"Everything you do, all your work, can contribute towards your salvation. It depends on you, on the way you do it. History is replete with monks who became great saints while working in the kitchen or washing sheets. The way of salvation consists in working without passion, in prayer…. May God give you the strength to keep your spirit, your mind, and your heart in the spirit of Christ. Then everything that happens to you can very quickly be radically transformed. What was tiresome and discouraging will disappear, transfigured by your desire to be there where Christ your God is." Elder Sophrony

Friday, April 6, 2012

Convert Pascha Question for those in East West Families





So what do you do...celebrate twice?  Celebrate both with equal wild abandon or not?  

This evening I am putting together Pascha Basket #1 for the blessing of baskets at hubby's church tomorrow at noon.  

To tell the truth I am feeling kinda creepy.  In goes the chocolate, the lamb, the eggs and cheesecake...

...and 'my' Holy week hasn't even started yet.

Just sayin'... feels weird.

3 comments:

Janelle thegeekywife said...

My situation is different since I'm the only practicing Orthodox under my roof. Husband doesn't care. That just leaves both sets of parents. Most years I don't celebrate Easter with my parents. If I do, I try not to *cheese* anyone off. His family is even more awkward now that his parents have returned to the Uniate church & his brother is officially Protestant. I feel isolated & it's always exhausting.

Last year was less awkward b/c Easter was the same. I hosted his parents while his brother was out of town. I just didn't see my parents. My parents are very understanding of my conversion to Orthodoxy & that I can't attend every gathering.

DebD said...

In years past my husband would celebrate Western Easter quietly. He's not one to make a lot of pomp-and-circumstance out of Holy Days anyway. When we were both Prot. Easter was a quiet affair anyway because we would almost always get up early for the sunrise service, so not much changed for him. Sometimes he would come with us for Pascha services - leaving before Liturgy started. This year he's been attending church again with me and he is planning to celebrate Pascha only with us.

Mimi said...

Like Janelle, my Dh isn't an active believer, so he is really ok with celebrating when I celebrate.
And, by celebrating, I mean getting a basket and making my Pascha dinner ooey, gooey, and cheesy for me ;) He also made an artichoke dip for me to take to the Agape Vespers feast.
Christ is Risen!