The morning after — ahhh.
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Sitting around Father Elias’ kitchen table a few weeks ago, the talk was that Lent was going along really fast this year. That’s how it seemed at the time, but somehow the tail end of Lent and the entirety of Holy Week have more than made up for it for me. Blessed Pascha didn’t come a moment too soon.
And now I have that pleasant “up too late bellowing the anthem” Paschal hangover, and I can indulge in revisiting my favorite bits. The book markers in my service book, which have been moving forward every night, are finally resting on Agape Vespers, and the echoes of the quick “Christ is risen”, the slow “Christ is risen”, the Arabic “Christ is risen” and all the rest are starting to fade. When I sit now in the hotel room sipping my what, eighth? cup of good strong assam tea with milk in it, it’s the Paschal verses that I keep coming back to.
The venue is right for reflection. This is the second year that the church has rented a room in this Holiday Inn for the service and the second year that Greg and I have booked a room at the Holiday Inn rather than make the hour-long drive home at three in the morning and then back out here for Agape Vespers. It’s a good serviceable room, but it’s made into a palace to me by the addition of one thing: my traveling tea-making accoutrements.
I think tea-lovers will know what I mean. Even much swanker hotels than this one have disappointed me on the tea front. They all have a coffeemaker in the room, and you can order tea via room service, but since the stronger flavor of coffee tends to saturate everything around it, the coffeemakers, carafes and even the cups can’t really be used for tea, unless you like coffee-flavored tea. So I made the somewhat ridiculous step this year of carting my Mrs. Tea for Two, my tea, sweetener, a spoon and a cup from home. I brought some fresh skim milk and put it into the ice bucket so it wouldn’t get stale.
It’s really kind of silly, and I was prepared for Greg to mock me quite a bit. But unfortunately for the cause of self-restraint and future propriety, it worked! It has taken me this many Paschas and Bright Weeks to find out that I really don’t want to spend the days after the fast with a standing rib roast in one hand and a cheese wheel in the other. It’s the little things I miss, the little touches of this and that.
A better woman wouldn’t need such pittances to fall back on. But with teacup in hand, it seemed even more wonderful to go back over last night’s service, and I stopped when I got to the Paschal verses. Like so many things, they go by so fast. Maybe that’s the reason that we do them three times (or is it four?). But does anything seem quite so much like the whole service in miniature, like the cry from the heart that comes from all Christendom past, present and future?
“Let God arise! Let His enemies be scattered! Let those who hate Him flee from before His face.”
“Christ is risen …”
“As smoke vanishes, so let them vanish, as wax melts before the fire.”
“Christ is risen …”
“So let sinners perish before the face of God, but let the righteous be glad.”
“Christ is risen …”
“This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
And the “Glory … now and ever” all punctuated, of course, by more “Christ is risen” ending with the priest singing most of the anthem and leaving just the end for the people to complete:
Priest: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the tombs …
People: … bestowing life.”
Bestowing life. Even those two words are enough to contemplate for some time. Perhaps I can save some part of my attention to be turning it over while I go out and leave the happy hotel room of good tea. But for now, it’s time to pack up and get ready for Agape Vespers. Time to move that bookmarker to the end of the book at least for now.
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Indeed, He is Risen! It sounds wonderful.
Lent went by crazy fast for me this year.
Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!
a great cuppa tea sounds heavenly.
Indeed He is Risen!
I will just say that the tea was just as good as I’d envisioned it, and since I’ve got quite an imagination when it comes to my tea, that’s saying a lot.
The tea sounds wonderful — though I can’t set aside the wheel of cheese and whatever flesh meats dare to approach me for a couple of days afterwards
Oddly enough, Bright Week and the week after the Nativity are two of the few times in the year I actually eat much meat (or chicken, or whatever) at all. It seems that I don’t crave it most of the time when I can actually EAT it
**Smiles** Pascha was again a huge, joyous celebration around these parts. I love that the goodness and hope of resurrection can be seen even in a lovely cup of tea. Ahhh, how sweet!
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