Parents' Blessing

 

 When we marry in the Orthodox faith, parents give the bride and groom
a blessing in the form of Icons which then goes into the Church and
is blessed also by the priest who does the ceremony with them.
We marry with these Icons to begin our new lives. They become symbols
of our love, faith, parental and church support, which every young family needs.

It sorta puts and keeps things in perspective and families benefit because
every one feels blessed including the parents who feel their in put is respected.
You have places to go to get help if there is a need.
The Icons are supposed to be hung over the marital bed
to keep the marriage blessed and if you believe, it makes you feel good
at night to know God is watching over your family.

I cons are supposed to hang in every room of the house and once a year
you are supposed to invite a priest, either at Christmas or at Easter, and he comes with his
carolers and blesses every room while his helpers sing the special  house blessing hymns.
At least this is how it worked when I was a child.
Then you treat the priest and carolers with appetizers and give them an envelope with money for the church,
and they go to another house.

One of the carolers that came to our house was a cheerful bald man. A little too cheerful for my liking lol
Every time he talked to me I would put my eyebrows down trying to cover my eyes, in hopes he wouldn't see me. Sorta like an Ostrich putting its' head into a hole thinking no one will see it lol
He came every year with the priest and each year, I didn't like him lol

 

Imagine my delight when my budgie flew and sat on his bald head and left a poop there. lol
I still giggle remembering that.
He was so startled, blushed and then every one laughed, embarrassed.
They never came back to our house  after that.
 hmmm.

These are my personal Icons from my wedding and I love them although, like everything else I don't want damaged, they are put away.They were bought by my parents and blessed by the Archbishop who raised me in the faith and made a present of also marrying us.

I need to hang them up again as I did when we first married, so balance
lies centered in our home.
Some traditions are worth keeping because they make for good feelings.
When we die, they are to be placed into our caskets to go with us.
I couldn't find my parents Icons.
 I was too upset to look for them but I should have done this when they passed away.
 I still have them. My Mother always displayed them on her bureau  in her bedroom.
I guess my Dad hid them when she got sick or maybe she did not knowing what she was doing.

When my Mother died, the priest gave us a wooden cross to take home to remember the funeral.
Imagine how I felt finding one such cross given away to the flea market.

These crosses are symbols of respect, like the family Bible where people used to write all the family history, who lived who died who was born who got married etc....You pass this book on from generation to generation
To throw such things away is disrespect to the dead as well as to yourself.

I bought the cross and keep it in hopes this family will be forgiven for what they did.
It is like Jesus said:
Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.

If you disrespect the dead, you will disrespect the living and this is what we see in our society today.
We don't teach our young to be respectful and then we all suffer in life as a result.

It is harder to walk away from a marriage when you know God is watching.
It is harder to commit other sins like lying and cheating and beating of spouses, killing,
when a beloved God is watching from  a bureau in your room or above the door on the wall.

You don't want to disappoint him because he stands for truth,  justice and love.
He is your conscience and your soul.
Your body becomes a temple which you cannot desecrate like people do today,
because they legally can with booze and drugs and piercings and tats and prostitution., etc.....

When you don't disappoint him, he doesn't disappoint you.

There is no walking away or running from things that are right.

Not for a man and not for a woman.

You try harder to make it all work.
xoxoxoxoxo