TEXTS IN ENGLISH

Sister Gavrilia is a tonsured Greek nun and spiritual daughter of the well-known Mother Gavrilia (1897-1992), the “ascetic of love” of Greece. Homeless and possessing nothing, Mother Gavrilia made
herself a friend of the world for the sake of Christ. She is already known to many of us through her spiritual daughter’s biography, which has gone through fourteen Greek printings: two in English, and one each in French, Serbian and Arabic. Besides speaking about her spiritual mother, Sister Gavrilia is known throughout Greece for her tapes and CD’s of Orthodox children’s songs. One Greek woman said, “They are so delightful that most of the children and half of the adults know them by heart. You fi nd yourself humming them as you walk down the street.” With Nicholas Karellos, our Road to Emmaus Greek correspondent, I met Sister Gavrilia for this interview in May of 2001 in a small Athens cafe. Her down-to-earth warmth, spontaneity and subtle wisdom in answering our questions made the “ascetic of love” come to life; through the daughter, we discovered the mother.

There are times in our lives when – like the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus - we fi nd ourselves in situations where our eyes are opened to Christ’s presence. We asked Orthodox believers to share with us some instances that affected their lives and helped to set them on their spiritual search.

A JOURNAL OF ORTHODOX FAITH AND CULTURE
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Fr. Dionisy Pozdnyaev, a Moscow Patriarchal priest now on mission in Hong Kong, has worked closely with Road to Emmaus staff since the journal’s inception. His life-long interest in China and Chinese Orthodoxy sparked a warm response in Road to Emmaus’ staff, publishers, and readers who have assisted Chinese seminarians and their families since 2002. In response to the inquiries of many readers, in this interview Fr. Dionisy brings us up to date on the political and spiritual condition of Chinese Orthodoxy, and his hopes for the future.

It was an early Pascha in 1894 — just the day after Annunciation. There was plenty of snow, a light frost, and on the riverbanks the ice was beginning to melt.

For Christian people no day is as glorious and as joyous as the day on which we commemorate the Nativity of Our Saviour Jesus Christ.

In April 2005, a group of American students of Russian language and literature from Carleton College in Minnesota visited Fr. Artemy Vladimirov as part of their semester abroad Russian program. Their academic theme was Russian belief and dvoye veriye, the Russian phenomenon of “double faith”– the mixing of Christianity with local superstition that figures widely in Russian literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. A philologist and teacher of Russian language and literature himself, Fr. Artemy gathered with the students on a warm spring morning in the church orchard to speak on dvoye veriye from an Orthodox worldview.

Delivered on the Sunday of the Holy Myrrhbearing Women at St. Mary Orthodox Church, Cambridge, MA
Sunday, April 25, 2004

Pilgrimage attracts intriguing people the world over, and it was on a Serbian pilgrim bus that Road to Emmaus staff met Indian Rahda (Elesa) Dalal and her American husband, Symeon Branson. Our weeks of travel and shared meals provided opportunities for long miles of conversation, and Elesa, with great candor and warmth, shared her colorful Indian childhood and her long road to Orthodoxy. The pilgrimage was a break from studies: Elesa is working on a doctorate in Islamic art and architecture, and Symeon is finishing his philosophy dissertation at Notre Dame.