CHRIST IS RISEN!!!

Christ is Risen!

Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!

That is the main hymn we sing during the Paschal season. I had a fantastic weekend and would like to share some of the highlights I experienced.

I was able to get to church on Holy Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, due to the kindness and generosity of my grandma and friends. Holy Thursday was a LONG service, about three hours long. Twelve Gospels, detailing the passion of Jesus Christ, were read. I was able to make it to two of the three services on Holy Friday. The afternoon service was only an hour long, probably one of the shortest services of the year. Several Catholic nuns were there with a patient from the local hospital and I was able to speak with them for a few minutes. They were extremely nice and seemed interested in the service. Then I was introduced to a Protestant minister who was visiting. He was very fun to talk to and we talked a lot about my conversion, Pascha, and Ancient Faith Radio, an online Orthodox Radio station. I asked my priest, Fr. John if I could hold a mini vigil and read some psalms before the next service began. My Michigan church has an all-night vigil on Friday nights where people take turns reading from the Psalter until the liturgy begins on Holy Saturday morning. My church here isn't able to do that since there aren't many people to do it. I ended up reading for about an hour and forty minutes. It was a blast!

Since I couldn't go to the liturgy Saturday morning, I tried to sleep in. That didn't work out as well since I was too excited for Pascha. Pascha "Eve" invokes the same reaction from me that Christmas Eve does to little kids. I was driving my grandma CRAZY. My dear friend Deb offered to pick me up and bring me home sometime Sunday. She picked me up and we went to see "October Baby" before the Pascha service. It was better than I thought it would be and much better than what Deb was saying. We arrived at church about an hour before the service was supposed to start and I read some more psalms. The Resurrection service began about 15 minutes late but it was still an AWESOME service. At one point all the lights are turned off, it's quiet and then everybody starts lighting their candles.

This is "Christ is Risen" sung in Greek. My church, though a part of the Greek Orthodox of America, is a mixture of other cultures so we also sing in English, Arabic, and Romanian. Hearing Arabic was a blessing after having been in Morocco, though the dialect is different. The service was followed by a lamb dinner, though I turned down the lamb and ate mostly Feta cheese. (Oh man, do I love Feta cheese!) I knew my friends in Michigan were partying as well so I sent off a bunch of texts to them. After eating, Deb and I went back to her lovely house. Deb had a hard time falling asleep but my lower half crashed before my mind did. After spending a good portion of the weekend on my feet, my lower half was quite worn out.

Deb and I had Danish for breakfast and I drank my lovely iced mocha coffee drink that was blessed in my Pascha basket (think Easter basket but on a larger scale). Agape Vespers was at 11 am followed by an egg hunt for the little kids. I recorded everybody singing, "Christ is Risen" and set it as my ringtone ;-) Deb took me out for lunch to eat pizza. When I was here three years ago for Lent and Pascha, she kept teasing my about pizza during the Fast. She said this was her way of making up for that. We went to her favorite pizza place and ordered the Mega Meat pizza. I had extra cheese added to mine. That pizza had large strips of bacon on it, plus ham and something else I think. The details are fuzzy. After lunch she brought me home and I tried to build up enough energy to go to the grocery store. One of my favorite post-fast meals is my bacon & sour cream noodles. It's really easy to make and super delicious.

I got a call from two of my dearest friends, Lynne and Dave. They were on their way home from church. It was really great to hear from them. I also was able to talk to my mama. She was traveling with my stepdad. Gram had church Sunday night but I stayed home to make my noodles. The bacon took forever to cook but I eventually settled down and watched, "How to Train Your Dragon" which I decided to make it a Pascha tradition. My friends invited me over to watch it last year after Agape Vespers and it's one of my favorite movies. It took awhile for me to finally crash and fall asleep. It was one of those childlike occasions where I was fighting sleep as long as I could.

Today I received a package from my wonderful godparents who sent me more Cadbury Caramel Eggs. They are my favorite Easter candy. They also sent me a miniature espresso maker. They know me SO WELL! I spent most of the day being lazy and hanging out in my pj's until we went over to my uncle's house for dinner. My cousin reintroduced me Jolly Rancher suckers and I am hooked on them now. It feels weird not being in church or having any services to go to during the week. I hope I can make to St. George's feast day next Monday. For the remainder of this week, we are not "allowed" to fast. There are several post-fast meals that I have on my menu. Gram asked me today if I would like creamed chicken on toast. Of course I would ;-)

There are two more things I want to mention about this weekend. 

#1. I kept waiting for somebody to show up. Not anybody in particular, just anybody to show up and say, "I'm here for you, Staci." I'm a little odd sometimes.

#2. I was alone in my pew for two of the three major services this weekend. This second item seem to be a recurring theme in my life. I am the only Orthodox member of my family and I don't expect that to change. I was sitting in church, celebrating with a whole bunch of people, and yet I was alone. 

And on that note, I end this post.

Until next time,

~Staci~