Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Bombala
Categories: orthodox-life, monasticism
Date: 01 May 2012 12:37:29
After almost 3 years since I met Fr Alexis at Istanbul airport as we were both waiting for a flight to Georgia, I once again met him after I arrived at Holy Transfiguration Monastery, with the blessing of the Abbot Fr Sergei to visit and stay at the monastery. Fr Alexis is a very accomplished iconographer and travels around the world teaching how to paint/write icons...
[I write paint/write as I have heard some people insist 'write' should be used with icons, as they are theological works and the Greek word used means 'write', and equally have heard from others, Orthodox professors included, who say paint is the correct term...]
Photographs on the OrthPhoto site show some of his great work in the church and trapeza (refectory; eating place...). The church has some icons I have not seen before, including the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise and Christ's agony in the garden. The mosaic visible on the left, again the work of Fr Alexis, is of St Isaac of Syria, a beloved Saint of mine. Some wonderful photos of the monastery's Feast Day and more photos of the interior of the church can be found here, courtesy of kadj.
As per my earlier trip to Tenterfield, on the way down I was blessed to see autumn in evidence again, not something I really notice around here in Sydney to be honest. The colours are amazing and I wish I had a better camera...or perhaps one that focuses correctly all the time: it may be time to give this almost-indestructable box to my nieces to play with.
The monastery is in a valley, and seemingly a million miles from anywhere. Beautiful bush and hills surround it, a river runs past it, and I saw wallabies [I think...I do not think they were baby kangaroos though I could be mistaken] as I walked from the guesthouse to the church for the morning service. I also visited the original chapel, a very small, but special, a feeling I cannot describe better, chapel, which is on a hill near the guesthouse. I also walked around a little, up some hills and by the river: such a sense of peace.
The first night I was the only one in the guesthouse; for Holy Week and Pascha they had over 100 visitors, the majority staying in the guesthouse which has bunk beds and a second floor. There is a fireplace, and to heat the radiators in the bedroom and to get hot water you needed to use the wood-fired oven; solar panels are present which work when the sun is shining, so the monks and monastery are 'green', and I know many monastics live a life in true harmony with the environment and with nature. There was also a switch one was required to flick to get the warmth, but I did not know that until more guests arrived the next day -- so my first shower was rather tepid. It was great to meet the people who were staying in the guesthouse, and to see how to get a real big and constant fire going...poor uninformed and not-too-useful city boy I am, despite some time in the scouts.
It was also a blessing to worship with the community, and get to know a little bit about them, as well as worship with the nuns from a nearby convent and visitors for Sunday Divine Liturgy; to help prepare and eat with the monks and visitors (and we ate well...and in a very large quantities on Sunday when visitors brought much stuff, including a homemade blackforest cake!); to help a (very) little bit with getting firewood for their ovens, painting some new beehive boxes and rinsing pots, mugs, dishes and cutlery, having a great conversation with a man who had stayed for several months and who was directing and working with me; and also a blessing to be in a holy and sacred place. My anxiety did flare up a bit, and my second full day was spent mainly in bed reading some spiritual works and using my new prayer book (more on my reading in a later post), which in all honesty is not a bad thing to do.
It was wonderful to visit, and I hope to be able to visit again: perhaps during Holy Week and for Pascha one year as speaking to someone who was there, and hearing about it from a few people, it sounded wondrous and a spiritual experience with great blessing.
Thanks be to God for the monastics; monasticism is a key part of Orthodoxy and the presence, or lack, of monastics in a country and in the Orthodox Church is often seen as an indicator of the spiritual health of the church. We do not have many monasteries or convents in Australia, but we have a good number, and an increasing number, which is a blessing. Thanks be to God for the monastics who continually pray for us, and who allow us to visit them and refresh ourselves spiritually. And my humble prayers for the monastics, particularly those of the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Bombala and the convent of the Presentation of the Mother of God, Bungarby.
