Holy days and holidays are over.

   

With the long holiday calendar coming to a close, I had a chance over the weekend to visit the Lavra, walking from the Pechersk Metro, not too far : my knee has been hurting me after I slipped on icy steps at New Year, it was made worse by getting whacked on swinging subway doors and crammed into tight mini- bus seating, it's feels like strained ligament connected to an old injury. Plus it's damp and cold now. As I descended from street level , My knee was complaining about those downward angled walkways, the irregular cobblestones. Very few people around yesterday. Casually meeting the workers in the cafes and such, being in contact with calming people, they exude the energy of the place.

    There is a lot to see in the Lavra, but mainly it's about the caves, perhaps it feels macabre, yet it's their  collection of  the great leaders during those spiritual  times: A  lot of stories about their miraculous powers abound. There are two sets of caves open to the public, they must have others hidden away as well. Digging caves to hide stuff and the like, it was more than a hobby back then, it was a lifestyle. Buildings could be flattened, but the caves would remain.
The size of the many glass sarcophagus (looking like they were made in the 1940's or 1960's)  for a lot of the bodies, very small, although some bigger. The feeling is of being near magical people, where physical size was not relative to their potent energies when alive. Some you can barely make out their countenance from the portraits hung amidst  the dim candle light. Parts of the passages are very dark, having the candle you buy for like 25 cents is an essential aspect, some times, I smelled burned hair in the passages. It is amazing when you can see the dried hand displayed out from the shroud... how these bodies kept so well down there for so long. They are running dehumidifiers, and somewhere in there, smells like they are storing some wine... Anyway, the long story short, my knee felt better after going through the second set of caves. Certainly it's warm and dry down there.

   I woke up this morning feeling an unusual peace in myself.
  
I grew up in an Atheistic environment, and it's one thing I don't much regret. I tend to follow some parts of  the thinking of John Muir, that Nature was God's Cathedral , it's a Western Culture thing. I do not even understand why it is so important for people to ask what religion you belong to, why they want you to join their flock...do they want to save your soul , or win points for their soul for that performance review at the Pearly Gates.  Certainly it seems valid, the impression people from Ukraine have about church life in America, that it feels like a drive through fast food style track to God's good grace. It is the people that give a church it's life, and the flow of everyday people, not the tourists, or the looky loo's who keep the spirit flowing in these places. At times, I feel awkward about being in Church like an intruder. One of the priests in the Lavra, he noticed it in me, raised an eyebrow, reading his prayer book by candle light, being a lot in those places gives them special powers of seeing, no doubt.

I guess that with the conflicts between the Ukraine Kiev Patriarch, and Russian Moscow Orthodox Church, that they have their own secret agents, the Heavenly fathers who have some tricks up their sleeve, they certainly had a role in the protests, helping to keep things calm at the worst moments of various standoffs. Of course, the Patriarchs get to drive around in High performance cars, S-class Mercedes.The situation in Crimea alone, must require some constant vigilance and review, I don't even know for sure what they'll do with it. They can't drive the Mercedes from Kiev to Crimea anymore ...

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/faith-in-the-time-of-annexation-a-tough-choice-for-crimeas-churches-70658/

Patti Smith: 
"Hymn"

When I am troubled in the night
He comes to comfort me
He wills me through the darkness
And the empty child is free

To take His hand, His sacred heart
The heart that breaks the dawn, Amen
And when I think, I've had my fill
He fills me up again 

 *****************

(I didn't even remember she wrote anything so tame, but the music is edgy  )

     Certainly, it's no secret that the Jesuits and other segments in the Catholic Church have secret operations they conduct, to protect the interests of "their people". All of these powerful segments of society, business , religion, politics, and popular culture have worked in tandem to create this situation of what is today both a perilous and promising situation for the future, but they have a long history here these people. It is nice they kept the caves open, without requiring some religious test , so  people like me can duck through all the low passages, look at the portraits, the icons and come out the other end of the rabbit hole feeling a little different.
Patti Smith Seven ways of Going (Germany, 1979 )