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Pilgrimage Weekend 2012 - Schedule
Please join us for the 2012 Pilgrimage Weekend. His Eminence Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal and Canada will preside at the Divine Services, co-served by His Grace Bishop George of Mayfield, Abbot of Holy Cross Monastery.
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September 29th, 2012 – Saturday
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2:30 pm – Great Procession with Solemn Pannykhida for Patriarch Alexey II and Metropolitan Laurus
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4:30 pm – Buffet Supper for Pilgrims
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6:00 pm – Vigil with Litia
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September 30th, 2012 – Sunday
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9:00 am – Hours & Hierarchal Divine Liturgy
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Banquet following at the parish hall of Holy Spirit Orthodox Church in Huntington, West Virginia
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My Pilgrimage to Ukraine
by Fr. Tikhon
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 With the blessings of Bishop George, and my spiritual father, Igumen Seraphim, friends of our monastery, Dale and Svetlana Blake, purchased a plane ticket to the Ukraine for me so I could go on a pilgrimage and visit holy places and venerate the saints.
Svetlana Blake, her family and I visited the Kiev Caves Lavra, Kitaev Monastery, St. Panteleimon’s Monastery, Holy Dormition Monastery in Bacheisera, St. Clement’s Monastery, Svietagirsk Lavra, the site where St. Vladimir baptized Russia, and many other churches and holy places. We also visited and stayed in Svetlana’s Village, Bishkin, located in the Kharkiv region, where she has started building a church in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God.
In the Kiev Caves, we were able to attend early morning liturgy in the caves and to venerate and pray to all those holy saints who dwell therein. Every day I was there, I was able to venerate in the ossuary the holy skulls of saints whose names are unknown, and some of the skulls wept myrrh. It happened each time (without trying to seek a blessing) that whenever I passed the gate was being opened or there was a priest anointing with myrrh. Many other similar graces came to me while I was there.
 I also visited and stayed overnight in the Dormition Monastery, located in the Crimea in a town called Backchiserai. It is a very ancient monastery, with a over 20 monks and mare than 100 lay people live there. Abbot Silouan took me on a tour of the monastery, and I went to the service and ate with the brethren. In this monastery they have a wall leading up to the main church with carved stone plaques of different monasteries from all over the world. ‘Holy Cross Hermitage USA’ is also carved there with our church as the way it looks now. [See the main photo at the top of this newsletter.]
The trip was an experience I will always keep with me. I thank God He allowed me to go. May God reward the Blake family, Oksana Silvna, Lubov Osadchy, Nicholai & Luba from Kiev, Nick (who drove me around Kiev), and everyone else who contributed to my journey. May God reward, also, all those who prayed for me while I was there.
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 New Documentary Published -
“The Young Pilgrims”
With the blessing of His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion, the diocesan media office has published a new documentary on the first-ever youth pilgrimage of its kind to Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY.
This inspiring film is not just a news report about a monastery pilgrimage, but a statement about the very meaning of our life in Christ as it is expressed in the modern world, and about the future of our Church.
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 Great and Holy Pascha - Byzantine Choir CD
This CD of the Byzantine Choir of St. George Cathedral features the music of the Matins (Orthros) service of Great and Holy Pascha in Byzantine Chant. The Byzantine Choir of St. George Cathedral in Pittsburgh, PA is a large mixed choir of Orthodox faithful who chant using traditional Byzantine notation.
Included with the CD is a 24-page booklet which includes the complete hymn text, an introductory letter about the recording, and exegesis on selected odes of the Paschal Canon. Of note in this recording is the newly composed music to the full Paschal Canon, using an adjusted translation of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America, with the slow Katavasias at the end of each ode, a selection of the Resurrectional Stichera from the Praises in each Mode, and a reading of the Paschal Sermon of St. John Chrysostom by Bishop THOMAS of the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America.
This CD was recorded live at All Saints Church in Canonsburg, PA in July, 2011. All the acoustics and ison are natural. ORDER
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 The Arena - Guidelines for Spiritual and Monastic Life
The Arena is one of the most important and accessible texts of Orthodox Christian teaching on the spiritual life. The author, St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) describes this work as his legacy “of soul saving instruction.” He promises that “those who carry out these instructions will enter into possession of spiritual riches.” In an age even more alienated from spiritual culture and rooted in materialism, his words pose both a challenge and an invitation to all who ever say to themselves: “There must be more to life than this.” For anyone who desires to deepen their own spiritual journey based upon an encounter with Christ as God, this book is essential reading. ORDER
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Hermitage DVD & CDs are now available at a lower price!
Our DVD prices have been reduced to $15. Click here to see our lower CD prices.
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Love of God and Love of Neighbor
“The Savior of the world summarized all His particular commands in two main, general commandments: You are to love the Lord your God, He said, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You are to love your neighbor as yourself. The whole of the Law and the Prophets depends on these two commandments (Matt. 22:27-40).
“Although the commandment of love for God is as far superior to the commandment of love for God’s image (man) as God is superior to His image, yet the commandment of love for our neighbor serves as a foundation for the commandment of love for God. He who has not laid the foundation labours in vain to construct a building; I cannot possibly stand without the foundation. By love for our neighbor we enter into love for God. A Christian’s love for God is love for Christ (I John 2:23), and love for our neighbor is love for Christ in our neighbor. By loving our neighbor - by loving him in the Lord, that is, as the Lord commands us - we acquire love for Christ, and love for Christ is love for God.
“The union of love for God with love for our neighbor is superbly explained in the epistles of the holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian. It is impossible to love God, according to St. John’s teaching, without first loving one’s brother. And love for one’s brother consists in carrying out the Lord’s commandments in this regard (2 John 1:6).
“The same teaching is given by the holy directors of monasticism. Saint Antony the Great said: ‘On our neighbor depends life and death (of the soul). By winning our brother we win God; by offending our brother we sin against Christ.’ St. John Kolovos, one of the greatest Fathers of the Egyptian Skete, said: ‘It is not possible to build a house by beginning from the top, but the structure must be begun from the foundation and built up to the roof.’ When asked what the foundation meant, he replied: ‘The foundation is our neighbor. We must win him and begin with him. On him are based all the commandments of Christ.’ Saint Mark the Ascetic said: ‘It is impossible to be saved otherwise than through one’s neighbor.’ This is what is held and taught by all the holy Fathers; this is the general Christian teaching, the teaching of the Church, the teaching of Christ.”
- From The Arena: Guidelines for Spiritual and Monastic Life by St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, Ch. 15, pp. 52-53.
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