Thank you, Father Leonid. Every year on my birthday I have this exact thought: another year has been given to me, but what have I added to it? Most often I remember how last year I embroidered a shroud for the throne and thought - at least this was not in vain. And sometimes you feel ashamed for wasting your time.
Father Leonid, that line about life not being our property but a gift really hit me. Svetlana, I get the same pang every birthday – last year mine was mostly fixing the alternator on the neighbour’s old Ford instead of anything church-related, and I still wonder if I made proper use of those hours. Makes you want to be more deliberate with the next twelve months, doesn’t it.
Father, Father Leonid, that sentence that life is not our property but a gift really touched me. For me, every birthday is reduced to counting how many things I baked in the oven for glory or for the neighbors, and it often turns out that there were more conversations over coffee than actual prayers. Svetlana, the diaper for the throne is really something that remains, I still remember how my wife once embroidered it for our parish church and years later we watched it at the liturgy. Thanks for the reminder.
