monastery musings

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The Borders of Ukraine

      Ukraine is a land with vast expanses of wheat and sunflower fields stretching farther than the eye can see; attention to beauty in the smallest of details; hard-working people who are cordial in their hospitality; and so much more that makes it a truly special place.

 

 

 

By God’s grace and through the generosity of Georgiy Belchenko of blessed memory (+2021) and his wife, I was blessed to experience Ukraine with Mother Theodora (in schema Amphilochia, +2015), before the present turmoil.

 

 

 

The one thing that struck us both were the magnificent borders painted on church arches.  Mother Theodora, an iconographer, noted that Orthodox church architecture, which often incorporates graceful arches into its design, led to an entire artistic discipline that would enable the arches to be harmoniously united …