Picnic in Bel Air

On Sunday morning as I left home, I was certain of one thing, namely I will be serving at teh Divine Liturgy. Fr. Gregory had already made this clear. He said that he was looking forward to our serving together. Although he is a priest and I am a subdeacon (nor an ordained subdeacon), he still said "serve together." I take this as a complement.

My 1993 Olds Royale LS had no problem making it to the church, despite the fact that it has over 150,000 miles on it. I was not worried about that. I was more concerned about the weather. I used my windshield wipers half of the time to the church.

When I arrived, Jocelyn was the choir at Matins. I presented my off-white traveling stikharion and my blue orarion to Fr. Gregory for the blessing to vest. He realized that the orarion was blue, the color for the Theotokos and he told me that they have already celebrated the feast of the Dormition. So I switched to the gold orarion which I also had with me.

During the whole service I knew that I was in heaven. It was a real treat hearing the so called silent prayers of the priest said aloud. At the end of the Liturgy Fr. Gregory said that they still do not know if they will have the picnic. Lia announced that if the club does not open, they will have the picnic at their house.

Later it was announced that the club will open. After we cleaned up, some of us went directly to the picnic and others went home first. When I arrived, I told them my name at the gate and I was very pleasantly surprised that my name was on the list.

This is their third annual picnic and I attended all three. This year I have much better pictures to show.