What a great joy! We have another Mother in the community! Enjoy these photos from Mother Iliana's Life Profession as a stavrophore nun on Dec. 8. Photos taken by Tara Marcic.
We are overjoyed to announce that Sister Iliana will make her life profession and be tonsured as a stavrophore ("cross-bearer") nun on Saturday, December 8, at 1:00 p.m., at St. Stephen Byzantine Catholic Church, 532 Lloyd Rd., Euclid, Ohio. All are invited to the profession service and Divine Liturgy on this feast of the Maternity of Anna. Here is some information about this step in the monastic life and what you will experience at the profession:
We are overwhelmed by the outpouring of support for our monastery! At our Bridegroom’s Banquet this past Saturday, and through donations sent in ahead of time, $87,486 was donated or pledged and will be matched by a generous donor! These funds will go towards the general operation and maintenance of the monastery for our daily life of prayer and hospitality, and also towards the renovations and repair of our chapel (we will share more about this project soon).
At the event, held at St. Joseph Byzantine Catholic Church in Brecksville, Ohio, our guests joined us for Vespers (evening prayer) in the church, at which Bishop Milan presided, and then we enjoyed dinner in the hall. After dinner, our MC—Fr. Eric Garris—introduced the video we produced for the event, called “Christ our Bridegroom.” In the video, we explained why our monastery is named "Christ the Bridegroom," how we model this relationship for the Church and the world and how we have been a model of this relationship for different vocations in the Church. Fr. Eric then shared how his relationship with the nuns of our monastery has enriched and supported his priesthood. He then shared the slideshow we compiled, which included some “before and after” photos from our poustinia renovations, as well as photos of the problem situations in our chapel and its basement, siding and roof, which need repaired. Our guests then generously made donations and pledges. While the donations were being counted, two seminarians from the Diocese of Cleveland, Deacon David Stavarz and Joe Menkhaus, played some music while we all continued to enjoy each other’s company. Mother then opened the envelope containing the total donation/pledge amount and shared the good news!
The Bridegroom's Banquet registration deadline has been extended until Monday, November 5! (or until we fill up) Please visit our banquet page to learn more about the benefit event, happening on Saturday, November 10, at St. Joseph Byzantine Catholic Church in Brecksville, Ohio.
Last year, the beer we brewed with the assistance of Fr. Scott Goodfellow won awards at a Cleveland brewing competition and was heartily enjoyed by the guests of our Bridegroom's Banquet benefit dinner. We're hoping our "Milk & Nunny" milk stout and "Hoppy are the Pour" IPA will turn out just as delicious this year!
We enjoyed a wonderful day with all our generous work day volunteers who came out even though we had changed the date of our work day to Sat., Sept. 29. Many projects were tackled, including cutting up wood, pulling the plants out of the garden, cleaning up flower beds, washing windows, moving the sewing/craft room, and cleaning out the gutters. We closed the day with Great Vespers and a potluck dinner.
Join us for a day of outdoor and indoor work projects, prayer, food and fun at the monastery on Saturday, Sept. 29. Volunteers of all ages and abilities are welcome! The day begins at 10 a.m., includes lunch, and closes with vespers at 5 p.m. followed by a cookout. Come whenever available, and bring a side dish to share if you can. The monastery is located at 17485 Mumford Rd. Burton, Ohio. Please RSVP* by Monday, Sept. 24, to 440-834-0290 or christthebridegroom@gmail.com, so that the appropriate amount of food can be prepared.
Single Catholic women, ages 18-35, who would like to take a weekend to pray about a possible vocation to the monastic life, are invited to inquire about attending our upcoming discernment retreat, Sept. 14-16. Experience the life of prayer at the monastery, listen to talks on prayer and discernment, make use of the opportunity to get to know the nuns, and receive healing through the Mystery of Holy Repentance (Confession). For the schedule and more information, please see the retreat brochure. If you are interested in this retreat, or a future discernment opportunity, fill out the online Vocation Inquiry Form. Please fill out the form by Sept. 1 for this retreat. Space is limited. Mother Theodora will call you to talk about availability. With questions, call 440-834-0290 or email christthebridegroom@gmail.com.
Discernment Retreat
How grateful we are to our newly enthroned Bishop Milan for his willingness to leave his home country and come to give his life for Christ's sheep in the flock of the Eparchy of Parma! Bishop Milan, formerly the auxiliary bishop of the Archeparchy of Prešov, Slovakia, has served as the apostolic administrator of our eparchy for one year prior to being named bishop. We were so blessed to be able to witness his enthronement on Saturday, June 30, at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Parma.
We're getting ready! Our 10th annual Girls Camp will take place this Thursday through Sunday, June 21-June 24. Please pray for us and for the participants! Our theme is "Apart from Me you can do nothing."
Enjoy this reflection that we wrote together as a community, at the request of Bishop Milan, for a group of Scouts--young men ages 18-25--on pilgrimage from Assisi to Rome. We were asked to write about Sts. Cyril and Methodius as an example of sacrifice and service. In light of the feast of Pentecost, we reflected on the Holy Spirit's role in providing the grace and ability to lay down our lives and preach the Gospel, each in our own unique way.
Tons of progress has been made on our poustinia project since we last updated you in our spring newsletter. The siding is being finished up, and the driveway and new parking spaces are being leveled and covered with crushed limestone. Inside, the plumbing, heating, cooling, electrical system, walls, cabinets, doors and moulding have been installed. Mother has been working on a coat of light stain on the beautiful hardwood paneling in the sitting areas. The doors and moulding were donated by Mouldings One and the hardwood paneling was donated by Sheoga Flooring.
This morning as I listened to the Gospel reading of the Healing of the Paralytic Man, my heart leaped with joy as I remembered that I had been in the Pool of Bethesda last July during our pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The pool is in Jerusalem, a stone's throw away from the Church of St. Ann, which marks the birth place of the Mother of God. Today, visitors can walk down into the maze of rooms and stairways that make up the ruins of the pool and the Byzantine and Crusader churches that were built upon it. Looking down into some of the lower areas, you can see water.
Through Fr. Sebastian, Jesus came into the pool with me, asking the Father for His will to be done in me. It was not the Father's will at that moment for physical healing, but each time I ask for healing, I trust that He is healing spiritual ills a little at a time--those ills which paralyze me the most."O Lord, with Your divine authority, as You once raised the paralytic, now raise my soul, paralyzed dreadfully with all kinds of sin and disgraceful deeds, that, being saved, I may cry out to You: Glory to Your power, O merciful Christ" (Kontakion of the Paralytic Man).(The icon to the right is hanging on the wall in the pilgrim house located next to the Pool of Bethesda.)
Join us for a day of outdoor and indoor work projects, prayer, food and fun at the monastery and the Shrine of Our Lady of Mariapoch on Saturday, May 26. Volunteers of all ages and abilities are welcome! The day begins at 10 a.m., includes lunch, and closes with vespers at 5 p.m. followed by a cookout. Come at whatever time you are available, and bring a side dish to share if you can. The monastery is located at 17485 Mumford Rd. Burton, Ohio. Please RSVP* by Monday, May 21, to 440-834-0290 or christthebridegroom@gmail.com.
Today on the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing women I am reflecting back on a grace the Lord worked in my heart a few years ago – a grace which still affects me deeply to this day. I had been sick in bed during Holy Week and feeling frustrated that I was missing all the services and “missing” all my prayer times. At last on Holy Saturday I was well enough to go, at least, to my icon corner in my room, for some quiet, upright prayer (those of you who are sick, know how cherished these upright moments are). But my hands were unsteady, and as I poured oil into my hanging lamp, I accidentally spilled oil all over my icon corner. Instead of having the prayer time that I so desired, I had to spend the next hour trying to clean up the mess. What a waste, I thought. 
Indeed He is Risen! We hope you are enjoying a beautiful celebration of Our Lord's Resurrection, or that you will this Sunday, depending on when you celebrate it.
Enjoy ye all the feast of faith: Receive ye all the riches of loving-kindness. let no one bewail his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one weep for his iniquities, for pardon has shown forth from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Savior’s death has set us free. He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it. By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive. He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh. And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry: Hell, said he, was embittered, when it encountered Thee in the lower regions. It was embittered, for it was abolished. It was embittered, for it was mocked. It was embittered, for it was slain. It was embittered, for it was overthrown. It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains. It took a body, and met God face to face. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.
We've reached Great & Holy Week--also known as the Week of the Bridegroom. We now seek to remain close to Jesus, the Bridegroom, as He pours Himself out to the last drop for His Bride, the Church. Will we open to receive the life He is pouring out for us?"As we come to the end of our Lenten pilgrimage...we are not asked by the Lord to act, achieve, or accomplish anything. No, we are invited now to trust his loving mercy, to trust his voice, to trust his heart and his intentions, and to open ourselves to receive and conceive the gift of eternal life that gushes out from his heart" (from Fr. Patrick Schultz's reflection).
Today we celebrate Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. While we were in the Holy Land last year, we were able to visit the tomb of Lazarus in Bethany, and it was a powerful moment of prayer for me, because Lazarus has taught me so much the past couple years. My favorite aspect of the story of Lazarus is the reminder that we are all called to witness to God’s glory, to allow others access to Christ in us, though we can frequently feel shy about it.
Join us for our patronal commemoration, Bridegroom Matins, on Great & Holy Wednesday, March 28. Celebrated only on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week, the readings and hymns of this service rouse the heart to conversion and vigilance for the coming of the Bridegroom and offer strength to His Bride the Church as we journey with Him in His passion. The service on Great & Holy Wednesday will take place from 8:00 a.m. to about 9:30 a.m. and will be followed by a light breakfast. If you plan to stay for breakfast, please RSVP to christthebridegroom@gmail.com or 440-834-0290.
Today, the Fifth Sunday of Great Lent, is dedicated to the memory of our holy mother St. Mary of Egypt. Oh, we need her by this point in the Fast! I need her every day I live in the monastic desert… I first encountered St. Mary of Egypt during the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete last Lent (2017), at which we read aloud the story of her life recorded by St. Sophronius. This saint, one of the great treasures of the Christian East, was entirely unknown to me, coming as I do from the Christian West. Listening to her story, I was moved to tears, and as I read the ending aloud, I had to keep pausing between sentences to swallow my emotion and take deep breaths lest the sobs welling up from my heart burst forth. She is a beacon of hope for us sinners! I began praying, in a personal way, to St. Mary of Egypt when we went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land last summer. I was aware that my motives for pilgrimage were not entirely pure, a mixture of worldly curiosity, a natural desire for adventure, and spiritual desire. I thought, who knows more about pilgrimaging with impure motives than this harlot who went aboard a boat of pilgrims sailing from Egypt to Jerusalem, intending to pay her way by seducing the men on board?! But while this woman lived a life of flagrant sin, her heart was not hardened, but remained receptive to the grace of conversion. Arriving in Jerusalem, she approached the Church of the Resurrection (The Holy Sepulchre) to join the pilgrims who were streaming in to venerate the relics of the True Cross. Three times she tried to enter, and three times her entrance into the holy place was halted by invisible forces. Though people entered around her, she simply could not cross the threshold! Then, grace broke through: "The word of salvation gently touched the eyes of my heart and revealed to me that it was my unclean life which barred the entrance to me. I began to weep and lament...and to sigh from the depths of my heart." Welling up in the heart of this sinful woman was a desire for salvation, a sigh that led, not to self-pity, but to repentance!
Mary turned in prayer to the Theotokos, the Mother of God, confiding herself to her maternal intercession and guidance: "I have heard that God Who was born of you became a man on purpose to call sinners to repentance. Then help me, for I have no other help... Be my faithful witness before your Son... I will renounce the world and its temptations and will go wherever you lead me." Then, she was able to approach the Cross and to bow before the wood on which Christ's Blood poured out to cleanse her of her sins. Giving thanks to the Theotokos for her help, she committed her life to Christ, asking His Mother to guide her. The Theotokos told Mary, "If you cross the Jordan, you will find rest." Immediately, she went to St. John the Baptist Monastery on the banks of the Jordan River, where she received the sacraments, and then she crossed the Jordan and wandered into the wilderness where she did battle with demons, with wild beasts, and with her own sinful nature. She related to St. Zosimos that, "after the violent storm [of seventeen years!], lasting calm descended," and she lived in the desert until her death 30 years later (for a total of 47 years in the desert--she died in her mid-sixties).
Mary was present to me on our pilgrimage: I saw her icon on the walls of the Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, of the Melkite Emmanuel Monastery in Bethlehem, of St. Peter Gallicantu in Jerusalem. We found the ancient icon, cracked with age, before which Mary pled for the prayers of the Theotokos. Our guide directed us up steps, through a chapel, and to a roof courtyard up in the Coptic section of the Holy Sepulchre where we found to the arched doorway (now closed up) that Mary had been unable to enter all those centuries ago. I set a small icon of her on the stones of the wall, and we sang her tropar with awe and gratitude for this saintly friend.
We hope you enjoy our spring issue of Pomegranate Blossoms. It includes a reflection from Sr. Petra her experience in the pit in which Jesus was imprisoned during His Passion, some quotes about why we prostrate, prayers with prostrations, photos from Sr. Petra's tonsure, a reflection from Sr. Petra about her connection with St. Peter, a renovation update and upcoming events.
During Matins this morning, the eighth ode from the Canon grabbed my attention: “…the lance pierced Your side, O Lord, wounding the enemy….” The implication of this verse jerked me from my early-morning stupor into awareness of the hidden reality surrounding us: When I suffer as a result of the enemy’s attacks—whether directly assaulted by demons myself, as fallout from his acting on another person, or as a result of living in a fallen world—he’s actually hurting himself and contributing to his own downfall! Because my suffering, borne in union with Christ Crucified, makes the Cross—and therefore life and peace—more present in the world. Despite how it appears from the world’s small perspective, a life spent on the Cross is not one of failure, defeat, or death. The Cross is a banner of victory, a “weapon of peace”! We exult in “the life-creating Cross”! Mystery of mysteries…
Join us in a deeply-moving, once-a-year Lenten experience on Thursday, March 15, at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, 1900 Carlton Rd., Parma, Ohio. The Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete takes us on a journey through the entire Bible, placing us in the shoes of the penitents of the Old and New Testaments and teaching us from their examples. The hundreds of prostrations unite our body and soul as we repent of our sins and experience God’s mercy. We will also listen to the life of St. Mary of Egypt and venerate her relic. The opportunity for the Mystery of Holy Repentance (Confession) will also be available. A simple Lenten meal will be served 5:00-5:45 p.m., and the Canon will begin at 6:00 p.m. All are invited to come for part or all of the Canon, even if you are not physically able to participate in the prostrations. The duration of the Canon is approximately 3.5 hours. If you plan to come for dinner, please RSVP by Friday, March 9, to 440-834-0290 or christthebridegroom@gmail.com.
During the past few months, St. Peter has been very present with me in prayer, teaching me Christ's faithfulness in the face of my human weaknesses and failures. As I've touched my own poverty more deeply, I could easily recoil at my unworthiness, could be tempted to flee the One Whom I love so poorly. But Peter gives me courage to remain under the merciful gaze of Jesus, confident of His love for me in the midst of my fear and failure.
"We thank you, O Lord Jesus Christ, that you have brought us to this opportune time of fasting towards salvation, for in this short time you have arranged to heal the great wounds of our soul, and to bring about the rejection of our many sins. Good Master, we pray you, remove from us any pharisaical hypocrisy in fasting, and banish all false sorrow. Drive from us all pride in our self-denial and moderation in deeds, words or thoughts. Fill us with light and the truth which you have taught. Strengthen us in the struggle against passions and in the war against sin. By alienation from passions prepare us to follow you by our fasting. Show us victory over the devil, that we may partake of your death and resurrection, and rejoice in the joy which you have prepared for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. For you are the God of mercy, and glory is yours, together with the Father and the Son and your all-holy, good and life-creating Spirit, now and ever and forever. Amen."
“Jesus, again today, through this liturgical celebration, invites you also, and again repeats, ‘Follow Me. Follow Me in your life! Are you prepared to follow me with all? With all sacrifice? Again, with all renouncement of this world? Or no?’ Each of us needs to give the answer to Jesus Christ, as today Sr. Petra gave this answer here.”
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| Sr. Petra in center |
We are full of joy to announce the tonsuring of our dokimos (postulant), Sara Lynn, as a rasophore nun on Thursday, February 1! During Vespers for the Feast of the Meeting of Our Lord with Simeon and Anna, Sara Lynn will be clothed in the monastic habit, belt, riassa (robe) and skufia (hat) and receive a new monastic name. Please keep her in your prayers as she prepares for this next step in her monastic formation!
