April 9, 2014
"To Clean Their Wings:"
Dispatches from Great Lent
The
first disruption to the earlier ‒ Northern ‒ Lenten Retreat, held
annually by the Eastern American Diocese, was the growing unrest in
Ukraine. The renowned Kievan theologian, homilist, and author
Archpriest Andrei Tkachev, who had kindly agreed to be the retreat’s
main speaker and join in discussions with American clergy and
seminarians, announced at the last minute that he was not given a
blessing to leave his parish at a time when the city, nation, and
indeed all of Ukrainian Orthodoxy were reeling and teetering on the
brink of uncertainty…
Archpriest Victor Potapov (rector of St. John the Baptist Cathedral
in Washington, DC) saved the day, preparing a lecture and reflection
on Orthodox pastoral service at the dawn of the new century. But
then came the next disruption: meteorologists had foretold inclement
weather ‒ rain, driving snows, sharp drops in temperature, and
sleet. However, no one was certain what surprises would be
encountered in the middle of the first month of spring. That was why
the most prudent ‒ and those who were able ‒ came to Jordanville
ahead of schedule, prior to the start of the pastoral conference,
never losing hope in seeing their brother-clergy and the senior
priest from the capital city, already on his way with his plane
ticket in hand. Among those who arrived in advance were Metropolitan
Hilarion of Eastern America & New York and the diocesan vicar ‒
Bishop George of Mayfield, who were the cause for much joy among the
priests, brethren, and seminarians when they appeared the following
morning for joint prayer at the Presanctified Liturgy.
It rained on the eve of the retreat, as though to wash the monastery
walls with tears, and beat against the camera lens. It would be less
than an hour until those drops transformed before one’s eyes to lacy
icicles. The frost would set in, the freezing winds whipping up
snowdrifts and calling to everyone’s mind the question: what will
tomorrow bring?
The
following day the sun shone brightly in the sky, though the cold bit
down to the bone, while the clergy and matushkas gathered in the
seminary hall for the pastoral conference, having made the long but
exciting journey from their parishes. Even representatives from
sunny Florida were in attendance, as well as the main speaker from
Washington, all bedecked in a winter riassa and fur-lined skufia,
looking every bit the Russian priest, something undoubtedly foreign
to the American climate and lifestyle.
Those gathered were greeted by the First Hierarch of the Russian
Church Abroad, His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion ‒ who in the
second half of the day read aloud his epistle on the occasion of the
80th anniversary of the Eastern American Diocese ‒ and Holy Trinity
Monastery’s rector, Archimandrite Luke (Murianka).
In his lecture, Fr. Victor Potapov identified and explained the
three basic duties of the pastor, which were set down by Christ the
Savior Himself: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations (the duty to
teach), baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit (the duty to liturgize), teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (the duty to
lead). "Internal focus, prayer, and divine contemplation ‒ these
must be the underpinning of the spiritual life of the priest, who
will inevitably find himself dividing his daily activity between
family, church, and social obligations," posited Fr. Victor.
The lecture elicited discussion among the clergy. As Archpriest
George Zelenin (rector of St. Michael’s Cathedral in Paterson, NJ)
noted, "the lecturer reminded us of everything that is most needful,
of those very truths of which we must constantly remind ourselves,
jolting ourselves and remembering both what we do and why we do it."
"The very fact that we have gathered here – within the walls of this
monastery – is good for us," said Fr. George. "Even if I, for
instance, technically have an opportunity to confess frequently
because I serve in a place with many local priests, one cannot
forget that many of our brother-clergy are in a situation where they
have no one nearby to whom to confess ‒ to, as Protodeacon Joseph
Jarostchuk (cleric of St. John of Kronstadt Memorial Church in
Utica, NY – ed.) put it, ‘clean their wings.’ So the very
opportunity to confess, to ‘clean our wings’ in order to fly
further, is very important and even essential for every clergyman."
It was Priest Richard Reed’s (cleric of St. Joseph of Optina Church
in Virginia Beach, VA) first lenten retreat in Jordanville, and he
came with his Matushka Mary Magdalene. In the world, he was a
corpsman ‒ an American convert of Irish descent, who since last year
has been serving in the small parish of 75 parishioners, mostly
Russians and Ukrainians. Raised since childhood in the Catholic
Church and having converted to Orthodoxy as an adult, it was
especially important for Fr. Richard to have a sense of community
with his brother-clergy and, even for a few days, submerse himself
in the penitent Lenten atmosphere of a Russian Orthodox monastery.
"Great
Lent, especially in the last 3-4 years, has become for mastushka and
me a time of repentance, spiritual renewal, and following discipline
we find in the Orthodox Church, in the Orthodox order and tradition.
Repentance, to which we were all called by Christ the Savior
Himself, is an inseparable part of the path to salvation and union
with Christ. This is especially important today, when the world is
losing its moral compass. The priest is saddled with the burden of
leading the faithful through the storm-tossed sea of life to
salvation. But how can we do this, if we ourselves are not cleansed
and corrected? How can we get into a penitent frame of mind if we do
not confess our sins, pray, and ask God for forgiveness, leaving the
world and enveloping ourselves in the spirit of repentance for at
least a little while ‒ during the days of the Great Fast?
"In his
epistle,
dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Diocese, His Eminence,
Metropolitan Hilarion correctly noted that the highest priority for
every Orthodox Christian must be the acquiring of eternal salvation
in the saving bosom of the Church. Of course, we all must pay bills
and consider the welfare not only of our own, but of our parish,
family, but at the same time we must constantly take care for the
preservation of our souls in purity. Because when we stand before
the Lord, He will ask us not how much we have in our checking
account, but what we have in our souls. It isn’t important if we are
rich or poor, priest or layman ‒ we will all have to answer to God
for our lives. But the priest ‒ I ‒ will have to answer doubly: both
for myself and for my parishioners."
Religious or Secular: Which comes first?
The
topics of education and preparation for pastoral service are
foremost on the minds of the current students at Holy Trinity
Seminary: Russians, Americans, those from Sweden, Macedonia, China,
the Philippines, Indonesia… Should they receive a secular education
first, or should they follow their hearts immediately to seminary?
How soon should they be ordained? Some students are unsure whether
they will be a fit with their parishioners and get along with them;
others worry whether their parish will suit them… For uncertainty
(or a lack of knowledge and experience) gives birth to doubt. In
one’s self. In the correctness of one’s calling.
Seminary graduate and instructor Deacon Ephraim Willmarth has been
at Holy Trinity for nine years, and knows what the seminarians need
in order to be prepared for future service on their own. "I hope
that the seminary will be able to establish greater contact with
exemplary parishes in the Eastern American Diocese, so that our
students can travel there and gain practical experience, becoming
acquainted with and drawing from the example of the rectors, and
after graduation work toward ordination.
"Sometimes young priests see in the parishes to which they were
assigned something entirely different from what they were expecting,
and do not know how to deal with the difficulties that they
encounter. We must help our graduates escape such stress, offering
them examples of successful parish life, providing seminarians with
a goal that they can strive toward and achieve, presenting them with
illustrations of the kind of priests they should become, and giving
them the skills, know-how, and tools that will help them lead and
make to flourish a united and successful parish. Then the rector
will not have to look for supplementary work or a second job: he
will be able to apply himself to his calling, to that for which he
was educated at seminary. We have many parishes that provide a good
example and can become worthy internship locations for our
students." Fr. Ephraim’s sentiments were shared by Fr. Victor
Potapov and by Eastern American Diocesan Media Office director
Reader Peter Lukianov, who over the course of the seminar spoke
about plans for closely aligning the diocesan parishes, seminary,
and media office.
To the Center!
Realizing
and developing such programs is one of the goals of the Eastern
American Diocesan Center, which will officially open its doors on
September 12, and will be located at St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
in Howell, NJ.
As His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion, noted, the last five years
in our Diocese were a period of growth, both on the administrative
and parish levels. The number of parishes has grown, new clergy are
being ordained, and missionary work is expanding. The diocesan flock
today is more numerous and multifarious than ever before. The new
Center is intended to keep pace with the growing needs involved in
running this vast Diocese. On September 12 of this year, the
cathedral will also officially become the episcopal cathedra of the
ruling bishop of the Eastern American Diocese.
Even the location chosen for the Center is fitting: a grand
cathedral, built by its current rector, Protopresbyter Valery
Lukianov. Across the
street are a church hall, the Russian House "Rodina," and a park
filled with monumnets to the heroes of Russian history and culture.
Eastern American Diocesan secretary Archpriest Serge Lukianov, who
is leading the transition team tasked with expanding life at St.
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral from that of a parish alone to that of
larger-scale diocesan infrastructure, repeated and explained that it
will be not only an administrative center, nor only a Russian church
and cultural space. The Diocesan Center’s primary directive is to
become a spiritual oasis: an educational center; a place to hold
services on a larger, diocesan scale, and to host church events,
retreats, and conferences; a center of liturgics and Church history,
where in time one will be able to order and obtain literature and
necessary church vessels and supplies.
Metropolitan Hilarion invited the clergy and laity to come to St.
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on November 14-15, 2014, when not only
the fullness of the Eastern American Diocese, but also
representatives from other dioceses of the Russisan Church Abroad
and other American Orthodox jurisdictions, will gather together to
pray and thank the Lord for all of His bountiful mercies.
The Chosen One of the Mother of God
Another
topic discussed at the retreat was preparation for the glorification
of Brother Jose Muñoz-Cortes, the martyred guardian of the
Iveron-Montreal Icon of the Mother of God. On every trip to
Jordanville, Fr. Victor Potapov, the current guardian of Brother
Jose’s personal effects and items relating to his travels and death,
visits the monastery cemetery where Brother Jose is buried, and
serves a panihida. Fr. Victor called on his brother-clergy not to
allow Brother Jose’s name to be forgotten in America, and to serve
litiyas for the repose of his soul ‒ as was done before the
glorifications of Righteous John of Kronstadt, Blessed Xenia of St.
Petersburg, and the Holy Hierarch John of Shanghai & San Francicso ‒
especially on October 31 and November 1, the day Brother Jose was
martyred. The Eastern American Diocesan Media Office released a
remarkable film about Brother Jose that includes new facts about his
life, including some about his martyric death. Thanks to the efforts
of Holy Trinity Seminary, a film with English subtitles was also
released. The "Icon’s House" society published a 300-page book in
English and Russian, as well, which includes important materials and
a list of miraculous events of intercession, medical reports, and
investigative results.
Fr. Victor asked his brother-clergy and the faithful to share their
thoughts and to inform him of any miraculous events, duly noting
that one genuine miracle took place in 2007, after Orthodox
Christians had sorrowed for 10 years over the disappearance of the
myrrh-streaming Icon, when the Lord allowed another myrrh-streaming
Icon of the Mother of God to appear on the Hawaiian Islands.
"We believe that the time has come to more actively address the
question of glorifying Brother Jose among the saints as a martyr,"
said Fr. Victor. "He was chosen by the Mother of God to accompany
one of the greatest miracles of the 20th century, and for 15 years
he guarded the Icon entrusted to him."
The Holy Forty-Day Fast in the "Village of Jordan"
Jordanville,
or the "Village of Jordan" (Iordanovka),
as this place is lovingly called by the successors of the
habitation’s founding fathers ‒ men of prayer, builders, printers…
is far to the north. For this reason, some might find this place,
whose silence is disturbed only by the honks of the geese flying
overhead, less than accommodating. Others might close their eyes on
the winding road leading down to the sleepy village of Herkimer,
forgetting the 21st century along the way, and it will seem to them
that they are somewhere between heaven and earth, that they are in a
place where they could fast year-round. It is no difficult task to
forget the locally made animal produce and instead, like the hermit
fathers have done for years, rise with the sun, peering through the
morning haze at the silhouttes of the cupolas, and make their way to
the monastery for the morning service. They are the servants of God.
Among those gathered are a majority of those who came to the
Northern Lenten Retreat in the days of the Great Fast. It bears
repeating that they all made this difficult trek through the
lingering winter. The clergy of Joy of All Who Sorrow Church in
Atlanta, GA ‒ Priest Eugene Antonov and Deacon Anton Kouznetsov with
his matushka ‒ almost spent the night at the foot of the mountain:
their car simply refused the climb, and they were saved by the
rector of the Washington cathedral, passing by on his way from the
airport.
For most of the participants, the monastery and seminary are like
home. Some spent 4-5 years here, others eight or more. More than
once, His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion, warmly reminisced about
his years spent in the monastery. Fr. Serge Lukianov recalls his
years here as the brightest and most joyous of his life, a time when
the most pressing and troubling questions the seminarians faced were
far simpler: to what parish or country will they be assigned? and,
no less important for a future priest, what kind of matushka will
they find?
"I maintain that the retreats spent within the monastery walls and
in a monastic atmosphere, where most of us studied, are a very
important sharpening of our reflexes, a return to our roots, a
reawakening, if you will," comments Fr. George Zelenin. "There is no
sense concealing sin: buried in our routines, we all forget, to one
degree or another, the good inclinations with which we entered the
priesthood. Here those good intentions are resurrected: they are
reanimated in the monastery classes, the familiar refectory, and the
place of repose of our instructors and spiritual fathers…"
This is Archpriest Petr Kunitsky’s (cleric of Holy New Martyrs &
Confessors of Russia Church in Brooklyn) first time in Jordanville.
Father has been serving as a priest since 1996, but has only been in
America since last summer.
"I remember: you would pick up a theological book in Ukraine, and
the title page would read ‘Printed by the Publishin House of St. Job
of Pochaev in Jordanville.’ And you think: where is this place, and
what is it like? And I never thought that I would one day visit it!
I feel grace here like at places in my own Ukraine, just as in Kiev
or in Pochaev. There is a spiritual elation here that cannot be
described in words… Even the founders of this habitation are our
own, from Ukraine. For me here and now, Jordanville is a piece of
Ukrainian land, of Ukrainian spirituality. Our faith is here, here
are copies of the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God. And I am
sincerely grateful to the diocesan leadership for organizing this
retreat."
Meanwhile,
Priest Konstantin Gavrilkin, a cleric of the same parish, felt for
the first time in years feelings that he once had at his alma mater
‒ Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra. "It was a joy to meet some of the
most interesting people in our Diocese. Moreover, I grew up with
these services, and have missed them these many years."
"For me, this place is full of good memories," said Fr. Victor
Potapov. "I studied and lived here for four years, here I became a
spiritual child of our Spirit-bearing ascetics and athletes of
faith. Having spent 2-3 days here in the monastery, we return to our
parishes with renewed strength, new energy, ourselves renewed by the
power of this spiritual place.
"For parish priests to come here is a special blessing, as it gives
us an opportunity to tear ourselves away from the world and to
interact face-to-face with one another. In meeting one-on-one in
such a grace-filled place, love for one another bleeds through far
more than when simply corresponding, along with a desire to support
one another with a kind word and prayer."
The First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad called on the
priests, their faithful matushkas, the seminarians, and all of the
laborers in Christ’s vineyard to augment their prayers and sincerity
toward one another, expanding their participation in the everyday
life of the Church:
"The triumph of Christ’s love over worldwide evil is the cause of
our celebration during this 80th anniversary. In order to cultivate
this love within our hearts, let us be mindful of the words of Saint
Nektary of Optina, who said: ‘Pray that the Lord will rule in your
heart. Then it will overflow with great rejoicing and happiness, and
no kind of sorrow will have strength to disturb it.’"
This, it seems, is one of those places overflowing with living faith
and fatherly prayer, which raises up prayer to God in our own
unworthy hearts, begets love toward our neighbors, and makes gentle,
radiant joy drown out all sorrow and warm our hearts.
Media Office of the Eastern
American Diocese
See Also:
Jordanville: Northern Lenten Retreat concludes with Hierarchal
Presanctified Liturgy
Jordanville: Northern Lenten Retreat commences at Holy Trinity Monastery
