“You get saved through the prayers of the ill”, Elder Nicholas of Zalita Island said when he blessed the sisters and brothers to visit the suffering. This was in 1996. Since that time, the people who stay in the boarding home for mentally challenged adults #3 have been looking forward to the arrival of the sisters who care for them every week. These meetings are always filled with heartfelt joy and warmth. The sisters help the ill people to find consolation in God, to find Faith, Hope and Love. When in the department, the sisters talk with the patients, pray together and sing spiritual songs. The dwellers of the boarding home can easily feel the state of each sister and show special consideration, attention and tenderness, helping to fight fatigue and earthly cares.

A notable and delightful event took place in the boarding home on February 6, 1998. A chapel in honor of St Xenia of Petersburg was consecrated that day. The sisters of mercy bring the patients of all the departments to the chapel every Thursday and sing an Akathist to St Xenia together. A Divine Liturgy is celebrated in the chapel on Fridays so that the people who stay in boarding home could confess and take the Communion. The Lord blesses all who pray and serve in the chapel through the prayers of St Xenia of Petersburg.

Our Convent celebrates the patronal feast of St Xenia of Petersburg every year. This year, as always, the celebration started on Thursday evening with the All-Night Vigil. The Divine Liturgy was celebrated on Friday morning. About 150 people attended the Liturgy: the monastics, the sisters of mercy, the patients and those who take care of them and all who wanted to pray to Mother Xenia. The parishioners prayed to their heavenly patroness with joy and meek spirit, for everybody knows her to be ready to help in good deeds and cares.

A celebration dinner was held after the service. The monastics, the sisters of mercy, doctors and nurses gathered around the table. Everyone shared their impressions, congratulating one another on the feast. The monastics performed spiritual songs. Many sisters and the representatives of the medical staff of the boarding home shared their thoughts and feelings.

Sister Zinaida Lobosova:

Dear brothers and sisters! Matushka Xenia gathered us again, and this celebration dinner is better than last year, and it is becoming better every year. I feel in my heart, not my mind that St Xenia is here with us. When I come to visit the department, I always ask her to be with me. It is usual for me to do that, I am even afraid of not praying to her when I visit the boarding home.

Joy and grace are overflowing in my heart. I can see now that this boarding home has become a dwelling place of God. There are people in the boarding home who were left face to face with their illness for some reason or another, who were deprived of fellowship. And all of a sudden, they found God here in such a complicated condition. People who visit this place after some time notice that the patients change and the department becomes different. And we go and do what we should. We have become a united family, the help, support and involvement of medical staff is indispensable for our obedience. This is because we cannot understand the illness of a person and the peculiarities of their behavior like the professionals do, so we learn how to behave and what to say in this case or another. This obedience has become a part of our lives. The visits of brothers, sisters and the Father are like light shining through the darkness for the patients. One patient wrote in his private letter to a sister, “When you come, everything is bright, and this light and warmth lasts for some more days.”

Svetlana Alexandrovna, Organizer of Cultural Activities:

Dear brothers and sisters, dear guests! It is very important that our guys are invited somewhere to give a concert. I have been working with them for two and a half years already and I see that these concerts make their lives – a week before a concert and long after that. They are unprofessional, of course, but the thing for them is that they are perceived as personalities, as performers. Those who saw our concerts can tell that where our “performers” lack skills, they cover this with their emotions and energy. The most vivid example was when we performed a concert in a geriatric home in the Netherlands. We had neither music, nor lights. Equipment failed. However, our guys managed to express what they wanted to say and show to foreign-speaking people. Thank you very much, sisters!

The sisters made a usual round of all the hospital units after the celebration meal. They greeted the patients and gave them sweets and fruit.

Unity and care that the sisters show to their “grown-up children” were especially felt during the celebration.