The abbess of the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration in Ellwood City, Mother Christophora (Matychak) will lead women in a day retreat devoted to prayer, worship, fellowship, and mutual support from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 11, 2017. Worship will bookend the retreat with the Memorial Divine Liturgy for the second Saturday of Lent in the morning (9 a.m.) and Great Vespers in the evening (6 p.m.). Services will take place at Holy Trinity Orthodox Church, 119 S. Sparks Street, State College, with sessions and meals taking place next door at the Trinity House Ministry Center, 123 S. Sparks Street.
The retreat, entitled “Preparing for Christ,” will examine the life of Princess Ileana of Romania, who became Mother Alexandria and the founder of Transfiguration Monastery. Using the theme of prayer and watchfulness with the biblical book of Nehemiah and Holy Tuesday’s Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids as backdrops, Mother Christophora will offer two sessions of instruction with a group discussion after each one. A third session allowing participants an additional time for questions will conclude the day spent together.
Mother Christophora will be joined by Mother Seraphima, née Sister Helene (Krenitsky), a Penn State graduate and former president of the Penn State Orthodox Christian Fellowship (Mechanical Engineering, ’05) who joined Transfiguration Monastery in 2009 and was recently tonsured to Little Schema by Archbishop Nathaniel, the monastery’s overseer, on December 31, 2016.
The schedule is as follows:
9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. — Memorial Divine Liturgy
10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. — Continental Breakfast/Fellowship
11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. — Session I
12:45 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. — Lunch
2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. — Session II
3:15pm – 4:00 p.m. — Time for Q&A
The retreat is offered to all area women free of charge and is sponsored by Holy Trinity’s Women’s Ministry. Attendance at the ministry’s Tuesday night bible studies on Nehemiah this Spring will be a benefit to participants, but is not required; and all women are welcome to attend one or all of the sessions and meals. (Registration is required, however, so an appropriate amount of food can be prepared.) Please email women@holytrinity-oca.org or call 814-231-2855 to learn more or to RSVP.
