Since the monastery is dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity, our patronal feast day is Pentecost, or more correctly, the day of the Holy Spirit. Since Pascha was very early this year, the feast coincided with the civil holiday of Memorial Day, thus facilitating the pilgrimage of hundreds of the faithful.
On the day before Pentecost, according to the church typicon, we had the Pentecost ancestral Saturday. As is our tradition, the Divine Liturgy was served in the cemetery Church of the Dormition, which is also dedicated to the Holy Royal Martyrs. Since the church is rather small, the faithful stood also in front of the church with its doors open. Following the service, a general pannikhida was served in which all of the commemoration books kept in the altar of the cathedral were read.
In the evening, the All-Night Vigil was served with special solemnity. On our patronal feast, the Litia is served outside with a procession circling the church with stops on all four sides for the various ektenias.
We were blessed this year with the presence of Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan, vicar bishop of the Eastern-American diocese of Eastern America. As is our tradition, an early liturgy was served in the basement church of St. Job at 6AM, and then the pontifical liturgy was served at 9AM. Vladyka Nicholas was met at the entrance of the church by the monastery clergy as well as visiting clergy.
A very special thing happened this year, in that besides during the Vigil, the Divine Liturgy was also sung by two choirs on both left and right kleroses. This gave a more solemn and traditional monastic spirit to the services. We are very grateful that so many young men from neighboring parishes contributed to this and hope that this continues.
Over two hundred of the faithful availed themselves of the Holy Mysteries. The Very Reverend Peter Heers gave a moving sermon on the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Orthodox Christian.
Following the liturgy, all were welcome to the traditional monastery trapeza of borscht, buckwheat kasha and tuna and macaroni salad.
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