Today was a really good day. We had our first day of class, and our instructor cracks me up. She asks us lots of funny questions, but it's doing a lot to help us in terms of our grammar and our fluidity of speech. We talked to the internship coordinator today, and apparently, I'm supposed to have an interview scheduled by the end the week-- just waiting to hear a definite time from the Gogol Institute. Anyway, in that others were occupied with interviews, tracking down lost baggage, and other similar joys, Neils and I headed out to see some sights. We stopped at the Temple of Christ the Savior first off, and it was just breathtaking. I guess even though I've heard all along that it was one of the most beautiful temples in all of Eastern Orthodoxy, I didn't really expect to be effected to such an extent as when I walked in and saw the paintings on the ceiling. You quickly begin to understand that what faithful Russian Orthodox believers feel as God there really is God, that though maybe they believe differently than we do, it doesn't change in the slightest our Heavenly Father's love for them and desire for them to come unto Him and feel the peace that comes in living a life of goodness and faith. I'm not real big on the whole idea of kissing icons and lighting candles and all that, but I really did feel 'God' today.
The Temple of Christ the Savior is apparently above the Temple of the Transfiguration of Christ, so we took a spiral staircase underground into the second temple, equally magestic though in a completely different way. The art style was really unique, and while the first had primarily saints and apostles scattered around huge depictions of Christ, God, and the heavenly hosts, the latter had a lot more of Biblical interpretations. It took us a while to really figure out what some of the stuff was, but then things would just click, and it was a really cool unifying moment where I could look at the pictures and say, "That's us, too." It's hard sometimes, I guess, because we don't revere saints or patriarchs or metropolitans (city-wide bishops) or anything like that, so it feels like our histories kind of diverge and don't really come back together much at all. But being there, seeing those things, I thought to myself, "We're really not so different at all." I have so much respect for the nuns especially that work at all of the temples, and I'm understanding more and more God's love for all of His children.
Today was a really good day. We had our first day of class, and our instructor cracks me up. She asks us lots of funny questions, but it's doing a lot to help us in terms of our grammar and our fluidity of speech. We talked to the internship coordinator today, and apparently, I'm supposed to have an interview scheduled by the end the week-- just waiting to hear a definite time from the Gogol Institute. Anyway, in that others were occupied with interviews, tracking down lost baggage, and other similar joys, Neils and I headed out to see some sights. We stopped at the Temple of Christ the Savior first off, and it was just breathtaking. I guess even though I've heard all along that it was one of the most beautiful temples in all of Eastern Orthodoxy, I didn't really expect to be effected to such an extent as when I walked in and saw the paintings on the ceiling. You quickly begin to understand that what faithful Russian Orthodox believers feel as God there really is God, that though maybe they believe differently than we do, it doesn't change in the slightest our Heavenly Father's love for them and desire for them to come unto Him and feel the peace that comes in living a life of goodness and faith. I'm not real big on the whole idea of kissing icons and lighting candles and all that, but I really did feel 'God' today.
