Theophany miracle
Last night, we went to church where we served Great Compline and Matins of Theophany and a miracle occurred. Yes, a true epiphany of God becoming manifest, and a true Theophany of a visible manifestation of God. As I was ready to go to sleep, my druid dd came into my bedroom and thanked me for allowing her explore her beliefs and, as she put it, "not perform an exorcism on her as some parents would have done." She then announced that she was on her way back to Christianity. She didn't say Orthodoxy, but she did say Christianity. She was very serious and sincere, and told me that she was still mad at God for never answering her prayers, last year in particular, but that she was on the road back to Christianity just the same.

What caused this epiphany and Theophany in her heart? It wasn't MY prayers, because even when praying for the most beloved person in the world, I am unfaithful, weak and distracted and do not pray as I ought. Certainly others pray for her daily, and it is their faithful prayers that God heard and answered.

O Lord, I thank you for the faithful prayers of Faye and Bettye and Candee, for Pat, Becky, Joan, Xenia and Fr. James, for Matushka Elizabeth, Elizabeth, Catherine, Matushka Ellen and Fr. Kirrill, for Diane Marie, Sherry, Theodora, Mary Brigid, Athanasia and Patricia. May You bless them as you have blessed my daughter and me through their prayers. Amen.

Lord, I pray that I can be more faithful in prayer, more attentive, more open to the Theophanies that occur every minute of every day all around me. Wake me up, Lord. Shake me until I put my own reasonings aside and listen, really listen. And give me the grace to be the mother that Elisabeth needs. I know that I have fallen far short in that regard, and continually give her a poor model to follow - a prideful and coarse and and lazy model.

The one good thing that she sees me do, is that I keeping slogging away and always return to the journey, despite everything. But is it enough? I fail in every other way, every day; sometimes I fail in a really big and public way, and sometimes only I know deep in my heart that I have sinned, that I have truly missed the mark.

I guess I just have to rely on God to complete what is lacking in me, for her sake. I don't see that He has completed anything to this point. Sigh.... Maybe I just don't see? Or maybe I'm SO prideful and resistant and disobedient and strong, that He has to break me first? And after everything, everything for 50 years, I'm not broken yet.

I really don't have a clue. I don't really KNOW God. Sometimes I recognize evidence of Him, but I don't truly know HIM. All I REALLY know is that God manifested Himself in Elisabeth's heart last night in a way that she could not deny. And that's a miracle.