On Friday & Saturday, April 8th & 9th of 2022, the 5th weekend of Great Lent commemorating St. Mary of Egypt, the Diocesan Kolo Srbskih Sestara, with the blessing of His Grace Bishop Maxim, hosted a very joyous and humbling Lenten Women’s Retreat at the Saint Steven’s Serbian Orthodox Cathedral in Alhambra, California.

The Retreat began on Friday evening with the Akathist service and the singing of the much loved hymn to the Mother of God, Triumphant Leader.

To thee, the Champion Leader, do I offer thanks of victory, O Theotokos, thou who hast delivered me from terror; but as thou that hast that power invincible, O Theotokos, thou alone can set me free: from all forms of danger free me and deliver me, that I may cry unto thee: “Hail, O Bride without Bridegroom.”

Following the service of praise and gratitude to the Theotokos for all that she has done for our salvation,  everyone gathered for a lenten meal and fellowship with His Grace Bishop Maxim and the guest speaker V. Rev. Dr. Andrew Cuneo who provided a brief preview of the next days presentation.

On Saturday morning the day’s festivities began with the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy officiated by His Grace Bishop Maxim and concelebrated by Fr. Lazar Vasiljevic, Fr. Nikola Ceko, Fr. Andrew Cuneo, Fr. Norman Kosanovich, and Fr. Vladan Radovanovic, together with the faithful who so beautifully sung responses led by Protinica Biljana Bojovic from Jackson, California.

After a light continental breakfast, the guest speaker, Fr. Andrew Cuneo, began his presentation which is provided via audio below. After a very enlightening and captivating talk everyone enjoyed a delicious luncheon followed by a question and answer period with Fr. Cuneo. Audio

As the Retreat come to a close, Fr. Cuneo made available the Miracle Working Pantanassa Icon, which he spoke about in his talk, for all to venerate and then receive the anointing with holy oil.

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO

Short Excerpt from Fr. Cuneo’s talk…

For the past five years, thanks to some parishioners I was able to go to Greece and Mount Athos for the first time and a few subsequent visits, and over those years we would encounter certain things and hear different stories that are just marvelous and so I wanted to share those for a little bit this morning.

The first thing that I would want to share, and it is connected to the icon that we brought up from our parish. There is a monastery on Mount Athos called the Monastery of Vatopedi, and it is one of the biggest and most beautiful monasteries on Mount Athos, and when you go into this 10th century methode icon, there’s big icons, and frescos and marble everywhere, but then there is a little icon on the front left where the icons of the Theotokos are. It’s a little icon. I noticed that everybody kisses some icons, but they all kiss this one, and then I said what’s that icon, well that the icon of Pantanassa, the Theotokos the Queen of all. And so I wanted to go, and kiss the icon of the Pantanassa icon because it was very seriously referenced, and the American monk who was kind of our English tour guide, he would kind of give us a translations of everything that was happening, he said that icon is the most miracle working icon in our monastery and the monastery has about 7, 8, or 9 miracle working icons of the Theotokos. But this one works the most miracles. He said originally the icon came from two old monks from Cypress, and one of the starits of Vatopedi was a man named Elder Joseph of Vatopedi, and Elder Joseph had given away a miracle working icon of the Theotokos to Elder Ephram of Arizona. I think maybe you know St. Anthony’s Monastery. When Elder Ephram left Mount Athos and went to start different Monasteries in America, Elder Joseph gave him this miracle working icon of the Theotokos because Elder Ephram asked for it at different times. So monks being monks and not being possessive, they give away things, and so Elder Ephram goes to the United States with this miracle working icon and Elder Joseph is upset, he’s like I’ve given away my most miracle working icon of the Theotokos. I don’t have it anymore. I don’t have anything. So two old supreme monks came from Cypress where Elder Joseph is from, and said they want to give you an icon, and they gave him this icon, it’s from about the 1600’s. They gave him the icon of Pantanassa, And the old Cyrian monk said this is an icon that does work many miracles. And from the time that they gave it to Elder Joseph on Vatopedi  it worked many miracles. More to come…