Earlier that day, the Abbot had offered these words of exhortation and encouragement:

“Today, brethren, I ask you to keep in prayer our brothers Martinian and Porphyry, who will be tonsured to the Small Schema after the night service. Remember that, at this time, the monk receives a unique grace for the living out of the Gospel. The Saviour grants great grace, but for the service of others, and for the difficult struggle for eternal life. ‘To whom much is given,’ He says, ‘of him will much be required.’ The venerable fathers Anthony, John, Euthymius, Sergius, Seraphim, and so many others, passed through this way with dignity; and this for you too, I sincerely wish. I ask all of you to be very careful today and vigilant, to pray more, and not to worry about or look at each other with judgment. God help us all!”

The Matins service was chanted solemnly at 11 pm, with the tonsure following. Hierodeacon Martinian received the name of Seraphim, after St. Seraphim of Sarov (Jan 15/2 ). Monk Porphyry received the name of Sergei, after St. Sergius of Radonezh (Oct 8/Sep 25).

May God grant them a good repentance.

For more photos click here.

This morning a small group of pilgrims arrived: a small but colorful group from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Minsk.. They had tea and spoke at some length with Fr. Joachim, and later joined us for the noon reading of the Hours and the synaxarion.

They had numerous questions for Father: How do you see the Church in Russia? Which is your favorite community there? Did any one of those meet your expectations of the ideal set up, or location? Father shared his love and appreciation for Russia and also emphasized that no matter where you are, or which nation who happen to belong to, if you are Orthodox, you are at home: “You can make every place better if you live with Christ.”

The discussion then turned to the subject of fasting: “How do the monastics here fast? What are your practices individually, and as a whole?” The abbot’s response was that “the best fast is to stay away from sin. Love your neighbor. If you love the Lord and your neighbor, staying away from certain things doesn’t become an issue. The reason we stay away from certain foods is to remind ourselves that our soul needs nourishment as well.”

“Certainly, in this monastery, we follow the discipline of the Church, and if such and such person has no problems with his health, he is encouraged to practice more in the way of asceticism, with the abbot’s blessing. I never recommend strict fasting to those who have anger or irritation problems with their brothers. I encourage my brothers here in this community to stop eating and drinking after midnight the Sunday of Forgiveness until the first Presanctified Liturgy on Wednesday. The ones that are not irritable and sad can continue the strict fast until Friday. Then we resume the normal tradition as can be checked in any calendar. As I say again, the emphasis is love and peace among the brethren.”

“It is the level of love within the community that is the guideline for the strictness of the Fast.”

Stretensky Monastery Press, Moscow, has just announced the publication of a new book: Talks on Russian Soil. It documents, in Russian translation, many of the spiritual conversations and lectures given by Schema-Archimandrite Joachim Parr in Russia. The publication traces meetings begun in the summer of 2011, when he began visiting the monasteries of Russia, speaking with and listening to the stories of monks and nuns, laymen and children.

In the book’s Forward, Metropolitan Hilarion, Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, writes, “He spoke to them about love: the infinite, unconditional love of God for man and the equally loving response desired from us by the Saviour.”

He continues, “The talks of Fr. Joachim reveal to us a simple truth: that to perform the works of God is not burdensome: ‘Live in joy! … Do not keep others at a distance; try to see in him Christ, who is near to you. Learn how to warm up to your neighbor … do not look for someone to serve you. Share the sufferings of one another. This is the only chance given to us to love one another in God: everyone, without exception, without ceasing. Because God does not come to us with money or beautiful buildings and temples. He comes to us by our love.’”

For the full article (in Russian), visit Pravoslavie.ru

To purchase a copy, visit Sretenie.com

Between despondency and gluttony, you can see how easy it is to get into the trap of pleasing self. Some people, for whatever weird reason, find obsessing on their misery to be a source of joy and pleasure. They often say they are suffering. But their suffering is caused by their approach to things. I say, stop obsessing and focusing on yourself. And their response is, “I can’t help it.” And the reality is, what they are saying is, “I don’t want to. I’ve chosen to think about it.” And most often, what they really don’t understand, is that by their constant thinking about it, it controls them.

We continually forget that the path of the Christian is the cross and suffering. We really believe that the goal of this life is to live without suffering and without the cross. And when we have that thinking, that there is to be no suffering, everything is to be pleasing and comfortable, we are always frustrated.

So, I encourage you, the next couple of days, as we’re getting ready for the Great Fast, we have many days of endulgence, days without any fasting. Don’t be living and thinking about what you’re going to eat. Think of the preparation for the spiritual feasts that are coming…

This passage is an excerpt from a daily meeting at Saviour’s Desert Skete.

Feel free to watch the video, On Gluttony.

Fr. Andrey is rector of St. Gregory the Theologian Church, a patriarchal parish in Tampa, Florida. His visit coincides with Fr. Joachim’s return from his recent trip to Russia. The joyous occasion was festive, aided by Fr. Martinian’s famous blini, and the setting became beautiful as we were blanketed with about a foot of snow on Tuesday evening. It has been a blessing to catch up with both Father Joachim and Fr. Andrey, and to be together again in this beloved place.

Feel free to visit Fr. Andrey’s blog.

For more photos click here.

On the eve of the feast day of St. Nino, our beloved Parish in NYC gathered for the vigil service at Mercy House.  Just before the service, we discovered that, due to frigid temperatures, one of the pipes in the boiler room had burst.  By the end of the vigil, our ancient furnace finally gave up and also burst, creating the sounds of a waterfall in our basement.  But, thanks to God, a friend of the parish came to our aid.  It did mean, however, that the main water line had to be cut off, leaving us without facilities, and without heat — and late on Saturday evening!

In our community, there are two parishioners named “Nina,” after the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Nino, Enlightener of Gruzia (Georgia).  St. Nino was born in about the year 280 in the city of Kolastra in Cappadocia, where many of the Gruzian people had gathered.  In celebration of that feast and in light of our situation at Mercy House, our Nina and Nino opened their hearts and home to us all.  We were treated to some ethnic foods and drink, including one of our favorites:  traditional khatchapouri.  We spent a wonderful afternoon sharing traditions, and telling of our experiences surrounding the veneration of relics.  We were even able to practice some chanting.

Through the prayers of St. Nino, may we all grow in our love for our brethren, especially in their time of need!

To modern-day Man, the Man of philosophical materialism, Man HIMSELF, is the standard of all things, HE is the prism through which all reality is passed; it is HE who judges and evaluates everything and everyone else on earth.  

To modern-day Man, the thought or the idea that there is an ultimate complete being, other than himself, is completely alien to him. Modern-day Man sees himself as the only judge of himself; therefore, there is nothing, there is NO ONE, that is able to restrain his passions or call him to accountability for his brother.

If this is so, where does this all take the world of today? … Man has no enduring values; society, in and of itself, determines the common good and the direction of every man..

For the hedonist, the primary purpose of the human body is to provide pleasure for itself. Dostoevsky warned us: “Without God, everything is permitted to us.”

Today, most of the Christian people, instead of CHANGING and INFLUENCING the secular culture around them, have allowed themselves to be changed BY the culture at the expense of their moral values.  Modern-day Man is deeply compromised by the strong demands of the secular and materialistic culture he lives in. Modern-day Man HUNGERS to assimilate and fit in to the dominant society in order to benefit from all the things offered for the pleasure of Man.

We have become weak and luke-warm about our faith in God. We are NAIVE about the dangers of the godless world we live in.

What do we do?
Where do we go?
What do we need?

By: A dear parishioner.

For more photos, visit the Skete Feast ’12 Photo Gallery.

Many times people who are beginning the spiritual life become terribly distressed and say, “I’m depressed. I’m overwhelmed. I’m tortured. When is this ever going to end?” And, “Why would I try to pray? Why can’t I pray? Why am I suffering?” This is because that is the path of the man who has passions. Until, through God, you can conquer your passions, you will have no peace. You will have no rest. Your life will always be conflict. And every one of us has the enormous struggle between living according to, giving into, and living by our passions, and trying to rid ourselves of them in order to live with and through God. And most of us dearly hang onto our passions and love them, and then just play like we’re trying to find God. “I’ll go to church.” And in church you think of everything but God. “I’m going to pray.” And you don’t pray—you just think about yourself. You say, “I’m going to be quiet today.” And then you hate your brother who is bothering you. You’re told something in obedience and you get annoyed. It’s all because of your love of self. Your passions are still raging with fire and are going on in you and controlling you. You don’t understand why you can’t find the tranquility that comes to those who love God.

One of the biggest passions we all have is gluttony. It doesn’t mean that you eat until the point that you explode. It means you eat for the pleasure of eating. You eat for taste. You’re constantly satisfying your needs with food, liquids, tastes of things… nibbling all the time, because your passions of “please me” are always going on.

You see someone walk into the house and your attention is instantly fixed …and and we’re supposed to be dispassionate… Someone in a conversation that doesn’t include you mentions your name, and you’re instantly checking… because the obsession with self is there all the time. People walk through a room and they’re checking everything out: What’s there? What’s going? Because they can’t stop satisfying the craving to please self. Because they are not desiring to please anyone else. They are not thinking about God, they are thinking about themselves. And what we try to do is try to fit God into what we want in our life. It doesn’t work that way because God doesn’t fit into anything. We have to fit into Him.

What a pathetic thing it would be if any of us, let alone all of us, don’t reach the kingdom of God because we can’t stop loving ourselves. All this is to waste. What’s the point? If you can’t conquer the biggest monster you know—which is yourself, and your love of self—how can you do anything else?