But let each one take heed how he builds on it.
For no other foundation can anyone lay
than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
I Cor. 3:11

On January 17, 2019 monastic life began at the Protection of the Mother of God Monastery, newly moved from New York state to Allegan, Michigan. It was the will of our All-Good God that five months from the beginning of monastic life in this holy monastery, the cornerstone was placed for a new building that will encompass a chapel and cells for the nuns and sisters, as they do not yet have a separate house to live in, as is fitting in any traditional monastery.

Sunday evening on June 16, His Eminence Nicolae, the Metropolitan of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolia of the Americas, arrived at our monastery and the Kneeling Vespers were served with the beautiful prayers of the invocation of the Holy Spirit, as is the custom of the Feast.

“Look down from Thy holy heights, O Lord, upon Thy people here present Who await of Thee rich mercy. Visit us in Thy goodness. Deliver us from the power of the devil. Make firm our lives with Thy holy and sacred laws. Entrust Thy people to a faithful guardian angel. Gather us all into Thy kingdom. Grant pardon to those that hope in Thee. Forgive them and us our sins. Purify us by the work of Thy Holy Spirit.”

Monday morning on June 17, 2019, on the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, His Eminence Nicolae together with Hieromonk Atanasie Popescu, the spiritual father of the monastery, and with Deacon Aurel Para, served the Divine Liturgy after which everybody processed to the place of the future church, where the cornerstone was placed by His Eminence and many prayers were said for the blessing of the place and of the workers. At the end of the service, His Eminence blessed the sisters and presented them with an icon of the Holy Venerable Father Irodion from Lainici Monastery.

Saint John Jacob from Neamt had already been chosen as the second patron saint of the monastery when it was still located in New York and Hieroschemamonk Iacob Barsan, the spiritual “nephew” of Saint John Jacob, visited the monastery and left as a blessing a priestly belt belonging to the Saint. For this reason, the new church whose cornerstone was placed today will be dedicated to Saint John Jacob, who, being a Saint who lived far away from his native land can be considered to be a rightful patron of the diaspora, of all those who for whatever reason have left Romania yet still try not to abandon the light of the faith that their ancestors have safeguarded with much care and innumerable sacrifices. The protection of the Saint was felt even more when the spiritual father of the monastery found in the Metropolia’s archive many letters of Saint John’s addressed to the late Archbishop Victorin Ursache, as well as numerous letters of the Saint’s disciple, monk Ioanichie Paraiala, which will be published in the near future.

Through the prayers of your Most Pure Mother and of Saint John Jacob, Lord Jesus Christ grant health and salvation to the sisters and benefactors of this monastery!

Hieromonk Atanasie Popescu