Saved by the Liturgy
Recently, I took the family on a 2 1/2 day vacation to Boston and other parts of Massachusetts.
For me, this excursion was a dip into the past. Massachusetts was once my home — both west-central and the Boston area. I lived there nearly four years when I was college age, and, let us just say, lived rather lavishly. Painful memories abounded. A prodigal existence indeed…
The city and its state has changed and hasn’t changed. It has all the trappings of a society that has fallen in love with itself. For good reason: Boston and Mass in general are lovely places in a modern, Western sense. There are many coffee houses and bars, Pride marches, and freedom of expression is everywhere. But the side that disturbed me was that the region had lost its religion. Most churches have become museum pieces. A state that was founded on Puritan ideals has become a purely humanistic ideal. Almost.
By Sunday morning, worn down from being a tourist, I happened into an Orthodox church in Cambridge and found myself in a small islet of peace inside a rabidly “agnositicized” city. I joined the worship in a cloud of witnesses and joyful incense and for a couple of hours, escaped from the nauseating worldly pride emanating everywhere else. Thank the Good Lord for His homecoming He gives to all of us weary strangers who seek His Holy Place.
