This past Saturday evening through Sunday afternoon, a great group of teen girls (from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia) came for a sleepover at the monastery. "Teen girls want to have a sleepover at a monastery???" you might ask. Yep. And we all had a lot of fun hanging out together and playing games. We think it's important for the girls to know that they are loved, and also that we nuns are pretty "normal," in a sense! (They only had to explain a few cultural references to us that we've missed since coming to the monastery!) We watched the film, The Nun, about a young girl in Sweden and her counter-cultural choice to become a cloistered nun, and discussed it afterward. The girls also prayed with us, and it wasn't a light weekend for prayer, being Meatfare Sunday (a preparatory Sunday for Lent, also called The Sunday of the Last Judgment, because of the Gospel that is read at the Divine Liturgy). But they sure prayed, and sang beautifully!! Their families joined us for Divine Liturgy and lunch on Sunday. Thanks girls, for blessing our monastery by your joyful presence!
"O faithful, let us welcome the announcement of the Fast with joy, as did the Ninevites in days of old; and as the adulteresses and publicans, let us welcome John's message of conversion. By abstinence, let us prepare ourselves for the holy Supper of the Lord on Zion. By our tears, let us purify ourselves before He bathes us as He did the glorious disciples. Let us pray for the grace to contemplate the mystery that inaugurates the true Pasch. Let us prepare to adore the holy Cross so that we may glorify the Resurrection of Christ our God; and let us say to Him: O Lord and Lover of Mankind, You are our hope; do not drive us far from You." -Aposticha of Tuesday Vespers, Cheesefare Week
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