Mar 5, 2024
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Itβs the darkest day of the liturgical calendar but Good Friday has always been one of my favorite services.
For the entirety of the matins, about 2.5 hours, every light in the church is turned off. At first, only the candles on the iconastasis provide a dim, warm glow. There is a shroud of Christ displayed in front of the altar, surrounded by fresh flowers and icons. This year, you could smell the sweetness of lilies from five feet away.
Thereβs no communion at this service, simply a veneration and a procession. When entering the church, everyone approaches the shroud on their knees, bowing their forehead to the ground three times and crossing themselves. Soon after, we are all given a candle and pass eachotherβs flame around until you can see every face in the room.
Before the final veneration, the priest leads everyone outside, candles in hand, singing in unison. We process around the church three times, illumined only by the bright stars above and the light that we carry in our hands. Iβve always wondered what the Friday night traffic thinks about the 60 tiny fires moving along like ants on the hill as they speed through the dark mountains.
This year, my candle never went out.
1d ago
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This is my favorite church service of the year and I cry every time. Itβs long as hell but worth it! If youβve never been you enter the church in darkness, and everyone has a candle, so the first part of the mass is just by candle light.
This year I also taught the lovely adults who were becoming Catholic for the first time and it was just really gorgeous and lovely.
There are days being in organized religion is exhausting but at the Easter Vigil it always feels purely wonderful, beautiful, and radically hopeful
Mar 31, 2024
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Repeating βLord Jesus have mercy on meβ incessantly to yourself thousands of times a day for weeks, months, years on end until it becomes an automatic process like blinking or breathing or the beating of your heart. Your life becomes prayer, you walk with God & become a blessing on this earth.
ποΈποΈποΈποΈποΈποΈποΈποΈποΈποΈ
ππππππππππ
β€οΈβπ₯β€οΈβπ₯β€οΈβπ₯β€οΈβπ₯β€οΈβπ₯β€οΈ βπ₯β€οΈβπ₯β€οΈβπ₯β€οΈβπ₯β€οΈβπ₯
For I am a miserable sinner.
Aug 8, 2024
Top Recs from @corybanter
In case you're looking for a great novel to read, I will share my favorite book of all time: A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving. I have read this novel a half a dozen times over the past few decades, and I cry at the end EVERY SINGLE TIME. Beautifully written, with great characters...
Feb 6, 2024
Feb 6, 2024
A documentary about the making of "We Are the World." (For those who may not know, it was a big celebrity single made to raise funds to fight hunger in Africa.) For those of us who were kids in the 80s, this doc is a major nostalgia trip!
Feb 7, 2024