Every time we cross the threshold of the house of God, we are entering a heavenly place… There, within the divine palace, the mystery of the Kingdom of God is celebrated. ‘All mortal flesh falls silent’ in reverence and awe, so that the mystery of God’s Word may be heard.
~ Saint John Chrysostom ~
The transformation that occurs in monasteries is God’s work, and no human effort can bring it about. Nevertheless it is a work in which the monk or nun has a role to play.
~ Father Michael Casey, OCSO ~
The Lord orders all things out of love for man in the depths of His wisdom, and distributes to all what is profitable for them.
~ Saint John Chrysostom ~
A Christian knows that the soul exists
And there is another life,
And he sees everything
Through the prism of eternity.
~ Saint John Chrysostom ~
Holy Annunciation Monastery belongs to the Ruthenian Byzantine Eparchy of Passaic, New Jersey. Eastern Monasticism (as Pope St. John Paul explains in Vita Consecrata) came to the West via St. Benedict, Patriarch of the West, so his Rule and monastic tradition is our surest way of fidelity to early coenobitic monasticism. We follow the Monastic Rule of Saint Benedict (530) and witness to the monasticism of the Great Undivided Church (prior to the Great Schism of 1045.) In Vita Consecrata we hear a summons to work for Church-unity. The Gospels are our foundational principle. We are heirs to the Eastern Tradition of the Desert Fathers, of St. Anthony and St. Pachomius, St. Basil and the monastic Rules of John Cassian and St. Benedict who brought this Tradition to the West.
