"It’s Holy Saturday!" These were my words to Jim upon waking, for the second time this morning (I read the Gospels in turn with another person for an hour this AM).  It seems like it takes forever to get to Holy Week and then once we arrive the sand shoots through the bottom of the hour glass and here we are, almost at the crest of the wave…Holy Saturday.

Ana has been running around all week saying things such as, "I’m so excited it’s Holy Thursday," etc, etc.  Unfortunately, she has a nasty cough with intermittent fever, so we’ve kept her home from quite a few services this week.  She really wanted to go to the Lamentations service last night so that she could sing with the children’s choir.  It’s almost 10:00 AM now and she is crashed on the couch asleep.  Jim and I decided this morning that she should stay home again in the hopes that we would all be able to go the Paschal services tonight.  I am staying with her to allow Jim to photograph the baptisms/chrismations taking place today.  I’m sorry to miss it but there will hopefully be many more Holy Saturday services for me to attend.

The Lamentations service is so dear to me.  I love the hymns and the almost joyous and even at times defiant sounding Lamentations.  Last night, I stood at the chanter’s stand and watched the candlelight flicker in front of the faces of so many in the nave.  Some glowed back tenderness, many tiredness but all seemed lit from within by a sort of surety that though we might be weeping now (even the skies here in MD opened up with tears) we knew that joy was coming.  The children’s choir did a beautiful job…their voices were angelic…

David, my little spaz-bot son, who took great joy in entertaining our dinner guests last night with stories about spiderman, looked as close to angelic as he’s going to get while holding his candle.  Yes, he frustrates us at times with his zany behavior, especially at church, but there are times when he seems to "get it" with solemnity that surpasses mine.  I have heard him sing, "St. Simeon’s Prayer" with such fervor that I forget to breathe.  Last night, I looked into David’s glowing face and watched him mouth some of the responses to the prayers, and saw that in his own three year old way he was present in that moment in a way I could never have been.  David wasn’t processing the moment, he was in the moment and in a mystical way he was the moment.

And so, as those of us who are Orthodox prepare to dive into Pascha and all that it means, my wish for you is the excitement of Ana with the ability to let go of processing the moment and just reside there, like David.  Joy is streaming down the pike…be ready to take a ride.