Newsletter January 31, 2026

Apologetic Theology Today

Christian apologists drew upon the culture of their time, making use of history and its evidence, philosophy and its arguments, science and its theories, preaching, rhetoric, dialogue, and every means available to them. A well-known modern example of our own era is the work of C.S. Lewis in twentieth-century Britain.

As long as the Church exists, and as long as the world exists, apologetic theology will continue to exist. It is the Church’s responsibility to preserve the faith, proclaim it, strengthen believers in it, and engage both those who doubt it and those who oppose it.

Read the entire article: https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/2716

In this time after the Feast of Theophany and before Great Lent (1/6 – 2/20) we bring the Holy Water newly blessed during Theophany services to each of our homes and celebrate the service of the Theophany Home Blessing. I would love to celebrate it at everyone’s home (catechumens included!) this year.

Weekday evenings are the prefered time. Please contact me via phone or email to schedule a time. Also, while I appreciate everyone’s hospitality, I would ask that there be no food. We can celebrate the service and then have a visit over a cup of tea (or other refreshment).

For the celebration of the service, I simply need a small space near your icons. I will bring everything required with me. If you would like to light a candle and carry it around during the blessing that would be great. The service is simple: we will say the few prayers and a litany, and then we will walk through the home and bless each room with the Holy Water.

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 2026 web.pdf

Full schedule:
https://stjfc.org/Pages/Ministries/Altar/Docs/epistle readers for 2026.pdf

Epistle: ST. PAUL’S SECOND LETTER TO ST. TIMOTHY 3:10-15

My son Timothy, you have followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, patience, persecutions, sufferings, what things befell me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra. What persecutions I endured! And out of them all the Lord delivered me. Indeed all who would live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But people who are wicked and deceivers will proceed from worse to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and how from infancy you have known the sacred temple writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Gospel: LUKE 18:10-14

The Lord said this parable, “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

A Chosen Vessel of the Mother of God: The Life of the Athonite Elder Hieromonk Hieronymus

Archpriest Igor Ryabko

At that time the enemy of man’s salvation attacked John fiercely from every side, seeking to turn him away from his cherished and saving aim—the monastic calling. The devil stirred up a powerful war of carnal passions against the chaste young man. One night, when the assault of this battle was especially fierce, he felt himself utterly perishing: prayer seemed to have lost its power; his mind was darkened; clouds of passionate thoughts obscured his consciousness; and his whole being burned as though in fire. Running out of the house into the garden, and falling to his knees beneath a pear tree, John tearfully begged the Lord to come to his aid, to shield him from the enemy’s assault, and to preserve him in purity.

And then, at midnight, the heavens suddenly opened above his head, and a light—like a tongue of living fire—descended upon him from on high: a fire that did not consume, but soothed and quenched the furnace of passion; that filled his heart with ineffable sweetness; and that seized his mind with a grace-filled illumination, coming from he knew not where, in such abundance that, it seemed, he could no longer contain what was happening. Worn out by this overflowing of grace, John fell to the ground and lay as though dead, sensing how that mysterious, grace-filled fire passed with sovereign power through all his veins and joints, cooling and destroying within them the fire of carnal lusts.

The next day, returning from church, John saw with amazement that his entire family was gathered by the pear tree under which he had prayed the night before, marvelling at the sight before them: the tree had completely withered and stood stripped of leaves and fruit. The reason for this sudden death of the tree he kept hidden in his heart, continually giving thanks to God for His unsearchable mercy.

Read the entire article: https://catalog.obitel-minsk.com/blog/2026/01/a-chosen-vessel-of-the-mother-of-god-the-life-of-the-athonite-elder-hieromonk-hieronymus