Saturday, May 14, 2011

Call Me Matushka :)

Today my husband was ordained a deacon in the Orthodox church at St. Sergius of Radonezh chapel in Syosset, NY. There were no major catastrophes to getting there, no potty training accidents or injuries among my children, and the baby slept for almost an hour of the service. That makes for a good liturgy in my book!

There was a slight hiccup in my plan to record the ordination via photos and videos, because our memory card was too full, but others took photos, so hopefully we'll get those soon.

In the Russian tradition, deacons' and priests' wives are referred to as "matushka," which means, "mother." Since the entirety of my husband's deaconal ministry is very likely to take place here at seminary, I had decided I wasn't going to take up that title. I'm not anyone's "matushka," in the spiritual sense, until we have a parish to speak of. Besides, here at seminary, you can't throw a rock without hitting some matushka or another, so it seemed silly to put on such a title.

What's funny about this is that Metropolitan Jonah called me up to the front at the end of the liturgy by calling out, "Matushka!" So there I went running. He then went on to tell me that I was now a matushka and, even though my husband was the one to walk around the altar, I had been given a ministry by God as well. He said that the name of matushka signifies what that ministry means. So, I guess I'm a matushka! :)

8 comments:

Juliana said...

Congratulations to all of you! And Axios to your husband!!

elizabeth said...

Many years! Soon you'll be doing emails starting with Mat. :) Good ole Orthodox shorthand. Many years to you!! :) Sounds like a great and beautiful day!

biss said...

Embrace the role, and the title! It really is a fun word and I wish I got to say it more around here...

Elizabeth @ The Garden Window said...

Congratulations and Many Years to you both :-)

Rachel T. said...

Congratulations! Axios! Matushka sounds cool, at least. Not like Khouria. Or Shamassy. Way less cool, and borderline unpronounceable ;-)

Janelle thegeekywife said...

Many years, Matushka Audra!

Natalia Audra said...

Thank you, all!

Anonymous said...

[url=http://www.mulberryinoutlet.co.uk]Mulberry Bayswater[/url] I put my votes where my mouth is, splitting my votes across at least six parties every major election; out of 18 positions, there's usually only one token Demmican or Republicrat, and that's usually because only members of the oligarchial two are on the ballot for that position. [url=http://dkgoose.com]Canada Goose jakker[/url] Jtqjkbxqi [url=http://csrhelix.com]canada goose[/url]
wwvpig 936017 [url=http://www.chilliwackbombersoutlet.com]canada goose calgary parka[/url] 292452 [url=http://www.beatsbydreaonsales.com]dr dre[/url]