Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me the sinner...
About eleven years ago, I went on a trip to visit some out-of-state friends. One evening we were sitting in their living room, and I was looking at a catalog from Conciliar Press. As I paged through the section of icons, I recall seeing the icon above (from St Catherine's monastery at Mt Sinai), and saying, "Look, there's the face of my Lord!" ...or something very close to that.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us...
The first Orthodox services I ever attended were during this trip with my friends: Vespers on Saturday evening, and then Divine Liturgy on the Lord's day. As I recall, we skipped Orthros, since my friends thought the matins service plus Liturgy would be too much for this neophyte! It was all so strange and awe-full, and it was everything my heart had been yearning for. As I progressed in my catechumenate, I also began to discern a depth of thought which I knew I would never exhaust, and a physical discipline desperately needed by my body and soul.
I had found the full expression of the Gospel, what I had been looking for since my youngest days: the One who had made the trees and everything else in the world, including me. I will tell you that story another time.
Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me the sinner...
No comments:
Post a Comment