A New Grace

I'm so moved by my experience in Armenia. My world has shifted. My perspective on myself is totally different. I'm a priest. I wasn't lying to my mom.

My father told me he went to the church on Lake Sevan maybe ten times with his grandfather. He said hundreds of sick or lame people would huddle at the church and within a few days walk home healthy. He's telling me this story from when he was five. I guess you had to take a boat to the island where the church is then, but the water has since receded so you can drive there now. What an honor to have seen it.

My father's grandfather was a high priest, and the last in about a 1000 year line of priests, finally ended by the Bolsheviks from whom my father hid our family bible. You can't believe how beautiful this book is. I feel blessed by holding it.

I've been in a haze since Sunday night. These people who were nothing but vague fantasies before are actual flesh and blood. My blood. And such nice people. I've been getting though work with a new grace and resignation. Just be as nice to people as you can. And don't say more than is necessary.