The Feast of Feasts at Home

Under normal circumstances, first year seminarian families are all excited about their first Pascha (Easter) at St. Tikhon's. Since the church is at the monastery across the street, and the monastery keeps the daily cycle of services which most of us have not experienced in our home parishes, Holy Week leading up to Pascha is quite an experience...well, that is what we were told. We did experience a Pascha like never before, but not in that way.

School always lets out for Holy Week so we can completely immerse ourselves in the services. So, there were no (online) classes during Holy Week, but of course, we could not go to church either. Thankfully, our national church put out the texts to be able to pray through those services at home, making our home into our little church.

Just before our long-awaited paschal feast!

We read through the same scriptures as every year, the prophecies of Christ's passion, death, and resurrection; it was the same Gospel readings of Jesus's last hours with his disciples; it was the same funeral procession around the house on the night of his death; it was the same excitement at midnight Saturday night when we light our candles and proclaim the glorious resurrection of the God-man.

And then again, it was not the same: I would not say it was better or worse, but it was certainly more personal to celebrate everything together as a family. All of us were much more invested in the services, because we were literally all more invested in the doing of the service itself. I, for one, am so very thankful that we had the opportunity to celebrate Pascha together as a family. It was joyous. It was beautiful.

Christ is risen!