Mystery

I've just come from a really amazing event -- one of those things that goes on under your nose all the time but which I never knew about. Someone at St. Gregory's, where I go for morning prayer, mentioned to me that the Orthodox cathedral in San Francisco -- their Easter is a week after the Roman one, so they're in the middle of Holy Week -- has a service called "Liturgy of the Twelve Gospels." According to my friend, all four gospels were read in succession. This seemed rather too long to be possible, but I went over to Holy Trinity Cathedral tonight and was handed and candle and told that the custom is to stand for the whole thing, but I could sit down if I really needed to between the readings. I asked if it were true they did all four gospels, and the guy said, no, they only read the portions from the four gospels that constitute the passion narratives -- divided into twelve segments, thus the "twelve gospels."

So for three hours I sat, stood and knelt -- there were a few prostrations where my Zen practice came in handy -- and listened, not only to the readings (which were all chanted) but to the small choir doing this great music. The choir must have sung two solid hours out of the three. There were bells and incense and processions and the center of the iconostasis was open. All in all a wonderful experience. I was exhausted afterward though I did more sitting than standing, it seemed.