Tuesday Sunshine

Sunshine today.

Laundry done.

Borscht made. Fried onions and mushrooms in butter. Yum.

I am reading an older edition of

Blessed John the Wonderworker

(my copy I loaned to a friend)

so I am reading my church library's copy.

It's fun!

I love reading about St. John of Shanghai and San Fransisco.

I find that reading stories about the Saints helps

one feel closer to them.

Also going to monasteries helps with this;

I remember when I first read Saint stories,

I was still pretty new to Orthodoxy and I found them

overwhelming, esp. the martyred Saints.

These things take a while to get used to but now

I would not trade the stories for anything!

*

Part of what I did this year for Lent is to

make two new icons.

I will have to do close ups of them sometime,

individually.

However, I did get two bloggable pictures so far.

One icon is of Christ on the Cross,

a print I got at the Greek monastery this past summer.

The other is of St. Ephraim the Syrian,

whose Lenten prayer we pray daily

during Lent.

I thought St. Ephraim would be a good choice to help me

as we journey through Lent...

*

I also took out my smaller prints

from the same monastery

of Christ the Bridegroom

and Christ Resurrected

as it is these two events we are about to fully prepare for.

I love my buffet and all the icons.

I find this to be very comforting,

having so many reminders of God's kingdom.

I kept my what I call my 'Christmas Icon'

up as well.

I got this icon just after new calendar Christmas

at Holy Dormition monastery

and find it,

with all the Angels,

to be very Christmas-like.

Christ's Holy Face is an icon that took me a while to get used to

but now my love for it is growing...

*

Have you read St. Ephraim's Spiritual Psalter?

Ancient Faith Radio has often

read prayers for this book,

compiled by St. Theophan.

It is lovely and I was reading from it a few weeks ago and realized

how much St. Ephraim can help us

move towards repentance

and realized that it was time to make this icon

(from an old church calendar that I have had since 2005).

Cleo loved having me home today.

I love Tuesdays;

I am working but yet have Tuesdays free;

my church has noon prayer and I go there;

it was sunny;

I found the material for my icons,

the anticipation of lent is in the air.

*

Tomorrow: work.

I am behind on my cover letter goal.

I think I need a real push to get this done.

Am struggling with this one.

*

God is with us.