Maria Kirkulescu
February 2009
A frozen forest, a small church,
few monks - all young Americans, smiling. The tomb of Fr. Seraphim Rose
is a short distance away, behind the church.The February night comes
quickly.
We learn that there is only one
cell for women with two beds. For men there is also only one cell, but
with many more beds. Fr. Moses appears, a black man...very black. In the
night one can only see his teeth, smiling as he gives us hospitality.
He is tall, around two meters! He leads us to the cell where he has
started a fire. Then I suddenly associated him with the icon of St. Moses the Ethiopian that I saw in the Church of St. Herman in Platina.
It was like a living answer to my perplexity when I saw the icon among
dozens of Russian icons of saints, at a far away place in America. The
young "colored" Orthodox American monk did not receive by chance his
name at his tonsure.
The next day we had breakfast, and we
saw the obedience of Moses was in the refectory: he cooked, he quickly
served, he read from a book while we were all eating. His hospitality
was done with much love, with simple non-pretentious movements, and joy
given from heart to heart. The young Orthodox American had these like
St. Moses the Ethiopian.
If in 21st century America,
where 1% of the population is Orthodox, someone can have as an example
the asceticism of St. Moses the Ethiopian, then all is not lost.
See also
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