The events of the sunny August

The last month of the summer gave us many sunny days. As the rays of sun, have the August feasts shined: the day of the All-Merciful Savior, the Transfiguration of the Lord, the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. In addition, the Lord has filled the last summer days with amazing encounters and good impressions. We want to remember those events once again and to thank God for them.

On this day, everyone wanted to shower one another with mercy – just as our All-Merciful Savior showers each one of us with mercy. On the church feast day of our church, bishop Evgeniy gave the sisters and the parishioners a grace-filled liturgical service and a moving pastoral sermon; the priests made everyone happy with their love and kindness; the sisters treated everyone with fresh honey, and the children after the service inspired the adults with their bright, harmonious singing.

The feast of the Transfiguration all speaks about light. Unearthly light is the subject of hymnody in the church; light fills the heaven and the earth; the faces and hearts are full of light... And one more little spark to add to the all-light feast – the good tradition of blessing the apples.

A joyous event for the sisters of our monastery became the pilgrimage to the Alapayevsk St.-Elizabeth women's monastery. How much adorned has become the site sanctified by the last days of life of the holy martyr princess Elisaveta Feodorovna! Peace and prayer reign here; pilgrims are received here with love; and in the District school where the great princess Elizabeth and her companions had been kept is now a beautiful museum with a number of authentic exhibit items. Come, you will not be disappointed! The sisters also visited the monastery in honor of the neo-martyrs and confessors of Russia at the site of the mine where St. Elizabeth and St. Barbara along with sons of the great prince Konstantin had suffered.

The feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos completes the church year peacefully and radiantly, – as a sunny day is completed with a beautiful sunset. The Pascha of Theotokos... On icons and the shroud, the Theotokos rests on her deathbed, at the same time ascending with her soul to the Kingdom of Heaven, carried in the arms of Her Son and God. Her intercessions for us do not cease there, while we are glorifying Her here on earth. In accordance with the old monastery tradition, the sisters bake soft buns for parishioners in honor of Her Dormition. Before the revolution, on the feast of Dormition, at the monastery during the anointing at the Vigil, each parishioner would be given a whole wheat loaf. Presently this tradition was revived at our monastery. This feast was peaceful and joyous also at the holy Simeon land in Merkushino where our metochion is located.