Clean Monday 2019

Ok, Clean Monday is the first day of Lent

which was today.

Whew.

The first week of Lent often has some challenges.

I think the biggest challenge at present is just that we are exhausted,

the 1 hour time change, we are feeling it! Omph. 

But! Much to thank God for...!

Including...

~A cleaner home than it was this morning

~I finally got one small package and one letter ready to mail

~Birthday cards for this month are sent out via Husband (who is always

the disciplined one about cards)

~I ate a salad. I am really bad at eating my veggies so this was actually a win for me!

~I printed out 2 essays I am working on (slowly and not sure what I will do with them...)

~2 loads of laundry done

And went to vespers for the Canon of St Andrew of Crete.... 

the bishop was there with us, which was really nice.

My Husband suggested we switch our nighttime read out loud back to 

Fr John Krestiankin's book May God Give You Wisdom!

Which is a collection of his letters translated into English...

Today I read one about Fr John telling the one he wrote the letter to

to see God's good Providence in the person's life as 

God so arranged that the person could work in a place where he could

also be worshiping in church and that he/she (who it is he wrote is not said) should

see that God has given much to be thankful for

and that 'the future will be the future' and only God knows it and it is in God's

power, and care... one cannot know the next 10 years of one's life!

a good reminder to me, I've been struggling a bit with that point,

of not knowing what the future is (grand scheme that is, we have no immediate plans

for change!)

and being thankful for what we have now. 

***

ps: the L'Engle quote/page is from Ring of Endless Light...

I've been reading different books (DE Stevenson books and others) that all seem

to be touching on boundaries and how one cannot save or even deeply advise 

another, or at least one MUST understand that even though

advice may seem good to give or even the right thing to say,

and perhaps one is really correct in that it is the right thing,

but it does not mean the person will do as one suggests and one must

allow the person freedom to make their own choices, live their own journey.

This may sound obvious or simple but I feel that in our brokenness and in the

muddled confusion of this world and even of our lives, that it is not

so easy to do...to allow for such freedom...

We are in about the middle of Tolkien's book of letters and his letters

about the back story to the Lord of the Rings,

in the Silmarillion, is a very profound demonstration/display/story/parable

of what having free will means and how temptation happens,

how people are allowed such freedom that will lead to their 

own destruction and of whole groups and places being lost forever...

I felt like it was, in many ways, a mythological treatise on free will and also

the problem of evil and how free beings can make choices that cannot be undone,

the consequences cannot be taken away...at least not while this earth lasts...

Later in the L'Engle book she has Vicky's Grandfather quoting

Elie Wiesel and about how the sins of the fathers are not inflicted as a sin in the 

 next generation but the consequences of the sins are still felt,

that corruption and death, they are still with us

(corruption not here in terms of evil but in terms of what is life

being corrupted so that illness/body decay/death happen)... which

is also very much the view of the Orthodox Church, actually... 

***

This week is going to be very busy, as in there are church

services every night this week.

I am glad.

Lent is a beautiful needful time.

***

Praying that God blesses you, saves you, helps you and that we can 

all seek God and seek His will, His mercy, His salvation...