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Fr. Anthony Roeber (2022) |
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Service of the Great Blessing of the Waters (2022) |
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Blessing the Napa River (2022) |
January 6 - The Great Feast of The Theophany of Our Lord
One of the many blessings of living here at the monastery is having the Napa River essentially in our backyard. That’s especially lovely on Theophany, when we just have to go to the edge of our property to do the outdoor blessing of the waters. This year, the river was flowing swiftly, and it was such a beautiful visual assurance that God rejoices to bless His creation – and creation rejoices receiving it. As we go through this coming year, may God grant us to participate in His work of blessing His creation and may we rejoice to do so!
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The Return of the Prodigal Son |
A MESSAGE FROM ABBESS MELANIA
Monday, March 7, 2022 - Beginning of Great Lent
One of the most beautiful services of the Church Year is Forgiveness Vespers, with which we start Lent.
The deeper we go into our own hearts, the more we realize how badly we need to forgive and to be forgiven. So, it is an ever more profound joy to start Lent by humbly asking forgiveness for our own sins (not least of which are our resentments against others’ sins!) and forgiving our fellows.
Asking your forgiveness and may we all reach Pascha together!
Mother Melania
Credit: Icon of The Return of the Prodigal Son, courtesy of OCA.org.
A MESSAGE FROM ABBESS MELANIA
Sunday, April 3, 2022 - Sunday of St. John Climacus
Today we commemorate St. John of the Ladder (St. John Climacus) and remind ourselves of his book The Ladder of Divine Ascent. It’s definitely a challenging book. You don’t have to go very far before you see how very far you have to go (and sometimes you find out that you’d been going DOWN the ladder instead of UP!) But it is also an encouraging book. One recurring theme occurs after St. John has mentioned some virtue that most of us (well, me, anyway) are woefully short on. Then, he’ll say “Some people have this by nature, but they don’t receive a reward.” So, if your journey through Lent is showing you all the virtues you DON’T have, take heart. If you keep striving to repent and move towards Christ, you will join the ranks of those who win the crown!
Credit: Icon of The Ladder of Divine Ascent, courtesy of OCA.org.
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Palm Sunday 2022 |
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HOLY PASCHA: The Resurrection of Our Lord |
Christ is risen!
This is the day of resurrection. Let us be illumined by the feast. Let us embrace each other. Let us call "brothers" even those that hate us, and forgive all by the resurrection, and so let us cry:
Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tomb bestowing life!
It always grabs my attention that the Paschal verses end with a call to forgive all by the resurrection and THEN cry “Christ is risen ...” The longer I live, the more I realize how incapable I am of forgiving others fully - EXCEPT by the love and power of the Resurrected Christ. And until I’m willing to do that – or at least begin the process – how can I think that I am really celebrating Christ’s Resurrection! So, may we all forgive each other by Christ’s Resurrection and cry with pure hearts, “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tomb bestowing life!”
Credit: Icon of The Resurrection of Our Lord, courtesy of OCA.org.
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Great Feast of The Ascension of Our Lord |
When Thou hadst fulfilled the dispensation for our sake,
and united earth to heaven,
Thou didst ascend in glory, O Christ our God,
not being parted from those who love Thee,
but remaining with them and crying://
“I am with you, and there is no one against you!”
(Kontakion of Ascension)
How did Christ unite earth to heaven? By coming down to earth and sharing in our humanity in all its limitations and brokenness (except sin). Then dying our death and rising into incorruptible Life. Then seating our human nature with Himself at the right hand of His Father.
Amazing as that it, we might not feel that it has anything to do with us. But the same Jesus Who rose from the dead and seated us with Himself at His Father’s right hand, cries to those who love Him “I am with you, and there is no one against you.” And how do we know we love Him? Christ Himself tells us “If you love me, keep my commandments.” So, let us keep His commandments and repent when we fail. Then, no matter what our circumstances, we can struggle valiantly and joyfully, knowing ever more deeply that He is with us and indeed no one can prevail against us.
Credit: Icon of The Ascension of Our Lord, courtesy of OCA.org.
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Holy Pentecost |
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Icon of The Transfiguration of Our Lord |
Thou wast transfigured on the mountain, O Christ God,
revealing Thy glory to Thy Disciples as far as they could bear it.
Let Thine everlasting Light also shine upon us sinners,
through the prayers of the Theotokos!//
O Giver of Light, glory to Thee!
(Troparion of Transfiguration)
We sing this every year, but this year I started thinking about what “Let thine everlasting Light also shine upon us sinners” means in relation to “Thou wast transfigured … revealing Thy glory to Thy Disciples as far as they could bear it.” The Disciples could barely endure the little of Christ’s glory that He did reveal to them. Yet, to be outside His Light is to be in darkness and death. So, to ask Christ to shine His everlasting Light upon us is to ask Him both to warm us and to burn us. The older I get, the more I realize how scared I am of truly letting Christ burn away all in me that doesn’t belong to Him. But He is Love, and His burning away of my sin is also an act of His Love. And so, “Let Thine everlasting Light also shine upon us sinners, through the prayers of the Theotokos! O Giver of Light, glory to Thee!”
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Icon of The Dormition of the Theotokos |
The Lord and God of all gave thee as thy portion the things that are above nature. For just as He kept thee virgin in thy childbirth so did He preserve thy body incorrupt in the tomb; and He glorified thee by a divine Translation, showing thee honour as a Son to His Mother – Ode 6 of the First Matins Canon of Dormition
This verse speaks of the uniquely high place that the Theotokos holds – virgin in childbirth, incorrupt in the tomb, taken bodily to heaven and honored as Mother by her Son, Who is God Incarnate. Yet this one who is “more honorable than the cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim” is one of us. And while she alone gave birth physically to Christ, we can all give birth spiritually to Him by being like her – obedient to God’s will (Luke 1:38), pondering God’s works in her heart (Luke 2:19), encouraging others to do as He instructs (John 2:5), and faithfully present even at the Cross (John 19:25). And if we give birth to Christ in our hearts, then He will also glorify us with heavenly glory.
A MESSAGE FROM ABBESS MELANIA
Thursday, September 1, 2022 - Church New Year
As Thou lovest mankind, O Christ, count those who begin the year worthy to complete it in a manner well-pleasing unto Thee. (Matins Canon of the Indiction, Ode 4)
As we begin this new Church Year, may we remember that the goal isn’t to get the year that WE want, but to live in a way that is pleasing to God. And if enough of us humbly do that, what healing may take place in our troubled land? Why don’t we try it and find out?
Credit: Icon for the Church New Year, courtesy of OCA.org.
A MESSAGE FROM ABBESS MELANIA
Thursday, September 8, 2022 - Great Feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos
By thy Nativity, O most pure Virgin,
Joachim and Anna are freed from barrenness;
Adam and Eve, from the corruption of death,
And we, thy people, freed from the guilt of sin,
Celebrate and sing to thee:
The barren woman giveth birth to the Theotokos,
The Nourisher of our Life.
~Kontakion for the Nativity of the Theotokos
This verse starts and finishes with references to the Theotokos freeing her parents from barrenness, but in the middle it speaks of our being freed from the guilt of sin. That makes sense in that the child that Joachim and Anna are given is the Nourisher of Christ, our Life, Who frees us from our sin. It also makes sense in that our sin makes us barren spiritually.
And so, when we find ourselves struggling with our own barrenness from godliness, may we celebrate and sing to the one who freed her parents from barrenness. And, through her life and her prayers to her Son, may she free us from our own barrenness that we too may bear Christ in the entirety of our lives.
Credit: Icon of the Nativity of the Theotokos, courtesy of OCA.org
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Exaltation of the Cross, September 2022 |
A MESSAGE FROM ABBESS MELANIA
Monday, November 21, 2022 - Great Feast of the Entry of the Most Holy Mother of God into the Temple
~Kontakion of the Feast, Tone 4
Credit: Icon of The Entry of the Most Holy Mother of God into the Temple, courtesy of OCA.org.
