Dear Fr. Herman,<\/p>\n
Christ is Risen!<\/p>\n
We were glad to hear from you from Jordanville, and look forward to news from Mt. Athos. Friday night we sang the canon to St. Demetrius the Great Martyr, praying that he would be able to open the way to the Holy Mount for you, and every day we sing his magnification.<\/p>\n
Why do they want you to stay in Jordanville for two weeks? If it\u2019s absolutely necessary or useful, then of course you should. But if it\u2019s just so they can \u201ctest\u201d you and see if you\u2019re \u201cworthy\u201d to be having an independent existence outside of Jordanville, or to prepare you for bishop\u2014then run from it as fast as possible. Vladika Nektary on his last visit mentioned again his desire to retire with us here, but said that now he would not, because now we will be taken away for bishops in 2 or 3 years, and then no one knows who will be \u201cappointed to Platina,\u201d and he wouldn\u2019t like it. I suggested to him that we would take the path of Sergius of Radonezh instead of George Grabbe (who says that according to Metr. Anthony one can not refuse to be a bishop), and he was consoled a little.<\/p>\n
I deeply, deeply feel that we have God\u2019s work to do here, and if we allow ourselves to be taken from it we will betray our calling, and probably be flops besides. Vladika Laurus apparently looks on us with the eyes of the organization, not giving much importance or value to what we do, and only looking for the right hole to plug us into for the \u201cgood of the whole.\u201d Your two weeks in Jordanville (if it is not really very necessary or useful) would hurt not so much we as our common work\u2014making it seem less urgent to the church world, and making you very \u201cvisible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Forgive me if I\u2019m not looking at this right. You will know best what to do when you return.<\/p>\n
We have been all right this week, working fairly well, and with only a few visitors. I find myself rather nervous being \u201cin charge\u201d and having to read the mail, but there\u2019s no great suffering yet. Pray for Dima\u2014his family is visiting next week and want to take him home for a \u201cnormal life,\u201d and he is frightened that he will do whatever they say. But it\u2019s probably best for him to be scared. If he goes, of course, it will be difficult for us. Guma and Sergei are behaving well. The kids are due today in Wildwood. The sisters are about as usual.<\/p>\n
I think most of all about our summer Pilgrimage, which could be a magnificent opportunity for \u201cOrthodox enlightenment\u201d such as is not being given very much nowadays. How are the sermons in Jordanville? I have the impression that a heavy \u201cchurch\u201d atmosphere is hanging over everything and stifling a much needed freshness, and we could be helping to give this freshness. Perhaps when we\u2019re dead they\u2019ll even recognize our labors\u2014but at least we have to help those we can. Is this wrong?<\/p>\n
I watched Fr. Alexey serve twice, and he will do fine. I gave him some general advice on confession, and he basically understands it. I confessed Ian and Susan by telephone on Friday.<\/p>\n
Robert Murray (Iakov\u2019s father) was in a terrible accident at the time of the ordinations, and miraculously escaped with only a sprained ankle and bruises. Fr. Alexey and I went to visit him and I liked him\u2014I think he wants faith but just can\u2019t break out of his rut. I gave him Fr. Dimitry Dudko\u2019s book, and he promised to read it.<\/p>\n
Today was the wedding in Etna, and next Sunday the first service in Medford.<\/p>\n
A few days ago it was snowing in Wildwood, and today it\u2019s 80 degrees\u2014real summer weather.<\/p>\n
Pray for us. May God make your trip fruitful.<\/p>\n
With love in Christ,
\nYour brother, hieromonk Seraphim<\/p>\n
P.S. Chuck and Roberta came yesterday with their baby Timothy, who is healthy. They have 30 people now, with 10 children in school.<\/p>\n
P.P.S. Someone sent us a Xerox from Jordanville of your Zutie Ctareza Theodosius\u201476 pp.\u2014is this right?<\/p>\n
P.S. I had a long talk With Dima. He is preparing himself psychologically to leave, and I can\u2019t \u201cpush\u201d him not to\u2014his mother wrote him that he is \u201cbrainwashed\u201d and that we are \u201cexploiting\u201d him, and he probably begins to believe it a little. Obviously, he is being given a \u201ctest\u201d of his freedom\u2014he will have to respect his place here more if he will be able to stay.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t write him a letter \u201cdemanding\u201d or \u201cforcing\u201d anything on him?\u2014he already thinks you \u201cforce\u201d him too much. May Gods will be done. This is evidently a \u201ctest\u201d that he needs. I will grieve more for him than for us if he leaves, but of course it will be discouraging to have so few hands with so much to do. I grieve most of all the \u201cchurch public opinion\u201d (Jordanville, etc.) doesn\u2019t seem to approve of our existence. But God is with us!<\/p>\n
Enclosed is a copy of a letter to Fr. Roman Lukianov.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Fr. Herman, Christ is Risen! We were glad to hear from you from Jordanville, and look forward to news from Mt. Athos. Friday night we sang the canon to St. Demetrius the Great Martyr, praying that he would be able to open the way to the Holy Mount for you, and every day we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}