New Skete Monasteries News

Reflections by Brother Luke             We recently celebrated the Feast of Pentecost, which brings the Paschal season to a close. Connected with that feast is the celebration of the Holy Trinity, since Pentecost marks the coming of the Holy Spirit and sometimes is referred to as the birthday of the church. Since the Trinity is the centerpiece of both of these feasts, the liturgical texts and scriptural readings for the octave (8 day) celebration highlight this theme, and both the Pentecost and Trinity icons will be prominently displayed in the church. From Genesis 18:1-8 we read about the Lord appearing to Abraham at the Oak of Mamre. This text is often pointed to as the source for the Trinity icon, which shows three figures around a table with the head of the calf in the center on the serving dish. Of note is the care taken in preparing to receive these visitors.           ...

by Sister Cecelia The Man born blind 5 17 15 1 Pt 3:13-22, Ac 9:32-43, Jn 9: 1-39 We just heard the evangelist refer to the believers as Saints. The Greek word Hagios is frequently translated ‘holy’, but the root of the word means different. The Hebrew people were different set apart from the other people of this world. They were chosen to do the work of God. The Hagios are specifically a holy people. They are a different people chosen for the special purposes of God. Christians became the people who are different. That difference does not give us greater honor or prestige but does require of us a greater service. What might that service be? The greatest service we can give is to be the saint we are meant to be. A saint is someone whose life makes it easier for others to believe in God. Are we a living example of Jesus in how we live? In Acts this morning, we witnessed that Peter did not say I heal you, but Jesus Christ heals you. And when he approached Tabitha he prayed for her t...

By Brother Stavros On Pentecost Monday, New Skete had the honor of a visit from the 103rd Archbishop of Canterbury, now Lord George Carey, and his wife, Lady Eileen. They were here in the area to be with the Community of St. Mary, who have a convent near Greenwich and are celebrating the 150th anniversary of their founding, and Mother Miriam, their superior, was eager to show the archbishop their monastic neighbors. The party included Fanuel Magangani, Anglican Bishop of Northern Malawi, from central Africa, and two other nuns from St. Mary’s. They stopped first at Our Lady of the Sign Monastery, where Sister Cecelia, prioress, showed them around the sisters’ monastery. They were very taken with the cheesecake bakery! On arriving at Holy Wisdom church at New Skete, the monks and nuns sang some Pentecost hymns as the two bishops were led by Brother Christopher, prior and priest-monk, into the altar, where they venerated the Holy Table. Brother Christopher gave a brief welcome...

By Brother Stavros The recent shooting of church members gathered in the sacred precincts of their historic church for a Bible Study session is yet another episode of hate, intolerance, and violence that afflicts our culture with frightening regularity. For the victims and their friends and families, for the city of Charlestown, we pray: Be patient, Lord, with our slowness to repent; dispel our blindness to human need and suffering and our indifference to injustice and cruelty; save us from false judgments and prejudice and from contempt for those who differ from us, for all of us are your children; we beseech you, hear us and have mercy. We cannot exclude the perpetrator from our prayers, that he may find repentance and forgiveness, and not serve as an incitement to others: Merciful Savior, move us to new and creative efforts to uproot all traces of hatred, arrogance, lust for power, and fanatical absolutes, beginning with whatever lurks in the hidden corners of our own m...

by Brother Stavros The Wheel is a journal of Orthodox Christian thought. Its mission is to articulate the Gospel in and for the contemporary world. By embracing contributions on Orthodox theology, spirituality, and liturgical arts alongside serious engagements with the challenges of contemporary political ideologies, empirical science, and cultural modernism, The Wheel aims to move beyond the polarizations of much current debate in the Orthodox Church. The journal is intended to be of general interest to a wide circle of readers. It will appear on a quarterly basis in both printed and electronic formats, along with an accompanying website . http://www.wheeljournal.com What a breath of fresh air. The journal is inviting in its shape and feel and, once opened, spiritually enticing. It was hard to pick which article to read first. I settled on "They Never Met" by Sergei Chapnin. It was a good litmus test of the quality of this publication. I applaud the honesty and the ...

Reflections by Brother Luke Visitors to New Skete today who enter our Holy Wisdom Temple walk through a garden, either along a level path from a parking area behind the east end of the church or up a gentle ramp that rises from the road around our original Transfiguration Temple. This garden space is adorned with flowers, shrubs, and trees that are native to our region. Stones and boulders of varying sizes that were moved into this place from other parts of our property form the walls and terraces. The east end of the garden features two ponds with fish and frogs. In early spring the trees burst forth in bloom, and the ponds’ inhabitants serenade us with the songs of the croakers. It was not always thus! When the Holy Wisdom Temple was built in the early 1980s, access to the main entrance was via a bank of over 30 steps. Shoveling the snow off of those steps was a major chore in the winter; especially after high netting was added in an attempt to keep deer away from the plants. I...

By Brother David With the Ascension, the heart of Jesus now beats in the heart of the Trinity, and in him, we too make that journey into the heart of God.  Our journey through the Passion, from its beginning in Lent, through Paschaltide, and up to now in the feast of the Ascension, is a journey to enlightenment in ourselves and in the world.  This process of enlightenment, this coming to awareness towards which we strive in our lives, is not a time of consolation or good feeling; rather, it is a time of destruction.  This is a time when all those lies which we have accepted, which we have perpetrated on ourselves, which we have been given by our families, our society, and, yes, sometimes even our church must be stripped away.  It is through these lies in which we have actively, passively, or merely tacitly participated that we are separated from ourselves, from each other, and from the One who made us.  This stripping and integration is the purpose of our C...