Newsletter March 20, 2025

Nina and Anna are starting a women & children prayer / fellowship group. It will meet Thursdays at 9:00 A.M. The gathering will begin by praying an Akathist together in Church, then will gather for fellowship (for adults) / play time (for children) afterward.

Ministering in Love

A person may do good, but what matters most, according to the Bible, is the underlying motive of that good deed. If pure love drives you to serve others, your service will be complete and sound, and will resonate in the other person’s heart, even if it falls short of his or her material needs. However, if the motivation is personal (seeking a favor), professional (seeking a transaction), social (seeking status), etc., the others may have their needs met, but they will feel manipulated.

How necessary it is for both clergy and laity working in the fields of service and ministry in general – and in the Church in particular – to be alert and aware of the importance of the continued presence of the Christian spirit of service and ministry in their hearts, behavior, and interactions with those in need.

Read the entire article: https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/2379

Denver area Lenten Sunday evening pan-Orthodox Vespers will be held again this year. All services begin at 5:00 P.M.

Sunday of Orthodoxy (9 March): Assumption Cathedral, Denver
St. Gregory Palamas (16 March): Transfiguration Cathedral, Denver
Sunday of Cross (23 March): St. Elias, Arvada
St. John of the Ladder (30 March): St. Luke, Erie
St. Mary of Egypt (6 April): St. Herman, Littleton (co-hosted by St. Tikhon Mission)

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 2025 web.pdf

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

Epistle: ST. PAUL’S LETTER TO THE HEBREWS 4:14-16; 5:1-6

BRETHREN, since we have a high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this he is bound to offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. And one does not take the honor upon himself, but he is called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, ‘Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee’; as he says also in another place, ‘Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek.’

Gospel: MARK 8:34-38; 9:1

The Lord said: “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.

All Kinds of Everything

Fr. Lawrence Farley

This is how we were created to experience the world; it was how we were intended to live. In this world, all water is Holy Water, all bread is blessed bread. To quote Fr. Alexander Schmemann (from his book For the Life of the World, originally entitled The World as Sacrament): “The whole world is presented as one all-embracing banquet table for man…The world of which he must partake in order to live is given to him by God and it is given as communion with God. The world as man’s food is not something ‘material’ and limited to material functions, thus being different from and opposed to the specifically ‘spiritual’ functions by which man is related to God. All that exists is God’s gift to man and it all exists to make God known to man, to make man’s life communion with God”.

Note: everything in the world was intended to bring us to God so that by experiencing and partaking of the physical world we experienced communion with God.

This is, of course, why the Orthodox bless Holy Water—not to make magic water, but to reveal the capacity and calling of all physical things to become Spirit-bearing, instruments of our communion with God. All water is life and this life

Read the entire article: https://nootherfoundation.ca/the-world-as-sacrament