{"id":6678,"date":"2024-03-21T13:36:58","date_gmt":"2024-03-21T13:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sfdumitru.org\/?p=6678"},"modified":"2024-07-04T14:33:34","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T14:33:34","slug":"keep-watch-with-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfdumitru.org\/en\/2024\/03\/keep-watch-with-me\/","title":{"rendered":"“Keep watch with Me”"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Dear Friends of Saint Dumitru Monastery,<\/div>
\u00a0<\/div>
We find ourselves once again in the best period of the year to \u201ctrade\u201d for our salvation. In this period, our \u201cinvestment\u201d yields the most \u201cprofit\u201d because we make it during a period \u201cof necessity\u201d. In other words, during this time, our Dear Savior asks us to keep watch, to pray, and to be by His side in His Passion (cf. Mark 14:34).<\/div>
\u00a0<\/div>
In the Gospel of Mark, we have maybe the most \u201chuman\u201d version of the Lord\u2019s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: \u201cMy soul is very sorrowful, even to death<\/strong>\u2026 And going a little farther, He fell on the ground and prayed\u2026 Abba,\u00a0Father, all things are possible to Thee; remove this cup from Me<\/strong>; yet not what I will, but what Thou wilt\u201d (Mark 14:34-36). And Saint Luke adds: \u201cAnd\u00a0being in agony<\/strong>, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground\u201d (Luke 22:44). We see how each cell of His body was filled with dread in the face of the Passion. But the Lord reveals to us the value and dignity of man, who can rise above the heaviness and resistance of his flesh and his nature in order to fulfill a good work.<\/div>
\u00a0<\/div>
The Lord\u2019s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane opens to us a new perspective regarding how we relate to the \u201ctoil of the earth\u201d (cf. Genesis 3:19). Each and every time we surpass the toil and resistance of our flesh (comfort, laziness, etc.) and nature in order to fulfill a good cause (work, study, fulfilling the Gospel, etc.), we resemble Him. And, since our resemblance to Him is accomplished through \u201ctoil\u201d (cf. Romans 6:5), then by laboring intently, we can transform any toil, any unpleasant occurrence, any trial in our life into an occasion to grow in likeness with Christ our Savior.<\/div>
\u00a0<\/div>
In particular, any fast, any prayer, any psalm, any participation in the divine services that we do during this period, are signs of \u201cfriendship\u201d with our Lord, signs in time \u201cof necessity\u201d (\u201cA friend in need is a friend indeed\u201d). And He, in turn, will \u201crecognize\u201d us too, sometime and somewhere.<\/div>
\u00a0<\/div>
May our good God and His Most Pure Mother grant us the strength to complete our Lenten struggle and thereby to show ourselves as \u201cfriends of the Bridegroom\u201d.<\/div>
\u00a0<\/div>
In Christ, our Lord and Savior,<\/div>
\u00a0<\/div>
Protosyngellos Ieremia<\/div>
Abbot of Saint Dumitru Monastery<\/div>
\u00a0<\/div>
PS. The Lenten service schedule of our monastery can be found in the \u201cLiturgical Schedule<\/a>\u201d section of our website.<\/div>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Friends of Saint Dumitru Monastery,\u00a0We find ourselves once again in the best period of the year to \u201ctrade\u201d for our salvation. In this period, our \u201cinvestment\u201d yields the most \u201cprofit\u201d because we make it during a period \u201cof necessity\u201d. In other words, during this time, our Dear Savior asks us to keep watch, to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfdumitru.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfdumitru.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfdumitru.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfdumitru.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfdumitru.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6678"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/sfdumitru.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6700,"href":"https:\/\/sfdumitru.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6678\/revisions\/6700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfdumitru.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfdumitru.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfdumitru.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}