Returning to St. Herman's

I still remember how I would see all these candles
burning during liturgy,
my first, during Lent in the Spring in my
last year of University.

Mr. Husband and I stayed in BC just long enough
to come to Wednesday vespers.
We never know what life will bring and if we
will be able to return to BC in the future.
So I really wanted to have Mr. Husband see my first church.
*
It was wonderful to see St. Herman on the Iconostasis;
he was my first Saint that I felt a connection too
and I am so grateful;
St. Herman is a wonderful father to us!

The church's icon of the Mother of God.

Our Lord.

By the time I got to vespers,
after a full week of travels,
I was really tired.
So I sat for a lot of the prayers,
but still, it was so wonderful
just to be back.

I remember coming to this icon of St. Nicholas
and not knowing who he was at all,
I told him I was going to his church in MI
and please come with me!
St. Nicholas has been a special Saint to me ever since.
He was one that I was told by a monastic to ask for a husband.
A room at the monastery in MI dedicated to him was the first
one I stayed at years ago in 2005.
God is so wonderful in His Saints!

St. Herman of Alaska.

It was so wonderful to venerate St. Herman's icon...
and have him present in prayer with us.

I remember this picture from my time as
a catechumen and was so glad to see it still there.
*
After so many years we returned.
I was aware of how many things had happened in those years.
How many sacrifices of parents for their children,
how many heartaches and struggle,
how many joys and baptisms.
*
My first church.
I pray that to the end of my days I will
never cease to be grateful to God for
St. Herman's and how my life was totally transformed
by the Orthodoxy I found there.
*
Truly I was given the Church
that is always there,
even in the middle of great loss and devastation.
The Church and God's mercy will never leave us.
*
My priest in Ottawa once told me that
even if all the churches in Canada closed down
and not one building was left,
the Church is still with us.
*
It all comes down to this:
God is with us and
prayer...