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By death He trampled death
I love Easter so much that it is hard to write about it. I cry thinking about it. It is the most full of true joy, the most expressive of...

Lara Neri
Apr 18, 20196 min read


Flowery Sunday in Constantinople
Flowery (Palm) Sunday began to be celebrated in Constantinople by the fifth century - a couple centuries after it began in Jerusalem and...

Lara Neri
Apr 10, 20195 min read


Onward & Upward
I remember listening in amazement in high school chapel at my Christian school as various guest speakers told of dramatic conversions...

Lara Neri
Apr 4, 20194 min read


saying yes to losing control
When I was younger I did not want the mess, the noise, the chaos, or the financial burden of children. And I was under the impression...

Lara Neri
Mar 21, 20194 min read


Superheroes & the Triumph of Orthodoxy
The first time I remember seeing an icon was in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. I was taking a class in Israel my sophomore year...

Lara Neri
Mar 19, 20193 min read


Will "Beauty save the world"?
I have often heard or seen Dostoevsky quoted, “Beauty will save the world.” It is attributed to him as if it were his personal...

Lara Neri
Feb 28, 20193 min read


Approaching Great Lent: all are responsible for all
Several years ago, after very emotional struggles with infertility and two heartbreaking miscarriages, we began our first adoption. It...

Lara Neri
Feb 21, 20194 min read


St. Valentine: active love is labor and fortitude
In our family, we have four very intense children, two adopted with trauma histories, one with secondary trauma, one with a missing...

Lara Neri
Feb 14, 20193 min read


St. Scholastica & the loving fatherhood of God
I have a hard time relating to the saints who knew they were going to be nuns from the time they were six - those saints who wanted to do...

Lara Neri
Feb 7, 20193 min read


Suffering & Softening
The feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple (2 February) is one of the Twelve Major Feast Days in the Eastern Church, also...

Lara Neri
Feb 1, 20192 min read


The Byzantine Church as Microcosm
The interior of a Byzantine Church should be a three dimensional icon; the Church is a model of the universe, a vision of the redeemed, a...

Lara Neri
Jan 24, 20193 min read


How is iconography different from other religious art?
One Sunday after liturgy, I overheard a visitor to our church commenting on the iconography, “Why do the figures look so strange? They...

Lara Neri
Jan 17, 20194 min read


art camps: pursuing Beauty together
Two intensive weeks of art camps have come to an end, and I am thankful for the experience. I kept enrollment to four students per camp...

Lara Neri
Jul 26, 20162 min read


iconography: window to the Divine
I have just returned from a beautiful, powerful, intense experience where art and prayer were indistinguishable. I have come away with a...

Lara Neri
Jul 5, 20162 min read


the transformative power of story
Various influences were dropped into my path that lead me into the Catholic Church, one of the most prominent being the work of Fyodor...

Lara Neri
May 8, 20161 min read


the feast of the Ascension
I love this quiet, mid-week feast day celebrating Christ's rising up to Heaven in His resurrected body. He leaves us with the commission...

Lara Neri
May 6, 20162 min read


creating a sacred space in the home
When I was living in St. Petersburg, I rented a small, airy room in a sunny, high-ceilinged apartment on the corner of Dostoevsky Street...

Lara Neri
Apr 26, 20162 min read


Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen!
Pascha is my favorite time of the year! I love the joy of this season, the hope of rebirth and resurrection! We celebrate this day with...

Lara Neri
Apr 3, 20161 min read
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