Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!
O Death, where is thy sting?!
Let the feast begin! WOO!
Our service started at 10:45pm last night at St. Paul's. We showed up around 10:25 to the church (you know, the 11th hour). As we were taking the kids out of the car, a car pulled up behind us and a lady rolled down her window. "Excuse me sir, but what time are your services tomorrow morning?" I told her, "Well Ma'am, if you are interested in our Easter services, they start in 20 minutes. Otherwise, we have a short vespers service at 11am tomorrow followed by an Easter Egg Hunt." (Of course, Agape Vespers will last for an hour, but compared to the other services we've stood through this week, that is the shortest).
The lady said, "20 minutes huh? Well I'm not really dressed for church, I'm only wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Do you think it would be ok for me to stay?" I told her in classic JD Curry fashion, "Heck Yeah! Come on in. Just bring your jacket cuz it's cold in there" (the temp inside the church stays around 64 or 65--a bit chilly). I also warned the lady that the service would be 3 hours long, but that she was welcome to sit any time she wanted, and she could leave whenever she wanted. I also told her that there is an usher who would be able to answer any questions she had about the service.
So she stayed for the entire service and introduced herself to Fr. Ted when she venerated the cross.
Hannah slept through the ENTIRE Pascha service in her carseat. One of the ladies at church carried her around for the procession, and Hannah didn't wake up until we were eating breakfast at 2am. Luke fell asleep around 7pm, woke up at about 11:15 when the procession started, and barely made any noise through the rest of the service. It was definitely the best service that Anastasia had with the kids all week. Though we were dreading the midnight service, it turned out to be quite a blessing.
So the week is almost over, and the celebration has begun. 40 days of feasting! WOO!
Christ is risen!
-Matthew
We had a Visitor
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Last night and this morning we had the same moose come and visit. This
first picture if from this morning. You can't really tell but the moose
has a met...
12 years ago
2 comments:
Indeed He is Risen!
Missed having you all here today. But I'm quite glad your services went well. How many miles on the car this week?
Do you remember the time when we yada, yada yada'd the dismissal? Yup, that was written in the Agape Vespers book. We all laughed at the chanter's stand :)
Final mileage estimate, starting on Lazarus Saturday morning through Pascha: 1200 miles and 4 tanks of gas to and from Church. Quite a change from living on Monastery Drive in Alaska.
The old "yada yada yada" dismissal. Good times. I remembering writing it in the book, thinking that it would be the only thing I would be remembered for at the cantor stand (probably true). In my liturgics class last semester, the teacher would talk about the beginning of different services as "the usual beginning." I always thought he was talking about "The Usual Suspects." But I guess he should have just said, "The service begins with etc etc etc and ends with yada yada yada." Then I wouldn't be thinking about The Usual Suspects.
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