New Skete Monasteries News

The following is Br. Luke's sermon, preached in celebration of the profession of Br. Gregory. Sermon 122 1 Feb 3: Is 42:5-12; Heb 7:11-19; Lk 2:25-38 Encounter We all know what a bear hug is. To some it’s a warm embrace, to others it’s suffocating or even harassment! In greeting people at home, on social occasions, and even here at the Kiss of Peace or at coffee hour, we may embrace each other. And how different that can be from one person to the next! Is it three kisses on the cheek, or two or one or just a handshake or maybe a pat on the arm? The choreography of meetings can be a many-splendored-thing, an ordinary and unmemorable occasion or an embarrassment. Today we celebrate the meeting in the Temple between the child Jesus Christ and the aged Simeon. Others are there as witnesses: Mary and Joseph and the prophetess Anna, but the principal encounter that only St Luke [and no other Gospel writer] describes happens when Simeon takes Jesus into his arms. I would not ...

Brother Luke Greeting Metropolitan Tikhon St. Nicholas Cathedral in DC Site of Enthronement On Sunday, January 27, 2013, His Beatitude, the Most Blessed Tikhon, Archbishop of Washington, Metropolitan of All America and Canada, was enthroned at Saint Nicholas Cathedral in Washington, DC. Br. Luke speaking with Metropolitan Tikhon Metropolitan Tikhon was elected at the 17th All-American Council held in Parma, OH on Tuesday, November 13, 2012.  In attendance at the Enthronement were members of the Orthodox Church in America’s Holy Synod of Bishops, as well as representatives from Moscow, all of Russia, all of Georgia, Serbia, Armenia, members of the World Council of Churches and many US dignitaries. Br. Luke and Br. Jacob next to statue of St. Nicholas Washington, DC “Our task is to preserve the Tradition and apply it in new ways,” said Metropolitan Tikhon during his banquet address, in which he spoke of the unique challenges facing the Church today....