The basket is as a little stinky, but my little boy loved getting this for Pascha.

I am a new convert to Orthodoxy and it is a great help to me to have these prayers available.

They are beautiful. I even sent some to Non-Orthodox Christians. They like them too.

I am a new convert to Orthodoxy and it is a great help to me to have these prayers available.

Very readable, great points. I am not a member of the orthodox church, but have been attending the local congregation of the OCA in West Columbia, SC for over a year now. That being the case, some few of the author's points were not clear to me and left me a bit confused (e.g. chapter 5, for example). Too brief for me -- need more explanatory material. The author may assume that readers are familiar with some concepts that will perhaps require more exposure to the local parish teachings
Appreciated the part explaining the icons.

This is very beautiful and will be perfect for traveling. Heads up, this is a VERY small icon.

Very nice!

Thank you!

I am enjoying the daily writings. The books are inspirational and profitable to the glory of God.

5 star

Great little book! I think it’ll really help my kids understand what we hope for in church!

Excellent. Well worth a second read soon.

Beautiful. The images will assist me in my prayer life and art work. Thank you for providing such beautiful products.

Great. So happy to find a complete bible with all the books in English.

The cards arrived very quickly, and the recipients loved both the Icon and the wonderful message inside. Thank You!

I like the small size.
thank you.

I'm within a very small sect of more liturgical Protestantism. I absolutely loved this prayerbook in my spiritual life because the danger of modern Protestant thought doesn't realize that because of our Union with Christ were in union with the saints in history. Overall I loved it but my main objection is prayers to the saints and Mary (sorry about my Protestant bias). 5 stars otherwise.

Exceeded expwctations !

I read this book as an Orthodox convert and even shared a few chapters with my husband who is inquiring into the faith. I found it intellectually engaging yet accessible. Fr Michael writes with clarity on doctrine and he brings scripture and early church writings to support every major point he presents.
The book lays out some of the main points on which Orthodox differ from Protestants and Roman Catholics. My husband was particularly interested in these points, as he is coming to Orthodoxy from a secular background. As such, friends and family members want to know why we wouldn't choose a more culturally recognizable form of Christianity. It's not always easy to answer these questions in a clear and peaceable way. We both agreed that the book gives a strong foundation to do just that. The two chapters I shared with him on "Tradition and Scripture" and "Justification by Faith" were enough to feel confident answering questions on potentially controversial subjects in a respectful, yet informed manner.
I see myself continuing to use this book as an easy reference for issues of doctrine. It is certainly worth purchasing for the inquirer, but also for those Orthodox Christians looking to brush up on the teachings of the Church. I'm very happy to have it in my collection!

If, as some have said, Orthodoxy is “the best kept secret in America” then it follows that the history of Orthodoxy in America would be little known to many as well. Hence the importance of the book Apostle to the Plains: The Life of Father Nicola Yanney. Put out by The Saint Raphael Clergy Brotherhood and, for those like me who listened to the audiobook, read by a Brother of the Saint Raphael Clergy Brotherhood. More than just a biography of Fr. Nicola Yanney, it details the life of Greek, Russian, and most of all, Syrian Orthodox who settled in this country and laid the foundation for the faith so many of us converted to or were born into.

A quick note on the audiobook itself. The narration was soothing however the reader misses out on the pictures and maps that accompany the written text of the book. Hence why I am not usually an audiobook listener.

Fr. Nicola hailed from then Greater Syria, which at the time encompassed current day Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan. He immigrated with his new wife Martha to Ellis Island in New York in 1892. After a long and arduous journey, from a region many have only read of in Scripture, to this new and strange World, they settled in Omaha, Nebraska. Here Fr. Nicola, aside from being a devoted husband, father, and brother, became a peddler, then farmer, and later, unexpectedly, a priest. He was known throughout the country as a circuit-riding priest as his territory – assigned by then Bishop, now Saint Raphael Halloweeny – stretched across the Midwest including towns in places like Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska among other. Traveling several months of the year he baptized close to a thousand children, married dozens of couples, and buried parishioners as needed in his almost 15 year tenure. Personal loss, weather, politics, and legal and monetary hardship could not stop him from providing the sacraments to his vast flock, who would have had no Priest at all without his visits. If you think we have a shortage of priests today – imagine going months or years without the sacraments or even a service, as many immigrants did.

The chronicle of this life and travels can be at times arduous but it serves to bring the reader into the feeling of what life must have been like for Fr. Nicola.

During his priestly career he faced many unending trials:
- The harsh climate, “Traveling twelve hundred miles from the far southeastern corner of his missionary travels, Father Nicola arrived at its northernmost edge, not far from the Canadian border…When he stepped off the train in North Dakota, he found the weather dramatically different from that in southern Missouri. The temperature had dropped thirty degrees.”
- The deaths of loved ones, “After the services, the congregation and the visitors made a procession to the cemetery…There, with prayers and tears, Father Nicola laid yet another member of his family to rest.
- The politics of the time, “Though grateful for the support of the Russian Church for the past twenty years, most of the communities that father Nicola had served desired to be under the Church of Antioch. Several congregations wanted to remain with the Russian however, and still others were being torn in two by the strife, even individual families were bitterly divided”

He never however lost his faith or failed to turn to God in prayer. It is his strength that was a pillar permitting Orthodoxy to grow and spread in America and hence why this work is and will continue to be a vital piece of our American Orthodox heritage.

Author and Orthodox historian Matthew Namee in the Afterword of the book perfectly encapsulates this historical tribute of Fr. Nicola’s life:
“What, then, is the legacy of Fr. Nicola? It is not merely that of a pioneering priest, a founder of parishes, the first ordination by St. Raphael. No, the legacy of Fr. Nicola is much more than that - it is the legacy of martyrdom. By the choices he made in his life, culminating in his self-emptying death, he bore witness to the reality of the Gospel. No man of little faith could have endured such suffering and accepted such tribulation. No man of little faith could have so disregarded his own self-interest to care for the sick and the dying.”