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Banner lettered "Part Six: Living It": at home, a stick figure holding a prayer rope stands by an icon shelf with a hanging lamp, near a window and a table set with bread and a bowl.

PART SIX · 7 ENTRIES

Living It

  1. 1Prayer at HomeOrthodox Christians pray at home before icons, morning and evening, by a small rule they can actually keep, with the Jesus Prayer and a prayer rope for the hours in between and a prayer before every meal.
  2. 2Fasting: The Rules, the Range, and the PointThe Orthodox fast on most Wednesdays and Fridays and through four seasons by giving up meat, dairy and more; the full fast stays the standard, each person keeps it by a rule worked out with a confessor, and the point is prayer and mercy, not the menu.
  3. 3The Communion Fast: Eating and Drinking Before CommunionOrthodox Christians who will receive Communion at a morning Liturgy usually take no food or drink from midnight or from waking, with the rule bending for health, for children, and for those who need medicine.
  4. 4Almsgiving and StewardshipAlmsgiving is the third discipline beside prayer and fasting, giving to people in need and doing it quietly; in American parishes it sits beside stewardship, the yearly pledge that keeps the parish running.
  5. 5The Christian Life: Commandments, Beatitudes, Passions, VirtuesThe Orthodox read the moral life as healing: the Ten Commandments (counted the older Greek way) and the Beatitudes mark the road, and the ancient monastic map of eight passions and their opposite virtues shows where the sickness is and what health looks like.
  6. 6Family Life, Name Days, and GodparentsAn Orthodox family's life runs on the Church's calendar and prayers: a newborn is prayed over on the first day, named on the eighth and churched on the fortieth, godparents stay for life, and each person keeps the feast of the saint they're named for.
  7. 7Women in the ChurchWomen are among the Church's greatest saints and carry much of parish life; the priesthood is reserved to men, the ancient order of deaconesses is part of the record, and practice on head coverings and on Communion during menstruation differs from place to place.