Circling Through This Life

1.  I have decided I like caviar.  It is a tradition in Russian style Orthodox churches to eat caviar on Lazarus Saturday.  I first tried caviar at a church function several years ago and so this was either the 2nd or 3rd time I have had it.  I'm fine so long as I don't think about what it is.  It's very salty and I think it's the saltiness that I like. It's very good spread on a slice of French bread. 2. While the Western Christian Churches celebrated Easter, the Eastern Orthodox Christian Churches (except those like in Finland who must follow the Gregorian Calendar), celebrated Palm Sunday. 3.  Holy Week is the most incredible, overwhelming, exhausting, exhilarating, fabulous and awesome week of the year. Each day has multiple church services.  I have never been to all of the services because there are something like 20.  Two services a day with some days offering three.  But I love this week! 4. We haven’t done any formal schooli...

Today, for most Eastern Orthodox Churches,  is Lazarus Saturday.  On this day we remember and celebrate how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.  This is a beautiful foreshadowing of the glorious Resurrection that we'll celebrate next week.  Traditionally, children are often baptized on Lazarus Saturday. Honeybear’s godson was baptized on Lazarus Saturday so each year I think back and remember that day. This year though, I really listened. I mean as in over and over again and printed out the sheet music.   Rejoice, O Bethany. Lazarus was dead. Four days in the tomb dead. Jesus told Martha stop lamenting because her brother would live again.  Then Jesus goes to the tomb and cries out Lazarus arise! And he did. I don’t think I’ve really truly grasped the depth of that miracle, nor do I truly understand all of the implications for humanity. This is a beautiful hymn for Lazarus Saturday. It is so beautiful that I had to write a blog post about it! ...

This past week was Holy Week.  It is my favorite week of the year . We joke in my family that Holy Week is the week that we live at church.  It is during Holy Week and Pascha that we experience the longest services. It can feel like unending church services. Palm Sunday begins the week long remembrance of Christ’s  last week or His Passion Week. Holy Week technically begins during the Vespers service on Palm Sunday.   Except that my parish doesn’t do that service. I  just happened to read in my Palm Sunday Service book that during Vespers the bright colored cloths are changed to black.  It reminds me of Forgiveness Vespers.  During that Sunday vesper service we enter into Great Lent.  The bright gold is exchanged for the purple of Lent. Starting with Lazarus Saturday, which is a foreshadowing of the Lord’s resurrection and a foreshadowing of our own future resurrection, and ending with the Agape Vespers service one could spend up to 38 hou...

Today is Holy Friday.  The Western World knows it as Good Friday, but my children like to say “but what is good about it?  Jesus died and was buried!”  It is good because it fulfills scripture and by His death, burial and eventual resurrection, Death is destroyed.  I do prefer the Eastern term of Holy.  So this week,  I’m not going to be random.  In honor of Holy Week, I’m going to make a list of 5 things from Holy Week.   1.  This Troparion comes from the beginning of the Bridegroom Matins service: Behold, the Bridegroom coves at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching; and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given up to death and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom. But rouse yourself crying: Holy holy, holy art Thou, O our God. Through the Theotokos, have mercy on us. 2.  This is also from the Bridegroom S...

Today is Palm Sunday.  Tonight, we’ll move liturgically into Holy Week.  Lent technically ended on Friday.  Yesterday was Lazarus Saturday. Both Palm Sunday and Lazarus Saturday fall outside of Lent and Holy Week.  This is also reflected in the color you see in the church. The liturgical color for Lazarus Saturday is Gold and the color for Palm Sunday is Green.  After the Festal Divine Liturgy for Palm Sunday all the cloths will change to black.  Holy Week is somber. When we  enter into Holy Week we do so through Matins. Usually served in the morning, this service will flip flop with Vespers which is usually served in the evenings. My parish will have Bridegroom Matins on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evenings. I could write whole post about how Bridegroom Matins is my favorite Orthodox service. Pre-Sanctified Liturgies will be served Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.  Wednesday will be the last time this liturgy is served until next year dur...

Today is the the last day of the fourth full week of Lent.  In the Orthodox church Great Lent is 40 days.  It begins on a Monday and ends on the Friday before Palm Sunday. This is slightly different  from the Western Calendar observance of Lent. I love Great Lent. This is a [supposedly] quiet time of reflection: an opportunity for reconnecting to our faith and growing spiritually. It’s the time of preparation. We remember creation and the fall.  We remember our great need for a Savior.  During Lent we fast from certain foods but even more importantly we fast from sin and strive to discipline our flesh. We spend more time in prayer, more time at church, and hopefully, more time loving God and loving others.   In practical terms, my family strives for less outside activities, more family prayer, and less screen time. We choose not to watch certain favorite videos and instead pick more educational, documentary style shows.  We don’t always keep to the...

This is holy week so most of my Five are going to be church related just thought I’d give y’all a heads up <grin> And yes I know today is May 4th and a Saturday but time is, to quote Dr. Who, all wibbly-wobbly this week and I did actually lose track of what day it is. And true confession time, I dislike posting to my blog twice in one day so I pushed this post to Saturday so that I could post my review and giveaway for the movie Ring the Bell   (Did you enter yet?) 1.  I felt like a stage manager on Palm Sunday coordinating the handmaidens and getting them into position for the procession.  The thought crossed my mind that maybe I studied theater in college so that I could understand the process of rehearsing and cueing for special services. I know I gained a far better appreciation of the work involved in getting feast day services to run smoothly. 2. I posted this as my status on Facebook: “Another year, another Bridegroom Service, another blubbering Tess.”...

This week is Holy Week. From a day or two before Great Lent ends until the day after Pascha we go to church. A Lot.  So it makes sense that this week, when we are going to church every day that I blog about G oing to Church . Isn’t it great that Marcy’s Blogging Through the Alphabet is on the letter G right now? Great Lent technically ended on Friday.  Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday fall outside of both Great Lent and Holy Week. My oldest daughter refers to the weekend as “the marathon of colors.” The cloths and candles are purple for Lent.  Those must be swapped for Gold for Lazarus Saturday.  Palm Sunday is liturgically green so all the cloths change again, but then Sunday night we enter into Holy Week and all the colors change again to black. Fr. Andrew of Emmaus PA posted a photo on FB a few days ago that stated the average Orthodox Christian who attends all the services at his church leading up to and including Pascha will spend more than 30 hours in church....

I completely missed the letter E last week.  I wanted to combine e and f so that I could “catch up” but I kept thinking of things like “Evergreen Forests” (um, yes, I can see one in my backyard but that doesn’t mean I have anything to say about it!) or “Everlasting Father” (a great sounding topic that I am sure I could find something to say about our heavenly Father!) but then Supergirl said this: “Is Lent almost over yet? I want to have biscuits and gravy. With Bacon. And sausage too!” Lent officially ended Friday but the fasting won’t end for another week. This weekend is Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday.  They are not part of Lent and not part of Holy Week and we still keep the fast until after the Paschal Divine Liturgy. (We’ll break the fast together as a Church with a potluck of finger foods around 3am!) So there is an air of expectation that the fasting will end soon and the feasting will begin! We’ll be making special bread made with milk, butter and eggs and a spec...

Rather than explain why I've been so quiet I'd thought I would just show you what we've been doing. Great Lent ended on April 6th. Holy Week began with Great and Holy Monday April 9th. Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday are festive feast days tucked between Lent and Holy Week. (I know it's "Wordless Wednesday" but I just can't seem to be wordless. We'll just have to settle for "less wordy". <grin>) Lazarus Saturday Lazarus Saturday began with a baptism! Lazarus Saturday foreshadows the resurrection of the Lord and our own resurrection .     I think the godfather is especially handsome. Biased? Yes, I suppose so.  Here Honeybear holds the candle for his godson.     After the Gospel reading.  Yes. It’s another picture of Honeybear. Notice the GOLD colored vestments?  NOT the purple of Lent.  Not the black of Holy Week. Palm Sunday On Palm Sunday the church is decorated with greenery and the priests and deacon wear green (or go...

I have attended many different types of Orthodox services (there are still a few I’ve not yet made it to such as the Cannon of St. Andrew).  I’ve attended baptisms, funerals, weddings, vigils, vespers, matins and variations in addition to different liturgies.   I’ve been to most of the different services offered during Holy Week. (I have not yet attended the special Liturgy of St. Basil on Holy Saturday). Of all the different types of services I have experienced, The Bridegroom Matins is hands down my favorite.  Our Parish serves these special matins on Sunday night, (for Monday), Monday night (for Tuesday) and Tuesday night (for Wednesday). Why are they my favorite?  These services instill the anticipation of waiting for the Bridegroom.  The atmosphere is somber as we begin to enter into the experiences of our Lord’s Passion Week.  The special hymns of each day focus on different events.  For example one hymn describes Judas agreeing to betray...