church

I know I do not blog very frequently; I feel that my life is really internally intense right now and I am processing a lot of things, which creates an added tension within myself.

However, the liturgy Tuesday night was incredibly moving. There was only a few of us there, in our little church. how to describe the church...it has high ceiling, icons with a lot of gold, blues and reds; the icon directly above the iconastasis, below the ceiling, is Christ on the throne, with the Theotokos and St. John the Forerunner presenting Him, and other saints on either side. When I am at vespers during the week, I stand in the middle and can look directly up at Christ, as well as the Cross on top-centre of the iconastatsis. Standing there, singing with the choir that is above me, is always a very moving experience. I always find myself thinking that this is truly where I love to be, where I am most alive, where my life is from and is in...

there were some specific happenings that made the vesperal liturgy for Christ's entrance into the temple very precious. Little things, like being in charge of watching over the candles that were burning low; and being asked by the reader to get the stand that our Deacon puts the Gospel on, and, standing in the middle of the church, when it was time for communion, no one was going first and I looked around and looked at our Priest and Deacon and my spiritual Father called forth, 'the servant of God, Elizabeth..." and I was first to communion; it was so moving that I nearly began weeping.

I will never forget this night...