A year ago I went to Greek Easter for my first time..
Today I went to Palm Sunday, which I only learned about last Sunday after I reached out to the sister of an "uncle" (In Greek Culture those who are older and who have known us all our lives usually end up being calling uncles/aunts (Thea/Theo, but they are not blood related). She told me it will be a beautiful ceremony and that I should attend; only problem I still felt like such a foreigner to the church and the culture.
So what do I do to get my ass there, FIND A GREEK to Tag a long with! I probably should have gone to West Broadway & Balaclava intersection and held out a sign saying "Palm Sunday Companion Wanted", but I wasn't feeling so adventurous so I just asked a Greek guy I met once. Thankfully he said he would go.
There we sat in church and he explained to me what I didn't understand and what to do next. Then Father Constantinos translated some of it too, and I started to understand a little bit of the language. It was a beautiful ceremony and as it progressed and as I understood more Greek, I started to feel less foreign. I looked around and saw so many Greeks in our community of all different walks of life, different heights, different coloured hair including red, blonde, black, brown & white.
Then the priest gave a sermon, with communication that I love and can pay attention to, direct, straight to the point, with visual concepts and in English! Ironically his message was completely related to something I have been trying to deal with on my own, and wasn't related to religion from my perspective.
I may not be quoting him correctly but this is what I understood: We need to start loving others more, we need to start loving with our hearts not our minds or our stomachs. Our mind is easily distracted and caught up in everything going on around us, and our stomach is related to animal behaviour and does not tell us what we really need. We should act on what our hearts tell us, our needs should be inline with what our hearts need.
My issue has been that I'm holding on to all the things my mind tells me I need to keep going and I keep thinking with my stomach and hoarding large quantities of all the things I think it needs. I know Father Const. was not being literal but it just so happens that making it literal helped me.
I definitely need to think and act more from love! and until Hristos Anestis next weekend I'm going to do my best to think more with my heart and feed that organ over the others.
#ImaynotbebaptizedbutIfeelorthodox #donthavetobereligioustolearnatchurch
So what do I do to get my ass there, FIND A GREEK to Tag a long with! I probably should have gone to West Broadway & Balaclava intersection and held out a sign saying "Palm Sunday Companion Wanted", but I wasn't feeling so adventurous so I just asked a Greek guy I met once. Thankfully he said he would go.
There we sat in church and he explained to me what I didn't understand and what to do next. Then Father Constantinos translated some of it too, and I started to understand a little bit of the language. It was a beautiful ceremony and as it progressed and as I understood more Greek, I started to feel less foreign. I looked around and saw so many Greeks in our community of all different walks of life, different heights, different coloured hair including red, blonde, black, brown & white.
Then the priest gave a sermon, with communication that I love and can pay attention to, direct, straight to the point, with visual concepts and in English! Ironically his message was completely related to something I have been trying to deal with on my own, and wasn't related to religion from my perspective.
I may not be quoting him correctly but this is what I understood: We need to start loving others more, we need to start loving with our hearts not our minds or our stomachs. Our mind is easily distracted and caught up in everything going on around us, and our stomach is related to animal behaviour and does not tell us what we really need. We should act on what our hearts tell us, our needs should be inline with what our hearts need.
My issue has been that I'm holding on to all the things my mind tells me I need to keep going and I keep thinking with my stomach and hoarding large quantities of all the things I think it needs. I know Father Const. was not being literal but it just so happens that making it literal helped me.
I definitely need to think and act more from love! and until Hristos Anestis next weekend I'm going to do my best to think more with my heart and feed that organ over the others.
#ImaynotbebaptizedbutIfeelorthodox #donthavetobereligioustolearnatchurch