Sunday, 28 October 2007

Saturday, 27 October 2007

St. Nicholas "V Klyonnikakh"


On Saturday I went here to vigil. It's one of the 3 churches in Moscow that Matushka Irina (Holy Epiphany) wrote down for me before I left, as recommended churches, and to give the priests there her regards, because she and Fr. Roman knew these priests. The "klyonnikakh," I'm told, is some kind of tree. Almost all the churches here have some sort of nickname, to distinguish them from other churches of the same name. It's also called "Marosyeika," from the name of the street that it's on.




On the ground level, as you go in, there is the candle-counter/bookstore, then further down the hall are the incorrupt relics of St. Alexei Mechov, who was the rector of this very same church in the early 20th century and who was clairvoyant. He died in 1923. His son, St. Sergii, was a New Martyr. It was just awe-inspiring to think that the very church you were standing in had not one but two saints!




As I was about to walk up the stairs to get to the actual church, I had a sudden attack of homesickness. Just then I looked up at the frescoed wall, and what did I see but a very large fresco of St. John the Russian! After that, I felt there must be something right about this and felt more at home. I went upstairs for Vigil and put up candles for family and friends there. I met a very nice young lady named Vera who pointed me to the nearest Metro station after vigil.



Sunday morning, I went there again for Liturgy. The church is rather unusual, in that it is in several sections, separated by walls with arches in them. So you have the altar area and about 20 feet in front of it, contained, I think, in the taller section you see in the right-hand side of this picture. The rest of the church extends back from it--as you look at this photo.... towards the left. So as you're in one section, you can hardly see into the others. The whole church is beautifully frescoed (new). I got to meet the rector briefly, Fr. Alexander Kulinov, an older, very kindly priest. There is a choir loft there. Next week I hope to in-choir (joke) whether they might allow another singer (me).


After church, Vera and three of her friends and I stopped briefly at McDonald's (!) because one of them wanted a lot of coffee without a lot of money. But they then took me to a more Russian place called Moo-Moo. Though it has a "cow" theme, inside it was a brick-cellar location very reminiscent of the old Deli 1 in Portland--or maybe of the cafe under the Roma. It serves an array of traditional Russian food. So I had some Greek salad, of course ;), a very interesting concoction where they carefully removed the leg of the chicken and left the skin intact--re-stuffing it with the chopped chicken meat mixed with who-knows-what, and then a great Russian blin filled with tvorog, or farmer's cheese, with raspberry jam on top. Yum! They give you free caramels with your tea--these are unlike any I've had before--soft like butter rather than the hard stuff in the U.S. that will break all your fillings!



During the long lunch we had, one young man was telling lively stories. One was about this lady who decided to donate her library to the church. The priests and his helpers thanked her, then opened the boxes of books. To their surprise, they saw titles like "Marxism" or "Applied Atheism"! One by one they looked at each title and exclaimed, "Blasphemous!" and threw each book away right over their shoulders into the trash!



Another amusing story he told was about, I believe, his own little son, who is only 3 years old, and who has two older sisters, with, of course, one more person of the feminine gender, his mother. With Daddy at work, the little boy hears only the women/girls speaking all day. So one day Daddy comes home and the little boy says, "Папа, сегодня я пошла с Мамой в магазин." Papa replies, "Вот--ты--мальчик! Скажи: "Я поШЕЛ!" :)



After Mu-Mu, we went to the famous Sretensky Monastery. This is the one that Archimandrite Tikhon, who visited Holy Epiphany on the occasion of the translation of Metropolitan Philaret of NY's vestments to Moscow, is from. First we went to its bookstore, which is a whole separate building. Me! In that bookstore! Ah, yes, you can imagine. Actually, I only bought a calendar or two, a beautiful Orthodox date-book for 2008, and a likewise, a beautiful miniature book of the Sayings of the Optina Elders. And the November issue of Slavyanka Magazine. And one little item for my future grandchild. Books in Russia are unbelievably INexpensive, so going to the bookstore here doesn't mean losing your paycheck. Unless of course you stayed long enough.... ;)

Sretensky Monastery is right in the middle of the city--just across the street are stores and businesses. But it's surrounded by the traditional high wall, and inside--it's another world! Here is a picture of one of the icons that adorn the outside of the wall at various intervals: this one is of St. Alexis the New Royal Martyr.













Inside the Monastery walls...


beautiful grounds with gardens all over....



(yes, roses in late October)














a monument ...



















to "the Orthodox
Christians who were tortured and killed in this place in the years of revolt and trouble. Consecrated 8 September 1995 by His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' Alexii II."

We went inside briefly. There was another, very small gift shop/bookstore in the front, where I found a beautiful glass Holy Water bottle with a cross on top, and also a little vial of perfume oil from some bush called "Siryen."










It's already at least 4 o'clock, so we say good-bye to the Monastery and go out the main gate... and back out into the "world" --what a jolt after the peaceful gardens!

S Prazdnikom! С Праздником!

1/14 October Holy Protection Покров Пр. Богородицы

This is the Church of the Holy Protection--the smaller of two churches standing side-by-side within the walls of Pokrovsky (Zhensky) Monastery. In the lower part is the chapel of St. Matrona, where her holy relics lie. The upper, main church had been blocked off and closed when I first got here--they were renovating it precisely in time to be finished today, their Feast Day.

I got over to the Monastery none too early this morning--I was absolutely exhausted from teaching all day yesterday and then going straight to vigil--all this with a really bad cold.

So when I got there there the usual line was about 4 times as long! (Not like in this particular picture, taken earlier). I wasn't sure whether the line was waiting for the icon of St. Matrona (outside), or whether it was waiting to get into the church--in which case, the latter was hopeless. I decided to park myself as near as possible to the church doors, so at least I could hear some of the service and see the entrance! There were about 4 security guards there, keeping everyone out. There were a few people already in the entryway of the church, going up the inside steps, and, oddly enough, people seemed to be trickling back out. No one seemed to know just what was going on, or whether we could get in...

I was partly getting annoyed and partly amazed that security guards would be keeping people out (though, considering the unbelievable crowds--like, imagine Pascha at Holy Epiphany and at least double it--I suppose there has to be some kind of crowd control) when.... I got to see the lighter side of the guards. Suddenly one of them came down the steps towards us, looked at all the crowd, looked again, threw up his arms and laughed, and said, "Twenty people." You could see he felt sorry for everyone. Immediately I was just about squashed and being carried almost off my feet by the press of the enormous crowd, all trying to be the first to get through the small gateway. The "twenty" people got through and the gate closed just in front of me. Two guards started loudly telling people to push back. I was crestfallen. I prayed that the gates won't close in front of me to get into the Kingdom of Heaven! Then I prayed to the Mother of God to please let me in, even though I hadn't been waiting in line for hours the way the others had.

After 5 or 10 minutes, the guard came down again and said, "20 people." Again, I was suddenly being pressed by the crowd so hard that I began to understand how people's ribs could get broken in large crowds. I was moving--not on my own two feet, but by the press of the crowd, towards the little gate in front of me. Would I make it before the guard shut it again? ... YES! Just barely, as they were shutting the gate again, I got through--though my pocketbook almost didn't make it--I had to pull it hard to get it, too, past the people.

So, I got in! I was so happy! It was beautiful--heavenly. It's a very small church by Russian standards. The iconostas is actually semi-circular. As you can see, there are icons of the Apostles at the top of the iconostas, cut out and looking up to the Ascended Christ. If you double-click on the picture it might come up bigger, actual size. I was not actually in this main part of the church, but in the right side-chapel, dedicated to the Holy Apostles. They are connected by an archway, so I could see the left part of the iconostas, and everything that was going on in the very front of the church. I felt so happy to have gotten in--I was just basking in the beauty of it all.

The original iconostas must have been destroyed by the Bolsheviks, because this one is all "new" -- as is the case here, most newly-painted icons are in a more traditional style than their 19th-century (or earlier) counterparts. The original frescoes were still on the ceilings, however--I love them! They are scenes from the life of the Saviour and of the Apostles, complete with the chapter and verse written under each scene. It was like being inside a Bible story book! There was a lot of Baroque carved and gilt ornamentation, especially around the little shrines, with small signs posted near the large wall-icons asking people not to touch the gilding with their hands. It was all just newly-finished.

The picture doesn't really give the feel of it, because there were the two side-chapels--tiny little things, like, the whole altar of one was probably just big enough for one person to get into, but what we don't have at Holy Epiphany is the side chapel and the walls between the side-chapel. It's not a complete wall--you can walk through to the main church through a big archway.

The nuns sang beautifully--simply and clearly. Near the end, however, they progressed to something very complicated--I marvelled to hear these nuns suddenly singing diva virtuoso stuff! And you should have heard the priests (lots!) sing when they came out for the Little Entrance--best I've heard except in San Francisco. I got a little sound clip of it if I can put it on here....

After the Liturgy everyone started singing a wonderful little song to the Mother of God. It went like this (in 3/4 time):

Радуйся, Радосте наша!
Покры (?) нас от всякаго зла
Честным Твоим омофором.

(drat--doesn't seem to be a way to upload a sound clip into this blog...)

They sang that over and over again--it was very touching and very Russian!

I think there was also a Procession of the Cross--almost everyone went downstairs (out). I wasn't sure, though, and didn't go out because it was so hard to get in. I was able to get a prosfora and a little icon.

Finally went home, just in time! It was snowing when I left the church! Really coming down. Now it sounds more like rain again, though. Yuck.

Till next post,

Love,

Dimitra/Mom

Tuesday 2 October 2007

This morning I bought a new Metro (subway) pass for the month of October. This time I made sure that it covered the 4 forms of transportation: Metro, bus, trolleybus (bus with tires but hitched to electric wires overhead), and trolleycar.

Tonight, I walked a while from the Metro station towards home, but then a bus came pulling up and I decided to try out my new bus-capabilities. As I got on the bus, I asked the driver if she was going to Pokrovsky (Holy Protection) Monastery (up the street further, very near my apartment building, where I would have to get off). She said yes, so I started to put my pass through the ticket-spitter-outer. Moscow busses have turnstiles and ticket processors, just like at the entrance to a Metro station. She quickly stopped me: "Zhenschina! Ma'am! We're very close... You want Matrona? --just stand here at the front of the bus." In a minute we were right in front of Pokrovsky Monastery and she motioned to me to get out at the front, without punching the ticket. So highly is St. Matrona venerated in Moscow and all of Russia!

(More later on St. Matrona... If you look closely at the side of the Monastery wall, you will see that there are two large icons on it: on the left is the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God, and on the right is St Matrona. These are clearly visible from the street.)

Hello from Russia

Dear, dear Friends ! Sorry I haven't set this up sooner, but of course it was quite overwhelming being plunked smack down into a new country, and at the same time starting work, which, unfortunately, has to come before writing blogs! ;)

So, I have quite a lot to catch up on, and it will probably come little by little. Stay tuned and hopefully a little bit will be added each day.

The plane trip went well.... it seemed very surreal to be flying here, to have said good-bye to Sasha, Misha, and Edward at Logan Airport. Mostly, I didn't at all feel as if I were saying good-bye--I'm with you in spirit, thinking of everyone all the time--but I did completely "lose it" and start crying as I hugged Sasha.... The plane was an hour late taking off, therefore, an hour late arriving, too. Yorik as as good as gold the whole flight! The really interesting thing was that the entry in Tsaritsa Martyr Alexandra's favorite little book, "Day by Day," the entry for the day was about St. Peter walking on the water and how we have to trust the Saviour and look to Him; and when we do that we can even step out onto something that seeminly will not support us. I read this as I sat in the airplane, supported only by air..... It made me feel better, too, about flying off into the unknown, far away from family and friends.....

Waiting at the airport in Moscow was not too much fun with two HUGE, over-weight suitcases... I never did find the carts so I had to lug them by hand. There were a couple of English-speaking Midwestern business types in front of me in the line through Customs. A simple wave of the passport and I was through. Finally I found the Language Link people at the other end, outdoors--they had been waiting the extra hour, too! It was the faithful and amazing driver, Artyom (Artem), and also a brand-new LL intern from the States. Artem managed to pack my two HUGE suitcases, the other intern's, as well as our own persons into a small, little Russian car--oh--not to forget poor Yorik in his carry-case!! He was so good--he didn't make a sound during the whole time. And he even more or less preferred to remain in his carrier, until we got to the apartment.

Here in the picture you see one of the first sights outside the airport. How strange to see a sign that says, "Moscow--St. Petersburg!" You know, not "Boston, 128" or something. I was very pleased to see that there were lots and lots of trees and everything was very green--not how I had envisioned Moscow. Later I found out it wasn't Moscow, but Zelenograd, aptly named. The buildings there were certainly different from the US: every building was colored and decorated--none of this uniform gray concrete or tan brick. Things are different in Russia! (more to follow, got to get to work, stay tuned...)