Thrown out...of the Garden!

Thrown in a pool- lots of fun!
Thrown out of Paradise: Not so much...
photo by flickr user, popofatticus, used under the creative commons license.
check out more photos at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/barretthall/

I didn't make it to the Video class last night but I did manage to get to Vespers, making this the 90th time I worshiped at my Orthodox parish.  We commemorated THE EXPULSION OUT OF THE GARDEN. I say commemorate for surely Adam leaving Eden is nothing to celebrate. In his homily, Fr. Gary talked about how, in the Church's hymnody, Adam is pictured outside the Garden, weeping bitterly. No longer would he live in paradise. No longer would he commune with God.  Yet Christ changed all that! During Great Lent, the Church offers us a way to get back with God.  Adam, did not fast- having eaten the fruit, he was expelled from the Garden. Moses, however, after fasting for 40 days, saw the Face of God. So maybe now we are, like Adam, weeping bitterly because we only see paradise from afar.  Yet, through Christ, we are restored!

Fr. Gary also mentioned how we commemorate St. Patrick, Bishop of Armagh, Enlightener of Ireland.   I had always thought the Orthodox celebrated this famous Saint on a different day.  But I guess I was wrong. He mentioned the story (probably a myth) of how St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland.  We should, he said, do the same thing during Great Lent. Only instead of driving out snakes, we should drive out our sins.  Good advice, I think.

Had a short conversation with Jim Martin (who started a new blog on fly-fishing, by the way. check it out here!) He said, since I'm not working, we should meet for coffee some morning. He is able to break away from the office whenever he wants to.  I'm looking forward to that. I'd really like some time to sit down and talk to him, asking how he feels about being only months away from entering into the Church.  (And I love that his daughter is, too!)   Coming into the Church certainly is the right step to take in reversing us being thrown out of the Garden! In Christ, Paradise is restored!