Red Eggs and Ham...Well, Any Flesh-Meats Will Do

When Christ is Risen at midnight we proceed around the church 3 times after all the candles are put out, only to return to a well-lit marvel as we enter the tomb where Christ was laid on Good Friday to find He is Risen!!! I joyous canon of prayer ensues, with intermittent and raucous calls of "Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!" in any number of languages including, but not limited to, english, slavonic, greek, welsh, armenian, german and gaelic! The liturgy begins right after the canon and annual traditional Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom. Nothing really says unity like the homily of one of our founding church fathers' being read aloud in thousands of churches across the entire world.

We had a lovely time at the sweet little church in Corvallis after the wedding. It was very long day on saturday between liturgy in the morning, eating, showering dressing and being early to the wedding for pictures, back to the house to situate then going straight up to the church in the rain for the rest of the Acts of the Apostles, midnight service and liturgy. When all was said and done, we were finished with church by 2:30/3 a.m. and then went to the church hall (aka-the priest's house across the way) for a bit of festal fast breaking and egg cracking. Katherine was only interested in her hard cooked eggs in their pretty wrappers and that is what she ate. She had her egg that she received while venerating the cross and one from her basket. She also ate a massive load of marinated artichoke hearts after she finished her eggs. By the time I crawled into bed that night, though the Paschal bliss was streaming through every inch of my being, it was 5 a.m. and I drifted off into a 4.5 hour rest. It was sufficient, though I was nearly awake by the time we left, ha ha! Jay said that if we had a choice of another parish in which we would find comfort, it would be this one.

Today we had sausage, eggs, potato and avocado for breakfast, hence the flesh-meats. For dinner, hots dogs, giant salad, corn and baked beans made with bacon. Tomorrow, oatmeal and bacon for breakfast! We have a few other varieties of meats and such, so we will be set for a couple days. I am trying my best to take things slowly and not load up on too much, but only have tastes here and there, but that hot dog was g-o-o-d!

So, red eggs, eh? I have given it some thought this year about the amazing symbolism which comes from the very first egg, which was a miracle, in the company of the emperor during St. Mary Magdalene's days of spreading the Gospel. The outside of the hard cooked eggs that we dye is red, which is for the humanity of Christ. The egg also represents the tomb of Christ, in which He was laid. When we crack the tomb/egg, we find white, the color that is for Christ's divinity, but it is also a place where life begins, when properly conceived. The egg can be seen as a complete symbol of Christ, as well, in that the divinity within is clothed with the shell of humanity. It may not piece together quite like I imagine, but I think you get my drift.

I love this faith where living it is the only option if you choose for your heart to be constantly transformed by Christ. I was also turning over the entirety of our faith in my brain because it amazes me how Christ is so magnified throughout all of the year, in all the feasts. Even the feasts that seem to have another in their centrepoint, the presence of Christ is so intertwined which makes it obvious how He is "everywhere and fillest all things." The Theotokos is amplified because God chose her, though she had to cooperate with God's will with her own freewill, it glorifies God in her devout purity and synergy. The saints are elevated to their heights because they have followed Christ's path and fought the good fight and, with God's help alone, have emerged victorious in the life and age to come. Every year we are there when the angel announces to Mary that she is chosen, when Christ is then born, presented into the temple, is baptised by St. John the Baptist, the sermon on the mount, entrance into Jerusalem, the betrayal, last supper, crucifixion and the laying in the tomb as we await the Resurrection throughout the night until He is joyously risen!!! We are there with Him as though time has not passed these 2000 years. Soon it will be the Ascension and Pentecost!

Christ is Risen!!! Truly, He is Risen!!!