Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
How Lovely Is Your Dwelling Place

How Lovely Is Your Dwelling Place

Last updated on: October 10, 2016 at 2:02 pm by Mary Pezzulo

How Lovely Is Your Dwelling Place 2016-10-10T14:02:36-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

candles-141892_640

(image via Pixabay)

I couldn’t get a ride to the Byzantine Catholic church. I decided to walk down to that lovely little Orthodox church at the bottom of the hill and pray for the unity of churches– a valid liturgy, but in schism. I left for church with half an hour to spare; I was tired and I hadn’t had much breakfast, but that didn’t matter. I was only going for a short walk. I’d be back in an hour or so.

But when I got there, they weren’t holding Divine Liturgy at the little OCA Orthodox church. Their priest is away, so they were having some kind of service of readings instead.

I decided on a whim to walk an extra mile, all the way to the Greek Orthodox Church. I thought their liturgy started at ten-thirty.

It was a quiet walk– I could hear church bells and the constant mechanical pulse of the fracking trains, but I saw next to no one. Everyone was in church. That’s one of the pleasant things about this bizarre little steel mill town. Downtown, most of the businesses stand empty and abandoned, but it’s bustling with churches and almost everyone attends a church. The tiny OCA Orthodox church is up on a hill overlooking downtown. The Methodist Episcopal church is next door to the cigar shop, two tiny glass store fronts next to a vacant lot where they tore down several derelict shops. The Baptist Church with the loud, animated preaching you can hear from the sidewalk is across the street from the dollar store; I pray there on the sidewalk every time I go shopping in that strip mall. The Urban Mission church with the beautiful Transfiguration window is cat-a-corner from the United Methodist Church, right next door to three or four Protestant churches and in sight of the big red towers of the Catholic church where the Tridentine Low Mass is held. On Sundays the joyful, discordant music rises from the different churches, all over that block. Up the street is the Episcopal church, the one that has saints in the windows and statues in the garden just like a Catholic church. And farther up the street, almost as far as the Carnegie library, is the square brass-domed Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox church.

I walk-jogged all the way there, taking a different street to avoid a fracking train; it was a longer walk than I thought. I was panting, hungry and awash with sweat when I saw the kiosk and found that Divine Liturgy had actually started at ten.

I snuck into the back just as the Gospel was being chanted– the widow of Nain, who had her only son restored to life. There were ushers passing out candles to the latecomers, to light and place in the sandy dish before the tetrapod, but I was too tired and confused to go get a candle. I slid into a bench in the back.

Everyone needs, at least once in their lives, to attend a liturgy where they have no idea what to do. I am a cradle Catholic who could give you the responses at the Novus Ordo or the Tridentine in my sleep; I’d been going to the Byzantine Catholic church for months and knew those responses as well. But I was lost at the Greek Orthodox church, because the responses were all in Greek. The only words of Greek I knew were “Kyrie Eleison,” so I said that over and over again.

I didn’t know to say “He is and always will be,” when the gentleman in front of me shook my hand and said “Christ is among us.” But I knew He was among us.

I knew.

I could feel the prayer rising thicker than clouds of incense.

I prayed the prayers at Holy Communion, but I didn’t go to Holy Communion. I slid out of my pew and stood in the back, making a spiritual communion, praying for the unity of churches.

When the liturgy was over, I couldn’t leave. I stood rooted on the spot before an enormous icon of Saint George fighting the dragon. Saint George was posed on his horse with both hands on the lance, turning in some impossible, attenuated twist of the spine as if he was a dragon himself; it would be impossible for a man to ride a horse like that without breaking his back, or at least falling off. But an angel was descending from the top of the icon to assist him, green branch in hand, so of course Saint George would win. Saint George would slay the dragon and go on to be slain himself, claiming the green branch of martyrdom. A Victim and a Victor, like Christ.

I stared at the icon until the deacon turned the lights out. He hadn’t seen me, but the priest had. He shouted not to kill the lights; he ran to me and shook my hand. He invited me to the social hall for coffee.

“You’re not Orthodox, I take it?” asked an usher, as though it weren’t painfully obvious.

I snuck back into the sanctuary later, meaning to say a quick goodbye to the icons and the Presence before I left.

Instead, I found myself kneeling, praying with my face pressed against another, smaller icon, an icon dotted with lipstick kisses from the well-dressed Greek ladies on Sunday morning– the icon of Christ blessing the children.

I knelt and prayed for almost half an hour. I prayed and I cried.

How lovely is Your dwelling place, O God of Jacob. How lovely to worship You when I don’t know what I’m doing. How lovely to realize that, even if I knew all the responses by heart and fit in wherever I went, I wouldn’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know how to offer worship to a God who is infinitely beyond, yet dwells among us and always will. How lovely to pray for the unity of churches. What a beautiful, terrible mystery that the Body lives, even when so torn by schism. How Heavenly that voices cry out in worship on a Sunday morning, all over the bleak streets of this miserable little steel mill town. Thy name is adored in all the earth, and all the ends of the earth shall sing thy glory.

It was well after noon when I finally got home.

Interpretation of Scripture

Previous Post

October 9, 2016

What is Happening At Priests For Life?

Next Post

October 10, 2016 Tin Cup Update and a Prayer Request

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Abuse Advent America American Christianity angel angels Annunciation Appalachia apparition apparition chaser apparition chasers apparition culture art art review babies baby baby Jesus Bad Lip Reading bad statue contest bath beauty Bible story blog blogkeeping blood book review Brandon Sanderson breastfeeding bus Catholic catholic conspiracy alarmism Catholic Oppositional Disorder Charismatic Renewal Charlie the Cat chastity Christ Christian idenitity Christianity and Judaism Chronic Illness clean clothing COD piece comedy compassion conscience conspiracy theory conversion cop-on-black violence Crucifixion cry of the poor culture Daesh Daily Saints death death penalty devotional diaconate diaper diapers dirty disability Donald Trump Dorothy Day dream drugs Eastern Catholicism Eastern Christianity education election election update Elsewhere on Patheos empathy environment Fear feminism film review fish flashback fluffy buns food Franciscan University of Steubenville Friendship Room fun Gabriel gardening gospel hair-splitting Heaven hell heresy Hillary Clinton history Holly the Witch Holy Spirit holy war Homeschooling homosexuality horror human dignity humor Icon idol immigrants infection inter-religious dialogue Interpretation of Scripture Islam Jesus Jihad Joseph joy laity and lay vocations lamb dinner laundry lent lgbtq literature love manners Mary Medicine and Science Meditation mercy mess milk misogyny Missouri monasticism monster motherhood mourn with those mourn movies movis music mystery nature neurodiversity New Pro-Life Movement news nonsense nostalgia O antiphons obituary objectification Ohio Valley Ordinary Time ordination Ordo Amoris parable paradox Passover peanut butter personal beliefs pets philosophy Planet Charismatic poetry politics polls poop Pope Francis Pope Leo power in the Church prayer prayer request prayers preferential option for non-violence president presidential election priest primary private revelation pro-life prophecy Public face of Catholicism Pure Flix Q and A race racism random rape rape. sexuality reader's request Reckoners refugee religious trauma ressurrection Right to life Saints saints and celebrations same-sex same-sex marriage satire scandal secular feasts seder Seven Joys Seven Last Words sex sexual ethics sexuality silencing six months skid row slavery social justice Speculative fiction spiritual abuse spoon stain story suffering suffrage suffragette Sunday Gospel temple Tenebrae Responsories Terror the exorcist The Friendship Room The New Pro-Life Movement Things I Learned on the Internet tin cup traffic true story tv review Uncategorized USCCB vice and temptation violence Virtue virtue and vice war Way of the Cross whimsy whole life women's ordination work of mercy Year A

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was the Roman governor that sentenced Jesus to be crucified?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Caesar Augustus Felix Herod Pontius Pilate