Newsletter July 4, 2026

The Faithful and Secularism, Part Three

The hesychastic life of prayer, which gives birth to love, remains absent on both sides. Without it, there can be no clear and pure vision. Let us remember that God did not speak to the prophet Elijah in the fire, nor in the storm, but in the gentle breeze. Let us make room for the Lord of the Church to express Himself, and let us not obscure Him by a false zeal that often springs from our passions rather than from our purity.

The immense efforts that were undertaken for the convening of the Great Council in 2016 ended in failure, and so many began calling it the Council of Crete. Yet what happened revealed the great chasm within the Church between the two currents mentioned above. It is the secular mentality that makes some close themselves off to the point of death, while others open themselves up to the point of losing their identity.

Olivier Clément, speaking as an Orthodox Christian, called for “the necessity that our action correspond to our word, that we free it from everything marked by hostility toward others, and that we unleash the Holy Spirit to act in history and restore to it the possibility of openness and creativity.”

He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

Read the entire article: https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/2846

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 LETTER TO THE GALATIANS 5:22-26; 6:1-2

Brethren, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Gospel: MATTHEW 8:28-34; 9:1

At that time, when Jesus came to the country of the Gergesenes, two demoniacs met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one would pass that way. And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” Now a herd of many swine was feeding at some distance from them. And the demons begged him, “If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of swine.” And he said to them, “Go.” So they came out and went into the swine; and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and perished in the waters. The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, and what had happened to the demoniacs. And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their neighborhood. And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city.

Finding God Amidst the Noise

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The great perversion of our consumer life-style is to substitute shopping for seeking. Our passions (traditionally described as: self-love, gluttony, lust, love of money and greed, sadness, acedia (sloth & dejection or apthy and boredom anger, fear, vainglory, and pride) create a counterfeit sense of seeking. The passions cry out to be fed and and satiated. However, they are disordered (for a variety of reasons) and generally only draw us deeper into a maw of darkness and addiction. We frequently imagine asceticism to be an unusual application in our life. What we imagine to be “self-denial” is, in fact, little more than a proper effort to live a life that is truly conformed to our nature. We cannot seek the true food of the soul until we find the soul’s true hunger.

Read the entire article: https://glory2godforallthings.com/2026/06/22/finding-god-amidst-the-noise-2/