The Catalog of Good Deeds

The Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt founded the House of Love of Labour—a social structure that was ahead of its time. It provided shelter and employment to those who were deemed useless by the public and those who were devastated both spiritually and physically.

Nowadays, Father John’s heritage isn’t forgotten. The House of Love of Labour of St Elisabeth Convent was founded with the blessing of the Very Rev Andrew Lemeshonok, the spiritual father of our Convent. It preserves the main principle of the original facility, that is, serving one’s neighbour. It is fitting that a nun named after Saint Chionia, an Italian martyr who was orphaned when she was very young, is in charge of the House of Love of Labour.

“Everything Begins with Father Andrew’s Dream”

“Everything in our Convent always begins with Father Andrew’s dream. Father Andrew, just like his heavenly patron Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, is always dreaming of bringing as many people to God as possible,” Nun Chionia (Efimova) says. “The foundation that lay in this place for a long time was overgrown with grass. Every time our Father Andrew drove past this place, he prayed, ‘I wish there was a house where the disabled and socially vulnerable people could find a job and learn about God…’ And the Lord made his dream come true.”

Apostle Paul said, “[B]ase things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen” (1 Cor. 1:28). We spent a lot of time talking with Nun Chionia about the truth of this apostolic saying with regard to the House of Love of Labour and how helpful labour is for socialisation and rehabilitation.

I believe that the most important aspect of the House of Love of Labour is that the people who come here discover the meaning of life and figure out that it lies in the salvation of their souls. Each one of these people is brought to us by the Lord, I’m sure.

There are various people among our employees. There are high-skilled specialists among them, too. Given that since the very beginning, our Convent focused on helping our weak neighbours, we try and help these kinds of people, too. Spiritual weakness is characteristic of everyone in this world, so when I talk about weaknesses and illnesses, I mean physical illnesses. We provide jobs for people who have various health issues. The House of Love of Labour becomes the only place where these people can get a job because the labour market in the outside world is extremely competitive.

I’m certain that it is thanks to their work and prayers that the Lord covers up all our shortcomings with his mighty hand. As long as the Convent continues to help the sufferers, it will live and develop.

Improve Life to Get Daughter Back

It turned out that among the employees of the House of Love of Labour there are people who went through serious disruption, such as prison. According to Nun Chionia, the basic approach to the rehabilitation and socialisation of these people is by building warm relationships based on trust. You have to try and understand these people and not tag them as unworthy. Instead, you should support them and give them a chance to improve.

Nun Chionia recalls Vasilissa who had served time in jail for drug abuse. She had a daughter but she lost her parental rights. One day, Vasilissa’s grandmother called Nun Chionia and begged her to give a job to her granddaughter. Currently, Vasilissa works hard to improve her life and her living conditions and dreams of getting her daughter back.

“She is burning with desire to reconnect with her daughter! If you only saw her radiant eyes! That’s what a person who has encountered God must look like. They say that eyes are a reflection of one’s soul; if that’s true, her eyes shine so bright that they are even painful to look into sometimes (smiles). It was in the Convent that she confessed and took communion for the first time. May God help her not to diverge from this path!”

There are dozens of stories like this one. People reject their criminal past and start leading a Christian life, participate in the Sacraments, and have a family. Their lives get better. When one finds God, one also finds the meaning of life. One discovers new experiences. When one realises that he cannot do anything without the Lord, he starts to build his life according to Christian values.

The Lord Is The Only Expert Who Is Always Near

Nun Chionia says that her appointment as the head of the House of Love of Labour came as a shock. She was taken aback by the colossal responsibility that her new position laid on her. Nun Chionia endured some inner struggle with God because she wasn’t happy with His decision. Every time she talked with her spiritual father and with other people, she received one and the same answer: “Do what you can.” Now she perceives those words as her God-inspired motto.

Perhaps, this is the reason why the workshops located in the three-storied building of the House of Love of Labour have almost outgrown their limits. Ceramic Workshop, Sewing Workshop, Gold Embroidery Workshop, Icon Setting Workshop, Stone Workshop: that’s where our sisters make their products with love and prayer. They also make stuffed toys and paint nesting dolls. A Social Support Group for mentally challenged persons named Dobrodel was launched in the House of Love of Labour last spring.

Every workday begins with communal prayer. The workers read morning prayers. They pray for each other, for unity, and ask saints to bless their work. Some workshops add akathists to their prayer rule.

“Work in the Convent is always accompanied with prayer. I’m not a great person of prayer but I’ve long been aware of the fact that you cannot do anything without God,” Nun Chionia believes. “Every day, you stumble upon tasks and problems that you cannot solve. Who can you run to? The Lord is the only expert who is always near.

When a stitch goes awry, you pray, ‘Lord help me!’ We do our best to make the highest quality items, stitch by stitch. A seamstress can foresee certain difficulties with some kinds of textiles (e.g., velvet, which has an exceedingly smooth surface), and she starts asking God for help. That is how, aside from the joint prayer, every worker prays in private in his or her own workplace.”

Unity of Opposites

When I looked at the employees of the House of Love of Labour, I recalled Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov) who said that great salvation is born of unity. How can people retain the unity, acceptance of each other, and mutual understanding if they are so different? Many of them have broken lives and crippled souls, and each of them definitely has his or her own personality and ideas of justice… I shared my thoughts with Nun Chionia.

“Father Andrew teaches us that the beauty of unity is that it consists of different people,” Nun Chionia replies. “It is never the case, and God doesn’t need it to be the case, that all are the same. People are in constant motion day by day, and their disposition depends on their mood, situation, and even their physical condition. I was sad yesterday but the Lord comforted me, and I’m joyful and happy now.”

There is a concept of the so-called unity of opposites. It points at spiritual matters directly: if we learn to combine our differences and work together instead of competing against each other, that’s when unity occurs.

Father Andrew says that living properly is when you as a strong person pray for yourself and for that weak person who cannot go to church. When you see that a sister is sleeping, cover her with a blanket, fluff up her pillow, and pray for her.

When we accept each other with all our weaknesses and flaws; when we “carry each other’s burdens” according to the apostle’s words—that’s when true unity and genuine love of God are born.

People Helping People

There is a construction site of a new production floor below the windows of the House of Love of Labour. Looking at the workers and their machines, I recalled a story from the life of Saint Moses of Optina: monks of his monastery criticised his idea to build a new guesthouse because the monastery couldn’t afford it. In fact, Saint Moses undertook that construction project so as lay builders could get jobs to feed their families.

People can distort and besmirch even the best idea. As a rule, people are unwilling to grasp the full picture of some phenomenon before criticising it. That is why we decided to find out what the motivation behind the Convent’s manufacturing efforts is and who are the people whom you really help when you buy products made in St Elisabeth Convent.

“First of all, people help those who work here,” Nun Chionia responds. “For example, our seamstress makes five baptismal sets. She put her effort and prayer into these items, and her love and prayer will then pass on to someone else’s family because new Christians come into this world. The donations of their relatives return to the Convent and are invested in construction and in our workers’ wages. That is how the cycle of goodness works.

A church that is built by communal effort has a strong foundation. That’s precisely how our Convent is being built. Our workshops provide jobs for those who will never be able to find jobs in the mainstream labour market. That is the primary idea behind our Convent: we’ve got to attract as many people as we can and lead them to God.

We have to be courageous! Father Andrew says that with God, you can always find the right solution. Sure, life can be difficult at times. However, the Lord leads us through temptations to increase our spiritual maturity and strength. We genuinely pray only when we encounter hardships. God’s help always comes as a response to our prayers.

October 11, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

In some localities, this icon is also called The Icon of the Mother of God – the Multiplier of Wheat.

The Icon of the Mother of God, named “Prosperess of Loaves” (“Sporitel’nitsa Khlebov”), was written at the blessing of the starets-elder of the Visitation Optina wilderness monastery, the priest-schemamonk Amvrosii (Ambrosii) (1812 -1891).

Father Amvrosii, a great Russian ascetic of the XIX Century, was ardent with a childlike faith towards the Mother of God. He in particular revered all the feastdays of the Mother of God and on these days he greatly increased his prayer. With the icon, “Prosperess of Loaves”, Father Amvrosii blessed the Shamordinsk Convent established in honour of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, and founded by him not far from the Optina monastery.

On this icon the Mother of God is depicted sitting upon the clouds, and Her hands are extended in blessing. Beneath – is a field of grain, and on it amidst the grass and flowers stand and lay sheaves of rye. Starets Amvrosii himself decreed the day of celebration – 15 October, and called the image “Prosperess of Loaves”, indicating by this, that the Most Holy Mother of God – “is an Helper for people in their labours for the acquiring of their daily bread”.

Before his blessed death, Father Amvrosii ordered a large quantity of photo-replicas of this icon and distributed and sent them off to his spiritual children. For the singing of an akathist before the holy image, the starets composed a particular response: “Rejoice, Thou Full-of-Grace, the Lord is with Thee! Grant unto us unworthy ones the dew of Thy grace and the showing forth of Thine mercy!”

The day of burial of Father Amvrosii happened on 15 October – the feastday of the icon. The first miracle from the holy icon was witnessed in 1891, when throughout Russia was a famine because of crop-failure, but in the Kaluzh district and on the fields of the Shamordinsk Convent grain was produced. In 1892, already after the death of Father Amvrosii, his attendant Ivan Feodorovich Cherepanov sent a copy from the icon to the Pyatnitsk women’s monastery in Voronezh district. In this locale there was a drought and famine threatened, but soon after a molieben served before the icon, “Prosperess of Loaves”, it rained and ended the drought.

Adapted from the Menologion, texts translated Fr. S. Janos.

Source: https://dormitioninconcord.wordpress.com/2016/10/28/the-icon-of-the-mother-of-god-the-multiplier-of-wheat/

The Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and the Communion of the Holy Body and Blood of Christ is the foundation and the culmination of the innermost life of the Church, and the reason for Her existence. What do we know about it?

Here are several essential or simply interesting facts about the central Sacrament of the Church, which can enhance your knowledge and spur your further learning of the basic tenets of the Orthodox faith:

1. Remembrance of the Sacrifice

When Israelites were liberated from the Egyptian captivity, each Jewish family had to slay a white lamb, the blood of which was used to mark the door posts during the tenth plague (that is, killing of the firstborns in every family) so as to guard against the Angel of Death. The lamb was later eaten at a thanksgiving meal.

That innocent lamb was the prototype of our Savior who pledged himself to a painful death for the redemption of the human race. When we celebrate the Sacrament of Eucharist (Greek for “thanksgiving”) during every Liturgy, we remember the great Sacrifice that our Savior offered on the Cross for our redemption, his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension.

We receive the Body and Blood of Christ in the Sacrament of Communion to empower us and help us to tread the path of salvation.

2. “White Blood”

The Church uses bread and wine for the Sacrament of Eucharist. They are the substances that mysteriously change into the Body and Blood of Christ when a priest or a bishop invokes the Holy Spirit to descend on them.

As a rule, the Church uses red wine for communion because it looks like blood. In fact, the color of wine isn’t determined precisely, unlike its quality and taste. That is why there are places, e.g. Romania, where people use white wine for the Eucharist.

3. The Miracle in Lanciano

During a liturgy in Lanciano (Italy) in the 8th century one of the priests had doubts that the Body and Blood of Christ that looked like bread and wine even after the transmutation were indeed the Body and Blood of our Savior. The Lord revealed the true appearance of His Body and Blood to the doubtful priest, and the priest repented.

As a lesson to others, the Lord allowed the real appearance of the Holy Gifts to remain visible. That is why the particles of the Body and Blood of Christ are preserved in Lanciano for more than a thousand years. They were investigated by some scientists in the 1970s. The scientists confirmed that the particles belonged to a human body.

4. The Greatest Sacred Object

The whole Church is built around the Sacrament of the Eucharist. The Chalice that contains the Body and the Blood of Christ is the most sacred object. That is why it is forbidden to make the sign of the cross in front of the Chalice or touch the Chalice with one’s hands, lest the priest tips the Chalice over.

One shouldn’t kiss the cuff on the priest’s hand during communion, either. Parents should pay extreme attention to their babies, who should be carried to the Chalice in such a manner as to preclude them from kicking the Chalice or pushing it with their arms.

5. Only with Blood

Adults and grown-up children receive a particle of the Body of Christ soaked in the Blood of Christ. However, babies take communion only with the Blood of Christ to prevent them from choking on the particle or spitting it out. People who suffer from gluten (a protein that is found in bread) intolerance take communion only with the Blood, too.

6. The Bread of Life and the Grapevine

Interestingly enough, the Lord did not only establish the Sacrament of the Eucharist for the Church by offering bread and wine to His apostles in the Cenacle and claiming them to be His own Body and Blood. He also compared Himself to the bread of life or a grapevine — the primary ingredients of the Holy Gifts — multiple times.

7. Tabernacle

There is a Holy Table in the center of every sanctuary in every Orthodox church, with a special church-shaped vessel called a tabernacle, which sits among the crosses, the Gospel books, and other church supplies.

The tabernacle contains several particles of the Body of Christ soaked in the Blood, with which a priest can go to the bed of a sick or dying person at any time.

8. On a Martyr’s Bosom

First Christians celebrated the Eucharist on martyrs’ tombs. Later, they began celebrating the Eucharist on a Holy Table inside which there were particles of holy relics. Still, there have been cases when Christians didn’t have either an antimension (a special cloth with particles of relics sewn into it) or the Holy Table: for example, in Soviet prison camps. They celebrated the Sacrament of the Eucharist on the bosom of one of the prisoners, who was a living martyr.

9. Prayers Before the Holy Communion

The prayer rule before the Holy Communion was shaped by Byzantine monks in the 10th-12th centuries. The prayers before the Holy Communion were amended, and the rule acquired its contemporary form by the 13th-14th centuries. It consists of several troparia and Psalms, selected prayers by the saints, three canons, and prayers that are read immediately before the communion of the Holy Gifts.

Later, the pious tradition of special prayerful preparation for the Communion was copied by other local Churches and spread among lay people.

10. Wedding

There wasn’t a special ritual or a Sacrament to bless a Christian matrimony in the earliest centuries of Christianity. The believers had the usual Roman civil ceremony, and then had their marriage blessed in the church by taking communion together.

By Andrey Segeda

Translated by The Catalog of Good Deed

Source: https://pravlife.org/ru/content/tainstvo-tainstv-10-faktov-o-svyatom-prichashchenii

It’s such a blessing, on this beautiful late October day, to have so many pilgrims here with us to join in the celebration of a feast which is dear to the heart of our monastery – the feast of the Holy Elders of Optina. The Optina Elders are dear to us not only because they were (and continue to be!) a light for monastics and lay people alike, both in Russia and around the world, and who were so near to our own time – the very spiritual heart of Russia, right up until the revolution. It is not only for this reason that the Optina Elders are dear to us, but the Optina Elders are dear to us because they were dear to the heart of our founder, Hieromonk Kallistos. In founding his new monastery, this monastery – the Hermitage of the Holy Cross, Fr. Kallistos made a conscious effort to base the spiritual life of his monastery on the lives, the spirituality, and the monastic spirit of the Optina Elders. Now, for instance, when a man comes to the monastery and is interested in monastic life, one of the very first things that he reads in a rather long list of required novice reading are all the lives of the Optina Elders. Reading these lives is important to the monastic formation of any novice or candidate who comes to the monastery, and indeed, they continue to be a source of inspiration and a spiritual guide throughout our monastic lives. The sayings of the Optina Elders – their grace-filled words and their holy examples – are the foundation of our spiritual life and the lodestar which guides us on our way in a life striving to draw closer to Christ in the monastic Arena.

By the grace of God, I was blessed to have an opportunity to visit Optina Monastery myself in the summer of 2013. It was the first time that I had ever been to Optina and to Russia, generally. Our stop to Optina was part of a two-week pilgrimage, in which we visited many wonderful monasteries and holy places – St. Sergius-Trinity Lavra, Sretensky Monastery in Moscow, and many others. But Optina, some how, was different. It was without question that there was much holiness and much grace in many of the places we visited in Russia. But Optina was different. Optina stood out.

What was it about Optina that was different? After spending some time at Optina, and after looking at the faces of the pilgrims, the monks, the elderly schema-monks talking to the children and patting them on the head. I could tell there was, in Optina, true spiritual joy. This is the joy of a life lived in Christ. It is the joy of the Holy Spirit. Certainly, there was joy in other places that I’ve visited, but it was truly in Optina where this joy shined out. And I think you see this shining through in the very lives and the words of the Elders of Optina.

The words of Elder Anatoly come to mind particularly. In a spiritual reading journal from my first months at the monastery, I have these words of Elder Anatoly written down and starred. Elder Anatoly said, in a letter to a young nun: “A monk should always be joyful. If he is not, that means he is not living in the way a monastic should live.” In a way, this admonition has stuck with me through my monastic life here. It is a test and a standard, if you will. “Am I joyful”? If not, why not? Is God not good? Has he not given me everything that I need here for my salvation? How could we not rejoice, and say whole-heartedly, “Glory to God for all things”? Elder Anatoly’s simple reminder is very helpful in an age wrought with distraction and anxiety. We must be joyful. And this joy come from the Holy Spirit – in a life lived in a truly spiritual manner. It is a joy that comes from prayer. On prayer, Elder Anatoly said:

Do it according to your strength, do it with humility and self-reproach, and you will get used to and will love the prayer so that they cannot take it from you by force. This is because it is sweet and gives joy. I remembered God and I was gladdened (Ps.76:3).

In speaking of the Jesus Prayer, Elder Anatoly said:

One should trace on the soft young heart the Sweetest Name – the radiant prayer: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.’ From that time on there will be the greatest joy and eternal happiness.

Elder Anthony of Optina echoes this when he said:

There is joy in frequent remembrance of God, as it is written: I remembered God and I was gladdened.

And of course, Elder Ambrose reminds us that “we must begin with thanksgiving for everything. The beginning of joy is to be content with your situation.”

At Optina, I could feel this joyfulness. I could feel it in the church services, in the singing, in my interaction with other monks and pilgrims. Our visit corresponded on the feast of the Ascension. Walking back to my cell, I came across a group of younger monks talking amongst themselves. Seeing me, they stopped and looked at me, and cried out joyfully and enthusiastically, “Spraznikom!” And it felt very familiar to me. Something about the joyfulness, the smiles and the warmth made me feel back home in West Virginia. Indeed, I began to feel some similarity between the two monasteries, Optina and our own. It was a sort of familiarity that I felt there – a feeling hard to explain.

It is this joy which comes from prayer, from a life of repentance, and from the grace of the Holy Spirit. By historical standards in the Church, the elders at Optina were not severe ascetics. They did not live in caves, nor did they starve themselves. They lived in cells much like ours. They drank tea. They were jovial at times, even. Yet they were real men of prayer. They met with many, many people – both lay people and monastics - to help them with their problems, to confess them, and ultimately to heal them, spiritually. And they did all of this with sincere love – love for God and love for neighbor. A joyful love. With a Paschal joy – the joy of the Risen Christ. And it is a joy that only comes in Christ Jesus. As Elder Nikon of Optina said: “If we will be with Christ and in Christ, then no kind of sorrow will confuse us, but joy will fill our heart so that even in times of sorrows and temptations we will rejoice.”

So let us look at ourselves, and at our spiritual lives. Let us look at our disposition. Are we joyful? Do we give thanks to God for all things? According to Elder Anatoly of Optina, if we are not joyful, and if we do not give thanks to God for all of the good things (and even the bad things) in our lives, and if we are not joyful, then there is something not quite right in our spiritual lives, and we aren’t living the way we should as monks, says, Elder Anatoly. For this joy is not just an emotion. True joy comes as a gift from God – the grace and fruit of the Holy Spirit. It comes from a life lived in Christ, with Christ, through Christ, and for Christ.

On this feast day of the Holy Elders of Optina, let us remember the great joy of these wonderful Elders who have gone on before us. As St. Seraphim of Sarov said, “Acquire the peace [and indeed, the joy] of the Holy Spirit, and thousands around you will be saved.” The Optina Elders acquired this peace – and how many thousands of people have been saved because of them – through their council, their example, their words, their witness and their prayers? Let us keep all of these words in our heart, as we continue with Liturgy and move on throughout the day, and throughout all our lives, thanking God and singing, “Glory to God for all things.” Amen.

Source: https://www.holycross-hermitage.com/blogs/articles-sermons/sermon-for-the-feast-of-the-optina-elders-2016

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A Cycle of Goodness: How the Workshops of St. Elisabeth Convent Appeared and What They Give to Other People

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The History of the Unique Icon of the Mother of God, Named “Prosperess of Loaves”

The Sacrament of Sacraments: 10 Incredible Facts About Holy Eucharist

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"A Monk Should Always Be Joyful!": Sermon on the Feast Day of the Optina Elders

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