Newsletter October 31, 2025

On Artificial Living

Today’s world leaves no room for our carelessness. Life has become profoundly consumerist, built on the illusion that happiness comes from shopping and spending. In truth, happiness is born from contentment with what is essential. Luxuries have never been a source of lasting joy; they are only brief moments of pleasure that fade quickly.

True happiness wells up from within—from the peace that comes through God’s presence in our lives; from a soul that knows the meaning of its existence; from one who has learned to distinguish between what is necessary and what is superfluous; from one who wishes to live according to what truly suits him and not what others expect.

Such a person has the courage to live by their spiritual convictions rather than by social trends. In short, happiness belongs to the one who is secure enough to seek what is right and pleasing to God and conscience, even when it contradicts the customs of society.

Read the entire article: https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/2612

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 GALATIANS 2:16-20

Brethren, knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no one be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were found to be sinners, is Christ then an agent of sin? Certainly not! But if I build up again those things which I tore down, then I prove myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me

Gospel: LUKE 16:19-31

The Lord said, “There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazaros, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazaros in his bosom. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazaros to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazaros in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses, and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to them, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.’

The Christian Crazy Streak

Fr. Zechariah Lynch

“To get ahead one must have a crazy streak, in the good sense of the term. Depending on how you use this crazy streak, you can become either a saint or a hero. But if you are not helped and are led astray, you can also become a criminal. One who doesn’t have a crazy streak cannot become either a saint or a hero … Our heart must become foolhardy,” St. Paisios the New of Mt. Athos. (All subsequent quotes from St. Paisios are from the book, “Spiritual Awakening”)

The above quote by St. Paisios echoes a quote from St. Anthony the Great, “The time will come when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad they will attack him saying, ‘you are mad, you are not like us.’”

A Christian must be willing to be thought of as “crazy” by the fallen worldly system. St. Paul put forth this spiritual principle at the very beginning in these terms: “Did not God make foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world knew not God through its wisdom, it pleased God through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe … We proclaim Christ Who hath been crucified … to the Greeks … foolishness” (1 Cor 1:20-23). And again he explains, “But the material-minded man receives not the things of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him, and he is not able to come to know it, because it is spiritually examined” (ibid. 2:14).

Read the entire article: https://substack.com/home/post/p-177325892