Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, friends, and all,
Yesterday we were very blessed to have some guests for Palm Sunday. Our guests brought fern fronds to serve as palm branches. And my son picked fronds from the ravine behind our house. In Russia they wave willows; in Ireland, yew branches; and in coastal Oregon we wave ferns!
At a certain point in the matins service, I instructed the children to pick up the fronds and hold them (while we sang the creed), and then they placed them beneath the icons on the ground for Jesus to walk on while we sang the Kyrie (“Lord have mercy”). Finally, at the conclusion of the service we picked up the fronds again and several icons and made a procession up the street and back down to our house. We told the kids to stay close and we carried the littlest, watching out for cars, but thankfully our street is not busy on Sunday morning.
We sang “Hosanna to the son of David” as we marched, an ancient Gregorian chant as well as as the eastern chant, “Today the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us together. And we all take up Your cross and say: Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!” And just before the Bible study we also practiced singing, “All Glory, Laud and Honor,” which was written in the 9th century by the Bishop of Orleans in France, a beautiful hymn with beautiful harmonization.
Mission name:
I discovered at the beginning of April that our mission name has been chosen. I happened to check the list of parishes at rocor-wr.org/parishes, and there we were! We had submitted three possibilities for our patron saint, including St. Ita of Ireland Ireland, St. Melangell of Wales, and Saint Brendan the Navigator, also of Ireland. Thus, henceforth, we are now officially Saint Brendan the Navigator Mission. And Fr. Mark Rowe tells me I may be ordained a reader before too long.
Thanks to everyone who has encouraged us on this journey by visiting us at least once on a Sunday morning! I will not mention anyone by name here online, but you know who you are. I say “us” because my wife is necessarily a big part of this even though she didn’t choose it. But I couldn’t do it without her! Also, I couldn’t do this without the generosity of my dad, Mark, who has allowed us to live in our house for no charge.
Challenges:
One challenge ahead will be to make up a sign for our mission, which I will place in front of our house. It may just be a sandwich board sign at first. I hope to also obtain permission from one of the property owners at the beginning of our road, Hall Way, to place a sign there visible to Highway 101. I will also purchase one or more icons of Saint Brendan.
After obtaining the signs, my goal is to set up a bookstore in the 8 x 12 shed next to our driveway. But there are several things standing in my way. I’m enrolled in the Saint Irenaeus House of Orthodox Studies (SIHOS.org) and I’m finding that the reading takes quite a bit of my time each week. In order to help facilitate my studies I would like to make a little office for myself in my garage. And I promised my older kids I would make them a tree fort. That’s very important as summer is coming and my kids will only be 8 and 10 for one year of their lives! So we are moving ahead slowly as best we can.
By the way, I’m very proud of my wife’s labors in leading a literature course and a gathering for other homeschoolers with hymn and folk singing, an art study, nature journaling, and recitations. She has had several faithful attendees at these meetings and I hope to facilitate her activities as much as I can by setting up a one-room schoolhouse on our property. This of course would bring further visibility to Saint Brendan the Navigator Mission. Please pray that God will bless all these projects.
Saint Brendan:
Before I conclude this letter I would be amiss if I didn’t tell you a little about Saint Brendan the Navigator (484-577). He was born into an Irish clan and called “Mobhí,” which was apparently a good Irish name. But signs and portents attending his birth and baptism led to him being christened ‘Broen-finn’ or ‘fair-drop,’ from which we get “Brendan.” From a very young age he was given in fosterage to Saint Ita, attending the school for boys which she administered, an example of how monasteries were centers of literacy. Then when he was still very young he was sent to St. Jerlath’s monastery school at Tuam. He was ordained a priest by St. Erc at age 26. (All the Christians were Saints back then I think, saints with a capital S.) Whereupon he sailed around the Irish sea planting monasteries, going as far as Scotland and France. But he is most famous for his voyage to the “Isle of the Blessed” with 13 other monks, the mythical land to the west of Ireland, which the Irish regarded to be like heaven if not heaven itself. And from the descriptions of that voyage I believe he probably reached North America! So he was indeed a great, great saint and an appropriate saint for our coastal village. His feast day is May 16/29. Saint Brendan, pray for us!
Meet Fr. Mark Rowe via Zoom:
By the way, on Monday nights there is an online catechism class taught by Fr. Mark Rowe, archpriest of ROCOR-WR, and several other priests who take turns helping him. All are encouraged to attend whether catechumens or not and it’s a great way to get some exposure to our leadership in ROCOR-WR. It starts at 5:30 pm Pacific Time. The class is canceled for Holy Week, but resumes after Pascha. Message me if you are interested and you can either join us at our house or I will send you the zoom link so you can participate from your own home.
I’ll reach out to you privately to let you know our plans for Holy Week. May you have a blessed Holy Week. May God bless each one of us and bless these towns of Brookings and Harbor. Thanks again for your prayers and I hope that you will visit us again soon or perhaps for the first time.
Love,
Martin
