Pictures Worth Looking at and Discussing

I received the following e-mail, with the four above posted pictures, several weeks ago from Costa and of course I found it very interesting.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Many of you may have already seen one or more of these amazing photos over the past year or so.

What is even more amazing is that, from what I have been told, the man on the newly illumine's right was Chrismated on the very same day that she was BOTH Baptized and Chrismated.

No other comments are needed, as you will see from the pictures.

In Christ,

+Fr. Demetrios

Costa just last week looked at this picture on the left which he states in the text here he had taken at St. Paul's Church here in Las Vegas on Pascha Night. I was there next to him that evening and the reason he took the picture in the first place was that the guy in the blue tanktop standing in front of the camera had walked into the Church this particular evening drunk and making a general nuisance of himself. So Costa took a picture of him, sort of in jest and then forgot about it.

He was quite surprised upon seeing the bright light above the Altar.

These are his words:

"I took this picture from my cell phone camera on Pascha 2005 or 2006 at Saint Paul the Apostle Orthodox Church in Las Vegas. I transfered it to my computer and kind of forgot about it. I was looking through pictures on my computer and I came across this one and it seemed kind of interesting and peculiar. It's a picture of the altar, but I am not sure what the bright light over the top is."

I believe that the quality of the light appears identical in both that above the Altar and that with which the newly baptized woman is suffused in and with.

The following New Testament texts came to mind:

From the Gospel according to Saint Mark, chapter 9 verses 2 and 3:

2 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them.

3 His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no lauderer on earth can whiten them.

and

From the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, chapter 28 verses 1 through 4:

1 Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.

2 And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it.

3 His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.

4 And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.

Also I recall the story of Moses after he was on the mountain with the Lord receiving the Ten Commandments and how he had to veil his face from his brethren for it shone.