I've been wanting to attend an Ash Wednesday service for years, and today, finally, I just did it. I went to The Grotto, which is a beautiful retreat center in east Portland. I really enjoyed it! It's unlike our traditional start of Lent, but beautiful, too. Orthodox start of Lent is Vespers of Forgiveness, which you can attend this Sunday evening. We switch over the altar cloths to purple of Lent in the middle of the service, the official start of Lent. "Do not turn your face away from your servant, for I am in trouble. Hear me quickly, harken to my prayer, and deliver me." At the end of Vespers, we each go to every other person in attendance and ask for forgiveness. It is a beautiful way to start Lent--in a community.
So, anyway, I came home from the Ash Wednesday service to find that the kids had made french fries! Yum. They kept making them, too, because they were so good.
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11 comments:
Do you oven fry them, pan fry them, or use a fry daddy? I would be dangerous with a fry daddy...
I don't know what a fry daddy is. Hibi said she put "about a centimeter" of oil in it. I don't know where she learned her metric. They used a cast-iron skillet.
A fry daddy is a freestanding mini deep fat fryer that you plug in.
Mmm....now, I didn't need to know that such a thing existed. :-P
Being a former Catholic, I love the Ash Wednesday service. I also love the Grotto. It is such a peaceful place to go.
I take all out out of town visitors there.
I love homemade fries.
In Greece they eat them almost every night, around 11....Petros' family anyway.
I make them a lot, but never as well as my Pethera. Memory Eternal.
They bring back lots of memories of her for me!
Susan
Oh, Pethera is mother in law in Greek!!
She died only 4 months ago:(
The Grotto sounds lovely, I've not been to an Ash Wednesday service since I became Orthodox, but did they do the changing of the altar cloths too?
Susan--that won't be the last time I go to The Grotto--it was so beautiful! I loved all the tall trees. Oh, and I'm glad you told me what Pethera means! I was just thinking, huh, I wonder what Pethera is. :-)
Mimi--no, they didn't change over the altar cloths, they were already purple. I would imagine it's harder to do that in the Catholic church, as they sometimes have multiple services for Ash Wednesday--like The Grotto had one at noon and one at 7.
that sounds like a beautiful start-of-lent service!
glad you enjoyed ash wednesday. our service was really beautiful too.
i also love the grotto. it is such a peaceful place in the middle of the city. we always thought it was a treat growing up when mom would buy the elevator tickets and we could go to the second level.
Omigosh - I wandered over here to your blog and your post about the Grotto brought back so many memories! I was born and raised in Portland. :-)
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