"My Lord and My God!"

After the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostles were hiding behind closed doors and Jesus suddenly appeared to them. St. Thomas was not there. When he heard about it, he refused to believe. Eight days later they were in the same room and this time St. Thomas was with them. When he saw the risen Lord Jesus Christ, he said "My Lord and My God!"

The Greek has the word "Lord" and "God" in the nomative case, not the vocative case. Thus, St. Thomas is affirming: "Thou art my Lord and my God!"

A tradition in the Orthodox Church is to bless graves on this day. Many parishes have Liturgy in the morning and then go to the cemetery and bless the graves. Other parishes have the grave blessing on the previous day.

This year at my parish we had the Liturgy at the cemetery chapel so that people did not have to drive to the church and then from the church drive to the cemetery. It was windy but a wonderful day. I was very grateful that I was wearing vestments over my cassock. I am also grateful that it was not unbearable hot.

After the Liturgy we had a procession around the chapel as we would have done after the Bishop's Liturgy on the previous day if we had had the service in New Jersey. The difference between New York and New Jersey is that in New York we processed around the block once and did not stop.

We also had a picnic which was also a small fund raiser for the parish, but the main reason for the picnic is to bring the community together. Around 15:00 we had the grave blessings. We had three priests, Fr. John, Fr. Ted from St. Andrew, and Fr. Gregory from Holy Cross. Deacon Mark assisted Fr. Gregory. I assisted Fr. Ted and Reader Joseph assisted with Fr. Gregory and Joseph and Xenia assisted with Fr. John. Deacon Mark did the petitions and the rest of us held the censer or holy water and made sure that they were ready at all times.

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