Newsletter December 14, 2024

The Nativity and Almsgiving, Part One

The hymn of the angels at the Nativity of Christ is the key verse to the practical meaning of this feast. The angels of heaven sing: ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill among men’ (Luke 2:14). God is always glorified in the highest, and through His presence, peace is achieved on earth and goodwill enters the hearts and souls of mankind.

If the glory of God in the highest, the peace on earth, and the goodwill among men are interconnected, then the responsibility for achieving them falls primarily on the believers. The incarnation of the Lord Jesus teaches us to be messengers of peace and apostles of joy. This great responsibility is not fulfilled by excessive concern for the appearances of the holiday, but by working seriously to make the Lord ever present in and directing our lives.

Read the entire article: https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/2275

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 SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY 1:8-18

TIMOTHY, my son, do not be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel in the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not in virtue of our works but in virtue of his own purpose and the grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus ages ago, and now has manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, and therefore I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus; guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, and among them Phygelos and Hermogenes. May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphoros, for he often refreshed me; he was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me eagerly and found me – may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesos.

Gospel: LUKE 14:16-24

The Lord said this parable: “A man once gave a great banquet, and invited many; and at the time of the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for all is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I go out and see it; I pray you, have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I must go to examine them; I pray you, have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the servant came and reported this to his master. Then the householder in anger said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and there is still room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. For many are called, but few are chosen.'”

Moving the Boundary Marker

Fr. Lawrence Farley

Today we find almost every boundary being deliberately transgressed, repudiated, set aside, broken down, and discarded, with a consequent break down of order in the world. We can name but a few of these moved, altered, and broken boundaries: the boundary between man and woman is broken down through our legitimation of homosexuality and further destroyed in our acceptance of transgenderism. The boundary between the single and married state is transgressed through our normalization of sexual promiscuity. The boundary between human and animal life is erased when we accept that the unborn may be killed as guiltlessly as we kill kittens. The boundaries created by family are eroded when we sunder sexuality and birth-giving from child-rearing, allowing outsiders to provide sperm and womb in the creation of life within our family. The boundary between men and women and between clerical and lay is violated through the ordination of women to the sacred ministry. The boundary between truth and falsehood is discarded when we ecumenically declare that all religions are equally-valuable and equally true. We have even begun to transgress the boundary between man and machine as we flirt with trans-humanism.

What is clear is that all this moving of the ancient and divinely-set boundaries constitute the return of chaos to our world. The moving and discarding of the boundaries in western culture has been taking place slowly and incrementally over the past seventy years and so the return of chaos is also a correspondingly slow process. But the chaos is unmistakable. The failing pulse of life in the West can be gauged in many ways; here I mention only one: the rise of teen depression and teen suicide.

Read the entire article: https://nootherfoundation.ca/moving-the-old-boundary-marker