Almost to the end.....

Today is the last day of Lent.  Does that mean I don't have to fast anymore?  No, we still fast for one more week but I hardly notice the fast during this final week because it is Holy Week.  During Holy Week we follow Christ through every step from Bethany to His Passion on the Cross and finally His Resurrection, Pascha (Easter.)  The best is to be able to attend every service or at least any you can make it to because the more services you attend the more excited you are at the end, at Pascha.

Tomorrow is the first day of Holy Week, it is Lazarus Saturday.  So, tonight and tomorrow morning we will have services where we recall Christ coming to the town of Bethany where His friends Lazarus, Mary, and Martha lived.  We remember how he came to late for the death of His friend, Lazarus and the how tears of Lazarus' family are turned to joy when Christ raises him from the dead.

Next on Sunday it is on to Jerusalem, where we experience Christ making His triumphal entry into the city riding on a donkey.  Can it be that just a week later that some of these same people who are worshiping Christ will be cheering His Crucifixion?  When I say that we experience this service, I mean it fully.  In most Orthodox Churches, everybody in the Church will be holding palms just as the people did when Christ entered Jerusalem.  In the Russian Church people will usually be holding pussy willows either instead of the palms or with the palms.  Pussy Willows?!?  Yes, because in old Russia they were unable to have access to palms which are grown in a warmer climate so they held pussy willows instead.  We carry on this tradition.

We will continue following Christ through the week as we attend services for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday night.  Then on Wednesday night and Thursday morning we come to church again.  This time we have a Liturgy on Thursday morning where everybody should try to take communion.  Why on Holy Thursday?  This is the day we remember the very first communion, the Lord's Supper.  We will recall how Christ taught us to partake of His Body and Blood in remembrance of Him.

Holy Thursday night is another wonderful service.  This service is called the 12 Passion Gospels because throughout the service the priest reads 12 segments of the Gospels that are about Christ's Passion.  During this service there is a large wooden Cross with an Icon of Christ on it standing in the middle of the Church.  It is hard to forget the meaning of this week when we are hearing about and looking at Christ hanging on the Cross.

We now come to Holy Friday.  This day is highly honored.  People are encouraged to strictly fast by not eating at all or at least only one small lenten meal in the late afternoon.  There really should be no goofy off and no laughing on this day for we should remember what Christ did for us on this day.  Christ hung on the Cross for us so we should be willing to give up anything for Him but yet our human passion makes this so difficult.

On Holy Friday, we have several services where we actually have a funeral service in a way.  We remember Christ's death on the Cross, His taking down from the Cross by St. Joseph of Arimathea and His burial.  This is what we remember from what was happening here on earth but there was more.  We recall that the Church teaches of Christ's descent into hell where then He raises the dead by taking the righteous to Heaven.  This is why this day is important to us, Christ made it possible for us to not die but to live eternally through His death on the Cross if we follow after Him and try to emulate His life.

During one of the Holy Friday services the Cross is removed from the center of the Church and a tomb is put in it's place.  This looks different in each Church but is is basically an Icon of Christ as He would have looked in the tomb that is on a cloth.  This is surrounded by flowers.  We also make a procession around the church with this Icon held up like at funeral procession.

We have made it to Holy Saturday and we are almost there.  During the service in the morning we continue to recall Christ's raising the righteous into Heaven.  It is during this service that all the vestments in the Church are changed from the dark colors they were during Lent (either black, dark purple, or dark red) to white.  It is very moving to watch this change.

We have finally reached Pascha but I will have to save that for another post because it is too grand to put in this one.

I would like to note the importance of the Cross is shown through our entire day.  We make the sign of the Cross over ourselves, over our food, over our car before we drive and over our room and bed before we go to sleep at night.  We remember what the Cross means to us every time we make the sign of the Cross. 

The smallest child even understands this importance.  Every night when I put Dimitri to bed I make the sign of the Cross with my Cross around my neck over the four sides of his room and then over him lying in his bed.  When I do this he smiles up at me and it reminds me that even he feels the presence of the what the Cross means.

What's in a name?

For twenty-four hours my son's name was Baby Boy according to the hospital.  Now, I know you are probably thinking that we had roughly eight months to come up with a boy's name.  However, my husband wished to follow a church tradition of naming your child after a saint from the calendar.  Each day has several different saints commemorated on the Orthodox calendar.  There would be three different days I could choose from.  I could choose a saint from the day he was born, the eighth day after he was born (which traditional is the day of the baby's naming), or the fortieth day after he was born (which is the day that the child is usually brought to the church with the mother for the first time, usually when the baby is blessed/baptized.)

Wanting to be prepared, I had gone through the calendar and chosen my favorite name for each day for the whole month surrounding my due date.  When we knew that I was going to go in to be induced on September 29th, I looked at the names.  There happened to be two for that day that I liked, John (after John the Baptist) and Dimitri (after St. Demetrios.) 

It came down to the day and we just could not settle on which name.  Once I saw him a really felt that he was Dimitri but Paul was still not sure.  I really liked both names but we happen to have a lot of Johns in my family.  I also liked the fact that Dimitri would be said the same whether it was somebody speaking to him in English or in Russian.  John would be two different ways to say the name, basically translated.

Finally, we chose Dimitri.  It worked out perfectly because we were able to have him baptized on his saint's day.  St. Demtrios is commemorated on October 26th/November 8th.  (Two dates?  This is because we follow the Julian calendar in our church, which is thirteen days behind.  So, when it is November 8th according to America and the world, it is October 26th according to our church calendar.) 

According to the life of Saint Demetrios that we have in our book, it says that his parents prayed for a child and they were given Demetrios.  I liked this similarity!  St. Demetrios was a martyr that lived in Thessilonica from 270-305(6).  He professed Christ after the Emperor had sent him to persecute Christians.  You can read more about him here: http://www.serfes.org/lives/stdemetrios.htm.

My Dimitri is getting bigger. He has now learned to sit by himself very well. He likes to watch everything that happens around him. And he is eating more solids everyday. He has tried carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, peas, spinach, apples, bananas, and baby oatmeal and rice cereal. He is not fond of his vegetables but loves bananas and apples. His latest thing is to scrunch up his nose when he smiles at you.

My life is always changing with this little guy. I never know what he is going to learn next.

A prayer answered

On Mother's Day in 2004 a miracle happened.  An Icon of St. Anna located in Philadelphia began to stream myrrh.  St. Anna, according to church history was the mother of Mary, the Theotokos (Mother of God) and therefore, was the grandmother to Christ.  This Icon was noticed to have droplets on it and then later the fragrant myrrh began to stream as tears.  Many miracles have now happened because of this miraculous Icon.  

As Orthodox Christians we believe in praying to saints.  The word "pray" means "to ask."  And therefore, we pray and ask for the saints to intercede before God for us.  For us, it is like asking somebody in church to pray for us except that the person we are asking is known to be a righteous saint in heaven with Christ.

Icons are called windows into heaven.  We are able to view depictions of Christ, Mary and the saints and it is a reminder to us of those who are heaven.  In history, there have been many miracles that have happened because of special Icons.

The first time that I was able to see the Icon of St. Anna was in 2005 when it visited our parish.  It was then that I approached Fr. Athanasy, the priest who is the protector of the Icon, and told him of my wish to have a child.  He told me to ask St. Anna to intercede for me so that I could bear a child but that if I should have a girl, I should name her Anna.

I have since venerated and prayed many times before this Icon that God would allow me to bear a healthy child.  After waiting many years, God found that it was the right time and we were given my precious son, Dimitri (Who would have been Anna had he been a girl.)  Everyday I look at my son with a heart filled with love and gratefulness.

Like Hannah of old, I prayed and God granted me a child.  I hope too to always show my child how to love God and serve Him.  For this reason I have decided to try to start this blog.  To share how my son is growing and the miracle he is.  And also to see how he changes as we follow the church calendar through it's cycle of services.

For more information about the Icon of St Anna: http://churchofourlady.org/anna_icon.html

For a podcast with Fr. Athanasy:Direct Link (right-click to download)