April 1, 2007

• April 1st (an important anniversary), Palm Sunday, St. Mary of Egypt, the beginning of Holy Week

  ….and Mommy and baby are both sick

  Today, April 1st is the feast Day of St. Mary of Egypt. For those of you that have known me for awhile and have been following my blog you may remember this post, from last year and that April 1st, is not April fool’s day to me, but St. Mary of Egypt and the day I found my cancer, thanks to Divine intervention. It is hard to believe another year has passed. April 1st is indeed a very special day to me. St. Mary of Egypt pray to God for us! Also, 14 years ago Fr. and I were engaged. I remember having a bandage on my neck from my biopsy, during our engagement party on Palm Sunday. I also remember going to the Church. after all our guests left, for the Bridegroom service on Palm Sunday evening,  and having very itchy legs, a symptom of the Hodgkin’s. Up until that evening I had been asymptomatic. Glory be to God that 14 years has passed an all is well!

  It seems like this Lent and now Holy Week have been and are going to be a complete wash, in previous years I was able to watch services live from Greece satellite TV, I always enjoyed that, but we don’t have Greek TV anymore. Maria~Angelica and I have terrible head colds. She is miserable and just wants to be cuddled, nurse and have her nose wiped occasionally.  I have been suffering with allergies and sinuses; the trees and flowers in my parents’ yard and up their street look gorgeous, though. The boys have SATs all week and need to be in bed early and well fed, lots of protein is what their teachers recommend for breakfast. Last year Holy Week was the children’s  Spring break and they were able to go to many of the services, I think Basil went to every service,  yet another advantage to HSing, being able to attend evening and weekday services whenever we want. This year it seems it will not be possible, I do hope to get all the children to Holy Unction at 3:30 on Wednesday.  With all the changes taking place in our lives I have barely been able to concentrate on fasting, prayer and worship these last 40 days. Today Basil and my father went to Church. He is used to being in the altar but sat with my father and then my best friend’s children which are also his best friends now.  Basil came home and reported that there were so many people in Church today  that there were chairs in the Narthex, he was fascinated by this. Cincinnati is always crowded  and ever since I was a child they have needed chairs in the Narthex for Palm Sunday and Easter. They are LONG over due for a second and even third Greek Orthodox Church in this area, the suburbs are booming!  It is a shame Middletown could not answer the call and put themselves out there to fulfill the spiritual needs of the people in Butler and Warren counties by relocating to an area where there are more Orthodox families. 

   

  • 9:05 pm
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