Visiting our dear great-aunt, Sister Zetta, on St. Patrick’s Day. (Take note of her green habit for the occasion.) She will be 96 years old in one month. She wanted me to autograph her copy of The Scent of Holiness. That’s my mum on the left and my sister on the right.
Well, we’re home. There was lots of snow when we first arrived, though everyone kept talking about Spring being “on its way”. In typical Maritime style, despite the large snowbanks and wretched roads – full of holes and uneven patches due to frost – we saw a group of men out in the streets playing football in shorts: Welcome to the Maritimes! The coolest thing I’ve seen so far is all the ice on the rivers – I forgot how cool ice is! (It’s been five years since we’ve experienced a Canadian winter). And would you believe it: a storm is coming!
We’re still getting used to everything back here in Canada, but we’re thankful to be home and to be settling into Great Lent. An abbess whose monastery I often visited (so strange to use the past tense) in Thessaloniki told us, “We should be excited to enter Great Lent.” It is truly a blessed time of year!
Now, for the good news: The Scent of Holiness: Lessons from a Women’s Monastery is going into its second printing! Yuppee! That’s right folks, through your love and support the first edition sold so many copies that Conciliar is already re-printing, only six months after the book’s release date. Glory to God!
Ice at the port in my city.
And in related news, Sylvia of Adventures of an Orthodox Mom just posted a very flattering review of the book. Truth be told sometimes a thought whispers to me that people really like my book. But then I remember it’s not really mine at all. It belongs to the sisters, and to Orthodox monasticism more generally. It belongs to our Tradition and to the Church of Christ, since without those things monasticism, the stories in The Scent of Holiness, are nothing, they’re dust. But with Christ at the center they are able to testify to His Truth, His Life and His Way.
So three cheers for the sisters and the love and lessons they shared with me so that The Scent of Holiness could be written and read by people all over the world! (A Romanian translation is already underway).
And Good Strength for the Fast!
matushka constantina
Very happy you and your family made it home safely.
Thank you! We’re very happy to be home too. Being here helps me to remember so much of what I love about Canada and so it helps with our “homesickness” of Greece.
Ah, to be home surrounded by snow and ice! Well at least we have the consolation of another Great Lent and Pascha in Greece. You enjoy the snow for us, and we’ll enjoy the chanting for you!
Fr M
Haha, dear brother! We always have mp3 recordings, but you only have your freezer!
Congratulations on the second printing! I love the top photo – there is so much family resemblance. (:
We got our ice in the form of golf ball + sized hail last night! I’ll take your kind!
Yeah, I saw that. I would imagine there was quite a bit of damage after that storm!
Everyone thinks I look like my Mum until they see me with my Dad, lol.
Yay New Brunswick!
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:45:47 +0000 To: sreid2@sympatico.ca
Welcome home! And congratulations on the 2nd printing. I’m pleased to own a copy from the first printing.
It was 15 degrees fahrenheit here this morning (the U.S. Midwest). Last year at this time we had a record-breaking 81 degrees! I’m really ready for 81 degrees again.
Karen
I got so sick of the heat in Greece that I’ll happily take the 0 degrees Celsius and the 20 or so centimeters of snow here in NB!