Hieromonk Andrew Falls Asleep in the Lord
On Monday of this week my good friend and confessor, Hieromonk Andrew (Fr. Nicholas Letten), fell asleep in the Lord. Father Andrew gave his whole mind and heart to Christ, and for those of us who had the privilege of being around him, there is surely no man who radiated the life of the Saviour as did this man. His heart and mind were constantly focused on Christ. For years he woke up at 4 am to do morning Matins in the parish he was attached to, and returned in the evening for Vespers. Hieromonk Andrew lived a strict ascetic life long before being tonsured a monk.
This man who loved and embraced asceticism, kept his whole waking moments focused on Christ. And in his devotion, Father’s love, and laughter, and his humility grew. This saintly priest laughed frequently out of joy, and because of his compassion for the poor, even gave out sandwiches to street people. Father Andrew touched the hearts of everyone who was lucky enough to come in contact with him.
That he became my close friend and confessor, so many years ago, truly was a blessing for me. Father Andrew touched my heart in a very special way, and whenever I drove down to Portland for a visit, we’d always take a drive around Portland, or sometimes out in the country, giving us both time to enjoy each other’s company, while taking in our surroundings.
Father Andrew loved Vashon Island, and loved our monastery, just as we monks loved him. I am grateful for the time I had with him last week, but only regret that I was not able to be at his side when he took his last breath. At a point when his breathing was becoming weaker, I told him that the saints in heaven would know he’d arrived by the sound of his laugh. And this man, nearing death, laughed!
As a priest and monk of the Russian Orthodox Church, I am comfortable with the mystery of death, as all Christians should be. Death can be a mystery precisely because the triumph over death is not a mystery. As the Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann once wrote, “in essence, Christianity is not concerned with coming to terms with death, but rather with the victory over it.” In the light of everlasting life, in the name of Jesus Christ, the dreadful threat and dark mystery that is death is transformed into a happy and victorious event for the believer, and “Death is swallowed up in victory.” (1 Cor. 15:54)
So, even though I have lost one of my closest friends, I know that I now have another heavenly intercessor. I know that my friend and brother is beginning the true life that also awaits me beyond the grave, if indeed I have begun to live it here. Christ, “the resurrection and the life,” (John 11:25) transformed death.
Christ assumed human flesh, Christ was crucified, resurrected, ascended to heaven and waits for us there, and Christ ushers us into new life both now and after our death. Therefore, even as death exposes our frailty and our grief, death does not reveal our finiteness; instead it reveals our infiniteness, our eternity. To this end, the Christian does not ponder the mystery of death in a way that is paralyzing, negative and apathetic, but in a way that is productive, positive and dynamic.
So, it is with this hope of the resurrection that I have seen my friend depart from this life. Although I will miss my time with my old friend, I know that he is with God, to Whom he entrusted his soul. Knowing, as I do that this God is a good and loving Father to us all, I am comfortable with the departure of my friend.
May your memory be eternal, my dear and faithful friend. And don’t forget my request, dear Father Andrew, to but in a good word for me, poor monk and sinner that I am.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
This is the final photo with my dear friend.
Tuesday January 25, 2022 / January 12, 2022
32nd Week after Pentecost. Tone six.
Martyr Tatiana of Rome (226-235).
St. Sava I, first archbishop of Serbia (1235).
Venerable Martinian of White Lake, abbot (1483), and Galacteon, his disciple (1506).
Martyr Mertius of Mauretania (284-305).
Martyr Peter Apselamus of Eleutheropolis in Palestine (309).
Venerable Eupraxia of Tabenna in Egypt (393).
Icons of the Most Holy Theotokos “Akathist” and “The Milk-giver”.
Icons of the Most Holy Theotokos “Popskaya”.
Virgin Martyr Euthasia.
Venerable Benedict Bishop, abbot of Wearmouth (689-690) (Celtic & British).
Eight Martyrs of Nicaea (Greek).
St. Elias the Wonderworker, of the Paradise (Greek).
St. Theodora of Alexandria, instructress of nuns (5th c.).
Martyr Philotheus of Antioch (ca. 305).
The Scripture Readings
Hebrews 12:25-26
Hear the Heavenly Voice
25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, 26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.”
Hebrews 13:22-25
22 And I appeal to you, brethren, bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words. 23 Know that our brother Timothy has been set free, with whom I shall see you if he comes shortly.
24 Greet all those who [a]rule over you, and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you.
Mark 10:2-12
2 The Pharisees came and asked Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” testing Him.
3 And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?”
4 They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to dismiss her.”
5 And Jesus answered and said to them, “Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. 6 But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,8 and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.9 Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”
10 In the house His disciples also asked Him again about the same matter. 11 So He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.12 And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Hebrews 7:26-8:2
26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.
The New Priestly Service
8 Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.
John 10:9-16
9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. 12 But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.13 The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. 15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd