How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity

"The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
and the calf and the lion and the fatling together..." (Is 11:6)

We couldn't believe what we witnessed yesterday afternoon.

We've had our dog, Argo, since about August, and in these 7 or 8 months, his only purpose in life seems to be to put the cat in his mouth. The cat, suffice it to say, strains his every nerve just to tolerate the dog. He spends most of the day running away from him and sitting above him, swatting his nose.

This is what made yesterday's scene so amazing. Perhaps they finally realized their kinship as fellow Greeks. ( :

On another note, the bottom photo is of my new vestments, as I mentioned in the last post. Pelagia took this picture this morning after the Presanctified Liturgy.

First Presanctified Liturgy

Well, I don't know that this is very "blog-worthy," but here's a very short video (22 seconds) from the Presanctified Liturgy that we just celebrated here in Panorama. It was inside our main parish of St. George's, but in the small side chapel dedicated to St. Nektarios.

I asked Pelagia to take the video because I wanted to be able to show the new dark-colored vestments I finally got yesterday (my Metropolis in Volos was kind enough to provide them for my use during Lent). Unfortunately, you can't seem them very well in this video. Maybe we'll get a good photo next time!

So, with dark vestments in hand, tonight was the first time I served in a Presanctified Liturgy.

At the end, Fr. Alexios brought out a small relic of St. Sava the Sanctified for veneration, in commemoration of the Church's celebration tomorrow, March 20 NS, of the monastics who were martyred at the St. Sava's monastery in Palestine.

Icon Workshop

About a month and a half ago, Pelagia and I went to the small Serbian church in downtown Thessaloniki to celebrate the feast of St. Sava. Among the many wonderful people there, we met one Serbian iconographer who has his own workshop in Thessaloniki. My Serbian friends have been telling me ever since to go by and visit, so I finally did today while I was in town for Ancient Greek class.

The iconographer, Zlatko, is considered a 'master.' I don't know anything about iconography other than what I like, and I *really* like his work. I only stopped in for a quick visit and to get some pricing information in order to possibly order an icon for someone in the US, but--with typical Serbian hospitality--he insisted on stopping everything he was doing and giving me a tour of his workshop. He then sat me down with the customary slivovitz (Serbian plum-flavored hard alcohol) and told me some stories about miracle-working icons, places to be sure to visit on the Holy Mountain, etc.

The first and third photos show the icon he is working on right now. He explained this is a new style that he had been experimenting with for 10 years, but it's only been in the last year that he feels he has enough of a handle on it to actually produce icons for the Church.

The second photo shows some icons that his students are preparing, and the bottom photo is taken from the top of the steps (the workshop is in the basement).

Clean Monday

Monday was the beginning of Lent, which is celebrated in Greece (and elsewhere) as a public holiday, full of ancient customs coming down to us from at least Byzantine times.

In Greece, Clean Monday is traditionally a day to gather with family and community and go outside to fly kites. Here in our little town of Panorama, everyone gathers at the town park to listen to traditional Pontian music (Panorama was settled, in recent times, by Pontian refugees). The municipality also offers some free fasting foods (beans, bread, fish roe salad, etc).

It was a beautiful day (as it has been lately) as you can see from the photos, but there wasn't much wind for all the people trying to get their kites up in the air.

As this article observes, the festive atmosphere may seem somewhat at odds with the penitential nature of Lent. It certainly seemed so to me last year. But, again as this article succinctly notes, it is a fulfillment of Christ's command, which is (not coincidentally) read the day before:

“Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly."

In the top photo, you can see the little band playing on the left, and people doing traditional Greek dancing on the right, behind the woman selling balloons for the kids.

The second photo is of a little corner of the park that we found to gather with some of our friends.

The third photo is of a little girl from town trying to get her kite up in the air, as many people were doing.

Finally, on completely different note, Pelagia has been hard at work. About a week ago she finished a large, two-week project of completely repainting an apartment in our building. Then she moved on to repainting (or, more accurately, completely re-designing) our bedroom. The bottom photo shows her at work.

King Milutin's Tower

Saturday morning’s service, which included Divine Liturgy, went from 2 until 7 AM. Breakfast followed, and then a short rest. It was the most beautiful day yet, so we took another walk toward the eastern shoreline. After about 25 minutes, we arrived at an incredibly tall, imposing tower, which was built by Serbian King Stefan Milutin around 1300. (See top photo.)

The tower is currently undergoing some repairs, and it was not safe to climb up to the very top, but we did climb up about 2/3 of the way to enjoy the spectacular view (see second photo).

The third photo is of our friend Aimilios looking out at the view. I was inside the tower.

Finally, we headed back to the monastery and I gathered my things to make the trip back to Thessaloniki. Before getting on the bus to go to the little port of Jovanica, I stopped in the monastery’s bookstore and stocked up on some little gifts for people. The monk also gave me a bottle of the monastery’s wine, and I bought a bottle of their raki.

The bus left the monastery at 12:20 and took us to the western shore. I got a photo there with a very sweet old priest-monk, who liked trying to speak with me in Greek and English. (He particularly liked the phrase “God Bless America!”) In our photo, you can see the boat approaching in the background. We got on and were back in Ouranpoli before 2 PM. I caught the bus to Thessaloniki at 2:15 and was home by 5 PM.

That's it for this trip! You can see all 107 photos here.

Esphigmenou

There was no liturgy on Friday morning, so the service ended around 5:30 AM. We had breakfast immediately afterwards, and then went back to bed for a couple hours.

When we woke up, it was another beautiful day, so we decided to walk over to the nearest monastery, Esphigmenou, which is only about 40 minutes away, on the northeastern coast.

Sadly, Esphigmenou has been the locus of some controversy in recent years. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful and burgeoning monastery, with over 100 monks (it is the second largest brotherhood, after only Vatopedi).

When we arrived, the monks offered us some lunch, so we sat and ate. Afterwards, a monk opened the church for us.

About an hour and a half after we arrived, we set off again, but not before checking out the monastery from the water’s edge. It is in a truly spectacular location.

We hoofed it back to Hilandar and rested briefly before heading to Vespers again at 3 PM. Dinner and Small Compline followed as usual.

After Small Compline, one monk led a tour into the monastery’s museum, which houses some beautiful icons and other ecclesiastical treasures, dating from as early as 1200. Interestingly, we were even able to venerate them, as thousands of others had been doing for the last 800 years.

After that, it was off to an early bed again.