Holy Thursday ~ many services, thanksgiving and the imprint of Holy Week within one's soul

It was a beautiful morning liturgy.

In the afternoon I slept and rested.

Met up with our dear friends for dinner, 

had delicious lenten middle eastern food!

Warm and comforting.

The 12 Gospels Service was tonight,

I still miss how we did it in Ottawa,

with bowing when saying

Glory to Your Long-suffering or

Glory to Your Passion O Lord...

on the other hand, I don't remember 

the Cross being taken out and the song that is sung

after the 6th Gospel...

so moving... 

It was a really wonderful time to have dear friends in church with us

for this service, they are moving in about 3 months and I really

treasure that we had this night together at church...

I think that was the most noticeable part for me tonight,

just being in church with these friends and seeing so many of my

church friends and their kids (including the Munchkin of course!) come

and just being together...

I realized that this is going to be my 5th Pascha here in New Jersey.

In a lot of ways I feel more settled and like I understand

what to look forward to/what to expect and that's a real blessing.

It's Mr Husband and I's 6th Pascha together, he came up to 

Ottawa for our first Pascha together

and we got engaged on Pascha / Sunday afternoon,

in my beautiful blue apartment that the Mother of God

got for me a few years before.

Such happy memories.

At times I have been surprised at how much struggle and sorrow we have had

in the last years, and this year with Mr Husband's illness,

and various losses we have had... 

But yet I am aware of how much warmth my Husband brings to my life.

How blessed we are to have our marriage. How blessed we are to have our

two NJ Churches and dear friends and church family... 

And I really appreciated the first Gospel reading and how Christ

says we will have sorrow but that in the end we will have joy.

I am feeling a deeper anticipation to be with our Lord tomorrow 

in His Passion.

It is a deep honour to be at His tomb and to lament with His Mother.

My dear friends in Ottawa still get roses for our dear Lord Christ 

for me to have by His tomb, there in my Ottawa church,

which will always have such a deep part of my life;

I feel like the ethos of Holy Week is imprinted on my soul

from my time there and I understand Pascha because of my 7

Paschas in Ottawa.  

I was given the blessing to understand how much Pascha is going

to the wedding feast to meet our Risen Christ,

our Bridegroom and it is to HIM that we are running to,

it is to Christ, our Bridegroom that our hearts long for 

and love...and it is only Christ who can comfort us completely

now and make everything new again when He comes...

may He remember us in His Kingdom as He remembers

the Wise Thief and promises Him Paradise!