Yesterday (Good Friday) I went to McDonald's and ate four filet o'fishes and three one buck side salads with balsamic vinaigrette for my one Good Friday meal. Sat there for a few hours and drank lot's o' iced tea (I gave up all hot n' heinous "soft drinks" for penance's sake, and only broke that abstention once in 40 days..)
Today, I got up late and went to McDonald's again, and ate chicken salad with bacon, another side salad, a McChicken sandwich (also off the dollar menu!) and then a couple hours later got a large wildberry yogurt smoothie. I sat there for maybe six hours all told, drinking more unsweetened iced tea dashed with slight amounts of lemonade, and reading.
Ave Sancta Claudia Procula, uxor Pilati, ora pro nobis..
A rousing finale to my Lent.
But not exactly in keeping with the Athonite fast.
But I'm a broken lapsed Orthodox, now. Just a poor Catholic.
On the way home I stopped and bought a gallon of rich red table wine, came home and did some work on my new will. I'm writing it on my own, following a model and reading Vermont inheritance law as I do it. I'm specifying that they not cremate my remains, and that they pay all my taxes before charity or my nieces and nephew get a thing. I'm adamant about that. Pay my taxes dammit. Also, make sure that Comcast and AT&T get theirs, too.
You know, the only black mark on my credit report is when I broke my cell phone contract with AT&T before leaving for Europe a few years ago, and then flipped them the bird. I owe just under 300 bucks, I think. If I want an iPhone in purgatory, I may need to pay them.
(I may need ask Tommy forgive me too.. But not for the sake of my cell phone..)
Just over an hour ago I broke the seal on that bottle, and my lips touched wine for the second time in over two months.
I've not kept the fast fully nor prayed well, and I am a guilty man..
Yet tonight I keep the vigil.
I'm thinking of how much fun it would be to be at a good Orthodox parish tonight.
Fifty days of strict fasting, nuts and water on Holy Saturday, then a two hour long vigil liturgy begun late in the evening..
Cyclical chants for well over an hour, standing the entire time (feel how the spirit is willing..) dim candle lit incense ridden anticipation..
Light breaks darkness some point after midnight.
After the mystery is made consummate, Father comes into the church hall, where there is a cornucopia laden table overflowing with food and drink like something out of Paschal Slavic version of Dickens.
He blesses it all and us..
Then all heaven breaks loose. It's two in the morning, and everyone's feasting like it's the millennium: here there are ten year old kids and grandmothers gladly all about. My home brew is uncapped and praised like it's bordeaux. Old guys with barely understandable accents circulate with homemade vodka, filling my dixie cup to overflowing.
Every time I keep a long (Lenten or Advent) fast and then make the requisite vigil with the Orthodox, I somehow serendipitously find myself up bathed in a suffused breaking dawn..
One always shared with some few happy exhausted winsome friends still ready for breakfast, followed by a very long nap and yet *maybe* another liturgy..
(See how vapid and hedonistic my approach to my beloved.. Exi a me quia homo peccator sum Domine..)
Here I in all my tepidity and decadence nevertheless dare pray:
Κύριε Ιησού Χριστέ, Υιέ του Θεού, ελέησόν με τον αμαρτωλόν..
Bless us all, and keep us, may your your Face always shine upon us and be with us, forgive us all everyone of our sins.
That you my Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, may grant us all Triumph and Victory over the temptations of our visible and invisible enemies.
That by your Grace we may all crush beneath our feet the prince of darkness and his powers.
That we may all rise with you and so rise from the tomb of our sins and offenses.
That you may fill us all with joy and happiness in your Holy Resurrection.
That we may all merit the Grace of entering into your Chamber at your Divine Wedding Feast, to rejoice beyond limit together with your Heavenly Attendants and the Host of Saints glorified through you, the Church Triumphant in Heaven.
Amen. Alleluia, Alleluia.
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