KJL w/ FM-G re StA of C on NRO

Every year I would go to the service of the Great Canon, and it’s quite an experience: the darkened candle-lit church, incense smoke twining overhead, golden light glinting off the icons, and chanters singing the verses to ancient Byzantine melodies. After each verse everyone responds, “Have mercy on me, O God,” and bows to touch the ground. It’s serious, and timeless, and piercingly beautiful, and kindles humility and a yearning to be healed from all the poison within. In every way it contrasts with the image Christians (often deservedly) have in today’s culture. I wanted to make it available to more people.

The Great Canon is part of the Eastern Orthodox tradition, but really, it’s part of *every* Christian’s tradition; we all go back to first century Jerusalem. The Canon makes more sense when you experience it in context, as part of the continuous flow of Orthodox prayer, liturgy, fasting, and sacraments. But I wanted to offer this introductory taste in hopes that it will leave some readers hungry for more.

Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review asks Frederica Mathewes-Green questions about her new book:

1. What is “the Great Canon of St. Andrew” and what’s so great about it?
2. Who was it written for?
3. Who was St. Andrew?
4. What does St. Mary of Egypt have to do with Andrew and his canon?
5. Who is your book written for?
6. Are there aspects of the Canon that are peculiar to the Eastern Orthodox?
7. Is this the kind of spiritual writing that makes converts, or do you have to be pretty intensely prayerful already to get into it?
8. Can you “read” a book like this?
9. Uh, so “Forty Days,” did you write this FOR Lent?
10. For folks who aren’t into Lent, they might know it as the time when some of their friends don’t drink. Something along those lines. Do you “give up” stuff during Lent? How do you look at the forty days? How do you tend to describe it to the uninitiated?
11. What got you interested enough to write this book?
12. Besides your own book, of course, what will you be reading this Lent?

(FM-G’s answers available at subject link — or here for the lazy.)