Newsletter December 7, 2024

The Holy Scriptures: Nourishment of the Faithful, Part Three

Justice is good, yet it is merely a step towards knowing God, but not in itself sufficient. Man must move from the letter to the spirit, from the laws to their goal, from the canons to their purpose, from the rituals to the heart of the Lord. He must move from the flesh to the soul. Mercy is more important than justice (see Matthew 9:13). Animal sacrifice is a symbol of the sacrifice of the heart: “Sacrifices to God are a broken spirit” (Psalm 50:17). Worship is not in hymns, incense, and grand celebrations but in mercy, justice, and kindness. This God seeks hearts of flesh, not stone (read from the prophets, especially Isaiah and Joel).

Read the entire article: https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/2259

Some of our current catechumens willl be Baptized / Chrismated on Sunday December 22. The service will take place before Liturgy in place of Sunday Orthros. Come and celebrate / pray with the newly illumined!

(Be reminded that the newly Baptized/Chrismated are the first to receive Holy Communion that day!)

The Nativity Fast continues through Christmas Eve. May God grant you a Good Fast!

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
https://stjfc.org/Pages/Ministries/Prosphora/Docs/prosphora sched 2025 web.pdf

Full schedule:
https://stjfc.org/Pages/Ministries/Altar/Docs/epistle readers for 2024.pdf
https://stjfc.org/Pages/Ministries/Altar/Docs/epistle readers for 2025.pdf

Epistle: ST. PAUL’S LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS 2:14-22

Brethren, Christ is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Gospel: LUKE 13:10-17

At that time, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years; she was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity.” And he laid his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and she praised God. But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.” Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?” As he said this, all his adversaries were put to shame; and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.

The emptiest person is the one who is full of himself and his own cares.

Metropolitan Nicholas of Eastern America & New York, First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad

The goal of this current fast gives it its name: it is not merely a preparation to hold a festal commemoration of an historical event 2,000 years past, but is our real entry into the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God. It is a preparation for the most intimate convergence with Christ, worshipping His manger, and glorifying His manifestation in this world. And in order to accomplish this, man must prepare his heart, or else the mystery of Christ’s Nativity may pass him by without touching his soul. On this path, we encounter the feasts of the Entry into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos, when for the first time this year we will hear the triumphal Nativity hymns, and of the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God “of the Sign,” the Protectress of the Russian Diaspora. We will also prayerfully mark the feast days of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called; the Holy Hierarchs Nicholas the Wonderworker and Spyridon of Tremithus; Venerable John Damascene, Sabbas the Sanctified, and Herman of Alaska; Great-Martyrs Catherine and Barbara; the Holy Forefathers and other saints, who accompany us, as it were, to Bethlehem.

Read the entire article: https://orthodoxlife.org/epistles/the-emptiest-person-is-the-one-who-is-full-of-himself-and-his-own-cares/