Charming Story

Congrats to Fr. Matthew Thurman, now settled in at St. Columba's Orthodox Church (WRV) in Colorado. He has a charming story on his blog about his ByzRite son's reaction to hearing the Sanctus bells for the first time in his life. Read it here.

BTW, it reminds me of a reverse incident: one of the misguided parishes that went ByzRite from the WRV tried to become as exotically "Eastern" as possible. When the parish children saw people doing full prostrations for the first time, they pushed people over face-first. When their grandmother sternly asked them why, the angelic girl replied, "They couldn't get over, so I helped them finish their somersaults!" (For the record, yes, this is absolutely true; I got it from the mouth of the grandmother!)

And who said cultural familiarity means nothing in choosing a rite?