Services were prayerfully held in the convents of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem during the first week of Great Lent.
Morning services included readings from the holy fathers. Excerpts from the Ladder of St. John Climacus, works of St. Ephraim the Syrian and stories from the lives of ancient ascetics were read.
The head of the REM, Archimandrite Roman (Krassovsky), spent the first three days in the Holy Ascension Convent on Olivet, and the second part of the week in the monastery of St. Mary Magdalene in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the evenings at Great Compline Fr. Roman read the great penitential canon of St. Andrew of Crete. On Wednesday and Friday the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts was served. The sisters of the monasteries fasted all week and partook Holy Communion on St. Theodore Saturday, which this year coincided with the feast of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste.
After the service on Saturday, Fr. Roman’s co-servers and the sisters of the convent congratulated Fr. Roman on the occaision of his sixty-fifth birthday.
Morning services included readings from the holy fathers. Excerpts from the Ladder of St. John Climacus, works of St. Ephraim the Syrian and stories from the lives of ancient ascetics were read.
The head of the REM, Archimandrite Roman (Krassovsky), spent the first three days in the Holy Ascension Convent on Olivet, and the second part of the week in the monastery of St. Mary Magdalene in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the evenings at Great Compline Fr. Roman read the great penitential canon of St. Andrew of Crete. On Wednesday and Friday the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts was served. The sisters of the monasteries fasted all week and partook Holy Communion on St. Theodore Saturday, which this year coincided with the feast of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste.
After the service on Saturday, Fr. Roman’s co-servers and the sisters of the convent congratulated Fr. Roman on the occaision of his sixty-fifth birthday.
