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By God’s grace, our monastery celebrated its summer feast day, Ascension of the Lord, on Saturday, May 23. The feast day was perhaps the most special in the history of our monastery. As per custom, His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae honored us with his presence in our midst and was accompanied by a large sobor of priests and deacons. Likewise, the Mother of God blessed us with the presence of her myrrh-streaming Hawaiian Icon and of the father abbot of Holy Putna Monastery, Archimandrite Melchisedec Velnic.

The joy of the feast commenced on Friday evening with the celebration of Great Vespers. After Vespers, His Eminence blessed the headquarters of the “Saint Jacob of Putna and Saint Parascheva of Iași” Missionary Center of Saint Dumitru Monastery. The Center will be staffed by female monastic personnel and will support the monastery’s mission, especially by offering hospitality to the monastery’s pilgrims, by organizing various retreats (for youth, women, clergy, etc.), and by maintaining the future Romanian Orthodox cemetery on the monastery grounds.

On Saturday morning, Father Abbot Archimandrite Melchisedec greeted the Hawaiian Icon of the Mother of God in the monastery church, after which Father Abbot Archimandrite Ieremia blessed all the buildings and monastic cells with the Icon, until the beginning of Matins. Then, His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae served the Divine Liturgy in the summer altar, where despite the rainy weather, there gathered over 500 faithful who participated in the service and venerated the Hawaiian Icon of the Mother of God.

In his homily, His Eminence mentioned several important teachings about our Lord’s Ascension: “The Holy Apostle Luke, both in Acts and in his Gospel, shows that Christ, after His Resurrection, repeatedly revealed Himself to the Apostles, over a period of 40 days. Saint Nicodemus the Hagiorite teaches that after our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, He appeared to the Apostles 11 times, in order to honor their number, for after the denial of Judas, only 11 Apostles remained. The two pericopes from today correspond to the final two appearances: the tenth on the Mount of Galilee and the eleventh on the Mount of Olives. Despite seeing the Risen Christ many times, even after the ninth time they were confused: they were scared that He was a ghost, they asked Him to eat in order to be convinced, they understood very little. The answer is that the Savior Himself, in the two pericopes today, exhorts them not to depart from Jerusalem because they will receive power from on high. And then they will go and bear witness to the Lord’s Crucifixion and Resurrection unto the ends of the earth. Without the Holy Spirit, the Apostles were clueless. Only at Pentecost did they receive the power, strength, mental illumination, and courage to bear witness to the Risen Christ. The purpose of our life is not to spend several decades on earth and to end up in the grave, but rather it is to ascend to heaven. Our Lord Jesus Christ told the Apostles that He needs to go in order to prepare a dwelling for them, and if He goes, He will send them the Holy Spirit, Who will guide and teach them the entire truth. The end of our life is not the grave, but it is eternal life with Christ Who ascended to the right hand of the Father, in order to prepare a dwelling for us.”

At the end of the Divine Liturgy, a memorial service was served for our monastery’s founders, especially for Archbishop Victorin Ursache, as we will celebrate the 25th anniversary from his repose in July of this year.

His Eminence invited Father Nectarios Yangsom, the guardian of the Hawaiian Icon of the Mother of God, to share his experience beside the Icon. Besides recounting the Icon’s history and several miracles, Father Nectarios gave this testimony: “For me, it is a humbling experience to travel with the Mother of God as her protector or guardian, for lack of a better word, because she is our protector and guardian. She is the one who brings us and our prayers to heaven when we feel that we are a little in despair and have lost all hope for ourselves and our families, and then we call upon the Mother of God and we feel hope in our hearts. This is the grace given to her by God, which of course comes from her Son. I remember a holy elder of Mount Athos who said, that when you look into the eyes of the Mother of God, you look into the eyes of God. Everything that she gave was for her Son. She lived a life of complete sacrifice, at times suffering, at times sorrowing, but she always had faith. Her faith is something we should look to as an example in our lives, because when we feel that we are in doubt, or in pain, or in despair, then the Mother of God comes to us. She always seems to come when she is needed most.”

Afterwards, Father Abbot Archimandrite Melchisedec offered a beautiful word about the Mother of God: “Behold, this year, the Mother of God came in this very place, in Your Eminence’s home, in your home, in the fathers’ home, in all our home. We give reason for the Mother of God to rejoice when we are thankful and grateful for all the gifts we have received and when we do not turn back. Sometimes we wait a month, sometimes a year, sometimes even several years until our petition is fulfilled. But what is important? That God is with us, that she is present. And if we strive to fulfill the commandments, then we obey what the Virgin Mary said at the Wedding in Cana of Galilee: ‘Do everything He commands you.’ She knew who He was, that He was the Son of God, because, as Saint Dumitru Stăniloae said, the child knows its mother fully and the mother knows her child fully.”

We express our deep gratitude for the Mother of God, “who is full of grace”, for all the gifts and blessings which she poured out upon our monastery on this beautiful and blessed day. Likewise, we thank all the volunteers who devoted themselves with enlarged hearts to offer both spiritual and bodily nourishment to each and every pilgrim. Their love transformed the rainy day into a luminous, inspiring, and grace-filled one.