House Updates and a Sunday School Reflection

Good Morning!

Thanks be to God, everything surrounding our purchase of a new home has gone miraculously smoothly. From the inspection (wonderful) to renegotiating the price (problem-less) to packing (almost done! Thanks Mom and Dad), Frank and I can only thank God for this wonderful opportunity. Added to that the interesting information that Frank's Godfather used to own the house a few years back, each day we grow more confident that there is a greater plan behind this purchase. We do not as yet know what, but it is exciting.

At the link below, you can find some photos of the interior of the house:
http://picasaweb.google.com/julianadancer1/NewHouse02?authkey=Gv1sRgCP3K_Z2d4eakUA&feat=directlink

As the dual-title suggests, I also have a Sunday School reflection :) This Sunday, I had the opportunity to sub for my mom as the High School Sunday School Teacher at church. The class is currently reading "Who is God? Who am I? Who are you?". While a bit dated, I still enjoy the book and its honest and age-leveled discussions on the root of all passions - pride!

This Sunday, we discussed the common phenomenon of self-justification and its ability to keep us from repentance (for how could we repent, if we cannot even admit we sin?) In the process of our discussion, I recalled the hymn sung at Orthros only an hour or so prior, so very appropriate to this period in the Church's year, and so applicable to our discussion:

Open to me the doors of repentance, O Life-Giver, for my spirit rises early to pray towards Thy holy temple, bearing the temple of my body all defiled. But in Thy compassion, cleanse me by the greatness of Thy mercy.

As we cannot do anything without God, neither, I believe, can we even truly repent without Him. He opens to us the "doors of repentance" by helping us see our sins, by giving us the strength to be humble and admit to ourselves first of all that we sin every day, and sometimes quite gravely. How easy it is to blame an argument on our parent or sibling or friend or enemy, and absolve ourselves from any guilt? And yet, did we not perhaps forget to do what we were told, or raise our voice, or call names, or gossip about that person sometime in the course of our interaction with them? We are never free from responsibility in a conflict, and this is what our book was teaching us this Sunday. While I know I was assuming the role of teacher, I feel that I came away from our Sunday school class even more cognizant of my own short-comings and hypocrisy in this area of my life. May the gift of Great Lent which God is giving to us help all of us in our struggle towards becoming "perfect" as our Father is Heaven is "perfect", and may He continue to open to us the doors of repentance, by showing us our imperfections.