एपिफन्य/Theophany

So we were having coffee in the church office this morning when I mentioned that it was Theophany and we should be putting on our robes and going down to Trout Creek, dip in the cross, bless the water and then ... they looked at me askance ... then I said we go have a feast. Protestants just don't know how to have fun.

This is Epiphany, the Twelth Day of Christmas, and the day the decorations come down. I took this picture just before I took down my wreath.

no rest

Well, there is no rest for the wicked. It is "get back to work day" - the sublime and the ridiculous of working in a church - more ridiculous than sublime. If the weather holds, I do hope to go back home for the weekend and then to a lecture in Halifax on Monday evening. And today I noticed that the light stayed for a little longer in the afternoon. There is hope, but I don't want to wish my life away.

Synaxarion

One of my sisters gave me the "Synaxarion" for Christmas. She told me that she was going to test me. Four days into the year and I have been deligient in my reading. Two days ago I was reading it at 3:23 a.m.. I have been emailing her flipiant comments on the daily saints just so as she knows that I have been engaged in the daily readings. In reading hagiography with a logical, rather than a mythic mind, it is easy to see the deficiencies. But the stories of saints are not history, but stories to edify the faithful. So while I snickered when I read that Saint Basil the Great, January 1, returned from being away to study to find that his mother and sister had turned their, and his, home into a convent. I mean I could imagine returning from university to my home in Montreal to find that my mother and sister (which one, I wonder) had turned our house into a convent - well what about my dad and what about my bedroom?! That is looking at it through logical modern eyes, but with the eyes of faith to illustarted the sancity of the entire family - many of whom became recognized saints.
There is something that really does bother me. It seems that sainthood involves "fasting, prayer and the labours of the ascetic life." It seems to make a two tiered system, the holy people who are totally devoted to the labours of prayer, meditation etc. and the rest of us who work out our salvation or enlightenment, or not, in the turmoil of the world. This isn't just in Orthodoxy, but in the eastern religions as well. What about the rest of us who keep things running. Surely if "God' is just, then sanctity has to be available to us all. Otherwise I will just stamp my foot and protest the unfairness of it all.
Yet I do know that the door to holiness is open to us all, whatever our lot, because our sanctification must be worked out within our circumstances.

curtains

I had a narrow scrap of fabric and the kitchen windows looked so bare. So I sewed it up and made a couple of valences. It has been many years since I have been able to put together something like this. It was my little thrill of the day.

crapette

My grandmother's legacy to us was an obscure French card game, which we all play. This Christmas holiday I began to teach the seven year old. We keep up the tradition. It's a two person game played with the coin of the realm. This means that I have played for pennies, Canadian and American, for colones, for pesos, for pesetas, for francs, etc.. But we have reformed and put our gambling past behind us. So this year we put our winnings (or loses, depending) into the pot. In the end there was just under $2.00 in small change. I was charged, perhaps because I had lost the most often, to deposit the ill gotten gains, which I did, today, into the box at the coffee shop. They collect to send children to summer camp.

Now the other day I saw a bald headed eagle soaring over this same coffee shop. Perhaps this is an omen.

Make a Smilebox greeting

January 1

Three calendars this year - thanks so very much. I hung them this morning becasue, as we all know, it is very unlucky to hang calendars before the beginning of the year. And this year, for the very first time, I think, I mean to have all my ducks in a row. Well, actually, that is not my New Year's resolution. That particular item will remain a secret. We'll see how I get on with it before letting you in on it. However, getting really organized might be a secondary goal.