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American Eparchy St Francis of Assisi Parish

Bishop Paul Dupuis, Eparch

Our Lady of the Holy Presence Monastery 359 Brook Creek Road, Toms Brook, VA 22611

Tel. +1 540 336 2333 E-mail: livingflame03@gmail.com

Web Site in preparation

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Newsletter # 16 August 2017

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Sunday, 2 July 2017 – Visitation

4th Sunday after Pentecost

Visitation of the Most Holy Mother of God (1st c.) Géroche, Monk of Faremoutiers (ca. 680) Oudoc, Bishop of Llandaff, Wales (615)

John Maximovitch, Archbishop of San Francisco (1966)

Visitation of the Most Holy Mother of God

Divine Liturgy

Saturday – Holy Shepherd Church at 4:30 pm Sunday – Holy Presence Monastery at 10:00 am

Gospel: Luke 1:39-47

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9th Sunday after Pentecost Sunday 6 August 2017

Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Justus and Pastor, schoolboy martyrs near Alcala de Henares, Spain (ca. 304)

Icon of the Transfiguration, by Theophan the Greek (1340-1410)

Divine Liturgy

Sunday – St Joseph Chapel, Leesburg, at 10:00 am Mt 17:1-9

Friday 11 August 2017

Tugdual, Bishop-Abbot at Saint-Dolay, hermit (1917-1968) Clare of Assisi, Abbess-Foundress of San Damiano (1253)

Jn 15:12-16a; 17:5a, 6-8a

10th Sunday after Pentecost

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Sunday 13 August 2017

Maximus the Confessor, Doctor of the Church (662) Radegunda, Queen of the Franks, Foundress de Sainte-Croix de Poitiers (587)

Divine Liturgy

Sunday – St Joseph Chapel, Leesburg, at 10:00 am Lk 5:1-11

Tuesday 15 August 2017

Dormition-Assumption of the Most Holy Mother of God

Tarcisius, martyr at Rome (257)

Lk 1:41-50

11th Sunday after Pentecost Sunday 20 August 2017

Bernard de Fontaine, Abbot-Founder of Clairvaux (1153)

Philibert, Abbot-Founder of Jumieges and Noirmoutier (687)

Divine Liturgy Sunday – St Joseph Chapel, Leesburg, at 10:00 am

Lk 10:25-37

12th Sunday after Pentecost

Sunday 27 August 2017

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Caesarius, Bishop of Arles (543)

Poemon the Great, Abbot of Skete (450)

Divine Liturgy Sunday – St Joseph Chapel, Leesburg, at 10:00 am

Lk 6:1-10

Benjamin Barret’s ordination to the sub-diaconate

On July 2nd, the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to her cousin St Elizabeth, Bishop Grégoire (Méndez), the Primate of our sister Orthodox Church of the Gauls, ordained Benjamin Barret to the sub-diaconate at Béthanie in Gorze (Lorraine) France. Axios! Axios! Axios! The ceremony coincided with the birth in heaven of Rachel Goettmann, instrumental with her husband, Father Alphonse Goettmann, in the foundation of Béthanie. We had the joy of receiving the then acolyte Benjamin Barret at Our Lady of the Holy Presence Monastery from February 8th till the 27th. His visit resulted in much spiritual, cultural (and culinary) sharing. May he return soon!

02 July – Father Justin Falciani, Episcopalian priest from New Jersey, visited our monastery

Scientists uncover St Columba’s cell on Iona

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By Ken Macdonald – BBC Scotland Science Correspondent 11 July 2017

Accounts written about 100 years after Columba’s death

describe him sitting writing in a wooden hut on Iona Archaeologists say they have identified the remains of the cell of St Columba on the Scottish island of Iona They have used radiocarbon dating to place samples of burned wood in the middle of Columba’s time there almost 1,500 years ago. The charred remains of a hut were excavated in 1957, but it has taken until now for science to accurately date them. The cell, or scriptorium, is where he worked, prayed and spent his last day. The samples had been carefully stored at several universities – and latterly in a garage in Truro. St Columba arrived on Iona from Ireland in the year 563. His Gaelic name is Colum Cille – “the dove of the Church”. He is widely credited as one of the key figures who brought Christianity to Scotland. From his vision sprang Iona Abbey, which became a centre of literacy, learning and worship. After his death Iona became a place of pilgrimage for kings and commoners. 60,000 of the latter still visit the rebuilt abbey every year.

Tòrr an Aba, the site of St Columba’s cell (Photo: Historic Environment Scotland)

Received on July 15th

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Indigenous Jesus

Exploring the intersection of indigenous visual art and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Monday, November 19, 2012 Father John Giuliani, Painter of Native American Icons – below is the icon of The Compassionate Jesus

https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/morningoffering/2017/07/cloud-of-witnesses-2/

Abbot Tryphon – Cloud of Witnesses July 3, 2017

The saints are alive in Christ Jesus

Vigil lights are placed before the icons of the saints, according to Saint Symeon the New Theologian, as a way of showing that without the Light, Who is Christ, the saints are

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nothing. It is only as the light of Christ shines on them that they become alive and resplendent. The saints show us what a glorious destiny we have in God, and through the example of their lives, point the way to our becoming “partakers of divine nature.” The saints, as the cloud of witnesses in heaven, are present in the divine services, worshiping the Holy Trinity with us. They, as our friends, intercede before the Throne of God on our behalf, having won the good fight, and we are encouraged by the memory and example of their lives, as we struggle on our own path to God. It has been said that there are two kinds of people in the world: sinners who think they are saints, and saints who know they are sinners. A saint is a Christian who lets God’s light shine through, and whose life has been transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. We venerate the Saints as we seek their intercession with God, but we adore and worship only God in Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We venerate the Images (Icons) as well as the relics of the saints and martyrs. Yet according to the decisions and Canons of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, this veneration relates not to the icons as such, but to their prototypes, or to the persons whom they represent. The interior walls of our temples are adorned with the icons and frescoes of the saints as a reminder that we are surrounded by the cloud of witnesses, the saints, and that the Church Militant (here on earth) is not separated from the Church Triumphant (in heaven). In Christ, death does not divide us, for the saints are not dead, but alive in Christ Jesus. Glory to Jesus Christ, Who is glorified in His saints! With love in Christ – Abbot Tryphon Photo: The Great Church of Holy Wisdom, before the fall of Constantinople.

Avro Pärt – The Sacred Music of Silence Avro Pärt was born in Estonia on 11 September 1935. He attended the Tallinn Conservatory, where he studied composition with Heino Eller and it was said of him, “he just seemed to shake his sleeves and the notes would fall out”. But growing up in Communist Estonia, Pärt found himself at odds with the regime on virtually every aesthetic and spiritual level. His music is partly inspired by Orthodox and Gregorian chant, through which he worked out a mystic or holy minimalism sharply criticized by the Soviet authorities. In his music he has pared away all but essentials. His austerity is why his music sounds simultaneously ancient and modern, and why it embodies a genuine expressivity.

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Avro Pärt (1935-)

During his struggles with the Soviet cultural establishment he entered several periods of contemplative silence. In this context, Pärt’s biographer, Paul Hillier, observed that “He had reached a position of complete despair in which the composition of music appeared to be the most futile of gestures, and he lacked the musical faith and willpower to write even a single note.” Later, however, this deeply spiritual composer found his own musical language with a love of every note at its heart. He wants his music to express is “love for every note”, and in turn, communicate the spiritual power that he sees as music’s essential purpose. In the space of just a couple of years, Pärt composed the pieces that are still among his most popular today, including The Concerto for Two Violins, Tabula Rasa, Summa, and the Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten. His most performed works include Fratres (1977), Spiegel im Spiegel (1978), and Für Alina (1976). It is strongly recommended that you listen to the following link. Here Avro Pärt speaks at St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Yonkers, New York on 31 May 2014 during the commencement when he was awarded an honorary degree. The sublimity of his words and his humble delivery will go straight to your heart. http://www.sacredartsinitiative.com/2017/06/17/arvo-part-at-st-vladimirs-seminary-from-my-musical-diaries/

Trek to New England and back From July 21st till July 26th, at the gracious invitation of our friend, David Tomolillo, I was flown up to Boston from Dulles Airport. We drove down to Smithfield, Rhode Island, to attend his daughter Madison’s wedding at which I was invited to speak at the reception with its enthusiastic Latin (Italian and Puerto Rican) gusto. David rented a Chrysler Minivan that allowed me to drive to Manchester, New Hampshire, where a gifted friend donated four boxes of food. My brother Peter and sister-in-law Stacey received me warmly in their lovely country home and helped me acquire a number of useful things for the monastery… including some fragrant delicious homegrown garlic.

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With the van I went to Waltham, Massachusetts, and met with Dr Beverly and the Reverend Edward Kienzle. Beverly was the very able, kind and impartial head of the language section of Harvard Divinity School when I taught theological French there. She and Edward are now retired and have donated 40 boxes of books to our monastic library. Most of the books deal with theology, scripture, ethics, or homiletics, with French or Spanish literature, and will constitute our Kienzle Memorial Library for monastic use and the benefit of retreatants and scholars. We are very grateful to them for this most generous gift. After driving the van down to Allentown, New Jersey, I spent the night with my former assistant at Harvard Divinity, Dr. George González, with Gary Adams, George’s mother Anna and her friend Teresa. The delicious dinner was enhanced with affectionate spiritual conversation. Thank you, dear friends, for your oasis during the long trek back to Virginia. Once I arrived at the monastery, Carlos Camacho and his sons Luis and Matías drove to Toms Brook and unloaded all the boxes of books… including the totem pole from Nova Scotia that David Tomolillo gave me. Mi’kmaqs, a First Nations people who speak Mi’kmaq, an eastern Algonquian language, most likely sculpted it. This gift touched me in particular, since my mother has some Mi’kmaq blood flowing in her veins from her mother’s side.

Spiritual Notes – Saint Silouan When [Mary] stood by the Cross her grief was as boundless as the ocean, and her soul knew pain incomparably deeper than Adam’s suffering when he was driven from paradise, for the reason that the measure of her love was beyond compare greater than the love with which Adam loved when he was in paradise. That she did not die was only because the strength of the Lord sustained her, for it was His desire that she should behold His Resurrection and live on after His Ascension to be the comfort and joy of the Apostles and the new Christian peoples. We cannot discern to the full the love of the Mother of God, and so we cannot comprehend all her grief. Her love was complete. She had an illimitable love for God and her Son but she loved the people too with great love. What then must she have felt when those same people whom she loved so dearly, and whose salvation she desired with all her being, crucified her beloved Son! We cannot understand such things, since there is little love in us for God and man. Just as the love of God is boundless and passes our understanding, so is her grief boundless and beyond our understanding. Archimandrite Sophrony, Wisdom from Mount Athos, The Writings of Staretz Silouan 1866-1938 (St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Crestwood, New York 2000), p.57