Holy Resurrection Monastery celebrates tonsure of Fr. Paiisi

NAZIANZ — A Divine Liturgy brought together four jurisdictions of Greek-Catholic communities, as well as the local Roman Catholic community, on Feb. 16 at St. Gregory Church. The liturgy celebrated the life tonsure of Fr. Paiisi into the monastic brotherhood of Holy Resurrection Monastery.

Catholics worldwide number around 1 billion, with the vast majority belonging to the Roman Catholic Church. About 20 million belong to the 21 Eastern Catholic Churches. The largest of these are churches of the Byzantine tradition, to which the monks at Holy Resurrection belong.

Fr. Paiisi, whose birth name is Patrick Firman, is a member of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. In honor of his faith background, Bishop Benedict Aleksiychuk, eparch of St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy in Chicago, joined Abbot Nicholas Zachariadis, leader of the Holy Resurrection monastic community, for the tonsure ceremony, which is equivalent to a solemn profession in the Roman Catholic Church.

continue at The Compass

Oh how I wish it were a little closer.  I hope I can visit soon.

Your Stories: Livin' the monk life in St. Nazianz

This is a totally bad@ss picture of Fr. Isaac

Your Stories: A Wisconsin Video Series is a weekly video storytelling project from USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.

Today's video from Sarah Kloepping introduces you to the monks of St. Nazianz. Behind the walls of Holy Resurrection Monastery in rural Manitowoc County, the 10 Eastern Catholic monks who reside there focus on a life of prayer. While their mission is the same, each monk is from a different state or country — including Australia, Canada and Ireland — and all of them have a story to tell about how they ended up in the village of St. Nazianz.

Sigh, I hope to be back soon. Totally worth the trip.

Fr. Isaac Lenten advice

There is no shortage of good advice for making Lent fruitful. Every year, when Lent begins, there are articles, videos, blog posts, and so forth explaining how to prosper during Lent. It is wonderful that we have these. In our times, when secularism runs rampant, they are necessary. I want to give you a few bits of advice that come from some of the greatest experts we have.

continue at Along the Way

Holy Resurrection Monastery raises $100,000 in Lenten campaign

First, don't they just look awesome?
Second, this is great news, I need to go back soon.
Third, watch the video, "Old Evangelization" is invoked.
Fourth, there's a lot of work still to be done.  Consider becoming a monthly contributor.

Christos Anesti my monks!

Byzantine monk and nun debut cooking show, featuring Fr. Moses of Holy Resurrection Monastery

At a time when Christians are supposed to be “giving up stuff,” what are a monk and a nun doing in the kitchen cooking tasty meals?

All Lent long, the two religious have been producing weekly cooking programs, tempting viewers to think about food rather than encouraging them to practice self-denial.

But there’s more to their web-based program, Eastern Hospitality, than meets the palate....

...

“I think we’re trying to encourage people to live the faith by practicing the traditions of the Church,” said Abouna (or Father) Moses, who is a monk at Holy Resurrection Monastery in St. Nazianz, Wisconsin. “Those have been lost over the years for all kinds of reasons, so we’re trying to help people reconnect with the traditions.”

continue at Aleteia

I can attest that Father Moses is a fantastic chef.

Also: Chef-turned-monk puts baking skills to good use at St. Nazianz monastery

Holy Resurrection Monastery, St. Nazienz, WI

This was a great trip.  So some time ago I've set my sights on visiting Holy Resurrection Monastery.  The abbot appeared on EWTN a couple years ago, which is well worth the watch.

A friend and I drove over on a Wednesday after work, stayed all day Thursday and left the following Friday.   We arrived late, and it was dark but we knocked and Br. Isaac came to the door and let us in and showed us to our rooms.  They have I think around 20 guest rooms.  The building used to be a sort of retirement home for a religious order at one point.   Br. Isaac and all the monks were very hospitable and friendly.  However, I didn't realize the Nativity Fast (Advent) started 40 days before Christmas (this was the week before Thanksgiving).  The monks do have group guided retreats but also they support themselves by having guests stay (suggested $60/night).  So this was not part of a retreat, just a pilgrimage and a peek into the monastic life.

We woke up the next morning to the noise of a hammer hitting a two by four,.... which is the call to prayer.  We went down and folks, it was great.  All this emphasis in our region on "relevance" or whatever in liturgy, the liturgy is 2,000 years old, and that is the impression I was left with overwhelmingly.  The East clearly, dare I say much more so than the West, is connected to an ancient faith, not just a faith and religion that was founded by the God-Man at Calvary, but the faith that connects us to the foundation of the universe.  .... am I going a little too deep here?  Sure, but whatever...  There is no way to explain the faith to someone in the way the liturgy is able.  The ritual itself "speaks" without a need for interjection or overatures.  Over time, sure a deeper meaning is found, but this liturgy we share with the East is profound; this ritual.  One time I was at a parish where the pastor would rail against what he called "ritualism" and on the surface it seems to make sense but the concept whithers to dust under examination.  Humans are made for ritual.  We have rituals for everything in life.  It is utterly absurd to reject every ritual, unless brushing our teeth really has lost it's deeper meaning.  Ritual gives the mundane meaning.  ... Perhaps I haven't adequately expressed this thought, but I'll hop off the soapbox now.

The monks are Greek Catholic, but most of the liturgy is in English.  Although Abbot Nicholas was out of town (at the annual USCCB meeting), they arranged to have Divine Liturgy(Mass) for us as well.  Some differences, but was possible to follow along  (attending the Extraordinary Form helps build up the muscle to look for those visible or audible signposts in the liturgy).  I joked with the monks about praying for a chef-become-monk to join them(As you may know they do a monthly bake sale to help support the monastery).  We ate our meals in the cafeteria with the monks.  As some of them ate nothing but a plain potato I realized then that, yes, the Eastern Advent started already.  They were permitted to converse during some of the meals, which was great.  Oh, and another note, if you are not familiar with the Gift of Tears, if a monk falls down and weeps for his sins... he's doing it right.  Similar to the gift of tongues it is a charismatic gift of the Holy Spirit.

I go to a lot of Catholic men's conferences and things of that sort but this truly was a retreat and a pilgrimage.  Not that there's anything wrong with the conferences, but spending a day at a monastery is a traditional way to break away from the world for prayer.  Let see, what else, the chapel is beautiful, Eastern, and smallish.  I tried to get a sense in a couple of the panoramic shots.  The closeness and intimacy definitely added to the experience.  I forget which of the monks said it, but they are happy to host whole families with children in tow.  Families visit and they rather enjoy hosting them.  That surprised me but was really encouraging.

Wow, this ended up being a long post, in my typical incoherent style.  See what happens when The Germans give me a little free time.  This visit was so good it's something I plan to do annually and make it a cornerstone of my yearly prayer life.  #SaveTheMonasteriesSaveTheWorld


Also:
Catholic World Report: Seeking Stakeholders to Save a Byzantine Catholic Monastery
Road Trip: Holy Resurrection Monastery
Chef-turned-monk puts baking skills to good use at St. Nazianz monastery

Monks Online:
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Out rest of this week

Here.  So pumped.  I have the camera ready(remember when I used to post pictures of Catholic destination in Wisconsin?), so I'll let you know how it goes.


Update: From a friend

By the way, interesting coincident that you're going to monastery today because today is the anniversary of way when Dostoevsky was sentenced to death.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fyodor-dostoevsky-is-sentenced-to-death

Holy Resurrection Monastery scales back restoration, 80% to goal for needed repairs

Friends, we have some important news! Thanks to your generosity we have (as previously announced) raised enough money to complete the water proofing of our building. It turns out we were able to do this considerably under budget.

This in turn means that we are almost in a position to work on the interior repairs that you have been helping us to do.

And the other good news is that we are advised that the exterior stucco cleaning we want to do is not urgent. The surface is sealed. The stucco is unsightly but not a hazard in need of immediate attention.

Finally, we have decided to postpone the dome addition.

All this means that we have adjusted our current fund raising goal down from $150,000 to $45,000. You have raised 80% of this amount. Just a little more and we're through to our target!

Thank you. May God bless you all.

GoFundMe

More at: hrmonline.org

Chef-turned-monk puts baking skills to good use at St. Nazianz monastery

https://t.co/LdeDRvVbXV Chef-turned-monk, @AbounaMoses, puts baking skills to good use at St. Nazianz monastery pic.twitter.com/pAXryaBRpC

— The Compass (@thecompassnews) January 28, 2016

ST. NAZIANZ — The smell of freshly baked pies, cookies, pizzas and other tasty treats makes the kitchen at Holy Resurrection Monastery a shrine for the senses. Thanks to Fr. Moses Wright, a former chef and one of the monastery’s Byzantine monks, guests have another reason to visit, pray or make a retreat at Holy Resurrection.

Before joining the Byzantine-rite community, Fr. Moses, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., worked as a cook at various hotels and restaurants in the New York area. While serving as a private chef on a yacht in Greece, he said he was introduced to the Byzantine liturgy and spirituality and gave up the chef’s apron for a monk’s habit.

“I’ve always enjoyed cooking and it was a toss-up for me to become a chef or to join a monastery,” he said. Thanks to the opportunity to sell freshly baked goods as a fund-raiser for the monastery, “I’ve been able to do both.”

continue at The Compass

I would really like to get up to the monastery for a visit this year.

Holy Resurrection Monastery completes first step of repairs to building

Because of your kind and generous donations, we have completed the first step of our Go Fund Me repairs. THANK YOU! The soffit, fascia and trim are repaired and the building is now waterproof. Given the winter months and the precipitation they entail, this step will keep us from having to constantly pour money into patch jobs and allow us to focus on other essentials.

Through your donations we are already half way through the raising of the money to complete the second stage. This stage involves necessary interior repairs to the building. This step has grown in urgency as our community has increased in size. These repairs include fixing cracks which effect the structural integrity of the building, and repairing floors and ceilings in the monks living quarters which were damaged due to previous flooding. Having waterproofed the building, we are now prepared to move forward with this step. 5,000 dollars will bring this stage to completion.

In other news: We recently received Three new postulants into the Monastery. WE ARE GROWING!

 continue at Help The Monks Survive

These repairs really are needed.  Please consider supporting the monks!

Facebook pulls Compass story due to ‘abusive content’

Facebook has blocked a story link from The Compass website about a Byzantine monk’s battle with Facebook about his religious title.

GREEN BAY – A story about a Byzantine monk’s decision to legally change his name in order to use his religious title on Facebook — posted on The Compass website Aug. 14 and shared on its Facebook page that same day — was blocked by Facebook due to “abusive” content.

On Monday morning, Aug. 17, The Compass contacted Facebook seeking an explanation.

The incident began after The Compass interviewed Fr. Moses Wright, known to friends on Facebook as Hierodeacon Moses, about changing his name in order to comply with Facebook regulations on authentic identities. On Aug. 12, Facebook changed his profile name from Hierodeacon Moses to his given name, Michael Wright. The next day, Fr. Moses, who lives at Holy Resurrection Monastery in St. Nazianz, drove to the Manitowoc County Courthouse to begin the process of legally changing his name.

continue at The Compass

This is French Revolutionist.  It is ridiculous that Facebook is either woefully ignorant or blatantly persecuting Christians who have for 2,000 years beginning with Peter taken a religious name after birth.  As a social media platform I prefer Twitter anyway.  Facebook may be a juggernaut but I'm not sure it will stay that way if at a platform level it continues to push political positions.

Holy Resurrection Monastery able to raise $35K on the way to repairing and restoring facilities

Generous Benefactors,
Brothers & Sisters,

WE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE that, in conjunction with offline donations, we have managed to raise the $35,000 to begin the waterproofing of our monastery.

Abbot Nicholas spoke with the contractor yesterday and that particular company is now readying itself for the next step. We just have to sit back now and pray that all goes well.

We look forward to giving you updates on the repair work as well as our next goal: repairing the interiors destroyed by water damage (which is only $10,000; a third of what was needed for the waterproofing).

IN OTHER NEWS, this past week we were happy to celebrate the Great Feast of Pentecost. With many of the local families who have supported our ministry here over the years, our small church was PACKED on Sunday. [Ohhh how I wish I lived closer!]

We wish nothing but the best for all of you during this holy season of Holy Pentecost!

Our Church at Pentecost

GoFundMe: Help The Monks Survive

Byzantine Rite gets a Pentecost Season!  Who'd a thunk it!

If you haven't donated, please consider it!

Manitowoc Herald Times: Monks raising money to save St. Nazianz monastery

Some excellent coverage!

ST. NAZIANZ – The walls of Holy Resurrection Monastery hold decades of history.

But as that history accumulates, the building continues to deteriorate.

The Eastern Catholic community of monks, which moved to the St. Nazianz property from the Mojave Desert in California, is trying to raise about $140,000 for renovations to their home.

"There was a little damage before we came here three years ago, but it's progressed," said Abbot Nicholas Zachariadis, elected leader of the community, which practices traditional Byzantine monasticism. "It needs to be repaired quickly, otherwise the damage will just get worse and worse to this wonderful, historical building."

Built in separate sections beginning in the 1860s, the building was used as an orphanage and hospital until 1895 when it was converted into a convent.

St. Nazianz was founded in 1854 as a Catholic utopian community by Fr. Ambrose Oschwald, who traveled to Wisconsin from Germany with a small group of settlers. The village was named after St. Gregory of Nazianzus.

continue at MHT

 Have you donated?  Please do!

Holy Resurrection Monastery in need of donations

If we can get 500 people to donate $25/month for a year we would reach our goal easily, so please consider a monthly...
Posted by Holy Resurrection Monastery on Monday, March 30, 2015

"Christ is a light for Angels, Angels are a light for monks, and monks are a light for all lay people."

-St. John Climicus
The Ladder of Divine Ascent

Folks, let's be generous!!!

Help support Holy Resurrection Monastery in Nazianz

Post by Holy Resurrection Monastery.

Video: Abbot Nicholas Zachariadis on EWTN

Good stuff!

Seriously, Abbot is fantastic, I must visit the monastery. 

EWTN tonight: New Byzantine‬ monestary in Wisconsin

Post by EWTN.

Abbot Nicholas on EWTN Live

Abbot Nicholas will be appear on EWTN Live April 9, 8:00 pm Eastern Time. The interview will be repeated on April 10 at 1:00 am and 9:00 am. While he’s in Alabama, Father Abbot will also visit St. George Melkite Greek Catholic Church in Birmingham and give a series of talks as part of the parish lenten program.

Holy Resurrection