The Mother of God, Joy of All Who Sorrows....

Today, we celebrate the feast of the Mother of God, Joy of All Who Sorrow. I love that there is an icon like that!!

Join me in learning a bit of the history of this depiction of the Mother of God.

The following was taken from the OCA website.

The wonderworking “Joy of All Who Sorrow” Icon of the Mother of God was glorified in the year 1688. Euphymia, the sister of Patriarch Joachim (1674-1690), lived at Moscow and suffered from an incurable illness for a long time. One morning during a time of prayer she heard a voice say, “Euphymia! Go to the temple of the Transfiguration of My Son; there you will find an icon called the “Joy of All Who Sorrow.” Have the priest celebrate a Molieben with the blessing of water, and you will receive healing from sickness.” Euphymia did as she was directed by the Most Holy Theotokos, and she was healed. This occurred on October 24, 1688.

The icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” (with coins fused to it by a bolt of lightning), was manifested at St Petersburg in 1888. See July 23.

And from July 23, about the origin of this icon: 

The Icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” (With Coins) was glorified in the year 1888 in Petersburg, when during the time of a terrible thunderstorm lightning struck in a chapel. All was burned or singed, except for this icon of the Queen of Heaven. It was knocked to the floor, and the poor box broke open at the same time. Somehow, twelve small coins (half-kopeck pieces), became attached to the icon. A church was built in 1898 on the site of the chapel.

Here is the version of the Akathist (in Church Slavonic) that the kids and I will be listening to today, once everyone has started their day. 

The Kazan Icon of the Mother of God

Today we celebrate the feast day of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. Here is a description of the history of this icon, taken from the OCA website.

The Commemoration of the Deliverance of Moscow From the Poles by the Kazan Icon was established in gratitude for the deliverance of Moscow and all Russia from the incursion of the Polish in 1612. The end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries is known in Russian history as “the Time of Troubles.” The country suffered the onslaught of Polish armies, which scoffed at the Orthodox Faith, plundering and burning churches, cities and villages. Through deceit they succeeded in taking Moscow. In response to the appeal of His Holiness Patriarch Hermogenes (May 12), the Russian people rose up in defense of its native land. From Kazan, the wonderworking icon of the Mother of God was sent to the army headed by Prince Demetrius Pozharsky.

St Demetrius of Rostov (September 21), in his Discourse on the Day of Appearance of the Icon of the Mother of God at Kazan (July 8), said:

“The Mother of God delivered from misfortune and woe not only the righteous, but also sinners, but which sinners? those who turn themselves to the Heavenly Father like the Prodigal Son, they make lamentation beating their bosom, like the Publican, they weep at the feet of Christ, like the Sinful Woman washing His feet with her tears, and they offer forth confession of Him, like the Thief upon the Cross. It is such sinners whom the All-Pure Mother of God heeds and hastens to aid, delivering them from great misfortunes and woe.”

Knowing that they suffered such misfortunes for their sins, the whole nation and the militia imposed upon themselves a three-day fast. With prayer, they turned to the Lord and His All-Pure Mother for help. The prayer was heard. St Sergius of Radonezh appeared to St Arsenius (afterwards Bishop of Suzdal) and said that if Moscow were to be saved, then people must pray to the Most Holy Virgin. Emboldened by the news, Russian forces on October 22, 1612 liberated Moscow from the Polish usurpers. A celebration in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos was established in 1649. Even in own day this icon is especially revered by the Russian Orthodox nation.

The Kazan Icon is also commemorated on July 8.


One of my new traditions in our home has been to start playing the Akathist of the saint or icon of the day first thing in the morning. It helps me get a good start to the day and stay focused on what is important. I have also noticed that it makes the kids a lot more peaceful. They are quieter and I have found them commenting about the singing, like by saying "Mama, this choir is really beautiful!" I love that! I want them to be accustomed to church music and know that it is important in their lives to always think about God first.

Here is the Akathist to the Kazan Icon that we listened to this morning. It is sung by a choir of nuns. Enjoy!

Preserving Baby Memories in a Shadowbox Frame: A DIY Project

I am a sentimental person. My husband teases me for it, but that's ok. I love creating photo albums on Shutterfly, looking through old photos and cards, remembering old days, etc. I have never been very good at handling change, and it's probably because I get so stuck in the past sometimes! But I still wouldn't change that about myself because I really do enjoy remembering the past, and truthfully, I'm getting better at handling change as I get older because I am realizing that change is good and necessary in life.

One thing that comes with being sentimental is keeping things. Believe me, we've got enough "stuff" without me keeping anything extra as it is! I could not for the life of me ever part with my baby's hospital bracelets from their birth day/week or with their first articles of clothing, ultrasounds, etc (but what mom could?!) So for each of my children, I have created a shadowbox memory frame filled with their newborn sentiments. I am most proud of the last one I created for my little baby and I wanted to share the process as well as the end result here.

1) To begin, go to your local Joann's, Michael's or Hobby Lobby and pick up a 12x12 sized shadowbox frame. This has proven to be a good size for me, but you can go smaller or larger as needed, of course. I happened to hit up Michaels' during a sale and the shadowbox frames were Buy One, Get One Free!  I'm saving the other one for another project.

While you are at your craft store, visit the scrapbooking section and pick out an appropriate piece of scrapbook paper for your background...I chose a pink paper for my baby girl. You should not have any problems finding a paper in the same size as the frame. You will also need to pick up some thumbtacks and double-sided scrapbooking tape, if you do not have any on hand at home. And of course, you will also need to gather your sentiments that you plan to use. In this project, I used my baby's ultrasound, her newborn hat (which had been mine as a newborn, too!), the white t-sihrt she wore at the hospital, her birth announcement, both her and my hospital bracelet, and the hospital tag that was used to label her crib during the hospital stay.

2) Now that you have gathered all the proper materials, take apart the shadowbox frame from the backing of it. Make sure you check on the back of the frame that the hanging tool is facing the right way when you are beginning your work.

Now, take your scrapbook paper and line it (on the back side) with scrapbook tape/double-sided tape. Make sure you get the corners, especially. Flip the paper over and place it (correctly aligned) onto the board from your shadowbox.

3) Next, take all of your sentiments and place them on the backing WITHOUT gluing them on. You want to make sure everything fits properly and looks nice before you begin to glue anything.

4) Once you have arranged everything to your liking, you can begin gluing or tacking on each item. I used glue or double-sided tape for flat items, such as the hospital bracelets, hospital tag and birth announcement. For the thicker items, I used thumbtacks to pin them down. The tacks did stick out a bit on the other side of the backing, but being that the shadowbox will be hanging or propping against a wall, this really is not important.

5) Finally, once you've finished attaching your items, place the backing into the frame and adjust as needed...you may see that something is loose (like the t-shirt, which I had to adjust several times) and play with it, or add more tape/tacks accordingly.

Here is my finished product. I love it!!

Tis the Season for Gratitude

Every year, come autumn and the changing leaves, I have one thing on my mind: Thanksgiving and the season of gratitude. It's important to be grateful every day, for everything, but at this cozy time of year it is somehow nice to be in a grateful frame of mind. Being grateful can be particularly helpful in setting goals for the holiday season and remembering not to worry as much about accumulating new things but more about enjoying what we already have (and I am the first who needs this reminder)! It's easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the Black Friday sales and all the seasonal sales thereafter. Even though it's a bit early to be thinking about Thanksgiving, we are just two days from November and that lovely day will be upon us before we know it!

The point of this post is to tell you about one of my favorite exercises in gratitude. A few years ago, I acquired this handy little Gratitude Journal from Amazon. It's a small journal...sometimes my hand feels cramped writing in it. But the point of it is to write down things you are grateful for each and every day of the year. I have gotten out of the habit of writing in this journal and lately I have kept it under my nose (by the computer, a frequently visited spot) to remind myself to write in it. Things can be simple like, "Grateful that I have my coffee to get me through this morning with energetic babies!"...which can lead to "Grateful that my babies are energetic..for they could be ill or unwell in some way, and unable to run around in such a manner." ...which can then lead to..."Grateful for good health...Grateful that God blesses me every day." It's contagious once you just begin!

As I encourage myself, I encourage all my fellow mamas to try this little exercise. You don't need a fancy notebook, and if you can't afford a new one, grab any old notebook, label it "My Gratitude Journal." (If you Google 'gratitude journal' you can also find some free templates to make your own journal!) Take a new page for each day, and see how many things you can be grateful for each day! Life seems much easier when you are listing your gratitudes, big or small, and get into a positive frame of mind.

Living Simply...

As we prepare for our big move to a parish at the very end of this year, I am focusing on getting rid of as much of our "stuff" as possible, bringing with us only the most important necessities. It is nice to get rid of things that I know we don't need.

I came across this quote this morning about simple living, and thought I'd share it since it can be useful to everyone in their own life.

"The best thing of all is to live simply. Don’t rack your brains over anything. Pray to God. The Lord will arrange everything, only live more simply. Don’t torment yourself thinking about how and what to do. Let it be as it happens: that’s what it is to live more simply." -St. Ambrose of Optina

Seek and you shall find...

"No matter how many creature comforts and blessings a person has, he has very little. Everyone, as you have already noticed, is always seeking. They seek and find something, but after they have found it, they cast it aside and start seeking all over again, so that they may once again cast away what they find. So it goes on endlessly. This means that they are seeking the wrong thing in the wrong place, and not what they should be seeking, and not where they should be seeking it. Isn't this tangible proof that there is a force in us drawing us away from the earth and earthly sorrows toward Heaven?"

From the book, The Spiritual Life and How to Be Attuned to It, by St. Theophan the Recluse

Housework Sanctified

"Tired of laundry? Parenting and homemaking are indeed a holy calling. Daily chores are a blessing to us and to our family. Even laundry is blessed - no children, no laundry. What would our life be like without them? So as we wash, fold or iron each item we can say, 'Lord have mercy on (name of clothing wearer).' This works for your husband's clothing, your children's and your own clothing. 'Lord have mercy on me.' This sanctifies our time and work. It also helps us acquire peace and unceasing prayer."

This lovely quote was taken from the book Orthodox Christian Parenting.