St Dumitru Monastery Trip

On the Feast Day of Ascension some young adults from here at St George and St Basil’s in Troy made a Pilgrimage down to St Dumitru Romanian Orthodox Monastery in Middletown, NY. This trip was a great blessing to us all. 

Thursday Evening

We arrived at the Monastery around 5:45pm and were shown to our rooms. At 6pm, we headed to Vespers, and afterwards we went to evening Trapeza (table or meal). We attended Compline at 8pm, which concluded with an Akathist to St Parascheva of Iaşi. Following Compline there was around 1 hour of the Jesus Prayer in silence in the church.

Wednesday Morning

In the morning, Orthros began at 6am, followed by Divine Liturgy and Holy Unction. We had a short break after Unction when Fr Iakob from the Monastery showed us around and spoke to us about some of the founding Fathers of the Monastery. At 11am we sat down to Trapeza. This meal was followed by a time where Fr Ieramia the Abbot spoke with us on prayer. Following this conversation we helped the monks with some work and then we headed home. 

The visit was grace-filled and spiritually refreshing. Having an opportunity to participate in the rhythm of the Monastery and a very concentrated version of the Orthodox Christian life centered on prayer was educational for the soul.

One of the things that Fr Ieramia spoke about was how prayer is like breathing. No one is congratulated because they breath—in a similar manner no one is (or should be) congratulated because they pray—but rather we ought to see prayer as absolutely essential for us to have life in Christ. 

Thank God for this great blessing!