For a number of years, during Great Lent, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts of St. James, the Brother of the Lord, has been celebrated.  This was instituted by our abbot, Archimandrite Luke, now Bishop Luke. As he has done every year, he celebrated this liturgy for the spiritual edification of the brethren and the faithful and to strengthen our ties with the early Church.  This is especially interesting for our seminarians, who never had witnessed this type of liturgy.

As has become a fixed tradition in the monastery, many Serbian pilgrims, mainly from New York, but also from other parts, joined the brotherhood in celebrating the Veneration of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord on the 3rd Sunday of Great Lent.  For us it is a great joy to share this mid-Lenten commemoration with our brethren in the faith.  

In Orthodox understanding, Great Lent is called the “spring of the soul.”  So once again, our All-Merciful Lord has granted us to arrive at this soul-saving time of the Church year.  With the passing of the first week, the monastery-seminary community has whole-heartedly turned its heart over to this special time of repentance and fasting with prayer.

This year, the feast of the Meeting of the Lord was special in that it was the first festal, pontifical liturgy served by His Grace, the newly consecrated Bishop Luke, abbot of our monastery.  Concelebrating with him were the monastery and seminary clergy.