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Saturday, March 26, 2011

Here and there

It is the eve of the Veneration of the Holy Cross at church, the midpoint of great lent. It is also my 33rd birthday and I am looking forward to sharing this day with such an amazing feast. My birthday is always, not sometimes, absolutely always during lent, but on occasion, a perk like this comes along. Last year, I shared my birthday with Lazarus Saturday, because Pascha was so early.

This year, lent has been an unexpected blessing. At times, I have felt a bit agitated, but thus far, it has been fairly tame. I was talking with Jay earlier in the fast and one of the things that seemed true is how we have had so many different struggles in the last few years that when the dust begins to settle, like now, it is so much calmer and even. I suppose it makes struggles that I have once imagined and experienced in a larger scale seem less grand and quite surmountable. I cannot speak for the rest of this fast, but so far, I have learned a lot about my shortcomings, in a very gentle way, but also about endurance and forethought. I am not particularly any good at the latter, but I am grateful for these lessons. One thing I always have hoped is to be tempered and balanced. Glory to God for all things!

I have been thinking about this feast of the cross lately and how we venerate the Holy Cross after each liturgy and even after a molebin (special prayer request). On this day, and the one in September, we allot the entire liturgy to the veneration of the cross, a mere tree, which bore Christ. It is upon this cross Christ is crucified, without His crucifixion, we would not have the Resurrection, so the cross is somewhat bittersweet. It is an awesome thing that this simple wood is the tool for helping to bring eternal life to all. This wood that is dead, holds life, which Man has hung upon it and God redeems. It has only struck me, only to a slight degree (as it can at this point in time), the awesome magnificence of the life-giving cross and its purpose, among other things. I feel blessed to have such a bright feast in the middle of lent to keep us on course for the Bright feast of Pascha. We will be at the Entrance of Christ into Jerusalem, with them at the last supper, then Christ is betrayed, so we will follow to Golgotha on Good Friday to be humbled at this sacrifice. We will await the tomb to be opened and will glorify the Life and Love which is given. I look forward to our new experiences at the church in Oregon, it will prove interesting, to say the least.

I have set some time aside to sew some these last few days. I finished the prototype today, which I hope to add a picture soon, and Katherine likes it, though I can see a couple things I will modify for the dress she will wear for the wedding. It is a pretty little dress, but I think the final one will be nicest. I am more focused on sewing right now, since I have specific projects that need to be accomplished in a certain timeframe, but I do hope I get some knitting in soon, I am in the middle of at least 4 different projects and I would like to finish at least one soon.

Hmm, it has been tugging at my brain again, this draw to serve in a soup kitchen, or help kids, or something. I need to get it together to try to volunteer somewhere, I just feel sort of removed from this kind of thing. I do hope to figure something out, I have got to, it will nag me until I do! (Random, yes, but that is just me.)

Well, I have soup on the stove for church in the morning, so I need to tend it a bit and say some prayers. Please pray everything goes well in the morning, we all hope to commune and have a nice meal afterward. Peace and love be with whomever is reading this and please forgive me, a sinner. Glory to GOD!

'Before Thy cross we bow down in worship, O Master! And Thy Holy Resurrection, we glorify!'

1 comments:

Martha said...

Happy birthday...and feast of the Cross...I wish I'd brought my camera to church. So many children! And we made crosses simply out of popsicle sticks and glued gems on them...the kids had fun. My sister's birthday is March 18 (also Olivia's namesday) and it's always during Great Lent, too.
I just posted about a place we went to make pottery on Saturday...and am going to start volunteering there!!!