Vesperal Liturgy
As promised, here’s video of the most beautiful moment in the most beautiful service of the Orthodox Christian year, the Holy Saturday vesperal liturgy. A parishioner—a talented singer, at that—reads the epistle, followed immediately by Fr. Hughes’ procession around the church. Thoughout the church, Fr. Hughes flings handfuls of the flowers that had been used to cover the funeral bier the night before, on Good Friday.
Many pictures will be posted on St. Mary’s website in the coming days, including some of tonight’s Paschal liturgy.
After coffee hour, I needed to head to the other side of town for a friend’s birthday. I rode the subway with a fellow St. Mary’s member—and one of its many immigrant members. I’ll call him John. John is paradoxically both the most gregarious and solitary man I know at St. Mary’s. He seems to have no family but the Church, yet, probably for that reason, he is so peaceful of demeanor. Such a situation has bestowed upon him the right, in everyone’s mind, to advise without solicitation. This is what John said to me on our train ride after Resurrection Matins, and bear in mind that today is the anniversary of my joining the Orthodox church:
You are so special, you must know. Of all the places in the world, in all of the circumstances—you could be a criminal, you could lonely, you could spend your time gambling, you could be sleeping, you could be traveling to other countries, there are so many things to do this day—and yet you are here, you have chosen to come to church on a Saturday morning, and this church you love. It says so much about the character of your family and of you.
Let me tell you something about your life in the church as it will be. You joined, and you grew to love the church and the building and the people. That’s where you are now. But something will tell you to move to the other side of the room, to the front rows where the choir stands, and you will sing. You will love that too, and later you will ask to join Charlie’s chanting classes. You will learn the tones by listening and then you will chant—and you will be a chanter. Over many years you will want to give more and more, you will be truly a member of St. Mary’s, you and your family.
By the time he finished, we were at Downtown Crossing and had to part ways. Every Easter season has its moment, and this was mine, having a wise man of the church reminding me that a resurrection isn’t merely the overcoming of death—of sin—but of rising ever higher, every day, closer to voice of God and His calling for your life.
