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I entered the monastery in order to be happy

If you have ever been in the Saint Alexander Nevsky cathedral in Green Grove, you must certainly have noticed the young faces of the novices. The young girls, dressed all in black, read prayers at the services, sing on the cliros and keep order during the services. Who are they, and why did they leave the world to live in a monastery? We decided to speak on this topic with the spiritual father of the Novo-Tikhvin Women’s Monastery, Hegumen Abraham, who knows well the life story of every novice.

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The Triumph of the Icons: History, Theology, and Implications for Orthodox Worship Today

Lecture on the Occasion of the Feast of the Sunday of Orthodoxy
Pan-Orthodox Vespers, St. Elias Eastern Orthodox Church, Battle Creek , Michigan Sunday, March 4, 2001

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Prodigal son

How simple and how restrained are the words in which the Gospel describes his cruel rejection of his father, and prepares his departure into the far, the strange country! “Father - give me my part of thy inheritance!” Do these words not mean: “Father - I can’t wait until your death! You are still strong, and I am young; it is now that I want to reap the fruits of thy life, of thy labours; later they will be stale. Let us come to an agreement: for me you are dead; give me what belongs to me or what would belong to me after your actual death, and I will go, and I will live the life I have chosen”.

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The Prodigal Son

“It was meet that we should make merry and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost and is found” (Luke 15:11-32)

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At the Threshold of the Fast. Reflections on the Sunday of Forgiveness

It is, at last, time for Great Lent to begin. The weeks of preparation are at their end; the gradual reduction and proscription of foods and activities comes now under the full weight of the Fast. The Church, on this very night of the ‘Sunday of Forgiveness’, has had its fabrics of whites and golds solemnly removed and replaced with deep purple: her customary garments of joy are exchanged for the attire of penitence. And so, kneeling and prostrate, her people look ahead to Pascha, the great feast of the Light, for the first time from within the context of the full Lenten discipline.

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TO BE LIKE THE LORD: THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control ... and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Galatians 5:22

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ON THE LOVE OF ENEMIES: THE TEACHING OF ST. SILOUAN

Although it is natural and usual to love those who love us and to do good to those who do good to us (Mt 5:46-47; Lk 6:32-33), to love our enemies is distasteful to our nature. One can say that it isn’t in our power but is an attitude that can only be the fruit of grace, given by the Holy Spirit. This is why St. Silouan the Athonite writes, “The soul that has not known the Holy Spirit does not understand how one can love one’s enemies, and does not accept it.”

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LIVING THE ORTHODOX WORLD-VIEW

A talk delivered by Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) at the St. Herman Pilgrimage, August 1982, St. Herman of Alaska Monastery, Platina, California.

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Interview with Archimandrite Meletios (Webber)

Archimandrite Meletios (Webber), of Scottish background, was born in London, and received his Masters degree in Theology from Oxford University, England and the Thessalonica School of Theology, Greece. He also holds an E.D.D. (doctorate) in Psychotherapy from the University of Montana, Missoula. He is the author of two published books: Steps of Transformation; an Orthodox Priest Explores the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (Conciliar Press, 2003); and Bread and Water, Wine and Oil; an Orthodox Christian Experience of God (Conciliar Press, 2007).