WanderingSioux Oct 18 I really enjoy it when you go into detail about your attendance in church! It brings back such memories to me – of the time when I was a librarian at the Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Seminary Library in Jordanville, New York. They needed someone to put their collection on the nationwide Library of Congress database – and, Thank the Good Lord, I had the ability to read Russian, and the lack of any other “gainful employment” at the time! It was one of those things that I’m sure, was just “Meant to Happen.”
The monastery had a chapel that probably was smaller than St. Mark’s Cathedral, but possibly just as ornate. Being there for a service was a visual pageant in itself! The seminarians were clad in black robes, with long black veils streaming from their four-cornered hats. They would line up outside, then come in, and one by one, like a stream of black ants, they would go up to each of the maybe 20 icon paintings in the chapel, take off their hat, tuck it under their right arm, then bend down and kiss the lower section of that particular icon. All the while, they were chanting very rhythmic chants! En masse, it was as if we, the congregants, were watching some forty-legged gigantic ant rippling along ahead of us. We followed, and kissed the glass covering the painted icons as well. (The microbiologist in me would cringe a bit, thinking of all the germs that might be deposited on that surface – but we remained “As healthy as a horse!”)
We, the few residents of the community who attended services, would follow. We’d watch as the beautifully robed monks came in swinging gold incense burners on golden chains. All the while, there were repetitive chants in Russian, continuing until all the icons had been “adored.” The service that followed from there included a lot of passing a huge golden chalice around among the monks and seminarians, lots of bowing and kneeling, and almost constant song. There was an 8-year old altar boy who somehow seemed to have the soul of a 40 year old man, or older. The front of the chapel rose up into a dome – and when the sunlight streamed in, itt could be MAGICAL! There were times when I felt as if I were in the main cathedral of all of Russia – in Saint Petersburg – and God Himself was there in the dome! I don’t think I ever missed a service while I was working there – the FEEL of it was so HOLY!
Our main services were in the afternoons on Sundays. But, down below, in the chapel beneath the main vault, we had daily, four o’clock services for “the community.” There might have been fifty people or so who were full-time worshiping residents of Jordanville. (Most of the whole Russian Orthodox community there.) We could take the Eucharist daily – which I did while I was there. There was something “electric” about the moment when I came up, palms together in a prayer motion, ducked my head a bit, and the priest on duty would put a thumb-print of ash on the middle of my forehead. I can’t say why, but it actually, truly, felt like a Holy Blessing!
After services, we would proceed to the main dining hall. Monks went in first, then seminarians, then, folks like me – the “lay servants.” There ws one fellow who might have been classified as “mentally limited” – but he worked with the horses in the barn and seemed to have found an adequate “place in life” there. There were others of us, too – the folks who manned the Religious Store that sold Icons, sacred books and such and so forth. Only two of us were of the “female” verity. The other woman was the Russian teacher for the Seminarians. It was “forbidden” for the “Holy men” to see women in the dining hall, so there was a wall up between us. For me, it was kind of a joke! The father at the table closest to us was a Glutton! He’d eat up most of what was on the table for 6 seminarians and himself. So, sheepishly, one of the young men would come in as soon as the two of us had dished out our portions, and take the bowls to his table for the famished young men!
While we ate, one monk would stand at the lectern, right by our open portal. And read from the “Lesson for the Day” in Orthodox Russian. (Quite an older version, St. Pertersburg’s speech patterns circa 1800, I think!) Then, it would be “Off to the Visitor’s Guest House” for me. I had a “Cell” there, complete with a Bible and reliquary. Since this was “school season,’ there were very few others in our house. Except, Nikki! Nikki, the Cat, and I became fast friends. Nikki slept on my face – careful not to actually interfere with my breathing! I had never had much acquaintance with a feline before, so it was a “learning experience” for both of us!
It was a “Once in a Lifetime!” experience for me! And – they did get their entire library collection entered into OCLC – the Online Collected Library of Congress Database. If I could have switched genders - perhaps I would have taken the vows and have lived there “Happily Ever After!”
WanderingSioux Oct 18 I really enjoy it when you go into detail about your attendance in church! It brings back such memories to me – of the time when I was a librarian at the Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Seminary Library in Jordanville, New York. They needed someone to put their collection on the nationwide Library of Congress database – and, Thank the Good Lord, I had the ability to read Russian, and the lack of any other “gainful employment” at the time! It was one of those things that I’m sure, was just “Meant to Happen.”
The monastery had a chapel that probably was smaller than St. Mark’s Cathedral, but possibly just as ornate. Being there for a service was a visual pageant in itself! The seminarians were clad in black robes, with long black veils streaming from their four-cornered hats. They would line up outside, then come in, and one by one, like a stream of black ants, they would go up to each of the maybe 20 icon paintings in the chapel, take off their hat, tuck it under their right arm, then bend down and kiss the lower section of that particular icon. All the while, they were chanting very rhythmic chants! En masse, it was as if we, the congregants, were watching some forty-legged gigantic ant rippling along ahead of us. We followed, and kissed the glass covering the painted icons as well. (The microbiologist in me would cringe a bit, thinking of all the germs that might be deposited on that surface – but we remained “As healthy as a horse!”)
We, the few residents of the community who attended services, would follow. We’d watch as the beautifully robed monks came in swinging gold incense burners on golden chains. All the while, there were repetitive chants in Russian, continuing until all the icons had been “adored.” The service that followed from there included a lot of passing a huge golden chalice around among the monks and seminarians, lots of bowing and kneeling, and almost constant song. There was an 8-year old altar boy who somehow seemed to have the soul of a 40 year old man, or older. The front of the chapel rose up into a dome – and when the sunlight streamed in, itt could be MAGICAL! There were times when I felt as if I were in the main cathedral of all of Russia – in Saint Petersburg – and God Himself was there in the dome! I don’t think I ever missed a service while I was working there – the FEEL of it was so HOLY!
Our main services were in the afternoons on Sundays. But, down below, in the chapel beneath the main vault, we had daily, four o’clock services for “the community.” There might have been fifty people or so who were full-time worshiping residents of Jordanville. (Most of the whole Russian Orthodox community there.) We could take the Eucharist daily – which I did while I was there. There was something “electric” about the moment when I came up, palms together in a prayer motion, ducked my head a bit, and the priest on duty would put a thumb-print of ash on the middle of my forehead. I can’t say why, but it actually, truly, felt like a Holy Blessing!
After services, we would proceed to the main dining hall. Monks went in first, then seminarians, then, folks like me – the “lay servants.” There ws one fellow who might have been classified as “mentally limited” – but he worked with the horses in the barn and seemed to have found an adequate “place in life” there. There were others of us, too – the folks who manned the Religious Store that sold Icons, sacred books and such and so forth. Only two of us were of the “female” verity. The other woman was the Russian teacher for the Seminarians. It was “forbidden” for the “Holy men” to see women in the dining hall, so there was a wall up between us. For me, it was kind of a joke! The father at the table closest to us was a Glutton! He’d eat up most of what was on the table for 6 seminarians and himself. So, sheepishly, one of the young men would come in as soon as the two of us had dished out our portions, and take the bowls to his table for the famished young men!
While we ate, one monk would stand at the lectern, right by our open portal. And read from the “Lesson for the Day” in Orthodox Russian. (Quite an older version, St. Pertersburg’s speech patterns circa 1800, I think!) Then, it would be “Off to the Visitor’s Guest House” for me. I had a “Cell” there, complete with a Bible and reliquary. Since this was “school season,’ there were very few others in our house. Except, Nikki! Nikki, the Cat, and I became fast friends. Nikki slept on my face – careful not to actually interfere with my breathing! I had never had much acquaintance with a feline before, so it was a “learning experience” for both of us!
It was a “Once in a Lifetime!” experience for me! And – they did get their entire library collection entered into OCLC – the Online Collected Library of Congress Database. If I could have switched genders - perhaps I would have taken the vows and have lived there “Happily Ever After!”