Today's Readings: Matthew 24: 36- 26:2 , Luke 1:24-38, Ezekiel 1:21-8, Job 1:13-22
Today's post will be fairly short because I am a little wiped out. 3 hours of reporting and filming video+ 4.5 hours of editing= a mentally exhausted Byzantine Blogger.
In yesterday's post (which was actually posted today), I mentioned Bridegroom Matins. During Holy Week, Christ takes on the image of the Bridegroom coming to the nuptial mystery. We, his church are the bride of Christ. The matins for this morning talked about a number of things, but most importantly, to me, it discussed the parable of the Ten Virgins. Five of the ten virgins were ready with oil in their lamps when the Bridegroom arrived and five were not and missed him when they went looking for oil. The moral: Be prepared because you never know when the day of judgment will come. In Matins we actually sang "O faithful let us be on fire with love for the Bridegroom, and with lamps burning, let us go out to meet him. May the light of our virtues shine brightly and may our faith be radiant. With the wise Virgins, let us prepare to enter the banquet hall of the Lord; for the divine Spouse offers us all the crown of immortality."
Today, we also read the account of the Annunciation in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 1: 24-38). Again, we are presented with a Virgin who was prepared and accepting of the will of God. The Annunciation is such an important feast that, when it falls on Great Friday, it take preeminence over Great Friday. As Fr. Tom put it, it is like Christ steps aside for his mother. While I question where I stand in the Holy Week journey with Christ, I often think about whether or not I could have been as courageous as the Theotokos was. Could I have trusted in God so much at such a young age? What must it have been like for Mary to see her son riding triumphantly into Jerusalem one day and having to bury her innocent son less than a week later?
The readings for Great Week also feature the figure of Job. To be honest, I felt a bit like Job today. Things just kept falling through, things weren't working out, our video wasn't long enough, this clip wasn't crisp enough. It just all seemed relentless (but for me it all worked out in the end).
Unfortunately, that is it for today. I need to conserve some energy for later on this week to avoid burnout.
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A mother will NEVER have enough time with her child (unless he is 8! JK) so from Mary's perspective I'm not sure it's much different to lose Him the way she did or send Him off to school or get married. Faith. That Girl had it. SHE knew HOW that baby got there so my perspective is that she was chocked FULL of faith. You have it too. When it comes down to it, or IF, your faith will lead you!! Ya got more than 2 cents on that one!!!
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