JOYOUS FEAST for The Presentation of Christ in the Temple!

ICON FROM ST. CATHERINE'S MONASTERY IN EGYPT'S SINAI
The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, from the Twelve Feasts on an iconostasis beam and dating from the 12th century.

We have a LOT of beautiful snow here in the Northeast... Last week, when we were blessed with a feast on the day of a snowstorm.. my sweet husband shoveled for over 2 hours... to get us into Paradise, that morning... ;) He shoveled our car out of INCHES of snow... the sidewalks... the driveway... the steps... and as we drove down the street... slowly... to the Divine Liturgy... the few cars we passed, who'd ventured out on the road... were 3/4 covered with snow! "WOW!", those of us in the car thought to ourselves... "it's almost as though the cars we are passing were in a different snow storm than our car was..." and suddenly we realized just how much snow "Daddy" had shoveled off of our car! "Because of your Daddy's hard work..." i reminded them... "we get to spend the morning in the Kindgom of Heaven!" ;) We were suddenly all, even warmer... in the midst of the ice cold weather and the snow storm we were driving through... thanks be to God... our chapel is very near.

When we walked in the door... i could hardly believe my eyes... the entire church was PACKED!! It was one of the feasts for St. John Chrysostom, and SO many had come to remember this holy man... who stayed up day after day... night after night after night... for us. Writing... praying... composing the very Liturgy we were celebrating...

The chanting... was like we were in a HUGE Cathedral in the middle of Thessaloniki, Greece or Constantinople... the incense, the echoes of the seminarians', and the all the students' voices off the icons and the marble floor... the loads of candles lit on the right and left in the narthex... the candilis... slightly swaying inside the church before the altar... so many priests, deacons and seminarians in the altar- i could hardly get a count... Rassem, an AMAZING chanter- from Lebanon, who moved here with his family and is studying at Holy Cross... chanted - from the bottom of his being/his heart... they were all chanting from their souls... it seemed one could hear each voice in the whole chapel, chanting~ with one voice... I actually thought the TOP of the dome of our chapel might come off!!!!

Father Evangelos, back from Africa... blessing us once again... with his humility, his sacrifice... he studies and works so hard... and blesses us daily- far from his family, his loved ones, his children... Father Demetri, back after another visit to Mt. Athos... blessing us again... can't wait to hear about his latest miracles, experiences, grace... and we receive it all from one another... celebrating this GLORIOUS DIVINE LITURGY... that my husband... shoveled our way INTO... PARADISE!

I thought to myself... this has to be the world's best kept secret... or at least- today... "Boston's best kept secret..." Who would ever know, that on this holy hill... this campus at Hellenic College/Holy Cross... full of beautiful, faithful people... who have left their lives, big jobs, other scholarships to colleges... to study THE FAITH... that these many students/seminarians/families... were no longer sleeping in or shoveling... they were celebrating an INCREDIBLE DIVINE LITURGY!!!

The day before the snowstorm... we had gone to Orthros - the morning service... not a Liturgy, no communion... and when Alexi realized at the end of it that we weren't going to have communion... he cried and cried... you see, over the break, we didn't go to Orthos as much... mainly Liturgies... so Alexi was not as used to just Orthros, and was SO sad... not to receive the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ... so when i told him - we could go, even in the snow storm... and it was a Divine LITURGY... he JUMPED out of bed... and could hardly wait to get out the door... ohhhhh... the blessings of a child... "Out of the mouths of babes and children comes perfect praise." "Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked him. "Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read, "'From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise'?" Matthew 21:16
In fact, to get Alexi to stop crying... I told him we could go find Fr. Peter, and see if there was any blessed bread in the back... he decided that would possibly do... and we headed back for a blessing and our question... to which Fr. Peter replied... "no, but I do have some holy water!" So, again, because of Alexi's yearning for the Lord... he was blessed with holy water... we try to start our day with a little holy water and tiny piece of blessed bread, each day! (like the do in the monasteries) It truly blesses everything that comes in, and God-willing, we pray for it to bless everything that will come out...
May we continue to learn from our little ones' faithful hearts - daily. with so much love in Christ, georgia

In this icon....Christ is shown as a child, but He is not in swaddling clothes. He is clothed in a small dress and his legs are bare. (which you can see even better in the icon below). Jesus appears to be giving a blessing. Below... Simeon holds Jesus with both hands which are covered. This shows the reverence Simeon had for the Messiah. Simeon is bare headed and there is nothing to show that he is a priest. Some biblical scholars say that Simeon was probably a priest of the Temple or a Doctor of the Law.

Joseph is behind the Theotokos. He is carrying the two turtle doves for the sacrifice. Anna the Prophetess is also standing behind the Theotokos and is pointing to the Christ child.
The words Simeon spoke when he saw the Christ Child are known as "St. Simeon's Prayer." This prayer is sung daily at the evening Vespers services of the Orthodox Church.

In the Orthodox Church, both baby boys and baby girls are taken to the Church on the fortieth day after their birth. This is done in remembrance of the Theotokos and Joseph taking the infant Jesus to the Temple.

You can read more about the feast here: JOYOUS FEAST!!
http://www.goarch.org/special/listen_learn_share/presentation/index_html/