June 5, 2012 Jordanville, NY: Holy
Spirit Day in Holy Trinity Monastery
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."
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