caper

I went to Taylor today and saw two weeping icons.

It’s moments like that which remind me of my faith.

You could smell the myrrh before you even stepped inside the church. Both of the weeping icons were of the Theotokos so there was a very distinct rose-like scent to the oil. A Moleben was served and my dad said that the icons were streaming the entire time.

At the end of the service the parish priest (my dad served alongside him tonight) walked around the nave and poured oil from the icon onto the hands of those inside the church. The oil was just running off the sides.

At the end, we all went up to venerate the icons (inside of their glass cases) and be anointed with the oil.

My jacked still smells like myrrh from just being in the church for so long.

During the service as I was looking around, I saw people of all different faiths. There were people blessing themselves in the Roman Catholic style and those who you could tell weren’t Orthodox, and were probably some kind of Protestant. That didn’t stop them from coming to see the two Wonderworking Icons.

I did have a thought part-way through the service. I wondered just how many people were seated around the church that didn’t really understand what was going on. Mind you, I know that as an Orthodox Christian, I don’t have any better insight into what is going on - God works in mysterious ways that I’m not meant to understand - however, there were some people that I was getting upset by because they were reaching out their hands and clamoring with cotton balls to get some oil. It just really upset me.

However, the overall experience made up for it. It was something I won’t soon forget.