I have a lot of stuff to blog about. I guess I should do one thing at a time. I've been really busy studying for midterms so I haven't had time to blog, but I really wanted to go into more detail about the trip to All Saints Monastery on Long Island from October 29-31.
After 5:00 Paraklesis on Friday night, I wolfed down some food, loaded my suitcase/pillow/sleeping bag into the van, and eight of us set off for Long Island. We left around 7 pm, and arrived around midnight, after hitting a lot of traffic. This monastery is unique out of all the monasteries I've been to, in that they pause every three hours to do a service. Two pluses of this is that it punctuates the day with prayer, AND church is never long. Most services are ten minutes long. Orthros is the longest daily service, at about 50 minutes, but Sunday Orthros and Liturgy was three and a half hours, as is to be expected. Their basic schedule is:
6:00 PM - Vespers, dinner, Small Compline
8:30 - sleep
12:00 AM - Midnight Office
3:30 AM - Orthros (Matins)
6:00 AM - First Hour
9:00 AM - Third Hour
12:00 PM - Sixth Hour
3:00 PM - Ninth Hour
And then start the new liturgical day with Vespers at 6.
So, we got there just in time to hear the greater part of the Midnight Office, which lasted for about 30 minutes. It was providential and convenient that we arrived at midnight, because the nuns were up for prayer, and they could let the girls inside. The girls slept upstairs where the nuns sleep, and that area is locked during the night. The guys slept downstairs, on the floor of the refectory (τράπεζα), and we had to move our stuff out when we needed to use the space for something else (such as coffee hour or hosting other pilgrims).
Around 12:30 we went to sleep and woke up around 3:20 to go to Orthros, went back to bed an hour later, and then got up at 5:50 for the First Hour, went back to bed around 6:15, and got up at 8 to start the work day. A friend and I studied Philosophy until 9 (when church started) because we had a midterm that week. After the Third Hour (around 9:15) we had a delicious breakfast, and then got the list of jobs and started working. When the nuns greeted us right before breakfast, Mike - the brother of Sister Theonymphi ("Bride of God") - said, "hey, dudes! or...dudettes." It was so cool that Mike is close enough with the nuns to say casual stuff like that.
Another memory that I have from the monastery is something that happened right after Orthros on Saturday morning, around 4:30. We had gotten out of church, and were getting ready to go back to sleep. The saints of October 30 are a martyred brother and sister, Zenobius and Zenobia. Many hymns had been chanted for them during Orthros, and Sister Theonymphi - in her characteristic, always-cheerful voice - said something along the lines of, "Mikey, do you remember Zenobius and Zenobia? They were brother and sister and they were martyred together :)" We all laughed.
Another nice touch to the monastery is "Miss Mary," who is an elderly woman whom the nuns take care of. She's a character. I think she's in her 80's, she's in a wheelchair, and (in addition to English), she supposedly speaks a dialect of Russian, but when the nuns tried saying a few "Russian" words to Russian people, the people had no idea what they meant. Miss Mary also calls Mikey (Sister Theonymphi's brother) "Mickey." She's a joy to be around, a very sweet old lady. She always made us laugh. She has her quirks...who doesn't? :)
So Saturday was a work-filled day. I helped Emily clean out some crab grass by the sewer drainage thing, so that they could plant real grass there, and then I helped level out the "silly hill" ("Operation SH" [Silly Hill]), which was a big mound of dirt left over from something that had happened at the monastery, and we had to make the Silly Hill not exist anymore. We succeeded so the Silly Hill is no more. We also paused around 11:00 AM for Paraklesis, because a Philoptochos (ladies' society) from a nearby parish was visiting. We ate lunch while the nuns sang some Orthodox folk songs in Greek. They were beautiful. In the afternoon, I helped garden a little bit, and then went inside to study some more for Philosophy. At 6:00 we had Vespers, dinner, and Small Compline, and hung out for a little bit before going to bed. That evening, the nuns also let us record them singing some of the above-mentioned folk songs. Some describe "το μοναστηράκι μου" (my little monastery), or "Ζοή αγνή οράια...ζοή μοναχική" (O pure and beautiful life...monastic life). Both the content and the performance were beautiful. Sister Theonymphi sang melody and Gherontissa Photini held ison (drone). (I apologize for my misspelling of Greek words...my Greek spelling is not very good).
When I tried to get people up at midnight, they were all cranky, and they had sternly warned me not to turn the light on as I had the previous night. After trying a bit, I gave up and went over to church. I was the only one there. Around 7:00 we all got up and packed, because on Sundays their schedule is different...they do pre-Communion prayers, Orthros and Liturgy at 8:00 so pilgrims can come. The First, Third and Sixth Hours are read back-to-back around 11:30, when Liturgy finishes. The chanting was sooo beautiful. After Liturgy, I had a nice conversation with the priest and Presvytera (priest's wife) who come to the monastery on Sundays. I don't remember their names, but they were very interesting to talk to and very nice. They helped found the monastery, along with the late Sister Ypomoni ("Patience"), who died about a month ago. They are retired from a parish on Long Island and now serve the monastery on Sundays and Feasts.
A friend and I both had the same idea while we were there...wouldn't it be cool to be the priest at that monastery...to live one minute away and be able to come and serve all the services, to have the daily interaction with the nuns and the pilgrims...that would be so cool!
I'm home in Pittsburgh for the weekend and I'm about to head off to OLSH, my high school, to pay a visit for a couple hours. Again, sorry for the delay in blogging. I really recommend going to All Saints Monastery if you can!
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