christians of the first centuries know...
Author
Description
"There are other introductory books about Orthodoxy, but they are all somewhat academic. This one comprehensively covers the history, theology, and practice without talking over your head. Mathewes-Green takes the original approach of bringing you into a typical church for a series of visits. That is how Christians learned the faith for most of history, by coming into a community and keeping their eyes and ears open. Designed primarily for newcomers...
Author
Description
For Protestants or Catholics seeking to understand Eastern Orthodoxy, the Cross is a good place to start. In the West a multitude of different views sprang up over the last millennium, but Orthodox Christian beliefs have remained unchanged. The contrast between those views is suggested by the two images on the book's cover, showing how differently the meaning of the Cross was understood, East and West.
Two Views of the Cross is a short, focused book,...
Author
Description
"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me."
This very simple prayer was developed in the deserts of Egypt and Palestine during the early centuries of Christian faith, and has been practiced in the Eastern Orthodox Church ever since. It is a prayer inspired by St. Paul's exhortation to "pray constantly" (1 Thessalonians 5:17), and its purpose is to tune one's inner attention to the presence of the Lord. This series of "little books" is designed...
Author
Description
Join Frederica Mathewes-Green on a guided retreat through an ancient Orthodox text. Regardless of your denominational background, First Fruits of Prayer will bring to life the prayer experience of first millennium Christianity through immersion in this poetic hymn, an extraordinarily beautiful work that is still chanted by Christians around the world each Lent. It weaves together Old and New Testament Scriptures with prayers of hope and repentance...
Author
Description
Click Here to listen to an interview with Frederica Mathewes-Green.
Some Christians have piled the status of the mother of Jesus so high that it rivals that of her Son. Others ignore the Virgin Mary entirely. Behind all of the images is a girl who grew up to be the mother of Christ. How did the first Christians view her? What were the commonly understood facts about the Blessed Mother's early life --- before the Annunciation? How did Mary, the mother...
Author
Description
In the earliest centuries of faith, Christians in the deserts of Palestine and Africa sought a short prayer that could be easily repeated, in order to acquire the habit of "prayer without ceasing." The result was The Jesus Prayer:
"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me."
This jewel of Eastern Christianity aims at enabling a person to be in God's presence, rather than to focus on feelings or thoughts about God.
The first...
Author
Description
Western societies today are coming unmoored in the face of an earth-shaking ethical and cultural paradigm shift. At its core is the question of what it means to be human and how we are meant to live. The old answers are no longer accepted; a dizzying array of options are offered in their stead. Underpinning this smorgasbord of lifestyles is a thicket of unquestioned assumptions, such as the separation of gender from biological sex, which not so long...
Author
Description
What should the church look like today?
What should be the focus of its message?
How should I present that message?
We live in as pivotal and defining an age as the Great Depression or the Sixties–a period whose definition, say some cultural observers, includes a warning of the church's influence. The result? A society measurably less religious but decidedly more spiritual. Less influenced by authority than by experience. More attuned to images...
