Glory be to God!
We did morning prayers and then Raresh and Alex came back early from school to spend time with us which was super nice. They served us during breakfast wouldn't sit with us while we were eating, since they were not, and it was considered rude to do so.
We said our last goodbyes and hit the road for a 3 hour trek to Bucharest.
We first went to Liturgy to say goodbye to Father Tenasi. Father Tenasi walked in late and went straight for the altar with a bag. We late found out that he was asking Father Robert about hat sizes, in a typical Father Tenasi waynof outting hats on Father Robert and attempting to find a match and then expecting that Father knew the hat sizes of the PKs dads, in order to give him a fez and two for the priest kids dads. We were told it would be a quick in and out, but we stayed a bit longer. Some of us went up to the chanting stand to help out and of course ten minutes later Father Tenasi comes out with Father Robert behind him, beckoning to us to go outside.
We said our good byes to the man, the myth, the legend (I say that seriously- he is truly filled with the Holy Spirit). Father Tenasi is amazing. He was joking about how many times to kiss each person since we were all from different cultures with different greeting traditions.
I didn't want to leave Liturgy. The village church had a feeling of peace and joy that I knew we would not experience again for some time, (Godwilling we go back). And the iconography was just stunning, especially while watching the iconographers work...
En route we found out that the money that is for donated from our trip to Pro Vita has helped build the girls house and other houses in the Pro Vita network, which is quite amazing! Glory be to God!
En route we also heard on the radio that tomorrow is the international day of sleep, obviously we won't be participating...
We arrived in Bucharest and were quickly dropped off on the sidewalk near the Patriachate, where we suffer our bags into the mini elevator, climbed to the fourth floor and then hit the road on foot.
We stopped by a roadside bakery to grab an apple tart and then headed to St. Spyridon's new cathedral where we were joined by Radu and Livieu, our guides from the Orthodox Christian Fellowship of Romania, called Oskor.
St. Spyridon's church was amazing, especially for me since the church had a relic of St. Spyridon...
We then headed to the church of St. Nektarios, then a Monastery and then the Seminar. We got to see the courtyard in which Father George Calciu preached his seven sermons to the youth during the Communist regime. Many priests we met during this trip, such as Father Tenasi were some of the students who were there in the courtyard listening to the sermons until Father George was locked up once again... amazing, amazing, amazing.
We then visited the oldest church in Bucharest, and if I remember correctly the man who built it was names Buchar and the city ended up being named after him. Also, there were 33 steps leading up to the church and the church's street adress was 33; the age of Christ.
We then visited the Patriarchate church which I thoroughly enjoyed; the chanting, watching people pray and always shock me how long they can kneel... my favorite part that really impacted me was the Lenten Prayer of St. Ephraim, when the whole church was participating in the prayer by praying the words and making prostrations. It was also interesting that as we were leaving the priest kneeled in front of the people and I think he was going to do a sermon...
Dinner was amazing... we were all so hungry from walking around and all the guys were surprised how fast I ate... oops
After, we walked through the nightlife of Bucharest to get to Russian church that was tucked away to meet Oskor...Oskor will have their own post.
What is this thing on your head?
Church of St. Spyridon
Seminary where Father George Calciu have his seven sermons to the youth
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