Painting Angels Book Review

To begin, I had my 10 year old daughter read Painting Angels and give me

her thoughts:

I liked the book because it was very exciting and interesting.  

It was a good book because it talks about being nice to people you

might not think you would be friends with.

I was able to make connections with my own visit to a monastery.

Some of the nuns reminded me of the nuns that I interacted with when I visited.

It made me really want to find out what was going to happen next.

While I was reading the book I understood what Macrina was feeling and

I was wondering why Sam was doing what he was doing.

I can really relate to Macrina.

While I was reading the book it felt like a short story but it still feels like

it had a lot of detail. I really felt like I could have been there in the story.

I could see the story unfolding in my head.

My thoughts on Painting Angels:

I was immediately drawn to the ease of reading this book.  The words are big

and the phrases are small.  The story moved at a quick pace and I did not

want to put the book down.  I actually finished it in one day!  I know that the

character Sam has been introduced in other books in this series.  While this

book stands alone, I do feel like I missed some history that could have helped

me understand his character better.  That being said, I really want to read the

other Sam and Saucer books!  I fell in love with Macrina and her frustrations. 

I ended up day dreaming of what it would be like getting to spend my summers

working at a monastery.  The style of the story reminded me of The Magic

Treehouse books.  I am thankful to have some easier chapter books for my

7-10 year olds to read.  The message was easy to understand and written in

an interesting format for a young (and even older) reader.  I really hope that

there are more books written about Sam and Macrina, I fell in love with the

characters!

Holy Angels Book Review

First off, I have to say that I love Mother Alexandra.  I have read her memoir, I Will Live Again, and
visited Holy Transfiguration, the monastery she started in Elwood, PA.  I was very excited to hear that
Ancient Faith Publishing was reprinting her book Holy Angels. This book is such a very thorough
resource on Angelology starting at the very beginning of creation and continuing throughout history
to the present time.  I really like how she broke her study down into categories. She covers the
entirety of the Old and New Testaments as well as the early church Fathers, major historical time
periods, even examining the history of angels in art.

One of my favorite aspects of this book is that it’s not based on personal opinions.  Mother Alexandra
thoroughly breaks down the Scriptures to share each time Angels are mentioned.  She gives the
synopsis of the encounter with the Angel and the attributes that we can gather from the facts stated. 
I also really love how she inserts prayers from Orthodox prayers, Akathists and Cannons as they
pertain to the topic discussed.  It helps to unify the sacred subject of Angels to our daily spiritual life.
  

While the book is said to be written for lay people, I did have some trouble understanding some topics.
Mother Alexandra is obviously very well educated and does discuss some complex thoughts on
Angels. Most of the stories were very understandable, but there were definitely a few sections that
I had to reread and then read again to try and understand what was being said.  

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed The Holy Angels.  I learned many things about Angels that I had not
noticed while reading the Scriptures and even more through early church history and art.  I gathered
many helpful quotes and notes to look back through and contemplate as I continue to grow and study.
  

“We can only truly comprehend the angels when we see them as true servers of God, perfectly
fulfilling his command, executing their mission in fullest reflection of God’s will.”  

The Holy Angels

Mother Alexandra