Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, NY

Holy Trinity Monastery is a male monastic community under the auspices of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. We are dedicated to a life of prayer and obedience according to the pre-revoluntionary monastic tradition. We draw our origins from the Pochaev Lavra of St. Job of Pochaev in Southern Ukraine when monks fled from Pochaev in the face of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. As descendants of the Lavra of Pochaev, we continue the mission established by St. Job in the 15th century to publish books for the edification and protection of the faithful. Within the monastery is located a studio and school of Russian iconography conducted by disciples of master iconographer Fr. Cyprian (Pijoff). Also situated within the monastic community is Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary, with young men from around the world training for the holy priesthood and ministry within our Church. Consisting of impressive buildings and an other-worldly way of life, Holy Trinity Monastery is a source of spiritual nourishment and support for the Orthodox Church.

Official website of Holy Trinity Monastery

Each will consider what most suits his needs

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 1 ~ On Renunciation of the World

¶25. Those who have really determined to serve Christ, with the help of spiritual fathers and their own self-knowledge, will strive before all else to choose a place, and a way of life, and a habitation, and exercises suitable for them. For community life is not for all, on account of covetousness; and places of solitude are not for all, on account of anger. But each will consider what most suits his needs.

Offer to Christ the labours of your youth

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 1 ~ On Renunciation of the World

¶24. Offer to Christ the labours of your youth, and in your old age you will rejoice in the wealth of dispassion. What is gathered in youth nourishes and comforts those who have grown feeble in old age. In our youth let us labour ardently and let us run vigilantly, for the hour of death is unknown. We have very evil and dangerous, cunning, unscrupulous foes, who hold fire in their hands and try to burn the temple of God with the flame that is in it. These foes are strong; they never sleep; they are incorporeal and invisible. Let no one when he is young listen to his enemies, the demons, when they say to him: ‘Do not wear out your flesh lest you make it sick and weak.’ For you will scarcely find anyone, especially in the present generation, who is determined to mortify his flesh, although he might deprive himself of many pleasant dishes. The aim of this demon is to make the very entrance into the stadium lax and negligent, and then make the end correspond to the beginning.

The Lord designs the contests

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 1 ~ On Renunciation of the World

¶23. The Lord designedly makes easy the battles of beginners so that they should not immediately return to the world at the outset. And so rejoice in the Lord always, all ye His servants, detecting in this the first sign of the Master’s love for us, and a sign that He Himself has called us. But when God sees courageous souls, He has often been known to act in this way: He lets them have conflicts from the very beginning in order to crown them the sooner. But the Lord hides the difficulty of this contest from those in the world. For if they were to know, no one would renounce the world.

Not far from the Kingdom of Heaven

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 1 ~ On Renunciation of the World

¶21. Some people living carelessly in the world have asked me: 'We have wives and are beset with social cares, and how can we lead the solitary life?' I replied to them: 'Do all the good you can; do not speak evil of anyone; do not steal from anyone; do not lie to anyone; do not be arrogant towards anyone; do not hate anyone; do not be absent from the divine services; be compassionate to the needy; do not offend anyone; do not wreck another man's domestic happiness, and be content with what your own wives can give you. If you behave in this way, you will not be far from the Kingdom of Heaven.'

The healthy do not go to a hospital

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 1 ~ On Renunciation of the World

¶19. Let no one, by appealing to the weight and multitude of his sins, say that he is unworthy of the monastic vow, and for love of pleasure disparage himself, excusing himself with excuses in his sins. Where there is much corruption, considerable treatment is needed to draw out all the impurity. The healthy do not go to a hospital.

Labour and grief turns to joy and eagerness

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 1 ~ On Renunciation of the World

¶16. In the very beginning of our renunciation, it is certainly with labour and grief that we practice the virtues. But when we have made progress in them, we no longer feel sorrow, or we feel little sorrow. But as soon as our mortal mind is consumed and mastered by our zeal, we practice them with all joy and eagerness, with love and with divine fire.