The Indiction of the New Church Year

September 1, 2013

A very busy summer has left us a bit breathless.  Regretfully, this also leads us to postpone until next year the fall pilgrimage-symposium we had planned for September 22nd.  God willing it will be held on the 2nd Saturday of September, 2014 in a new format to be announced.  Although no special activities are scheduled, if you are in the area this September 22nd, we do cordially welcome you to stop by.  

The Divine Liturgy is served every Sunday in our chapel at 10:00 A.M.  Again, please join us if you are in the area.  The Rev. David Chandler Poling, a recent graduate of St. Vladimir's Seminary, with his wife Emilita and their young children Elias (8), Miriam (3) and John (1), are moving up this month to the Oneonta/Otego area where they will continue to serve our chapel as well as St. Innocent's Mission.  This is a new beginning for St. Innocent's.  We rejoice that with the support of both His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon and His Grace Bishop Michael, this young and enthusiastic family can now serve without being hampered by their previous long commute.  May God grant them Many Years of work in the Lord's Vineyard here! 

We thank all of you who keep us surrounded and supported with your prayers, good wishes, donations and orders from our online store.  We have much to be thankful for:  Next to the Lord's own Providence are surely all of you, our friends!  Please forgive us for not being as regular as we should be in updating this web site -- for whatever reason, the Lord seems not to have blessed us with great internet skills.  Evidently this is part of His answer to prayers that we will grow only as He wills. 

Please know that our prayers are with you.  No matter how busy we've been this summer, the services of our chapel, our first, our primary work before God "on behalf or all and for all" have sustained us day in and day out.   You are always welcome to join us in these daily services as well as in the Divine Liturgies of Sundays and Feasts.  A monastery chapel is an oasis in a world that often seems to have gone mad.

With our love in Christ,

The Nuns of Holy Myrrhbearers Monastery 

and their Zoar Farms Companions

 

Check at left below this schedule for our previous "blog" update with the Monastery's Lenten News!

Holy Myrrhbearers Monastery, Otego, New York 

and St. Innocent’s Mission     

Schedule of Services for Great and Holy Week and Pascha

April 26 --  May 6, 2013

Friday April 26^th:  Vigil of Lazarus Saturday

6:00 p.m.  Presanctified Divine Liturgy

Lazarus Saturday: April 27

9:00 A.M.  Matins followed by Divine Liturgy

6:00 p.m. Vigil (Blessing of Palms to be at regularly scheduled Mission Vespers, Oneonta)

Palm Sunday:  April 28

10:00 A.M. Divine Liturgy with Distribution of Palms

5:00 p.m.   Vespers

Holy Monday and Holy Tuesday: April 29- 30

6:00 A.M.  Matins of the Bridegroom & First Hour

9:00 A.M.  Third Hour

12 NOON  Sixth Hour

3:00 p.m.  Ninth Hour

5:00 p.m.  Vespers

Holy Wednesday: May 1

6:00 A.M.  Matins of the Bridegroom & First Hour

9:00 A.M.  Third Hour

12 NOON  Sixth Hour

3:00 p.m.  Ninth Hour followed by Bridegroom Presanctified

 7:00 p.m. Healing Service (Held in Mission Chapel, Oneonta)

Holy Thursday: May 2

6:00 A.M.  Matins

3:00 p.m.  Vesperal Divine Liturgy

7:00 p.m.  Matins (with 12 Gospel Readings)

Holy Friday: May 3

9:00 A.M.  First & Third Royal Hours

12 NOON  Sixth & Ninth Royal Hours

4:00 p.m.  Vespers

7:30 p.m.  Matins (With the Lamentations)

Holy Saturday: May 4

4:00 p.m.  Vesperal Divine Liturgy

Sunday of the Glorious Resurrection: May 5

12: 00 MIDNIGHT Paschal Procession and Matins followed by Divine Liturgy

Followed by the Agape Meal: Bring baskets of Easter Food to bless and share!

5:00 p.m.     Paschal Vespers

Great Lent Monastery News & Pilgrimage Announcement!

We're not being very prompt with these blogs and we apologize for the silence.  Stay tuned, though: Eventually we catch up!  "Life happens" here at the monastery, and we are busy enough not to remember we should be chronicalling it for you.  In the next day or so we will also post the Holy Week and Pascha schedule for the Monastery and St. Innocent's Mission, meeting in our chapel and also for vespers and study groups on Wednesday and Saturday evenings in the "undercroft" of St. James Episcopal Church, Main Street Oneonta.

Thanks to an amazing response to our last issue of Essays and Notes we will publish a printed edition again, one issue at a time, as our budget and your response allows.  However we are not going to aim for a Pascha edition as the US Postal Service has created problems with our mailing list, returning as “undeliverable” far too many copies, some of which we have been able to verify as correctly addressed.  There are a lot of them, though, and we are taking the time to verify each of them with the Post office.  We will get our little magazine out as soon as is feasible.

 It’s a wonderful time of the year to be at a monastery – sometimes we can even feel almost guilty for the spiritual wealth that surrounds us during this season!   While the world around us has already celebrated Easter, we Orthodox are in the middle of Great Lent.  Thanks to its lateness, spring is making an effort to arrive even here: crocuses have appeared as patches of color across the lawn and we have much more sunshine after a very gray winter. We are preparing for the lambing and kidding season which begins at the end of the month and goes into high gear right after Pascha. Our fall “peeps” are now full grown, producing dozens of eggs as they’ve grown into gentle beauties.

Check out our online store at www.holymyrrhbearers.com.  It’s not too late for Orthodox Pascha cards, for prayer ropes and liturgical books!

God willing, our annual pilgrimage this year will be September 14^th – the second Saturday in September. We plan a symposium with a panel of married couples, singles and monastics to open a discussion on love and intimacy with our families, friends, and church communities.  

We especially invite our neighbors.  We will be giving out fliers with the day’s schedule to other Christian churches in the area, inviting both pastors and Christian faithful.  While we know that Christ came that we might know true love of God and of our neighbor, in this fallen world forgetfulness of God and neglect or abuse of one another is far too often the rule even – sometimes it seems almost especially – for Christians.  Please come and with us look at the broken relationships in our own lives and in those around us – and find ways that even we as 21^st Century Americans may return to God – repent – and restore our families and parishes. 

More details and the schedule will follow.  In addition to the symposium, the day will offer a chance to share in worship, meals and tours of the monastery’s farm.

Take a week sometime and treat yourself to a fuller flavor of Lent with us or with another monastery.  While most Orthodox parishes have Presanctified Liturgies, much of the Lenten experience takes place at the other weekday services.  In a monastery the effect is both visual and audible:  Saturdays and Sundays remain outside of Lent, a celebration of the Sabbath and the Resurrection, with gold vestments and normal music.  Sunday evening at vespers, however, we return to the Lenten purple and musical tones.  The prayer of St. Ephraim says it all: Lord and Master of my life, do not give me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power and idle talk.  But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love to Your servant.  Yes, Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions and not to judge others, for blessed are You unto ages of ages.  Amen.   

 Our prayers are with you and your loved ones during this holy season as we trust your prayers are with us. Please continue to pray for Nancy as she prepares to join us.