The Feasts are Comming

We are just a few days away from the start of the two week fast that preceeds the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos. At about the midpoint of that fast is the feast of the Transfiguration. These are two of the Church's major feasts but sometimes they can be overwhelmed by the activities of Summer. Leah put something by St. John of Krondstat on her blog that we should all heed. I'm going to put the saying below, but you should still click on the link above a read all the helpful things on that blog. It's like a visit to a spiritual spa.

At the approach of a great feast you must watch yourself with particular care. The enemy endeavors beforehand to chill your heart towards the event being celebrated, so that you will not honor it by whole-heartedly considering its reality. He acts upon us through the weather, or through the food and drink we have taken, or through his own arrows thrown plentifully at the heart and inflaming the entire person, at which time evil, impure and blasphemous thoughts occur to us, and we feel thoroughly averse to the solemnity (of the feast). We must overcome the enemy by forcing ourselves to meditate and pray devoutly.

~St. John of Kronstadt