Behold the Bridegroom Cometh
I was enjoying another post by Fr. Freeman about the Bridegroom
services during Holy Week. I find myself, perhaps catching it from some of the
bloggers I read, but some of it I think is my own, growing increasingly excited
at the approach of Lent. On the one hand, I know it will be challenging to go
through the fasting, both on a personal level, and with the children. OTOH,
I've now experienced, at least once, the power of going through Great Lent with
all of its discipline and focus on repentance, the staggering depth of Holy
Week, all culminating with the glorious celebration of Pascha, and I relish the
thought. It is, as Fr. Freeman notes,
a process of uniting ourselves with Christ. Only a little bit each Lent/Pascha,
and perhaps that is what is so incredible. Knowing that to be utterly united
with Christ will be so much more than the little bit we experience each year.
So much more that it really is beyond our comprehension. Taste and see that the
Lord is good, indeed.As a side note,
this Sunday represents, in a way, our liturgical "anniversary" with Orthodoxy.
It was on the Sunday of the Last Judgment of 2006 that we first attended an
Orthodox church as a family. I think I've posted that previously, but I repeat
it here, because I think another element of the significance that Lent holds for
me this year is just that. It now represents for me the time when we joined
Christ's Church. That will always, I pray, be a significant time for me to
remember and celebrate.
Posted: Wednesday - February 07, 2007 at 11:14 PM
