First of all, Sacred restraint is common in most, or almost all churches I have been to. I used to recognise it as just plain boredom and hated it more than anything else in the world. I would get it at church, then at Sunday school, then in the car while my parents took me on a non-optional Sunday drive, for hours. I never associated it with the sacred or the divine until 11th of April 2026. I realised late, that it wasn’t Sunday, it was Saturday. I had prepared for church on a Saturday. I somehow realised the feeling to be significant enough to recognise it as something other than just a dull feeling, and that it really was something sacred. I spent 8 days with it, on a little solo spiritual journey. On the 8th day I realised the 11th of April was Great and Holy Saturday by the orthodox calendar.
Now ill skip to today, my friend drove me to Sunday Liturgy. We were a little late but I still caught about 3 and a half hours of it. After one and a half hours, I started to notice the harsh pale feeling of sacred restraint growing, and accumulating seemingly around where the choir projected their voice and gather around the icon of John, the forerunner. I took it as spiritual discipline. Just as an uncomfortable fast will make a small plate of basic food taste incredible.
In the car after, me and my fiend talked about denial of the body’s desire, and the pursuit of pleasure therein. Presumably a soul will experience this, without a human body, in Heaven.
The Humble Rock Dove 