New Book: The House of Our Father At our monastery, the first foundations of the new church of Saint Sophrony were laid many years ago, when the holy Elder surrendered perfectly to the will of God, which brought him to this remote land.
As for a newborn child, the beginning of life is marked by weeping, so too the beginning of the life of our Monastery was founded by Saint Sophrony ‘with many tears, and groanings from the depths, and with blood and sweat’. With martyric self-denial, the Elder remained absolutely faithful to the will of God all his life, and, in the end, he laid down the holy tabernacle of his body within his Monastery as a sanctified firstfruit that ‘leaveneth the whole lump’1.
God’s blessing upon the new church of our Monastery is a treasure that encourages us to follow the path of our saints. At the same time, however, it is a fearful forewarning and a responsibility to remain watchful, lest ‘love wax cold’2 in our heart and we lose this treasure, since the blessing of God only abides where it is received with thanksgiving. https://essexmonastery.com/bookshop/the-house-of-our-father?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=house_father_en