Author Archives: edithmhumphrey

Blog 7 Great and Holy Pascha: The Restoration of the Kingdom On great and Holy Pascha, we flash forward just a little from that Easter morning, and we read Acts 1, gazing upon the tableau of the disciples, talking with the risen Lord for 40 days, and listening to his final words. Luke rehearses forContinue reading “Great and Holy Pascha: The Restoration of the Kingdom”

Judges 9: 1-56; Isaiah 53: 7-12; Hebrews 9:11-14; Mark 10:32-45 The power of the story has always fascinated me. Beginning as a child who cut her teeth on C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, and as an undergraduate who wrestled with and appreciated genre in literary studies, I have been trained to ask questions aboutContinue reading “The Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt: A Cautionary Tale and Godly Ambition”

Readings: Hebrews 4:14-5:8; Mark 8:34-9:1; Sirach 2:1-9; Isaiah 50:4-9 Anyone who has nurtured toddlers remembers the moment—that time when the little darling asserts his or her self-will in utter clarity. My oldest daughter, as in every area of life, was precocious–it happened the November before she turned two. The weather in Ottawa, Canada (the coldestContinue reading “The Sunday of the Adoration of the Holy Cross: Learning Obedience.”

Today has appeared a day full of joy because the splendor of true doctrine shines forth brilliantly, and the Church of Christ now sparkles, adorned by the elevation of the Icons of the saints and their illustrating pictures, and believers attain there a unity rewarded by God. In this hymn for the first Sunday inContinue reading “Sunday of Orthodoxy: On Icons and Ladders”

What brings us close to the Lord? What separates us from him? These are the two questions posed and answered (with some surprises!) in the epistle (1 Cor 8:8-9:2) and gospel readings (Matt 25:31-46) for this Meatfare Sunday, the Sunday of the Last Judgment. Let’s look first at the epistle. In 1 Corinthians 8, theContinue reading “Meatfare Sunday: On Food and Judgment”

The Divine Liturgy for Feb. 2 is a major holy day, and focuses upon “The Presentation of the Lord” as an infant of 40 days in the Temple—or, as we often call it in Orthodoxy, “the Meeting” of the Lord. This is a special day for me, since my final decision to seek entrance intoContinue reading “Coals, Tongs, and Human Mediation”

I was delighted during the most recent meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature to attend a panel discussion of Richard Hays’s most recent book: Reading Backwards: Figural Christology and the Fourfold Gospel Witness (Baker, 2014). Throughout the presentation, as I saw Richard demonstrating a figural reading of the OT from the evangelists’ method, IContinue reading “The Old Testament, A Lamp for Today”

I love the Bible. I am growing to love the Church. I love to be in intense discussion about something that matters to me and to my interlocutor(s). And I love to read and write! One thing that I do not like about written words is that they can be somewhat disembodied. However, it isContinue reading “Introducing ‘A Lamp for Today’”