On these days of the first week of Lent, which is also called the clean week, readings from the first book of the Bible, Genesis, are held in the monasteries. One sees there the great wisdom and love with which the good God made the world and placed man there to enjoy and care for it, praising his Creator unceasingly. We are in a similar practice these days in the small town of Saweni here in Fiji. We are trying to make every interventionist effort to complete the image of the Convent of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the surrounding areas and especially in the chapel, which will also be the parish church until the proper Church of the Holy Trinity with the Orphanage and School is built a little further on. One is amazed at the zeal and effort with which not only the paid craftsmen and workers, but also all the members of the Missionary Congregation with our Priests and Monks are working. Even the children of Pantelis, who has many children, and other neighborhood children. Pantelis’ wife, Maria, runs in and out to offer the workers coffee and water.
Our clergymen Fr Bartholomew and Fr George are in a hurry to finish the wall, which will make the monastery even more beautiful . The monk Savas with Lambros and Nicholas from Sydney are making a crude but very nice table, which will be placed under the rich shade of the dude. The patio for the catechisms and loves is almost ready and on Tyrrhenian Sunday after the Divine Liturgy all together, clergy and laity, young and old alike ate the milky delicacies thanking God and asking Him to grant us a clean and holy Lent.
In the Church, one could see on the faces of all the people the satisfaction and joy of how the chapel of Panagia was finally shaped in a way that ensured aesthetic pleasure, comfort and coolness. Our choir, almost the entire congregation, sang in response to the requests of the Priests and enjoying the splendour of the green landscape that unfolded from the open right side of the church with its three artistic arches. All in place with care and tastefully crafted. Opposite the despotic throne, the all-pious icon of Our Lady of God, Our Lady of the Heights from Rhodes, dominates as a housewife and Queen in her home in Fiji, blessing and strengthening the labours and struggles of all and carrying their supplications to the throne of her only Son. Especially of our devout donors and renovating Greek Orthodox brothers and sisters from Sydney, Australia. Thus, as children of our Creator God and continuing the good works of His Creation, we have merited to prepare in this corner of the Pacific Ocean this house of prayer and Divine Worship. Here, where our Orthodox Fijian brothers and sisters will celebrate the holy sacraments and be enlivened by them, praising His All-Holy Name in an orthodox manner and reading the psalm words written on the lintel every time they enter the Church: “In the Temple we think of Thy glory in heaven. O heavenly host, O heavenly gate, open to me the door of thy mercy”.
The New Zealand Amphilochius
