Dear Baba:

You have talked a lot before about the Anaphora. I have to confess that I have no idea what you are talking about. Where is the Anaphora in the liturgy and why is it so holy? And please help me understand what I’m supposed to do during it.

Dear Baba - I am curious to know where the Church stands on horoscopes and visiting psychic readers.

Dear Baba; I know this will sound like a crazy question but I figured I could ask you. Can you explain what is happening in the liturgy after the clergy and acolytes come out the first time and we sing “Come let us worship” but before we sing “Holy God”? It seems like an Orthodox top 40 – some Sundays there are a bunch of short little one-verse hymns. Often there are all sorts of melodies talking about all sorts of people and events (and most of the time they have really unusual names). Sometimes I recognize the hymns but there are plenty I’ve never heard before. It seems like a catch-all of short hymns. What is all that about? What am I supposed to do during that time?

Dear Baba: Help me understand the bread and wine that we have after communion. How is that bread different from the little loaves at the back of the church at the beginning of Liturgy? Do I take some from the tray even if I haven’t been to communion? I see people share it with visitors – is that allowed? All I really know is that it tastes good and I have a hard time keeping my toddler out of the tray.

Bridegroom Matins of Holy Week

Reflections by Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

Beginning on the evening of Palm Sunday and continuing through the evening of Holy Tuesday, the Orthodox Church observes a special service known as the Service of the Bridgegroom. Each evening service is the Matins or Orthros service of the following day (e.g. the service held on Sunday evening is the Orthros service for Holy Monday). The name of the service is from the figure of the Bridegroom in the parable of the Ten Virgins found in Matthew 25:1-13.

Dear Baba

 We are having Saturday of Souls liturgies on the first two Saturdays of March. I am a recent convert and this is all new to me. What should I expect and what should I do? - Confused Soul

Dear Baba

My priest says it is time to sign up for house blessings. What am I signing up for? What do we have to do? Is it true he’ll bless even the storage rooms? Does my house need to be immaculately clean? Help! A priest will soon be on his way to my house with holy water and I have no idea what to do. - Panicked Homeowner

Dear Baba

We’ve made it through Nativity Lent and I’m at a loss. I watched friends and colleagues party like there was no tomorrow since Thanksgiving, I dabbled a bit but tried to avoid the festivities until Christmas. That left me feeling a strange mixture of bah humbug, guilty and ‘holier than thou’. Now it is the 12 days of Christmas and all signs of the feast are vanishing quickly all around me and it seems awkward to be trying to celebrate when everyone has packed up and put the tree out for the recycle truck. I feel like Scrooge.

Dear Baba

How do I pray? How do I make time? I have small children who are not inclined to pray with me for very long and yet I desire a deeper prayer life than their activity level seems to allow. So I feel like I’ve dropped off my wish list of stuff I want God to take care of by my icons like a drive thru window at a fast food joint. That is hardly what I think prayer should be. - Prayerful Parent

Dear Baba
As a convert to Orthodoxy, I'm sometimes confused as to how I should interact with clergy.  What is the proper way to meet, greet and interact with the clergy? - Not wanting to offend

Dear Baba

We’re going to begin Nativity Lent in just a couple of days. My kids are already bouncing off the walls with excitement about Christmas, the stores are already getting decorated and I’m feeling lost in the holiday madness and we haven’t even started lent yet. How do we make it to Christmas and keep our sanity? - Overwhelmed

Dear Baba

Last Sunday afternoon, my preschooler picked up the shirt he’d worn to church and said it smelled like church. The incense smell was still there. Next thing I know, he was playing church. He held his shoe by the laces and made it into a censer and he had me tie a towel around his shoulders like vestments. He wanted to kiss the icons and he walked around the living room censing the icons and singing. He wanted us all to participate. It made me think about how I participate in church. Can you give me some guidance? - Mother of an angel