Another tree theme interruption

Today mark's the 1st anniversary of the death of someone very dear to me, Fr. Gabriel Cooke. Fr. Gabriel gently led a very confused and hurt person (me) back to God. If he had not been so kind and so loving, I have no idea where I would be today.

I'm not going to bore you with my memories of him, but leave you with one thought of many that will always stick with me:

True Christianity is not Burger King. You can't have it your way.

Below is a video of still frames of Fr. Gabriel from the Blessing of the Waters service. This Feast Day is more commonly known as Theophany or Epiphany, Christ's baptism by John the Baptist in the river Jordan. On this day in the Orthodox Church, we sanctify (make holy) the water through the grace of God and use it in our daily lives. This video shows Fr. Gabriel sanctifying some large body of water in Prescott, AZ. Someday I'll tell you the story of the well just outside of Chernobyl in a small Orthodox Christian village that is not radioactive. The local priest sanctifies the water every year and their water tests 100% uncontaminated every year. This story can be seen in the Japanese documentary "Alexei and the Spring." It's in Japanese but has English subtitles. GREAT FLICK!

May your memory be eternal Fr. G!