O Lord and Master of my Life…

To-talanton, to-talanton, to-talan-talan-talanton…

I awoke at five in the morning to the sounds of the mallet hitting the semandron, that ancient instrument used to rouse monks to prayer. The potent sound of wood against wood is a call to prayer: a call to rouse oneself in preparation for the long prayers during the first week of Great Lent.

At Jordanville, we begin the season of fasting with fervor, making a good beginning to the forty days leading up to the Resurrection of our Lord. During the first week everything is focused on the church. There are no classes or obediences. We eat only one meal a day, made simply, without oil. The services are long and filled with readings from the fathers, and punctuated often with the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, which encapsulates the Lenten spirit:

O Lord and Master of my life, a spirit of idleness, despondency, ambition, and idle talking give me not.
But rather a spirit of chastity, humble-mindedness, patience, and love bestow upon me Thy servant.
Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my failings and not condemn my brother; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen.

The first week is when a seminarian can find the time to experience all the divine services of the day. The cycle of services begins with Midnight Office at 5am (5:30am on Monday), followed by Matins, the Hours, and Vespers. There is a short break between the First and Third Hours. For the Lenten services, the choir is divided in two, and sing on the left and right klirosi of the church. At most of the services part of the Psalter is read; during the weeks of Lent the entire Psalter is read twice. Archimandrite Luke, our Abbot, comes out during each of the services and reads from such spiritual works as the Ladder of St. John of Sinai and the Lausaic History. On Wednesday and Friday, we augment Vespers with the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. After Vespers, which ends around 1pm, we have lunch—the only meal of the day—which consists of boiled potatoes, vegetables, and fruit. We rest until 6pm, when we have Great Compline with the Great Canon of Repentance by St. Andrew of Crete. After this we retire in preparation for the next day, though some seminarians (myself included) go to the kitchen to relieve our hunger with a little bread.

The tradition here is for all in the community, including monastics and seminarians, to commune on Saturday morning. Although Holy Communion is given on Wednesday and Friday because of the Presanctified Liturgy, we do not usually communicate until the end of the week, making all five days a preparation. On Friday evening, we say instead of the Great Canon the Three Canons for Holy Communion, and all go to confession.  On Saturday morning, we read the Canon and Prayers for Holy Communion. Through receiving the precious Body and Blood of Christ, we are then prepared for the rest of the Lent, refocusing on spiritual life and refraining from unnecessary activities, like this blog. So, this will in all likelihood be the last post before Pascha. May you have a blessed Lent. Pray for us.

Inter-Seminarian Hijinks

This past weekend, a group of us went to St. Vladimir's Theological Seminary, near New York City, for a meeting of the Orthodox Inter-Seminary Movement, or OISM. For those of you who do not know about “St. Vlad's,” it is considered the flagship seminary of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA). It has a reputation for excellent academics, among other things. OISM was formed by seminarians from different Orthodox jurisdictions, who, while sharing the same Orthodox faith, are connected to different Orthodox hierarchies due to an unfortunate historical development. The idea is that by getting together and becoming united in fellowship we can overcome various issues which separate us. There is also beer involved, in moderate amounts.

We set out from Jordanville in the middle of a snowstorm. Thankfully, the storm was very much localized, and the atmosphere cleared about an hour out of the monastery; the snowstorm only added half-an-hour to our ETA. On the way, I watched “Batman Begins” with one of my classmates. We got there, ate a hearty dinner, and settled down a bit. I was very happy to see some people I haven't seen in a while, including Abbot Gerasim, formerly of St. Herman's Monastery in Platina, who is studying at SVS.

I managed to get my own room for the night, and discovered to my delight that there was a wifi connection in the dormitory. The room itself was also quite comfortable.

That night, several of us took a short trip to Manhattan, where it was quite cold and windy, and I, hatless and hapless, strode toward Times Square rubbing my ears. Times Square itself reminded me of the time when I was in Shibuya, the ultra-hip section of Tokyo. Giant telescreens, some of which captured us on video, towered over us. Although I am prone to being distracted by shiny objects, Times Square did not take hold over me, and we soon went back to the train station.

The next day, we had liturgy in the chapel, and then a brunch featuring ham (meat!) and potatoes. Then, we had a tour of the monastery. Fr. Killian, our tour-guide, showed us around:

Fr. Killian: And there we have rooms for the single female students, an area we affectionately call the Feminary.

After the tour, we got to get french pastries from the ritzy bakery in the neighborhood, before attending a lecture by one of the professors at the seminary. Next we had an official OISM meeting (done [more-or-less] according to Robert) and chose new officials, which included one of my classmates. Then we Jordanvillians went home, due to the fact that it was a Saturday night and the Metropolitan of the Czech Lands and Slovakia was at the monastery.

The next OISM meeting will be in the Fall at Jordanville. I am looking forward to meeting all those great OISM people here!

Still Alive

It's been a rather busy second semester, but here's a brief news update:

• Although it's been nearly a month, I still have very fond memories of my time in San Francisco. It proved to be a very satisfying two weeks, and I hope to come back to see my friends once again.
• This Saturday, we first-years will be going to St. Nektarios Monastery in Roscoe, NY. St. Nektarios is one of Elder Ephraim's monasteries, so I'm very much looking forward to making a pilgrimage.
• Next weekend, I am also going to St. Vladimir's Seminary for a meeting of the Orthodox Inter-Seminary Movement. This is my first OISM event, and I will of course be covering it in this blog. ("What's OISM?" you may ask. Well, dear reader, that will have to wait until the update!)
• I also have been writing articles for the Seminary website. My last update was on our patronal feast-day (and my semi-namesday) of the Three Holy Hierarchs.

More to come!

New Semester!

It's the middle of the second week, so it's a little odd to have a “New Semester” post right now. But since I was preoccupied during the first week with not setting myself on fire in the altar, I haven't had much time to do anything productive in regards to this blog. Today our Russian teacher is snowed in, which means we don't have class until 10, thus giving me opportunity for this post.

Besides, the final class schedule was not actually finalized until yesterday. The new schedule switches around the classes a little bit, allowing us a little more study time before lunch. Last semester it was six hours; now it is eight. Unlike most universities, here at Jordanville we don't have electives, and it's pretty hard to change the schedule to please everyone. For example, Mondays last semester was free in the mornings for me, because I didn't have to take the scheduled English classes. Now that Church Slavonic and Russian start at 8, my fellow classmates have to now get used to my groggy face.

Patristic Anthropology was shifted to the afternoons (thus giving us two more hours before lunch) which means that more students can take the class. We first years are now joined by the fifth years, which should make the questions more interesting.

Meanwhile, we are stuck in the middle of a on-again, off-again snowstorm, and I am not-so-eagerly awaiting the day when I'm assigned to shovel snow.

Preliminary Remarks on Serving in the Altar (2)

Last week I served in the altar. It also happened to be the first week of classes. Here are some new things I've picked up:

• If you are closest to the curtain, you are expected to open and close it at the correct times, including: before the beginning of sixth hour, at the exclamation of "The doors, the doors!" and before communion.
• When in doubt, pay attention to what the other altar server is doing, especially if you are outside the sanctuary. During the times you are entering the altar, make sure to match the movement/speed of the other server.
• From the beginning of the Anaphora to the end of "It is truly meet," drop everything you're doing and quietly pray with the priest.
• Also make sure to be very quiet and not distract the priest when he's communing.
• And remember: Don't Panic!

Hitting the Ground Running

Last week Thursday, I returned to Jordanville from San Francisco. I had a wonderful time there with friends old and new, but it feels great to be back. Actually, right now I'm feeling more of a fatigue, because I was assigned to serve this week from Monday to Saturday. That means getting up every morning at five and stumbling through the Divine Liturgy.

The semester also started, so that means that I don't have much time to update until things calm down this weekend…but wait! I was also assigned to clean the basement on Saturday. And of course there's Saturday night vigil and Sunday liturgy…well, I'm sure there's time somewhere for an update. Right?

Съ нами Богъ!

One of the most trying times for a seminarian, in my inexperienced opinion, is the period leading up to a great feast; the Home Stretch. For all Christians, there are of course temptations, but at a monastery, they seem to be especially magnified. Thankfully, by the time the feast comes along, everything is okay in the end.

After winter exams and before the Nativity of Our Lord we seminarians have to do a number of things in preparation for the feast. One of them is cleaning, known throughout the seminary as uborka, which my Serbian friend says sounds like the name of a scary Russian lady.

For my uborka, I was first assigned to clean and wax the monastic quarters, but then I got transferred over to cleaning the Seminary hall, which was relatively easy. However, I then found out that I also had to do the monastic quarters after all. Since we worked in teams, it turned out that the time that was most convenient for us was the night before Christmas Eve, or rather the very early morning thereof. We worked through the night, and (kinda) finished sometime around two in the morning. I went to my bed exhausted, and (un)fortunately slept through the liturgy of Christmas Eve.

That day, I also was assigned to work in the kitchen, where I managed to make the salad all by myself. According to Orthodox custom, on Christmas Eve we don't eat until nightfall, or specifically when the first star appears in the sky. I was working on an empty stomach, sustained only by a cup of juice or two. However, thanks be to God, people who work in the kitchen usually don't get very hungry, and I managed to work, standing up, for four hours preparing the festal meal.

After supper (which consisted of vegetables, mashed potatoes, soup, my salad, and kutia, a mixture of boiled wheat grains, raisins, and nuts) we went to church to serve the vigil service, which was a combination of Great Compline and Matins. It was another four hours of mostly standing; I was singing in the choir.

I was, to say the least, a bit tired. But then we sang the triumphal words:

God is with us!

Understand, O ye nations,

And submit yourselves,

For God is with us!

And then I began to feel that the Nativity was here, that the forty days of fasting and preparation were coming to an end, and that the time for celebrating the Incarnation of the Word made flesh was finally here. The suffering, the temptation, and the falls became as nothing. For God is with us!

Christ is born, glorify Him!