St Nicholas Day (Part 1)

Happy St Nicholas day to all who celebrate today!

I was up early, a bit before 7 AM and had the Fia Sauce

cooking in the slow cooker by 7:30 AM!

Liturgy at 9:30, I was there, miraculously, before then! :) 

The St Nicholas day lunch at my place went very well,

I was very pleased with it.

Lovely people, the meal went as planned,

pasta first,

then baked (breaded from box!) fish and salad

then cake with tea and coffee.

The baked fish was really good...

one of my friends helped me plate everyone's meal, which

was nice...

It was enjoyed by all...

We had white wine with meal and red with the 

chocolate cake ;) :) 

We sang 

Saint Nicholas the Saintly

...the words as follows:

Oh who loves Nicholas the saintly

O who loves Nicholas the saintly,

O who serves Nicholas the saintly,

Him will Nicholas receive,

And give help in time of need:

Holy Father Nicholas!*

He who dwells in God's holy mansions,

Is our help on the land and oceans,

He will guard us from all ills,

Keep us pure and free from sins

Holy Father Nicholas!*

Holy Saint, hearken to our prayer,

Let not life drive us to despair,

All our efforts shall not wane,

Singing praises to your name:

Holy Father Nicholas!

***

Here is our local priest singing this song... 

 (Another version of the song is here)

***

The little girl was so wonderful and her Mother

told me how she hugged each of the stuffed animals goodbye 

before she left! :) 

***

It was a very peaceful joyful and festive meal!

I was so pleased and it was such a blessing!

And clean up was great, two friends helped put away the food

and load the dishwasher... I love that I have some 

pretty dishes that I can put in the dishwasher,

as my Grandma always did through the years.... :) 

***

I had a nice talk with my Mom this afternoon, 

after everyone had left and I was washing up some more dishes...

And it was so nice to have leftovers to eat for dinner

with Mr Husband! 

We had the pasta sauce with added canned (drained) clams

and a spinach salad for dinner... we were both hungry and had seconds of the Pasta! 

***

Various guests brought treats...

radishes for the salad (really good ones!),

a bottle of red wine, two bottles of white (one is unopened and will be

kept for later!) and I was given this tower of goodness, which will wait

until Christmas is here as these goodies are full of yummy caramel filled milk chocolate!!...

Fun! :) I have it under the Christmas tree for now,

all pretty and green! 

Well, it was a blessing of a day for me, I am so grateful....

***

I just commented on my last blog post to Lisa and thought I would repost it here

so that you know why I will be celebrating St Nicholas day again 

(why I have 'part 1' in my title of this post):

it's PART 1 because we will have St Nicholas day again on the Julian calendar... some of the Orthodox churches went to a revised Julian calendar, meaning that many dates are with the Western Christian calendar, including this one, Christmas, Annunciation and others. 

***

So that means I have more cookies to bake! :) 

***

Things are still difficult in our unbloggable but this day really lifted up my spirits

and was a day of joy, a real gift, 

typical of St Nicholas to be so generous with. 

NYC and the Sisterhood of St Elizabeth

I made it! to the Columbus Circle Holiday Market to see the 

white sisters of St Elizabeth! I was so happy!!!

Whenever I see either monastics or white sisters (who are 

dedicated to serving the monastery without being monastics),

I am excited; esp. now when I don't get to go that often or see them,

when I do, I feel like I am flying for joy... 

immediate remembrance of who I am, asking how things were this past year,

(I saw this sister a year ago this Dec 19th on St Nicholas day) and 

so much joy in the meeting...

And I took the subways... recently they just 'clicked' how to use them...

when I was first here, I would get so disoriented and confused...

now it makes more sense... and I am so excited...

I did get turned around when going back to the PATH train to NJ

because a person gave me the wrong instructions 

(it's very normal to ask in NYC where to go,

I did not understand the map instructions 

on my phone enough to know what to do)

but in the end a lady at a payless shoes told me to take the subway downstairs

and then go the right and I would be right where I needed to be.

And so it was! 

God gave me so much strenght today and my foot was OK too.

It still needs some PT and stretches, but is doing OK. 

***

Some beautiful words spoken by Sister Nataliia to me, 

including that Met. Anthony Bloom said once that

we trust God and he asked who does God trust

and the answer was 'us'... as in God loves, values us.

*

Also that the journey to God is the goal, is the way... and not 

giving up...to keep on with Christ... 

*

And reminding me that what I can do (like baking cookies)

gives joy to others and is good. 

***

It was so lovely to see them both (the 2 white sisters) and 

to also get to shop in their store! 

I can't tell or show you what I got, of course, ...

Christmas and St Nicholas gifts you know! :) 

***

If you want to know more about these white sisters

and the nuns of St Elizabeth in Belarus, the city of Minsk,

go here. 

And if you happen to be in NYC in the next week, go see them!

Such kindness and such gifts are both a rare treasure! 

***

The picture of the maroons btw was because it makes me think of 

this dear blog friend... :)

****

An unexpected side note:

the step-father of my oldest friend died unexpectedly yesterday night.

Please pray for his new widow (my friend's Mom) and my friend and her sister.

I've known this family (the Mom and sisters) my whole life....

my Mom called me with the news...

my parents were good friends of theirs and went camping in the summer

and the now newly departed husband/step-father was going to put in for the 

June camping reservations soon for them.

So it's a real loss and I ask your prayers.

I have not lived in MI for more than a few months at a time in about 20 years

but when you go 'way back' this loss is still felt and understood for what it is.

***

I am so glad I have such blessing to see the white sisters today 

and for the prayers that will be done for us through this monastery.

God is so good to us.