Monks Return to Monastery

1 07 2008

From: Father Damascene
Date: Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 5:59 PM
Subject: Mon June 30 Update: Monks Back at the Monastery
To: Bishop Maxim

Your Grace, Bless, Master!

We have now returned to the St. Herman Monastery, and are busy unpacking our vehicles. Thanks be to God, the whole monastery, as well as our office two miles away, was untouched by the fire. However, three “sketes” on the other (south) side of our ridge were scorched. These “sketes” are actually sites for the celebration of the Divine services outdoors, and were created during the time of Hieromonk Seraphim of blessed memory. The “sketes” that are damaged are: Transfiguration Skete, St. Elias Skete, and “Mount Athos………

…..The area around Platina and our monastery is still hazy, but the sky is not filled with smoke as it was when we evacuated on Tuesday. We are of course very joyful to be back in our monastery, where we will celebrate a service of Thanksgiving to God. Thanking You again for Your Archpastoral prayers, encouragement, and help, and asking Your blessings and continued prayers for us,

In Christ, hieromonk Damascene

Nuns expected to return to Skete tomorrow

Read all about it here





Platina Update

26 06 2008


An Email from Fr. Damascene:

Your Grace, Bless, Master!

The back burn was successful, so now we have a larger fire break on the ridge above our monastery. However, last night, due to strong winds the fire spread rapidly, towards the west and south. The fire jumped Hiway 36. The entire town of Platina has being forced to evacuate. We just heard that the western end of the fire is now moving north, which could endanger the town of Platina and the monastery from the other side. More winds are expected over the next few days. We still really need prayers. Today, I spoke with Abbot Gerasim in Ecuador. Most of us will be going to stay at Dmitar Karr’s place in Shingletown today, and will probably be there until, God willing, we are allowed to go back to the monastery. At this point, it looks like we will be evacuated at least for several more days. Asking Your Archpastoral blessings and prayers,

In Christ, Fr. Damascene

——————————————————————————–

Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - 4:58 p.m.

An Email from Fr. Damascene to
His Grace Bishop Maxim

Your Grace, Bless, Master!

I’m writing this from our office in Platina, and will return soon to Redding with Monk Paisius. We just went up to the monastery briefly. At 3 pm, Monk Paisius talked to the district supervisor of the fire crew at the top of the ridge on which our monastery in located. The monastery is not yet out of danger. The fire has slightly broken over a ridge which is two ridges away from our monastery, and it also gone down into the gorge, where it is moving closer to the area directly below our monastery. The fire crew, however, is very pleased with the fire’s behavior. It has given them time to make a 20-foot-wide fire break along the top of our ridge, and to prepare more fully for a back burn, which is a controlled burn to clear away shrubs and trees along the edge of the fire break. The fire break, together with the back-burn, will make it so that the fire will have no “fuel” if it reaches the top of our ridge. The fire crew are planning to do the back burn today, and are just waiting for a little more favorable conditions. The back burn itself is somewhat dangerous, since if the wind changes the controlled fire could become uncontrolled. So, the situation is better today than it looked yesterday, thanks be to God. However, things could change for the worse, depending on the weather. We are extremely grateful for all the prayers that have been offered on our behalf, and we ask everyone to keep praying. The fire crew wants us to remain evacuated from the monastery, so we are spending the night in Redding. Asking Your Archpastoral blessings and prayers,

In Christ, hieromonk Damascene

For updates mash here





Urgent Prayer Request

24 06 2008


Wild Fires threaten Saint Herman of Alaska Monastery
in Platina, California

Prayer Request
His Grace Bishop Maxim of the Western American Diocese urges all of our Orthodox faithful to offer prayers for the protection of the St. Herman of Alaska Serbian Orthodox Monastery in Platina, California. Wild fires are quickly approaching the Monastery grounds and the Monastery is in great danger of being burned down. The Monastic Community has been evacuated and are seeking refuge in the neighboring parish of Redding, Calif.

UPDATE
Tuesday, June 24, 2008 - 5:37 p.m.
Dear Fathers, Brothers and Sisters,

The Monks have evacuated from Platina and are now in Redding with us (St. Andrew’s). They brought down all of their vehicles loaded with possessions of the Monastery. They are collected at one parishioners home right now and we will be finding them accommodations this evening. The fires are still raging. The forest Service just set a back fire on Noble Ridge (the winds were favorable) as a mans of cutting out fuel for the main fire to go over the Ridge. The smoke at Platina was so thick you could barely see or breathe. We will be having Vespers and Compline at St. Andrews tonight.

The nuns at St. Xenia Skete are still there and have not had to evacuate yet, but are on high alert. Two of our parishioners went up today with trucks to bring down Monastery possessions to Redding We still are awaiting to see what they will be doing.

The Monastics will probably be staying in Redding for a while, secondary to the extreme fire conditions (over 875 fires are going in Northern California from a Saturday lightening strike) and the smoke is quite thick. The sky in Redding is like overcast with ash falling.

Please keep them all in your prayers. We ask God’s help to send relief to the Monastics, the fire fighters and others made homeless.

Thank you for your prayers and blessings to all of you,

Fr. Michael Boyle, Parish Priest
St. Andrew Fool-for-Christ Serbian Orthodox Mission Parish Redding, California

Serbian Orthodox Church Info





NATIVITY OF THE VENERABLE GLORIOUS PROPHET, FORERUNNER AND BAPTIST OF THE LORD, JOHN

24 06 2008

Many years to my son, John! The following is from Fr. Patrick Reardon’s Daily Reflections concerning St. John the Forerunner’s nativity.

The Birth of John the Baptist: Although our Lord said that “among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11), only Luke thought to provide us with the name of the woman who gave John birth.

In fact, Luke went into some detail to tell of that lady named Elizabeth and the circumstances surrounding her unexpected conception of a son in her advanced years. The Angel Gabriel, who had been somewhat quiet in Israel after the days of Daniel, appeared to Elizabeth’s husband and predicted the pregnancy (Luke 1:13).

Moreover, God clearly intended to leave a special mark on John even before his birth. Six months into the gestation, Elizabeth received another visitor, this one a human visitor: her young kinswoman from Galilee named Mary. At Mary’s greeting, John’s mother sensed another Presence, as “the babe leaped in her womb” (1:41). Mary, in fact, like a new Ark of the Covenant, bore within her body God’s newly incarnate Son, whose Father chose her greeting at that moment as the occasion to sanctify the unborn John the Baptist. This event fulfilled an earlier prediction of Gabriel with respect to John: “He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (1:15). In drawing our attention to John’s prophetic consecration before his birth, Luke portrays him in the likeness of the Prophet Jeremiah, to whom God said, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; / Before you were born I sanctified you; / I ordained you a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5).

If John resembled Jeremiah, however, his resemblance to the Prophet Elijah was even more pronounced. Once again, it was the Angel Gabriel, who used of John the very words with which the Prophet Malachi foretold the return of Elijah: “And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:16–17; Malachi 4:5–6).

Since Elijah’s return had been predicted in the last of the Old Testament’s prophetic books, there was considerable expectation on the matter, even among the Lord’s Apostles (Matthew 17:10). Although John himself denied that he really was Elijah in a literal sense (John 1:21), he surely felt some affinity to that earlier prophet; he even dressed like him (Matthew 3:4 [and 11:8]; 2 Kings 1:8).

Whatever John felt about the matter, nonetheless, Jesus Himself asserted that “Elijah has come already,” and, when He asserted this, “the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist” (Matthew 17:12–13). John’s affinity to Elijah was more than haberdashery, however, for his appearance in this world introduced the days in which “the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come” (11:12–14).





The Apostles’ Fast

23 06 2008


The rule for this variable-length fast is more lenient than for Great Lent.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Strict fast.
Tuesday, Thursday: Oil and wine permitted.
Saturday, Sunday: Fish, oil and wine permitted.
This is the rule kept by many monasteries during non-fasting seasons
From abbamoses.com





You Started Another Blog?

21 06 2008


Yes , I have started another blog concerning the Liberal Arts. This summer I started another graduate program in the Liberal Arts at Faulkner University so I have decided to start another blog in order to share some of the things I will be learning with those interested in such matters. The blog is Scholium. Click and see!





Cappadocia

20 06 2008





A Saying of Dorotheos of Gaza

19 06 2008

“I heard of one person that when he came to one of his friends and found the room in disarray and even dirty, he would say to himself: “Blessed is this person, because having deferred his concerns for earthly cares, he has concentrated his mind that much toward Heaven, that he doesn’t even have time to tidy up his room.” But when he came to another friend’s place and found his room tidy and neat, he would say to himself; “The soul of this person is as clean as his room, and the condition of the room speaks of his soul.” And he never judged another that he was negligent or proud, but through his kind disposition, saw good in everyone and received benefits from everyone. May the good Lord grant us the same kind disposition, so that we too may receive benefits from everyone and so that we never notice the failings of others.”- Dorotheos of Gaza





A Miracle of Christ

13 06 2008


“Once a certain old man who was practiced in this virtue surrounded by crowds of infidels when he was in Alexandria. He was pressed upon not only with reviling but even with the most grievous insults by those who were jostling him, and his mockers said to him: What miracle has your Christ, whom you worship, performed? He said: That I not be disturbed or offended by these or by greater insults, if you offer them.”- Abba Chaeremon in The Conferences by St. John Cassian





Global Warming/Climate Change Links

11 06 2008


Fr. John Whiteford posted two interviews with the founder of the Weather Channel concerning Al Gore and Global Warming here.

There is an interesting website full of good reading on global warming/climate change issues at ICECAP.us which is short for the International Climate and Environmental Change Assessment Project.

Check out the series Global Warming-Doomsday Called Off on youtube.