Christ the Just Judge

A meditation from Irenikon:

Spring has come early to the valley. It has been an unusually warm March, definitely the warmest even in long memory. The air was heavy today, humid and still, redolent with the odor of spring mud from the creek, more than a multitude of green things pressing up, and woodsmoke from fires stoked to cut the residual damp and chill. Alas there is no wood burner or fireplace in the skete to take off a chill now and then.

The atmosphere seemed heavy and burdensome outside at first but then my attention was caught by the evening songs of a half a dozen different species of birds and the mood immediately lifted and filled with anticipation of the deep quiet of dark night and the promise of morning song to follow.

This week we work in anticipation of Pussy-Willow Sunday, of Christ's Entry into Jerusalem. We are deep into the heart of the Great Fast, but somehow there begins now the anticipation of release, of relief to come. We can stop here for a moment looking back, looking forward. We are in a time between the long weeks of fasting already done and the relatively few days left to complete our preparations for Great and Holy Week with its rigors of long liturgies and deep emotional connections between each soul and our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, Son of God. In this way the remaining days of this sixth week of the Great Fast are so precious to us.