Through the Prayers of the Theotokos: A Reflection on the Enthronement of Fr. Sergius as Abbot Brother Peter
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of the different people venerating the icon: a middle aged woman in a dark outfit and Slavic features kisses the icon, and, addressing the priest standing by, says, “My son recently died in Afghanistan, please pray for him,” and then continues. Soon after her, a young, visiting clergyman, concentrating intensely, holds his forehead to the surface of the icon almost as a child holds his forehead to the surface of his mother’s dress, and, praying seriously, asks the Virgin for what cannot not be asked of or given by any other, then crosses himself and leaves. A young seminarian, after venerating, unwinds the prayer rope from around his wrist and touches it to the surface of the icon; a young woman venerates, pauses, and almost as an after-thought, plucks one of the flowers from around the icon’s perimeter, and then continues quietly as if nobody It is interesting to become had seen. So many were the petiabsorbed in the prayerful attitudes tions brought before the icon. So aturday morning. The sound of bells resonates over the January landscape and the sun shimmers on the snow. The Kursk Root Icon has arrived at the monastery church. On this day Fr. Sergius will be enthroned as abbot of St. Tikhon’s Monastery. Entering the front doors of the church, I am met with unusual grandeur. I see the twelve serving priests, three bishops, the Metropolitan, and the visiting deacons, all vested in blue to honor the Theotokos, emerging from behind the iconostasis and, proceeding towards the cathedra, forming two great lines alongside the Wonder-Working Icon. The impression is of an unending variety of blue, sifting blue, changing as the variety of vestments catch different rays and glimmers of light, interspersing and finally re-entering the altar in straight lines.
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many dreams and prayers that reach down into the center pulse of a person’s life. Beyond the icon, the enthronement takes place in front of the royal doors: Metropolitan JONAH entrusts Fr. Sergius with a staff and reads a winding, poetic exhortation concerning the manner in which an abbot is to care for his flock: “And this staff is entrusted to you from us. . . . Taking it from my hands of clay, consider, That you take it from the right hand of God himself. . . . This staff is given to you not for worldly dominion, But is entrusted to you as the helmsman’s rudder For the spiritual boat sailing across the stormy and billowy sea of life.”