"This is the most ownage church!"

Last weekend was THE best Thanksgiving weekend EVER with George, Erin, Seraphim, Sophia and Theodosi at Theodosi's house in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It all started... *flashback music*

On Tuesday, November 23, we all had Philosophy from 3:10 to 4:30. We left right around 5:00, as Vespers was starting. We felt bad missing Vespers, but we also wanted to arrive before 5 am. Our journey was adventurous. We took George’s family’s SUV, which his mom graciously loaned us. We started out the road trip by playing some intense games of “Ghost,” one of Seraphim’s favorites.

George drove for the first half of the trip, while I sat in the middle row of seats. We stopped at a rest stop, filled up on junk food, and Theodosi took over. I inherited “shotgun,” along with the position of navigator, helping Theodosi figure out where we were going and holding the directions we had printed from Mapquest. No GPS. At one point we got off an exit, only to go 1.3 miles west, go around a block on back streets, and go 1.4 miles east and get back on the interstate :) That was funny (George and Theo had been moving the route around on Mapquest, trying to find faster routes, and they speculated that when they moved it back they didn’t move it all the way and that’s why it got messed up).

There were some people who needed prayer so we decided to do a Paraklesis in the car. Seraphim and I had our Paraklesis books. Sophia had forgotten hers, so I lent her mine, while I volunteered to use my blue prayer book that has a different translation of Paraklesis. We all chanted together, and since I have the hymns half memorized, I was able to use my prayer book to know which hymn we were on, and chant the other translation. It was a bit confusing, but I was able to glance back at Seraphim’s book if I really got lost. It was really nice to chant Paraklesis together as an Orthodox/Hellenic College family. When we finished, I remarked that the windows were foggy with our breath from all the chanting. Since we were lacking incense, the foggy windows were the visible sign of our prayer rising to God :)

During the Sixth Ode of the Paraklesis (⅔-ish through it) Theo saw a sign for Cracker Barrel and interrupted, asking if we could stop, because a few people had expressed an interest in stopping there, and Theo, Sophia and Seraphim had never been (*gasp!*). We paused Paraklesis right before Προστασία (O Protection of Christians), and got out at Cracker Barrel. Seraphim, Sophia and Theodosi loved it. We got fish, corn, carrots, apple sauce, and fried okra. We had this awesome waiter named Jason, and Seraphim told him it was my birthday, so at the end of the meal three staff members came out and sang “Happy Birthday” to me and brought out a bowl of pineapple with orange slices and maraschino cherries. We had been asking about dairy-free stuff during dinner, so they said that this was the only dairy-free birthday dessert they could come up with :) At the end, we bought two fastworthy apple pies that we took to the Palises’ house, eating them the following day.

Another cool story from the trip to Bethlehem took place around midnight on a 27-mile stretch of US-209, a wooded, two-lane highway, out in Nowhere, PA. It was during the second half of the trip, while I was navigating. We had left Cracker Barrel within the hour, and I had to go to the bathroom, but figured I could hold it until we got to the next little town (Boondocks, PA). Theo half-jokingly said that we should stop. I said no, I can wait until the next village. George, however, insisted we pull over so he could “run through the woods.” There were no lights and Seraphim was deathly afraid, freaking out at the lack of light and the “shadiness” of the road. George insisted and Theodosi pulled over. I took the opportunity to go to the bathroom on the side of the road.

Outside the car, George and I marveled at the dark, beautiful, scenic landscape. The moon was shining very brightly, and we could see some clouds moving, and stars in between the clouds. It was so beautiful, it was completely still, and there were no other cars on the road. We told everyone else that it was really beautiful and they had to get out. Everyone got out and walked around a little bit, going a few yards up and down the road, admiring the midnight scenery. We also admired how clear the stars were in the moonlit, partly cloudy sky, and how still and deserted the road was. Some people lay down on the road, looking up at the stars, while I made myself hyper-aware of the condition of the road, making sure that no cars were coming. About five minutes after we stopped, I saw headlights in the distance, and said, “Guys. Car.” Everyone jumped up and scurried to the side of the road, although the car was not too too close. We jumped into the SUV, and continued the trip.

Six tired college students arrived in Northampton, PA around 2:00 AM, to the welcoming hugs and greetings of the Palis family! We got a tour of their house and were shown to our bedrooms – the girls in the girls’ bedroom, and the guys split between the guest room and the guys’ bedroom. Seraphim and I got the guest room, he on the bed, I on a floor mattress. Around 4:45 I conked out for a short nap ;) and was woken up two hours later, told to get ready to go to church. Fr. Nick does Liturgy each day of the Christmas fast, a tradition which he says is commonplace in Greece.

Most people chose to sleep in through Liturgy, as we had been up so late the night before. I went to Liturgy with Father Nick and Theodosi. Fr. Nick Kossis served Liturgy in the side chapel of St. Nektarios. When I got back to the Palis residence most people were just waking up. We had lunch, and that afternoon I took a two hour PLN. When I woke up we went to a newly-opened gyro shop, owned by parishioners of St. Nicholas (The Palises’ church). We ate vegetable gyros, calamaria and fries.

After the gyro shop we went to the church and did Great Vespers for St. Katherine. All the HC/HC people either chanted/read or served in the Altar. After Vespers Theodosi asked Fr. Nick for permission to give everyone a church tour. I was assuming he would show us the hall, the office, the classrooms, the basement, the ping-pong room, etc, but Fr. Nick had different ideas. When Fr. Nick finished up in the Altar, he started giving us a tour of the Nave, and I thought to myself, “Why are you giving us a tour? We are all Orthodox and know about Orthodox churches.” Au contraire, the tour was amazing and we all learned amazing stuff, including annual miracles from the Jordan River, Jerusalem and Mount Tabor, as Fr. Nick explained the icons covering the walls. During the tour Seraphim exclaimed, THIS IS THE MOST OWNAGE CHURCH!!!

We went into the narthex, and into the chapel of St. Nektarios. We sat down, and Fr. Nick began explaining the lives of various saints depicted on the walls of the chapel. Our jaws dropped through the floor as we heard miracle after miracle, associated with the lives of the saints and holy people, both living and deceased. That hour was amazing! Back at the house, Fr. Nick led us in Small Compline.

On Thursday morning, we had Divine Liturgy for St. Katherine/St. Mercurius (who Fr. Nick has a relic of)/Leavetaking of the Presentation of the Theotokos/Thanksgiving. Fr. Nick Palis served, along with Deacon Thomas who was visiting from a nearby church. The Liturgy was glorious and during Liturgy it started snowing, unbeknownst to everyone inside. When we looked outside at the conclusion of Liturgy, big white snowflakes were falling and it was a winter wonderland :) It was so beautiful and such a great surprise.

We went to the Palis house, changed clothes and chilled for a bit. Around 2:00, we left and went to the Hristofas house, Panayiota’s parents-in-law. We had the best food there (Thia Elli makes the best Μπαπκαλγιάροs, fried cod. They are so good!) We all doted on Kostaki, Panayiota and Lefteri’s 15-month-old son. We had a really good time at the Hristofas house. We came back relatively early (8-ish) because Thia Elli works early in the morning.

That night Fr. Nick had to go to church to make sure the service booklets were printed out for Friday morning. We all decided to go with him, to “watch a movie and play ping-pong.” When we got there, we realized that the services were already printed out. Fr. Nick decided to do some rearranging of icons and such in the Altar and vestry. I cleaned and filled two candilia (oil lamps) and changed some candles. That took awhile because I am not candili-savvy and had to light and re-light the wick, pulling and re-pulling it up. When I went back over to the office area (around 10:30), everyone else was watching Avatar in the library. Fr. Nick was almost ready to leave, so he, Evangelia and I left (at 11:30), while the others stayed to watch the movie. I fell asleep around 1:30-ish and they still weren’t back.

On Friday, after Liturgy we ate an amazing lunch at the Palis house and took off for Fr. Nick Kossis’s house, where we saw his garage-turned-chapel, where we sat while he talked for 40 minutes. From there we set off for Agia Skepi, the seven-seater SUV full to capacity with the six of us and Evangelia. We arrived half-way through Vespers, which flowed directly into Compline and Akathist. Church was over around 5:15. We went to their bookstore and were blown away by the plethora of beautiful icons, books and miscellaneous objects that were for sale. I called my mom afterwards and told her that I was glad I didn’t bring money ;) We ate dinner at 6:00, and afterwards took a walk in the dark, down to a little προσκινητάριον (prayer hut) dedicated to St. Seraphim of Sarov.

We took a toll road back to the Palis house, and getting off, Seraphim asked the guy at the toll booth if he liked his job. He said no, and we had a 1-2 minute conversation with him. He was cool.

Back at the house, Panayiota, Lefteri and Kostaki were visiting, so we hung out with them and then we watched some Greek YouTube videos on Fr. Nick’s computer while he translated. During the videos I conked out on the couch (half by accident). Afterwards, while I was sleeping, everyone went downstairs and watched Shooter. I woke up around 1:00 and didn’t even go downstairs. I found Fr. Nick, got his blessing, and went upstairs and conked out again. Right before I went to sleep, I came out of my room and found the bathroom crowded with people, in the bathtub, on top of the toilet, on the counter, just hanging out. “Excuse me. I have to use the bathroom.” They all migrated to Theo’s room and I went to the bathroom, hurried back to my room and conked out, as I knew they would be up talking for a few more hours (ended up 5:00 am) and I would be even more tired in the morning if I stayed up with them.

On Saturday morning Sophia and I went to Liturgy with Fr. Nick. We tried to wake up a few others but they were too tired. There was a forty-day memorial service for Yianni Gentis who died of cancer and who was an amazing guy. Memory Eternal!

When we got back around Noon, everyone else was sleeping. Slowly the whole house woke up, Lefteri, Panayiota and Kostaki came over, and we had an awesome lunch. We left the house at 2:20, and set off for St. Nektarios Monastery in Roscoe, New York, a three hour drive without stops. We arrived just before 6:00 PM, as we had stopped for 20 minutes and gotten lost several times. The plan was to leave as soon as Compline was over, and get back to Boston around 2:00 AM.

We admired all the little pine trees with Christmas lights, and the lit-up icon Nativity scene. The τράπεζα (refectory) is covered in icons and our jaws dropped lower and lower as we admired the beauty of the monastery and lamented that we had to leave so soon. They had finished dinner but set places for us. Compline started at 6:15, and around 6:40, when we finished dinner, we headed over to church to catch the Pre-Communion prayers and the second half of Compline.

When Compline ended, Theodosi came into church and told us that he had worked it out with the fathers and that they had room for us to stay the night. We were elated! One of the monks showed us to our rooms. Girls were in one building, guys in another. The rooms were threesomes, so Theo and Seraphim went downstairs and George and I went upstairs. We knew that Theo and Seraphim would be up for awhile (it’s just their personalities) so we were glad we were separate. They stayed up talking and monks kept visiting b/c they know Theo. George fell asleep around 9:15 and I conked out around 10:15. We woke up at 6:15, tired but refreshed from 8-9 hours of sleep, still not enough to make up from severe sleep deprivation over break.

A nice little “coincidence” that happened on Saturday night: When we went to our rooms after Compline, most of us noticed someone special above our beds. George and I entered our room and threw our stuff down on the beds. Only afterwards did we notice that George’s bed had an icon of St. George on the wall directly above it. Downstairs, Seraphim had St. Seraphim of Sarov, and Theodosi had the Theotokos, whom he refers to as his Mother. In the girls’ house, Sophia had the Holy Trinity, which served to remind her of Holy Trinity Monastery in Michigan (where we met this summer), which she was missing very much; Erin had St. Herman of Alaska above her bed. St. Herman is her family’s patron saint. I felt kind of left out: I had St. Mark the Evangelist. Not that he’s not awesome and a totally “ownage” Saint, but I just don’t have a personal connection to him. Maybe it’s a sign from God and St. Mark that I should develop a relationship with him… (Panagia was over the empty bed between me and George, and I thought of switching her and St. Mark, but then I felt bad for “hogging” Panagia, because I felt she should be in the middle protecting both of us. I left the icons the way they were.) While George and I noticed St. George above his bed, it was only after Liturgy in the morning that we discovered that that had happened in everyone’s room.

When we got back on campus I was debriefing with Thia Georgia and she said “St. Mark reminded you of your connection to Markos and also to our family.” I thought that was beautiful. So there was a connection between me and St. Mark after all :)

Another little coincidence: before leaving the Palis house, we had lost the SUV key (with a blue Ford logo), which was a really bad thing. George had checked his pockets several times and the key was not there. A minute after praying to St. Phanourios, we found the key in the glove compartment (only afterwards did we realize that this key had a black logo). We gave thanks to God and St. Phanourios for helping us find the key. Later, in our guest room at St. Nektarios, George came out of the bathroom to find a key with a blue logo sitting on his bed. He asked if Theo had come and dropped it off, as he had been the last one to drive the car. I said no, and we both marveled that the key had mysteriously appeared there. Theo still had his key. Before leaving the Palises’, George had checked his pockets several times so it couldn’t have fallen out of his pocket while he was sitting on the bed before. It was weird and there is no explanation except God.

I awoke around 6:15 to a beautiful sunrise. It was just starting, so it was still pretty dark, but the first rays of crystal clear pink and magenta light were starting to poke over the horizon and onto the clouds. The climax was probably during church, but it was so beautiful even for the minute that I saw it! The sunrise also streamed into the church, through the back windows of the Altar, right through the Royal Doors and onto the Solea. There were rays of light shining on the priest as he stood at the Altar, and shining onto the Solea when he was somewhere else.

Orthros began at 6:45. The second priest served. The abbot vested and read the Orthros Gospel, and then unvested and stood in the Altar. The second priest and the deacon served the rest of Orthros and the Divine Liturgy. The Great Doxology began around 8:30, flowing right into the Divine Liturgy, which ended around 10:30. There were many people there, much more than I expected. Communion took a long time. Right before Communion, one of the monks came to the front of the nave and announced, head bowed, prayer rope going, that only Orthodox Christians who have prepared themselves, received confession, and have the blessing of their spiritual father, may approach the chalice. In English he added that members of the Armenian and Coptic faiths are not Orthodox and cannot receive Holy Communion.

We processed from the church to the τράπεζα (led by Γέροντα), where we had a wonderful spaghetti and tuna meatball lunch while one of the Fathers read a spiritual book. After lunch we browsed the bookstore and everyone (especially Erin, George and Sophia) got distracted petting super-cute monastery cats. We said Greek good-byes, and when we had piled into the car Seraphim asked if there were a priest around. I didn’t see Γέροντα or the second priest, so I said no. Just then I remembered something in our room, ran in to grab it, and when I came out the second priest was walking up the driveway with some pilgrims. Theodosi and I asked for his blessing for safe travel and he said, “May the Archangels open the road for you.” It was so beautiful! We left around 12:30. Seraphim and Theodosi had bought three six-cut, soy cheese pizzas from the monastery that we munched on on the way home. They tasted just like the real thing! After much traffic and a few stops, we arrived in Boston just after 9:00 PM.

I mentioned the key incident above, with St. Phanourios. In the car Seraphim couldn’t find his plastic bag with food in it. We looked all over and were starting to freak out that we had left it somewhere, as it was nowhere to be found. I said a silent prayer to St. Phanourios and then said that we should ask him to help us find the bag. Five seconds later, Sophia moves one of the backpacks next to her, and underneath it is the plastic bag with the food. No joke.

As we were pulling up to park and unload the SUV, we ran into (not literally) Fr. Timothy and Pres. Tammy who were just bringing Gabriel back from Thanksgiving break at home (an hour away).

This was literally the best Thanksgiving ever! I think everyone agrees with me. Between the Palis house, Thanksgiving at the Hristofas house, the daily Liturgies, the chill time, the car rides, the conversations, the monasteries… all in all it was a blast!

A few shoutouts:
Mrs. Bryant, for lending us the SUV
The Palis family, for making us part of their household for three and a half days
George and Theo, for driving
The nuns at Holy Protection, and the monks at St. Nektarios, for their welcome and hospitality
Fr. Luke, Fr. Philip, Fr. Demetrios, and the priest at the monastery for travel blessings
Fr. Nick Palis for an awesome church tour and bedtime blessings
Fr. Nick Kossis for the spiritual advice and the tour of his garage-turned-chapel
Both Frs. Nick (Kossis and Palis), and the priest-monk at St. Nektarios, for taking us to the Kingdom during the Divine Liturgies
The Hristofases, for Thanksgiving dinner
The people at the gyro shop, for the free food at the Open House
St. Phanourios, for the car keys and the bag of food
God, Panagia and our favorite saints, for protecting us while we slept at St. Nektarios
Our Guardian Angels, for working overtime
God, for EVERYTHING!!!

Erin: “I feel like Theo was our ladder to Divine Ascent…”
Seraphim: “…and his abs are the rungs.”