Dear Friends of Holy Cross Monastery,
Greetings in Christ on the last Sunday of the Great Fast! Very soon, we will greet each other with “Christ is Risen!”
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The Gospel, the Good News, is this: The Son of God has become one of us – True Man, bearing our humanity as His very own, and as one of us conquering Death!
The Lord has become one of us, sharing our actual, real-life human condition – Mortal Man, bearing our sufferings, our groanings, our tears. The Lord has wept for His friend, Lazarus, four days dead, as we do for our friends who have died before us. The Lord has felt our pain and borne our griefs. His solidarity with us is full and complete, even to the point of a painful and ignominious death on the Cross, betrayed by Judas, a friend whom He loved!
Ignominious indeed, but look what happened next: “Hell groaned when it received Him.” Hades, the netherworld, the dark realm of death, is rendered powerless upon the awesome approach of the Lord of all, as the priest at the altar prays “in the tomb with the body, but in Hell with the soul as God”.
The Lord’s most dramatic moment in the Holy Icons of the Orthodox Church is the moment of Holy Saturday when, descending into Hades, He completely “trampled down death by death,” “breaking down the bars and gates of Hell,” and “giving life to the world.”
The priest on Holy Saturday, spreading Rose Petals all around the Church, shows just how thoroughly our Lord has “despised” the powers of Death and Hell. For what was meant as evil against our Lord, we now celebrate as “the death of death in the death of God.”
Being truly human, our Lord certainly did not “desire” death – who does? – for death is unnatural. But, out of love for Man, our Lord put his shoulder to the plough and dug up the very bowels of Hades, to give us life, sparing not His own self. Let us, then, not spare ourselves in giving love and kindness, and words of joy, to those in need of our help and encouragement!
Jesus Christ suffered in the flesh a criminal’s death, was buried in a rich man’s tomb, but He arose from the dead in His very own body, never to die again! In the Paschal icon, the Lord lifts Adam and Eve up out of the power of corruption, mortality, and darkness, and bears them into His own Uncreated Light. “Come receive the Light,”… receive the Light, and share it!
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We, the monks of the Brotherhood of the Holy Cross in Setauket, have much to be thankful for. Over the last 8 years (2003-2011), we, with your help, have built a strong and vibrant community of pilgrims, communicants, and worshippers on Long Island, true friends from many different nationalities, languages and backgrounds, sharing one Orthodox Faith.
We have served, prayed, studied, sung, and laboured together for God’s work (including sharing generously with the recently suffering Orthodox in Haiti and Japan). We have, by God’s grace and allowance, firmly established a monastic community, repaired all the buildings, and instituted the holy services in the monastery’s church – for the mutual benefit of all.
We would like to ask your help at this time with two important tasks:
1. The Church recently needed three-quarters of a tank of fuel-oil: $750.00; and,
2. The Church still needs a set of quality Gold Vestments (Priest, Deacon, Altar): $1,500.00. The existing gold vestments are 30 years old and in poor condition – there are none for the Deacon.
If you are able to help us, please do!
God be with you during the last strenuous week of the Great Fast, and may He richly bless your experience of Holy Week and Pascha !!!
In Christ,
Archimandrite Maximos and the Monks
Brotherhood of the Holy Cross
Setauket, New York
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