tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68363110928994630322024-03-12T21:43:06.059-07:00New Skete Monasteries NewsNew Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.comBlogger251125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-12555047083491267112024-02-15T08:00:00.000-08:002024-02-15T08:25:13.745-08:00Seeking God<p> <span style="font-family: inherit;">By Sister Cecelia</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Seeking to do God’s will
in all things is what monasticism is all about. It encompasses all the
nitty-gritty happenings in all our lives. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At the Nuns’ monastery, after
30-plus years the door and door frame opening to a second-floor deck had
succumbed to all the snows and rainfalls and was rotting along the bottom. It
took 3 months for a replacement door to arrive and another few months for it to
be installed. Further investigation of the deck itself revealed extensive
rotting that needed attention.<br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjI5JAl4JQHe9-DlmvDqVgKUBmqaCY1zqVED2us-uOpyjg2y4NTNQ8rVuBvLBzRrbGSpN2Oql5s8m1DoqwMIwMlCDOiGahXwp2K0Q41EEgSFhyjPRz3qWz7Cuxs4opKKGL6eHWBN9R5KBh1Ws2_rhRdxac5uEVij_Z7hEyy2gtmSDByDwq63hTkAZNUqY/s1199/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1199" data-original-width="864" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjI5JAl4JQHe9-DlmvDqVgKUBmqaCY1zqVED2us-uOpyjg2y4NTNQ8rVuBvLBzRrbGSpN2Oql5s8m1DoqwMIwMlCDOiGahXwp2K0Q41EEgSFhyjPRz3qWz7Cuxs4opKKGL6eHWBN9R5KBh1Ws2_rhRdxac5uEVij_Z7hEyy2gtmSDByDwq63hTkAZNUqY/w289-h400/1.jpg" width="289" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Through many years of repairs to the
wooden deck itself, it appeared to be a lost cause. How long would the wood
last, since so many coats of stain and preservative had been applied and the wood
floor and railing were still cracked with so much snow and rain on it? How long
would a repair last before someone leaned against the railing and went tumbling
down? Or a floorboard gave when stepped on? We do trust in God, but we also
know that God expects us to use our heads when we approach these problems or
challenges. Letting go seems easier for some than for others, but everyone needs
some kind of juggling act as we try to balance common sense and prudence with what
the Gospel summon us to do when making decisions. </span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It turned out, as the
work commenced, that the wood of the deck itself was still in pretty good shape
in spite of the splitting. Our maintenance company, Mikel and Shelly Claus, ordered
what was needed, including the availability of a lift to reach the outdoor
second floor area. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh68S3G0a9zEb_68unCVICNP-nj8mrM2wJa4853UllqF04fmZe0NaLIKFkB_PIdBVVqQd0zIpkuPtWKZiK9grcDZiFm_qaWjcR3NdPFXviyPwmk0s4yCkoJusRsqTQyH5UDDPgJtg7Fyn5mQfnbvKz8zXCsGl9iuBofGee87F5AQofxYw2QlyfSEJEZfbw/s640/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh68S3G0a9zEb_68unCVICNP-nj8mrM2wJa4853UllqF04fmZe0NaLIKFkB_PIdBVVqQd0zIpkuPtWKZiK9grcDZiFm_qaWjcR3NdPFXviyPwmk0s4yCkoJusRsqTQyH5UDDPgJtg7Fyn5mQfnbvKz8zXCsGl9iuBofGee87F5AQofxYw2QlyfSEJEZfbw/w320-h240/2.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They started the project in time to finish before
winter. Now the window replacing the entry door to the deck allows more light
into the hallway.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin-WUTa4EQg2jiiVPZsc0KnCqYaKemmFGWYwohtd1z6x57EmUG825OMu3iCDgTZQ3xZs1qZk-ZlGXvbxqi1YdicBF5xpIJ3Oiqh-qjHs0_ZRBhaAjBw4auvaMC-bmqxIP3weqoe2jsVy0E8_acr3x4Y7J7AIgKJqT0NLdWGiWfmdSHvh9v-TjSaKfkDsc/s640/3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin-WUTa4EQg2jiiVPZsc0KnCqYaKemmFGWYwohtd1z6x57EmUG825OMu3iCDgTZQ3xZs1qZk-ZlGXvbxqi1YdicBF5xpIJ3Oiqh-qjHs0_ZRBhaAjBw4auvaMC-bmqxIP3weqoe2jsVy0E8_acr3x4Y7J7AIgKJqT0NLdWGiWfmdSHvh9v-TjSaKfkDsc/w240-h320/3.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That’s a good thing—at least until summer. It was most interesting to see how the lift worked while support boards to hold the deck in place were being cut.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR2Bo3R7mMQU_xLM62dIEw6aJ-XXrN7yJkqAhdcTnh5ACmcdkm8BEkqeQTyrJm_2-x__vJzCZaPxUMr8_Ra71lZV_UgRsgpLmY6dvJfjfgpgdcMST1aPtA-T-wvdu4tbRL5JftbKfHUxOywPGrvUe_ddqdez5ZZLtmtbjt7qhCOa4HVpqEYQ7OufaK6JI/s640/4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR2Bo3R7mMQU_xLM62dIEw6aJ-XXrN7yJkqAhdcTnh5ACmcdkm8BEkqeQTyrJm_2-x__vJzCZaPxUMr8_Ra71lZV_UgRsgpLmY6dvJfjfgpgdcMST1aPtA-T-wvdu4tbRL5JftbKfHUxOywPGrvUe_ddqdez5ZZLtmtbjt7qhCOa4HVpqEYQ7OufaK6JI/s320/4.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="line-height: 150%;">We were grateful that activity was not during our quiet
retreat time, as the cutting was quite noisy for ourselves and our guests. When
the siding boards were removed so they could be replaced with longer boards
covering the cut areas, an unpleasant discovery was revealed. The upright structural
2 x 6’s under the supports for the deck were black with rot, and the insulation
was dripping wet. We thanked God that the vapor barrier had prevented the
sheetrock on the interior walls from being damaged. <o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiao0ZYpzpArhkHzyDBkOD1ZBysTKZDrplBkiNmOKc1XPyKTWaf0zPJg568sx6EcT0OJjKShhxE9q7EQilmFmLIJrD-txn4RQFQatnjzuhHxdRMbGQpgy2gqUYkyBZpjjQ4F3OInJcwqAYMmeUJVAgHsias4isTa06JY8hX3byH50wTKu5k-zpYkmSH4Lo/s640/5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiao0ZYpzpArhkHzyDBkOD1ZBysTKZDrplBkiNmOKc1XPyKTWaf0zPJg568sx6EcT0OJjKShhxE9q7EQilmFmLIJrD-txn4RQFQatnjzuhHxdRMbGQpgy2gqUYkyBZpjjQ4F3OInJcwqAYMmeUJVAgHsias4isTa06JY8hX3byH50wTKu5k-zpYkmSH4Lo/s320/5.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">However, the wet insulation and rotting wood went down another whole floor, ever widening its path. Even more of the 2 x 6’s supporting the structure were rotting in places. This finding reminded me of the joke about the farmer in a small village in some small country ruled by a dictator. His son fell off his horse and broke his leg—a bad thing. Then soldiers came to collect all the able-bodied young men and conscript them into the army. The broken leg was a good thing after all. The story went on: first an event that seemed bad, then seemed a good thing, then a bad thing, and so on. If our door had not been replaced and the deck had not been removed—a seemingly bad thing that turned into a good thing—how much more damage would have happened in time to come!<br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjizSjc3Hrd-WySAwdr892yUYK_WP3WXQ3henZEiczW2tqgRX_mIvoh5t6x7maPGSKKyhkjAmBtaMEmh8TljtH3XjA8dKtTWR7KKPlC9ElOBAfSyRRvfCiw2ZLblzLMe2vm8GduqAJNqyh2cmsvFPd6YC3dV_l1LI8_iIHiDatVH6tIZqD0kAWyf8p8uUA/s640/6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjizSjc3Hrd-WySAwdr892yUYK_WP3WXQ3henZEiczW2tqgRX_mIvoh5t6x7maPGSKKyhkjAmBtaMEmh8TljtH3XjA8dKtTWR7KKPlC9ElOBAfSyRRvfCiw2ZLblzLMe2vm8GduqAJNqyh2cmsvFPd6YC3dV_l1LI8_iIHiDatVH6tIZqD0kAWyf8p8uUA/s320/6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The structural supports were repaired by
attaching 2 x 6’s above and below where the wood was rotten. New 2 x 6’s are
slightly wider than aged 2 x 6’s, so some adjustments, sanding or shaving off, had
to be done. Then the old wet insulation was replaced with dry. The picture shows
how extensive the repair job came to be as more rotten wood was found. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilNgTurmSrqrA4MLSq-OAqC-Tox81rGM_XBMQ6l556Um7RgaHEth6HX7DlkeXH9_wGTamb69_8YHFVpiqSDPkcxlv4F8PL__DT8MDDLDld8p6Y4mr1TR3XsLZl3StN7VXISLBoGKG8dDekZaK4sWwZYUz0JVHP6rDyw7Y6zFi-ZrGths0TBkQBmfqUBAA/s640/7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilNgTurmSrqrA4MLSq-OAqC-Tox81rGM_XBMQ6l556Um7RgaHEth6HX7DlkeXH9_wGTamb69_8YHFVpiqSDPkcxlv4F8PL__DT8MDDLDld8p6Y4mr1TR3XsLZl3StN7VXISLBoGKG8dDekZaK4sWwZYUz0JVHP6rDyw7Y6zFi-ZrGths0TBkQBmfqUBAA/s320/7.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnMDKlvfND420PT3aFRA2yL2U8R5zzXGfDPLrfj3WdHXk4aoq-0hs7n-Raya0CYiPqsAKsZFcaNhEJFbpz3GpCCNyIK7tOlv-tbctHqt5uzPJAQaMe7QljD-v4tEMyL412PSu0zIZnTauKHTueT1Z5VnJXzv2JTJ8saTHbqzOE4SwZHyw76nqXlaVxuoE/s795/8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="596" data-original-width="795" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnMDKlvfND420PT3aFRA2yL2U8R5zzXGfDPLrfj3WdHXk4aoq-0hs7n-Raya0CYiPqsAKsZFcaNhEJFbpz3GpCCNyIK7tOlv-tbctHqt5uzPJAQaMe7QljD-v4tEMyL412PSu0zIZnTauKHTueT1Z5VnJXzv2JTJ8saTHbqzOE4SwZHyw76nqXlaVxuoE/s320/8.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
weather did not always co-operate, so on many days no work was possible. As
work progressed, the crew always applied a cover at the end of the day so the area
would not be soaked by wind and rain.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-2ocw1JbJCmpX120rWuVmxv0m1IAH8zxMZdUlguVAs1K0no4P9kuUYkRGluhX_o_ElyrNbAWRl3B08NfeE5UmUod0GE3oaWa806wLg64VpgFt4bBXQmSLs-wWyvmWPrNTcuht5nAfaf3hyphenhyphenQFWxYnoJux3Nw4BFy2C-iEI_3Blyidz-Dfg9f90OfYBH68/s640/9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-2ocw1JbJCmpX120rWuVmxv0m1IAH8zxMZdUlguVAs1K0no4P9kuUYkRGluhX_o_ElyrNbAWRl3B08NfeE5UmUod0GE3oaWa806wLg64VpgFt4bBXQmSLs-wWyvmWPrNTcuht5nAfaf3hyphenhyphenQFWxYnoJux3Nw4BFy2C-iEI_3Blyidz-Dfg9f90OfYBH68/s320/9.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They couldn’t finish before winter after
all because of those unforeseen problems, and the lift works only in above-20-degree
temperatures, so it took a while, but some unseasonably warm spells allowed completion
of the job at last. The two valiant maintenance contractors worked through
rain, wind, and snow to finish their work. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHG0nIeleEore1o8wiJEGpnOTc_nwIhkDkGA4ya1QD9d3b3O-RilmGltlNth1lJYRX7T9qWbMQTluYQTa0PB_Z5NTNbpaCQLYNEBFuIHoKnzmJHCrLVW4dSD4cCnMcX1SMSfWn0px3nvrI47_qMenXsNGalDUqOFO8NZu-bSV-FO4WAcnarW06Mp9pNaY/s640/10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHG0nIeleEore1o8wiJEGpnOTc_nwIhkDkGA4ya1QD9d3b3O-RilmGltlNth1lJYRX7T9qWbMQTluYQTa0PB_Z5NTNbpaCQLYNEBFuIHoKnzmJHCrLVW4dSD4cCnMcX1SMSfWn0px3nvrI47_qMenXsNGalDUqOFO8NZu-bSV-FO4WAcnarW06Mp9pNaY/s320/10.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Finally, the wall is
safe. It looks like a checkerboard with the old and new siding, but come spring
the whole side will receive another coating and then look great.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhItvodv91oBdJveIOZBmk1lgtcoGyABIgN1abcr6j3wIt0Gq48vLkSC-ABQM9m26oi3L45v_2FIWe7bD0XQCdPy-VVh_RXock6C92NbBUJAnhT6dlf34ON95d9TamQEE_OAOxw0fLsmtWWw8Sz3pahtkwDGRytR-Mm3bA8g6IdgPfbezuOljXRlMiuLFc/s640/11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhItvodv91oBdJveIOZBmk1lgtcoGyABIgN1abcr6j3wIt0Gq48vLkSC-ABQM9m26oi3L45v_2FIWe7bD0XQCdPy-VVh_RXock6C92NbBUJAnhT6dlf34ON95d9TamQEE_OAOxw0fLsmtWWw8Sz3pahtkwDGRytR-Mm3bA8g6IdgPfbezuOljXRlMiuLFc/s320/11.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If we had not
had to replace the door, we would not have known the deck needed to be
replaced. If we had not had to replace the deck, we would not have known that
water had been getting in behind the siding for 30 years, causing structural
damage.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thanks to God for giving
us patience and trust to face all the ups and downs of life. What Jesus called
Blessed is a heartfelt and joy-filled reliance on our all-provident Father,
needing a certain detachment from all alternative sources of security. In our
attempts to do God’s will in all things it seems we are required to be good
stewards of what we have been given. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Our hard work and efforts
are necessary, but they do not define the end result. We do what we can, but
our labors are subsidiary. This is a cause for celebration, not for gloom. God
is at work in our world!<span style="color: #888888;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-17737930731896528402024-01-25T08:36:00.000-08:002024-01-25T09:54:35.431-08:00Wind on the Trails<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">By Brother Luke<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Suddenly a mighty
wind swept in. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">(Job 1:19)<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Winter has truly blown in with a fury this
year. We have had several winter storms accompanied by strong winds and the
crack of trees breaking and falling in the woods. And when that happens, the
trails don't get spared. So, my dogs and I have made, and continue to make,
forays into the woods to hike the trails and clear away the debris and
branches. Those forays are more like reconnaissance because when the trees
themselves fall across the trails, then out comes the chain saw.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Sometimes
all that is required is to cut a path through a large tree trunk. But other
times one tree will bring down another, and a jumble of branches blocks the
trail. Much of that can be cleared by pulling the broken branches away from the
trail and using a simple hand saw to cut some of the branches. In some cases a
tree has fallen, uprooted, and hit another tree, and remains hung up perilously
over the trail. Bringing that down requires more calculation: which of the
trees gets cut first, and in what order do you cut the others to make sure no
one gets hurt as the tree finally falls to the ground? Some of the trees that
come down also have trail blazes on them, and those have to be removed and then
placed on other trees. The good news about trail grooming is that it is work in
nature. For me it is a chance to do a simple, but sometimes exhausting, task,
usually with my dogs helping out by bringing back the branches I throw away! In
winter the snow is an added attraction for the dogs. Not only is the whole
world a giant snow cone just for them, but what a great place to play. Usually
they romp around, wrestle with each other in the snow, and generally have a
grand time. If I have to do something a bit dangerous, I leave them at the
monastery. But mostly we go together.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Working in
the woods can also be a time of clearing out the cobwebs in my mind. Hiking the
trails in snow requires extra attention to the feet; who knows what branch or
stone is hiding under that white carpet? Not the time to let my mind wander too
far afield. But the beauty of the environment can also sweep me away from
ruminating on other worries or pressing tasks. It can remind me of the
magnificence of God's creation and how lucky I am to be alive and able to
appreciate it. I begin to realize that my big worries are really very small
when put in their proper perspective.<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtY1WzcIQtF6SxhITAmSRB9y8OfJHpAVxuz-oqXcjf56EMxSbUpeZvPIg-xQMbX6LY4cRBmh9zYJ1aYRyJZJwDVswrHIURlCazxLgcXuvwwmwNy-AvvqgDeP9qDxms07BbeBt8ifSeIQybqsCal1i39rMoAfyu85re2z_RUEgCrXM_3Dq_4dqceJRAHmA/s4032/IMG_0263.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtY1WzcIQtF6SxhITAmSRB9y8OfJHpAVxuz-oqXcjf56EMxSbUpeZvPIg-xQMbX6LY4cRBmh9zYJ1aYRyJZJwDVswrHIURlCazxLgcXuvwwmwNy-AvvqgDeP9qDxms07BbeBt8ifSeIQybqsCal1i39rMoAfyu85re2z_RUEgCrXM_3Dq_4dqceJRAHmA/s320/IMG_0263.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">beginning of red trail by the puppy kennel</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhArRoOXYKiAikJ2IgAdE2ZC0CDhOXT-5Huwz2ADmKIUdVWZEkM1iOe636uOOYS1jedyj8OlLGXmiNv4XcStuqAiQyd_FEZrZERv9YyrDhFZz11n82DJ2crxKTSGjNfDtHMxwzsbU4TtRk3uAj9tTpb7nNBmKmfYRRhGV1JDouqQlngnZtKDFNSkpJbiy0/s4032/IMG_0268.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhArRoOXYKiAikJ2IgAdE2ZC0CDhOXT-5Huwz2ADmKIUdVWZEkM1iOe636uOOYS1jedyj8OlLGXmiNv4XcStuqAiQyd_FEZrZERv9YyrDhFZz11n82DJ2crxKTSGjNfDtHMxwzsbU4TtRk3uAj9tTpb7nNBmKmfYRRhGV1JDouqQlngnZtKDFNSkpJbiy0/s320/IMG_0268.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">tree hung up over the red trail at the south end of the yellow trail</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8UAIftWPap99GbK_Pr9-7vIkIq54wktbED2eMh2O7K912_wvcbOV0ndibETyCRBouBlCRg26sE4Hh61VUzrfJePduC7UKXBK5rhNUTco33u-FR7pz6GGNl9_sZpx5hbYCuZ-2n8Ssc04HNPF4c_a2vZwwcCy9fHYLDn9vHWfH_UzZur3Ume9_kPZEc9A/s1833/Iso.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="801" data-original-width="1833" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8UAIftWPap99GbK_Pr9-7vIkIq54wktbED2eMh2O7K912_wvcbOV0ndibETyCRBouBlCRg26sE4Hh61VUzrfJePduC7UKXBK5rhNUTco33u-FR7pz6GGNl9_sZpx5hbYCuZ-2n8Ssc04HNPF4c_a2vZwwcCy9fHYLDn9vHWfH_UzZur3Ume9_kPZEc9A/w400-h175/Iso.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Iso trying to figure out how to move that log off the red trail, east side behind puppy kennel</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRZgsnIT4KRryla3c3T64wHBbY4yUwxIv4RooXVPqsiLo38cQxfNLSbZqyAR5rz0CHzgI74-zLF2NmTDWIewVm1yXln07DYROxVsF4xLQqZgwA86J9ynNPzi5GZ85Qyu62aIKO31JW6Ev3FQAa5OigKMt6Lvl1RvZYsxpC-aj2KuATDvyr8qlIqBR83so/s4032/IMG_0261.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRZgsnIT4KRryla3c3T64wHBbY4yUwxIv4RooXVPqsiLo38cQxfNLSbZqyAR5rz0CHzgI74-zLF2NmTDWIewVm1yXln07DYROxVsF4xLQqZgwA86J9ynNPzi5GZ85Qyu62aIKO31JW6Ev3FQAa5OigKMt6Lvl1RvZYsxpC-aj2KuATDvyr8qlIqBR83so/s320/IMG_0261.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Iris trying to figure out the same thing<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkzjjsPIfjKGsWWmkWtYY04Sevu6iUHE0FSefh2TfmGGMrPMQ28jSMsRpwzKN-5dljQRCvNKx1BLAxT446ymnN4EACeWPNF3l1eSw3ASdOLKT8jfcyroeqr_WpQ_49IkoZcIiO-I0C1gvWA8WEFA2Xe71vN4RP7DB9MvcTlkdSI_a6o94IiyDRDer6DtA/s4032/IMG_0266%20(1).jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkzjjsPIfjKGsWWmkWtYY04Sevu6iUHE0FSefh2TfmGGMrPMQ28jSMsRpwzKN-5dljQRCvNKx1BLAxT446ymnN4EACeWPNF3l1eSw3ASdOLKT8jfcyroeqr_WpQ_49IkoZcIiO-I0C1gvWA8WEFA2Xe71vN4RP7DB9MvcTlkdSI_a6o94IiyDRDer6DtA/s320/IMG_0266%20(1).jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">branches we moved off the yellow trail behind the training kennel<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJtlKYCiBF6_PKT_RZTLuM7aB2nnrG5Sq0DFWpnaiH1qtKWroLTTs0NJQPNGsOBrGDEKxu8RsRwd9Y_j9Cctn93jSA0mkJXWKQw5RBZFcnkOIYHIxkHEMoIg1sZzZQL9MrLrvmc-XnCthZVPQ-4mjQHPToPHeuvMQx61T0eXOW-CeYjU6SaN0V078DE7Q/s4032/IMG_0260.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJtlKYCiBF6_PKT_RZTLuM7aB2nnrG5Sq0DFWpnaiH1qtKWroLTTs0NJQPNGsOBrGDEKxu8RsRwd9Y_j9Cctn93jSA0mkJXWKQw5RBZFcnkOIYHIxkHEMoIg1sZzZQL9MrLrvmc-XnCthZVPQ-4mjQHPToPHeuvMQx61T0eXOW-CeYjU6SaN0V078DE7Q/s320/IMG_0260.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">tree that fell next to the orange trail behind the old garage</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><br /><br />New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-46257465309414568812024-01-25T08:15:00.000-08:002024-01-25T08:15:51.377-08:00Listening for God's Voice<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">By Brother Luke</span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Verdana;">It may seem like an oxymoron, but we in the monastic life spend a lot
of time talking about silence and listening. Maybe it's not a total oxymoron;
one hopes if someone is talking others are listening! And isn't that important?
To pay attention when someone is talking, especially when they are talking to
you! However, if we are honest we may notice how often our mind wanders even
when we are trying to make the greatest effort to stay focused and listen to
someone. To listen I have to be silent, both outwardly and inwardly. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Engaging in a
conversation with another can produce a challenge of a different order. I can
be so fully engaged in the subject of the conversation that I almost end up
listening aggressively. Then I have to hold my tongue, and I have to rein in
the itch to finish the other person's sentences. And to truly listen I cannot
be pondering my response or comment even before the speaker has finished
speaking. Otherwise I end up talking over the other person. And that is when we
have to be at peace with silence. It is not bad to let an interval of silence
settle in before making a comment or offering our sacred thoughts on the
matter. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Listening is more
than something we do with another person. It is also what we do with our
environment. I can let my environment speak to me, or I can keep my mind
stimulated with music or talk that effectively filters out the sounds or
silence of my immediate space. One might protest and say that listening to a
podcast or music is listening. It can be. But if we are not really focused on
that imported sound, then it can be just noise intended to block out the sounds
I don't want to hear. And sometimes the sounds I don't want to hear are the
very ones I need to pay attention to. However, I sometimes need to learn to be
at peace with my environment and its sounds and to find that inner quiet
regardless of the noise around me.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Listening and silence
go hand-in-hand. Silence can be unnerving. People who participate in a silent
retreat for the first time often become unsettled by the silence. The inner
urge to talk to cover up the silence is a clue to our inner disquiet. The first
meal in silence can be most uncomfortable. It can also be very revealing of my
inner life. Paying attention to those feelings is a way of listening to my
heart.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>S</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ilence
is an essential aspect of our profession as monastics. We have areas in our
monastery where silence is expected to be observed and respected. In addition,
all our liturgical services incorporate pauses for silence. Orthodox liturgical
practice is often designed to insure that no silence is ever allowed. Singing,
chanting, and praying are all uninterrupted audible activities. And yet,
Orthodox hesychast tradition is a meditation practice in which divine quietness
is sought. Putting the two together in worship fits our circumstances.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Getting used to
silence is not automatic. It involves training ourselves to engage with silence.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
Setting aside time in our day for quiet meditation or prayer is an important
step. Breaking away from one's routine and going on a silent retreat at a
monastery or house of prayer can take our efforts to a new deeper level. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But we can also
search for opportunities to practice silence and listening in our ordinary
daily routine. Ordinary household chores can present opportunities to practice
silence and listening. Vacuuming may be noisy, but what is going on in my mind
at that time may be even noisier! Washing dishes, making the bed, doing the
laundry, feeding my dogs, driving to work, gardening, and walking in the woods
are all activities that can be profitable occasions to practice cultivating
silence and inner peace. And while we are cultivating an awareness of silence
in the ordinary, we can sharpen our attentiveness to listening. Listening for
what?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is when we can
take our practice of silence to the next level and focus on listening to God.
Worship, private meditation and prayer, and our ordinary daily activities can
all be used to contribute to our goal of deepening our relationship with God.
This is because God speaks to us through all these activities. Constant prayer
is not about blocking out everything around us, but rather bringing it into our
"listening for God." God guides us through life, but that can only
happen if we remind ourselves that God is with us in all aspects of our life.
The more aware we are of the presence of God in our lives at all times, the
more secure we become in negotiating the vicissitudes of life peacefully
because of our confidence in the reality that we are never alone in this life.
God didn't create us to abandon us but rather to support us. By cultivating
inner silence and practicing listening, we can begin to truly experience God's
presence in a way that is liberating. Do not be afraid, Christ tells us. That
is because he is with us always. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-14405579873569261922023-12-19T07:25:00.000-08:002023-12-19T09:47:34.068-08:00Wishing the Year Away and the Gift of the Advent Season<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">By Ida Williams</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Let’s
face it: we all wish time away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our
commute to work, our mundane tasks, meetings, waiting for the dishwasher
repairman—which is what I am doing as I write this. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We wish away times we have to wait.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have been wishing the year away.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">On
November 4, my father passed away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
illness and suffering had been long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
had spent his last six and a half years living in a nursing home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His being a double amputee made it impossible
for any of us in my family to provide the care he required.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My mother went to the nursing home every day
to be with him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During COVID she visited
him through his window.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I visited him
weekly, spending less and less time during each visit as his health continued
to decline and he no longer knew who I was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When he passed, there was a sense of relief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wait was over, and his healing could
begin.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124;">The only scars in Heaven, they won't belong to me and you</span><span style="color: #202124;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">There'll be no such thing as broken, and all the
old will be made new</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">And the thought that makes me smile now, even as
the tears fall down</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Is that the only scars in Heaven are on the
hands that hold you now</span></span></i><br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Only Scars in Heaven</i></b> – Casting Crowns<br />
</span><a href="https://youtu.be/BCc7TCmKcwQ?si=JPzDsKImKIvyNxb1">https://youtu.be/BCc7TCmKcwQ?si=JPzDsKImKIvyNxb1</a><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Songwriters:
John Mark Hall / Matthew Joseph West<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The wait was over… but
the wishing remains.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">For some, Advent means
fun, festive calendars with hidden treats, or marking the days to Christmas
with time-honored traditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love
time-honored traditions and sweet treats, but this year, Advent feels different
to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have a longing for something
greater to come.<br />
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: black;">The
celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who
know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something
greater to come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i><span style="background: white; color: black;">~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Advent is a time of
waiting and preparing for both the celebration of the Nativity of Christ at
Christmas and the expected return of Christ at the Second Coming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"></p><div style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Come, Thou long expected Jesus</span></i></div><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="background: white;">Born to set Thy people free;</span></span></i></div><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="background: white;">From our fears and sins release us,</span></span></i></div>
<span style="background: white;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i style="background-color: transparent; mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Let us find our rest in Thee.</span></span></i></div>
</span></span></i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 115%;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>
</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Come
Thou Long-Expected Jesus</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">
– </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Red
Mountain Music</span></div></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/vRAFQCOkjgE?si=1uyH4NesjH3aDOJx"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">https://youtu.be/vRAFQCOkjgE?si=1uyH4NesjH3aDOJx</span></a></div></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12pt;">Songwriters: Charles Wesley / R. H. Pritchard /
Tom Howard</span></div>
<o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br />
This Advent season I will focus on the following themes so I will not wish away
the waiting.<br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Hope</b> - I hope for an end to turmoil,
both internal and external, domestic and abroad.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Isaiah 9:5-6 NSRV<br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Peace</b> - </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I
pray for peace that comes with knowing we are cared for, that the Savior will
hold us fast.<br />
<span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black;"><br />
Isaiah 40:10-11 NIV<br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Joy</b> - I will be joyful in knowing
that the Lord still is and was and is to come.</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Luke
2:8-12 MSG<br />
<br />
</span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Love - </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I
will live my God-given purpose to love Him and to love others as He loves me.<br />
<br />
<span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black;">John 3:16-17 MEV<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">O
come, O come, Emmanuel,<br />
And ransom captive Israel,<br />
That mourns in lonely exile here<br />
Until the Son of God appears.<br />
Rejoice!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rejoice!<br />
Emmanuel shall come to the, O Israel.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br />
<br />
Composers: Thomas Helmore / Adrian Peacock<o:p></o:p></span></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-11190810611058798552023-11-21T10:29:00.000-08:002023-11-21T10:29:37.136-08:00Deaconesses for the Orthodox Church Today<p><span style="background-color: white;">B</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">y Sister Cecelia<br /><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A Symposium, “Deaconesses
for the Orthodox Church Today,” took place on November 10-12 at the Hellenic
College Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, Boston. Sisters Rebecca
and Cecelia attended to show their support and to help celebrate the 10th anniversary
of the St. Phoebe Center for the Deaconess, which sponsored the symposium. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There have been many calls
through the years, as far back as 1855, to reinstate the ordained ministry of the
order of deaconesses. Much research and many writings have been devoted to this
matter, but, unfortunately, little has happened. The ordained female deaconate
is part of the history of the Orthodox Church. In antiquity </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the deaconess ministered to women, much as the male
deacon ministered to men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She assisted
with baptisms, took the Eucharist to those unable to attend liturgy, mediated
between the faithful and the clergy, and taught, counseled, and guided the
faithful on their Christian journey, especially those new to the faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many people believe that this ministry is
still needed today more than ever.</span><span style="background: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><!--[endif]--></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtmp38tjST8KzpQMq329tc9HRoEcB_fb9Ma4HROHSWaJevRNZnAwq86i5WAdl5qqRiIzjJqHC_Rz5P_YGV2Uo2ueDbR_pjhzm7Mkp6RM0RRO5bXjn2MVazVQNJogIZY23ZIowoLGlTMl_XIaaW5L793FHV15RroMPmbpIQnsiJ1g7U-tv8Yg0wWJwywAQ/s900/Deacon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="900" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtmp38tjST8KzpQMq329tc9HRoEcB_fb9Ma4HROHSWaJevRNZnAwq86i5WAdl5qqRiIzjJqHC_Rz5P_YGV2Uo2ueDbR_pjhzm7Mkp6RM0RRO5bXjn2MVazVQNJogIZY23ZIowoLGlTMl_XIaaW5L793FHV15RroMPmbpIQnsiJ1g7U-tv8Yg0wWJwywAQ/s320/Deacon.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: left;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Carrie Frederick Frost introducing the proposed Guidelines document for the revival of the female diaconate </span></i></td></tr></tbody></table></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">To move forward, we need to understand what has
happened in the past and why. During four major panel discussions, numerous expert
historians gave accounts of what happened through the centuries and what may
have caused the cessation of this service in the church. Although many can see
the real need for this ministry, there continue to be roadblocks that keep the
church from acting.</span><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The presenters
emphasized that this is not a power grab but an effort to be more useful in the
ministry of Christ.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">One of the fact-finders
reported that of recent converts to the Orthodox Church, 75% are men. Why not
50/50? What could be the reasons for that percentage?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What can women do in service, in ministering
to the people? Women already do many things that deaconesses would be called to
do. However, some of these things might be done more effectively if they are
known to be blessed by the church. How many of the so-called rules that prevent
the ordination of deaconesses represent a long-standing misogyny,* which women
in this century see as not right?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><br /><!--[endif]--></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigp8NcyJXG91Qem0XyUJjas9_mziA-2oRlV8c9bzywP6lXJawUl8f6YKgig8J07x-9nZ12ZpKYasRaEogMbqNJFuXHJJZYkGlKOWjM4zF7dsF0YJol1RKLl5Sr4mZ9WcMUEkFOnTCsh-Ac2ot6E1pZA3BQVMphqNTwXAtiDtbjuS10uRCZbQX_Squj7k0/s900/Iona.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="900" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigp8NcyJXG91Qem0XyUJjas9_mziA-2oRlV8c9bzywP6lXJawUl8f6YKgig8J07x-9nZ12ZpKYasRaEogMbqNJFuXHJJZYkGlKOWjM4zF7dsF0YJol1RKLl5Sr4mZ9WcMUEkFOnTCsh-Ac2ot6E1pZA3BQVMphqNTwXAtiDtbjuS10uRCZbQX_Squj7k0/s320/Iona.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-align: left;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Ioana Popa and panel members speaking on the Calls for Deaconesses and Women’s Ministry in the Church</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">One of the panel
discussions was on myth-busting. Fifteen of the more popular myths about
ordaining women to the diaconate were once again debunked. Disregarding these
myths would be a big leap forward in removing some (maybe most) of the
roadblocks that make our bishops cautious about ordaining deaconesses again.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Moving forward requires
an action plan. What are the works that deacons do? Liturgical service, for
sure, but perhaps they could do more if trained to do so. Women have already been
catechists, church treasurers, theologians, and chanters. They can visit the
sick and imprisoned, help widows and orphans, and anoint the infirm and dying
if blessed to do so. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The conference also called
for a more permanent diaconate for both men and women. A proposal for the
education and training for those put forth to become deacons and deaconess is
needed. Some work has been done, but the ideas can be enhanced. Since fear of
division is one of the roadblocks, a survey could be made of the Orthodox
faithful nationwide about their understanding of the reinstatement of deaconesses,
as well as why they would be in favor of it or not in favor, and why. Perhaps such
a survey would find out what questions need to be answered.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-no-proof: yes;"><br /><!--[endif]--></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWvOk85yqm9BEm1zKJfjJKLdk7FMQWTx1lZYiqgWU6zfS5hXn9P2xXTHiyBrAKfDv1Ip4w_Z8h9C3zZ2vKPHBgcIsx8R8sbiZ974hLpRbqF7UlgpyiIh6l_gjDhl3h-_v7ftFrxKmfIsKCEiswCucmnWCb4swFJBsA4OnMiHgVO_5xzGA0SjxiOlnqKb4/s1440/Teva.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1440" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWvOk85yqm9BEm1zKJfjJKLdk7FMQWTx1lZYiqgWU6zfS5hXn9P2xXTHiyBrAKfDv1Ip4w_Z8h9C3zZ2vKPHBgcIsx8R8sbiZ974hLpRbqF7UlgpyiIh6l_gjDhl3h-_v7ftFrxKmfIsKCEiswCucmnWCb4swFJBsA4OnMiHgVO_5xzGA0SjxiOlnqKb4/s320/Teva.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: left;"><span style="background: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Group discussion led by Teva Regule</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">In the past 100 years,
a few women have been set aside as deaconesses. Deaconesses were ordained in
the early 20th century by Bishop Nektarios in Greece. More recently, in 2017, Metropolitan
Theodoros II of the Alexandrian Patriarchate consecrated several deaconess in
the Congo and in Sierra Leone in order to meet the local pastoral needs of
women and men in much of Africa.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lot was packed into these days and hopefully
will be followed up in the days and years to come. Depending on the needs in
the many varied parishes and localities, the work of each will be different. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbwkSIOIrayxj5AJR2DM8PjzYb_B7n0H1zyAV_xqNoxOdGxaGKwCVSgP8Kgy5vdb0BFfP5aRbA9_JRGZxeOW5gDGrgGvDRY_3LAEAzaCrANwO8Lu81AJtzfOz4IWCw52tgwH2IygBjI7w6FyNo37iAG1nllefS_JFtgwt7mU8Wk9XOvZ89R1hJYrpyIKQ/s900/Group.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="900" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbwkSIOIrayxj5AJR2DM8PjzYb_B7n0H1zyAV_xqNoxOdGxaGKwCVSgP8Kgy5vdb0BFfP5aRbA9_JRGZxeOW5gDGrgGvDRY_3LAEAzaCrANwO8Lu81AJtzfOz4IWCw52tgwH2IygBjI7w6FyNo37iAG1nllefS_JFtgwt7mU8Wk9XOvZ89R1hJYrpyIKQ/s320/Group.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: left;"><span style="background: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.12px;">Group photo of symposium attendees</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The St. Phoebe Center
suggested a proposed pilot program for ordaining deaconesses once again.</span><span style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">It is outlined below.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">▪ A local
church, likely a synod of bishops, appoints a Deaconess Revival Commission
consisting of clergy and laity, men and women, to identify and evaluate five to
eight Orthodox Christian women of excellent diaconal character who have the
theological training and eligibility as outlined in this document, and who are
within parishes that are understood to be ready to receive the gifts of these
women in ordained ministry. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">▪ If the
identified women do not have a theological degree or if additional training is
deemed necessary, they enter diaconate training in approved and accredited
Orthodox programs/institutions of theological education. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">▪ These
women form a peer group for mutual support and encouragement. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">▪ The
parishes of these future deaconesses receive continuous education, training,
and support in order to best support and develop their work over time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>▪ The deaconesses wear the same liturgical
vestments as deacons, which is faithful to the history of the order. The
Deaconess Revival Commission will present options for the nonmonastic deaconesses’
public, non-liturgical attire to the local church for approval. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">▪ Each
bishop reviews and evaluates the candidates for ordination. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">▪ Worthy
candidates are ordained to the order of deaconesses, all within the same time
frame. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">▪ Each
deaconess works with her local clergy in partnership to best minister to the
needs of the faithful. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">▪ A channel
of communication is established between deaconesses and their bishops, for
accountability and concerns. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="background: white; border-collapse: collapse; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 100%;">
<tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="padding: 9.0pt .25in 9.0pt .25in;" valign="top">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mark your calendars
for a Zoom event about the “Proposed Guidelines” on January 11, 2024, at 7pm
eastern if you would like to know more.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
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<td style="padding: 9.0pt .25in 9.0pt .25in;" valign="top">
<div align="center">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="background: #476584; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;" valign="top">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><a href="https://orthodoxdeaconess.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62c352974fcc61374624845c8&id=1449c25453&e=6f6b9cd6ef" target="_blank"><span style="background: #476584; border: solid white 1.5pt; color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 12.0pt;">READ THE “PROPOSED GUIDELINES”</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<td style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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</div>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<td style="padding: 9.0pt .25in 9.0pt .25in;" valign="top">
<div align="center">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="background: #E2F4E6; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;" valign="top">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><a href="https://orthodoxdeaconess.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62c352974fcc61374624845c8&id=a79b7b36f8&e=6f6b9cd6ef" target="_blank"><span style="background: #E2F4E6; border: solid white 1.5pt; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 12.0pt;">REGISTER FOR THE JANUARY 11 EVENT</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
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<td style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;">
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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</tbody></table>
</div>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If anyone would like to
read more, </span><strong><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">recordings</span></strong><strong><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></strong><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">from the keynote and sessions will soon be
available on the St Phoebe </span><a href="https://orthodoxdeaconess.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=62c352974fcc61374624845c8&id=b50d9e5eae&e=6f6b9cd6ef" target="_blank"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">YouTube Channel</span></a><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">. </span><span style="background: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-79899591358127930892023-11-21T10:16:00.000-08:002023-11-22T07:17:09.209-08:00Homily: Our Lady of the Sign<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: center;">By Sister Rebecca</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Icons
are called windows to heaven precisely because they offer us a glimpse into the
spiritual world: God’s Time, Eternal Time. In viewing an icon, we actually
commemorate the mystery it reveals. The icon of Our Lady of the Sign offers us
a mystical vision of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. <span style="background: white; color: #4d5156;">The name of the Icon comes from the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14: “The
Lord Himself will give you a sign: Listen carefully, the virgin
will conceive and give </span><em><b><span style="background: white; color: #5f6368;">birth</span></b></em><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156;"> to a </span><em><b><span style="background: white; color: #5f6368;">son</span></b></em><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156;">, and
she </span><em><b><span style="background: white; color: #5f6368;">will</span></b></em><span style="background: white; color: #4d5156;"> call his name Immanuel.”</span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"><br /><!--[endif]--></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjrCLQZzv3cP5_ccz_prOBY-9QOcppWVbP_PiuGtKaYIUCpK4T18zoxou4GcCMT5LNBbsalEE1ojnGHs3YRvyX2gOPz83uPwqlDlHvaypDwiWIIZ_wd1H5wARMjF3n7ACzamNeDW7QDenBwsPaXRUo2oZXi9-_VnEbkCXwhcuBmW7FXhOhjF0mHhxq1C8/s1344/Icon.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1344" data-original-width="1301" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjrCLQZzv3cP5_ccz_prOBY-9QOcppWVbP_PiuGtKaYIUCpK4T18zoxou4GcCMT5LNBbsalEE1ojnGHs3YRvyX2gOPz83uPwqlDlHvaypDwiWIIZ_wd1H5wARMjF3n7ACzamNeDW7QDenBwsPaXRUo2oZXi9-_VnEbkCXwhcuBmW7FXhOhjF0mHhxq1C8/s320/Icon.jpg" width="310" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Icon: Our Lady of the Sign, Holy Wisdom Nave</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The
Icon of the Theotokos of the Sign is commemorated in the Orthodox Church in
November.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Here at New Skete Monasteries,
we celebrate the feast on a Sunday close to the Feast, so that the members of our
chapel community may join in the celebration.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">One of our very good friends, Jerry Leary,
a few years ago sent me a poem he wrote at the time of the commemoration of
this particular icon: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 1in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Our
Lady of the Sign: there is an icon of a woman with a child inside her<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 1in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Some
say she holds the world, even contains the uncontainable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 1in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
feel the safety of such inwardness, then realize:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 1in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">She
is inside me—the very transformation of our being;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 1in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
am this child in her:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alpha and Omega
Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
myself would like to share with you a very meaningful and awesome experience of
this icon, which is placed in the ceiling of the Nave of our Holy Wisdom
Church. It happened during the recent funeral of the husband of one of our
chapel community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His coffin lay in the nave
of the church, directly under the Icon of the Sign.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was on one side and very close to the
coffin. Directly across from me was his 4-year-old grandson, Vincent. As soon
as the service began, Vincent ran to the coffin and leaned forward on tip-toes
so he could see his granddaddy’s face.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>After gazing at him he raised his little arm upward, pointing to the
Icon of Our Lady above us all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he
ran back to his father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, he kept
doing this throughout the whole funeral.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This must have happened at least ten times, and at the end, Vincent did
not want to bring his arm down, so his father held it up as he continued to
gaze at the Icon.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This was quite moving to me. It is was
though little Vincent was making the connection between his granddaddy lying in
the coffin and the Heavenly reality of God’s presence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His granddaddy is with God. The icon of Mary:
did he see it as a sign that his granddaddy was present in Heaven with us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who knows? Gestures are more powerful than
words; they can often be more eloquent and more true than speech.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This was not the first time I have seen this:
little children, not even two years old, being held in their mother’s or
father’s arms, with gaze fixated upward and pointing to this particular icon of
Mary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus speaks often about children:
“Let the little children come to me. Do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of
Heaven belong to such as these.” They see angels!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I invite you to focus on this revelation:
this marriage of heaven and earth that begins with the conception of Christ in
the womb of Mary, the Theotokos. God descends and takes flesh in Mary’s womb. Prior
to the actual incarnation, we have two annunciations of this stupendous mystery.
In Matthew’s gospel we hear of an angel appearing to Joseph in a dream. “Do not
fear to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived within her is from the
Holy Spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She will bear a son and you
are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We read also from Luke’s gospel another
version of the annunciation to Mary:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
angel appeared and said to her: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the
power of the Holy Spirit will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born
will be holy; he will be called Son of God.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Here, I would like to turn to some of the
commentaries by St. Ephrem of Syria on this reality in the gospel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God has become human in a womb of a
woman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>St. Ephrem focuses on this verse
from St. Luke’s Gospel: “The Holy Spirit shall come upon you and the power of
the Most High shall overshadow you.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
power of the Most High is identified with the term “overshadow.” In Syriac, it also
denotes the activity of the Holy Spirit residing in Mary, dwelling in her as in
a bridal chamber.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">St. Ephrem uses the term “overshadow” when
he refers to Christ’s divine presence in Mary’s womb but also in the
consecrated Bread and Wine of the Eucharist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>During the Divine Liturgy, the epiclesis—which in Greek means the
overshadowing of the Holy Spirit—is the time when the Holy Spirit is invoked
over the gifts. St. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ephrem goes on to
say that the consecrated bread and wine overshadows and takes up residence in
those who receive communion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each time
we receive the body and blood of Christ, we are personally being overshadowed
by the Holy Spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We become the womb
of God, rebirthing Christ in our deepest being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>An Armenian hymn on the Eucharist puts it this way: the heart of the
communicant is nothing less than the actual bridal chamber, where Christ the
Heavenly Bridegroom meets the communicant’s soul as bride.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Now he takes up residence in our minds as
well, in a spiritual fashion. Just as the residing of the Divinity in Mary’s
womb resulted in her giving birth, so too is the result of communion: when the
“hidden power” takes up residence anew in the communicant, it can also be
birthgiving. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">May this prayer from St Ephrem be an inspiration
to us: “Our minds, Lord, are barren of any birthgiving of new things. Grant
fruitfulness and birthgiving to my mind, so that we can offer our innermost
dwelling in Christ to God and through him, in our lives as well.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In these times of turmoil, are we called
forth to pray intensely for the Holy Spirit’s overshadowing, first in our own
lives, and all around us and beyond?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Christ is in our midst!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-42605882428746415722023-10-23T08:11:00.017-07:002023-10-24T08:26:53.154-07:00 Clément, Olivier. Dialogues with Patriarch Athenagoras. tr. by J. N. Ingpen. Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press. 2022 <p><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfSTRJaDgsqOQJ8TkVz7nnL_-sFVnOHfQLZ89f15878glWLrt6LJi3FYGZ1g-EcIJwpWjPGXLh3L78iyD-UIZ9PlUaYxIyGVPEhp3syqjK68Tqqxwf7XWrW-7vwBJHxsO-Cy9cWCruNeMrSL_rfZfsW24UxI2sQvEOmxzFfHL1QHEogJ1z4GK3KaEvG1c/s522/61YHpuEl8nL._SY522_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="522" data-original-width="348" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfSTRJaDgsqOQJ8TkVz7nnL_-sFVnOHfQLZ89f15878glWLrt6LJi3FYGZ1g-EcIJwpWjPGXLh3L78iyD-UIZ9PlUaYxIyGVPEhp3syqjK68Tqqxwf7XWrW-7vwBJHxsO-Cy9cWCruNeMrSL_rfZfsW24UxI2sQvEOmxzFfHL1QHEogJ1z4GK3KaEvG1c/w213-h320/61YHpuEl8nL._SY522_.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>One
of the signs of a book that could be deemed prophetic is its continued
relevance close to fifty years after its original publication. Olivier
Clément’s <i>Dialogues with</i> <i>Patriarch Athenagoras</i>, recently
translated from the French by Jeremy Ingpen, is just such a book. Set within
the framework of an intimate dialogue between Clément, an outstanding Orthodox
theologian, and Patriarch Athenagoras, the Ecumenical Patriarch from 1948 to
1972, this book opens a treasury of Orthodox reflection that we desperately need
to hear in our day. The power of the book lies in its ability to let the reader
eavesdrop on the interchange of two brilliant thinkers as they reflect on any
number of important issues, both spiritual, theological, and cultural. <o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The book is divided into three
parts. The first, “A Man Called Athenogoras,” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>gives a historical overview of the Patriarch’s
life, helping the reader to understand the context he came from. It is the tale
of a bright young man whose gifts took him from monastic profession, to service
under the bishop of Monastir, to living for a time on Mount Athos, to serving
as the chief secretary of the Holy Synod of Athens, to being elevated to the
episcopacy as Bishop of Corfu, to then being elected Archbishop of America in
1930, where he served until he was elected Patriarch of Constantinople in 1948.
Throughout his years as a bishop, not only was he known for immense pastoral
sensitivity and service, but also he was involved actively in ecumenical work,
which would serve him particularly well when he became Patriarch. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The second part of the book, “Words,”
begins the dialogue itself between Clément and the Patriarch, which took place
in 1968. It focuses on both theological and spiritual issues, showing their
relation with genuine church renewal. Topics covered include the power of
Paschal faith, the importance of ecclesiology, the significance of liturgy in
the life of the Church, renewing spirituality, the theophanic reality of
nature, as well as the Church’s attitude towards politics and its relation with
Islam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a dialogue, this section
brings the two interlocutors to life, and one senses the passion and zeal for
the faith both of them have. There were numerous times when I found myself
saying, “even in the late 1960s people were talking about this,” such as the
Patriarch’s comment that there should be the possibility of marriage (or
re-marriage) for a priest after ordination, or more broadly, bringing up the
difference between Tradition and custom. All this and much more contributes to
why this book has such a contemporary feel to it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The final section of the book, “Acts,”
focuses on the Patriarch’s passion and efforts at reconciling Christians with
each other. It provides his own insights and recollections of such momentous events
as meeting Pope Paul in Jerusalem in 1964, the lifting of the Anathemas in
December of 1965, as well as his continuing efforts to bring healing between
the Orthodox churches themselves, his encouraging them to become more involved
in the ecumenical movement, and his efforts at negotiating a meeting of all the
representatives of the Christian churches in Jerusalem, on Golgotha where they
might join in prayer that the Church be reunited. This last ambition was never
realized; however, the Patriarch’s thoughts on all manner of things ecumenical
is brought out in what I consider a nuanced and prophetic manner. Truly it is
an illuminating example of what is best in Orthodoxy, and how that has the
possibility of serving the wider Church.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">This is an important book, one that
will richly reward attentive readers with deeper insights into their faith and that
will challenge them to live that faith more seriously. The translation by
Jeremy Ingpen reads smoothly and beautifully, and because it is presented in
the form of dialogues that actually took place, it is not weighted down with
heady theology that is often difficult to penetrate for anyone but the most
seasoned theologian. Instead, it is accessible and interesting, a work that
will be of benefit to any dedicated reader. I cannot recommend the book highly
enough. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Brother Christopher<o:p></o:p></span></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-18413473719169945312023-10-23T07:40:00.007-07:002023-10-23T11:05:39.343-07:00What Is New This Fall?<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">By
Sister Cecelia<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">September 1 begins the Orthodox
liturgical new year, and that made think of all the NEW things that have
happened and will happen in the near future. It is new that the foliage is not
very spectacular this year. That is the first for me in over 50 years!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">For the first time, the
eleven apple trees in our orchard produced only one apple because of the late
freeze in the spring. For the first time, the three hazelnut trees bore nuts—and
with a very bountiful crop. We will roast our own hazelnuts for the first time.
It will be a tasty treat.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In October the monks
welcomed their second novice this year, and that is a welcome new sight.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The nuns have recently received
several inquiries seeking monastic life—so, new faces soon, perhaps.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">New faces reminds me that
in September a beautiful well-mannered German Shepherd named Tori was lent to
me to care for as long as she is in the breeding program. Our walks are energized by her running
gracefully through the fields chasing and carrying a big red ball.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmV_WuCR4pqlqNnD1Heuh1MOR81L_w-hKYOa9MXYnJkQ0ZwZ0oz26wq3s6og0WhIR19UMmAI2jDocKRhJ14NXBBCVUczxj0HIF24h-bDF8fik7TezhCAmH1HFYC3aBNhHjr0japLuheaNCHVVNPYSyWXAq5fyp1r1ZltvyrLTyR7FSLEF5Q4aX39quKYk/s402/Tori%203.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="354" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmV_WuCR4pqlqNnD1Heuh1MOR81L_w-hKYOa9MXYnJkQ0ZwZ0oz26wq3s6og0WhIR19UMmAI2jDocKRhJ14NXBBCVUczxj0HIF24h-bDF8fik7TezhCAmH1HFYC3aBNhHjr0japLuheaNCHVVNPYSyWXAq5fyp1r1ZltvyrLTyR7FSLEF5Q4aX39quKYk/s320/Tori%203.jpg" width="282" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Our fall retreat had a
new twist this year, as it was aimed specifically for the Companions of New
Skete. The retreat was both live and attended by Zoom for those who couldn’t
make it here. New activities began, too, for them, with reading and once-a-month
Zoom discussions of <i>Bread & Water, Wine & Oil </i>by Archimandrite
Meletios Webber. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">While I usually paint
icons on request, it was new that I was given an icon someone else had started
but did not intend to finish. The gesso preparation and drawing were complete,
and the halo was gilded. The drawing was of a woman saint holding a scroll.
Having no idea who the intended saint was, I did a lot of research. Saint Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist,
was one of the few icons I discovered of a woman with an open scroll. I put this
icon project on the back burner for a long time, but finally a segment of time
allowed me to complete the icon. It is newly finished, and I hope it will be a
new addition to bless the home of someone who has a felt reverence for the
mother of John the Baptist. <br /><br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJKUFPL5q-dRzkKaFkUuuAhAEWuA8nVGLKAu1csAOQejoHq1hy-Dgh5NhT1tcpkBBWTra6utXGzDOd1C2fbREBrhpYhRVhn_eKNVhHE-gFdDl21vR9yV9ZWaHPLyLxIlAA7zZop7mIWRwpR7uzYb1Dq9VKnrfIO80X5LKFF98ooxP_kNVKpAYg5BTNDow/s320/IMG_1433.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="240" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJKUFPL5q-dRzkKaFkUuuAhAEWuA8nVGLKAu1csAOQejoHq1hy-Dgh5NhT1tcpkBBWTra6utXGzDOd1C2fbREBrhpYhRVhn_eKNVhHE-gFdDl21vR9yV9ZWaHPLyLxIlAA7zZop7mIWRwpR7uzYb1Dq9VKnrfIO80X5LKFF98ooxP_kNVKpAYg5BTNDow/s1600/IMG_1433.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The trust and faith of Saint
Elizabeth is a model for all of us as we deal with all the difficulties—war,
hatred, chaos—besetting the world at large and even closer to home. It seems to be the labor of a lifetime to
acquire the path to true wisdom: the unconditional acceptance of reality in all
its contradictory complexity. This
wisdom is the kind of understanding that comes from experience and from
empathy. It is not merely the fruit of knowledge and science. It is the gift of
discernment that distinguishes what is whole from whatever is tainted by
untruth, unfreedom, or inhumanity. This wisdom leads to the nonpossessive
embrace of whatever is good, noble, and honorable. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;">
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrO4TDMl9z9rbId3ZsBLvL7p_-ar0UZ9P9LCD-dCdFw_DJCBz-sIESMtbLyJXWJ5R_J7_5r2RToqN0lQt0hP3qDCGC6dr87VX6-5nxiUfvAtoluvzg51qB6BKxE4lNv3fZnfqOWCM8JqnB48nV2tlr63nxx3z2Y-QCo-Ab06J7jXSrAWic0K7Xi2Jgt1Q/s640/IMG_1429.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrO4TDMl9z9rbId3ZsBLvL7p_-ar0UZ9P9LCD-dCdFw_DJCBz-sIESMtbLyJXWJ5R_J7_5r2RToqN0lQt0hP3qDCGC6dr87VX6-5nxiUfvAtoluvzg51qB6BKxE4lNv3fZnfqOWCM8JqnB48nV2tlr63nxx3z2Y-QCo-Ab06J7jXSrAWic0K7Xi2Jgt1Q/s320/IMG_1429.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br />New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-90498155735522680272023-09-27T05:19:00.000-07:002023-09-27T05:19:49.041-07:00Prayer as Personal Encounter<p> </p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">By Brother Vladimir<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">Metropolitan
Anthony Bloom, of blessed memory, once instructed his audience on a BBC
television series to set aside regular periods of silence for sincerely praying
this (seemingly) simple prayer: “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Help me,
O God, to put off all pretenses and to find my true self</i>.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">Since my
first encounter with this prayer, I’ve often returned to it as a way of
acquiring what the Zen tradition calls “beginner’s mind.” For in its pithy
phrasing is contained the inner dynamic of prayer as entry into a deeper, more
profound knowledge of self</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. “Enter eagerly into the treasure house that is within you,
and so you will see the things that are in heaven; for there is but one single
entry to them both,” St. Isaac the Syrian informs us. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">When
approaching this short prayer, one should tread carefully: its words, when
deeply felt and experienced, are extremely potent. There is no rule book as to
how such a prayer, pronounced with faith, will grow and evolve for any given
person. So much depends, among other factors, on the level of authenticity with
which its words are uttered and how deeply they descend into the heart—as well
on a person’s consistency and patience in persevering with it even when it
seems that “nothing is happening,” at least not on the surface.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">Recovering the “Image”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">Our
Christian tradition teaches that all human beings are born with a precious
inheritance: we are, all of us, made in the image of God. This is that pearl of
great price, the “Truth at the heart of my being” and the “wisdom deep within”
(Psalm 51(50):6, New Skete Translation). However, it is also a fact of life
that this pearl gets covered over by many layers of grime and dirt. The woman
who has lost the silver coin (Luke 15:8-10) - the coin that symbolizes the deep
self as made in the image of God - has to light a lamp, sweep the house, and
search carefully until she finds it. And what is that luminescent lamp that
helps her to re-discover it if not interior prayer repeated within the heart’s deepest
chambers?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">Metropolitan
Anthony offers another evocative image to describe the action of prayer.
Imagine, he says, a magnificent and very ancient wall fresco. Over the
centuries this fresco has been painted over by individuals who, in not
perceiving the stunning beauty of the original painting, have tastelessly
covered it over with supposed improvements and kitschy flourishes. The
deceptively simple prayer that he offers, when it begins to penetrate deep
inside us, is like a slowly acting solution that begins to eat away at those
thick layers of exterior dross, starting very gradually to offer glimpses of
the original wall fresco that has always remained intact underneath the
surface.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">St.
Theophan the Recluse, an Orthodox saint of the 19th century who had a masterful
grasp of human psychology, once succinctly wrote that the essence of prayer is
to “stand before God with the mind in the heart.” An incredible amount of
wisdom can be unpacked from that statement (which there is no space to go into
now). For present purposes, it is enough to say that often the biggest
challenge in prayer is to figure out <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">which</i>
self will stand before God in the first place. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">To begin
to discover the “innermost self” (which is what the Christian tradition refers
to as the heart or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nous</i>), hiding
somewhere in between all of the public personas and “surface selves” is
precisely the point of Metropolitan Anthony’s prayer. He said: “We think that
we are standing before God in all truth, whereas we are putting forward someone
who is not our real self, who is an actor, a sham, a stage personality. Every
one of us is a variety of persons at the same time…we are different according
to circumstances and surroundings: the various people that meet us know us as
different persons.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">Like the
Gerasene demoniac described in the Gospels, we too can say that our “name is
Legion; for we are many” (Mark 5:9). To use the language of modern psychology,
we consist of multiple subpersonalities and play many roles, some of which are
quite discordant and most of which are activated without our conscious
knowledge. Even a mild experience of hunger can alter how we think, feel, and
act. This is one meaning of Jesus bemoaning a “perverse generation” (Matthew
17:17). Being “perverse” really refers to having a heart that goes off in many
different directions, constantly pulled this way and that. As we are, we think
one thing, feel another, say a third, and do something else entirely. It is no
wonder that our lives can feel so chaotic when the head, heart, and gut have
not been integrated.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">Pretenses
need not be exaggerated versions of phoniness; they extend very far down and
can be very subtle, difficult to detect in ourselves. Often we require others
to point out our blind spots. If “pretense” sounds too harsh, we can think of
distorting lenses that bias what we see when we look inside and outside. This
allows a person to deny, edit, and distort reality as it is, so as to feel more
comfortable. We sometimes drink, take drugs, engage in “retail therapy,” over-intellectualize,
or otherwise do things (like judge others and take pleasure in their
misfortune) to escape reality and feel better about ourselves. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">According
to one line of thinking, the personality is a multilayered network of such
distorting lenses, with different degrees of filtering capacity. To quote
Meister Eckhart: “</span><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #101010; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">A human being has so many
skins inside, covering the depths of the heart. We know so many things, but we
don't know ourselves! Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, as thick and hard as
an ox's or bear's, cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know
yourself there.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #101010; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #101010; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">Most of
those skins that Meister Eckhart mentions were initially formed because they
had a useful function to perform—or they may even continue to perform useful
functions—but they can be so many obscuring veils when we desire to enter into
a deeper personal relationship with God.</span><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">God, to
use a certain phrasing, is reality as it is, so to deny reality is to deny God.
To begin to shed those layers built up throughout our lives is to let go of our
elaborate defense mechanisms. When our defenses relax even a little, then the
heart becomes more sensitive, and we catch glimpses of another consciousness
and awareness, where we experience ourselves not as lonely and isolated
individuals struggling to escape from persistent sources of dissatisfaction but
as immersed in an ongoing communion with God’s uncreated energies of love.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock” (Revelation 3:20): our choice is to
either open the door and allow ourselves to be found or to keep it closed. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">So the
first step in praying Metropolitan Anthony’s “simple” prayer is a great “coming
home to one self,” an in-gathering and concentration of all our vital forces
from their outward dispersal, so that they can begin to cohere or collect
themselves into some kind of wholeness. We are, in fact, “re-membering”
ourselves on an inner level. When recollection grows stronger we can sense our
innermost self being irradiated by an entirely other source of light and
warmth. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">There is
a raw and tender vulnerability in allowing our innermost self to be seen by the
“eye” of God. “O Lord, examine me and know me yourself, You know when I sit
still and when I move about; you read my mind even from afar” (Psalm
139(138):1-2, New Skete Translation). “O Lord, you know my every desire; my
sighs are no secret to you” (Psalm 38(37):9, New Skete Translation). A legion
of desires (often contradictory) lurks in the murky depths of our subconscious
mind. Some of them are less salutary and wholesome than others. Being seen at
that level requires uncompromising self-honesty; it requires a willingness to
bare our wounds, not as an exercise in masochism but in order to invite God’s
loving glance to penetrate into these secret recesses. An increase of light
(consciousness) can begin a very gradual process of healing and fostering a
growth of our life in Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">As the
Romanian schema-nun Mother Siluana put it in her wonderful book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">God, Where is the Wound?</i> when we pray
during the Divine Liturgy to commend all our life to Christ we are consenting
to invite Christ down into the furthest depths of our subconscious mind, to
allow ourselves to open and be transformed by grace. We are not just presenting
our conscious self-evaluation, which is ever-occupied with conducting its own
public relations campaign to make itself appear self-justified and in the right.
Christ came to save us in our brokenness, not our imagined saintliness. As
Metropolitan Anthony said on another occasion, and here I am paraphrasing from
my memory: “God can save the sinner that you are, but not the saint you pretend
to be.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">The truth
inside of our being is that we are both fragmented <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> whole, both broken<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> and</i>
healed, both sinner <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> saint. Our
task is to realize this consciously and to be able to live from it, even in
times when the storms of life bear down on us. Peter was able to walk on the
stormy waters until he took his eyes off Christ and began to sink into those
frigid, turbulent waters. The ability to simultaneously hold and honor the
ultimate paradox (or mystery) of a reconciliation of opposites is the beginning
of an authentic feeling of sacredness. In the Orthodox tradition, mention is
made of a “joyous sorrow” that infuses a repentant heart at prayer. This joyous
sorrow is what we feel in those moments when we can allow ourselves to be
absolutely shattered by the tragic beauty of life: the beauty of God’s image
that is hidden in our depths and a vivid realization of how far off the mark
we’ve come in actually incarnating that beauty in our life, along with the hope
of growing more fully into this call throughout a lifetime. The countenance of
many of the saints depicted in icons bears witness to this joyous sorrow. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #101010; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">A Few Closing Reflections<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #101010; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #101010; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">Here is
just one more thing to mention, based on my experience with Metropolitan
Anthony’s prayer. And that has to do with answering the question “How do I know
if it’s working?” When prayer is sincerely felt, felt by the whole body, and
when, as St. Theophan and other Holy Fathers and Mothers say, the prayer
descends into the heart, then it will inevitably set in motion tremors that reverberate
throughout one’s life, inner and outer. It often seems that to sense these
vibrations and tremors requires that we quiet the whirling “monkey mind” that
is constantly jumping around from thought to thought or finding itself
engrossed in one external happening after another. As </span><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">Metropolitan Anthony </span><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #101010; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">put it: “Too often we are immersed in what is happening
around us, all the unnecessaries we gather from the wireless, television,
newspapers…” In our day, this digital distraction is now “on steroids.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #101010; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #101010; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">But if we
sharpen our intuitive sense, become receptive to the inner world, and open
ourselves to receive, then something may begin to reach us. The tremors and
vibrations set in motion by prayers like this often manifest themselves in
insights, realizations that can arrive as brief glimpses that ultimately
facilitate lasting change (or what our tradition calls <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">metanoia</i></span><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">—</span><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #101010; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">a positive transformation of one’s way of existing) by
giving us a different perspective, a “big picture.” These illuminations can
come at the most unexpected times, so one has to be vigilant enough to notice
their flashes. Christ extorts us to watch and pray.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #101010; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #101010; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">Speaking
personally, these insights often reveal ways in which I’ve been trying
desperately, usually unconsciously, to cling to some recurring attitude or
pattern of behaving, thinking, or feeling that, even if it was once useful, is
now causing more harm than good to self and others. A deeply intuited insight
that cuts to the core then gives permission to, at least temporarily, shed one
more layer of pretense or inauthenticity. Instantly there comes a sense of
release, relief, joy; a feeling of lightness (of light!) grows stronger, and
the darkness retreats a little more. Some new burst of life energy becomes
available again, instead of remaining stagnant. Such insights are very special.
They are a kind of food for nourishing the growth of our spiritual being. Maybe
they are a way of very gradually building that interior spiritual, “glorified
body” that St. Paul speaks of. Just as our physical, carnal bodies require food
for sustenance, another type of food is required to nurture an inner growth, of
some crystallized deposit that grows as our spiritual being matures. Other
sources of such nourishment come from regular participation in liturgical
worship, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lectio divina</i>,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>and maybe most strongly through a
conscious participation in the Holy Mysteries (Sacraments) of the Church.
Growth of spiritual being has no end. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><s><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></o:p></span></s></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><a name="_heading=h.gjdgxs"></a><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">God, in Christ (the Logos, Word, Truth, Wisdom, and
Grace), seeks ceaselessly to be allowed to enter into our life, based on our
freely given responses to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. However strongly
we may thirst and desire to discover God, we can be sure that God has an
infinitely stronger desire to seek out you and me. It is us, not God, who need
to free up the time and attention to be present for this intimate and sacred
rendezvous. It was Christ’s disciples who kept falling into slumber at Gethsemane
(Matthew 26:33-43). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><a name="_heading=h.kmgoclnxmpt5"></a><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><a name="_heading=h.k8pf2s8ptwd4"></a><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;">The Parable of the Prodigal Son teaches us that God the
Father never stops looking for us and waiting for us to take small steps toward
the Kingdom of Heaven. When we begin to follow the Spirit’s gentle stirrings,
there is no telling where they might eventually lead us in the circumstances of
our own life journey—but these stirrings of the breeze are also the
exhilaration of becoming a living human person in a teeming, holy, living, and
luminous cosmos that strives to become aware of itself through us. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span lang="EN" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-highlight: white;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-77065290795030107502023-07-26T09:02:00.004-07:002023-07-26T09:02:43.511-07:00A Quiet Rhythm<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">By Brother Vladimir</span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></p><div style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Note:</span></span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> this is a description of my experiences in the first month of moving back to the Northeast to be closer to New Skete. The transition from the frenetic noise of Silicon Valley to the stillness of rural upstate New York was startling. During this writing, I lived in a log cabin in Salem, New York, and drove to New Skete for daily morning and evening services.<br /></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqH-7GyUc3fDemyE3tv3s8cG6mhsLROfx9WDTv943H0VLGnUbe12VSZ1eRONTfrUr1zb0kFC6fihUvxgwImBkkTnEqrhqRW2-GarqFMBYEo_4V_aMmMQw98KQZJmfqyqXJrApMZRk33W8kegzxTZdCqUHWkicZmx9Q7NNMinacmdyPltUz-NgH00d26hY/s4032/6595917E-E8DB-462E-B379-247491116277.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #2288bb; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqH-7GyUc3fDemyE3tv3s8cG6mhsLROfx9WDTv943H0VLGnUbe12VSZ1eRONTfrUr1zb0kFC6fihUvxgwImBkkTnEqrhqRW2-GarqFMBYEo_4V_aMmMQw98KQZJmfqyqXJrApMZRk33W8kegzxTZdCqUHWkicZmx9Q7NNMinacmdyPltUz-NgH00d26hY/s320/6595917E-E8DB-462E-B379-247491116277.jpeg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: small; line-height: 14.95px;"> </span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">The rhythms of life are more tangible when a person lives in the country. Surrounded by rolling hills, expanses of forests, and mountains, the imagination gradually becomes purified of the dross; stripped of the heavy images that have been deposited there, often without our knowledge. The inner life gradually becomes clarified like fresh spring water. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> Sensory impressions are a subtle food for the soul no less than the physical food we ingest and the invisible air we breathe. So often we fail to regulate what we absorb, and the quality of our impressions is too coarse, too heavy, unrefined, or downright toxic. The colors of nature, the gentle horizons and sloping hillsides, the quiet and peace—all of this is like a soothing balm, a form of therapy that bathes the nerves of our chronically over-stimulated nervous systems. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">And then there is another rhythm: the cycle of daily liturgical services. Interspersing the periods of work and solitary contemplation are these communal events, the collective bookends that frame each day: early in the morning, and around sunset. These primordial rhythms are like a sundial, carving up the ordinary day into radiant slices. An immersive rhythm that encourages a gentle inward turn and helps to reinvigorate the consistent and loving effort to cleanse our hearts and souls, not only for ourselves but for all others. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> To pray from the heart, with sincerity, for our relatives and friends, living and departed, yes, but also for the poor, the oppressed, those in prisons, hospitals, the homeless and the mistreated. It is all here in these services: the beauty of senses in the soft glow of candles, the fragrant aroma of incense, the vibrant colors of the icons, and the sonorous chants. The words of the daily prayers and slow meditative reading of Holy Scripture spreads a nutritive net that exerts its wholesome influence throughout the depths of our being.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">Sources of Daily Renewal <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> Collective worship is sustained by the roots of one’s intention and consistency in cultivating personal prayer time. Preparing the soil of the heart, before and after the formal services inside the church, fosters a receptive environment within which the prayers and hymns can take root. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">The first hour or so upon waking sets the ground for the entire day, informing how we receive and digest our impressions. There is something very tender about rising early in the morning, ideally before the sun is up. The time to become naturally recollected within. The pause to enter into meditation, and the soft reading of sacred poetry and scripture that prepares the soil within, and plumbs deep wells of renewal and life. Early in the morning, the mind is settled, clear, and full of spontaneous bubbling up of gratitude—gratitude simply for being alive. What more could we ask for?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">“Blest be this morning for the joy it affords us to stand before you once more, O Lord…” (Matins prayer of Thanksgiving, Sighs of the Spirit, NS).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">The gentle words of these early morning prayers, full of child-like innocence, gradually kindle warmth from deep within the core: "Now that you have raised me from bed and sleep, O Lord, fill my mind and heart with light...."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">The most mundane of life's rituals can become shot through with meaning and purpose when met with receptive attention instead of an agitated focus on productivity and efficiency. Creating intentional pauses just to smell the freshly ground coffee beans or to feel the warm liquid tea making its way down to the belly are more than adequate opportunities to feel incommensurate amounts of contentment and satisfaction when the light of attention is allowed to shine on these activities. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;"> From the cabin it is about a 40-minute drive to the monastery for the Matins (morning) service. Driving over, through rolling hills and forests, just as the sun is rising, is a very special, tranquil, and almost mystical feeling. There's a hushed peace that covers everything. Like a receding tide, the darkness withdraws to reveal the beauty of the natural landscapes here and the beginning of a new dawn.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">“Be blest for the mountains and valleys, for the lakes and rivers and streams, for the forests, deserts, and plains and all that inhabits them…” (Matins prayer of Thanksgiving, Sighs of the Spirit, NS). "How manifold are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you wrought them all! The earth overflows with your riches!" (Psalm 104[103]:24). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">The belly and heart naturally start to open and come to life like a budding plant, and radiate from the interior, increasing feeling for the subtle depths that can be so easily covered over during the busyness of the afternoons. All of us are tired travelers, and the dust of life clings to us. It is important to make regular appointments and leave reminders to ourselves that we need to brush all that dust off so as to become available to meet reality with a dynamic freshness. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">The liturgical services have a potent healing power, but we must be attentive and receptive in order to fully receive what they offer us. The luminous words of the prayers, Psalms, and sung hymns (troparia and kondakia) are like regular infusions of liquid light that rejuvenate and effect the deep healing of the soul. The words are poetic, but they are rather like translucent shells, the outer coating of a vitamin pill, within which is encased a far more subtle and potent power—a spiritual energy that is invisible but palpable.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">If the words are followed with attention they allow one to tap into this reservoir of spiritual energies, to sense and touch exalted feelings that are far above the sentimentality of emotions and far above even the aesthetic beauty of the externals. The beauty simply leads one to this inner kernel of radiance like a trail of breadcrumbs, to an elusive center point where a greater life in-flows into our deep self. In feeling our way into these currents of vitality that reside inside the prayers and sacred hymns, we move past words to the ineffable sensations that glow through them. The spiritual energies being alluded to are precisely our “daily bread” that can nourish us from the depths as we go about our daily activities. But that nourishment requires allowing the outward forms to penetrate deeper inside and to slowly sink from the head to the heart.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">Throughout that process, we can also become aware of all those obscurations that normally prevent us from being in direct contact with and participating in these spiritual energies and from allowing our lives to be perfumed by their fragrance on a more regular basis. Usually we become aware of this in flashes of insight that can go by so quickly that they’re hardly noticed. How often do we stay stuck at the surface of ourselves? Doesn’t our life energy often get tied up in knots and leak away from us in the hundreds of inane thoughts, worries, and hang-ups throughout the day? How often do we literally scatter away our life force in unnecessary commitments, in meandering day-dreams, meaningless deadlines, and self-imposed expectations? To hold grievances, to feel “owed” by life, to hang on to the same old limiting beliefs and nagging anxieties, to be incapable of forgiving ourselves and others…these are the invisible enemies that steal the gift of life from us. And yet it’s all so preventable. You can always get your life back. But unless we are careful and vigilant, attentive to our own interiority, we could so easily miss the beauty of it all.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">Daily participation in liturgical services inspires an interior commitment: to living more mindfully, to making a consistent effort to “prime the pump,” and to clean the heart on a regular basis. This very day and moment is the perfect time for a good spring cleaning. The more we cultivate seeds of gratitude, the more opportunity they will have to grow and eventually to sprout green shoots and multicolored fruits. Who knows what fruits we still have to offer to this world that we’ve scarcely imagined are even possible? What hidden talents are just waiting, hoping that one day we'll notice them and give them some time and care? Let us give ourselves the love of attention and curiosity. Can we allow ourselves to become as children again, eager to wake up and begin another day? “Each morning fill us with your love, that we may jump for joy and gladness all our lives (Psalm 90[89]:14).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">Dusk and evening mark another turning point. The darkness in the country is deep and regal. Sitting alone by a burning candle, in silence and reverent awe before the sheer gratuity of having gone through yet another day. For however many years of the lifespan are given to us, to honor this gift we’ve been given, that we can never have sufficient gratitude for and appreciate adequately in all its grandeur and improbability. This is what we honor.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">The words of an evening prayer are like a lullaby:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 15.18px; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">"Blest be your name, O Lord, now and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to its setting, praised be your holy name!" </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">(Vespers prayer of Thanksgiving, Sighs of the Spirit, NS).</span></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-21511399810850301432023-06-29T07:30:00.009-07:002023-06-29T14:06:07.532-07:00A Strong Ministry Continues<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">By
Brother Gregory</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Back in 1983, a group of
chapel community members at New Skete felt very strongly about the monastic
witness lived by the monks and nuns of New Skete. These married couples wanted
to join in a closer relationship with the monks and nuns as a third monastic
community, and they became known as the Companions of New Skete. With their
financial resources and the help of the monks and nuns, Emmaus House was built
on the property of the monks’ monastery. For the next 30 years, the Companions
at Emmaus House added their voices and zeal to the witness of New Skete as a
monastic presence in America. The Companions helped in many ways with the hard
work needed to keep New Skete alive. They painted icons, trained dogs in the
Adult Dog Training Program, made dog biscuits, added their singing voices to
the daily monastic services, offered hospitality to guests visiting New Skete,
and gave in so many other ways that the Companions developed their own ministry
identity. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">One
special gift that the Companions offered at Emmaus House was the gift of
hospitality to those wanting to visit New Skete, to rest and renew their
relationship with God and New Skete. Over the years, some Companions stayed and
some left, but this made no difference because Emmaus House was built on the
hard work of all the Companions no matter how short or long they stayed as
Companions at Emmaus House. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In
time, the winter months took a toll on the last two Companions, Br Stephen and Sr
Melanie, and they decided in 2014 to leave Emmaus House and find housing that
was closer to medical resources around the Albany, New York, area. The Emmaus
House property was placed under the monks’ care. This was not the end of the
ministry at Emmaus House but just another turn in the continued ministry of
hospitality that had been offered by the Companions since 1983. In 2013 the
original building built by the monks, which later became the monks’ guest
house, was torn down to make room for the new Maurice Sendak Dog Training Center.
Emmaus House, along with the surrounding property, was now the answer to the
need for a space to accommodate the guests who had increased in numbers over the
years. Guests coming to New Skete for the first time, anticipating sparse
monastic guest rooms, are surprised to see and enjoy the suite guest rooms—each
with bedroom, sitting room, and private bathroom—thanks to the Companions of
Emmaus House. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Last
year, in July 2022, the monks temporarily closed Emmaus House to guests because
the cloister (bedroom area of the monks’ monastery) badly needed some
renovations. The monks moved into Emmaus House, and so did seven dogs. In some
bedrooms the wall-to-wall carpeting took a bad beating from the canine
residents, so it was decided that at the end of June of this year, Emmaus House
will be professionally cleaned. As the guest brother for the monks I have
received numerous emails asking when Emmaus House will open back up to receive guests.
We hope that the professional cleaning will go well and the hospitality
ministry started by the Companions at Emmaus House will resume after July 5. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Thanks
to Sr Melanie, the last Companion at Emmaus House, and all the other Companions at Emmaus House for their love and hard work in their witness to the monastic
life and for the ministry of hospitality at Emmaus House they began years ago.<o:p></o:p></span></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-78759560396988510592023-05-31T15:21:00.004-07:002023-05-31T15:21:51.142-07:00Liberty and Belonging<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">By
Br Brennan</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Just over a year ago I
was planning an early retirement with an eye to monastic life. While I can’t
say that I had one of those great careers and was at the top of my game, I had
come to know some really amazing people over my years in the last job. Among
those, I always enjoyed truly close relationships marked by great mutual
respect. However, I was also one of those artists with a day job, and as a dancer/instructor/choreographer
I had come to notice in recent years a certain status of “esteemed eldership” of
sorts (at least in my particular genre, that of East European ethnic dance),
however awkward I felt about it. After numerous visits to New Skete over the
years, I knew the transition to postulancy and novitiate would involve quite a
shake-up in my sense of self. And I was correct.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">First, I was not going to
jump in and wow anyone with any diligence, knowledge, or finesse, as I might
try to do in a new job. All I could do was pay attention, and learn what this
new life and lifestyle were about, which required pretty much doing whatever I
was asked to do. Of the several jobs a monk might do here—cooking/kitchen work,
shopping, cleaning, maintenance, puppy kennel—I was assigned dog training, the
one for which I felt (by far) the least qualified. While we had dogs in my
family life years earlier, I was not the dog trainer, nor really a dog lover
(although I liked dogs and did my share of caring for them). But dogs are our
business here, and I knew that, so I had to go where I was needed. And I just
learned, day by day, from Brother Christopher and a staff of very kind and
talented trainers. I learned that dogs are a pretty special species, bred for
millennia as companions for humans. I was really the one who needed to learn
how to reciprocate properly the human component of the relationship.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One of the most amazing
gifts of being here has been that of Liberty (no, not like the freedom from
temptations and attachments we strive for in monastic practice). Liberty is a
5-year-old female German Shepherd in our breeding program, who shows up for her
morning petting and ear-scratch right after the alarm, and promptly returns to
her bed until I come back with my coffee. She was already very well trained by
others, so I had to up my game to keep up!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The greatest gift to me,
though, is this sense of belonging, which grows every day. I rise each morning
to a life of communal prayer and work, within a community long devoted to an
authentic monastic life of prayer and work responsive to the spiritual hunger
of today. Early on, I was also blessed with the duties of sacristan. Each
morning and evening, I arrive early to prepare the church for the service, which
allows me some time alone for prayer. In those few minutes by myself, I have
time to ponder, restfully, my new life here. My prayers of gratitude continue
to be many. In the stillness, amid this year’s changes and the challenges of all
these things new, I always find myself repeating the words of the psalm: “I
love the beauty of your house, Lord. I love the place where your glory resides.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9tdxn8V0dcQ6TTRKhbDv9fvAWCBCcZbvYytYeiw3_BVL8oQxmrSvMlzv-OdjTWfntoFpILSSk-DqbxEPZ1whDgomI5hTTbKY3MlfkSuJLqJLATndY9ymVIqwEj-rfCc5V9E01rOzcYzKDprymEU7lvmcdbhurKveRM4CBL9argga_9_feEgt9YdOm/s1027/Br%20B%20and%20Liberty.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="987" data-original-width="1027" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9tdxn8V0dcQ6TTRKhbDv9fvAWCBCcZbvYytYeiw3_BVL8oQxmrSvMlzv-OdjTWfntoFpILSSk-DqbxEPZ1whDgomI5hTTbKY3MlfkSuJLqJLATndY9ymVIqwEj-rfCc5V9E01rOzcYzKDprymEU7lvmcdbhurKveRM4CBL9argga_9_feEgt9YdOm/s320/Br%20B%20and%20Liberty.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brother Brennan and Liberty in front of Transfiguration Temple</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-71795021788324114742023-03-23T12:22:00.005-07:002023-03-23T13:02:51.031-07:00In-Person Snowstorms and Retreats<p> </p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">By
Ida Williams<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">The
vintage phrase “in like a lion, out like a lamb” comes to mind as I think about
March 2023.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <br /></span><br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>After a three-year hiatus from
hosting the Lenten retreat in person, the monks and nuns decided it was once
again time to gather with friends old and new to share monastic perspectives on
the Great Lent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The date of March 18th was
selected, and the title for the conference was determined: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tilling the Lenten Soil.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <br /></span><br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I felt a little rusty in my
role as event coordinator for this retreat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Getting the word out, setting up pre-registration, planning meals, and
staging the settings for maximum occupancy—all the while keeping in mind the
need for ample space so everyone felt comfortable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All planning went well, and we met our goal
of 40 people registered for the retreat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
<br /></span><br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As any seasoned event
planner knows, you have to watch the weather forecast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>News outlets and online weather sources were
predicting a severe weather event for March 14th: heavy, wet snowfall and high
winds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, they got it
right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our area reported snowfall up to
36 inches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tree branches fell on power
lines, and New Skete was not spared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thanks to the National Grid linemen, power was restored the next day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">BUT, no internet, no phones. ETA for
restoration: Saturday, March 18th between 10 am and 12 pm.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">An email went out to all registered
attendees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The best way to contact
anyone at the monastery was via email, and we apologized in advance for delays
in responding because we needed to leave the mountain to retrieve
messages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <br /></span><br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The second part of the email
was in regard to parking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The snow was
not melting quickly. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we’ve mentioned
in previous newsletters, the monks’ monastery is under renovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the construction materials and equipment
occupying the space we would typically use for overflow parking during events,
I was concerned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thanks to the good
folks who plow the monastery, Josh skillfully snow-blowing paths, and attendees
carpooling when possible, parking was not a problem.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>March 18th arrived, and it was a
beautiful day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Partly sunny skies, highs
in the mid 40’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The day went without a
hitch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Following Matins, guests were
invited into the monks’ dining room for a light breakfast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sister Rebecca started the conference with
her talk “Revisiting the Garden of My Inner Life: Listening and Receiving the
‘Seeds’ of the Word of God.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After her
talk, she guided attendees in a time of silent meditation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lunch was served, and the Moroccan Chickpea
Stew was a hit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many asked for the
recipe, and you will find a link to it at the bottom of this article.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Next, Brother Gregory gave a short talk on
the history of New Skete, a tour of Holy Wisdom Church, and a surprise visit to
the puppy kennel to meet the puppies that would be going home the following
weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The final conference of the day
was by Brother Christopher: “Transforming Everyday Life through Spiritual
Practice.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were not able to record
the presentations as we had planned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At
some point we will recreate Brother Christopher’s presentation and have it
available for online viewing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">The day came and went, and yet, still no
internet or phones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Upon further
investigation, Verizon crews found that a pine tree had fallen and taken down
the fiberoptic cable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On Monday, March
20th, the updated report was that several thousand feet of cable was on the
ground and that the area in the woods where the cable runs looked like a war
zone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On Tuesday, five Verizon trucks
lined the road to the monastery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A large
spool of fiberoptic cable, as big as a kitchen table, was ready to be
installed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By 5 pm the fiberoptic cable
had been run, and the workers were waiting for the connectors to arrive to
finish the job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At 8:30 pm, internet and
phones were back on at the monks’ monastery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yay!!!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">My hope… March departs like a lamb.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Easy
Moroccan Chickpea Stew (</span><a href="https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/easy-moroccan-chickpea-stew"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/easy-moroccan-chickpea-stew</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 12pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixhYWuHP3t5_zHhq1BcZUeikZqpIMBvPETqm7d7RxumH4q57zVa59j3eDJCfF5KYROEsUTZk0JyuoB-9EtzsAh97r4Wdz1aj4_vJdyCrNb4D-WbdrY6OsR4FXyeO1K-tmI4H1rKOQArBnGEI79g0E_UMn3NA-rh52IDh7-ipZGYu-As8djtFyJRk4s/s2016/IMG_6456.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2016" data-original-width="1512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixhYWuHP3t5_zHhq1BcZUeikZqpIMBvPETqm7d7RxumH4q57zVa59j3eDJCfF5KYROEsUTZk0JyuoB-9EtzsAh97r4Wdz1aj4_vJdyCrNb4D-WbdrY6OsR4FXyeO1K-tmI4H1rKOQArBnGEI79g0E_UMn3NA-rh52IDh7-ipZGYu-As8djtFyJRk4s/s320/IMG_6456.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht5vKdmPPE6RSZvwj4KfnoHHsfncxtyvFYnCEuSPBqthS67c69isZwawHjLH3FgVsWGKscad81__kIhxbWR9nGAsY7dm8qbZhBBVAeG3W2i7A27HN2Dn0HAxijlKrs3f4SQQ17jFMw2WGKBWJunnhe-dvFvtPnFGZohTC8tc_UxlnbI6FOZVAoaEnh/s1641/IMG_6457.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1641" data-original-width="1510" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht5vKdmPPE6RSZvwj4KfnoHHsfncxtyvFYnCEuSPBqthS67c69isZwawHjLH3FgVsWGKscad81__kIhxbWR9nGAsY7dm8qbZhBBVAeG3W2i7A27HN2Dn0HAxijlKrs3f4SQQ17jFMw2WGKBWJunnhe-dvFvtPnFGZohTC8tc_UxlnbI6FOZVAoaEnh/s320/IMG_6457.jpg" width="294" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span><p></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-835474625398892322023-03-23T12:08:00.002-07:002023-03-23T12:08:49.134-07:00Time Flies . . .<p> </p>
<p align="center" class="Standard" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .05in; text-align: center;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By Ralph
Karow<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .05in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Typically one would finish the
phrase with “when you’re having fun.” I was thinking more along the lines of
“when you’re not really paying attention to it.” I haven’t really been paying
any attention to time since I came to New Skete and was recently reminded that
I had my three-year anniversary in January. As part of a recognitory email, Sr.
Cecelia wrote, “Maybe the next newsletter article: what three years can show
one?” which got me thinking, what if I hadn’t stayed at New Skete all this
time?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .05in; text-indent: 35.45pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Certainly I would
have been very time conscious and very busy “doing things” as opposed to “just
being.” The plan back then was to get an MA in Orthodox Theology from St.
Vladimir’s Seminary so that I could write a thesis stemming from an
understanding of the Trinity <i>being</i> perfect harmony. And the idea behind
the thesis was to put forth a theological basis for an evangelical apostolic
community. But not just any community; the intention was, and still is, to draw
musicians and dancers from both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox
Churches that would evangelize through very specific forms of their respective
arts. And to make it even more difficult, I wanted support from both Churches
to do this as a joint venture as a step toward healing the nearly 1,000 year
old schism. Had I followed that route, I’d already have the MA and most likely
would have gone to Fordham for a PhD in philosophy, where again, I would have
been very narrowly confined to a thesis topic. But <i>by George …</i> I’d have
accomplished something … and been chipping away at the goal! By staying here,
I’ve “done” nothing, and my life has gone to the dogs … literally! Or has it?</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .05in; text-indent: 35.45pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At best, the theses
on the Trinity <i>being</i> perfect harmony would have been written in an
environment where some theologians would have had to read my ideas and spend
time with them in order to understand them. I did not and do not want to create
a “theology of harmony.” All I was hoping to point out was that this conception
is a refinement of existing doctrine and would necessitate a change to the
Nicene Creed. Not something for me to do, but the Churches themselves. Or is
it?</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .05in; text-indent: 35.45pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Somewhere in the
course of writing this article, along with other correspondence, this just
flowed out from under my fingers:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .05in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I/We
believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, <u>loving radiance of
the perfect harmony of Beauty and Truth, which have been more deeply revealed
to us in the persons of the Father and the Son.</u> Who with the Father and the
Son is . . . .</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .05in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I hadn’t been consciously
thinking about the Creed, but I have been trying to pursue a Funeral Mass along
the lines of what I wrote about last year. Six months ago, my parish in
Manhattan rejected the idea. That should have knocked me for a loop, but the
only thing that changed was to evolve the idea beyond the Catholic Church and
think of an ecumenical setting. My thoughts were to pitch the idea with the
suggestion that a new liturgy be written from the perspective of pre-Nicene
theology, only with the caveat of the Trinity <i>being </i>perfect harmony. I
was going to leave the text of the liturgy to whoever picked up on the whole
idea of the mass; but with this gift of a refinement to the Nicene Creed,
there’s no reason to rehash what the early Fathers had already resolved. A new
liturgical text can start with the change to the one clause that led to the
great theological schism between East and West. I’m still not prepared to write
a liturgical text, but my thoughts have already drifted to the Eucharistic
celebration. What we partake in is a miracle on the order of what happened at
the wedding in Canaan and the multiplication of the loaves some 2,000 years
ago. Orthodox theology speaks of the real presence of Christ in the bread and
wine. Catholic theology calls for transubstantiation, while there is a variety
of beliefs among Protestants. I don’t doubt the reality of us consuming the
actual body (glorified, not human) and blood of Christ in some manner, but I
readily admit that up to now I’ve just accepted it and have never really tried
to comprehend it.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .05in; text-indent: 35.45pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I used to think the
same about the Trinity, though, and sometimes wonder if my reluctance to even
think about it “egged God on” to make that the cornerstone of my faith. Now, of
course, that’s got me curious to see whether the “loving radiance” will build
on a once rejected stone and lead to a deeper appreciation of what we eat and
drink. It’s completely beyond me, but might the Spirit whisper something that
could possibly open the miracle of that sacrament to be shared by all the
churches? If that’s the case, I wouldn’t even care whether my setting of the
Requiem is used for the mass. There could be an entirely different text needing
to be scored, and somebody else can set it. It doesn’t matter. All of my
initial ideas could have just been bait to lure me onto a narrower and hidden
path that I would have missed had I been busily sticking to my intended route.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .05in; text-indent: 35.45pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And I think that’s
what the three years have shown me. We most definitely have a general idea of
where God is (or isn’t) in our lives, where God does (or doesn’t) want us to
go, and what our limitations (or horizons) are. The problem for me, at least,
was/is trying live with God <i>within</i> my limitations. I can get degrees,
live in a monastery, write articles and emails and do everything within <i>my</i>
power to keep on the path I know I should be on, knowing that God is with <i>me</i>;
and that’s my “problem”—a lack of faith. I have absolute faith that God is with
me in whatever <i>I’m</i> <i>doing</i>, but it’s very difficult to just <i>be</i>
while God does the <i>doing.</i> What I’m realizing while writing this
paragraph, though, is that God being with “me in <i>my</i> endeavors”<i> </i>is
only a concession to my limitations in order to forgive them and move me beyond
them so that I can see the horizons in which God truly lives.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .05in; text-indent: 35.45pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I can’t call an
ecumenical council to rule on my amendment to the Creed any more than I can get
a mulberry bush to uproot itself. Only the Spirit can move Patriarchs and the
Pope to call a council, though probably not as easily as the Spirit swirling
the winds into a cyclone to uproot the bush and plop it down in the ocean. But
a council is what would be needed to heal the rift. A couple of theses wouldn’t
accomplish that. Could presenting a new liturgical text with definitive (though
somewhat puzzling) statements in the context of an ecumenical mass, however,
reach a wide enough audience to put some wheels in motion? I don’t know, and I
don’t think I need to know. I just have to decide whether I need to have faith
in it while it plots its own course for me to follow in its wake.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .05in; text-indent: 35.45pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Three years ago I
came to and remained at New Skete on faith, and it almost immediately opened
new horizons to me. What I guess I need to be careful of now is once again
fencing new horizons within my limitations. I can’t be too hard on myself,
since we see the Apostles do it time and time again in the Gospels, but I do
have to keep reminding myself that they needed to stop clinging to the Jesus
they knew and were comfortable with. They needed to move on to the newly
expanded horizons the risen Jesus was showing them. I hadn’t considered any of
this until I sat down and started writing. And now that the article’s come to
an end, I can’t help but think of what a wonderful way this is for me to start
the Lenten season. And how once again I was blessed through both the workings
of this community and the ability to share my thoughts with the community. And
it shouldn’t be a surprise that along with all this, a new phase of puppy
rearing is very soon coming my way … onward from week 8. Something I’m sure to
be writing about in the future.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .05in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-27573750269029401222023-03-23T11:59:00.007-07:002023-03-23T11:59:37.553-07:00Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Lent: the Holy and Life-Giving Cross<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">by Brother Christopher</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Today
is the 3rd Sunday of Lent, its mid-point and the very heart of the season.
Perhaps strangely to some, the Church celebrates the mystery of the Cross, the
central mystery of our faith. We honor it by solemnly placing it at the
entrance of the church, in front of the Golgotha, so that it is the first thing
that we reverence upon entering Holy Wisdom. Throughout this week we will sing
hymns that honor its power and mystery, bringing to our hearts and minds all
that Jesus revealed through his sacrifice on the cross: the unconditional
nature of his love. One of the stichera we’ll sing this week speaks to this:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p> <span> </span></o:p></span><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The cross is raised on high this
day, sending forth its power to all the earth. To all four corners of creation,
its arms extend salvation’s awesome grace. In this cross, all believers find
unending courage! In this cross, those who fight that unseen warfare find
saving strength! How awesome, how great this love! Come let us all rejoice this
day! Let us extol the Lord! On that cross he died for us, for great indeed is
his love, for humankind!</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p> <span> </span></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-indent: 0.5in;">How does the cross save? How does a
ghastly instrument of torture and death be a means of life for all? Certainly
not in some juridical sense—Jesus paying the price for human sin to placate an
angry God. That sort of medieval theology is bankrupt. Rather, its saving power
is in Jesus being able to absolutely identify with all manner of human
suffering through what he experienced on the cross. God knows our suffering
from the inside, and the cross reveals the extent God will go to make us
understand God’s love for humanity.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If we accept this, it provokes the
question: “What does it mean to be a disciple of Christ?” As Jesus spent forty
days in the wilderness asking himself what it meant to be Jesus, so now we have
forty days to ponder what it means to be his disciple, to be a Christian. And
as we heard in this morning’s Gospel, it means each of us taking up our own
cross and following him. It will cost us, but if we move forward with the mind
of Christ, the <i>phronima</i> he embodied, we will be willing to lay down our
lives for the world, each in our own way. In some small way we shall be in
continuity with Jesus’ act of unconditional love. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It seems that we’re living through a
time when there is so much wrong in the world. We see the horror of the war in
Ukraine and the instability it has fostered in the world, the political
polarization of our society, the escalation of nuclear arms tension and the rise
of authoritarianism world-wide, the suppression of women’s human rights in
Afghanistan and Iran, and the persecution of Christians in many third-world
countries. And that’s just scraping the surface. Now more than ever it is so
important for the Church to manifest the authenticity of its witness to Christ,
to be Christ for the world. And that will inevitably involve the cross. But
let’s be honest: true discipleship, fidelity to Christ in this country, is
seldom a life-and-death matter. We don’t live in areas of the world where being
a Christian means you face death daily. At the same time, laying down our life
for the sake of Christ and for the sake of the world isn’t absent from our
experience, either. It is done in all those little acts of love that God
challenges us with and which often go unnoticed by others. Perhaps being
faithful to Christ in those humble acts may prepare us for the time when a
bigger sacrifice will be required, and we shall draw strength and courage from
the power of the cross.<b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-36402711310621715522023-02-14T09:15:00.002-08:002023-02-14T09:15:27.500-08:00Winter Retreat: A Time of Leisure?<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">By Sister Cecelia</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We
as contemplative monastics find that this retreat time contains schedules
wherein many of our activities are not as time centered or time limited as
usual. While many responsibilities need our attention—dogs need their usual
care, and decisions can’t wait for retreat time to be over—we have some leisure
to spend doing things we ordinarily don’t find time to accomplish. Extra reading,
thinking, meditating, cleaning areas that are not on the housecleaning list,
going through “stacks” in my office and other work areas to put in order as
well as pitching and cleaning out.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As
librarian, when I categorize new books and enter them into the computer, I want
to read a good many more before putting them on the shelves! However, I limited
myself to only three books during this retreat.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One
is <i>Radical Optimism</i> by Beatrice Bruteau. Like the author, I once thought
the word <i>schola</i> had to do with schools and scholarship. It turns out that
the Latin <i>schola</i> comes from the Greek <i>schole</i>, meaning “leisure,” and
this wider meaning is very important to the author. In her first chapter,
“Leisure,” she describes how she goes from leisure to optimism. She says that we
feel we could bear with misery, malevolence, sorrow, doubt, perplexity, and
apparent absurdity if we could just see some meaning to it. She does not think
the quest for meaning and the consequent alleviation of the misery can be done
by dwelling on how sinful or sorrowful or hard life is. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What
is the deepest truth of life? It is our union with the Absolute, Infinite Being,
with God. Our perspective has to be different. Being on the periphery, among
the twigs and leaves, gives an inaccurate slant on things. If we can shift our
sense of identity to our root, to the source of our being in God, it looks
different. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For
Christians our model for being able to do this is Jesus. Filling our minds, our
imaginations, our emotions with the belief that we can do the good that we
intend is the most powerful help that can be brought to bear on our actual
accomplishments. The contemplative life has always required an attitude of leisure,
and leisure often results in contemplation. Does an attitude of leisure really
require absolute free time? Leisure does not require that one be totally
unoccupied. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If Jesus is our model, it is
obvious from Scripture that life must be lived—but with the awareness that God
is the center. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
distinction and shifting of our center of gravity, or sense of selfhood, from
the ego-consciousness to a truer self is the core of our efforts to realize that
God is our center. Ego-consciousness judges everything according to whether it
is good or bad <i>for me </i>rather than whether it is good or bad in itself or
within some greater whole or from God’s point of view.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Think
of the present moment as the intersection of eternity with time. When our
consciousness stays on this present moment, it rests and finds peace and is in
touch with reality. We do need to think of the past and the future in order to
make plans for the times to come. However, by contemplation we learn that the
Eternal, the Infinite One coexists with the temporal, the finite.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">To
stay on this present moment, to quote Beatrice Bruteau: “We do by not doing and
by undoing. …we begin with leisure, the relaxing of the sense of time, of the
sense of ego-selfhood, of the sense of fragmentation. …The Hindus say that if
you look at your mind and emotions as if at the surface of a lake, you will see
your agitation as rough waves. But if you continue just to look at them and
notice that you who are looking are not the agitated waves, then gradually
those waves will subside. They will damp down, smooth out, and after a while
the surface of the lake will be calm. Once the water is calm, it also becomes
transparent. Then you can look down through it clear to the bottom. When our
mind becomes clear and transparent, we can perceive what lies at the bottom,
its foundation: it is the peace of God, the divine Eternity. Then the mind
rests happily in this state, even while we go about our business, doing the
things that need to be done.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-52311879944407648412023-01-21T11:49:00.001-08:002023-01-21T11:49:19.235-08:00Shaggy Dogs Meet Liminal Space<p> <span style="text-align: center;">By
Brother Luke</span></p><p align="center" class="Body" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It's
6:45 am and I am shepherding (!) my canine pack of three out the front door of
Emmaus House, our guest house where we monks now temporarily reside, toward one
of our antique Honda Elements (2006 version). And it's raining, the gravel
driveway is a slushy mess, and my three want to do their business BEFORE we get
into the car and head up New Skete Lane to the monastery for 7:15 am
matins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we get a little wetter before
we manage to scramble into the car. Fortunately, the Elements are perfect for
this kind of adventure, roomy in the back for the dogs and easy to clean. Of
course, they'd rather be in the front seat, but you know about that if you have
dogs. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_AxfHKpgNtZ0tAd65UWo5VR9Vw_oB7P4V4EDJ9oIDjD2vdtJBHt3lNiSROfW83FbrjvsHLqUt0V4duUcD-s1Wv40XwflJu7oh4VEPTyU9JPVejst54aQHcrPOESDaqxYldqZqkrvxuUAxHFiMtnlyDYUUViDnGstvivIYezQj5Ffjh3x3W04fVkYI/s640/IMG_0207.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_AxfHKpgNtZ0tAd65UWo5VR9Vw_oB7P4V4EDJ9oIDjD2vdtJBHt3lNiSROfW83FbrjvsHLqUt0V4duUcD-s1Wv40XwflJu7oh4VEPTyU9JPVejst54aQHcrPOESDaqxYldqZqkrvxuUAxHFiMtnlyDYUUViDnGstvivIYezQj5Ffjh3x3W04fVkYI/s320/IMG_0207.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blue Honda Element - aka the dog car</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="Body" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My
pack of three at this time is still Fuller and Iris, the 5-year-olds, and
Victoria, Tori for short, my 5-month-old puppy. The adult dogs are doing well
with the shift in routines from monastery to Emmaus House, but the puppy is
just trying to figure out life. Getting a stable routine in place for Tori has
been a challenge, to say the least. Tori, like Iris (though not related) are
both long coats, so they bring a little more, debris shall we say, to the
equation than tight-coated Fuller. In addition, the room I occupy at Emmaus
House has wall-to-wall carpeting, so cleaning up after the dogs' debris, fur,
and accidents is more problematic. But this is just a small part of our new
life in liminal space.<o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeQ4CQXRXyV-qObW4g8s5AiMsYFnkKn0gH8HSvXZGAXvd4uaM2UC8L3KFrAduTHm8OkniDF_q-VUkJGGrBp9betwwV5NaheyeWsqYnyTzSBPwsej5HZ-zS3hp5h5pf9GeC2JbcxvMKMhwK2FECE6n80UfaciWJT5WStW1RR6xoegE6hJExoLO31Nl_/s640/IMG_0205.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeQ4CQXRXyV-qObW4g8s5AiMsYFnkKn0gH8HSvXZGAXvd4uaM2UC8L3KFrAduTHm8OkniDF_q-VUkJGGrBp9betwwV5NaheyeWsqYnyTzSBPwsej5HZ-zS3hp5h5pf9GeC2JbcxvMKMhwK2FECE6n80UfaciWJT5WStW1RR6xoegE6hJExoLO31Nl_/s320/IMG_0205.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fuller and Tori in my room at the guesthouse</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6NRgbOart7j6YD1SW_G62scqndW8aMuI-e1W9vSzcLOnhKhusGrIqWMgQ_akPEHxle8eTB4atfZbuO5bKBfRB_aBY7wtUmQGxWIx6uzrR3clXWgGw2dlfZ_R2R0J7gsMmch0473tRVSpFxtYfrjhwT75-Tsh0RVmnfdLC8aipkTI2jFLOw6aDTZRU/s640/IMG_0206.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6NRgbOart7j6YD1SW_G62scqndW8aMuI-e1W9vSzcLOnhKhusGrIqWMgQ_akPEHxle8eTB4atfZbuO5bKBfRB_aBY7wtUmQGxWIx6uzrR3clXWgGw2dlfZ_R2R0J7gsMmch0473tRVSpFxtYfrjhwT75-Tsh0RVmnfdLC8aipkTI2jFLOw6aDTZRU/s320/IMG_0206.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Iris in my bedroom at the guesthouse</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="Body" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We
realized in 2021 that the need to attend to the wear and tear on our aging
residence could no longer be deferred. So, this fall we finally began the
renovation process. Some growing mold issues in the cloister prompted us to
decide that we needed to begin the renovation in the bedroom area. That meant
that most of the monks have moved down to Emmaus House while the work is
ongoing. A couple of brothers who found suitable spaces next to the refectory
were able to stay in the main monks' monastery and avoided the move to Emmaus
House. Even so, it was a shift for everyone. However, the move to Emmaus House
brought additional logistical issues. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>For
me, I needed to move my bedroom and my office spaces. At first we tried to set
up my computers in Emmaus House, but the connectivity was not good enough to
handle the work I needed to do on the MAC and the PC, so I had to find an
office space in the monastery. The small conference room in our entrance
hallway is now my interim office space for music and library work and mentor
conferences. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But
what about the dogs? Those brothers at Emmaus House who have dogs can keep them
in their rooms if they choose to. For me, my adult dogs would do fine in my
room, but not the puppy. She is cute and playful, but not really house-broken.
Running back and forth between the monastery and Emmaus House to monitor the
puppy was not practical, so I decided to take my dogs with me up to the
monastery every day. Sometimes I can have them with me in my new office, but at
other times I need them to spend time in their crates in the "mud
room." That is not always ideal because electrical work connected to the
renovation requires work to be done in the mud room, where the main circuit
breaker panels are located. So it is a juggling act. <o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht9lhZzVFKI5Zm_4AglZz7S8UlZGxvN5NHD0TVBSp0WoSk3qPXXHQjVXJFfjeRHWWLNhde2Pb00f6WIKaF_GvX-l4YVj2Fjv137iiaKg8rczYmjftPxwlMFpljOLWz4ou_8wup3smOJMKaj4fxXgoG5Ik4_muwW4E33KvTxclW98U70w8KWxwv1c_N/s640/IMG_0200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht9lhZzVFKI5Zm_4AglZz7S8UlZGxvN5NHD0TVBSp0WoSk3qPXXHQjVXJFfjeRHWWLNhde2Pb00f6WIKaF_GvX-l4YVj2Fjv137iiaKg8rczYmjftPxwlMFpljOLWz4ou_8wup3smOJMKaj4fxXgoG5Ik4_muwW4E33KvTxclW98U70w8KWxwv1c_N/s320/IMG_0200.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fuller and Iris enjoying bully sticks in my temporary office</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMz4r-McDIw1jfX4PR0okLkXVpF3qSrcJjwLdFFlvkaj_W_v5jaq_tFwKVpK7rHHYaIxr2sGcv_V0aKFKtkxsuEfjBgpULgAAYW9V3-fSINByD5Va0oHCEk89dZOyp4D4y3snfHy-RXaEAgHGddmGzXF-LhmO26G5bC43YHrdViBWxRqq-PCVtwXdW/s640/IMG_0201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMz4r-McDIw1jfX4PR0okLkXVpF3qSrcJjwLdFFlvkaj_W_v5jaq_tFwKVpK7rHHYaIxr2sGcv_V0aKFKtkxsuEfjBgpULgAAYW9V3-fSINByD5Va0oHCEk89dZOyp4D4y3snfHy-RXaEAgHGddmGzXF-LhmO26G5bC43YHrdViBWxRqq-PCVtwXdW/s320/IMG_0201.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tori relaxing in my temporary office</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="Body" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
tried having a conference with a brother in my temporary office with my dogs
present. The distraction was way too tempting. Been there, done that, but no
more! Even when it's just me and the dogs, the toys I have may not always
suffice, so I have a supply of bully sticks. They each get one, and that keeps
the peace for a while, until Fuller decides he wants to help Tori finish hers!
He now knows that is not acceptable. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
renovation work is both inside and outside. So walking the dogs requires a new
vigilance for me. I take my dogs into the woods for most of their walks, and
this keeps them away from the work areas. However, on the return from the woods
I need to capture Tori before she decides to explore the latest developments
and let her new best friend Walt, the project on-site manager, know that she is
still around! So we have our games. One, I try to catch her while she is
pestering Iris before we exit the woods. Or, two, we try to come out of the
woods next to the puppy kennel. Tori will not be able to resist the temptation
to explore the kennel, and she will run into the outside walkway, which is now
enclosed with winterizing plastic wrap. It's open only at one end, so once we’re
in I can catch her. Last, if she is thirsty and goes to get a drink from the water
dish by the monastery entrance, I have another chance to get her. Not always
easy to outsmart her!</p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Life
in the liminal space between the beginning and the end of the renovation
project will soon take on a new character for me. Tori goes to training around
January 21<sup>st</sup>, and Iris is due to have puppies the week following. So
it will be just Fuller and me. I love my trio, but a few weeks with just one
dog in this liminal space, I must admit, will be a welcome respite. But not for
too long. I need their antics to keep me grounded. And they are good at that!<o:p></o:p></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-30891096321570730642022-11-22T09:07:00.002-08:002022-11-22T09:07:51.599-08:00A Very Special Visit<p> </p><p align="center" class="Standard" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .05in; text-align: center;"><b><o:p> </o:p></b>By Ralph Karow</p><p align="center" class="Standard" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .05in; text-align: center;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .05in; text-indent: 35.45pt;">On November 3rd the monks were paid a special visit by Michele and Ora.
Michele had asked Ora if there was anything she wanted to do for an adventure.
Her choice was to visit New Skete and hopefully meet some of our Shepherds. Br
regory usually greets visitors, answers any questions, and shows them around
with Quilla in tow. He had a doctor’s appointment that day, though, and asked
me if I could fill in. Naturally, I don’t have the depth and breadth of
monastic experience that Br Gregory has, nor do I know New Skete’s history as
he does, but fortunately their main interest was in meeting our dogs and
hearing about them—my one and only strong point.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .05in; text-indent: 35.45pt;">First, I brought out Quilla, since she’s such a gentle and quiet dog. I
knew that would go well, but next I wanted to bring out my dynamic duo, and I
was afraid Greta would be her overzealous, jumpy, puppy self, while Habibah
would see people she didn’t know, become standoffish, and start barking in
protest. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Neither of them made a peep, and they
were the most polite and proper young dogs you’d ever want to see. I should
have been very proud, except the little voice in my head kept saying “Are you
kidding me? Why don’t you two show your <i>real</i> selves and act the way you
did last night?” But they <i>were </i>showing their real selves. They were
caught up in the love that Ora and Michele radiated, and reciprocating with
their own. It was a very beautiful moment on a pristine autumn day. What made
it even better was Br Luke walking by, first with his puppy Tori, and then a
little later on with Iris and Fuller. I consider myself blessed to have been a
part of their visit, and I’d be happy to see them return in the
spring—especially if we have a litter or two that are old enough to meet
people.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .05in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Later that evening I mentioned their
visit to Br Marc, who suggested I write a few words for the newsletter. I
contacted Michele to see if she could send some of the pictures she took, and
she replied with the following note:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .05in;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Ora grew up in the poor side of
Greenwich, Connecticut. After graduating in 1946, she wanted to be a
veterinarian but could not afford college. She then became a children’s librarian.
After marrying her husband, Bob, she worked in advertising. After 42 years Ora
and her husband settled in Ballston Spa in 1995. Bob and Ora always wanted to
visit New Skete and see the dogs. Unfortunately, they never made the visit. Bob
died in 2000, and Ora remained in Ballston Spa. After Bob’s death, Ora and her
neighbor across the street “adopted” each other, watching out for each other
and becoming not only good friends but family as well. Ora loves animals of all
kinds and will stop to visit any animal that crosses her path. Ora thoroughly
enjoyed her visit to New Skete, appreciative of [the monks’] kindness and
patience with all her questions. She couldn’t decide which dog to take home and
didn’t think she could sneak one out. She had eyes on the 3-month old puppy.
Ora currently resides in Ballston Spa with her two cats, Milo and Benji.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="Standard" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .05in;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEzhR4-O1eOLHTK8cjj8OHfKPhIdVqUhlSajeGHr271xj6dXO97LcE8186fXBUfvXP3z6AUxU8-WCdnLVD3g2b2GnSW6asjHtob77Z0SdLt1iMt7fsi7j33wSnVZ16DSaffsr6hOxr9vBuU7wEk_PnMy1Pz2IgnnshsTHFkXKhtb7pE4dLlj6aJPM3/s1715/YoungOraWithPups.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1715" data-original-width="1145" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEzhR4-O1eOLHTK8cjj8OHfKPhIdVqUhlSajeGHr271xj6dXO97LcE8186fXBUfvXP3z6AUxU8-WCdnLVD3g2b2GnSW6asjHtob77Z0SdLt1iMt7fsi7j33wSnVZ16DSaffsr6hOxr9vBuU7wEk_PnMy1Pz2IgnnshsTHFkXKhtb7pE4dLlj6aJPM3/s320/YoungOraWithPups.jpg" width="214" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ora as a child.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="Standard" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .05in;"><br /></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .05in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcYqlTZmuVX4YqwUd2dwf26SK3krDigAZx1-xtDJ_4_5gtOUb0xL6cNx7tWvFQFsZ9Gt24d59SqhNIxjOb-NdoV6ooPzF128sh8Sg9ooRysmlrkGBl8XhAqAZluvQzOMvc3ekCX_RmscZc02cvyibkZFpw6-x0o5zMT0rWLo7A58qORYBqsqdaabsm/s1632/image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1224" data-original-width="1632" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcYqlTZmuVX4YqwUd2dwf26SK3krDigAZx1-xtDJ_4_5gtOUb0xL6cNx7tWvFQFsZ9Gt24d59SqhNIxjOb-NdoV6ooPzF128sh8Sg9ooRysmlrkGBl8XhAqAZluvQzOMvc3ekCX_RmscZc02cvyibkZFpw6-x0o5zMT0rWLo7A58qORYBqsqdaabsm/s320/image.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisYab9bdZ9kCYz7Jb6zI6C-_lMQK5Pz0f_xQkIVTTsbS4eRbFqsu0vtNBnZN-G2xFENOUxVBLDD59LO-0AZKCxXawd6n2W68LepW3AFCfxRg75MW37zQe0mEgFfIyNy_YfjdAW25hSrEmC5xKcLA7QXWllR657V0p6loYnrmyaNZHBc47pG3OePJkh/s1280/image-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisYab9bdZ9kCYz7Jb6zI6C-_lMQK5Pz0f_xQkIVTTsbS4eRbFqsu0vtNBnZN-G2xFENOUxVBLDD59LO-0AZKCxXawd6n2W68LepW3AFCfxRg75MW37zQe0mEgFfIyNy_YfjdAW25hSrEmC5xKcLA7QXWllR657V0p6loYnrmyaNZHBc47pG3OePJkh/s320/image-6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAfjALimIUUhmycFaCglasp7kYi7iUU_R0OD9L18t80JTyXIVbCrAwR30VRROyJvdobNZRzoc-_UuNZ9Z1LFodAE79GuM8enKKPQsY99UWYWjBjoVC0HxLOAXdvW63lpy6YYkGsqmusqtIkqN5w0S6YZbRKMToALKn8EuHbpJobrenMfN_vI7Kyh_W/s1280/image-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAfjALimIUUhmycFaCglasp7kYi7iUU_R0OD9L18t80JTyXIVbCrAwR30VRROyJvdobNZRzoc-_UuNZ9Z1LFodAE79GuM8enKKPQsY99UWYWjBjoVC0HxLOAXdvW63lpy6YYkGsqmusqtIkqN5w0S6YZbRKMToALKn8EuHbpJobrenMfN_vI7Kyh_W/s320/image-5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVZ1I0KjCJQ-skKfNWq6qd7ZO9sIqyVaqyBTpwdY_-k9PO_l4ibVyTnsE9d6W4y8xLKn0D2qtr9BqgEQtSHBUY7KncENRLCpN2AV5acyoLN1oXr74YFSCjGVY6JSXpRWfXjS32epL1btnKTEud7jNzV-eYJY-WlhRSsXZi201jz0vBTbc169u06L0T/s1632/image-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1632" data-original-width="1224" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVZ1I0KjCJQ-skKfNWq6qd7ZO9sIqyVaqyBTpwdY_-k9PO_l4ibVyTnsE9d6W4y8xLKn0D2qtr9BqgEQtSHBUY7KncENRLCpN2AV5acyoLN1oXr74YFSCjGVY6JSXpRWfXjS32epL1btnKTEud7jNzV-eYJY-WlhRSsXZi201jz0vBTbc169u06L0T/s320/image-2.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAjzAVR1WVh0IXaW-iickjX9ZSKsf9-mubq0iySChM7GHBy3SyhpVWmkn2Z3ODe09dTAp9SzrS6Zx4Rz3YiApeClo1eLG_-pj-or-SuNPZ1jq2aI4OhW2kXzYqk1C8LGNN6D46C-IVgCwef6Sj3twz93lqaeeCbexYuLJaQMBbwYq56G2wxfYt7puA/s1632/image-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1632" data-original-width="1224" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAjzAVR1WVh0IXaW-iickjX9ZSKsf9-mubq0iySChM7GHBy3SyhpVWmkn2Z3ODe09dTAp9SzrS6Zx4Rz3YiApeClo1eLG_-pj-or-SuNPZ1jq2aI4OhW2kXzYqk1C8LGNN6D46C-IVgCwef6Sj3twz93lqaeeCbexYuLJaQMBbwYq56G2wxfYt7puA/s320/image-1.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-88568176316875278512022-10-24T10:51:00.007-07:002022-10-24T10:51:49.335-07:00Something New Under the Sun!<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">By
Sister Cecelia</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For several
years, New Skete Kitchens has been aided with their online store by the Goldbelly
company in New York City. They set up the website with our information, take
the orders along with shipping labels and any greetings, and send them via
computer to us. We make the products, pack them, and ship them by UPS with the
labels and greetings they send. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To prepare advertising videos of some of their many vendors
of gourmet products, on a recent Thursday a three-man crew came from Goldbelly.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The men arrived early and filmed a lot
of the work in the bakery. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
interviewed Sister Patricia and me about our life and how and why we began
making cheesecakes. Not many, if any, of their vendors are a nuns’ monastery,
so they asked a lot about our life. I imagine that is why toward the end of our
matins they quietly took some shots in our little chapel. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They explained
that they are planning three main videos: (1) Something about our life and how
we decided to make the cheesecakes. (2) All about the Deluxe cheesecake, which
is our best seller, and the Sampler, also a best seller. (3) Our fruitcake and
what makes it so special.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of our
employees is very musical, and the crew videoed her playing her guitar and singing
a little ditty she had composed about making cheesecakes for Goldbelly. The crew
made the taping outdoors so they could get a view of the foliage on that
beautiful fall morning. It will be 6 or 8 weeks before we can see the edited
versions of their morning’s work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We learned from
them that we are rated in their top ten vendors and No. 1 in customer
satisfaction with fewest complaints. They work with more than 800 other
vendors. It pleases us a lot to know that what we and our employees are doing
is being done well—a typical monastic goal. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The crew finished up close to noon. Then they enjoyed
being introduced to our two German Shepherds, Hetti and Gana. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxaOZCfo-mP1_FMeRCNPHhgcVbalSbz5RIE2uA9nN1FpnUSNMnaIHhawrmB4UnCoUN_NEvXNzMdiAt-u0Lf_sdPeaOGeMqJ7Bwx7N23I8jGvP0DPU6zM--GKBv5WEiB9smYsmvcTi5cSSg-tK0pMpm0F2GnwZ05DO1_zj0ZUVGOCMIVNe3092-N2YZ/s4032/IMG-0254.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxaOZCfo-mP1_FMeRCNPHhgcVbalSbz5RIE2uA9nN1FpnUSNMnaIHhawrmB4UnCoUN_NEvXNzMdiAt-u0Lf_sdPeaOGeMqJ7Bwx7N23I8jGvP0DPU6zM--GKBv5WEiB9smYsmvcTi5cSSg-tK0pMpm0F2GnwZ05DO1_zj0ZUVGOCMIVNe3092-N2YZ/s320/IMG-0254.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUFKEZXw_mKDpSLFRaWFGZbqyoIJFhRdq6dlHqWF5y6UHoNi3-714O53fOvvhHrdhZeby1v5gjvNemNT0NNSa74XUnhG8YjyUphKrK0cKs4hl9C0YCIr53trChKj4OAjxYIKk4p_0c-OPqAEyDWTHb4AZpXNVP99kX_yhrolOCpnFSFvOP-VuOyvY4/s4032/IMG-0255.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUFKEZXw_mKDpSLFRaWFGZbqyoIJFhRdq6dlHqWF5y6UHoNi3-714O53fOvvhHrdhZeby1v5gjvNemNT0NNSa74XUnhG8YjyUphKrK0cKs4hl9C0YCIr53trChKj4OAjxYIKk4p_0c-OPqAEyDWTHb4AZpXNVP99kX_yhrolOCpnFSFvOP-VuOyvY4/s320/IMG-0255.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcU1DF0h5AFUUCVpGcs7m-kSEVPzQ7hUZF6hA450E08Nco3zT4egauKST3Dv7wHeuRSzBvitkTyfzr5eKGksIjgNsdsxd44ctopDfOJ9ZWM1hqbvoUWs0mYttfC1u0OTmQbF32HeYtsRFMMEii8e238WptxU5ILw2y6Y6ej7VrMGUJ-Wco1Leagz2l/s4032/IMG-0256.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcU1DF0h5AFUUCVpGcs7m-kSEVPzQ7hUZF6hA450E08Nco3zT4egauKST3Dv7wHeuRSzBvitkTyfzr5eKGksIjgNsdsxd44ctopDfOJ9ZWM1hqbvoUWs0mYttfC1u0OTmQbF32HeYtsRFMMEii8e238WptxU5ILw2y6Y6ej7VrMGUJ-Wco1Leagz2l/s320/IMG-0256.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixboWB6CFcghoNwb1iv0xa0h61TCgvxl3oJ-4UNtrUxFkzzBY-MMt_pXmF5hcJYppH82OlhCiqwfoTK6zGjw1U3uvqBwSmYQwrJebM8l47Uessg47NEJ8mvAyoKM8t55Pr3Qh9GfC5Zv01Apv7A-bHywfYsOYDTcLTtDi9SMycuKHOl20bDNFQOZJd/s4032/IMG-0257.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixboWB6CFcghoNwb1iv0xa0h61TCgvxl3oJ-4UNtrUxFkzzBY-MMt_pXmF5hcJYppH82OlhCiqwfoTK6zGjw1U3uvqBwSmYQwrJebM8l47Uessg47NEJ8mvAyoKM8t55Pr3Qh9GfC5Zv01Apv7A-bHywfYsOYDTcLTtDi9SMycuKHOl20bDNFQOZJd/s320/IMG-0257.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><o:p><br /></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-68897654457106239512022-10-24T10:43:00.003-07:002022-10-24T10:43:19.388-07:00Welcome to Two Candidates<p> </p><p align="center" class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">By Brother Luke</span></p>
<p align="center" class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Verdana;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The monks are happy
to welcome two men who began the discernment process this summer. They were
received officially as candidates at Matins, Saturday October 8, 2022, and are
living with us in the monastery.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Brennan Kreller comes
to us from San Francisco, California, but he hails from Louisiana and brings
his love of his home state cooking with him along with the skills to prepare
it! So our table has been spiced up since Brennan's arrival. He also brings an
avocation in the arts, particularly folk dance, which has taken him on tours in
the United States and abroad, including Eastern Europe. His Eastern European
connection also includes a degree in Russian History, and he is a long-time
member of the Orthodox Church. At New Skete he has joined the team of dog
trainers and has taken on one of our German Shepherd Dogs, Liberty, as a
companion. He is also learning the duties of a sacristan and has joined in
taking the Tersext mid-day prayer with Brother Luke.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Justin Stavros was
raised in the Northeast but comes to us from Florida, where he was a department
manager with a large supermarket chain. His experience in this area translated
immediately into helping with the weekly shopping duties. He has also joined
the Puppy kennel team, has taken on the responsibility of caring for Amira, one
of our German Shepherd Dogs, and has already been introduced to the world of
whelping. He attended a recent dog training seminar and is applying the lessons
learned to walking our breeding dogs. He has taken lessons in singing and is
now one of our readers in the offices. He brings a passion for the NFL and
joins several other brothers who are sports enthusiasts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Please keep both
Brennan and Justin in your prayers as they continue their discernment journey
here at New Skete. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBcncM95vHmlI2YBqoCyXvHDCfckmiAgJXa5IeFXswhWDQeOFgAZjRK2XOdzPcs1XH4QPhQoIondR4MQt-JP5J0_U6waw-4OQhV8lCiLYwcLBioiRRODnPvMY4E9GsDdm3bb03dQlNBFK3i2F07qWdr4pL63Zf9GfBthC32b5AL0qlhfj_jg1HwS08/s4000/2022%2010-8%20Justin%20and%20Brennan%20enter%20Candidacy%20at%20New%20Skete%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="3000" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBcncM95vHmlI2YBqoCyXvHDCfckmiAgJXa5IeFXswhWDQeOFgAZjRK2XOdzPcs1XH4QPhQoIondR4MQt-JP5J0_U6waw-4OQhV8lCiLYwcLBioiRRODnPvMY4E9GsDdm3bb03dQlNBFK3i2F07qWdr4pL63Zf9GfBthC32b5AL0qlhfj_jg1HwS08/w300-h400/2022%2010-8%20Justin%20and%20Brennan%20enter%20Candidacy%20at%20New%20Skete%20(1).jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span><p></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-17863788630890803842022-09-15T07:30:00.006-07:002022-09-15T07:30:53.484-07:00Oh Dear (Deer)!!!<p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="text-align: center;">By Ralph Karow</span></p><p align="center" class="Standard" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: center;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Toward
the end of June, we had a bit of a lull at the puppy kennel, so Br. Luke
decided to take his retreat then instead of in August, when the rest of the
monastics go on retreat. At that time, we’d most likely have a couple of
litters, along with some dogs in heat, and we would need all hands on deck. It
was a good plan, and Br. Luke had arranged for Iris, Fuller, and Amira to each
reside with a monk for the week, but his new puppy, Greta, would need to stay
at the kennel. The night before he left, however, Iris went into heat and would
now have to be at the kennel. That got me off the hook, since I was supposed to
take her, but now I felt sorry for Greta, and since I had already moved
furniture out of my room to accommodate both Iris and Habibah, I didn’t have a
good enough excuse to leave Greta in the kennel with a clear conscience.
Habibah loves puppies, and I had been using her to socialize all of the litters
since November 2021, so I didn’t foresee any problems with the two getting
along. Curbing their play and feeding and walking them together would be a
challenge, but I would feel too guilty if I didn’t give it a shot, so I brought
in a crate for Greta to pick up the housebreaking routine where Br. Luke had left
off. I was really looking forward to having Iris, an adult I could trust in my
room, to keep Habibah in the good habits she’d grown into. A puppy spelled
nothing but trouble. What I didn’t take into account was that puppies can’t
spell. While it took a little adjustment on everyone’s part, it didn’t take
long for us to become a family. The new problem was that Br. Luke’s retreat was
only for a week.<br /></span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg421mM0XRX3yKl7APUZe0LMu7WCqS6SnShbyGBcxHDhZY6_1zVe8I8BJNGxLfS_db_pv1Uxiv8sXcYSv6PhGMeswPZleO-l2ZA24uSfpBAZxRTx3vMq2U5aeWxfl218U3Tec73nCpFqxL2JiX6ig04ZHeAcZECBkcYkaoFw2oVMAX4yNO2h06lBRQC/s3264/New%20Friends.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg421mM0XRX3yKl7APUZe0LMu7WCqS6SnShbyGBcxHDhZY6_1zVe8I8BJNGxLfS_db_pv1Uxiv8sXcYSv6PhGMeswPZleO-l2ZA24uSfpBAZxRTx3vMq2U5aeWxfl218U3Tec73nCpFqxL2JiX6ig04ZHeAcZECBkcYkaoFw2oVMAX4yNO2h06lBRQC/w300-h400/New%20Friends.JPG" width="300" /></a></p><p class="Standard" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Nowhere in the Bible does it say:
Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Puppy, but I’m pretty sure it’s still a
sin. So what should I make of it when God rewards me with Br. Luke’s puppy?
Justice: considering that a week later we found out Habibah had an infection
and had to stay off the grass and out of the woods until it was healed. At that
point I had to either walk my two dogs separately or struggle with both on a
leash at the same time. Ever try walking two very playful dogs on leash at the
same time? It’s even more difficult than it sounds at first. They catch on
pretty quickly, though, and surprisingly so did I.</span></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">I’ve never been any good at leash
walking. I always let them get ahead of me, and cross over and behind me, and
eventually let them do what they want so long as they don’t pull too hard. Then
we sit, stay, and start over. Probably a case of thinking too much, along with
the notion that I can let them have a little leeway but be able to hold them
back when I </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">really</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> need to. Absolutely not what the training center
tells owners when they pick up their dogs. With two dogs, though, there is no
possible way the three of us can walk without one of us (and that would be me)
being in charge. That means from the get-go they don’t get the full lead of the
leash, and nobody gets ahead of me. I know, but fail to apply, the theory with
one dog, so how is this going to work with two? The answer, I found, is to not
think but to listen to the dogs instead. Not their sounds, but what they’re
communicating through the leash. If you can feel what they’re doing through the
leash and respond through the leash with minor and gentle corrections, there’s
an inner connectivity much faster than thought or reflex action that keeps
everyone on the right path. And that’s kind of the way we need to be in our
spiritual lives. Is it fair to say that Jesus through the Holy Spirit is
continuously leading us down the path to his eternal kingdom, giving us enough
leeway to do our will while offering minor and gentle corrections by his graces
and admonitions? Sometimes, of course, we need harder tugs when we get hung up
on our own obsessions (smells, sticks, etc.), but the more closely we pay
attention to and respond to Christ’s gentle guidance, the smoother the journey
and the happier we are.</span></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The most interesting (and embarrassing)
event in which I needed Christ’s guidance came from my own lack of vigilance.
Habibah’s first real encounter with a deer started with a standoff between her
in the puppy kennel parking lot and deer up on the hill at the edge of the
woods.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">If Sergio Leone were filming the
encounter, this is the point where he would be cutting between close-ups of
their eyes. Finally the deer took a step toward the woods, and Habibah took off
like a shot … down the road and in the opposite direction. If I hadn’t been laughing
so hard, I would have felt sorry for what must have been a very traumatic
moment for her. Given that background, you can understand why I didn’t take
much heed when a guest advised me there was a deer in the parking lot by the
big church. I even sarcastically replied, “Good—that’ll give her something to
chase,” confident that if Habibah ran anywhere it would be back to me. This
time, however, there was no stare-down. Habibah saw the deer, immediately ran
toward it, and then pursued it as it ran into the woods. E-collar,
schmee-collar!</span></p><p class="Standard" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx0kMTuMTCQCwA6gWKygE6z0UnjDke5CvDBvnyKM6IB-FNXCBFPrh_w2qDq0GvW7uC4Ctngw3FlAm2hTY3fOWIwmTf0fKDPtOD9KWT8ZPqc4uppZf8SIzQ5StG6s3nZAFUk2Aedb4wS2sCHHqvHFmRvLNuF2WyTFGYs2dleS_XI6wzjmR93kv3RHMN/s4032/IMG_0008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx0kMTuMTCQCwA6gWKygE6z0UnjDke5CvDBvnyKM6IB-FNXCBFPrh_w2qDq0GvW7uC4Ctngw3FlAm2hTY3fOWIwmTf0fKDPtOD9KWT8ZPqc4uppZf8SIzQ5StG6s3nZAFUk2Aedb4wS2sCHHqvHFmRvLNuF2WyTFGYs2dleS_XI6wzjmR93kv3RHMN/w400-h300/IMG_0008.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My baby was on a mission, and there
was no calling her back. Fortunately, I had Greta on a leash, so I had only one
dog to track down. Unfortunately, bushwhacking with a puppy on a leash just
doesn’t work, so I made my way to the exercise pens to tuck her away before
going back in a vain attempt to find a lost dog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That pause gave me a little time to think and
not just react. The first thing I thought to do was alert Josh, so he’d know
what was going on in the event Habibah showed up while I was gone. The next
thing I did was grab my extra E-collar. Greta’s pen is right next to Hannah’s,
and somewhere along the way to see Josh it occurred to me that I’d probably be
much more successful if I brought Hannah along with me than I would going it
alone. Not that Hannah is trained to track, but she knows Habibah and would be
much more alert to her presence via smell and sound than I could ever be. I
didn’t see any point in trying to find Habibah at the point where she
disappeared, so instead we started at the other end of the trailhead, with me
calling Habibah’s name and Hannah running back and forth, just being Hannah. I
don’t think we got more than 300 or 400 yards down the trail when Hannah
stopped short, perked up her ears, and turned her head to look in the opposite
direction. I strained to see where she was looking, and sure enough: out of the
woods and ever so slowly came a wet, disheveled, and very much humbler Habibah—my
prodigal puppy, who was welcomed back with the greatest joy and absolute
forgiveness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And why shouldn’t she be,
when after all, it was my fault that she ran off in the first place. The time
for me to have tapped the E-collar would have been before or as soon as she
started running, not when she was in full stride. Which means the remote needed
to be in my hand rather than my pocket.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Still, we learn best through our
mistakes, and this one instance did more to instill the lesson than 1,000
reminders could have. Beyond the obvious, though, lies a deeper and more
monastic lesson. It wasn’t by my efforts or in isolation that I found Habibah.
Nor was it by an act of God that she came back to me. At least not an overt
act. It’s only in reflection that where I should have felt panic, angst, and
hopelessness, I somehow had an inner peace and resolve that we’d soon be back
together. Inner peace, not a completely calm mind to which bad thoughts didn’t
enter. But that was just background noise that did nothing to obscure the inner
drive and recognition of thoughts that mattered: tell Josh, take Hannah, start
at the opposite end of the trail. I never stopped to think or even pray, but
just followed the inner voice whispering above the noise. I suppose in a
somewhat desperate situation like this, where one has no prior experience or a
quick Google search to draw on, an inner voice becomes not only noticeable but
very welcome. How often, though, and how easy is it to disregard and dismiss
that same inner voice when our situation is not desperate and sounds against
the noise of our own personal desires? God is always with us and is always
prompting us toward him and for the benefit of those around us. Only Jesus
would have heard and listened 100%. The saints a very high percentage. The rest
of us … well, let’s not go there. I’d like to tell you that this experience
will make me a better more compassionate person, but it probably won’t. I don’t
see myself doing great things for humanity or sainthood on my horizon.
Fortunately, though, I live in a microcosm of me, Habibah, and Greta first; the
monks and nuns second; and finally the immediate community working at and
visiting New Skete. All I’m aiming at for now is to do better within my cell.
If history, scripture, and liturgy teach us anything, it’s that tiny beginnings
tend to radiate outwardly, so long as they are carried out though and in Christ
our Lord.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="Standard" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Postscript:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> I could hear Forrest Gump echoing
“stupid is as stupid does” in my ear as I watched Greta bound after a deer a
couple of days ago. That wasn’t because I didn’t have the remote handy. She’s
not E-collar or any other kind of trained yet, and there I was, walking her off
leash in the woods. Stupid! Usually I’d take her off leash with Habibah and/or
other dogs where the “pack mentality” serves pretty well as a psychological
restraint, but since Habibah’s in heat at the kennel, it was just me, Greta,
and a deer. I didn’t stand a chance and should’ve thought of that beforehand …
as stupid does. Fortunately, she was chasing it in the direction of the
monastery, unlike Habibah, who was running away from it. I didn’t even bother
trying to find her and walked straight to the kennel to get Habibah. We had hardly
walked from the back of the kennel to the parking lot when Greta came charging
down the hill to see what all the ruckus was. (The dogs get a little excited
when they think they might get a walk.) In a way it was an exercise in
humility. But in another way it made me realize that while I don’t always know
what’s going to happen, I’ve gotten enough experience under my belt to know
what I can do in response to what happens. I’d been reflecting on the seeming
inconsistency between God’s all-knowingness and an individual’s complete
freedom of will lately, and this episode got me thinking: maybe it’s not so
much that God knows exactly what each person will do at any given moment, but
rather what he’ll do in response to any possible choice we make. In such a
scenario “things” may be predestined, while the precise means through which
they come about can fall within the fluidity of human choice. I may not choose
to do what God has laid out before me, but then it’s for someone else to come
charging down the hill to pick up where I left off.<o:p></o:p></span></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-43006450361541823432022-09-12T06:38:00.009-07:002022-09-15T10:48:37.912-07:00New Skete Represents Communities at All-American Council<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">By Carl Patka, Lay Delegate<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">With the blessing of Brother Christopher
and the support of the New Skete Chapel Community, I attended the All-American
Council of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) as a lay delegate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Council represented the 14 dioceses of all
the churches and monasteries in North America, including Canada, Mexico, and
the United States, in a beautiful hotel conference space over five hot days from
July 18<sup> </sup>to 22 in Baltimore, Maryland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The theme of the All-American
Council was “Becoming Vessels of Grace.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In his opening address, his Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon said that
while the Council on the surface looked like any large conference organized
into many days of business meetings, the gathering was really like that of a
large family, similar to his own Packard family reunion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“we gather as Christians, as individuals of varied background, culture,
and genealogy who yet share one common bond and seal of fellowship:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we all bear the Name of Christ.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His Beatitude emphasize how the church has
evolved over 225 years from a struggling missionary outpost in Russian Alaska
to a continent-wide Metropolia.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The main piece of business
conducted at the Council was the pension fund for Orthodox priests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The pension fund has actuarial obligations to
pay benefits of about $55 million but has only about $24 million in assets,
leaving a significant deficit. There was considerable discussion on the level
of future funding that will be needed to support the clergy pension system. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Council was presented with a proposed amendment
to the OCA statute.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The purposes of the proposed
amendments were threefold: to codify the expectations of the Pension Board, to give
oversight of the Pension Plan statements to the OCA Auditing Committee, and to
change the composition of the Pension Board, including providing the Metropolitan
the ability appoint three seats on the Pension Board rather than having all
seats elected directly by the All-American Council delegates. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Speakers against the proposal indicated the
importance of maintaining the independence of the Pension Board.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The measure did not achieve the two-thirds vote
of all delegates required to carry an amendment to the OCA Statute, and it failed.
On the last day of the Council, a resolution was adopted to provide training to
Pension Board members and to require that a Pension Board representative
regularly appear and report to the Metropolitan Council regarding the
conditions, activities and status, of the pension plan.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The Council considered a separate measure
to amend the Chancery Statute to create a new structural flow in the reporting
structure in the Chancery and to relieve His Beatitude of certain direct
responsibilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The proposed amendment
passed overwhelmingly. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The Chancellor, Archpriest Alexander
Rentel, reported on the turnover of personnel in the Chancery offices and the relocation
of the Chancery of the OCA from Syosset, New York, to the Archdiocese of
Washington, in McLean, Virginia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The existing
Chancery property in Syosset will be sold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> Presentations highlighted the fact
that the OCA is growing primarily in the midwestern, southern and southwest
portions of the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
report on Stavropegial Monasteries presented by St. Tikhon’s Monastery addressed
solely the activities of St. Tikhon’s Monastery.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">In the spirit of family reunion,
the Council was offered fascinating presentations and videos from the work of
the Alaskan and Mexican Churches. A financial donation from the Chancery to the
Mexican Church was approved to support its missionary work and growth of the
OCA in Mexico.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His Beatitude strongly encouraged
additional donations to support the Mexican Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Much emphasis was placed on the financial
strain and clergy shortage faced by churches in Alaska, and the need for
additional monetary support from the overall church to support clergy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The OCA adopted a resolution to assist with
future fundraising efforts:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0.5in;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Whereas Alaska is the cradle of
Orthodoxy in America:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be it resolved
that the 20th AAC asks the Holy Synod of Bishops to designate annually the
Sunday closest to the December feast of St. Herman, for a free-will collection
from each parish in the Orthodox Church in America to support the Diocese of
Alaska Clergy Endowment. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 20.9pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The War in Ukraine touched the All-American
Council in many respects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The death and
suffering of Orthodox Christians in Ukraine was remembered during liturgical
services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The work of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church to help refugees and the sick and the suffering was highlighted
in multiple presentations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Polish
Orthodox Church and all Polish people have done tremendous work to welcome,
house, feed, care for, and provide for the education of millions of refugees
from the Ukraine War.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The OCA itself has
condemned the war in Ukraine and has raised significant funds to assist Ukrainian
refugees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, in a resolution carried
nearly unanimously, the 20th All-American Council:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 38.9pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Expresses
support for the statements of His Beautitude Metropolitan Tikhon and the Holy
Synod condemning the aggression against Ukraine;<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 38.9pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Expresses
support for His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church;<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 38.9pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Condemns
the attacks upon parishes, monasteries, and temples whether by military action,
seizure by other religious groups, or pressure and interference by civil
authorities or occupying forces; and<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 38.9pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Remembers
with love the visit of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry to the 18th All-American
Council in Atlanta.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">All
told, the outpouring of support for Ukraine at the Council was truly
impressive. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">My
main lesson learned as lay delegate for the New Skete Chapel Community circles
back to <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His Beautitude’s teaching that
we each have a calling to become worthy vessels of the Name of Christ. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Regardless of all the resolutions and
statements adopted at the Council, the feeling present in the Hilton Hotel ballroom
at the Council dinner, at which about 600 hierarchs, clergy, monastics and lay
participants came together, was truly one of brotherhood and sisterhood in
Christ and the Theotokos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With that spirit,
we at New Skete can feel renewed in welcoming all those who wish to come
together with us in the spirit of love, mercy, understanding, and compassion. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheWTs-fSS2hZbiEqZLKqZWLvvg1aW3f-d_FxoTpSMQZaiSdR69MPJfLXWEq7gg-sCJPW9a8bh_5Q1az5mE9UIi_CUv5ZLIP0elEtJSzFeyP0o5Y-NHIRDDi3-rntRB5X_n1n3LeD_U6ONTKA9UzFbAPtoTkVtnaamZk8qEHS46MkURs9geN_qRaui1/s4032/IMG_3236.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheWTs-fSS2hZbiEqZLKqZWLvvg1aW3f-d_FxoTpSMQZaiSdR69MPJfLXWEq7gg-sCJPW9a8bh_5Q1az5mE9UIi_CUv5ZLIP0elEtJSzFeyP0o5Y-NHIRDDi3-rntRB5X_n1n3LeD_U6ONTKA9UzFbAPtoTkVtnaamZk8qEHS46MkURs9geN_qRaui1/s320/IMG_3236.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brother Christopher Savage, Prior of New Skete, waiting to greet His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon at the All-American Council</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrUAGwSo2Vr7o9wkn1d7dYAvsP96wUnOI9TxwULTWuftkVvPWfgtp8Yiyl1570ZMidtgZVm87JbQDKLj4LmEMfZDohT86jkMRenMjFwclDsx_7gYkG0gY9xJ_kNeup5o3cEW8Enk1EuNLD6_NMVG2q7UJCaIcN0gScy9ODM2lBP8aowZg__e4bBDDm/s4032/IMG_3240.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrUAGwSo2Vr7o9wkn1d7dYAvsP96wUnOI9TxwULTWuftkVvPWfgtp8Yiyl1570ZMidtgZVm87JbQDKLj4LmEMfZDohT86jkMRenMjFwclDsx_7gYkG0gY9xJ_kNeup5o3cEW8Enk1EuNLD6_NMVG2q7UJCaIcN0gScy9ODM2lBP8aowZg__e4bBDDm/s320/IMG_3240.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon greeting the Holy Synod of Bishops at the All-American Council</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDAaHWmoRSH2CU9qcYC1Jh5LfFrNxgsJ1NjjySVMf5U1dPpI2s5CFcqp_rYkrUh3NhNf4LwiwoyqjBbErveLUoxSPEAu0xkAlcmbGJ3gxbOhUl7Fpm20TMrdPM0Fqikn9nQ7Xo7CRqYCFAftWYUb9rQzyBKxqCZZ90fc5684NKr9soZ_BQorSHKUDF/s4032/IMG_3254.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDAaHWmoRSH2CU9qcYC1Jh5LfFrNxgsJ1NjjySVMf5U1dPpI2s5CFcqp_rYkrUh3NhNf4LwiwoyqjBbErveLUoxSPEAu0xkAlcmbGJ3gxbOhUl7Fpm20TMrdPM0Fqikn9nQ7Xo7CRqYCFAftWYUb9rQzyBKxqCZZ90fc5684NKr9soZ_BQorSHKUDF/s320/IMG_3254.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small; text-align: start;">His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon addressing the All-American Council Dinner</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-30011836396064029762022-07-19T06:31:00.029-07:002022-07-19T08:23:55.606-07:00The Wedding of Sacred Text and Sacred Melody<br /> By Brother Marc Labish <br /><br />A unique mix of musical experiences has been a vital part of my life in the church. I would like to think this led to the gradual blossoming for me of an awareness of the transcendent, of prayer and the presence of God. When I sense beauty in music, especially church music, it also gives me a further appreciation of life’s many blessings. I continue to feel excited and impelled to delve into the treasury of sacred chants from around the world.<div><br />From the time I was seven as an altar server, I was immersed in the chanting of the Polish Roman Catholic Felician sisters in their huge double-nave convent church in western Pennsylvania. Since my family lived nearby, I was able to be present for their engaging worship every day, both early morning and early evening. I also enjoyed hearing the high school women’s choir from the nuns’ academy whenever they sang at Mass and Benediction on the lay persons’ side of the church.</div><div><br />When I left home for the seminary and its high school studies, I joined the Gregorian chant schola group at the semi-monastic chapel there. Later at the Ukrainian Greek Catholic college seminary, I learned to cantor in the chant that comes from Galicia/Halychyna in western Ukraine. This body of chant was uplifting and especially rousing when the whole congregation of college and prep school students sang together. I also joined the male chorus there and so tasted of the powerful classical harmonies from Ukraine and Russia, like those of Bortnyansky and Tchaikovsky. New Skete’s Brother Stavros and I remember Mother Andrea and Prof. Zadorozhny as our notable chant instructors back then. A fellow seminarian at the time and now a priest in the Orthodox Church in America, Fr. Paul N. Harrilchak, introduced us to a German chorale’s fine LP recording of the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil. This was the first time I actually heard the ancient Kievan-Rus’ Sign-chant melodies (Znamenny) that were used throughout; especially astounding to us was the lush and energetic triple “Holy God.” A few years ago several of us monks sang the “O Virgin Theotokos” from that composition, in church Slavonic, with the large Cambridge Battenkill Chorale.</div><div><br />When my family and I during my college years attended Byzantine Catholic (Rusin and Hungarian) churches, the congregational singing seemed to raise the roof! Later, as a member of the Byzantine Franciscans, I learned bits and pieces from many ethnic bodies of chant used in Eastern churches. This included Carpatho-Rusin, Melkite, Antiochian, Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, and Greek church hymnology. What an exhilarating collection of riches for the ear and the soul!</div><div><br />At that time these were sung in their original languages; later we began adapting some to English. When we first sang the Paschal services in English on Easter in 1966, the transparency of the new liturgical texts in our own language was truly uplifting. This celebration evoked in the monastery a new feeling and sense of the meaning of resurrection. In fact, it instilled in us a further energy to go on to begin our founding of New Skete that year.</div><div><br />Some years later I took some CDs of Russian Orthodox choral music to the local hospital for one of the monks who was recuperating. The sounds of the chants as they echoed in the hallways were so very uplifting and calming—even for the nursing staff at their station.</div><div><br />The appeal of liturgical or religious chant in one form or another seems to be present in most cultural settings around the world. It seems to ebb and flow in popularity. I was intrigued in 1994 when the Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de Silos became very popular for their chant recordings—this certainly was a counter-cultural phenomenon. Reminded me of my earlier schola days. Gregorian chant is named after Pope St. Gregory the Great, who lived around the year 600. It is normally used without harmony or accompaniment. The Silos monks’ Gregorian chant conductor explained that it was widely used in the Roman Catholic church before Latin was largely replaced by vernacular services in the 1960s. He said the intensity of the chant speaks to “that inner person.” He also said the monks were particularly adept at interpreting the chants to evoke an internal response: “This is not singing; it is a form of prayer for us.”</div><div><br />Today you can easily find numerous audio and You-Tube collections of chant and choral church music for solo singers, mixed voices, and men’s or women’s chorales. At New Skete we are always on the lookout for additional pieces from chant traditions and composers for use in our divine services. This wide scope of selections also becomes a part of monastic hospitality, hopefully giving a point of recognition to guests and visitors during our services, which may be unfamiliar to them. We strive to be true to the sources as we render them in English and make them our own songs of praise and thanksgiving. We also use a variety of harmonies, too, if not simply unison. To succeed in wedding the accents of the words of poetic hymns with the natural rhythms of the chant melodies is not easy, for sure, and continues to be an on-going work.</div><div><br />I was happy to learn of the dialogues on Orthodox and Wesleyan spirituality, including comparisons of hymnography, at Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary twenty years ago, published by their press. Early Methodist hymns were compared and matched with those of St. Ephrem the Syrian, among others.</div><div><br />I was amazed to learn in these studies that in the 1700s Charles Wesley translated dozens of volumes by early Christian writers and hymnologists and composed thousands of Methodist hymns and tracts that often closely reflected the spiritual outlook and theology of the Greek authors. I noticed he wrote the original version of the carol “Hark, the herald angels sing,” along with many other Christmas hymns, echoing much of what Ephrem wrote. The connection between the two author-composer theologians is so clear, so full of Biblical motifs and the use of nature’s beauty as images of the word of God speaking to us.</div><div><br />Vivid stanzas from what is listed as Methodist Hymn #1: <br /><br />11. He speaks, and listening to His voice <br /><br />New life the dead receive, <br /><br />The mournful, broken hearts rejoice, <br /><br />The humble poor believe. <br /><br />12. Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb, <br /><br />Your loosened tongues employ; <br /><br />Ye blind, behold your Saviour come, <br /><br />And leap, ye lame, for joy. <br /><br />Ephrem the Syrian (actually Aramean) was an Eastern Orthodox deacon-monk and one of the most ancient Christian theologians, writers, and musicians. He lived in the 300s, wrote in Aramaic, and was translated into Greek and Arabic. He called one collection The Harp of the Spirit. The Prayer of Ephrem is recited at every daily service in Lent in the Eastern church tradition. Ephrem was known also for gathering and directing all-female choral groups and for ministering to victims of the plague.</div><div><br />Ephrem’s glorious “Hymn to the Light” from over a millennium earlier than Wesley is a fine example of hope in the coming kingdom. It reminds me of the ancient Phos Ilaron, the “Radiant/Gladsome Light” we sing every evening. You can hear the Bruderhof community sing a similar version of Ephrem’s, and they comment that on reading his ancient words, “the saints awaiting Him in weariness and sorrow,” our thoughts are drawn to <a href="#">those suffering in Syria today</a>. <a href="#">https://www.plough.com/en/topics/culture/music/the-coming-light</a> <br /><br />Ephrem’s Hymn to the Light: <br /><br />The Light of the just and joy of the upright is Christ Jesus our Lord. <br /><br />Begotten of the Father, He manifested himself to us. <br /><br />He came to rescue us from darkness and to fill us with the radiance of His light. <br /><br />Day is dawning upon us; the power of darkness is fading away. <br /><br />From the true Light there arises for us the light which illumines our darkened eyes. <br /><br />His glory shines upon the world and enlightens the very depths of the abyss. <br /><br />Death is annihilated, night has vanished, and the gates of Sheol are broken. <br /><br />Creatures lying in darkness from ancient times are clothed in light. <br /><br />The dead arise from the dust and sing because they have a Savior. <br /><br />He brings salvation and grants us life. He ascends to his Father on high. <br /><br />He will return in glorious splendor and shed His light on those gazing upon Him. <br /><br />Our King comes in majestic glory. <br /><br />Let us light our lamps and go forth to meet Him. <br /><br />Let us find our joy in Him, for He has found joy in us. <br /><br />He will indeed rejoice us with His marvelous light… <br /><br />When He manifests Himself, <br /><br />the saints awaiting Him in weariness and sorrow<br /> will go forth to meet Him with lighted lamps…<br /><br />Like Ephrem before him, the monk and priest St. Gregory of Narek is recognized both in Eastern and Western Churches as a poet, theologian, and composer. His ancient Armenian Christian hymns similarly use fresh and vivid images from natural creation and from the Bible to portray the Gospel message and the call to life in Christ. He lived at the end of the tenth century in Armenia (which in 301 was the first country to adopt Christianity).<div><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihfUTkM3wZZzJ5tuJz0Vu9cJDhPZZRo2B1Lu4RPQ90pWzkq3W-09kqzr7-mpew8q1wi5kjtxHgA8IJrRCugDYpYiEKA7JuNitrWdsvtfNnC7zA5e_hVlRjYjYKoHpKmo_pzTcm59f6uwzQKNx7-zGfG4GJNvQEGGPMTSelycVJuAkF2L1adJknelwy/s620/Saint%20Gregory%20of%20Narek.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="348" data-original-width="620" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihfUTkM3wZZzJ5tuJz0Vu9cJDhPZZRo2B1Lu4RPQ90pWzkq3W-09kqzr7-mpew8q1wi5kjtxHgA8IJrRCugDYpYiEKA7JuNitrWdsvtfNnC7zA5e_hVlRjYjYKoHpKmo_pzTcm59f6uwzQKNx7-zGfG4GJNvQEGGPMTSelycVJuAkF2L1adJknelwy/s320/Saint%20Gregory%20of%20Narek.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Saint Gregory of Narek</td></tr></tbody></table><br />In the 2016 volume The Festal Works of St. Gregory of Narek, by Abraham Terian, I found the Ode for the Holy Cross, which features the striking figure of Christ as the Lion, an image of the courage and strength required for true freedom: <br /><br />I speak of the Lion’s roar,<br /> crying on the four-winged cross; <br /><br />On the four-winged cross crying,<br /> Calling to the depths of the earth. <br /><br />The depths of the earth trembled,<br /> They shook beneath his mighty voice. <br /><br />This mighty voice I heard<br /> Loosens the bonds I’m in. <br /><br />He longs to loosen my bonds,<br /> To reverse the captivity of the captives. <br /><br />I say, “Blessed are the captives<br /> Whom the Lion raised.” <br /><br />Those raised by the Lion<br /> Expect no further suffering; <br /><br />They expect no suffering,<br /> They await the wreaths that wither not. <br /><br />They receive the braided wreaths<br /> From the Lion, the immortal King. <br /><br />Let us give glory to the Redeemer<br /> Who rescued the captives from prison. <br /><br />I was especially excited to find this, since my patron saint is St. Mark the apostle, whose Gospel is traditionally represented by the figure of a winged lion. Here I see the Word of God, both Christ and the Good News, described as the Lion’s roar to wake us up to deeper realities.</div><div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipTVe5pyNIld8iJy_KtgKMEDiq-9qbl7-fCYuA3bCCC1bh_Th2Qu_XPh3RCvL36zDfQkmraeSNCFTDJ0BrQqcimA6OvtgTtuBrvI8dHt699T5T6NluhpqgPp0RB4ee59LBolBlGx-RAdky5jAIYVxc2_6v-2QKOBI-Vx3O_f9cnnkZIjQ5Gr9_XgGm/s290/Lion.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="160" data-original-width="290" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipTVe5pyNIld8iJy_KtgKMEDiq-9qbl7-fCYuA3bCCC1bh_Th2Qu_XPh3RCvL36zDfQkmraeSNCFTDJ0BrQqcimA6OvtgTtuBrvI8dHt699T5T6NluhpqgPp0RB4ee59LBolBlGx-RAdky5jAIYVxc2_6v-2QKOBI-Vx3O_f9cnnkZIjQ5Gr9_XgGm/s1600/Lion.png" width="290" /></a></div><br /><br />I have found that my experiences of chant, hymns, and choral sacred music are prayerful and touch the heart and soul. With their poetic repetitions and vivid images, I think they provoke a gentle parasympathetic balance in our bodily nervous systems and brain. Singing or listening to them as intimate prayer and communal song, they draw us into a clear and alert mind, and seduce us into serene calm and restfulness. Certainly I have found them soothing balm for body and spirit.</div></div>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-30281336977544046702022-06-23T05:55:00.007-07:002022-06-23T05:55:34.900-07:00Celebrating a Relationship<p> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;">By Brother Gregory</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; tab-stops: 346.5pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; tab-stops: 346.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I’m
going to talk with you about a special relationship that several New Skete
monastics have and have had: a relationship with their German Shepherd dogs.
Over the years I have been blessed with relationships with many dogs under my
care at New Skete: Diamond, Raja, Lena, Ombra, Yaki, and maybe more, and while
in Maine I had Yugi and Esra.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; tab-stops: 346.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; tab-stops: 346.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 2018, yet another German Shepherd, born
in Germany, came into my care and is still with me now. Her name is Quilla and
she is now six years old. In 2018 Quilla gave birth to her first litter of
puppies, and she was and has been a true mother, licking and cleaning all her
puppies. Quilla has had four litters so far at New Skete, and maybe another
litter is coming in around July. She is staying now in the puppy kennel while
in heat, and I miss her. I visit her daily, but that is not enough. When not in
heat or raising her puppies, Quilla is in my bedroom at night and by my side
all the time during the day. I miss our usual routines: going for a ride into
town to get the mail, hanging around in the back of the monastery and watching
her play with Habibah, her canine buddy, or just being herself around guests
and tourists and never ashamed to get down on her back and ask for a belly rub.
At night in my room, sometimes she will come over to my bed and hit the bed
with her body and let me know that she needs attention. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; tab-stops: 346.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; tab-stops: 346.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now I find myself calling out her name
while I am driving into town to get the mail and she’s not in the car. I look
over at her dog-bed and see that she is not there. Sometimes I turn around and
look for her, but she is not with me because she is in the kennel in heat. At
bedtime, Quilla and I have a routine of sharing a package of Ritz cheese
crackers, three for her and three for me, but my bedtime routine is missing a
special friend, and the crackers don’t have that special appeal. But her heat
will end soon, and she will probably be pregnant again with her fifth litter. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; tab-stops: 346.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; tab-stops: 346.5pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thank God for this special relationship;
Quilla, The Princess, will be back in my room soon. When the time comes she
will most likely drop her first puppy in my bedroom, as she has done before.<o:p></o:p></span></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6836311092899463032.post-33083874981430824972022-06-23T05:54:00.001-07:002022-06-23T05:54:53.213-07:00Fathers and Brothers<p> </p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">By
Ida Williams with Brother Luke<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">During one of the early
dog owners’ seminars, one of the attendees asked at the end of Brother Luke’s presentation
why some monks are called father and some are called brother. I thought I knew
so much back then I had worked for them for at least 5 years, so I answered, “Priests
are called father, and monks are called brother.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>WRONG!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Here is Brother Luke’s
explanation:<br />
<br />
<span style="background: white; color: #222222;">“In many Christian traditions,
both East and West, priests are referred to as father. In addition, in Eastern
Orthodox monastic tradition, all professed monks are referred to as father, and
professed nuns as mother. However, monks and nuns are also referred to as
brothers and sisters. At New Skete, since its founding, the desire was to
emphasize the understanding that we are all equal before God and not in some
hierarchical order, so we preferred to refer to each other as brother and
sister rather than mother and father. Of course, when visitors come who are
familiar with the Orthodox tradition they will at times refer to us as father
and mother and refer to the priests in particular as father. Also, when we had
an abbot leading the community he was referred to as Abba, which is sometimes
used as a more intimate term for father.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This all came back to me as I was thinking about Father’s Day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When I was young, I thought my father was invincible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Strong, smart, hardworking, and as my father
he was the boss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If Daddy said you
better do your chores, you better do your chores.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If he said no, it meant no.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I adored my father, respected him, and in a
slight sense feared him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my twenties that relationship changed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He became more of a friend and less of an
authority figure in my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That did
not mean that he was no longer the boss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I just needed a boss less frequently and needed that friend more often.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My Dad is now in his 80s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He lives in a nursing home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The man that I thought was invincible lost
both of his legs because of complications from diabetes and a stroke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the process of having him placed in the
nursing home, I became the “father.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
made the arrangements, I called the ambulance to take him to the ER, and when
we got there, I spoke with the doctors and told them we could not take him back
home with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to make the hard
decision knowing it was best for him and for my mother. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did this out of love, not spite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think how many times he had enforced a rule
or would not allow me to do what I wanted to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would get angry and say he did not love me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now it was his turn to be angry at me and
say I did not love him. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the saying
goes, “Time heals all wounds.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is
doing well in the nursing home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has
made friends there, my mother goes every day to be with him, and my siblings and
I (five of us) visit at least once a week, and we call him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my visits and conversations with him, we
are once again equal—AND he will always be my father.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Happy Father’s Day!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>New Skete Monasterieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074068474526759992noreply@blogger.com0