Newsletter August 23, 2024

Your Grace Transforms the Universe, Part Two
To Receive the World as a Gift

The universe is the vine that God gave to mankind. Saint John Chrysostom says, “All things were made for our sake, but we were not made for them.” Everything is a gift from God to man, evidence of His love. Everything testifies to the sap of God’s love—His kindness, His grace—and transmits it to us. So everything carries this gift, the gift of divine love. Every gift that we exchange with each other is a sign and bearer of love. But every gift calls for another gift in return, for the exchange of love to be achieved. However, man has nothing to offer God except what was given to him, for his needs. Therefore, his gift is a sacrifice that he presents to God, as an act of thanksgiving. Man’s gift to God is a sacrifice and a “Eucharist” in the most comprehensive sense, according to Fr. Dumitru Staniloae.

The transformation of the world, its transfiguration, begins with our receiving it as grateful believers, grateful for God’s everlasting kind stance toward us. It is not without significance that the Eucharist is the most central and important ritual for Christians. Unfortunately, Christians today give the Sacrament of the Eucharist different names, and by neglecting to call it “The Sacrament of Thanksgiving,” they forget that thanksgiving is the foundation of their faith.

Man can bless and praise God for the sake of the world. He can present the world to God as an act of thanksgiving. We say in the Sacrament of Thanksgiving, “Thine own of Thine own we offer unto Thee in behalf of all and for all.”

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When a people regain the image of God, the thought of God resides in them. Thus, they no longer act according to their own will, which is contaminated with deviant whims, but rather by the will of God, which puts their whims on the right path.

In this respect, the liberation of man and Creation becomes liberation from all the evil forces that controlled them as a result of sin. So, the liberation of woman, for example, becomes a restoration of her position as a creature in the image and likeness of God, who has her own role and her own message. It shouldn’t be a response to human rights movements that call for mere equality with men in terms of rights, for her to turn into another man, and for the distortion of her special role as a female.

Read the entire article: https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/2159

Professor Jim is offering and leading a class on the Old Testament Scriptures.

Reading the Old Testament with St Irenaeus (c. 130–c. 202)
Saturdays 9:30am-11:00am
September 7–November 16, 2024

If you are interested in participating in this class, please email Jim Lindsay JEL1451@gmail.com so he can send you PDFs of the course readings. All are welcome.

When receiving Holy Communion, please step right up to the chalice: right up close. I appreciate that, from humility, people stand back a bit. However, the further away from the chalice that a person stands, the more opportunity exists for me to spill as I reach from the chalice to one’s mouth. Also, just practically, when I need to extend and reach out my arms with every person, I grow weary and a bit shaky by the end. Please help me out.

While thinking about Holy Communion, please remember that there should be nothing on our lips when we receive: lip-stick, lip-gloss, chap-stick, lip-balm, etc. Anything on our lips gets onto the Communion spoon, into the chalice, and mixed with the Holy Gifts. That is not good. The Gifts should remain pure and Holy! For ourselves and for everyone who follows us in the Communion line…

Thank you!

Please remember that our full calendar continues to be available at our parish web site. Here is a link:
https://stjfc.org/Pages/Calendar/calendar.php

Full schedule: https://stjfc.org/Pages/Ministries/Prosphora/Docs/prosphora sched 2024 web.pdf

Full schedule: https://stjfc.org/Pages/Ministries/Altar/Docs/epistle readers for 2024.pdf

Epistle: ST. PAUL’S FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 3:9-17

Brethren, we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it. For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw – each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If any one destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are.

Gospel: MATTHEW 14:22-34

At that time, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was many furlongs distant from the land, beaten by the waves; for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear. But immediately he spoke to them, saying “Take heart, it is I; have no fear.” And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus; but when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “O man of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they entered the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret.

The Glory of the Cross
A Sermon on the Transfiguration

Hieromonk Gabriel

And truly, the glory with which Christ shone on Mount Tabor is the very same glory with which He desires each one of us to shine as well. Indeed, it was for this very purpose that He came to earth, took on our nature, suffered on the Cross, and was raised again on the third day. Today in His Transfiguration Christ reveals not only Who He truly is, but also who we ourselves are called to be: “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4), “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together” (Rom. 8:17; emphasis added).

The Cross — whether the Cross that our Savior carried Himself, or the one that He has given us to carry — is not merely a test to be passed, a trial to be endured, or an obstacle to be overcome before we reach our destination and receive our heavenly reward. The Cross is itself our destination, and our exceeding great reward. Because the Cross is the self-revelation of God Himself; it is the love of God made manifest. And Paradise itself is nothing other than that love — and any “paradise” we might find apart from the Cross is nothing but a mirage, a fraud, a trap, and a dead end.

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But ultimately, this mystery cannot be explained, or understood, or comprehended: it can only be partaken of. The Cross will always appear to be only pain and suffering and death until we finally ascend it. Only then will our eyes be opened, and only then will we see Christ transfigured in glory, “His face…. [shining] as the sun, and His raiment… white as the light” (Matt. 17:2). Only then will we ourselves also be transfigured and resurrected, partakers of all His grace, and shining with the fullness of His own glorious and Uncreated Light.

May He make us worthy of His Cross. May He make us worthy of His death. May He make us worthy of His glory, and of His life unending and everlasting.

Read the entire article: https://www.rememberingsion.com/p/the-glory-of-the-cross