The Catalog of Good Deeds: Interviews

Showing posts with label Interviews. Show all posts

In March, the audio studio of St. Elisabeth Convent pleased the audience with a new album, which has a high-sounding name “Our Faith”. The album includes the church chants performed by the ensemble of the sisters of St. Elisabeth Convent. Nun Juliania (Denisova), the chorister of the ensemble, tells about this new CD album, which the listeners have loved already.

– Mother Juliania, was there a certain reason for making this album? Or is it just a continuation of the “Pilgrim’s Chants” series?

– When our sisters performed successfully in the Kuban, where the exhibitions and concerts of St. Elisabeth Convent took place, people began to come to us and to ask for CDs with the chants the sisters had performed. But we did not have any back then. So, we decided to make a CD with the current repertoire of the ensemble.

– Why “ensemble”, not “choir”? Is it an incomplete or reduced form of the monastic choir?

– Yes. In 2010, the sisters performed in Europe for the first time. Now there are four sisters of mercy and four-five monastics. The latter have seldom an opportunity to participate in such long trips. They all are in change for the large departments in the convent and they just cannot leave their obedience. The record was made in several steps and the ensemble team was changed over a bit several times. However, the main thing is that the style of a complete monastic choir singing was preserved.

The CD album consists of two parts – the Divine service chants (the chants that are sung at services in the convent) and the choral singing that we hear during akathists, when people are anointed with chrism. We also sing the songs from the repertoire of the Festive and sisters’ choirs of the convent, which I arranged so that they are better suited for the ensemble’s concerts.

– How did you manage to unite such a diverse collection of songs?

– I have noticed that on kliros we - both with the sisters' and the Festive choir - can sing various chants during a single service that can be absolutely different by their character: it can be either something colloquial, some more difficult melodies or even a harmonization of a Byzantine chant. Everything is united with the choir’s sound. You cannot confuse the sister’s or the Festive choir with something else. It becomes clear since the first notes, that it is the choir of St. Elisabeth Convent. Various people have mentioned this fact many times. We do not demand academic voice training as it is used to be in professional choirs, although it is assumed that this practice is necessary for a choir to sound as one.

– It seems you have managed to achieve your own special choir tone…

– Yes, we have a special tone color. This is our know-how, the main feature of this album. At the same time, the diversity of compositions increases the interest of the audience: when a women's choir is singing, the tempo, sense and arrangement must not be the same all the time.

So, in our new album there is diversity, and there are certain unifying factors.

In any art and in any team there is a necessity in such a factor. It is important to find a balance, so that there will be no eclecticism in it…

– Was there anything special while working on this album? Did it stand out of your other works somehow?

Of course, it did! For me it was a possibility to listen to the pure accords and professional singing. We always want to reach high quality, to make everithing perfect. And all the members of the ensemble want this, too. They are gathered into this choir not without reason – they all have a perfect hearing, their voices fit to each other and just go with each other. The singers understand each other well.

– Mother, were there any difficulties or not? This is still not the first album of this kind.

While recording any CD album, there is the fear that we will lose the spirit… This is why we record our albums in the church so that it reminds us for what we do this at all. We record many takes. Sometimes something does not work out – we take this fragment and work. Today, due to the help of modern technical equipment, there is a possibility to resort to footage, settling and mastering. It is not as it has been earlier: you started recording, you taped singing - and then the record went on the air. You had to sing perfectly from beginning to end. There was no possibility to edit something. This is how the first disks of the Festive choir were recorded.

– Why does the album has such a name – “Our Faith”?

This is the name of one of the songs. It is rather defining, it points to a particular confession or national identity. Only from the text of the song, we will learn then that our faith is the Orthodox one. It kind of a song form of the Creed. While the rest of the songs open various sides of this faith through the prism of national understanding and vision.

Our Faith. The Monastic Choir of St Elisabeth Convent (downloadable version)

May 2, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

Reviewers on the Facebook page of St. George’s Russian Orthodox Church in Cincinnati, OH describe the atmosphere of this parish as “friendly and welcoming,” “welcoming to all people,” “bringing the community together” and the Rector Fr. Daniel Marshall as “kind, merciful, and caring.” Since Fr. Daniel is a married man with three kids, it is probably fair to say that at least some of the credit for his work and his efforts should go to his supportive wife. Today, Matushka Anya Marshall speaks of the expectations and the realities, the everyday struggles and the joys of the wife of a parish priest.

On her mother’s side, Matushka Anya Marshall is a third generation Russian-American. Her grandfather was born in Blagoveshensk and as a one-year-old was carried over the frozen river Amur by his mother Along with many others, she was escaping from Soviet soldiers shooting at the people running away. After twelve years in Harbin, the family went to San Francisco to join his father. For a few years he had lived and worked all over the West coast of the US doing all kinds of manual jobs earning money to bring his family from China. Matushka’s grandmother was also born in Harbin and immigrated to San Francisco with her family when she was three. When her grandparents got married, they decided not to teach their children Russian, “because it was not a wonderful thing to be a Russian in the US after WWII.” Yet, though their mother spoke no Russian and their father was of Irish descent, both Matushka and her brother [Fr. Gregory Joyce, Rector of the St. Vladimir Russian Orthodox Church, in Ann Arbor, MI – Ed.] studied Russian in college. Matushka Anya also lived in Russia for two years after college teaching English and perfecting her Russian.

Matushka Anna at home with the kids

How did you meet Father Daniel?

We were set up. Some friends thought we might like each other. But they didn’t tell me I was going to be meeting someone, so when I saw him, I immediately understood what was happening. And I was not happy that they’d done this to me. [Laughing] They’d just thrown me into this situation where I was supposed to be meeting someone and I was not prepared. So, I was not very friendly and after several two to three word exchanges he just gave up on talking to me. Yet, somehow the next day, when we saw each other again and started talking, and once we started talking to each other, it all moved fairly quickly.

Did you know he wanted to become a priest?

It’s very funny, one of our parishioners actually asked me this just this Sunday. I said, “Yes, he was a seminarian [in Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, NY – Ed.], I knew he wanted to be a priest.” And he said, “Did that make you want to marry him more?” I said, “NO, that actually made me want to marry him LESS.”

A few weeks after we started dating we were having a conversation at a party on Bright Friday, and he says to me because he must already have been getting serious, “You know, what do you think about being a Matushka?” And I said, “NO WAY! That is the last thing that I want to do!” The reason being, because less than a week before, on Holy Saturday, my nephew was born. Now, my brother’s a priest. He served all of Holy Week and after the baby was born on Holy Saturday, he said something along the lines of, “Oh, yay! We have a son! See you after Liturgy on Bright Monday!” What are you going to do? The only priest in his parish, it’s Pascha, he had to go. So, becoming a Matushka was definitely not one of my plans for my life.

Wedding at St. John’s in Washington, DC

Your brother is a priest. How well did you understand what a priest’s life was like before your husband got ordained to the priesthood?

Not really that well. He lived in a different city, and, when I was single, I visited him and his family fairly often, probably two or three times a year, for a weekend or something like that. So, I did have some idea. But I didn’t live right there, I didn’t participate in helping them with their kids when they were busy. I was just a fly-in fly-out auntie.

Did you have your own idea of what a Matushka is, of what she should do?

I guess I must have. You see the Matushkas in parishes you attend. I attended the same church for seven years [St. John the Baptist Russian Orthodox church in Washington, D.C. – Ed.] and over that time I kind of got to see what a Matushka did. Both what she did standing in church, in the church hall, and elsewhere. So, in that way I probably did have some thoughts about what they do, about what their life is like.

But at the same time, you don’t really understand because you’re just a parishioner. I think if you don’t grow up with a priest as a father, you’re just a parishioner. You see what you see when you’re present, but then there’s all those things that no one knows about.

Also, a Matushka’s job and her life evolve over time. When you’re a Matushka with young children, you are, hopefully, able to just be a mother to your children and not have a lot of other expectations and responsibilities in the parish. But as your children get older, if you have the ability and the desire, there’s a lot more that you can do.

I never saw (at least in the parish I lived in before I got married) a Matushka doing things she wished she wasn’t doing. If that was ever the case, she didn’t show it.

Did you have a particular image of the life of a priest?

I don’t think I ever thought about it that much. I knew that a priest gives a lot of his time, a lot of his energy to the parish, but what that would really mean to me, to our family, I don’t think I really understood in the beginning. It’s something you learn as you go. I’m sure it’s different from parish to parish, from priest to priest. Whether you’re the only priest in a parish, the first priest, the second priest, the third priest. But, no matter what, you give a lot of your time to others. And sometimes your family doesn’t get your time when they really would like to have it.

Was it easy for you to reconcile to this or is it something you have struggle with?

I think there have definitely been times when I’ve struggled with that – probably, when I get overwhelmed. It’s not unusual by the end of Great Lent to be exhausted, to feel like I’ve spent the last six weeks being a single parent, so there can be moments when it just becomes overwhelming.

But I don’t know if I’ve even reconciled with it. It’s part of being a clergy family. It’s what you signed up for. When my husband got ordained, I had to agree to it, I had to tell the Bishop. “Yes, I am for this. I will stand behind him. I will support him.”

The Bishop doesn’t ask you to agree, because it’s going to be an easy road. He wants to know you are willing to do this. They [priests] are busy. They have church services. They meet with people. People need their time, need their advice. And, thank God, you have them, when you need their advice too. You may have a spiritual father beyond your husband, but at the same time, he’s going to give you spiritual advice when you need it as well. Being in the thick, being a Matushka, you definitely need spiritual advice. And there are a lot of attacks, a lot of temptations.

I guess, one of the most eye-opening things of being a Matushka is seeing temptations for what they are. Before my husband was a priest, even from the time we got married, I started having temptations, feeling the attacks. After he became a priest, I started to get better and better at recognizing them.

There was one time, several years ago, he went to church for a panikhida or a moleben in the evening, and he wasn’t coming home. The kids were fighting and things were really unsettled in the house. It got really late and I started to worry. When Fr. Daniel finally got home, he told me about what had happened. He and our starosta [parish warden] were really worried about one woman who was struggling to keep her life together. They were looking for her all over the city. In the end, they managed to find her and got her the help she needed. So, when I told him about how horrible my evening was, he says to me, “You know how Fr. Seraphim [Abbot of the Holy Cross Monastery in West Virginia – Ed.] always says, ‘When there is good work going on, the demons attack…’” And so, the husband is doing good work and the demons attack his family. Ever since then, when the kids have moments like that and he’s not at home I understand what’s happening.

What happened after Fr. Daniel’s ordination to the priesthood?

We had one year in Jordanville with Fr. Daniel finishing his studies and getting experience serving as a deacon. The September after graduation he was ordained a priest. He served his 40 days again and soon thereafter we moved to our first parish [Holy Virgin Protection in Goshen, IN]. It was a lovely old parish. There were some struggles, some challenges there. The people hadn’t had a truly regular priest for many years. It was a matter of getting people who never had Saturday evening services or regular Sunday services used to having services every weekend. But it was a great place to start.

Fr. Gregory Joyce and his Matushka at Fr. Daniel’s ordination. M. Anna holding little Yasha

Why did you decide to move to Cincinnati?

The main thing that made us move to Cincinnati was that they needed someone to come here and lead the building of the new church of St. George. Fr. Paul Bassett [St. George’s previous Rector] was ailing and needed help.

The other thing was that we run a publishing company, St. Innocent Press. When we lived in Indiana it was our main source of income. The church paid, but not a whole lot, though more and more as the time went, as we gathered more parishioners. Still it was not a living wage, so it got to the point where it was going to be difficult to support ourselves there. This opportunity came up, the church needed to be built, and they were willing to pay a much better wage. That was a great opportunity, but for several years it took all of Fr. Daniel’s time and energy to make it happen.

Yet another reason is that there are a lot of kids in the parish. I can’t think of Sunday when we’ve had less than thirty children go to Communion. It’s really nice, it’s one of the great things for us having moved down here from our old church. We didn’t have many kids coming to church every Sunday. So, for our kids this is wonderful.

Can you say a few words about your parish here?

Our parish averages about a hundred and twenty people every Sunday. In summer, it drops down to about a hundred on average. It is pretty typical for summer to be lighter. We probably have a couple hundred families in the area. There is a core group of people who come every week, another core group who probably come two-three times a month (and of course plenty of people who come once a month) and another huge group who come occasionally.

Most of the Russians are from the new wave of Russian immigration, but we do have some from the old emigration as well. There is also a large number of converts. There are some who were married and converted, but there are people who become interested as well. Since we’ve been here, we’ve had a number of single people convert. I can think of one couple for sure who joined the church together.

Are the services all in Church Slavonic or do you have some English in your parish?

We do about fifty-fifty Slavonic and English. Sometimes, if there are no Russian-speakers present, we might do a service totally in English. Vigil can be more than fifty-fifty, because the crowd is not as large. You can usually see and understand who’s there and what the preference would be with those people.

We have some weekday services, not necessarily every week. Big feasts definitely, minor feasts – some. A lot depends on who really is available and wants to help with the services. We have a good choir, we have a number of people who can conduct, but they only have so much time during the week throughout the year to do services. It’s very unlikely there’d be more than one weekday service. That’s of course different throughout Great Lent.

Does Fr. Daniel have regular talks with people or does he meet up with people one on one?

During the school year, he holds weekly talks after lunch for the children who attend Sunday school. He also does a lot of one on one. Whenever possible he tries to schedule most of his meetings during one day of the week, so he’s at church all day one day. But that, of course, is not always possible. There are plenty of people who would like to talk to him. There are people that he meets with regularly, who have a set time and day. There are plenty of people who want to talk to him about various things: people having trouble in their marriage who want to meet up with him either separately or together. Older parishioners, who have things to talk to him about. There’s a lot of that. Then there’s a lot of émigré Russians who either were never baptized and would like to be, or were baptized but were not catechised in any way, never had confession or communion. There’s a lot of work with them.

Do you help out with anything in the parish?

I run the parish bookstore. When we moved from our old small church to our new bigger church I offered to take it over and was happily handed the job. I really enjoy it. It doesn’t take a huge amount of my time. Once a month or so I’ll spend three or four hours taking stock, organizing and cleaning, figuring out what we need to order. And the rest of the time it’s just really taking care of the bookstore on Sundays after Liturgy. It can be a struggle finding other people to help out.

I participate in the meals – we have lunch every Sunday after liturgy and we have a team system. There are four women on my team and maybe once every six to eight weeks we make lunch. I send out an email saying it’s our turn to make lunch asking what they want to make. Then everyone can say what they can make and I try to fill in the holes, rather than saying, “This is what I choose to make and you can work around me.” These are the two main things I do in church.

Before I got married, I loved singing and was a regular in the choir, but when we arrived in our first parish, I had a 10-month old and was pregnant. I sang Vespers because I was the only person familiar with that service, but could not participate in singing the Liturgy. The service was too long for the baby. When our second child was born, I needed to spend my forty days at home with the baby. Then everyone realized that I could no longer sing Vespers with two little ones. Others in the parish volunteered to take over and that was when I stopped regularly singing in church.

I still enjoy singing here and there. When we have a summer weekday Liturgy and there are only a few people singing, I might join them. Otherwise, I think it’s good for me to be in the congregation as well. Sometimes, part of me worries, if I was always up in the choir, there would be a lot of people who didn’t actually know who I was. Not that’s it’s important to me to be known as Matushka, but for them it’s important to know who Matushka is. “I see her talking to people. I see her struggling with her child in church, like I struggle with my child in church.” In that way, I think it’s good for me to be down in the congregation.

On the whole, I try not to get too involved in too many of the things that are going on, because there are a lot of people who could do those things and ideally should be doing a lot of things. Because if you start doing too many things as a Matushka people start thinking they should just let you do it. They’ll do that with anybody, not just with a Matushka. If somebody cleans the church, it’s, “Great! Somebody cleans the church, now I don’t have to do that!” Somebody cuts the grass, “Great! Now I don’t have to do that!”

The Marshall Family on Pascha 2017

Do your kids want to go to church or do you have to encourage them?

As the older kids Alla [Alexandra, eleven] and Yasha [James, twelve and a half] have gotten older, I think they’ve pretty much gotten to the point where they want to go church, especially because of the choir. They both sing in the choir. They are valued members of the choir and they love being there. They come to church, venerate the icons, and head straight upstairs. Leo [the youngest, seven and a half] still complains, as the other children did at his age.

Normally, we try to go at least three out of four Saturday nights for Vespers. I don’t usually stay past Vespers unless it’s a big feast. Mostly because Leo gets tired in the evening and has trouble staying longer. He does love khlebtsy [blessed bread] and will do his best to get to stay for anointing and khlebtsy for a feast. And so, we’ll go and be on time and stay till the Six Psalms. But then on Sunday morning he sometimes tries to convince me that its’ not Sunday and we’ve already been to church on Sunday. But he knows it’s not negotiable. Even though he’ll say those things, he’ll usually give in and get ready for church with my assistance without making us late or really dragging his feet. He would sometimes rather be doing something else, but he does enjoy serving in the altar at times and loves Holy Communion!

Is there anything you would like your parishioners to know about your daily life?

The main thing is that a lot of people don’t realize that when they are only asking for an hour of the priest’s time a couple of times a year, it may seem to them there’s no problem with the priest having plenty of time for his family. But there’s sometimes a great struggle for him to say, “This is my day off. This is the day I’m spending with my family.” And so, in that way, it may not seem to individual people that priests spend that much time doing their job. But in reality, it all really adds up to a lot of time between the church services that they serve and then all of the extra services for individuals, the meetings they have with parishioners, the counselling sessions, the weddings, the phone calls, the emails, etc. etc. etc. There is a real struggle to find time to spend with your family… I remember in our first year of living in Cincinnati, when we were building the church, I actually had to tell Fr. Daniel that he needed to add time with his family to his calendar.

Matushka and the kids on Pascha 2017

What is the hardest thing about being a Matushka?

As a Matushka, I really struggle with how I might offend people. Sometimes you know you’ve offended somebody and when that happens you can try to fix it, ask for forgiveness, try to find out how you can do something different. Still, there are plenty of times when it seems you have offended somebody, but you’re not really sure how. They won’t tell you, and yet their body language or something else makes you feel like you probably have. There have been situations when I’ve gone up to people asking for forgiveness, and they say, “Don’t worry, you haven’t offended me,” and you wonder if it’s really true, or they’re just saying that…

Another thing that I find sometimes difficult… It’s really hard to ever get away on a weekend. If we do want to get away, there’s only a couple of Sundays a year when my husbands won’t be in his home parish, and where we would be somewhere together. The rest of the time, when we want to go somewhere, during the school year, the kids are in school and we can’t just go in the middle of the week, so we have to go without him …

Also, people outside of church (kids’ friends, coaches of teams) being totally clueless about the fact that we are not available on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings, we just can’t do it… People just don’t understand it… Those are some of the harder things…

And what would be the best thing about being a Matushka?

I think the best thing is knowing there’s somebody at the altar praying for you every time there is a Liturgy.

Source: http://www.pravmir.com/good-work-going-demons-aattack/

In 2009, the well-known Russian Protestant pastor Igor Zyryanov converted to Orthodoxy along with his entire community of neo-Pentecostals. Today Fr. Igor is the rector of the Holy Trinity Church in the village of Ust-Ordynsky in Irkutsk Province, dean of the Ust-Ordynsky region, director of the St. John Chrysostom “The Way Home" diocesan center. We spoke with Fr. Igor about his discoveries in Orthodoxy, as well as about the best way to speak with Protestants about the true faith.

—Father, it’s been four years since you were ordained a priest, and six since you became Orthodox. Tell us in a few words, what has changed for you from the time you were a Protestant?

—The main thing is that the exalted dreams and hopes I had in the past as a Protestant are now coming true. I hoped to become a missionary, I wanted to preach the Gospel to the multitudes. Now I have an enormous opportunity for this. I can labor for God full strength, from morning to evening, as much as my strength allows.

—What obstacles were there to this in your Protestant past?

—First of all, the absence of the fullness of the faith and God’s grace. Protestants have good intentions, but no strength for real action, which is something the Lord gives us through His Sacraments. For example, the Protestants have the “act” of repentance but not the Sacrament of confession, thanks to which human sin is healed, and the believer is freed from sin’s power. But most importantly the Protestants do not have the Sacrament of Communion, without which any inner transformation is basically impossible.

The second obstacle that hindered us from preaching to the masses is the cultural barrier [in Russia]. Our country is historically Orthodox and Protestant preaching is perceived by it people as something foreign, like an attempt at recruitment to some foreign cause. In talking about Jesus Christ as Protestants, we literally ran after people. We spent a huge amount of time and strength on one person, thought up various projects and programs. Nevertheless, we were always perceived inadequately.

Now it is the opposite. People are thirsting to talk with an Orthodox priest. No matter where a batiushka goes, there are always people around who want to talk with him, to ask him questions and make requests. Therefore it is easy for us to talk about faith in God, to bring them into the church, and help them in a real way. That is what we do, with God’s help.

—Fr. Igor, is there anything in Orthodoxy that turned out to be not what you expected?

—I did not experience any disappointments. It all turned out to be exactly as I imagined it to be at the beginning of my journey. Even more—I now see many aspects of Orthodoxy more deeply and seriously than I once thought, especially those of prayer, fasting, and personal human piety. I well remember the time when I had just begun to read morning and evening prayers. I prayed with great pleasure; the rich content and spiritual fullness of the prayers amazed me. I still immerse myself in that process like in an ocean. Now I read what the holy fathers wrote about the Jesus prayer. It is extremely interesting.

—When you became Orthodox, were you sure that the priesthood was prepared for you?

—I admit that I thought about this. But that was not crucial. Having understood that truth is in Orthodoxy, I was inwardly ready to become an ordinary parishioner. To me it was important to be in Christ’s Church. The capacity was not important. It seemed that everything pointed to me being a simple believer. But then I and two other of our brothers, former Protestants, were invited to receive the priesthood.

I suspect that this is an important moment that every Protestant who is thinking about converting to Orthodoxy should know. Active ministers who are used to preaching, to taking care of people, will definitely find their way of service in the Orthodox Church; this is possible. The harvest is great… But at the same time, a former Protestant should be inwardly ready to become an ordinary church-going layman. It is all in God’s hands.

—Fr. Igor, what did you unexpectedly discover in yourself when you became Orthodox?

—When I was a Protestant, I was sure that I was holy. I simply confessed the sins I had committed and went on—leading the so-called “life in triumph”. When I became Orthodox, I saw my true face. I understood that I am hypocritical, proud, deceitful, ambitious, and so on… This made me disappointed in both myself and in Protestantism in general as a teaching. In Orthodoxy I obtained a serious support, help from God in being freed from my sins—through the Sacrament of confession and Communion. The longer I am Orthodox, the more I see the corruption of my own nature. But this knowledge gives me a reason to humble myself even more before God, to seek His face, and to try to change.

—Father, an article in Orthodox media about the conversion of your community to the Russian Orthodox Church evoked broad discussion. Even the secular media published this news about you. What was the aim of publishing this?

—I by no means made the story of our parish known out of thirst for glory. The thing is that before I became Orthodox I headed the international mission called, “Every Nation”, which preached the Gospel to the native peoples of Siberia and the Far East. I had many helpers in this mission from Protestant communities in Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. I had to explain to everyone who knew me personally and distantly the reasons for my decision and the reasons why I could not continue serving as I did.

That is how the story of our conversion arose. By the way, this story is still relevant; many Protestants still read it, and they later write and call me. The majority of those who ask questions about Orthodoxy are citizens of Russia and Ukraine, but there are also Protestants who want to become Orthodox among them from Europe, Israel, and the U.S. I receive many letters, and I can’t even answer them all.

—At the blessing of Metropolitan Vadim of Irkutsk and Angarsk, a consultation center called “The Way Home” has been organized in your diocese in honor of St. John Chrysostom. Thanks to this center, 200 Protestants have already become Orthodox…

—I can’t say that these 200 people are entirely the fruit of our center’s work. In order for a person to find the true faith many conditions are needed, which are first and foremost created by the Lord Himself. A small part of this work, by God’s grace, is ours. Many Protestants come to me, mainly ministers. There are those to want to meet and talk secretly. We go to meet with them, answer their questions, and tell them about our own experience.

By the way, we now have two former pastors from a charismatic movement who serve in the altar of our church. And in Irkutsk province today there are six priests serving (including myself) who are former Protestants.

It must be said that the flood of people converting to Orthodoxy could be even larger. We are seeing how in other countries whole communities are converting to Orthodoxy, while in Russia we are not seeing such mass conversions from Protestantism.

—Why is that?

—There are several reasons. Often priests who bring Protestants into Orthodoxy are in a hurry. They relate to Protestantism as to an enemy movement, and try to yank a person out of it abruptly. This is not always beneficial. For example, if a pastor starts thinking about Orthodoxy, the whole community may become Orthodox. But the priest to whom the leader has turned tries to convince him to receive Orthodoxy quickly. The pastor follows his advice, becomes Orthodox, and… looses his authority among his parishioners who have not had the chance to understand anything yet. The leader is kicked out of the congregations, and the parish receives a vaccination against Orthodoxy.

In our case, thank God, this did not happen. Fr. Viacheslav Pushkarev, the head of the missionary department of the Irkutsk diocese, was in no rush when he began to meet with us. He came to our meetings with lectures, allowed the whole community to understand Orthodoxy, to literally be permeated with it. Therefore we were all able to come into the Russian Orthodox Church, and we didn’t lose anyone.

Clergy who are involved in missionary activities in a Protestant milieu should make contact with pastors who are open to having contact. It is helpful to tell them about the faith, to suggest some patristic reading. In this case the whole community will have the opportunity to understand the beauty of Orthodoxy, to know what the Church is. I think that after this the majority of the members of the congregation will receive Orthodoxy. There simply can be no other outcome for a Protestant who sincerely seeks God. Having learned the facts about the Orthodox Church, about the Sacraments, about apostolic succession, a person simply cannot remain a Protestant.

—And what about debates with Protestants, which were popular at one time?

—I think that this format is untenable. Let’s say we have a public debate and we win, while the Protestant leader loses. He is humiliated and insulted, and it’s highly unlikely that he’ll become Orthodox. If the Orthodox side didn’t have sufficient knowledge or good enough arguments and lost the debate, he has brought shame upon Orthodoxy. In both cases we have a fiasco.

In our work we strive to be guided by the words of St. Gregory the Theologian: “We are trying to achieve not victories, but the return of our brothers, as our separation from them torments us.”

As long as the hearts of Orthodox people are not in fact tormented by their separation from Protestants, any service to them will be unsuccessful.

If we are talking about our own personal relationships with Protestants, the Orthodox should refuse to participate in any aggressive polemics. We should gently talk about our own spiritual experience, share our experiences. We should simply sincerely show that there is something in Orthodoxy that can help our brother: the grace of God, which is almost entirely absent in Protestant congregations.

—What questions do Protestants ask when they come to you?

—First of all the ones that lie on the surface. We all know this set of questions: about icons, the veneration of relics and saints. But in fact it’s not important what questions they bring to us. We have to answer the questions, but the main thing is to bring the understanding to the Protestants about what the true Church is. We observe with regret that there are people who have become Orthodox but have become only nominal Christians. This has happened because they have not decided for themselves just what the Church is.

It is no secret that in church we can run into problems, temptations and difficulties, and the negative behavior of parishioners. But if a person has a foundation—the awareness that the Church is the ship of salvation, and its captain is Jesus Christ Himself—he will not leave when he encounters these problems in the churches. Glory be to God that I ended up on this ship, that our Lord Jesus Christ pulled me into it. And that I no longer have to try and traverse the sea on the flimsy little boat of Protestantism. I don’t care if a small board on the ship has rotted, or that there is a slight tear on the fringe of the sail, because most important is the ship’s Captain. If you understand this you are protected from temptations and problems. But if you don’t have this understanding, then all the rest—neither the beauty of Orthodoxy, nor the asceticism, nor freedom from the passions, nor prayer, the grandeur of the services and the power of Communion can keep a person in the church.

There are also examples of the opposite, when a person understands the value of the Orthodox faith and does not pay any attention to the problems.

One woman, a third generation Baptist, started thinking about Orthodoxy, came to a church and asked the grandma at the candle desk if she could speak with a priest. The grandma said, “Are you even baptized?” The woman answered that she wasn’t. The old lady told the woman off, saying that batiushka would not even talk to her in that case. The woman did not give up after one try, and wrote to our center. Finally she met with a priest in another church. And this is not an isolated incident, unfortunately. There have been cases where Protestants were ready to receive Orthodoxy, came to a priest and asked for help. In one case the priest insulted the person, in another case the priest sent him to the bishop. Happily these Protestants did not give up and became Orthodox nonetheless. Possibly this treatment was a test of their resolve. But it doesn’t at all mean that the actions of those representatives of Orthodoxy whom I just mentioned were right.

—You have already partially answered my next question about what the Orthodox Church should do so that the Protestants would come to it.

—Actually, we do not have to change anything; essentially we have everything. There are meaningful, clear, and profound answers in the Orthodox Church to the questions that Protestants have. It is only a matter of good relationships to Protestants and the knowledge of those who receive Protestants, to see the problems with which a Protestant has come.

Perhaps the very least would be to organize more centers like ours. We have already shared our experience with the Tomsk diocese, and are ready to visit other regions if we are invited.

Source: http://orthochristian.com/112612.html

An interview with Abbess of St.Elisabeth Convent, Euphrosinia

Abbess Euphrosinia, the Mother Superior of St Elisabeth Convent, was tonsured in honor of St Euphrosinia of Polotsk, the heavenly patroness of Belarusian land whose name means «joy». St Euphrosinia is one of the most highly venerated saints in Belarus, considered to be the patroness of arts and sciences. It may be for this reason that the most creative people of this country come to this convent in order to serve God with their talents in the numerous workshops of the Convent. Other people whom the Convent helps to return to the right track come here for rehabilitation. In an interview with our magazine, The Monastic Herald, Abbess Euphrosinia speaks about her path to becoming an abbess; about her obedience in the mental clinic; about some distinct features of her community, which has been oriented towards helping people since the very beginning of its existence; as well as about freedom and creativity in a monastery, false Christianity, various faces of monasticism, and true culture.

Noah's Ark in Minsk

The Russians have always perceived monasteries as beacons of salvation or as Noah's Arks. In this respect, St Elisabeth Convent in Minsk is a real shelter for people who suffer because they lack proper guidance in life. However, can the Convent help everybody?

Abbess Euphrosinia: We're going through hard times when unemployment rates are soaring and people do not have jobs to support their families. This is why they come to work in our Convent. We provide jobs for about 1,500 people. It's surprising how the Lord finds something to do for everyone. More often than not, these people are very far from the Church. After they begin to work in the Convent, they gradually become practising Christians, confess, and take communion.

When the government allocated a plot of land with a demolished farm, a rotten-through cowshed and a ruined horse stable for us in early 2000s, we were shocked: the Convent was being built, and we feared we wouldn't be able to manage a farm in addition to it. My obedience at that time consisted of visiting drug addicts in the psychiatric hospital. Many of them had nowhere to go after the course of treatment. That was how our farm turned into a shelter for drug addicts, and some time later, homeless people or former prisoners started to come there.

In other words, there is a place for everyone in your Convent, isn't there?

Abbess Euphrosinia: There are many mansions in our Father's house (smiles). The Lord says, «Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out». (John 6:37). On the other hand, people are corrupt nowadays: they cannot tolerate any criticism and retort immediately, "Where's your love you used to boast of?" That is the hardest thing to bear.

Take, for instance, the brothers from the rehab. A person may have spent years on the street but as soon as he comes to the Convent and gets plenty of food and sleep, he begins to feel and behave like a hero. I'm guilty of that, too, I have to admit. It seems that if you have come to the Convent, you should serve God and wash everyone's feet, but we aren't satisfied: this sister said this, that sister looked at me like that, and so forth.

The older generation is different. Those people lived in scarcity and were grateful for every penny. On the contrary, we have everything we need, like new and comfortable dormitories. This is an enormous disadvantage: we've got spoiled by abundance, and this is where all our problems begin. I read that in a convent in Moscow in the past people would bring bags of potato and hang them on the doors of nuns' cells, so the nuns ate only as much food as they had donated. Compare this with us who have everything at hand. This is why our efforts today should be aimed at spiritual practice.

Yes, we present-day Orthodox are spoiled by the splendor of our churches and by the comfort, typical of many monasteries today. Many monastics admit it.

Abbess Euphrosinia: The beauty of our churches is a sermon. When an individual comes to a monastery and sees this beauty, he can't but be impressed by it, and so he gets attracted to the Church and to God.

Your Convent is open to the world. In Russia, we are used to monasteries that are isolated from lay people, but your Convent is different. Doesn't this openness harm the monastic sisters, what do you think? How can they combine active help to other people and prayer? How do you find the balance?

Abbess Euphrosinia: The Lord gives everyone their own ministry. I feel that our Convent is what it is thanks to God's Providence about us. We have nuns, lay sisters, mentally challenged people, and socially vulnerable brothers and sisters who stay in our rehabilitation centers. The Lord brought us together, so this must have been his will.

You don't need to become a recluse in order to fight the sin inside you. The beast that sits inside you is expressed in conversation through conflicts and disagreements. At the same time, when we serve people, we receive God's grace. When your life is limited to your church and your cell, all passions rise up inside your soul. Not everyone is able to stand up against such spiritual struggle.

When our Convent was in the very beginning, there was a question if the nuns should visit the psychiatric hospital or not, and our spiritual father Archpriest Andrew stated, «If you have to sit in your cells, you will hit the ceiling». It doesn't mean we should abandon the cell, you know. It seems to me that there is no contradiction.

Father Andrew often quotes an episode from a well-known biography of a holy hierarch, when bishops met a beautiful prostitute on the street one day. That holy hierarch gazed at her for so long that other bishops were embarrassed. After a while, the holy hierarch said, «If only we put as much effort into the embellishment of our souls as she does to make her body look appealing!» He prayed for that whore, and later she became a holy nun.

You know, I read letters by Father John Krestyankin where he says that nuns and monks nowadays should not confine themselves to the cells. So many people today need spiritual help! It was the Lord who entrusted this ministry to us: we did not look for it. So we cannot isolate our Convent from the people. If they come here, we have to accept them.

Yes, you're right, we may lose something important. However, I would like to point out that when the sisters, who travel with products made in our workshops and take part in various exhibitions, return to the convent, their faces are bright and happy, as it they never left their cells: they're filled with life and God's grace.

And vice versa, a sister who is in the Convent all the time, may be gloomy and hard to please.

The spiritual father of your Convent repeatedly emphasizes the need for unity, the communion of the nuns, the «white», i.e. lay sisters, and the Orthodox in general. Was it the original plan for the Convent?

Abbess Euphrosinia: It developed naturally because the Convent was born of the Sisterhood. There was no special order or edict that a convent was to be built on this place. There were some sisters of mercy who had their obediences in the mental hospital, and in the meantime they decided that they wanted to live together. When we started building St Elisabeth Church, no one even thought about establishing a convent, but one year later, in August 1999, we performed our first tonsure. This day is considered to be our Convent's birthday.

"The Blessing of Your Parents Shall Always Be With You"

Mother, how did you find yourself in the Sisterhood? What brought you there?

Abbess Euphrosinia: By that time I worked as an aide in the operation theatre at the Institute of Oncology. I liked my job very much and studied to become a nurse. One of the nurses at the Institute of Oncology was a churchgoer and invited me to go with her. That was how I started going to church.

Unlike today, there were few easily accessible spiritual books in the 1990s, so I remember how I copied the prayers by hand. The first church books I read were The Mystery of Faith by the Rt Rev Hilarion (Alfeyev) and writings of St Silouan the Athonite. I read a book about St Sergius of Radonezh for the first time in Church Slavonic, as if I already knew this language. I understood everything.

I took communion for the first time in 1994, on Pascha Sunday, in the Church in honour of Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. Father Andrew served the Akathist to the Holy Martyr Elisabeth Fyodorovna in that church on Sundays, followed by meetings of the Sisterhood in the parish office. Coming to church for the Akathist, I looked at the sisters of mercy with awe: there were about ten of them by that time, and they were very different from other parishioners.

After the first meeting that I attended together with Sister Tatiana (currently Nun Tamara), Father Andrew blessed me to wear the white vestment of a sister and told me that they needed nurses in the boarding home. That was how I started working in the boarding home and visiting drug addicts in the psychiatric hospital as a sister of mercy. I was 26 at the time.

Do your family members go to church often? How did your parents react to the path you chose to take in life?

Abbess Euphrosinia: My mum wrote a letter to me, saying that, «Whatever you chose, your parents' blessing will always be with you». My parents weren't observant Christians at that time.

The mental hospital is near the Convent, the patients attend services in the churches, and the sisters take care of them. Living side by side with such people must call for a certain kind of personality, full of patience, doesn't it? How do the nuns get used to it? Do some sisters have issues with this or they deliberately choose your convent out of the desire to serve people?

Abbess Euphrosinia: First of all, yes, sisters know where they come. Secondly, almost all nuns used to be sisters of mercy who came to the Convent from the Sisterhood. «White» sisters continue to become nuns but today there are other sisters who come directly to the Convent, and even from other countries: we have sisters from Montenegro, Serbia, and Poland. It is a natural process for us; we don't pay too much attention to it. Of course, things may be tough for the sisters at times. However, we have monastic meetings in our Convent on a weekly basis. These meetings are an immense help for the sisters.

Unity That Gives Birth to Salvation

Speaking of meetings, your Convent has a very popular website with lots of useful information, including recordings of meetings of the Sisterhood since 2008, where sisters sometimes share their personal discoveries on their road to God. These recordings are very useful and edifying, I must admit.

Abbess Euphrosinia: We have had the meetings of the Sisterhood since the beginning of its existence, and we added meetings of monastic sisters as soon as the Convent was founded. Nuns attend both kinds of meetings. Additionally, we hold meetings of the Monastic Council every week. The meetings of the «white» sisters and the nuns focus on dealing with everyday problems, discussions, sharing opinions and personal insights. These meetings are essential for us: they are a continuation of worship where we all gather around the Chalice.

Three years ago, a book titled How We Live and How We Should Live: A Dialogue of Contemporary Christians, which contains excerpts from the meetings held in 2006-2011, was published by the Publishing House of the Convent. The spiritual father of the Convent, nuns and lay sisters share their experiences and spiritual knowledge. They discuss questions that are relevant for every Christian. Again, unity is the central point of these meetings because it is thanks to unity that the great salvation is born, as Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov) used to say.

Abbess Euphrosinia: We appreciate Father Sophrony very much. That's right, it is for the sake of unity that we come together.

I'm not aware of any other way to remain close, kind and thoughtful of each other. It is easier to understand a person who expresses his thoughts.

I recall monastic conferences for abbots and abbesses in Moscow. The Most Rev Theognost keeps calling upon and invoking the audience to ask questions and not be silent. We have similar situations when Father Andrew has to ask us, «Sisters, why are you silent? Don't you have anything to worry about?» (smiles)

Have you been to SS Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy, established by Grand Princess Elisabeth Fyodorovna, during your trips to Moscow?

Abbess Euphrosinia: I happened to visit this convent during the Nativity conference in January of this year. It goes without saying that the presence and the love of the Holy Martyr Elisabeth, whose name our Convent also bears, is visible there. By the way, there is an icon of St Sergius (Serebryansky), the confessor of SS Martha and Mary Convent, in our St Elisabeth Church.

Mother Euphrosinia, have you and your sisters found the answer to the question «How should we live?» on the cover of that book?

Abbess Euphrosinia: We are looking for the answer. You have to spend your entire life searching for the answer, it seems.

Freedom and False Piety

Do you have a strict charter in your convent?

Abbess Euphrosinia: I don't think it is strict. In my opinion, having freedom and learning how to use that freedom is the hardest thing to do. We don't have limitations on where you can or cannot go. There is a good tradition in many convents for the abbess to assign daily chores to the sisters every morning. We can't do that because our daily schedules are imposed on us by the very nature of our obediences. For example, how can I order a sister who works in the legal department? They have specific work to do and fixed business hours. Or take the House of Love of Labour, where they have certain special schedules, too.

What do you take into account when you assign duties? Do you ask the sisters what they would like to do?

Abbess Euphrosinia: Naturally, I factor in everything: their talents, inclination, and wishes. This is, again, a sign of our time. People in the past used to do what they were told to do without much consideration. Today, you ask a sister, «Where would you like to work?» Perhaps, we have no other option, at least, that's what many people say…

This is one of the reasons why we have regular meetings. It is during these meetings that we are able to discuss not just our daily issues but also deal with conflicts and disagreements, like you would expect from a family. You see, there is nothing worse than false piety, rigidity, and stubbornness. I mean, when one says «Forgive me», «Bless me» but secretly despises everyone.

It is not a secret that lack of shared vision is a real problem for many monasteries. Why do people come to us? Because we have a spiritual father, and there is no conflict between the abbess and the spiritual father, which is very important. In fact, this is the most important thing. When people in a monastery start to take sides — one is for the abbess, another one is for the spiritual father — it's tragic.

How to prevent it? Who is to blame?

Abbess Euphrosinia: Everyone is to blame. Nevertheless, the abbess and the spiritual father are to blame first of all.

Can the sisters of your Convent approach you directly with their problems?

Abbess Euphrosinia: Sure! We have a simple, family-like way of doing things. At least, we would like it to be that way and do our best to ensure it.

How do the sisters contact the spiritual father of the Convent?

Abbess Euphrosinia: Father Andrew is in the Convent every day, except Thursday. He spends more time here with us than at home with his family. That's why, apart from his own children (who are adult already), he has 111 children-nuns. He is like a father for us.

One of the sisters likened Father Andrew to a monk.

Abbess Euphrosinia: He even has a cell in the Convent. He serves in the Convent on an almost daily basis; he hears the confessions of all sisters and many parishioners twice a week; he has meetings with «white» sisters, nuns, parishioners, and people who undergo treatment in our rehabilitation centres.

The "Least Interesting" Person

Currently, there are nine churches in the Convent, and yet another church is planned, the fourth church on the territory of the Convent. Is the main cathedral of the Convent — the Church in honour of the Reigning icon of the Mother of God — not enough for everyone willing to take part in worship?

Abbess Euphrosinia: When the Church in honour of the Reigning icon of the Mother of God was being built, we thought that there would be enough space for everyone — it can accommodate 1,200 persons. However, many more people come to the Convent now, especially on feasts: people have to stand outdoors on Palm Sunday and Pascha, and there were about 1,500 people who took communion.

This church is impressive, of course, just look at the mosaics!

Abbess Euphrosinia: I read a story about SS Martha and Mary Convent in your magazine. There was a woman who criticised the sisters of this convent in the comments, saying that walls are easier to build than the spirit. The reporter invited that woman to come to the convent and see for herself how it is organised before criticising. People criticise us, too. They call us «merchants» or «Euronuns». You can take any exalted idea and distort and slander it.

Our widespread activity and construction projects aren't goals in and of themselves. Do you remember how monks criticised St Moses of Optina when he decided to build a new guest house while the treasury was empty. He was doing it for the sake of visitors. It was thanks to this construction project that lay people could earn money and feed their families. We have the same situation, it's just that the world is different, circumstances are different, but in general, things aren't any different at all.

His Beatitude Alexis II visited Minsk in 2008. It was him who consecrated the Church in honour of the Reigning icon of the Mother of God. It was his last visit to Belarus and his last consecrated church. In order to commemorate this event, craftspeople who work in the Convent made a special «pencil», which His Beatitude used to put his name on a clay panel in that church. Mother Abbess, do you have some impressions of this visit to share with us?

Abbess Euphrosinia: It was a historic event for our Convent. I recall it with great delight; I have only bright memories of that day. We all had been looking forward to seeing the Patriarch, so all our sisters were present in the Convent on that day. I remember how, when we were meeting the Patriarch, the nuns lined up outdoors, as usual, while the white sisters stood inside the church. It was truly beautiful and solemn. When Patriarch Alexis entered the church and saw the whole church occupied by sisters wearing white (there were about two hundred sisters of mercy at that time), he was struck with amazement: he had not expected it.

Frankly speaking, we were pleasantly surprised to see so many people in the church on weekdays: the Church in honour of the Reigning icon of the Mother of God is packed with people even on Friday night, during the Akathist. Are the majority of these people local to this neighbourhood?

Abbess Euphrosinia: No, most of them come from other parts of the city or from other cities and towns.

What do you think makes people come to the Convent?

Abbess Euphrosinia: Perhaps, this is due to the fact that God's grace abides here. Beside that, they like our spiritual father, the Rev Andrew Lemeshonok, very much.

Everything we have now is thanks exclusively to his inspiration. He sets everything in motion, and we follow his lead. Father Andrew keeps us awake and makes sure we don't sit idle.

Yes, his vigour is something we can attest to. We have already experienced this «generous wash by Father Andrew»: he approached each person in the church after the Akathist and generously sprinkled them with holy water two or three times. We have never seen anything like this before. You wake up immediately, and that was great because we were sleepy after travelling by train…

Abbess Euphrosinia: Yes, you're right (laughs)! Our spiritual father is a creative person. The sisters who come to the Convent are talented and creative, too. I'm the least interesting person in our Convent. I'm not sure you will be able to make an interview out of my answers.

Anyway, the Lord has put you in charge of a convent with such an active social ministry. Abbess Sergia (Konkova), the Mother Superior of Diveevo St Seraphim Convent, told us in an interview that being an abbess is a cross. Based on your words, can we assume that it truly is a cross for you?

Abbess Euphrosinia: Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:28: «And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not». I can only say that I have to humble myself down. Being an abbess is a straightjacket and a huge responsibility for me. You become as quiet as a lamb, even if you don't want to do so. In fact, I realise that another person should be the abbess instead of me but God knows best. I sometimes wish someone would let me out of this straightjacket and give it to somebody else (smiles).

As far as I know, there was a different Mother Superior in this Convent at first. She didn't spend a long time in this capacity, did she?

Abbess Euphrosinia: Yes, our first Mother Superior had been the Senior Sister of the Sisterhood, but they appointed me to this post in March 2000, a year after the Convent was founded. The previous Mother Superior was dreaming of an isolated cloister but it wasn't like that since the very beginning. There are several hospitals and a boarding home nearby, and our sisters visited the ill but many other people needed our help, too. Our first Mother Superior did not want the nuns to visit the ill. By the way, her dream of a quiet convent has come true: today she is in a isolated and quiet place.

On the contrary, the Lord led me to becoming a nun via the Sisterhood, and I don't quite get it why a monastic cannot help the ill and tell them about Jesus. Sometimes people find it hard to ask a priest for advice with regard to their personal issues; they find it easier to tell a sister about them, and then the sister sends them to a priest, to church, and explains the need to confess and take communion.

In a word, this is what I mean when I say «practical Orthodox mission».

Abbess Euphrosinia: Mission, yes. I will even go so far as calling it an apostolate. Yes, we do spoil everything but the Lord acts through us for the sake of the people, you see? The sisters tell me how God teaches them during their obedience and helps them to say the right words.

A Catholic saint Mother Theresa said that she was «a pencil in God's hands».

It turns out that you need these people, not vice versa; it isn't you who helps them — it is they that help you. You simply can't comprehend how you lived in this world without it.

One of your nuns remarked that if you didn't visit the ill on Pascha, you have missed something and your joy isn't full.

Abbess Euphrosinia: Exactly. One needs to share joy with someone else. If you want to be happy, you shouldn't spare yourself, and God will grant you everything you need a hundredfold. You should try to notice your neighbour and share something with them because you can only be happy if you give something away.

Mother Euphrosinia, you said that you had your first communion on a Pascha. Is the Paschal joy of a monastic different from that of a lay person, in your opinion? Do monastics have a unique experience of this main Orthodox holiday?

Abbess Euphrosinia: Pascha is a transition. It seems to me that no one on Earth experiences it to the fullest — neither monastics, nor laypeople. However, even if you aren't happy on this holiday, your soul is still touched by the Resurrection.

You Simply Have To… Die

St Elisabeth Convent in Minsk is famous for its active educational and cultural outreach. The Three Parables film series and chants by the Festive Choir of the Convent, conducted by Nun Juliania (Denisova), the precentor-in-chief, have gained widespread popularity. When this choir came to Moscow for the first time, we, then students of the Orthodox university, were greatly impressed; later, spiritual songs by Nun Juliana were sung practically by the entire Orthodox world. Documentaries The Precentor and The Nun about her path to becoming a nun were a hit, although critical voices were also heard. There was a similar situation with Hieromonk Photius (Mochalov) who won at The Voice TV show. Mother Euphrosinia, what do you think about creative self-expression by monastics?

Abbess Euphrosinia: It wouldn't happen if it weren't useful. No one treats Nun Juliania like a celebrity here. It is just a given to us. There was some negative feedback after The Nun, but mostly it was positive.

Does she as a nun find it difficult to cope with increased attention? She woke up to become famous; people ask her for autographs. A book she had written prior to becoming a nun has seen the light recently.

Abbess Euphrosinia: She definitely finds it a hard thing to deal with, and she admits it during our meetings. That's how I look at it: you can do nothing, sit in your cell, never express yourself in any way, hide from the world, but your pride won't disappear because you can consider yourself great even if you don't do anything. The less you do, the greater you imagine yourself to be. On the contrary, this situation reveals everything that is hidden, especially pride and vainglory.

When someone takes the veil, she dies for the world. How do we understand these words correctly, if the monastic carries out her mission in this world? I don't mean dying for the world per se; I'm trying to infer that monastic living may be as diverse as it gets. Our perception of monastic life is often one-sided: a monk is thought to be a person who doesn't talk to anyone, doesn't smile, stares at the ground and sits in voluntary confinement.

Abbess Euphrosinia: Of course one can read many books and find far-fetched quotations, but the truth is that monasticism has had various faces since the beginning. For example, St Joseph Volotsky and St Nil Sorsky had different callings but the same purpose, so they had no problem dealing with one another, they liked one another. There were three hospitals and a dedicated church for the mentally ill in the monastery of St Theodosius the Great who is considered to be the founder of coenobitic monasteries.

If our Convent was established in a remote village or in the woods, we would live there praying and working with our hands. Nevertheless, the Lord founded this Convent here, where there are so many ill people in need of support and love.

People are reluctant to forgive a monastic who has simple human weaknesses. They imagine that he should not be annoyed or get angry, as if he were dead. Ideally yes, that's how it should be. This is our goal but we haven't become Angels yet. Why is it so difficult for some people to understand it?

Abbess Euphrosinia: You can't expect us to be like St Poemen the Great or St Sergius of Radonezh. St Ignatius (Bryanchaninov) said that monastics were superhuman in the ancient times, but the lay people were stronger in faith, too: they prayed and lived in piety [1].

Where do I as an abbess find the necessary experience to be like them? I was a lazy and disobedient girl who came to church to be purified, cleansed, adorned by the Lord who blessed me to become a nun and then an abbess. You can’t learn everything at once. This is why we serve God to the best of our abilities and we learn all the time. We make many mistakes and surprisingly enough, given our unique ability to mess everything up, the Lord still manages to build something.

Abbess Euphrosinia: Of course, it is. Everything depends on how the person responds to God’s calling.

Monastyrskii Vestnik (The Monastic Herald)

Interview by Christina Polyakova

June 26, 2016

[1] “What can you demand from monasteries if the world sends corrupt people to them, if they are surrounded by immorality, if immorality dominates them? This wound is healed only by death.”

“Many people complain about monastics, and go searching for their flaws. However, monastics are a barometer that stands in a remote and isolated room and accurately shows the weather outdoors.” (St Ignatius Bryanchaninov. Letters to Various People, vol.7).

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