Holy Archangel Michael Church in Southbridge, MA, and our AROLA members had the joy to once again welcome Mother Gabriela Ursache as a guest speaker for our Women AND Open retreats on March 29th -31st. This was another successful retreat with about 90 attendees.
Because last year many women expressed the desire for their entire family to meet Mother Gabriela, this year we structured our event in such a way to assure everyone’s participation in Mother Gabriela’s lectures.
Friday night, March 29th was dedicated to women only. The lecture on The Image of the Mother of God in the Church and Family brought women attention. As usual, the Question & Answers session was considered the most interesting part of the lecture because of the opportunity to ask practical questions for the spiritual life.
Friday, during the Women Retreat we considered the best opportunity to announce and congratulate one of the winnersof AROLA’s Mother of Year prize, Sophia Pitsillides, member of Holy Archangel Michael Church. Sophia is a Deputy Principal of a school in Auburn, is a wife, a mother of five beautiful children, and a pious Orthodox believer (a convert). The diploma and the present (3 very inspired books in English about raising children), sent to our parish by AROLA through the love and effort of Mrs. Mirela Manga, were granted to Sophia during the retreat. Tears and joy mixed together!
Mirela Manga, were handed over to Sophia during the retreat. Tears and joy were mixing together!
From the first lecture we would like to share with our readers some of the most important ideas Mother Gabriela brought forth to the public attention.
- The Holy Mother is the icon of the perfect unity between man and God. She is a model both for women, and for men. In the Holy Mother we understand the women’s priesthood: to bear children. The fruits of the womb are the women’s priesthood.
- Jesus Christ interacted with women. He spoke to women, allowed them to ask questions. Jesus had female disciples
- The virtues of the Holy Mother urge us to follow her model in our life.
- Martha is the symbol of the services to the Lord and Mary is the symbol of discipleship. Martha knew the Scripture and she confessed that Jesus was God: “Yes, Lord I know that you will resurrect… (John 11:24).” Marystayed at the foot of our Lord listening to His teaching. Martha and Mary as sisters represent the services to our neighbors.
- God poured the gift of prophecy upon both men, and women, young and old.
- The grace of the Holy Spirit is given to each of us according to the measure of God’s gift. We all are called to grow spiritually and to attain the maturity of manhood, the fullness of God.
- The woman's principal role in the family is to nurture the souls of all members of the family, to maintain discipline, and good order in the house.
- We women should improve our spiritual life to be an example for the entire family.
- When we work on ourselves by personal discipline, prayer rules, patience, humility, and love we help the family and model our children.
- Marriage is the image of Christ ‘s unity with the C
- Unity of the marriage is not only in body but also in soul.
- The spouses should uphold each other. One has some gifts, and the other has other gifts. They complete each other.
- Women are the priests of the family. They set up an icon corner, they are taking care of the children's daily prayers, and the men are the providers. If the mother has a special relationship with the Holy Mother she brings that relationship into the family, to her children.
- The wife and the husband should be obedient to each other.
- Discipline and teach the kids when they are young. When we pray to our Lord and especially to our Holy Mother, we are too busy or impatient to hear her answer. We have to have patience to listen to her answer and give thanks to everything, even giving thanks for not giving us what we were praying for. When we ask Her something in prayer, we already have our expectation about what the answer should be.
- All strengths stay in humility because pride is fragile.
- God became incarnate to make us new people, not better people.
- The hearts of the mother and the child (in the womb) have the same rhythm, and it is also an example of the perfect union between the Holy Mother and God.
- The Holy Mother is the prototype of the virgin (monastic) and mothers. Virginity is not only physical, but it also means the guarding of our senses.
- When we do not appreciate the gift, we do not appreciate the giver. When people do not respect and revere the mysteries of the Church, they do not respect and revere God, the Giver.
- Preserving virginity before marriage is beautiful. The union between man and women is blessed by God in the marriage. Abstinence is hard, especially at a young age, but it is beautiful. If we fall, there is repentance, and we can change anytime we realize that we did something wrong. We never know when our end will come.
- When we mature spiritually, we can go back to confession and make a lifetime confession. Fr. Roman did lifetime confessions several times before he died. When you remember something you did not confess before, run to confession.
Friday, we finished our day with community prayer: the evening prayer. The prayers were conducted by Fr. John and Mother Gabriella.
Saturday, March 30th we started the day with the participation in the Divine Liturgy followed by Memorial services. Our cantors welcomed the guest cantors who together offered a very nice, spiritual byzantine chanting, both for Divine Liturgy and Vespers.
Saturday retreat was an Open Retreat, allowing the participation of men and children along with the women.
The first lecture: “Home as church - Prayer as the door to Joy”
Some ideas from the first lecture:
- To be a spiritual person means to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
- To be mature in Christ is opposite to jealousy, envy, to have your own will, anger, etc.
- A family cannot be spiritual without communal prayer.
- If we do not establish a family prayer rule before we have children, it will be very difficult to have a family prayer rule afterwards.
- There are some rules for the prayer:
- We stay in front of the icons, and we read the prayers from the books.
- When we are used to these kinds of prayers we go to noetic prayer, to the stillness and peacefulness.
- Then our attention goes to the heart and warms it, and then we become humble.
- A family who does not pray together does not stay together.
- The discipline of prayer is very important. We should say the morning and evening prayers. During difficult times we can add more prayers. We can also add more prayers during joyous times.
- If we show a superficial attitude towards God and prayer, it can be very damaging for the children.
- We have to prepare our children for how to face the world, the temptations; how to keep their faith in an unbelieving world. To teach them to resist the world and not to imitate it, and to not compromise.
- Basil the Great said in the Homily for the youth that he who does not have a work discipline does not have the prayer discipline.
- The conscience is the voice of God in us.
- We should pray: God, the Holy Spirit, speak to me. May it be according to Your Word. Your will be done, not mine.
After lunch, the second lecture: “Climbing the Ladder of the Virtues”
Important ideas:
- Our soul is the soil where we cultivate virtues. What we sow is what we harvest.
- Love of the world comes from the love of our body but Love of God comes from love of the spirit.
- There are moral virtues (kindness, joy, peace, faithfulness, courage, moral justice, etc.), and spiritual virtues; (humility, freedom from pride, prayer, longing for the kingdom of God, etc.) and theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity.
- Vices include laziness, ignorance, jealousy, self-love, forgetfulness, love of material things, greediness, avarice, gluttony, anger, self-esteem/vanity, etc.
- Avarice is the root of many evils.
- We oppose gluttony with abstinence. Cut down the portion.
- We oppose avarice with compassion for the poor; anger by good will; self-esteem/vanity by doing good deeds in secret. Pride by not judging or despising others; anger by humility.
- What is anger good for? We should be angry against sin, and against demons, but not angry because other people do not do my will, or because they are not as I would like them to be.
- If you are fighting against avarice, you have to detach yourself from the material things. See what you can renounce. Avarice comes from the fear that we do not have enough, and this is why we do not share with others. If we are able to surpass this fear, we will see that the more we give, the more we get. Being responsible is good, but keeping everything God gave us is bad.
- Everything we have is from God and it should be returned to God by giving alms, and giving to the church.
- We will not be freed of passions if we do not practice the virtues.
- Virtues should be cultivated in our souls; we do this when we choose to be better.
- Prayer is a virtue; the soul is eager to be with God.
- There are 3 stages of the spiritual life:
- Slave – obey because of the fear of God.
- Servant – obey seeking for rewards.
- Sons and daughters of God – love motivates obedience.
After the two lectures and Questions and Answers session we ended the day by attending the Vespers
Sunday, March 31st after Matins and Divine Liturgy mother Gabriela had the last lecture about Monastic life and living as an Orthodox Christian in the present time.
Our attendees thanked us for another wonderful retreat being ready for the next one – Young Adults Retreat and Open Retreat (allowing all ages, May 30th – June 1st-2nd, with guest speaker Fr. Turbo Qualls.
