Reintroducing ourselves to you all 😊

[@mullmonastery]

To support our Monasteries on Mull and Iona, join our Online Community here mullmonastery.com/our-online-community/ Sign up for our 2025 Summer Pilgrimages to the Celtic Isles here mullmonastery.com/the-celtic-islands-pilgrimage/ Sign up for our 2025 Pilgrimage to Romania here shop.mullmonastery.com/product/pilgrimage-to-romania-2025/ To make a donation, click here mullmonastery.com/donation/ May God bless us all!

[@Myfaceuh]

Tomorrow I'm attending my first orthodox service thanks, in part, to your videos. They've encouraged me to look farther into Orthodoxy when protestant churches just weren't giving me enough spiritual nourishment. These videos are a privilege to watch and we're all extremely blessed to have you giving us this wisdom.

[@lindaphillips4646]

Wonderful. Yes, yes, yes. .☦️💜☦️

[@mullmonastery]

May Christ Himself continue to guide you to His LIght, dear one. Christ is the only sure, unshakeable foundation for us all. May you learn to discern His voice among the noise of this world and may you grow slowly into His Image in you.

[@Myfaceuh]

​@mullmonastery Thank you. I really need some advice. I'm living with a woman and we're not married. We have a child. She has no intention of becoming a Christian and it's going to be a huge hurdle for me when I comes to becoming orthodox. I need to marry her and be a good example for my daughter. It's a tricky situation. What should I do?

[@tomt9242]

Hello, your videos were the first ones that led me from Catholicism to Orthodoxy. I became Orthodox this past May. Thank you!

[@yokobono3324]

My ancestors came from Argyll, and we take our surname from St. Columba. As a child I was taught about St. Columba and the monastic community at Iona, and the great evangelization missions that were carried out by the monks from there. It is unfortunately an often overlooked, but vitally important part of the history of Christianity in Northern and Western Europe. I am a Roman Catholic, and I have a great love for my Orthodox brothers and sisters. What you are doing out there speaks to me in a deeply personal way, and I am glad to see that Iona is still a place where there is a great devotion to and love for our Lord Jesus Christ. I will pray for you Father, and please pray for me.

[@mullmonastery]

Thank you for your prayers, dear one. You are right, I have met many Catholic and Protestant Christians who were never taught anything about the first millennium history of Christianity here (nor, to be completely honest, were they taught anything about the first millennium Church in general). It is such a dreadful thing, because those Christians gave their lives (literally!) to safeguard the Truth of the Revelation for us. All our modern 'opinions' about Christ and His Church have already been discussed in the third - sixth centuries. May we all be guided by Christ to His Light, away and out of the darkness of this world.

[@mkeenan1955]

I am one of those ill -informed Catholics. I still, though, can’t come to grips with how there was a connection between the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland and Scotland. In other words, St. Columba was Orthodox and not Roman Catholic? Or, does it really matter-we were “one holy catholic [meaning universal] and apostolic church” back in the time of St. Columba, right? It was only much later that there was the Schism.

[@yokobono3324]

@@mkeenan1955 St. Columba would have been under the canonical authority of the Pope, as the Pope was and still is the Patriarch of the West. To label him "Roman Catholic" or "Eastern Orthodox" would not be correct though, as at that time neither term would have been in use. St. Columba was in communion with the Pope, who was in communion with the rest of the Bishops and Patriarchs of the wider pre-1054 Catholic (Katholikos - Universal) Church. This is where the connection between East and West lays, because in those days it was irrelevant. We were one in the Mystical Body of Christ. The "does it really matter?" question could be quite controversial, depending on who you ask. Each side sees themselves as the trunk of the tree, with the other side being a branch. Personally, when I look at an Eastern Orthodox person I see a brother or sister in Christ. Nothing would make me happier than to see the schism healed, although only God knows if that day will ever come. Until then, we must strive to love one another as we love ourselves. Ultimately God will judge what is right and what is wrong.

[@gabrielachiriac637]

May God help your communities grow physically and spiritually! Thank you for your videos! They help me practising English while listening to subjects that are close to my heart!

[@mullmonastery]

Glory be to God, dear Gabriela. May Christ enlighten your mind and your heart, and may He bless us all by your prayers.

[@Ettoredipugnar]

My people come from a Hill town in Calabria , and the mountains of Abruzzi. They came to America. I was raised Roman Catholic in 1965 with the first Novus order mass I attended I knew it was wrong. 33 years ago, I was received into the fullness of the Holy Orthodox Church . My children were raised in the Orthodox Church . I never looked back .

[@TheBeana71]

Thank you for sharing this! I've been watching your channel for some months, but I didn't really know any of this. Much love to you and the community!

[@mullmonastery]

Glory be to God, dear one. I had lost sight of the fact that I do need to update people from time to time about what happens at our Monasteries. We do this on a weekly basis with the members of our Online Community, but I forgot to do it here, with everyone. As always, it is entirely my fault. Be blessed, dear one, and please keep us in your prayers.

[@remahunt4277]

May God's Grace stay upon each one of you every moment of every day. I send you light and love and pray for your continued success.

[@mullmonastery]

May Christ bless you for your love, dear one, and may He multiply your blessings in your own life a thousand fold!

[@remahunt4277]

@@mullmonastery ❤

[@alica_not_alicia]

This was wonderful! Thank you for re-introducing yourself and the monastic community there. I do enjoy your videos very much! I will become a catecumen this Sunday, and I am very excited about it. I have left my Protestant church, and I couldn’t be happier! May God grant you and both monasteries many years!

[@amirasaad630]

Thank you father for the lovely introduction. I am oriental orthodox and I have many fathers and teachers in Christ. However I have come to love your videos for the authenticity and personal vulnerability you bring forth. Your message is always from one struggling soul to another and not simply preaching . Thank you father Pray for us 🙏🥰✝️

[@mullmonastery]

May God bless you for your love, dear one. I actually see what we do through these videos (and they are not my work alone, everyone in our monasteries contributes, even just by praying that they reach the right people who need them) as a process of moving forward together. We are all God's people, in the same desert at the Israel of old, slowly, painfully looking for the way forward. And we all have tings to learn from everyone, including from those who fall worse than all. May we all be blessed.

[@richardblanchard5012]

Thank you, Father. This is a blessing to me and I am grateful for your time in bringing us up to date with your activities and your prayers for the future. Praying for your pilgrimage to, and your safe return from Romania.

[@mullmonastery]

Thank you, dear one. I have just landed about an hour ago, it is now 2 AM in Bucharest and my heart had no peace before answering your comments :) Once I am in Moldavia, surrounded by my monastic brothers, the first thing usually do is have a good, old-fashioned cry. It is almost like a release reaction - I am not sad about anything, I regret nothing, by the grace of God, but I still need to cry my eyes out before I can re-adjust to life there, ever for just the 11 days of our annual pilgrimage.

[@richardblanchard5012]

Tears are God’s precious gift to you. Thank you for your reply, dear Father.

[@МилијанЛакић]

Thanks God for all you are made! You have fully realized your potencial. May God bless future works on monastires!

[@jimchristakopoulos6184]

This monk is amazing! Love what he says. A litany of wisdom and love.

[@IsawCHRIST]

Greetings my dear father seraphim, thank your videos. God bless you. let us remind ourselves to open our hearts before we open our mouths. love all your videos so much 😊❤️☦️

[@amybastock8370]

Thank you so much for this Father! I have pieced together bits of information over the years of watching your videos but having it presented together was very helpful. Gods bless you! God willing, I will one day be able to attend a pilgrimage to your beautiful islands.

[@marlelarmarlelar9547]

Thank you so much for the update, I hope it will not be a whole year before the next update.

[@nassergabriel4778]

Thanks father Christos Anesti ☦

[@mullmonastery]

Truly He is risen, dear one!

[@florencetivoli10]

Thankyou, following from Australia. Appreciate all the heaven sent videos. Please pray for my family.

[@mullmonastery]

May Christ bless you and your family, dear one. Please remember us in your prayers.

[@givememountains]

My husband's family is Irish-Scottish catholic from Brooklyn, New York. His saint is St Columba. My family was Norwegian, a long line of Lutherans and even some Lutheran priests. We both were received into the Orthodox church several years ago along with our two young girls. We are beyond grateful to God to have found the true faith. We found your videos early in our journey, and mull monastery has been a wonderful help for us. As an artist by trade, early on in my catechism my priest encouraged me to use my existing skills to learn iconography. We now sell my sculpted wood icons as part of Saint Herman studios. We cant wait to send the Monastery several icons once we make enough to fill some orders with local churches here in North-western Montana, USA.

[@deirdrelewis1454]

I’m a South African Catholic who has been following you for the past couple of years. It has been wonderful to see how you have been growing. God bless you all and the work you are doing.

[@sandrapg88]

Father, thank you for the daily reminder to pray. Not only read. I'm a Romanian born and Orthodox family, but was raised in U.S. We attended monastery with mother . . . And always had a hard time understanding any religious terms in Romanian. Now that I've discovered Orthodoxy in English . . I am content and finally listening to understand. Thank you for your content it means a lot for us scattered around here. I must add I'm a caregiver to a disabled human affected by Angelman Syndrome. I cannot attend Monastery. It's been about a year. I am in solitude often and feel as though I am a monk sometimes. I try to go on Live. But it's not the same. Meanwhile, I shall pray more and continue to take care of my girl.

[@mullmonastery]

There is great love, patience and humility in what you do, dear one. And there is obedience towards the needs of your girl. At times, what we do may not 'look' very pious, but the simple acts of a life lived in sacrifice for others are more filled with grace than anything else. Have courage and trust that Christ is right there, in the beat of your heart.

[@sandrapg88]

​@mullmonastery thank you for the reminder. Amen Amen 🙏🏻

[@IN-pr3lw]

I hope to visit someday

[@mullmonastery]

May God bless it, dear one. It will be our joy to welcome you.

[@julietplatt9763]

Thankyou Father. 'Keep praying and keep working until God opens a door'. Beautiful message. Glory to God.

[@jujuoof174]

YOOP I MISSED YOU YOU HELPED ME SO MUCH IN THE EARLIEST PERIOD OF MY CHRISTIAN JOURNEY

[@Arianne680]

Thank you for the update 😊. It has been almost 15 years…that is beautiful. I hope your stay in Romania is comforting and I pray that when you feel overwhelmed it is only by the love of Christ. You are supported and loved every step you take on your journey.

[@TK33270]

Thank you Father...wonderful and uplifting info. I visited several monasteries on short pilgrimages in the past. Great spiritual wealth and progress can be made by these visits. The closeness and awareness for and of God is rejuvenating beyond comparison and can be carried home and shared like a warm fire on a cold night. ❤

[@mhpupacios]

bless Father , I am lucky enough to live between Văratic and Agapia - even this evening I can hear the toacă and the singing from Văratic . This zone is known as the Athos of Romania ( with many more monasteries and schiț in the forest behind us . Even my own village name is derived from the word for a monk's cell . I am blessed to live here but I still need a lot of prayers for me as I am a non-Romanian Orthodox convert . I have been to Mount Athos with my village Priest and one day I hope to have a pilgrimage to Mull and Iona . Thank you as always for yourself and your community. Kissing your right hand in Christ , Păcătosul 🙏

[@TinaHyde]

Glory to God for making a second Iona cottage available! 🙌 Wow! Those properties are so hard to come by! What a blessing! ☦️

[@thepowerfulpractice]

Paraphrasing what you said "I've learned that I need to work hard, and pray a lot, and ask God to help me have the discernment to recognize which doors are open". These words have been rolling around in me for days and are the most profound lesson no matter whether we are monastic or just looking for direction in our lives. Thank you.

[@vincenthogan441]

Thank you Father Seraphim

[@jeffreytooms2965]

I look forward to next year's update; I hope 2025 will be a blessed, bountiful, and God glorifying one. God bless the Mothers, Fathers, and everyone who gleans wisdom, comfort, and strength from these videos. Thank you Father Seraphim for all you and the community do.

[@otelders]

🙏❤🙏

[@juliabotros]

So beautiful. I’m in awe of what the Lord has done here,

[@shannon6708]

I am Roman Catholic, and I am from Massachusetts.

[@popescucristian8978]

2:29 si io is roman Doamne Ajuta ! 🇷🇴☦️

[@bobsweeney7644]

Thank you Father for all the information,it will help me to tell others of your communities here in Scotland,God bless you.

[@hectthorno584]

I went to Iona. Was about to live faith (I am catholic), but St Columba did a a wonderful miracle there... I was sad to see there is almost no more true christian life there, specially amongst people of good will. What you are doing is a very important mission and I support you with my little means.

[@Ballycannonbaby]

Thankyou father, I’m so glad you posted this. I saw a video on KZbin trying to demoralise your faithful work to Our Lord Jesus. Godbless

[@kianoghuz1033]

First! Father bless

[@mullmonastery]

May God bless you, dear one, and may He nourish this joy in you :)

[@gretagarbo1119]

Many thanks,Dear Fr.!May God let His face shine upon You forever!Much love!❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@mullmonastery]

May He return your blessings and multiply them in your own life, dear one, and the lives of those you carry in your heart and prayers!

[@gretagarbo1119]

@@mullmonastery ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@ioanagrancea6091]

Such a beautiful lesson on getting things done in this life: do the work that is needed, but wait - wait, wait, wait faithfully and filled with hope - for God to bless you with results. Have patience until that happens, make sure you are prepared to receive God's blessing, and pray that you recognize the door or the window that opens in front of you when it does. Maybe this is also the way we should approach all changes we want - in ourselves, in others, in the world. I was just thinking today how patient we must be in everything we work for God, if we want something real and viable to happen. It also struck me how patient the devil is, slowly influencing us and opening door by door when he wants to lead us, slowly and indiscernibly, into his own ways. We need to respond with mountains of patience. We must have spare oil for our candles always, expecting that things may actually take longer than we anticipate them.

[@mullmonastery]

The Fathers have a saying, dear one: there is NO temptation which cannot be overcome by patience. But patience is painfully lacking in our generation because (rather than a passive attitude, as it is often perceived) it requires great fortitude, determination in one's battle for one's values and a constant, active decision to not act according to our will, but to wait for the Will of God to be revealed. This is extremely difficult to do. May we all be blessed, dear one.

[@ruthshivani]

Love and prayers 🙏🏽💜

[@ruthshivani]

ah.. didnt realise the brothers and systers had swapped islands

[@seeker2219]

I am new here. Blessed to have found this channel. I find great wisdom and comfort here and am pleased to be able to be here ahead of the upcoming flood of people coming back to god. Maby i can get the oppertunity to share the wisdom i find here amongst other places to the people.

[@patriciaschneider-zioga2500]

❤

[@tristanbailey495]

Thanks so much, Father. So good and interesting to see. May I ask, simply as a matter of interest: how many members are there in each of the male and female communities on Iona and Mull?

[@Dadlovesderb]

Dearest Father, Thank you so much for this informative video. I am an Orthodox widow living in the United States. How would I be able to reach the Abbess? Is it too late at 71 to live in Community and seek a vocation as a monastic! I am tormented with this desire. Please let me know. Thank you.

[@luxar.1998]

🩵💚💛💗🩷🧡💜❤️💓❤️‍🔥💝

[@eojdaed96]

Do you ever happen to meet or interact with the Roman Catholic monks also present on Iona ?

[@lizzyaalexis7850]

Father Seraphim, you may have recorded a video on this topic, but would you be comfortable sharing your journey to the monastic life? How did God lead you to the monastic life? Was there a particular moment in your life when you knew this was God's calling for you?

[@mullmonastery]

I don't think I have, dear one, because it feels to self-important to record something like that. But I am certain I talked about it in the past because other people have asked me and I have decided a long time ago not to hide my heart from people. I'll pray about it and I'll see how Christ moves my heart. Be blessed, dear one.

[@akhilsaxena5226]

Question Father: Can people from other religions, who are still exploring Christianity, also allowed as Pilgrims?

[@mullmonastery]

Of course, my dear one. Every summer, every week of pilgrimage, at least 2-3 people in each group are not Orthodox or not even Christian. We are Orthodox Monasteries, our services follow the rules of the Orthodox Church and we live our monastic lives according to its tradition. As long as they respect these things, they are more than welcome!

[@akhilsaxena5226]

@@mullmonastery Thank You so much Father Seraphim for your response. 💐 I am delighted to hear this...

[@susannemyall7699]

Is your church at Kilninian open to the public? 🎉🙏🕊

[@mullmonastery]

Yes, dear one. Our services in Kilninian are always open to the public. Unfortunately, during the winter months, we no longer serve in Kilninian because it is too damn and cold and we cannot afford to heat it up. During those months we move our services in the house - those services are no longer public, because our mothers need to have a private living space. In practice, that means that our services become public in the summer, when we move into Kilninian.

[@susannemyall7699]

@@mullmonastery God willing we will travel to Scotland later in September. When does your Winter start?

[@dukeofpurl]

Are there any priests in your community to celebrate Mass or are you all brothers/friars?

[@DeborahRuud]

I'm confused. I thought Moldova was an independent country 🤔 No matter, really. This update was very informative. Our Lord's continued blessings to you all ❤

[@ioanagrancea6091]

Moldova is a region in Romania, alongsite Transylvania, Oltenia, and so on. Historically, this region (Moldova) and the Republic of Moldova have been one region in Romania. After the 2nd WW, the part of Moldova that is now the Republic of Moldova was taken by Russia from Romania.

[@ValentinaKajcinovska]

Amen❤✌️

[@OrthoBrit]

The State of Moldova is only part of the region known as Moldova. Fr Seraphim is referring to the part within Romania. 🙂

[@mullmonastery]

As others have explained, dear one, Moldavia (Moldova) is one of the historical regions of Romania (as Transylvania, for example). Unfortunately, Russia invaded and occupied about half of that region (old habits die hard, even at state-level, as we unfortunately see again today in Ukraine) and then incorporated it in the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union finally collapsed, that part of Moldavia became the Republic of Moldavia.

[@nomadicbee1728]

@@ioanagrancea6091 Thank you!

[@direkhtor4061]

❤