My daughters and I were excited to learn that we would have the opportunity to preview Jane G. Meyer's latest book The Hidden Garden: a Story of the Heart. We read it four times the afternoon we received our copy of the book. My daughters are 8 and 4 years old, and I'm old enough not to tell my age, so we all took something different from it, but we also agreed it was a good book. This is a book that I feel privileged to have in our library. It is one that we will read over and over, that we will share with friends, and it is one that I hope one day many years from now to pull out and read for some grandchildren. It is a book that I predict will become an Orthodox children's classic.

        I read the best-selling book by Rob Bell because a parishioner asked me to do so (its publication produced, I'm told, a great stir among evangelicals).  It was the podvig I expected it to be, though a short-lived one:  I finished the volume of 198 pages in about 45 minutes.  I am not a speed-reader; it is that light.

 “An insider’s look at the Liturgy and Beliefs of the Eastern Orthodox Church”. The book, as Father states in the introduction is “your invitation to come in and see how Orthodox Christians . . . worship.”

If you’re looking for a solid fantasy adventure story for your ten-year or older fantasy enthusiast, then look no further. The Edge of Mysterion is made to order for Orthodox (and non-Orthodox) kids. 

I’ve always been puzzled by fools for Christ. They just never made sense to me. How is being crazy saint-like? A picture of a drooling person paralyzed with hallucinations comes to mind. Matted, messy hair, maybe drug addicted--but not saintly. It just doesn’t match with what I was taught, growing up in a Greek Orthodox church.  In Sunday school, I learned about disciplined and wise leaders of the faith who stood up to pagans and put their lives on the line for Christ. I don’t recall ever hearing about “fools” who were also known as saints. Not until coming back to the church in my adulthood did I hear of these anomalies.

A long drive is ahead of us. Audiobooks have been downloaded to our various electronic devices, and we’re ready to melt away hours of monotonous cross-country driving. My kids are all too familiar with drives lasting hours and even days. This has long been a part of our lives – partly intentional and partly just the hand we’ve been dealt. Audiobooks are not the only form of entertainment we have used to pass the time on these trips, but it is the primary form for this journey. I had planned to listen to children’s books and write lesson plans in my mind during the drive, but at the last moment, I decided to follow along with the book my daughter was starting – The Hunger Games. Once again, as in years past, it was the perfect catalyst for a discussion.