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Pilgrimage To A Monastery


marigold

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I want to share this gem with anyone who's wondered what it's like inside an Orthodox monastery. It's a great little report from a lady who visited St. Paisius in Safford, Arizona. What's unique about it is that it's so candid; it's very unusual to hear accounts of personal monastery pilgrimages, period, but I don't think I've heard or read any that go into such delightful detail. She's talking with her husband who is leading a catechetical class, so it's quite fun.

 

For me, it was illuminating to hear a married woman talk about a women's monastery with such a fresh perspective. Since I go around with nuns on the brain all the time, I'm 'fluent' in that language - all the funny little things are so familiar to me that I don't really see them from the outside any more, and I realise that can be a disadvantage. So I really liked hearing her account of what it's like to spend time in a monastery as a married woman. The audio is embedded in a blog post which also has pictures from the trip.

 

Enjoy :)

 

 

img_3206.jpg?w=510

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Sr Mary Catharine OP

Enjoyable but it was a bit humorous to hear about the life from an "outsider"--especially the meal and liturgy descriptions! I guess our life does seem rather "different"!

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What a fine, interesting post, Marigold!  From the desert landscape of St. Paisius, let's go to the remote Orthodox monastery of St. Nilus--located near Kodiak Island, Alaska!  The nuns live out their monastic vocations of seeking God alone in pure simplicity.  During the winter, their island skete is inaccessible...but being self-reliant, they truly enjoy the solitude!

 

http://www.stnilus.org

 

Note:  You'll need a taste for salmon if interested in the community!

 

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Nice. I listen to their CD. It looks beautiful. Maybe you could come to the states and visit there or come visit where I am at!

 

You're on my list! Definitely want to visit, although it would take a lot for me to enter another American community.

 

Enjoyable but it was a bit humorous to hear about the life from an "outsider"--especially the meal and liturgy descriptions! I guess our life does seem rather "different"!

 

Hehe, I know. I was kind of charmed by it. I never did have that experience of finding the way of life odd, the customs etc. funny - all of it just felt like I'd found where I fit in.

 

What a fine, interesting post, Marigold!  From the desert landscape of St. Paisius, let's go to the remote Orthodox monastery of St. Nilus--located near Kodiak Island, Alaska!  The nuns live out their monastic vocations of seeking God alone in pure simplicity.  During the winter, their island skete is inaccessible...but being self-reliant, they truly enjoy the solitude!

 

http://www.stnilus.org

 

Note:  You'll need a taste for salmon if interested in the community!

 

Ooh yes, I remember reading that during the winter they pretty much have exclusively fish and rice, and thinking that sounded fabulous! But I'm sure it does get tiresome. I'm attracted to the wildness of their life. Being so low-tech and close to creation would be an absolute dream. Actually it's funny that that's the only thing I really know for certain about St. Nilus - that it's physically hard and very wild. No-one's ever told me anything about the people who live there  :hehe2:  but I think I'd like to at least visit.

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and St. Sergius guesthouse, a large one-room cabin, is available for women pilgrims desiring to stay longer and who are undaunted by the rustic conditions.  
 

 

from their website

 

Im guessing the part in bold could be retranslated as "who don't mind using an outhouse! :hehe:  Like I said its only a guess and I don't know what they have for plumbing but from my experiences camping and such that's usually what rustic conditions means!

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Don't put away your snow shoes yet...the Dormition of the Mother of God (Orthodox) Monastery near Jackson, Michigan, not only extends hospitality to all, but offers two iconography workshops each year!  If you go to their website, also check out the Gift Shop's prayer ropes!

 

http://www.dormitionmonastery.org

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  • 2 weeks later...

One more resource for the fellows out there--and anyone else interested in the baked goods/jams/jellies that the monks offer at "The Jampot"--go to http://www.societyofstjohn.com and read about the Holy Transfiguration Skete in Michigan's Upper Peninsula!
They are surrounded by the beauty of nature (though somewhat stark this time of year!)...and not only have a large number of icon reproductions for sale...but design and create original liturgical objects!

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Oops, did you mean societystjohn.com? Your link didn't work so I Googled it. Their little Jampot shop looks amazing! :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here's another remote but more accessible Orthodox monastery with indoor toilets for its guests!

http://mohamnm.orthodoxws.com/

Tiny male monastery of the Holy Archangel Michael in Canones, New Mexico, USA.   It has three guest rooms and facilities for cooking. Location is gorgeous. Location is very remote.

The famous Benedictine Catholic monastery of Christ in the Desert also is in New Mexico in a gorgeous, remote spot north of Abiquiu.

www.christdesert.org

 

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Here's another remote but more accessible Orthodox monastery with indoor toilets for its guests!

http://mohamnm.orthodoxws.com/

Tiny male monastery of the Holy Archangel Michael in Canones, New Mexico, USA.   It has three guest rooms and facilities for cooking. Location is gorgeous. Location is very remote.

The famous Benedictine Catholic monastery of Christ in the Desert also is in New Mexico in a gorgeous, remote spot north of Abiquiu.

www.christdesert.org

 

​I've been following goings-on at that monastery for a few years; I remember feeling some of that 'monastery envy' we VSers sometimes get, when I saw the beautiful location and tiny adobe cells. I think it was on the Pithless Thoughts blog that I first read about it. And of course I'd love to visit, but considering it's in the desert, on a different continent, and that being a men's monastery they'll give priority to male pilgrims wanting to stay... chances might be slim :)

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Yes, Marigold!  The adobe monastery hermitages At Canones are incredible--and remind me of the "desert spaces" or Poustinea that Catherine Doherty (Russian founder of Madonna House, Combermere, Ontario, Canada) saw as the places where we encounter God in silence, solitude and prayer.  There is a also Greek Orthodox Monastery in Florence, Arizona that is equally inviting!
See their YouTube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQqkRZqe8Q8 or visit the St. Anthony Monastery website at http://www.stanthonysmonastery.org

Note:  It's always thought-provoking to remember--as Thomas Merton writes in The Monastic Journey--that "the contemplative, whose vocation leads him to withdraw into the spiritual desert, feels that he is living at the very heart of the Church" (225).

 

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