Archbishop of Alaska: Let the Jesus Prayer become your breath

Archbishop Alexei of Alaska. Photo: diocesan press service

His Eminence Alexei, Archbishop of Alaska (Orthodox Church in America), gave an interview to the American branch of the Union of Orthodox Journalists, in which he shared his experience of life on Mount Athos and explained how that experience shapes his ministry in Alaska.

Archbishop Alexei is a native-born American from the state of Delaware. He was baptized into the Orthodox faith as a university student.

The hierarch spent several years on Mount Athos, mainly in the Monastery of Karakallou. “Life there is simple and exacting: obedience, work, and long night-vigils that teach the heart to pray. I received counsel from holy elders, and in time I was tonsured to the Great Schema in 1998 and ordained to the priesthood in 2001. Whatever I try to offer in the Church now flows from those years: repentance of heart, quiet service, and trust that grace, not our strength, does the work,” recalls Archbishop Alexei.

“Mount Athos prepared me by giving me a way of life that I now try to share in Alaska: obedience, prayer, and patience,” he says.

“At Karakallou I learned obedience as bending the head to listen so that God’s will, not our own, may pass through us. In Alaska I ask clergy and faithful to live this same obedience each day: not my will, but Thine be done, offered simply and without drama

“On Athos I learned to let the Jesus Prayer become breath. I still place prayer-ropes in people’s hands, begin our gatherings with ‘Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me,’ and keep vigils by candlelight so that the heart is moved to compunction rather than to noise,” shares Archbishop Alexei.

According to the hierarch, the Holy Mountain also taught him love for the Mother of God and trust that the work is accomplished by grace, not by human strength.

“Whatever good I offer in Alaska flows from those years,” the Archbishop emphasized.

He also noted that by God’s providence, the Orthodox faith came to North America through Alaska, and therefore the Alaskan eparchy is rightly venerated as the Mother Church of the New World. “All Orthodox Christians here, especially the newly illumined, owe deep gratitude to the Native peoples of Alaska, who are our elders and teachers in the Faith,” concluded the hierarch.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the Alaskan Eparchy of the Orthodox Church in America had declared a fast for peace in Ukraine.

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