It's been an intense week. Services every night (although we skipped Tuesday night to join my in-laws for dinner), many hymns and prayers and prostrations, hours upon hours of standing, and singing, and did I mention the prostrations? Now that we're into Lent, you can really feel Easter approaching; the sense of anticipation is almost palpable. Everything has taken on a much more somber, quiet, penitent feel. It's beautiful and haunting, and, frankly, a bit exhausting. The fasting restrictions are demanding (and I've already failed to keep them), and the long services can be grueling.

And I love it. It's refreshing to keep the TV and radio off; to forget about the news and the weather, and who's on facebook; to focus for a little while on what's important.
This is what Christianity should be! There is nothing casual or relaxed about it. This is true fall-on-your-face worship (literally) such as I've never seen anywhere else; this is a church that truly believes in disciplining one's body, to bring it into subjection (1Cor 9.27).

Every year, the Council of Orthodox Christian Churches organizes a series of "pan-Orthodox" Vespers services, during which, each Sunday evening of Lent, a local Orthodox parish hosts a gathering of hundreds of Christians from every tradition to celebrate Vespers together. Last night's service was at St Lazarus in Detroit. The building was quite impressive, and the choir was wonderful, but Kathryn was a bit surprised to be one of only a half-dozen or so women wearing a head-covering. I reminded her (as I tried to get used to the presence of pews) that we attend church at a monastery, where certain ancient standards and practices are followed much more strictly than at your average parish church.

Next week's Pan-Orthodox Vespers will be at St Michael's in Redford.