Visit # 174 ~ Myrrh Bearing Women and Twirling Children!

In our Nave this Sunday

Yesterday was the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing woman. I always thought it cool that Jesus first revealed Himself (after He was Risen) to women, who were considered second class citizens.  Leave it to Jesus to break the mold and change our thinking!  Once a month, Fr. Gary does a youth homily where he invites all the children to come near the front (each having a rug to sit on) and he preaches his homily mostly to them. But, we get to listen in. Of course, he preached about the Myrrh-bearing women and talked about how sometimes we label people but these Myrrh-bearing women were more than just that; they were individual people as well. Just like us, whatever label we may have, we are ourselves as well and more than just a label. A good message to both kids and adults alike.

The little girl twirled, just like this!

photo by Julie Campbell, used under the creative commons license

check out more photos here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/juliecampbell/

Speaking of kids, a young couple with a very antsy toddler came in late and the man standing next to me saw they were just standing in the doorway and needed a seat so he moved to the other side of the nave and directed them to now empty seats next to me.  The little girl was adorable and immediately started spinning around in place so that her mom had to say, "No twirling now."  The girl ended up crashing (harmlessly) into the chair behind her and that brought lots of suppressed laughter from all of us! During the recitation of the Creed, the girl was in her father's arms and all of a sudden the Church bells start ringing. The girl looked up in wonder, pointing and you could tell by her expression that she thought the bells were the coolest thing around!  When the bells stopped there was a short moment of complete silence, only to be broken by the little girl saying "bye-bye" to the bells. It was extremely cute.

When people were receiving the Holy Mysteries, they would, of course, take some "fellowship" bread as well.  Matushka Mary came to the back and offered me one (which I took). She then bent down to offer one to the little girl. Well, there were three in Matushka's Hand so she took all three!  It was very funny.  The father remarked to me that she guessed her daughter wouldn't be needing to eat lunch later.

It was a blessed day, worshiping God and seeing the image of Christ in all of His children, even His youngest ones.  Seeing the wonder and innocence of this child reminded me that I should have the same attitude when approaching the Lord.  May we all be reminded of that!