On the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra
Bishop Nestor (Tugai). Photo: public sources
On 17 February, we mark the day of the blessed repose of Bishop Nestor (Tugai), the last abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra before it was closed by the Soviets in 1961.
There have been publications and comments online about how the communists closed the Lavra, what happened, and how Bishop Nestor behaved in that difficult situation. All these messages are filled with pain and sincere sorrow for the loss of our sacred site, the place where prayer had been heard for a thousand years and where monks had ascended in their spiritual efforts. This pain becomes even sharper when we realise that the same thing is happening today. Now, just as in 1961, the caves of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra are inaccessible, and worship is only conducted in a single church.
Our sorrow is understandable and explicable. But it is important that this sorrow does not cloud the main thing in our minds – understanding why the Lavra was established. For it was not created as a monument to our national culture or even as a shrine of the Church. The first monks who settled in the caves had no such thoughts. Unity with Christ, the acquisition of the Holy Spirit – this is what occupied the minds and hearts of the first ascetics, and this is what we must strive to follow.
Of course, we must protect our sacred sites, but we should not, in our emotions, become like those who take them away. After all, if the Grace of the Holy Spirit is in a person’s heart, they have lost nothing.
"Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" (Romans 8:35)
If we preserve the love of God within ourselves, we will fulfill the commandments of Antony, Theodosius, and all the holy ascetics of the Pechersk Lavra, and we will commemorate Bishop Nestor and all the monastics of the Lavra in the manner that befits them. If we become embittered, hate the persecutors and complain, we will fulfil the will of the evil one.
The Lavra was closed for 27 years during the Soviet era. But God willed it, and prayer was revived in it again.
Therefore, let us ask Christ to preserve the Lavra, but let us not forget that it is His, not ours, and its fate is not decided on earth.
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