New Skete Monasteries News

By Brother David Scope of This Article A lot has been written on prayer, and much of that has been written on Contemplative Prayer.   Many of these books and articles cite a number of Church Fathers, mystics, and experts on the subject.   This is not that kind of series.   This is basic: bricks and mortar basic.   This is neither “Towards a Theology of Contemplation” nor is it “28 Days to Theosis (Divinization).”   What I want to do is take you, the reader, with me through a journey in prayer.   Some of this will be Sunday School basic, and some will be utterly idiosyncratic (after all, it’s my journey that I’m drawing on).   My suspicion is that most of what I write will be either already known or really obvious on reflection.   So while there may be new things for some, I do not regard these articles as instruction per se but rather as an invitation to prayer.   Or perhaps even as an invitation back to prayer. The way I learn...

by Sister Rebecca    The earliest depictions of the Nativity show the infant Jesus alone, bound in cloths, lying on a bed of straw in a feeding-trough for animals.   Most of these images were carved in blocks of stone or stone coffins, called sarcophagi.               Not until the fourth century did Christians began to show increased interest in the events at Bethlehem.   This change was connected with the new theological controversies and the subsequent introduction of Christmas, the feast of the Nativity of Jesus. Stone relief. late 4th or early 5th century in the Byzantine Museum in Athens              The Nativity scene reproduced here does not indicate any particular location. It is meant to show that the mystery, “Christ is born,” takes place in all places and at all times. It is not only a historical event but also a reality in each bel...

By Brother Luke My dogs and I often hike our trails. Recently, I have set out with Kahn and sometimes with my new puppy Laith. Keeping the trails groomed is a constant task. But over the last year or so, we have also begun making some changes. Kahn at the beginning of the trails A number of our guests use some of their retreat time here to hike our trails. Recently they have been noticing the changes. The trails run approximately four miles in length, if you take all of them.  Over the past few months we have been adding signs to the trails to improve the markings and lessen the possibility of people getting lost. Our new welcome brochure [ click here to view ], which offers a self-guided tour of the monastery grounds, includes a map of the trails.  We brought back the old “yellow” trail, which bisects the main circle route that is marked with red signs. Some of the trails are modified and now include alternate return paths marked in orange.  The yellow trail n...

Father Paul Nicholas Harrilchak, priest of Holy Trinity Parish (OCA), Reston, Virginia, and long-time friend of New Skete’s Communities, gave an evening lecture during his visit, accompanied by Mrs. Sharon Lefchik of College Park, Maryland, for the monks, nuns, and members of our parish Tuesday, November 5. He spoke very entertainingly and most informatively about the thematic and calendar unfolding of the celebration of the Nativity of Christ in the Orthodox East from the time of St. John Chrysostom. The Eastern tradition has no Advent except in the adoption of a forty-day fast to mirror the Great Fast in preparation for Pascha, but it is nonetheless rich in biblical mysteriology expanded by the related theophanies also brought to the fore by the Church from the original new year on September 23 (the empire’s commemoration of the birth of Caesar Augustus) up to the Encounter on February 2. In the course of his discussion, there were ample instances to refer to a book he has jus...

by Brother Stavros The first time I voted, actually the first time any resident of the District of Columbia could vote for president, I cast it for JFK. At his inauguration, along with hundreds of other local Scouts, I served as an usher on the Southwest corner of Lafayette Square, diagonally across from the reviewing stand. Pennsylvania Avenue was my hometown’s main street. Inaugurations came and went along its once-cobbled pavement, and I was prone to be blasé about the pomp of state. Four years previously, for Eisenhower’s parade, the living symbol of the GOP was quartered in the firehouse around the corner from my grandmother’s house. I got to watch the firemen scrub the elephant down. There were also tanks included as cold war accouterments; their treads chewed up the local streets.   But, on Sunday afternoon, November 24, a chilly very blustery day, the avenue grand was another thing entirely. It was the thoroughfare of grief. I watched from the west side of the cap...

By Sister Rebecca (originally published in Thoughts from New Skete, Summer 1992)   The cover of the Gospel book at New Skete’s Church portrays the familiar icon of Christ enthroned in glory.   The icon is based on Ezekiel's visions and St. John's Revelation: " I saw a throne before me in heaven, and the one who sat there shone like a diamond and a ruby... From the throne there came flashes of lightning ... and around it were four living creatures... The first was like a lion, the second like a bull, the third had a human face, and the fourth was like a flying eagle." (Rev. 4) Since the time of St. Irenaeus, these four winged beings have symbolized the four evangelists. This theme became widespread in early Christian art both in East and West. Today, however, the winged animals symbolizing the evangelists seem bizarre. What did this configuration mean for early Christians, and what can it mean for us today?   In early Babylonian culture, these win...