***

"Why does all nature smile mysteriously on feast days?
Why is the heart filled at these times with a wonderful lightness that is incomparable to anything on earth;
how is it that the very air at the altar and in the Church become light bearing?
This is the breath of Thy grace, the glow of the light of Tabor;
the sky and the earth are singing at these times in praise:
Alleluia!"


from THE AKATHIST OF THANKGIVING composed by Protopresbyter Gregory Petrov shortly before his death in a prison camp in 1940