Monday, June 4, 2012

Monday, June 4, 2012

Breakfast was at 10:30 and prayers at 11:00. I don’t remember if we had quiet time or not. This is why I should journal the same day, but I like to go into so much detail that almost every day I was too tired! We left the Tabor Center a little after 12:00 and drove literally the exact same roads as the previous night. We were going to Korça, and in order to drive five hours to Korça the first hour was the exact same scary, imposing mountainous ride, right past the exit for the monastery. If I had known I would have inquired about staying at the monastery and meeting up with the group as they passed the exit. A lot of seminarians from Shen Vlash were staying there and I’m sure there were a few square meters on the floor for me to stretch out. Oh well.

After passing St. John Vladimir Monastery we went down to the town of Elbasan, through it and along the shore of Lake Ochrid. We stopped for “lunch” (at 5pm!) at a lakeside restaurant and ate outside over the water. It’s a big lake but it’s not huge. On the other side is the territory that you either call Macedonia or FYROM, depending on if you’re Macedonian or Greek. Usually there is a lot of mist on the lake but it was the clearest day that Nathan had ever seen. We were able to see the city of Ochrid on the other side, as well as the Monastery of St. Nahum, which Nathan told me has been converted into a spot for “religious tourism.” The Monastery of St. Nahum is where St. Nikolai Velimirovich wrote his famous and beautiful Prayers By the Lake. That is definitely somewhere I want to go because they have the relics of St. Nahum so if nothing else I want to see the church and venerate the relics.

We all ordered Koran, a fish with a very high reputation that only lives in Lake Ochrid. It was approximately 2000 lek per person for the entire meal, if I remember correctly (about $18). I had to pay Fr. Luke in dollars, though, with the $14 I had left, and run up a tab on him to pay him back the rest when I got it. The fish was very good! We also had nice wine and, of course, bread, and a lot of good appetizers. Oscar, being from Alaska, is very picky when it comes to cooked fish. He mainly likes salted or smoked. He had a few bites and was going to leave it. I ate most of his because I still had room and didn’t want it to not be eaten!

We finished “lunch” at 6:30 pm. They eat late in Albania but not that late! We had gotten a late start and eaten a late breakfast so by the time we got to “lunch” it was very late. Needless to say we didn’t need to eat dinner that day! I gathered up the leftover olive oil-spice toast from the table and asked for a bag to take it in. They wouldn’t be able to reuse it, and I knew that since it was an early dinner some of us might get hungry later, or in the morning before our hike. It came in handy on several occasions!

We got to Korça a bit later (I don’t remember the time), we hung out at the Metropolis for ten minutes while the professors met His Eminence. We then said goodbye to one professor and his wife, who were off to Thessaloniki, and we piled in the van again for a really, really bumpy ride up to the Monastery of the Nativity of the Forerunner outside the village of Voskopoja. The guard named Elias let us in, and a very annoying tick-tock alarm started going off, presumably because we had “invaded” the premises.

 

We went first into the very old, small and beautiful church. Fr. Luke went into the Altar and opened the Beautiful Gate. His Eminence entered, took off his kalimafi and knelt down in front of the Altar Table for a little while. It was very moving. We then went just outside the monastery complex for a campfire. His Eminence said so many things that night. Anthony told me afterwards that “that beat any camp campfire I’ve ever been to. He was divinely inspired” when His Eminence was saying what he was saying.

The Greek recorded the whole campfire which I want to listen to multiple times. Among other things His Eminence said were some of the following: 1) The monastic life should not be one of many choices. If it is one of many, don’t choose it. It’s not for you. Choose the monastic life when you have no other choice. 2) Truly serving God in whatever capacity is very difficult and entails much struggle, but it brings innumerable and unparalleled rewards and great joy. BUT, don’t serve God in order to have joy. Serve God to serve Him, and the joy will come to you.  3) Nowadays everyone complains. Especially in America, but all over, there is a culture of complaint. The demon of complaint never ceases. Someone has a car; he complains about the car. He has a house; he complains about the house. He has food; he complains about the food. The more people have the more they complain. We are never to complain – always to be grateful for whatever we have.

We talked for a very long time. Almost every time His Eminence said something I felt like he was addressing me personally. Afterwards when I asked someone else, he said he also felt the same way. He made eye contact with me quite a few times, and more than just briefly. I was several meters away from him, about 1/5 of the way around the fire. When we were about to leave and go to bed His Eminence concluded by saying that these accommodations are rustic, they are not the best, they are humble. The monastery isn’t completely finished being renovated. However, don’t complain. At least we have beds :) We went to bed around midnight.

Sunday, June 3, 2012 - Pentecost!

Sunday, June 3, 2012

            We went to Liturgy at the Annunciation Cathedral in Tirana. We got there around 7:45, right before the Orthros Gospel. The service was 95% Albanian and 5% Greek. His Beatitude liturgized along with Bishop Andoni, Bishop Nathaniel, eight priests and two deacons. Bishop Nathaniel told me that there is a hierarchical Liturgy there every Sunday. If for some reason His Beatitude is not around, one of the other bishops serves. We saw Bishop Asti as well but he stood in the Altar – he didn’t serve.

Kneeling Vespers immediately followed the Divine Liturgy. Most of the prayers were read in Albanian. Three of them were read in Greek (the last one of each set), and they were each prayers that I recognized: 1) “Blessed art Thou, O Almighty Master,” from Paschal Compline; 2) “Lord, O Lord, Who deliveredst us from every arrow that flieth by day,” from Great Compline; and 3) “ Great and Most-high God, You alone possess immortality and dwell in unapproachable Light…,”one of the priestly Vesperal prayers that I recognized because Fr. Hopko says it aloud at the monastery during Vespers.

After Vespers we went to coffee hour across the street and saw a lot of people, including the bishops, the missionaries – both American and Albanian – and the university students. After that we headed back up to the Tabor Center where we had lunch with the youth of Tirana (of all ages). Then we split up into small groups and had discussions with translators (expand). We finished a little after 4:00 and were supposed to leave at 5:00 to go to Elbasan, do a youth program there, and then to attend the feastday vigil at St. John Vladimir Monastery. Around 4:20 I decided to sleep for 20 minutes in order to not be exhausted at the vigil. I set my alarm for 4:45. When it went off I had not fallen asleep so I got up and turned it off, then lay back down. Big mistake. I woke up at 5:49 to an empty center except for some of the ladies that work here. I asked for Theodhori, the owner, who speaks Greek, called Fr. Luke, who told me that they pounded on my door (I later found out for 15 minutes – I can’t believe I slept through it!) and now I’d have plenty of time to sleep. Theodhori taught me the word for taxi in Greek (besides ταξί which apparently is a translation from English). I told him if the taxi driver speaks Greek or English, and if I could get lek (Albanian currency), I might be able to. Otherwise not.

As Theodhori was driving me into town with his wife and two sons (not sure why – but Theofani the three-year-old is so cute!), he called a guy named Niko who works at the Metropolis and speaks Greek. Niko and his family were on the fence about going but soon decided they would go and that I should not take a taxi. Theodhori took me to their house and waited outside with me for ten minutes while we waited for them to come out. I had thought it was Niko whom I had talked to the other night and was surprised to see this Niko because it wasn’t who I expected. Oh well, it was a ride, and I was able to communicate. He also speaks a good amount of English (unfortunately for me, because it wasn’t absolutely essential to speak Greek). We took off around 6:20 on a winding ride through the mountains, a bumpy road that sometimes didn’t have a guard rail. It was kind of scary. We got there Around 7:40, I think.

Fr. Luke had warned us that the vigil would be unlike anything else we had ever experienced. That said I was really expecting something totally unlike anything I had ever experienced. However, it wasn’t as crazy as I guess I thought it could have been. Yes, it was crazy, there were people, there were vendors outside, there were people standing around holding lit candles, there were people smoking outside, talking loudly, moving in the church, but in all that I was not phased. I like order in church but for some reason it all seemed natural there, and it wasn’t as excessive as I imagined it would be. It reminded me somewhat of the Feastday Vespers at the Panagia Monastery in Petras, outside Karditsa in Greece, where I was in 2008. It was a shock to me then but here I was expecting it.

Since we had already done Monday’s Vespers after Liturgy in the morning, the vigil started with Small Compline at 10 pm. That was followed by the Small Paraklesis to the Theotokos which everyone joined in chanting. It is a well-loved service in Albania, as in Greece and America. It beats me though why we didn’t do a Paraklesis to St. John Vladimir since it was his feastday.

After Paraklesis they started reading the Pre-Communion prayers, and Fr. Luke signalled us to make our way to the tiny room next to the Altar where the reliquary of the Saint was. There is lots and lots of cotton that is stuffed inside the reliquary. Once a year, on his feastday, a group of clergy open the relics, take out the old cotton and put in new cotton. Fr. Luke had told us about this before and told us to make sure we squeezed ourselves into the little room to see it. Bishop Andoni vested in epitracheilion and omophorion, along with a large number of priests who wore their epitrachelia. Bishop Nikolla also participated but was not vested.

Fr. Luke got quite a bit of cotton as they took it off the relics, and then tore pieces of it to give to all of us who were in there. It was really a tight fit, but worth it. Stelio got the whole thing on video, holding his camera above eye-level. I could not figure out what was happening half the time so I definitely want to see that video from a better angle!

When all the cotton had been removed we got to venerate the relics. I think the Saint’s skull is enclosed in a metal case, but I’m not sure. That’s something I want to see on the video. I could not see the rest of the relics from my angle, just the skull which I got to venerate – but my lips touched metal, so I’m confused. In any case, it was a great blessing to be in there. Some of our group didn’t get over there quickly enough and wasn’t inside. I felt bad for them.

As soon as the old cotton was taken off, the bishops started putting new cotton in, until it was almost overflowing. They closed the reliquary and locked it, draping the red cloth over it again.

After Pre-Communion Prayers came Orthros. We cut the Polyeleos, the Orthros Gospel and the Canon, doing only the Katavasiae. I was confused. I thought the point of vigils was to do a complete Orthros. However, by that time I was exhausted, it was midnight, and I was kind of glad that the service didn’t drag on until dawn.

Bishop Andoni, ten priests and two deacons served the Divine Liturgy. We did an Artoklasia at the end of the Doxology, right before the Liturgy. I guess that was because we hadn’t done Vespers so we stuck it at the end of Orthros. I’m not sure. That confused me. The first priest and the second deacon were monks from a monastery in Montenegro, I believe. They did some Serbian and the deacon even did some Greek! Anthony told me afterwards, “I never thought I’d be so happy to hear Greek!” It made it more familiar hearing a few petitions in a language we recognized. Everything else was in Albanian.

Two high-points of craziness occurred during the Liturgy. We began around 1am (by which time I was a zombie, and couldn’t believe we still had a full hierarchical Liturgy ahead of us).

By the time Liturgy started a lot of people had left, outside was a bit quieter, and there was much more order in the church, I guess because it was mainly the people left who wanted to be there for the Liturgy, and not everyone else who just came to hang out.

There were some exceptions, though. A group of rily teenagers/20-somethings was hanging out, talking and smoking in the front doorway – just enough outside to not be smoking in church, but close enough to feel like they were inside. The noise from the front door escalated during the Artoklasia, and then during the Great Litany it got pretty bad. Fr. Gerasim who works at the Holy Cross high school looked pretty annoyed. He was standing at the bishop’s throne with the other priests and when it got too loud he purposefully pushed through the center aisle (filled with people) and sternly said something to the boys in the back which I think took them outside and made it a bit quieter.

During the Trisagion Hymn and the Epistle there was some commotion outside the right door of the church. It was either the same group or another group of young’uns who were having fun with an ATV. They would start it and all try to climb on, and then fall off and turn the ATV off. This kept happening and some well-meaning people tried to close the side door to keep the noise out but the νέοι wanted it open so it kept getting opened and closed. Finally during the Gospel the noise got really bad and the door was finally closed for good. Through the closed door we heard a lot of laughing and the ATV rev up and go really fast around the church, close to the front door and up the hill. Finally there was some more quiet :)

Liturgy ended around 2:30. We hung out in and outside the church talking to some of our friends until around 3:00 when Fr. Luke came out of the Altar and was ready to go. We got back to the Tabor Center around 4:10 and I turned the light out a little after 4:30am. We could already see the slightest glow of the rising sun behind Mt. Dijty (sp?).

Saturday, June 2, 2011

Saturday, June 2, 2012

            Today we had a relaxed morning (I overslept again!). After prayers, quiet time and breakfast, we talked about our upcoming meeting with His Beatitude - what to ask, questions we had, etc. We left around 10:15 to meet the archbishop at the Archdiocese. We went into his office a little before 11:00 and were there until after 12:30. I'm very fuzzy on remembering what he said but Konstantinos recorded it all, so I hope to listen to it again... a lot of good stuff! :)

We bought berek (Albanian pites - mine had cheese) and headed to the Children’s Home of Hope which is on the same property as the Shen Vlash monastery and seminary that we had visited previously...

...for a day at the beach. The kids were so happy to meet us...

 

...and to play at the beach with us – twice in the water...

...interspersed by an intense game of beach soccer with the boys while the girls played in the sand.

We left the complex a little after 6:00 and arrived at the Tabor Center around 7:00 where we ate dinner and had a quiet evening

Friday, June 1, 2012

Friday, June 1, 2012. 5:10 pm.

We had an easy morning, starting at 9am. Somehow I still managed to oversleep, took a quick shower and ran downstairs at 9:15. I greeted Fr. Luke who was eating breakfast, and apologized for being late, thinking I had missed prayers. He teased me and said since they knew I was trying to skip prayers they were punishing me by eating first. I was relieved. We did prayers and quiet time right after breakfast. After quiet time we all gathered in our prayer room and talked about Albania, our impressions, our thoughts, etc. We left around 11:00 and got to downtown Tirana around 11:30.

Today is Alphabet Day in Albania and all the schools have celebrations. We got to the Archdiocese-run Protagonistët School (pronounced Protagonist) around 11:30, just after their celebration had finished. We were all disappointed that we didn’t get to see the kids’ performance. The Protagonistët School is a private school, but in Albania no schools are allowed to teach religion as part of the curriculum. They have kids of all backgrounds that attend the school. Once a week they have an after-school program that is dedicated to learning about the Faith. They make it fun, and they get parents’ permission to have the kids go to that. Even some Muslim kids come to that because they see that their classmates are having fun. There they teach about Christ.

The school started in 2002, I believe, and has grown by one grade level each year. Last year they were not able to get a license to open a high school so the graduating 9^th graders had nowhere to go. This year they got a license and are opening two more years in order to have a high school (10th-12th grade) in the same building as the elementary school (4^th-9^th grade. Grades 1-3 are at another location). All the people were so amazing, so warm and had such big smiles. It was a wonderful day for them and for us, and they were all very happy to see us.

10:17 pm

After seeing the Protagonistët School we were shown the women’s ministry which is on the same property as the school and the Cathedral. Raymonda (sp?) who leads the ministry had us in her office and gave us pear juice and delicious Albanian apple strudel.She showed us a powerpoint with pictures of all the ministries that they do: work at a nursing home; visits to a home of Mother Teresa’s sisters where a lot of Orthodox are who want a priest to visit; prison ministry; and some other things. We also met Violeta who works in the office.

While we were at the women’s ministry the professors were somewhere else (?). When they came back we got in the van and drove over to the Engale radio station which is on the tenth floor of a building. The professors again went somewhere else, while Nathan Hoppe joined us and was our tour guide around the next few places. Konstantinos and I sprinted up the stairs while everyone else took the elevator. They got there first :P At the radio station the staff wanted us to sing something. We decided to do O Pure Virgin. I didn’t sing because I still have a cold and it would have sounded bad. They recorded us and will probably play us in the future.

In Albania there is no such thing as a religious radio station. The license for Engale radio is just as a regular radio station. They do a limited number of Orthodox programs. They mainly play classical music and also play some Byzantine music. From what Nathan said that he has been told, quite a few people listen to the radio station for the classical music because they are the only station that plays it.

After the visit to the radio station we visited the Logos University. The director – a missionary from Greece, a sweet old lady in black – spoke to us in Greek while Konstantinos translated, and then one of the professors spoke to us in Albanian while Nathan translated. The director offered us soda and apologized for not offering a snack but said it was a fast day. I liked her :) 

 We saw their Three Hierarchs chapel on a lower floor...

 

...and a couple offices and one classroom briefly on the way down the stairs. We found out that their tuition is about 1000 euro per year. They have 350 students from all backgrounds. Students take six classes per semester, each worth five credits, and they complete University in three years (one team member said he is a product of this – the Balogna Method, which tries to compress 4 years into 3 without losing anything – and it doesn’t work: it’s baloney). Higher level classes are taught in English. They have partnerships with some Greek universities.

After the university Nathan took us to the Nazareth workshop where we saw the candle-making workshop...

 

...and the printing press.

A new church is outside the main building. It is almost finished and will have its first service on All Saints’ Sunday.

We took the service elevator up to the wood-carving workshop because it was locked so we went the back way :) 

We saw a magnificent hand-carved iconostasis that is going to be put in the small chapel outside the new cathedral. It took four people six or seven months to do it! 

We didn’t get to see the icon workshop because it was locked :(

After the Nazareth workshop Nathan went with us to the center of Tirana where he got off the bus and went home. We met up with the professors again and came back to the Tabor Center to eat a delicious lunch – at 4:00! They eat late here. Yesterday Ana and Gabriela told me that most Albanians don’t typically eat breakfast. They may have coffee or a snack in the late morning, but their first meal is a lunch around 2:00. Dinner is late – 8:00, 9:00, 10:00-ish. Fr. Luke told us the first day that they often nap after lunch (typical of many cultures) and wake up to enjoy the evening before eating dinner.

Around 5:40 we left for Tirana again where we went to the youth center which is on the same property as the Cathedral, the Protagonistët School and the women’s ministry, and down the street from the Archdiocese headquarters. We got there a few minutes after 6:00 (it was a pleasant surprise to see Bishop Asti when we got there – he was outside talking to some people. I only got to get his blessing – didn’t get to talk with him. He left soon after we got there but it was a pleasant surprise to at least see him and get his blessing). Friday evenings at 6:00 is when they hold their weekly Paraklesis in the youth center (not in the cathedral) with the university students. We joined them today. Fr. Luke served and all the university students chanted. We followed along in Albanian prayer books – mine had Byzantine music so it was actually easier to follow. I learned but subsequently forgot how to say “Most-holy Theotokos save us” and “Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, both now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.”

After Paraklesis one of the professors gave a talk while Ana B. translated. Afterwards they gave us some kind of cake and peach soda. Then we went down the street to the Archdiocese and visited the office of Fr. Justinos who is a priest-monk from Greece (Parakletos Monastery in Attica, outside of Athens) who is serving as a missionary. It is his nameday today (St. Justin Martyr) so we all went to wish him Xronia polla – all of us: university students, Americans, staff, etc., in his small office. He also offered us sweets, and two paper icons – Christ Pantocrator from Mt. Sinai and St. Neilos the Myrrh-gusher about whom I know nothing but look forward to learning. Outside Fr. Justinos’s office we met Bishop Nathaniel, another of the auxiliary bishops of Albania, who is from Greece. I saw Niko whom I had talked with the other night at the Tabor Center. I think he’s a receptionist or something there at the Archdiocese.

The plan was to spend the next few hours walking around Tirana with Albanian university students. Our group headed back to the Cathedral/youth center with Ana and her sister and some girls from the universities.We waited there for the rest of our group and finally we got impatient so everyone went on ahead to go to the lake and get coffee. It was mostly Americans who went with Ana. I figured I’d stay behind and wait for the others, since I had talked to Ana for a long time yesterday, and the others were Americans. I didn’t know the other girls who stayed behind, and figured I should get to know them a bit.

Finally the others came and we were off! Up and down both narrow and wide streets, around corners, finally into the park and over the hill (we stopped by the church of St. Prokopi to peer inside), and to the outdoor restaurant. I was really lost – had no idea where we were. It didn’t matter, though, because we were there and the Albanians knew where they were going. By the time we arrived we couldn’t find the others and Marina tried calling but to no avail. We finally found them – none of us had ordered coffee but it was time to go. It was ok – we had had fun just walking around. We walked back over the hill, to the entrance of the park where our van/ bus was waiting for us. We got back to the Tabor Center around 9:45, ate dinner and talked a bit about the next few days. Then I came upstairs and started blogging, interrupted by various conversations about jurisdictions, the election of bishops, the reality of vacant sees (OCA Dioceses of the South and Alaska), etc. Typical seminarian conversations! :)