St. Nicholas Convent News From Constantia
St. Nicholas Convent News From Constantia
St. Nicholas Convent News From Constantia
Volume 1, Issue 1
Our inaugural newsletter is a chance to share a little of the life of St Nicholas Convent. First and
foremost it is a life of prayer. No priest is attached to the Convent presently so reader services are
conducted on a daily basis. With the help of visiting clergy Divine Liturgy is served 2-3 times per
month. Commemoration slips can be found on page 5 and names of Orthodox Christians
submitted will be remembered at our divine services.
Blessed with a large property on a peaceful setting retreats have become a major part of the life of
the Convent. You can read about our latest St Hermans Youth retreat on page 2.
Inside this issue
THE CHURCH OUT WEST
Like the famous New Yorker cover of years past much of the US west of Chicago Convent news
has been a mystery to me. It was illuminating and spiritually enriching to travel St Herman Youth Retreat
Proskomide
to the north and west of North America this past August in order to share the
Nativity Greeting
experiences of our sister communities and parishes out that way.
The North American pilgrimage began with the feast of Transfiguration at the Nativity of the Lord
mission in Wheaton, Illinois. The parish is led by Fr John Somers who had been an integral part of
the St Nicholas Summer Youth Retreat held in early August 2014. Following a pleasant visit with
relatives in Rochester, MN I headed west towards South Dakota, spending a delightful afternoon
in Sioux Falls, SD with Fr Michael and matushka Barbara Nedelsky. Illness prevents Fr Michael
from serving on a regular basis but they shared photos from the Convent of St Philothei near
Enkoping, Sweden where one of their daughters, sr Lydia, is now a nun.
Refreshed, the car headed west across the plaintive state of South Dakota to Rapid City, SD not to
see Mt Rushmore but rather a replication of an 11th century church Borgund Stave. The church
would look quite nice by the pond of the St Nicholas Convent property!
Inadvertently traveling through the hometown of Wild Bill Hickok, thereby
satisfying my taste of the wild West it was time to head north. A days drive
brought me to Great Falls, Montana where I passed by the Orthodox church of Ss
Constantine & Helen, my grandfathers first parish in the US. Amazing to
imagine that back in the late 1930s my grandmother on her own had brought
three young children from her little village in Greece across the Atlantic Ocean
and then by train across 2/3 of the United States to join her husband in service to the Orthodox
Church. Following a bit of an adventure with a dead battery just as I approached the border I
eventually made my way into Canada and up through Calgary to the Holy
Protection Convent in Bluffton, Alberta. Having spent my first years as a novice at
the St Elizabeth Convent in Jordanville it was most pleasant to discover
Jordanville West. While I had some vague notion of Bishop Savva (Saracevic) of
Edmonton I knew little of his history nor that of Archbishop Ioasaph who settled
in western Canada in the 1930s and industriously set about building numerous
churches throughout the territory. The grave of Bishop Savva along with those of Grave of Bishop
Savva
many Russian emigres from the 1940s and 50s are located in the Convent
cemetery which called to remembrance my Jordanville days where one of my first obediences was
to light the lampadas before the graves each Saturday in the cemetery there. (cont. p 3)
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NEWS FROM CONSTANTIA
SAINT HERMANS YOUTH RETREAT 2014
Then after lunch, the conference attendees listened to a presentation by priest Thomas Marretta
from Saint Maximos parish in Owego, NY on the practice of the Jesus Prayer. He impressed on all
present the depth of the prayer, along with its relevance to daily spiritual life; everyone left the
talk edified.
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NEWS FROM CONSTANTIA
That evening after dinner, priest Nicholas Chernjavsky of Holy Ascension parish in Rochester, NY
engaged the youth around a blazing bonfire, answering their questions about living an Orthodox
life in todays trying times.
On Friday after breakfast, all came to the last talk of the conference, which comprised a
discussion of Islam and its relation to Christianity. Daniel Meschter (son of Father Daniel)
presented a brief introduction on Islamic religious tradition and led a subsequent discussion on
Muslim sects and extremists.
Afterwards, the conference dispersed and all returned home, giving thanks to God for another
year and another wonderful, spiritual retreat.
here:
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NEWS FROM CONSTANTIA
had been bequeathed to them by the late Metropolitan Vitaly (Ustinov) who loved the site from
the time he had arrived there from South America with his brotherhood in 1955. It was a pleasure
to attend the festal services and the picnic following where I met a wonderful mix of people,
young and old and of various backgrounds, from converts to Romanians, Serbs and Russians that
make up the St Vladimirs parish.
Scenes from feast day at Dormition Skete, residence of St Vladimir parish priest Andrew Kencis
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NEWS FROM CONSTANTIA
PROSKOMIDE
A certain priest was particularly diligent in praying for the dead whose names were given to him
to be remembered at the liturgy. He used to copy out these names into his private notebook and
pray for them all his life. The names accumulated, and eventually his notebook contained so
many thousands of names that he was forced to divide it into sections and take up one section a
day. It so happened that he fell into some sin which threatened him with losing his priestly rank.
This matter reached Philaret, the Metropolitan of Moscow. As the Metropolitan was about to sign
a resolution stating that the priest should be removed from his duties, he suddenly felt his hand
grow heavy. He thus postponed signing the document until the following day. In the night he
dreamt of seeing a great crowd assemble under his windows. In the crowd there were people of all
ages and walks of life. The crowd was agitated and finally addressed a plea to the Metropolitan.
What do you need? the bishop asked. And who are you? We are departed souls and have
come to you to plead for our priest. Do not remove him from his office.
Philaret, greatly impressed by this dream, was unable to forget if after he woke up. The accused
priest was brought before him. When the priest came, the Metropolitan asked him: What good
deeds have you done? Tell me? None, my Lord, the priest replied; I deserve to be punished.
Do you pray for the departed? asked the Metropolitan. Why yes, my Lord, always; it is a rule
with me always to remember all whose names are handed to me, and I always take out parts of
the prosphora for all of them, so that my parishioners have complained that my proskomide is
longer than the liturgy itself. But I cannot do otherwise.
The Metropolitan limited himself to transferring the priest to another parish, having first
explained to him who had interceded for him.
From Eternal Mysteries Beyond the Grave, HTM, Jordanville, NY 1996
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NEWS FROM CONSTANTIA
(cont. from p 4) which
St Nicholas Convent
Christmas Eve 2015