Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple
From the week before Thanksgiving through the first whole week of December has been a real blessing for me liturgically. During this time I have been blessed with the opportunity to worship in several churches. I started off with Vigil at Saint Peter and Paul Chapel on Saturday evening 18 December 2006, Liturgy at Holy Trinity on Sunday 19 December 2006, Liturgy at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church on Thanksgiving Day, Vespers at St. Mary Orthodox Church on Saturday 25 November 2006, Liturgy at Christ the Savior Orthodox Mission on Sunday after Thanksgiving 26 November 2006, Vespers at Holy Trinity the following Saturday 2 December 2006, Liturgy at Holy Trinity on Sunday 3 December 2006, Liturgy for the feastday of the Entrance of the Theotokos (old calendar) on Monday 4 December, Vespers for Saint Nicholas at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church on Tuesday 5 December, and finally Paraklesis service at Holy Cross on Wednesday 6 December 2006. The last time that I was this fortunate was when I was in the seminary.
The Paraklesis service was quite beautiful, even without a priest. To be honest, the reason that I attended was that Emily is giving me music lessons which I need very badly. I will admit that there are times when I really do not want to go to church but I go and then I am really happy that I went. It is extremely rare when I wish that I had not gone to church.
We had Liturgy on the feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple, old calendar. Since most people work during the day, we did not expect a big congregation, but what we had was perfect. Sister Paraskeva read the Hours before the Liturgy and Vladimir and I read the Epistle, I in English and then he in Church Slavonic.
After the Liturgy we had breakfast. Matushka Tatiana bake some wonderful bread and Swentana provided fruits and cookies. If you are ever in Baltimore on the day of a major feast on the old calendar, you must come over to the chapel for Liturgy. It is a real treat! The language depends on who attend.
Although the pictures are from the old calendar feast, I also celebrated on the new calendar at Holy Cross 13 days earlier. There we had Vesperal Liturgy and after the Liturgy we had a meal. We were also blessed with the presence of Archimandrite Daniel, a priest from Indonesia. It was wonderful for me to get to know him and I look forward to the day that we can celebrate together.
The pictures of Saint Nicholas Day celebration and Christ the Savior are on other pages on this site. Please feel free to check out those pages and your comments are always welcome.
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