The Scent of Holiness: Lessons from a Women's Monastery

The Scent of Holiness: Lessons from a Women's Monastery

A pilgrimage to a monastery is wonderful. However, establishing a relationship with a particular monastery and learning from the monastics there can be life changing. Author Constantina R. Palmer shares with us her experience is this popular book. Paperback; 283 pages; $18.95 

From the Back Cover of The Scent of Holiness: Lessons from a Women's Moanstery :

Every monastery exudes the scent of holiness, but women's monasteries have their own special flavor. Join Constantina Palmer as she makes frequent pilgrimages to a women's monastery in Greece and absorbs the nuns' particular approach to their spiritual life. If you're a woman who's read of Mount Athos and longed to partake of its grace-filled atmosphere, this book is for you. Men who wish to understand how women's spirituality differs from their own will find it a fascinating read as well. 

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"In The Scent of Holiness, Constantina Palmer offers the reader a firsthand account of her contact with and immersion in the life of Orthodox monasticism.... The major features of Orthodoxy are humility and love. In our troubled world, Constantina's writings show us that these virtues and others still exist; the many monks and nuns who have dedicated their lives to prayer and ascetic endeavor keep them alive."

-- From the Foreword by Abbess Gabriella of Holy Dormition Monastery, Rivers Junction, Michigan

Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction

KNOT ONE

- First Trip to the Monastery: Forever Home

- Being Brought In

- A Surprising Conversation

KNOT TWO

- My First Lesson

- Many Who Are First Will Be Last

- Helping Hindered by Greek Hospitality

- That They Might Arrive at the Measure of Perfection

KNOT THREE

- Forgiveness Sunday

- The Grace of the Martyrs

- The Great Canon of St Andrew of Crete

KNOT FOUR

- Archimandrite Evsevios Vittis

- Through the Prayers

- Laughter

KNOT FIVE

- For the Kingdom of Heaven's Sake

- Learning about Greece

- The Ways of God

KNOT SIX

- A Blessing from Gerontissa's Saint

- Pray While You Work

- The Jesus Prayer and Humility

- A Higher Education

KNOT SEVEN

- Gutting Fish and Talking about Love

- Monastic Cares

- The Power of Prayer

- Let Us, O Faithful, Welcome Christ's Transfiguration

KNOT EIGHT

- Magnify, O My Soul, the Mother of God

- Cancer Martyrs

- Great-Schema Nun Markella

KNOT NINE

- An Open Grave and a Monastic Mindset toward Death

- Something I Heard Confirmed by Experience

- An Invisible Monk

KNOT TEN

- If These Should Keep Silent, the Stones Will Cry Out

- It's All Greek to Me

- The Devil's Hatred

KNOT ELEVEN

- The Piercing Eyes and Soft Hands of a Saint

- Compliments Are Hard to Come By in a Monastery

- The Theotokos, When She Was Three Years Old, Was Led to the Lord

KNOT TWELVE

- Paying a Tama

- Leaving My Handprint in a Historical Monastery

- Sixteen and a Half Kilos of Incense and a Lesson

KNOT THIRTEEN

- The Providence of God

- Blessed Are They Who Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness

- An English Pilgrim

- Forgiveness of Sins

KNOT FOURTEEN

- Temptation in the Garden

- A Visit from Elder Isidore the Blind

- My Big Brother

KNOT FIFTEEN

- It Is Truly Meet to Call Her Blessed, Even While Sewing

- Sharing Spiritual Stories

KNOT SIXTEEN

- A Blessed Life

- As Many as Were Baptized into Christ

- Pure Beeswax Candles

KNOT SEVENTEEN

- The Hermitage of St Theodora

- Working for the Glory of God and an Interesting Story

KNOT EIGHTEEN

- In the Porch Preparing the Candles

- Monastery Tea: A Gift from the Saint

- Eldress Macrina of Volos

KNOT NINETEEN

- Blaming Oneself

- Eating with Greeks

KNOT TWENTY

- Thy Priests, O Lord, Shall Be Clothed with Righteousness

- Preparing the Prozimi

- On Good Works

KNOT TWENTY-ONE

- Prayer of the Heart

- The Holy Spirit Shall Teach You What Things to Say

- She Cast In as Much as She Had

KNOT TWENTY-TWO

- The Love of a Mother

- Hidden Asceticism

- Work in Me a Sign unto Good

KNOT TWENTY-THREE

- Story Time with Sr Evlogia

- An Act of Mercy

- In Christ Jesus I Begot You

- Precious in the Sight of the Lord is the Death of His Saints

KNOT TWENTY-FOUR

- A Black Animal that Walks in the Air

- Why Not Receiving a Blessing Can Be a Blessing

- He Shall Crush the Serpent's Skull

KNOT TWENTY-FIVE

- Made in Germany

- Inherent Spirituality in an Orthodox Country

- If Your Eye Causes You to Sin, Pluck It Out

- Hurry Hard!

KNOT TWENTY-SIX

- An Unexpected Prophecy

- The Evil Eye

- O Death, Where is Thy Sting?

KNOT TWENTY-SEVEN

- Ora et Labora

- Protection from My Own Carelessness

- A Deceiver yet True

KNOT TWENTY-EIGHT

- Mavroudis the Martyr

- Things Aren't Always As They Appear

- He Exalts Them of Low Degree

KNOT TWENTY-NINE

- Obedience: The Source of Eternal Salvation (Heb. 5:9)

- A Monastic's Handicraft

- Patience in Suffering Is Greatly Rewarded

KNOT THIRTY

- Trial by Fire

- Chocolate, Loukoumia, and Greek Cookies

- A Blessed Christian Family

- The Only Thing I Know Is That I Know Nothing

KNOT THIRTY-ONE

- Taking A Spiritual Inventory

- Greeks Do Not Have Big Noses!

- What Shall I Name Thee? I Am in Doubt and Stand in Awe

KNOT THIRTY-TWO

- Worse Than All

- Prophesy, O Son of Man, to These Dry Bones

KNOT THIRTY-THREE

- Only the Furnace Isn't Good

- Old Hands and Young Faces

- We Live in Order to Learn How to Die

EPILOGUE

ENDNOTES

GLOSASRY

[Note: An Orthodox Prayer Rope that is worn around the wrist typically has 33 knots. The number 'thirty-three' reminds us of Christ who was Crucified and Resurrected when He was 33 years old in the flesh.]