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15th Annual Lenten Retreat
At the Greek Cathedral of the Annunciation
How Do We Continue Our Walk in Faith
and Keep the Joy of the Lord During Times of Challenge in Our Lives?
Sponsored by the Growing in Faith Bible Study
This is a question we all struggle with from time to time. Come join us on April 4th as we travel to distant lands and meet missionaries whose lives are an example of how they continue to trust in the Lord's strength with faith, hope, joy and love. Whether we are undergoing illness, economic hardship, occupational burnout or other difficulties, these modern, living saints can inspire us to trust in the Lord and participate with joy in the life He has prepared for us.
We invite you to join your Orthodox brethren from all jurisdictions in this day of fellowship and spiritual strengthening as we seek to walk ever-closer with the Lord.
Presenters
Fr. Luke A. Veronis and Mother Abbess Ines
Date
Saturday, April 4, 2009 from 9am - 4pm
Where
Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation 24 W. Preston St., Baltimore, Maryland
Schedule
- 8:45 to 9:30 — Registration
- 9:00-9:45 — Continental breakfast
- 9:50 to 12:20 — Presentation I
- 12:30 to 1 :30 — Lenten luncheon
- 2:00 to 4:00 — Presentation II
- 4:00 to 4:15 — Small Compline in the Sanctuary
Registration
Please visit goannun.org for information on registration.
Biographies
Fr. luke A. Veronis
Fr. Luke A. Veronis has been involved in the Orthodox missionary movement for the past 20 years. He served as a long-term missionary, with his wife, Faith, in Albania from 1994-2004, where he taught at the Resurrection of Christ Theological Academy, acting as co-director from 1998-2003. He also served as a missionary for the Orthodox Church in East Africa for 18 months.
His published works include Lynette's Hope: The Witness of the Life and Death of Lynette Katherine Hoppe (Conciliar Press, 2008) and Missionaries, Monks, Martyrs: Making Disciples of All Nations (Light and Life Pub, 1994). He has also published articles for the Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity (Cambridge University Press, 2009) and The Encyclopedia of Christianity, Vol. 3 (Eerdmans, 2003), as well as numerous articles for both lay magazines and professional missiological journals.
Fr. Luke is the son of Fr. Alexander Veronis, the President Emeritus of the OCMC (Orthodox Christian Mission Center), who helped begin the missionary movement of the Orthodox Church back in the 1960s.
Fr. Luke presently pastors the Sts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church Webster, MA and is an adjunct instructor at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology and Hellenic College.
He is married to Faith Stathis Veronis and has four children.
Mother Abbess Ines
Mother Ines has been the abbess of the Orthodox Monastery of the Holy Trinity Lavra Mambre since 1994, and General Director of the Hogar Rafael Ayau Orphanage in Guatemala City for the past 13 years. The monastery and the orphanage, 20 km apart, are er the jurisdiction of the Antiochian Orthodox Church of Mexico, Central America, Venezuela, and the Caribbean. This is the only Orthodox presence in the country of Guatemala.
The great-great grandfather of Mother Ines founded the home for orphans in 1857. He called it "The Home of Mercy" and took in hundreds of homeless children who were victims of broken homes, crime, war, unemployment, domestic violence, prostitution and drug abuse. During the early 1970s, the Guatemalan government expropriated it, but in 1996 the neglected orphanage was given back to private stewardship, to the Orthodox Church. To Mother Ines and the nuns of the Orthodox monastery of the Holy Trinity - Lavra Mambre were entrusted the administration and financial responsibilities of the Hogar. The orphanage has taken in at least 1 ,000 children in these 13 years. At present, 38 full- and part-time employees, as well as visiting missions groups, help with this important work.
Mother Ines similarly took a circuitous journey to the Orthodox Church. In 1971, after studying architecture in college, she entered a Roman Catholic monastery but over the years became disheartened by the liberal theology popular at the time. Turning to the practice of Oriental monasticism, she was at last tonsured as an Orthodox nun in 1987 and, along with Mother Maria, received the blessing to start the monastery in Guatemala. In Holy Week of 1994, with the help of the nuns of Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Ellwood City, Pa., and under the omophorion of Metropolitan Antonios, they began organizing the church.
Fifteen months ago, the Holy Trinity Church at the monastery was consecrated, and they are currently building new orphanage facilities on the monastery grounds, which are estimated to be completed in 6-7 years, depending on the speed of raising funds.
Mother Ines recently spent two months in the U.S. with baby Sergio, who received eye surgery in Pennsylvania.