Visit #165 ~ Seeing Mumbled Prayers

,,,,not the mumbling I heard....

I enjoyed Divine Liturgy last Sunday, even though I was a bit tired. When I arrived at the Church, instead of gong inside for the Adult Study, I rested in my car and took a quick nap.  I left the car and came inside just in time for the beginning of Orthros. Despite being a bit tired, I was able to enter into prayer right away. One good thing about standing for prayer is that you are less likely to fall asleep then if you were sitting down.

In the front row, I noticed a boy, probably around seven or eight years old and when it came time for the congregation to sing some (what I thought) were obscure hymns, he  seemed to know them all by heart. True, he looked like he was mumbling them but he was singing them just the same. I thought how nice it was that this child was growing up in the Church knowing the Hymns.  I've heard it said that all of what you need for Salvation is in the Divine Liturgy. That seems to be true. All the Scriptures, all the hymns, the multitude of Psalms....they all point us to Christ and just by being a faithful attendee of the Services of the Church, you can learn Salvation History and embrace Christ.

What a blessing for me it has been to be able to attend Liturgies on Sundays. It means that, during the week, I have to make up the time by turning an eight hour work day into twelve hours but it certainly is worth it.  Because I get up so early for work, evening Vespers is much harder for me but thankfully, I have some vacation days at work and this Thursday I will be taking off. That means, I can attend pre-Sanctified Liturgy Wednesday night and even stay for the meal because I can sleep in the next day.  Plus, my wife is off of work Thursday so I can spend the day with her. It's Win=Win!!!!