Our Lady of The Most Blessed Sacrament Orthodox Monastery
UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH IN AMERICA
PayPal "My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Welcome to our humble site and enjoy your stay with us. We invite you to check out our many informative pages." The St. Kateri's Transitional Web Site, regarding Veterans, can be reached by the above link in green. You can also reach information from the Directory on the left. Found under KATERI'S HOME at Transitional Living Program.
UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH in AMERICA Slava Isusu Krystu! Praised Be Jesus Christ!
Our Monastery and Veterans Home are closing
We must pick up our cross and follow Jesus in all things. In our joys as well as sorrows.
Dearest Friends and Benefactors,
It is with deep sorrow that I must inform you the Monastery will be closing as soon as everything can be put in order. This will mean that our Homeless Program will also be coming to a close. We have two clients that need to be transferred to a safe place as soon as we are able to locate one. It will not be easy as we usually took in those no one else would.
Over the years we have struggled to keep our doors open and take care of the less fortunate. Having opened on November 3rd, Feast of St. Martin de Porres, in 1997, it took a couple of years to finish the upstairs, thanks to a wonderful benefactor from Berkely, Michigan. A few years later we began taking in homeless men occassionaly for however long they needed. We tried to help them get back on their feet and start living a prospective and productive life. Eventually in 2003 we established a contract with Community Mental Health to receive their homeless clients. Many times they were directed to us from jail, a hospital, the CMH Center and of course a walkin from off the street. Being the only staff, I had my hands full, but it was all worth it. Each person that came through our doors was Jesus in disguise.
The financial struggle I think has perhaps been the worst. Never knowing where the next dollar would come from. Bill collectors constantly wanting what we just didn't have. Needing to keep tempers at a calmness when a volcano wants to erupt. I know that we all share in these nightmares, in various degrees, for none of us are exempt, especially today. It was hard to ask or beg for donations from you because of your own personal struggles, and when no response came I undeerstood. Please believe me when I say that I never begged for myself, but only for this ministry.
Though I may be retiring from one aspect of this work, I'm not finished yet. Mother Teresa of Calcutta told me in 1989, when I visited with her in Tijuana, Mexico, this work would come about. So I know there is yet more to do. It was through her saintly intercession that our Monastery was able to open. She has stood by us along the way.
No, I don't want to retire, but my body tells me otherwise. I've been sick for many years but kept trying to fight the good fight and run the race to the finish line. This decision did not come easy, but after the past three months I've really no choice. No matter what problems may have come this way, know that I offer it up for you. You have become my purpose of prayer because I thank each and every one of you for your kindness in financial assistance, your prayers, your emotional support, your love for your brothers and sisters in need and thus your love for Christ.
The ministry will no longer be as demanding but wherever or whatever God should decide for me, He will lay out the path to follow. After all there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. Let's continue to do it together. My email is AbbotMartin@att.net just in case you want to keep in contact this way. It would be so wonderful to hear and converse with all our friends.
Over the next couple of months it will undoubtedly become more difficult because we'll still have the electricity and phone and other bills to contend with, especially while the two clients remain with us. Your donations are still needed just as bad during this trial as always. If you can see it in your heart to continue to help during this transformation, it would be a glorious blessing. If not, I undeestand. Your donations are still tax deductible and that will not change. However your prayers are especially needed. And of course the packing, selling of items and deciding what to keep and what not to keep. Reckon we will find out just how much of a pack rat I have become.
God bless you and thank you. Abbot +Martin dePorres
A pioneer monastic community for Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration, contemplative prayer, and service to community. A house of prayer for ALL PEOPLE; an Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, Christian community.
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SERVING OUR EUCHARISTIC LORD, JESUS CHRIST!
The Eucharist is the gift of Christ's love - a fire in a world that has become cold and indifferent. It is like a magnet. The Lord draws us to Himself and gently transforms us.
Our monastic community is dedicated in every way to our Eucharistic Jesus. He is the center of our life from which all else flows. He is our inspiration and cause of our spirituality.
The Eucharistic Sacrifice of Calvary, the Liturgy of the Hours: Morning Prayer, Midday Prayer, Sharing in the Word of God; The Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, etc... all give form to our mission of prayer. But all of this in His sacred presence as we gaze upon His Holy Presence in Adoration.
This rhythmical pattern of living creates the contemplative context in our lives. Our contemplation does not make us cloistered. Our life is modeled after the Holy Family at Nazareth. Our life is simple and totally trusting in His Divine Mercy that flows like a river from His Eucharistic Heart.
We become the very feet and hands of Our Eucharistic Lord and Saviour. We are His instruments to serve as He bids.
We are Pioneers in a new frontier amidst those who no longer believe in the truth. Truth has become false and falsehood has become truth. What was true for our Fathers remains true for us. Faith is still faith and truth is still truth. JESUS CHRIST, the same yesterday, today and forever!
PERPETUAL ADORATION AND ABANDONMENT TO GOD
The Blessed Sacrament is the LIVING FOUNTAIN OF LIFE where we drink in the love of CHRIST WHO alone quenches our thirst to be loved.
A Little Brother of Jesus realizes that every moment spent in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament will leave his soul everlastingly more glorious and beautiful in Heaven, because the Blessed Sacrament is Jesus, our Risen Savior, with all the glory and beauty of His Resurrection flowing out on those who come into His Eucharistic Presence. Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the easiest person in the world to be with. Even if you cannot pray very well, or even if you do not say anything at all, the mere fact that you come to Him in the Blessed Sacrament is in itself a prayer of faith that will greatly benefit your soul. For just as you cannot be exposed to the sun without receiving its vivifying rays, so too you cannot be exposed to the Son of God, present in the Blessed Sacrament, without receiving His Divine Rays of enriching graces, mercy, love, life and peace. Jesus hides His beauty and glory in the Blessed Sacrament so that He may bathe your soul with His everlasting beauty and glory each moment you spend with Him in the Sacrament of infinite Love.
In this Sacrament of His love, we find that it is His very Sacred Heart, living and dwelling in our midst and calling out to each of us to come to Him in total abandonment. That the Holy Eucharist is the person of our loving Savior, whose Divine and Merciful Heart is on fire with a deep, personal love for each of us.___________________________________________
Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament Orthodox Monastery
