James C. (who else?) writes:

Well, that was unexpected! I popped into the ancient Basilica of St Nicholas in Bari’s labyrinthine old town to pray before St Nicholas’s tomb in the crypt, as I often do when in the city. As it happens, Monday was the feast of St Nicholas in the Julian calendar, so for the past few days the constant stream of Orthodox pilgrims to the city has risen to a flood.

So when I got to the crypt to pray Vespers, I was not surprised to see an exceptionally hairy Russian priest leading a large group of pilgrims in a liturgy before the tomb. What a grace-filled experience, praying in my Benedictine breviary as achingly beautiful Slavonic chants echoed off those ancient vaults and hung in the air like incense!

When they were finished, the blessed bread went around, and a piece was given to me.

That’s my kind of ecumenism. Breaking bread together before the glorious tomb of one of our great witnesses to Christ in the Undivided Church, a hope and a foretaste of the happy day when (please God) we shall find ourselves visible under one Fold and one Shepherd.