Today we essentially visited two
places: the Transfiguration cathedral in the city of Prilyki, and the
Gustinsky Holy Trinity Convent. That may seem rather insignificant at
first glance, but honestly, the convent was really quite remarkable,
and the cathedral was very interesting as well. The day was not at
all insignificant, but rather quite enlightening. The convent
especially was very impressive. I'll give a little anecdote at the
very end, after we present the pictures.
Here are the pictures from the
Transfiguration cathedral in Prilyki:
And here are the pictures from the
Gustinsky convent:
And now for the anecdote. The Abbess of
the convent did not really speak Russian – or at least she was not
comfortable with her Russian. Vladyka Peter could understand her
Ukrainian quite well since he said it was the same Ukrainian that the
brothers spoke in Jordanville when he arrived there as a seminarian.
But she wanted to have one of the sisters who spoke Russian give the
tour of the convent. That seemed quite reasonable to us. She knew a
lot about the history of the convent, the important people buried
there (the mother of St. Joasaph of Belgorad is buried there, for
instance), and her pronunciation was very clear, which made it much
easier for me to understand. The tour was very good. One interesting
fact we found out is that the cathedral church of the convent was the
place where St. Demetrius of Rostov was ordained a priest – on the
day of the consecration of the cathedral in fact. Later this same nun
fed us in the refractory. Very humbly, quietly – she didn't join us
for the meal – she just served it. All was very unassuming. The
Abbess sat and ate with us. At the very end of the meal the Abbess
gave gifts and we gave gifts to the convent. This is the tradition –
to give and receive gifts everyone you go on such trips. So you have
to bring gifts with you! We have been giving the icon of St. Jonah of
Hankow along with his life. Most people know nothing about him since
he was glorified in the Church Abroad some years ago, and only
recently was this glorification officially adopted by the entire
Russian Orthodox Church. We are also giving copies of the booklet
that was prepared for the retirement celebration of Archbishop Alypy
a few weeks ago. One of the gifts the Abbess gave us was the latest
edition of their convent magazine. On the front cover was a picture
of the Sisterhood. Seated just to the right of the Abbess, who is
wearing two crosses (Abbesses often are given the right to wear a
cross) was our servant – wearing a cross herself! She is the
assistant Abbess! We would have NEVER known that. Not that assistant
Abbesses are known to be proud, but we couldn't have guessed that
this humble servant was anything other than a novice or a simple nun.
This example was very inspiring to me.
Monastic life here is very strong – very vivid – very alive! The
Church always evaluates itself in the end based on the monastic life.
If the monastic life is strong one knows that the Local Church is
strong. If not, then the life is weak. The life here is VERY strong!
There are many monasteries and convents, and the life in them is, by
an large, very authentic and strong. Many men and women are
struggling for their salvation and praying for the salvation of the
whole world in these monastic institutions. And we owe them a great
debt for their selfless and humble service. And more than that – we
really need to consider the beauty, simplicity, and significance of
this life in our own diocese. As parents do we EVER consider that the
monastic life might be something we would want to expose our children
to so that they might choose that life for themselves, or at least
have the opportunity to consider that life for themselves? We really
must do this – we must expose our children to the best examples of
the monastic life so that they will at least understand that this
spiritually healthy alternative is indeed an option for them! In our
diocese we have a small monastery in Houghton, MI and a small convent
in House Springs, MO. Please take a moment and say a prayer that the
Lord will continue to send good candidates to our monasteries for
their growth and improved life, which honestly would be also quite
helpful for our salvation!
Please pray for us as we travel!
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