Saturday, June 19, 2021

It's Almost Pentecost (and I feel so excited)















I forgot when I was trying to fix the pictures that I could accidentally
delete the text I already wrote.
So this is take 2 :(
And I don't have a lot of time to rewrite it.
***
I changed out the Pascha / Easter things for
Pentecost 
Almost done with this
and I still had some chest/nasal congestion
so I am taking it easy.
***
I felt a deep sense of relief when I realized the church pews no longer
had the social distancing ropes.
And for the first time we had the bread blessed in 20 months.
And first time since pandemic that the stole was used again
for confession, such a comfort.
***
So I got some good news but tomorrow
I am saying good bye to a close personal local friend
who may be leaving pretty much for good.
So that's hard.
Loss is hard and loss is loss.
Lots to work through, accept and trust God about.
***
The tall kind of twisted shaped building is the 
freedom tower (or one world building)
and now that I have read that book on 9/11 and did more research
I understand more of the loss that is seen where that 
new building now is. 
***
Thanks for your comments and yes, I know
I can still do my writing project but need to do it
in a better way. 
Balance is hard but each day we can try again.
***
I was touched by hearing the verses from Ezekiel at vespers
about how God promises to replace our heart of stone
with a heart of flesh; a new spirit, a new heart.
That's what Pentecost is leading to.
May it so be, may God have mercy on us
and save us in this wonderful way!
***
God bless and keep you! 

4 comments:

Gretchen Joanna said...

Last night at Vespers I was the one to read that passage from Ezekiel, and I thought, "Oh, that is so wonderful, I wish I had put it in my blog instead of what I did share." Then just now I noticed that only last year I did post that passage on my blog. Ha! It's a good one, and well worth revisiting at least once a year on this feast.

In your church, who is depicted to the right of Christ in the large icon above the altar?

elizabeth said...

G-J: It is such a wonderful passage! In my local church the top icon on the wall behind the iconostasis I believe is a somewhat Western, possibly not quite canonical, icon of the Trinity. It was done many decades ago.

Gretchen Joanna said...

Oh, interesting! The local ROCOR parish had something similar in their dome the first couple of times I was there, but this year I noticed they removed it…

elizabeth said...

G-J: yes, it would be common to change it. This is an OCA church but with small numbers and they can't afford to do anything in terms of changing iconography. They are a struggling parish in a lot of ways because of things outside of their control in terms of people having to leave and such.