Holy Spirit Day at Holy Trinity Monastery - June 4 2012
Holy Spirit Day at Holy Trinity Monastery - June 4 2012
On Monday, June 4, on the Feast of the Holy Spirit, annual festivities were held in Jordanville, New York for the feast day of Holy Trinity Monastery. Although the monastery’s feast day is actually held the day before, on Trinity Sunday, many clergy and faithful have begun coming to Jordanville the following day, having marked the Pentecost in their home parishes.
This year, five years after the Reunification of the two parts of the Russian Church, for the first time, divine services were led by the Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA, Archbishop Justinian of Naro-Fominsk. His Eminence was co-served by His Grace, Eastern American Diocesan vicar Bishop George of Mayfield, monastery abbot Archimandrite Luke (Murianka), as well as clergy of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Church Abroad.
After the Great Entrance, Bishop George ordained Subdeacon Ephraim Willmarth to the diaconate. The newly ordained Deacon Ephraim will temporarily fulfill his service at Holy Trinity Monastery.
Also serving at the Divine Liturgy was Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev, renowned Russian theologian and professor at the Moscow Theological Academy. During the communion of the clergy, Fr. Andrei addressed those gathered with a sermon on the significance of the feast.
Upon completion of the Liturgy, Archbishop Justinian addressed Bishop George, Fr. Luke, and the gathered faithful with the following words: "This day I prayed with particular joy. For me, this day was not only liturgically triumphant, but, I admit, particularly touched my heart; at times I even withdrew my attention from all that was going on around me, and delighted in the warmth in my heart. I felt that I was truly in the midst of loved ones, heartfelt people with whom I shared one faith. My prayer was in no way impeded, in no way fractured, and I am grateful to God, grateful to His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion, that I was able to accept the hospitable invitation of Archimandrite Luke and come here with my fellow travelers, in order to share in the triumphal patronal feast of this holy habitation, to speak works of gratitude and acknowledgement to Fr. Luke, the abbot of this monastery, the brethren, and all those faithful helpers at the monastery who labor even unto this hour to keep her adorned, to lift up their prayers to God, and to preserve the best traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church. You and I understand that our country, our homeland, suffered much in her time precisely because traditions were lost. The Revolution of 1917 brought much suffered to our homeland. It is important that, going forward, we take away from this lessons, that our hearts are never inclined toward a path of abrupt changes in our lives, be they our social lives or our lives in the Church – for this is of the Evil One.
"It is proper to offer up words of gratitude to the founders of this holy habitation, those who lived, prayed, and labored here, helping this monastery continue its existence, for the sake of preserving the traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church. You and I must understand, that although our society is advancing technologically, nevertheless we must admit that little of it constitutes true progress for human society. Mankind moves further and further away from Christ, when it is Christ Himself who is our icon, our ideal, Whom we must revere and after Whom we must follow. We cannot reassure ourselves with empty words, saying that we will be self-enlightened, self-fulfilled, that we will undertake some form of action that will bring us greater progress than we would achieve in Christ. Once and for all, mankind has been given an ideal – the Godman, Christ the Savior. No one on earth can ever accomplish that which was accomplished by Christ the Savior. It is thither, to Christ, whither we must cast our gaze, that we might never comfort ourselves with empty rhetoric about self-realization, self-perfection, that somehow this might become our true goal. The life’s goal of any conscientious Christian must be the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, as we were taught by St. Seraphim of Sarov. This is accomplished by repentance and a feeling of one’s great humility before God.
"You and I recall the following Patristic principle, which states that in great things we ought to have oneness of mind, consensus and unanimity, in the least things we ought to have freedom, but in all things we must have love. And if we will live by Patristic principles, then we will live in the love revealed to us by the Divine Trinity, for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit so love One Another, and live so deeply in one accord, one will, and one power, that is proper for us to always look to this mystery of Divine Trinitarian love, being informed and enlightened by It. It is a true example for you and me to follow.
"I thank you, Your Grace, Bishop George, Fr. Luke, brethren-concelebrants, for this triumph, this bountiful feast of the faith, in which I communed of God’s mercy and of your love. May this beauty, the memory of this, warm our hearts, because feasts end, and we must return to our obediences, but such feasts lift up our souls. They give us a grace-filled and spiritual impetus to continue living some time in joy, laboring and looking at this world with joy and hope, fearing nothing and no one but the Lord God. The Lord keep you, and I thank you, my dears, for this feast of our Orthodox Faith."
This year, five years after the Reunification of the two parts of the Russian Church, for the first time, divine services were led by the Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA, Archbishop Justinian of Naro-Fominsk. His Eminence was co-served by His Grace, Eastern American Diocesan vicar Bishop George of Mayfield, monastery abbot Archimandrite Luke (Murianka), as well as clergy of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Church Abroad.
After the Great Entrance, Bishop George ordained Subdeacon Ephraim Willmarth to the diaconate. The newly ordained Deacon Ephraim will temporarily fulfill his service at Holy Trinity Monastery.
Also serving at the Divine Liturgy was Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev, renowned Russian theologian and professor at the Moscow Theological Academy. During the communion of the clergy, Fr. Andrei addressed those gathered with a sermon on the significance of the feast.
Upon completion of the Liturgy, Archbishop Justinian addressed Bishop George, Fr. Luke, and the gathered faithful with the following words: "This day I prayed with particular joy. For me, this day was not only liturgically triumphant, but, I admit, particularly touched my heart; at times I even withdrew my attention from all that was going on around me, and delighted in the warmth in my heart. I felt that I was truly in the midst of loved ones, heartfelt people with whom I shared one faith. My prayer was in no way impeded, in no way fractured, and I am grateful to God, grateful to His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion, that I was able to accept the hospitable invitation of Archimandrite Luke and come here with my fellow travelers, in order to share in the triumphal patronal feast of this holy habitation, to speak works of gratitude and acknowledgement to Fr. Luke, the abbot of this monastery, the brethren, and all those faithful helpers at the monastery who labor even unto this hour to keep her adorned, to lift up their prayers to God, and to preserve the best traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church. You and I understand that our country, our homeland, suffered much in her time precisely because traditions were lost. The Revolution of 1917 brought much suffered to our homeland. It is important that, going forward, we take away from this lessons, that our hearts are never inclined toward a path of abrupt changes in our lives, be they our social lives or our lives in the Church – for this is of the Evil One.
"It is proper to offer up words of gratitude to the founders of this holy habitation, those who lived, prayed, and labored here, helping this monastery continue its existence, for the sake of preserving the traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church. You and I must understand, that although our society is advancing technologically, nevertheless we must admit that little of it constitutes true progress for human society. Mankind moves further and further away from Christ, when it is Christ Himself who is our icon, our ideal, Whom we must revere and after Whom we must follow. We cannot reassure ourselves with empty words, saying that we will be self-enlightened, self-fulfilled, that we will undertake some form of action that will bring us greater progress than we would achieve in Christ. Once and for all, mankind has been given an ideal – the Godman, Christ the Savior. No one on earth can ever accomplish that which was accomplished by Christ the Savior. It is thither, to Christ, whither we must cast our gaze, that we might never comfort ourselves with empty rhetoric about self-realization, self-perfection, that somehow this might become our true goal. The life’s goal of any conscientious Christian must be the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, as we were taught by St. Seraphim of Sarov. This is accomplished by repentance and a feeling of one’s great humility before God.
"You and I recall the following Patristic principle, which states that in great things we ought to have oneness of mind, consensus and unanimity, in the least things we ought to have freedom, but in all things we must have love. And if we will live by Patristic principles, then we will live in the love revealed to us by the Divine Trinity, for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit so love One Another, and live so deeply in one accord, one will, and one power, that is proper for us to always look to this mystery of Divine Trinitarian love, being informed and enlightened by It. It is a true example for you and me to follow.
"I thank you, Your Grace, Bishop George, Fr. Luke, brethren-concelebrants, for this triumph, this bountiful feast of the faith, in which I communed of God’s mercy and of your love. May this beauty, the memory of this, warm our hearts, because feasts end, and we must return to our obediences, but such feasts lift up our souls. They give us a grace-filled and spiritual impetus to continue living some time in joy, laboring and looking at this world with joy and hope, fearing nothing and no one but the Lord God. The Lord keep you, and I thank you, my dears, for this feast of our Orthodox Faith."
Source: "Eastern American Diocese www.eadiocese.org."
Holy Spirit Day at Holy Trinity Monastery - June 4 2012
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