Oblation

An Altar’s Table of Oblation

Remember that we are called to change and be transformed. Great Lent is like a tuning fork that aligns our soul with a spiritual melody. We must strive to maintain this harmony for as long as possible, even after the Holy Forty Days have ended. ~ Metropolitan Onuphry of Ukraine

Years are not needed for true repentance, and not days – but only a single instant. ~ St. Ambrose of Optina

Wishing you all the Bright Joys of the Fast!

Looking ahead (with hope and consolation) while catching small glimpses of the coming, Shining, and Bright Paschal Dawn!

To the Journey!


Swathed in Light

Kayaking Into Diamonds ~ Strait of Juan de Fuca

Thy grace has shown forth, O Lord, it has shone forth and given light to our souls. Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the season of repentance. Let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light, that having sailed across the great sea of the Fast, we may reach the third-day Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of our souls. ~Aposticha Sticheron, Forgiveness Sunday Evening Vespers

Wishing you a most Blessed First Week of the Fast!

On a past holiday we watched a kayaker glide across a sea of glass, seemingly unaware of having passed through a brilliant, sparkling corridor of sunbeams. Suddenly, they came to a contemplative, standstill. In a flash, they reversed course and paddled forward – directly into the Golden Avenue of dazzling diamonds dancing on the water… and became swathed in Light.

I have consciousness of my sinfulness, but I live with hope. It is bad to despair, because someone who despairs becomes embittered and loses his willingness and strength. Someone who has hope, on the contrary, advances forward. ~ St. Porphyrios

…The world of nature is coming alive round us during the Lenten season. And this should be a symbol of what is to happen in our own hearts. The dawning of springtime… We shouldn’t just have a negative idea of repentance, as feeling sorry, gloomy and somber about our failings. but repentance, rather, is a new hope. An opening flower. How our lives can, by God’s grace, be changed. ~ Metropolitan Kallistos Ware

Clean Monday, Great Lent, Holy Week – Past Posts

Image by Andriy Tod at Unsplash

Let us Spring Clean our souls, Grow in God’s Grace… and Bloom in His Sonshine! May our Great Lenten Journeys be Peaceful, and Fruitful – helping us see Christ in others.

Wishing you all the Bright Joys of the Fast!

Lightfare

Branches of Inner Stillness

O Precious Paradise

Forgive Me

Threshold

Flowers of Penitence

Two Thoughts

Flower of Repentance

Spiritual Springtime

Be Still

Daily Lenten Prayer of St. Ephraim

Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete

Bending the Knees of the Heart

Savouring Great Lent

Let My Prayer Arise

Just For Now

A Lenten Prayer

Beauty of Holiness

Nothing Higher on Earth

God’s Beautiful Promise in the Sky

A Valentine

St. Brigid of Ireland

Gabhaim Molta Brighde

St. Caedmon’s Day Greetings

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

St. Patrick Enlightener of Ireland

Three in One

A Shamrock Day

Feast Day of the Annunciation

Clinging to the Lord

Rock-Steady

Swathed in Light

Reflecting the Refulgent

Skylark Buns Tradition (Baked to celebrate the Feast of the Holy 40 Martyrs of Sebaste)

As the Warmth of the Sun

Adoration of the Cross

Lazarakia Bun Recipe (Traditionally baked for celebrating Lazarus Saturday and/or Palm Sunday)

Lazarus Comes Forth

Palm Sunday Greetings

Bon Voyage ’til Bright Week

Onion Skin Pascha Egg Dye Recipe

Banquet of Faith

Great and Holy Monday

Great and Holy Tuesday

Hymn of Kassiani

Great and Holy Wednesday

Great and Holy Thursday

Great and Holy Friday

Do Not Lament Me O Mother

Great and Holy Saturday

Great and Holy Pascha

Christ is Risen!

Reflections in the Fog

Blessed Feast!

Today is St. Caedmon’s Day.

He’s another saint one of my favourite saints!

This 7th century saint is the first known English author of the earliest recorded (and literally divinely inspired) poem in Great Britain! The poem we know as “Caedmon’s Hymn” was recorded by Bede in Latin, in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

Also, today is the first day of MaslenitsaButter/Cheesefare Week… as we scale down to practically prepare for next weekend’s Forgiveness Sunday – and the bright clear days ahead with The Great Lenten Spring.

May your week ahead be rich and creamy with spiritual yum yums!

With love in Christ.

Fragrance of Life

Fragrant Plumeria flower, upheld aloft by neighbouring Heliconia Rostrata leaf. ~ Kauai 2023

Whatever in us that truly lives, exuding the fragrance of life like the blossoms in springtime will never know an autumn of decomposition and death. Those alive in Christ experience an everlasting seedtime of continual growth in faith, trust, hope, confidence, understanding, compassion, awareness, optimism, love, and joy. For them this world is a mere cocoon destined to release the true self on radiant, pure, glorious wings to a world alive with the fragrance of the Holy Trinity. ~ Very Rev. Vladimir Berzonsky 

Struggle my children, the angels are weaving crowns with flowers of paradise. ~ Elder Ephraim

Lent is spiritual springtime. Not winter, but spring. The world of nature is coming alive round us during the Lenten season. And this should be a symbol of what is to happen in our own hearts. The dawning of springtime… We shouldn’t just have a negative idea of repentance, as feeling sorry, gloomy and somber about our failings. But repentance, rather, is new hope. An opening flower. How our lives can, by God’s grace, be changed. ~ Metropolitan Kallistos Ware

Blessings On A Snow Day

Feature Image by Irena

Praise the Lord from the earth… fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word! ~ Psalm 148:7-8

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. ~ Psalm 51:7

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. ~ Isaiah 59:9-11

Falling snowflakes are beautiful. They swathe our backyard’s bare tree branches with mystique, and envelope everything else in a pure milk-white blanket.

But, to me, a tropical wildflower at heart, I love snow – for maybe all of 10 minutes before vehemently wishing it away.

It’s not my thing. I loathe the cold. Always have. However, it’s part of living in a climate where to every thing, there is a season.

On a recent snow day, I tried to consider the snow as a blessing in disguise. I cranked up my Hawaiian Instrumental “Summer” Music, and fiercely tackled the annual cleaning of a certain Kitchen Drawer of No Return.

Although snow is a love/hate thing for me, I must begrudgingly admit that I do love to go outside, and “listen” to the whispers of falling snowflakes. There’s a peaceful, gentle, and calm stillness… Like the earth is holding her breath, waiting with patient endurance and expectant hope – for there’s always Sonshine above, ready to pierce through those snow clouds… and sweet spring is right around the corner!

…For favourable weather, for an abundance of the fruits of the earth, and for peaceful times, let us pray to the Lord… ~ Litany of Peace

It’s the New Growth

It’s the new growth… that bears the blooms!

The Lily of the Valley Shrub, also known as Pieris Japonica, is a lovely evergreen shrub and early bloomer, belonging to the Heath family. It’s a joy to see and smell these pendulous, sweet, fragrant bells, especially during Lent.

From of old…. the teardrop shape flowers of both the Lily of the Valley bulb plant, and the Pieris Japonica shrub, are said to poignantly symbolize the tears that Eve shed upon leaving the Garden of Eden, and the Virgin Mary’s tears shed at the cross of Christ.

She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley. ~ St. Augustine

Sometimes, a glimpse of Paradise is right outside our back door!

Happy Lenten Spring!

Sakura

Japanese Cherry Blossoms Represent Renewal and Optimism

Happy Saint’s Day Owen! March 4/17

Billowing clouds of pink and white Sakura flowers herald winter’s end… And we are as enriched, and as delighted, as our gardens!

Without winter there would be no spring, and without spring there would be no summer. So it is also in the spiritual life: a little consolation, and then a little grief – and thus little by little we work out our salvation. Let us accept everything from the hand of God. If He comforts us, let us thank Him. And if He doesn’t comfort us – let us thank Him. ~ St. Anatoly of Optina

May your Lenten Journey be peaceful and fruitful.

Lover of Silence

Greetings on Clean Wednesday.

These profound silence quotes are by the 7th century St. Isaac of Syria

If you love truth, be a lover of silence. In the beginning we have to force ourselves to be silent. But then, something is born that draws us to silence. May God give you the experience of this something that is born in silence.

Silence is the mystery of the world to come.

Humility collects the soul into a single point by the power of silence. A truly humble man has no desire to be known or admired by others, but wishes to plunge from himself into himself, to become nothing, as if he had never been born. When he is completely hidden to himself in himself, he is completely with God.

Above anything, welcome silence, for it brings fruits that no tongue can speak of, neither can it be explained.

Silence is a mystery of the age to come, but words are instruments of this world.

Not every quiet man is humble, but every humble man is quiet.

May your Lenten Journey be peaceful and fruitful.

Daily Lenten Prayer of St. Ephraim

Image by Mammiya – Pixabay

The crocus is also known as the penitent flower.

Happy Clean Monday!

During the week days of Great Lent… we say this beautiful and ancient prayer by St. Ephraim the Syrian (4th century).

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