Liturgy at St. Nicholas
This trip to St. Nicholas Cathedral was considerably more rewarding than usual.The bus driver, Terrance, was really nice and asked me to say a prayer for him. So he is now on my prayer list. He suggested that I just stay on his bus to the end of the line and take the MARC train there. This time I should had. I forgot about ArtScape and the streets being blocked off near the train station.
I don't like catching the MARC train at West Baltimore because of the long stairs leading up to the tracks. I was carrying my camera case with the camera and laptop, my vestments, and a package to be mailed at the Post Office.
When I arrived at Union Station, I went to the Post Office to mail the package. The clerk was wonderful. I had written "SW" instead of "SE" and she caught it because the address did not match the ZIP Code. She took care of it.
I took the Red Line to Union Station and then the N2 bus to the church. I met an Italian woman whose husband knows Russian and Church Slavonic. She also knows Spanish. We had a delightful conversation as we waited for and rode the bus.
We had two deacons serving, I and Deacon Igor. Most of the Liturgy was in Church Slavonic. Deacon Igor and I took turns and the Liturgy was really prayerful.
After the Liturgy we had a wonderful meal of food left over from a choir workshop. Andrea took Basil and me to the subway and we rode together to Union Station. I missed the 13:15 train by just a few minutes. That's OK because I had quite a conversation with two men as we rode back home. One of them had a bunch of biblical questions and I was able to share with him the Orthodox perspective. I also showed him the photos from the Holy Land and he was fascinated by them.
Besides serving God and helping the Church to serve the spiritual needs of our people, I think that I'm also serving the spiritual needs of another group of "our people." When I was in the Air Force Reserves and a student at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, Fr. Donald Roberts, Chaplain, U.S.A.F., said that my supervisor MSgt. Gilmore did not understand it when I say "we" when referring to the people at the seminary and my church. The chaplain understood. Many people in my church do not understand the perspective of many people in my military unit. But I think that many of the people at St. Nicholas understand very well.
I got caught in the rain as I was getting off the bus, but I made it home. I had an umbrella in my camera bag.
