u/everything_is_grace

My priest gifted me a massive Deacon’s Door with my patron saint on it

I know this is a Protestant sub, but I wanted to share this with everyone

So I’ve been orthodox Chrismated and all for about 4 years

I’m 23 years old

My patron Saint is Stephan the Protomartyr

Love him

And love icons

My icon corner is an entire closet filled with icons

I own two st Stephan’s already

And today at compline j was told by my priest he wanted to gift me an icon

I was touched

And then touched turned to tears

He brings out an old deacon door almost 5 feet by 2.5 feet

Roughly I’ve not measured but it’s almost as tall as me and I’m 5’5

And it’s a wooden door

With a hand written St Stephen. Gold leaf and all

It’s not Byzantine style, but definently some Slavic school since we’re Ukrainian orthodox and the writing is in Slavonic

Massive icon

Beautiful layered hand written

And well

He gifts it to me

It was sent to us from our bishop and he gifted it to me

And I get it home

And now I’m overwhelmed like what do I do with such an amazing blessing

It’s a grace from God

A wonderful gift

And also slightly terrifying

Like my whole icon corner is filled

Like the whole wall

Idk what to do with him but I also know I need to do something wonderful with something from God this wonderful

Glory to God for All Things! So, I was finally approved for disability. This has been a years in the making stress and bless run, and God is so good for blessing me with this.

Because of this, I had decided to do something special for my church, as they have helped me so much in my years of poverty.

So I prayed, and God I believe recommended to me to purchase all the icons that had been sitting on the shelf in the bookstore for years and no one picked them up. So I did exactly that

I got about six icons, which are all but one visible in the picture.

St Vladimir
St Mark of Ephesus
St Marcius
St Sergius
St Arsenius

An inexhaustible chalice I’ve hung over my door

I hope this was ok. I felt bad for the saints that had been neglected. I know these great men and Mary all have such wonderful lives, and I can’t wait to establish a relationship with all of them.

There’s more I’ll go back and buy that are also equally neglected, once I get my next cheque next month.

I just want to give my Church the ability to fill these cluttered shelves in the store with more things, and to repay my church’s generosity. And meet friends I’ve not met yet in the saints.

So I’ve been OBSESSED with renaissance blonde hair. That orther worldly golden shade. And I’ve got thin ass hair up top, and am working on trying to style and all correctly

But the color itself, how did I do?

I blended about 60% level 8 gold with 40% level 9 true neutral blonde

And then used an amber top coat on it

All with 10 developer over my pre bleached Ashe blond hair