An Orthodox Monastery in Ireland

Dear Friends, all over the world,

Let us become founders of an Orthodox Monastery in Ireland!!!


My name is Sister IOSIFIA, I am a Romanian Orthodox nun living in Ireland, and this is an urgent appeal to your generosity requesting your support for the purchase of a future monastery, which will be established here in Ireland with the blessing of His Eminence Joseph, Metropolitan of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolis of Southern and Western Europe.


The intended Monastery will be dedicated to the Mother of God, its main feast being “The Life-Giving Spring” (celebrated on the Friday after Easter), the Monastery will also be dedicated to St. Ciaran of Clonmacnoise ( Feast day 9th of September) and to all Celtic Saints of Ireland (celebrated on the second Sunday after Pentecost).

Our community will humbly seek to create an oasis of prayer, where God’s All-Holy Name is praised at all times. Our Sisters will labour to cultivate love, unity and peace. We hope that, through God's grace, the monastery will mature into a welcoming haven for all those who seek to gain strength, encouragement and a renewal of their souls.

Although founded by the Romanian Orthodox Church, the monastery is open to anyone, of any nationality, language, race, or age. The language which will be used during the services will be, depending on the congregation, Romanian and English, with some Greek, Russian, and even Irish.

 
The Property we hope to purchase is located in the very heart of Ireland, in Shannonbridge, just a few kilometers away from the 6th century monastic site of St. Ciaran in Clonmacnoise. Ireland was famously abundant in monasteries, and the Irish landscape is sanctified by the ascetic labours and constant prayer of countless monastics for hundreds of years in the first millennium. The place we wish to purchase has already been a place of prayer, being a retreat centre belonging to a Catholic religious community, consisting of a complex of 7 Scandinavian style wood houses on 3 acres of land.

The Catholic Sisters have done all they can to ensure that their property, after sale, will become the Orthodox Monastery we intend, and I can not adequately express my heartfelt thanks for their understanding.

They have lowered their asking price to an extent which has created a great opportunity for us - from the 450,000 euro the property was assessed at, down to 300,000 euro.

Furthermore, initially we were required to pay the whole amount in one up-front payment, but the most recent good news is that we will be allowed to pay until the end of 2020.

Nevertheless, our appeal is both urgent and necessary as we are seeking to buy the property AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

 
HOW MUCH IS NEEDED?

For all who want and can help us financially, we have set the goal of raising 250,000 euro as soon as we can, since we already have 40,000 euro raised previously for the purpose of establishing such an Orthodox Monastery.

Maybe it is just my imagination but I thought: if in all the world there are 250 people that can afford giving 1,000 euro each, OR 500 people giving 500 euro each, OR 1,000 people giving 250 euro each, OR 2,500 people giving 100 each…we will gather the whole sum in no time!

 
WHY do we want to raise the money AS SOON AS POSSIBLE?

There are two important reasons:

· If we do not pay the full amount ‘up front' legally the sisters would remain the owners, and we, as mere tenants, by law, could not make the slightest change to the houses, the chapel, the fence and the gates etc. And we would really like to ensure that at the very least the chapel will look… Orthodox.

· If we do not become legally the owners, the Order of Catholic sisters will have to bear the  inconvenience of remaining the owners and the added administrative responsibilities of being landlords. So we are trying to avoid this, by getting all of money at once. We are sure they thought more of God than themselves in dealing with us and that they sincerely wished the place to remain a place of prayer, so we would greatly prefer to achieve our mutually compatible aims with the minimum of inconvenience.

 
FOR HOW LONG are we fundraising?

We will be fundraising on this online platform

***  either until we have achieved our target of 250,000 euro,
***  or until the end of 2020 when we are supposed to make the last payment.


BUT we do HOPE against hope and beyond hope that, by the help of God, the Mother of God, all the Saints and by your precious help we might be able to purchase the property in October this very year for the above-mentioned reasons. Please, help the miracle happen!


So, Dear Friends, in summary

· I am a Romanian nun who is trying to raise 250,000 euro,
· Hopefully by October this year,
· In order to buy a property which will become an Orthodox Monastery in Ireland.


As nothing is impossible with God, and as God works through people, please, could you become collaborators in this undertaking?

-  Be co-workers with God and with us founding this monastery to the glory of God and to the honour of the Mother of God and the Celtic saints of Ireland, who, let us not forget, did a great deal for Europe in the first ten centuries. We think it is about time we remembered them and knotted our loving relationship with them, as, isn’t that so, ‘God is wondrous in His saints’.

-  According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) Orthodox Christians have been the fastest growing religion in Ireland since 1991. There were 62,187 Orthodox Christians in Ireland in April 2016 - up 37.5 per cent on 2011 (45,223) and over three times the number recorded in 2006 (20,798). We believe that the time is ripe for Ireland to have its own Orthodox Monastery.

 
Even if you cannot immediately help, please join us in prayer, this is a very precious way to help which can work wonders and without which we cannot achieve anything.

We are hoping that this cry for help might touch your hearts and meet God there, and may the Lord be the One that ‘will fight’ for us all, whose work we’ve seen and we feel.

We accept with deep gratitude any contribution that comes from a compassionate and sincere heart, willing to render glory to God. And may the God of mercy reward you abundantly for your self-sacrificing generosity.


*** Please help get the word out, you can share the link to this appeal to your Facebook Timeline!”

 
PRAYER

God, You Who are everlasting and without beginning, You Who brought everything that is from nothingness into being, You Who dwell in the uncreated light, listen to our prayer at this hour and at any time we call on Your Name; mercifully look upon us, who, humbly and fervently worship You, and bless our holy wish to have, to Your glory and for the salvation of our souls, a monastery where we can praise You, O Lord, together with our fellow beings.

You, Lord, Who in the beginning established the world through Your Word, have mercy on us and do not neglect our tears and speedily grant us a place where we can kneel down before You in prayer and welcome all those who need strength and renewal of their souls. For, the monastery, O Lord, belongs to those who seek You, to those born and unborn, and stands as a pillar and ground of our Orthodox faith.

Send down to us the grace of Your All-Holy Spirit and chase away from among us the wicked, deceitful and quarrelling spirit, unite us into one heart and one mind, bless us in everything, grant us strength and energy, courage and growing into the fulfilling of our desire.

For You are the One Who blesses, fulfills, and perfects everything, You our God, and to You we ascribe glory, to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever and to the ages of ages. Amen.