Categories: parish-life, food, bible
Date: 03 November 2006 23:43:44
It's been a few weeks since my last Saturday expedition: either work has called or I was on my to galavant around Canberra. It also means I haven't read any of The Brothers Karamazov either -- though it was fairly easy to pick up where I had left it. I'll have to try and read a bit more during the week: I have missed it.
A short walk away from me is the aptly name Gourmet Café [there is also, a bit father down, High Class Delicatessen -- I'll probably go there next week]: there is a large range of scrumptious delights just waiting to be gobbled up. I was feeling rather more hungry than usual (must be all that walking!), so I went for the scrambled eggs, bacon, tomato and toast breakfast, washed down with a flat white. And very nice it was too: the eggs were lovely and fluffy and the bacon nice and crisp, the way I like it. A number of regulars, or friends of the owner, came in: all greeted with a cheery 'Hello' or 'Haven't seen you for a while'. It seems that a number of people have their regular Saturday morning haunts: I'm still enjoying trying them out.
Tonight I lead another session of Bible Study: we are moving on to an Overview of the Gospels, before we start looking at them in more detail. God willing, we'll be looking, in broad terms, at the authorship, audience, characteristics and structure of the four Gospels tonight. Depending on how we go, we may even get to start looking at the structure of Matthew, Mark and Luke [John has its own study later on] at a deeper level, as well as looking at when they are read during the Church year.
Thanks be to God, the studies have been received well. Both I and the other parishioner leading the studies have been complimented and greatly encouraged by those attending: and we've been told that they are interesting and informative studies. Thanks be to God.
It is rather odd, though, for me to be leading studies, considering I've been Orthodox less than a year. I may be more widely read than some of the cradle Orthodox, but I think that's part of coming to a tradition different from your own: you tend to devour as much of its history and beliefs and so on as you can. While that may be true, I know I am a long way from the Orthodox mindset: I see how easy, for example, crossing yourself before icons when you enter the church, comes to my brothers and sisters and I wonder if I will ever be in that mindset and have that practice so ingrained in one's life it is second nature: I still need to 'urge' myself, for want of a better word: it still feels different, new, so very eastern -- so different from the personal sign of the cross I made when I entered my Anglican parish. A strange feeling: but not one I would change. I am so thankful to God that I have found Orthodoxy, or it found me, for a number of reasons: it is hard at times, and sometimes I may long for a 'western' hymn or something more familiar, but the benefits have been blessings beyond my imaginings and I continue to be challenged to conform my life more and more to that of Christ's, and to persevere to the end, with the aid of all the church offers. And I truly have the best parishioners, the best brothers and sisters in Christ, that anyone could ever hope for: their encouragement, their love, their example: it is a blessing indeed. Thanks indeed be to God.