| Vol. VI, No. 5 | Young Orthodox Mail | May 2005 |
Food for the Soul: Spiritual Pilgrimage - The Journey is the DestinationWhat is the goal of the spiritual journey? We hear so much these days about the spiritual quest, and about life as a great pilgrimage. Is what the world has to offer a fulfillment of this journey? What is pilgrimage? The dictionary defines it as first of all a “journey undertaken by a pilgrim to some distant place, sacred and venerable for some reason, undertaken for devotional purposes.” It can also have a more figurative meaning as the “journey of human life; the period between birth and death.” Is it possible to see the journey as the same thing as the destination? Does this sound confusing? The spiritual journey in life consists not just in the destination. We can also say that the journey itself is the destination since it can reveal so much to us. Have you ever gone on a trip with friends or family and wound up enjoying the drive there as much as the trip itself? This is the same sort of principle. How is it possible to speak of our life as a pilgrimage, or journey? On this earth we are pilgrims in a foreign land journeying towards our heavenly homeland where Christ is sitting at the Right hand of the Father. Our whole life is a long journey toward becoming more like Christ. In the Church we participate in a foretaste of this heavenly Kingdom which is to come. In St. Paul 's letter to the Hebrews he writes, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” What does it mean that Christ is the author and finisher of our faith? Our journey begins and ends with Christ. As we daily take up our cross, as He voluntarily took up His, we participate in His Kingdom here and now. This taking up the cross is laying “aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us.” If the Kingdom of God is the destination, then it is our daily ascetic work that makes present this Kingdom here and now. It is an “already” and a “not yet.” This is what it means to be a true pilgrim. We need to experience the reality of what we confess. We confess Christ crucified and glorified on His voluntary cross for our sin and salvation. We need also to experience this in our lives. Someone once said, “Not only in history but also in the depths of the human soul Christ is born, dies, and rises...It is in this inwardness that the bonds between God and man are forged and the itinerary of the spiritual life is formed.” How do you think that Christ is born, dies, and rises in our soul? We have difficult situations in our lives that we try to deal with. Christ is with us in our weakness. As Christians we proclaim the resurrection by our very lives. We confess Christ as risen from the dead, and this power is our strength in times of adversity. We can actively bring our whole life to Christ as an offering, and there we find the strength to live day by day. Christ is our destination, so let us look to Him. Christ is with us in our journey, so let us take up our cross daily. If we become focused only on the end result we will fail to see the grace of God right in front of us. It is only when we see what is right in front of us that we will realize that we are right where we need to be. Thus the journey becoms the destination. Lord, come, for we are your pilgrims.
In the News: Pilgrimage Marks 100 Anniversery of Founding of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk Monaster - South Cannaan, PAThe Monastery of St Tikhon of Zadonsk, founded in 1905, is the first and oldest Orthodox monastery in this land and in the “new world” and, from its very foundation, has hosted and been a place of pilgrimage for Orthodox faithful.
Knowing that monasticism is essential for the healthy flourishing of a local Orthodox Church, the young Hieromonk, later Archbishop, Arseny (Chagovtsev), who had arrived in America in 1902, conceived the idea of starting a monastery in America. In his vision, the monastery would serve as a "mother house" for monastics who were engaged in mission work in various places in North America ; they could return periodically for spiritual rejuvenation. Through Arseny's dedicated efforts and aided by Archbishop (Saint) Tikhon, the ruling hierarch of Orthodox Church in North America at that time, suitable land was found: the Wagner farm in Western Wayne County, near the village of South Canaan. On June 26, 1905, the land for the new monastery was purchased for $2,580 by Archbishop Tikhon and Hieromonk Arseny--the founders of St Tikhon's Monastery The first Pilgrimage to St Tikhon's Monastery opened on July 29, 1905. On July 31 the grounds were dedicated by Bishop Raphael (Hawaweeny), and on that day, the first Divine Liturgy was served, in an open place on a knoll where the Monastery Church now stands. A cross was planted on the spot. Bishop Raphael was the chief celebrant; among the concelebrating clergy was Fr Alexander Hotovitsky and very likely Fr John Kochurov as well. In later years these two priests would be martyred in Russia , being formally glorified as saints in 1994. The services that day were in honor of St Tikhon of Zadonsk, who was Archbishop Tikhon's patron saint and partly for that reason, he was selected as the new monastery's patron saint. The official opening and consecration of the monastery took place on May 30, 1906. At the opening festivities gifts from Mount Athos arrived: an icon of the Theotokos "She Who Is Quick To Hear," and one of St Panteleimon; both icons are still cherished by the monastery community and venerated by pilgrims. Hundreds of pilgrims from local parishes and New York and New Jersey carried the icons in a cross-procession beginning at Mayfield , PA. Traveling by train, the assembly was joined in Carbondale by Mitred Archpriest (Saint) Alexis Toth. The pilgrims--whose numbers had greatly exceeded expectations, so that two chartered trains, with twenty coaches filled to capacity--detrained in the forest near the monastery and sang church hymns as the procession with the holy icons advanced through the woods. After some eighty minutes, the pilgrims caught sight of a blue cupola with a three-barred cross, in the midst of a deep forest--it was the monastery! Since that time each year at the Memorial Day Pilgrimage, all are invited to come and share in the joy of the divine services, just as the thousands did at the first such pilgrimage. Pilgrimage, a journey to a Holy Place , such as St. Tikhon's Monastery where saints have walked, prayed, and lived, is an age-old tradition of the Orthodox Church. For 100 years this annual event has been and continues to be a time where the hierarchs, clergy, and laity of our Church in North America come in great numbers to participate in the Church's prayers, worship and fellowship. To be present in the beautiful Monastery Church --to participate in the prayers--brings joy, peace, and renewed strength to the soul. All who come are spiritually refreshed and nourished by joining their prayers to those of so many others, offered throughout the Vigils, the Divine Liturgies, and Akathist Hymn, and by partaking of the Holy Mysteries of Confession, Communion, and Unction throughout the 4-day event. Pilgrims are also renewed by journeying to a place physically blessed with solitude and quiet, located outside the realm of our daily routine, to meet with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and to commune with them in spiritual fellowship.
On the Calendar : Annual Pilgrimage to St. Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery - South Cannaan, PA - May 27-30, 2005Join the thousands of pilgrims from throughout North America and visit this holy site in North America, the first Orthodox Monastery in North America and the place where saints have walked. Special events include the consecration of a new bishop for Mexico, the blessing of new monastery bells and the blessing of a new museum in honor of Metropolitan Theodosius, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America from 1977-2002. The weekend schedule is: FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2005
Special Featrure: The Pilgrimage Tradition to the Holy Mount of Grabarka and the Monastery of SS Mary and Martha - Grabarka , PolandPilgrimage is a tradition which is universal throughout the Orthodox world. In September 2003 His Beatitude Metropolitan Herman, while on His Primatial visit to the Autocephalous Church of Poland, paid a visit to the most popular site of pilgrimage in Poland , St Mary and Martha's Monastery on the Holy Mount of Grabarka in Eastern Poland . After His visit His Beatitude stated, "In many ways, the Saints Martha and Mary Monastery is to the Church in Poland what our own Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery is to our Orthodox Church in America . Passing through the Grabarka monastery's gates, I immediately felt the same blessings that all of us have felt so many times when passing through the arch of our own beloved monastery."
In 1710 the Holy Mount became famous for a miracle that happened during a plague of cholera which ravaged the population of eastern Poland . People died in masses and left villages and towns in panic. It was revealed to a local villager that people may find salvation from the epidemic in a forest on the Holy Mount of Grabarka. As the faithful arrived from surrounding The monastery hosts two pilgrimages each year, one for the feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord in which people walk for five days from the provincial capital of Bialystok, and the second as a Paschal pilgrimage for youth which gathers thousands of youth from Poland and Belarus journey to the Holy Mount for a weekend of prayer and fellowship.
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villages to the Holy Mount they erected a cross and prayed to God. All who journeyed to the mount and drank from its spring were miraculously healed. Since the time of this event inhabitants of the area have made pilgrimage to the holy mount. According to the notes from the chronicles of a local parish about ten thousand people gathered there in the summer of 1710. That same year people who were saved from the plague erected a wooden chapel dedicated to the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord. From this early time the holy mount was a well known pilgrimage center. In 1947 a monastic community was establish on the holy mount. To this day pilgrims following in the tradition of the first pilgrims in 1710, bring crosses and plant them around the main church. 
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