Reading and writing

Today I read for the first time for the Sunday liturgy.  I read the hours and the post-communion prayers, but Dax read the Epistle.  Maybe I'll read it next time.  Both Chris and Ben were sick, so the choir took a hit and I had to sing tenor by myself again.  This is just payback for all the times I skipped church, by the way.  Half way through the liturgy I got a toothache.  Singing just made it hurt worse, and by the end of the liturgy my entire face was throbbing.  It completely ruined my mood.

I read for vigil last night too, and today both Fr. Justin and Dax commended me on my reading.  Although I did flub once today - I used the word 'merciful' instead of a word that means the opposite of merciful.  It went something like this... "God will not be merciful with us -" whoops.  Was that a Freudian slip, or what?  I think 'merciful' was supposed to be either 'angry' or 'wroth', or something like that.  Thanks brain, for stabbing me in the medulla oblongata.  You're a real joker.  Way to come through for me there.  Probably got it in for me just like my sweat glands.

Fr. Justin has an icon I painted on display on the little stand that holds the candles and the bulletins.  I didn't notice until after vigil last night, when Lois Lyda approached me and asked me if I had painted it.  I told her that I'd painted it for Nick as a birthday present last year, and that it was here at the church because Fr. Justin had blessed it, but Nick hadn't picked it up.  Maybe he forgot, or just doesn't want it.  Anyway, she complimented me to the point that I was becoming embarrassed, but I really appreciated it.  She wants to commission an icon from me of the myrrh bearing women, and she asked me how much I would charge.  I really have no idea what to charge.  Which reminds me, I'm supposed to be writing a St. Rachael icon for Nancy.  I don't know what to charge Nancy, either.

Lois was really excited that we have our own iconographer at St. Maximus.  Well, I'm a far cry from a real iconographer, and not even worthy to be referred to as one, but it made me feel really good.  I kind of needed that, and I appreciated her compliments more than she probably knows.