Last Saturday I took a bus to this small monastery near Lublin. It was quiet, only the birds and a few sisters in the garden. I stood at the service, lit a candle for my husband and returned before dinner, tired but calm.

The wet stones in the courtyard glisten quietly after the rain. I like the stillness that remains when the water goes away.

My son is already in third grade, but I still have to be reminded to pray in the morning every day. He himself most often forgets or does it quickly, as if he had reported. How did you teach your children to pray so that it was for real, and not through force?

The white church looks peaceful across the river at dusk. The light on the water makes everything feel still.

We had choir practice last night and it went better than I expected. The new piece for the Dormition Fast is still a bit tricky in the middle but Father Michael said we’ll take it slower next week. I got home around nine, made a quick cup of tea and thought about the old icon of the Cross we’ll carry on Sunday.

Someday I will make it to Kykkos Monastery.

☦ Great Meteor - Meteora, Greece The Monastery of the Great Meteor, commonly known as the Monastery of the Transfiguration in Greece, is a Greek Orthodox monastery near the city of Kalambaka, in the Thessaly region of central Greece. It is located on top of a rocky cliff more than 415 meters (1,362 ft) above the Pineios valley floor. It is one of the twenty-four monasteries originally built in Meteora. Photo: Janmad · CC BY-SA 2.0

Someday I'll get there too - Curtia de Arges.

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church’s St. Sophia parish in Chicago is busy with final preparations for the feast of the Unmade Image of Christ, also known as the Holy Mandylion. Services will include special processions and veneration of the icon that tradition says was not made by human hands. At the same time, the Romanian Orthodox Church marked forty years since the repose of Patriarch Iustin Moisescu, remembering his work building up theological schools and church life after difficult decades. In Greece, Fr. Kosmas Grigoriatis spoke with young people about missionary consciousness, encouraging them to carry the faith beyond parish walls. The Orthodox Church in America wrapped up its 99th Fellowship of Orthodox Christians convention in Cleveland, where delegates reviewed ongoing parish projects and youth programs. These different corners of the Church show steady attention to feasts, education, and remembering those who came before. Let us keep the people of St. Sophia, the Romanian faithful honoring their patriarch, the Greek youth, and the American convention participants in our prayers.

Someday I will reach Cetinje Monastery.

Digital fence: why the Church needs rules for networks The Eastern American Diocese of the Russian Church Abroad has issued a Regulation on the conduct of clergy on social networks. The document has been published in its entirety - in Russian and in the English original - and it deserves to be read before judging it. There is a lot of sober in him. He warns against the same tightening tape that is designed for the sake of continuous attention and impetuous response. He says that confession and spiritual care are carried out in a personal meeting, and not in correspondence. He cites St. Isaac the Syrian about the hidden heart and St. John Chrysostom about the tongue, which can deeply wound. He directly stipulates that he does not prohibit clergy from teaching and preaching about faith and morals. This is not a prohibitive document in itself - it is an attempt to put a fence where many walk on the edge. At the same time, the document raises a question that faces the entire Church, and not just one diocese. For millions of people today, the Internet is the only door through which they enter the Church: a teenager who is embarrassed to cross the threshold; a person ashamed of his life; one whom illness keeps at home. How to guard this door without closing it? In the coming week we will look at how different Local Churches answer this question - the Moscow Patriarchate, the Romanian Church, the Orthodox Church in America, the Greeks, the Serbs. Not to set someone up as an example, but to reproach someone: everyone has their own path and their own difficulties. And so that the reader can see different solutions to one problem and judge for himself. Review of the week “Church and digital space”, part 1 of 7.

An image from Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood.

Even in the picture there is silence.

Lord, what a beauty...

I look at the photo and my soul calms down. Kyiv Pechersk Lavra.

☦ Iveron Monastery on Athos - Athos, Greece Iviron Monastery is an Eastern Orthodox monastery of the monastic community of Mount Athos in northern Greece. The monastery was founded by two Georgian monks, John the Iberian and John Tornike, between 980–983 AD. It is considered a historic Georgian monastery on Mount Athos and was traditionally inhabited by Georgian Orthodox monks for almost a millennium, until the mid-20th century. Photo: CosmoSolomon · CC BY-SA 3.0

Someday I will go there too. Novo-Diveevo.

☦ St. Mark's Basilica - Venice Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of St. Mark (Italian: Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco), commonly known as St. Mark's Basilica (Italian: Basilica di San Marco; Venetian: Baxéłega de San Marco), is the cathedral church of the Venetian Patriarchate; it became the episcopal seat of the Patriarch of Venice in 1807, replacing the earlier cathedral of San Pietro di Castello. Photo: Zairon Public domain

☦ Monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai - Sinai, Egypt The Monastery of Saint Catherine, officially the Holy Autonomous Royal Monastery of Saint Catherine of Mount Sinai, is a Christian monastery located on the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Situated at the foot of Mount Sinai, it was built between 548 and 565 and is the world's oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery. Photo: Berthold Werner · CC BY-SA 3.0

Found this photo again — what a place. Ватопед.

☦ Church of the Holy Sepulcher - Jerusalem The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, also known as the Church of the Resurrection, is a fourth-century church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The church is simultaneously the seat of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Catholic Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Photo: Gerd Eichmann · CC BY-SA 4.0

☦ Ravenna, San Vitale - Ravenna The Basilica of San Vitale is a late antique church in Ravenna, Italy. The sixth-century church is an important surviving example of early Byzantine art and architecture, and its mosaics in particular are among the best-studied works of Byzantine art. It is one of the eight buildings in Ravenna inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Photo: Commonists · CC BY-SA 4.0

One day I will make it there.

☦ St. Isaac's Cathedral - St. Petersburg St. Isaac's Cathedral is a large architectural monument that currently functions as a museum where church services are held from time to time in St. Petersburg, Russia. It is dedicated to Saint Isaac of Dalmatia, the patron saint of Peter the Great, who was born on the day of memory of this saint. Photo: Florstein (Telegram:WikiPhoto.Space) · CC BY-SA 4.0