Personal Stories of the Clergy of St. Elisabeth Convent: Father Andrew Malakhovsky
It was in 2006. I was a junior student at a
university and a non-conformist in a certain sense. Nevertheless, I had already
begun my path to the Church. It was in February that my friend and I first came
to St Elisabeth Convent to pray and to see what kind of young people went
there… I felt at home during the service. The young people turned out to be
open-hearted and welcoming. The spiritual father of the youth group was simple
and ready to help. Little by little, I became a parishioner of the Convent and
a member of the youth group. After I graduated from my university, I became a
sister of the Sisterhood in honour of the Holy Martyr Grand Princess Elisabeth
and an employee of the Pilgrim’s Office and the website of St Elisabeth
Convent. The spiritual father of the youth group became very close not just to
me but also to my entire family…
Tatiana Khomenkova
The
current issue of One of Us features Father Andrew Malakhovsky who continues
working with the youth in the Medical University and carries out many other
obediences in the Convent.
Restored Church, Restored Self
There
comes a time in one’s life when one begins to think about the meaning of life.
You are left discontented with the things that the world has to offer. You
start seeing a lot of injustice and grief in this world. You are particularly
regretful for having caused others so much trouble due to your
absent-mindedness and lack of wisdom, in spite of the fact that you had wanted
to do good… You start looking for internal resources and seeking a foundation
in your life. You try to come up with good explanations for everything and bind
them together in a coherent philosophy…
You may
not even be aware that you are looking for Christ at that moment but you do it
anyway. As a rule, it is the time when you start philosophising in a purely
scholastic manner but the question that you have to face is always “What for?”
It is no sooner than you come to church that your soul can feel genuine
satisfaction and inner joy. When you grow stronger in faith, you begin to
understand all things, including sorrows of other people and your own
afflictions. You want to be in tune with the newly-revealed Divine beauty and
to be chaste and graceful inside. It is often impossible to rebuild your life
according to the newly-acquired knowledge but you can clearly see that you are
on the right track… You are willing to commit your entire life to the
incorruptible. That was what my own discovery of the Church and God was like.
I
graduated from Minsk Radio-engineering Institute. I came to the faith when I
had already been working in the Academy of Sciences. I consider my distance
learning in the Institute of Apiculture in Rybny, Ryazan Oblast, to be an
important period in my spiritual journey. I had the opportunities to visit
churches and monasteries during my sessions. I was especially impressed by Holy
Trinity St Sergius Lavra, Gethsemane Skete, and St John the Theologian
Monastery in v. Poshchupovo. Upon graduation from that institute, I came to
realise that my profession fеll short of my expectations, too. I was
overwhelmed by a desire to participate in the restoration of a church. It
turned out that I also participated in the revival of my own soul…
When I
came to carry out my obedience in the church, I spent six more months working
in the world, and then I devoted myself to working in the Church exclusively.
Life was miserable in the early 1990s. There were no sights of the future
glory: the churches that had been returned to the Orthodox by the state lay in
desolation. There was no finesse like today but it fully corresponded to the
conditions of our souls: they weren’t great, either, so the outward appearance
of the churches was in total accord with them. It was a period when both church
buildings and human souls were being restored.
Rest for the Soul
When I
worked in the Academy of Sciences, I grew fond of mountain tourism, ski trips,
and kayaking. I had never been into acquiring wealth and new possessions and I
didn’t have a knack for them. Hiking in the mountains was a real inspiration
and solace for me.
I managed
to see the Kuril Islands, Siberia, Crimea, the Carpathians, and the Khibiny. We
kayaked on the rivers of Belarus. Once I had the chance to do kayaking in
Karelia.
I got to
know my wife during my first trip to the Carpathian Mountains. She did not
treat hiking seriously. It was merely a hobby, a way to know and test herself,
to learn something about the world, and to build up willpower.
Our son
inherited our hobby, too: he prefers various activities to lying on a couch. We
go mountain hiking in the Caucasus. We like walking, looking around, and
talking. I think this pastime does not throttle one’s spiritual life. One needs
some time to stop and breathe in and have a rest for his soul and touch the
elegance and brilliance of God’s creation.
We
organise kayak trips around Belarus together with the parishioners. We had a
three days long journey this summer but later some people admitted that they
felt as if they had spent their entire vacation in that trip because they had
had such a wonderful time. In support of the well-known phrase “Moving is
living,” I can say that people even get healed of their illnesses. One of the
participants of our trip had not been able to raise his arm for two years but
he forgot about his health problem while rowing. Arm movements during rowing
are different from the commonly used ones, and that was possibly why it helped
him. Of course, close and informal conversations are the best part of a hiking
trip.
Hard to Live Without Obediences
Life is
not easy. You have to make yourself do something. You keep seeing and realising
that you are inadequate to the field that the Lord has put you onto… However,
life is even harder when you have no obediences.
Father
Andrew’s Current Obediences: Boarding Home No.3 for Mentally Challenged and
Elderly: Chapel in honour of Holy Blessed Xenia of St Petersburg where a Divine
Liturgy with the Akathist to St Xenia is celebrated weekly; the National
Applied Research Centre of Pulmonology and Phthisiatry: Chapel in honour of St
Luke of Crimea; Social Shelter for Children Left Without Parental Care;
Spiritual Education Centre of the Belarusian State Medical University, Chapel
in honour of the Mother of God the Quick to Hearken; Akathist to the
Inexhaustible Chalice icon of the Mother of God.
Past
Obediences: Spiritual leadership of the Sunday School and the Youth Group in
honour of Holy Martyrs Faith, Hope, Love, and their mother Sophia; visits to
the Correctional Colony No. 10 in Navapolack; Clinical Hospital No. 2, and the
National Applied Research Centre of Mental Health.
I have
been carrying out my obedience in the Boarding Home for the Mentally Challenged
for almost two decades. A small community has formed around St Xenia Chapel
during that time. This community consists of the sisters and the brothers of
our Sisterhood of Saint Elisabeth; the staff members of the Boarding Home; and
its patients. We have learned to share sorrows and joys.
It is
easier to serve in the National Applied Research Centre of Pulmonology and
Phthisiatry because people stay there for a long time — up to six months or
even longer — which is enough to become a practising Christian.
The
children who end up in the social shelter are a different story but it is
obvious that our society is recovering. Although drug abuse remains fairly
common among schoolchildren, it seems to me that the society improves in this
respect. There used to be many juvenile delinquents among the children who
ended up in the shelter. Teachers and school boards pay much more attention to
children nowadays: if a student misses classes, his or her teacher immediately
alerts the school board. They can even send that student off to a special
school as a prevention measure. Missing school is a visible sign that something
wrong is going on and that it can cause some serious sin.
The
students who attend the Spiritual Education Centre of the Belarusian State
Medical University tend to be in search of the faith already. It is easy to
work with them, naturally. We understand each other well. It is much more
difficult to work with the student masses, riddled with atheism and scepticism.
Few students come to our Centre, and this may be the greatest difficulty with
this obedience. There must be a priest who can encourage young people and lead
them by his own example. I don’t think I am such a priest. I would like to ask
for your holy prayers.
We have a
moleben and an Akathist to the Inexhaustible Chalice icon of the Mother of God
in St Nicholas Church every Thursday. This moleben is mostly frequented by the
co-dependent — the relatives of those who suffer from substance addictions.
Some of them keep praying for their loved ones for years. They don’t give up
and continue to come to church and pray during the Akathist. I wish they had
everything they are praying for but this struggle is very demanding…
Quick Poll
What
would you wish those who have not met God yet?
— I would
like them to have that encounter. A person’s life can be divided into two
periods: before Christ and after Christ. There is a commonly accepted
chronological division between the centuries “before Christ” (BC) and the
centuries after Christ (AD, Anno Domini, the year of the Lord). Likewise, every
person’s life can be divided into two main periods. I believe it happens to
every person: one’s inner life changes when he meets the Lord. One may appear
the same, of course, but one becomes completely different inside. That’s the
way it should be. May the Lord help all of us!
What prayers, apart from the
Prayer of St Ephraim the Syrian, would you suggest for our readers to gain the
penitential mood, which is so crucial during the Great Lent?
— Listen
to a recorded Great Penitential Canon of St Andrew of Crete recited by
Metropolitan Philaret (Vakhromeyev).
What
would you recommend doing during the Great Lent to the young adults and the
students whom you counsel?
— I
advise them to attend church services more often and do their best to avoid
entertainment. One should observe physical fast to the extent that one deems
useful.
Prepared by Tatiana Khomenkova,
Maria Kotova, Nun Joanna Pankova
February 27, 2018
St.
Elisabeth Convent
