April 1, 2009

• April 1st

  April Fool’s Day? No. Today is the Feast Day of St. Mary of Egypt and the 16th anniversary of the day I found the bump in my neck that turned out to be stage II cancer- Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

  It is so hard to believe 16 years has passed. Sixteen years ago Fr. and I were just 2 days engaged and I was being sent for an x-ray. Sixteen years later we have been married 14 1/2 years are the parents of 4 healthy children, Fr. has served 4 parishes in two countries and has been a priest 12+ years. Where does the time go? Sixteen years cancer free, hard to believe, but I am so grateful. Today is always an emotional day. I am forever thankful for the prayers of St. Mary of Egypt and the power of the Holy Spirit, who protected me and sent me to the doctor following my 8am German history lecture at the University of Cincinnati, instead of for a manicure to compliment my recently received engagement ring.

  I am forever grateful to Christ, who healed me, for the monastery of St. John the Baptist in Essex, England who prayed for me, for my friends and family who were there for me, for my doctors – Dr. Michael Neuss, oncology nurse- Arleen Schumann and Dr. Robert Caldemeyer, and especially my mother who held it all together and handed me each and every pill for a year. I was so loopy from all the meds and crazy in love that I could have never kept track of all those pills, appointment, surgeries, scans, chemotherapy, radiation etc. without my mom.

  Thank you to my mom and thank you to my then fiance who flew back and forth from London, England- 8 times in one year and thank you to my dad who saved me from a year of wedding planning when he agreed we should just go to Greece and be married- that was a glorious decision! St. Mary of Egypt, pray to God for all of us! May God grant us at least another 16 years of of good health and blessings!

  

  MARY OF EGYPT

  Reading:

  When Mary was only twelve years old, she left her parents and departed to Alexandria, where she lived a depraved life for seventeen years. Then, moved by curiosity, she went with many pilgrims to Jerusalem, that she might see the Exaltation of the venerable Cross. Even in the Holy City she gave herself over to every kind of licentiousness and drew many into the depth of perdition. Desiring to go into the church on the day of the Exaltation of the Cross, time and again she perceived a certain invisible power preventing her entrance, whereas the multitude of people about her entered unhindered. Therefore, wounded in heart by this, she decided to change her way of life and reconcile herself to God by means of repentance. Invoking our Lady the Theotokos as her protectress, she asked her to open the way for her to worship the Cross, and vowed that she would renounce the world. And thus, returning once again to the church, she entered easily. When she had worshipped the precious Wood, she departed that same day from Jerusalem and passed over the Jordan. She went into the inner wilderness and for forty-seven years lived a most harsh manner of life, surpassing human strength; alone, she prayed to God alone. Toward the end of her life, she met a certain hermit named Zosimas, and she related to him her life from the beginning. She requested of him to bring her the immaculate Mysteries that she might partake of them. According to her request, he did this the following year on Holy and Great Thursday. One year after this, Zosimas again went thither and found her dead, laid upon the ground, and letters written in the sand near her which said: “Abba Zosimas, bury here the body of wretched Mary. I died on the very day I partook of the immaculate Mysteries. Pray for me.” Her death is reckoned by some to have taken place in 378, by some, in 437, and by others, in 522. She is commemorated also on the Fifth Sunday of Great Lent. Her life was recorded by Saint Sophronius of Jerusalem.

  Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone

  In thee the image was preserved with exactness, O Mother; for taking up thy cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to overlook the flesh, for it passeth away, but to attend to the soul since it is immortal. Wherefore, O righteous Mary, thy spirit rejoiceth with the Angels.

  Kontakion in the Second Tone

  By the toils of thy struggles, O God-inspired one, thou didst hallow the harshness of the desert. Wherefore, we glorify thy memory, as we honour thee with hymns, O Mary, glory of the righteous.

  http://www.goarch.org/chapel/saints_view?contentid=2&type=saints&date=4/1/2009&D=W

  MARY OF EGYPT

  Reading:

  When Mary was only twelve years old, she left her parents and departed to Alexandria, where she lived a depraved life for seventeen years. Then, moved by curiosity, she went with many pilgrims to Jerusalem, that she might see the Exaltation of the venerable Cross. Even in the Holy City she gave herself over to every kind of licentiousness and drew many into the depth of perdition. Desiring to go into the church on the day of the Exaltation of the Cross, time and again she perceived a certain invisible power preventing her entrance, whereas the multitude of people about her entered unhindered. Therefore, wounded in heart by this, she decided to change her way of life and reconcile herself to God by means of repentance. Invoking our Lady the Theotokos as her protectress, she asked her to open the way for her to worship the Cross, and vowed that she would renounce the world. And thus, returning once again to the church, she entered easily. When she had worshipped the precious Wood, she departed that same day from Jerusalem and passed over the Jordan. She went into the inner wilderness and for forty-seven years lived a most harsh manner of life, surpassing human strength; alone, she prayed to God alone. Toward the end of her life, she met a certain hermit named Zosimas, and she related to him her life from the beginning. She requested of him to bring her the immaculate Mysteries that she might partake of them. According to her request, he did this the following year on Holy and Great Thursday. One year after this, Zosimas again went thither and found her dead, laid upon the ground, and letters written in the sand near her which said: “Abba Zosimas, bury here the body of wretched Mary. I died on the very day I partook of the immaculate Mysteries. Pray for me.” Her death is reckoned by some to have taken place in 378, by some, in 437, and by others, in 522. She is commemorated also on the Fifth Sunday of Great Lent. Her life was recorded by Saint Sophronius of Jerusalem.

  Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone

  In thee the image was preserved with exactness, O Mother; for taking up thy cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to overlook the flesh, for it passeth away, but to attend to the soul since it is immortal. Wherefore, O righteous Mary, thy spirit rejoiceth with the Angels.

  Kontakion in the Second Tone

  By the toils of thy struggles, O God-inspired one, thou didst hallow the harshness of the desert. Wherefore, we glorify thy memory, as we honour thee with hymns, O Mary, glory of the righteous.

  http://www.goarch.org/chapel/saints_view?contentid=2&type=saints&date=4/1/2009&D=W

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