Newsletter April 20, 2024

Video – His Wisdom: An Interview with Metropolitan Saba (Isper) – Part 2

In this second of two parts of his video interview with Deacon Peter Samore, the Director of Communications for the Antiochian Archdiocese, Sayidna Saba addresses important topics for the future of the Archdiocese, including the establishment of monasteries and the addition of more auxiliary bishops.

Read the entire article: https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/2013
watch the video: https://youtu.be/g7ONSQ69XXc

REMINDER: This Sunday (tomorrow) Nina G. will lead us in a clean-up session to get ready for Pascha! We will start towards the end of fellowship time. Please bring some casual clothes and spend a little time getting our church shined up for our Pascha celebration!

I would like to try some different seating arrangements in the nave. In discussion with the Parish Council, we arrived at a plan. Since we have so many people who wish to stand for the services, we will remove just a few of the chairs and move the others around. For this to work, I need the help of those who prefer to stand: please be courageous and come stand up front in the open space! I understand that it is emotionally uncomfortable for us, but please show your zeal for Christ and for worshiping him and come stand in the open spaces!

This is also an opportunity to remind ourselves about being hospitable and welcoming to visitors. Whatever the seating arrangements are: please watch for visitors during the services. Help them find a seat. Offer yours if that is what is needed. Remember how imposing it was for each of us for ourselves when we first came to an Orthodox service and help make it a little easier for our visitors.

I am blessed to see more people venerating the icons around us in the nave! What a joy and blessing to see your zeal and love for Christ and His saints.

Please allow me to make one point: please do not disrupt the services nor the prayer of your fellow parishioners: especially the chanters and the choir. If there are others in the church already or if a service is in progress, you will need to skip approaching any of the icons that have someone standing by them and venerate those icons in your mind and heart.

Finally: Please NO venerating during the Liturgy. If you desire to venerate the icons, please make the effort to arrive early or, optionally, venerate after Liturgy is finished.

Thank you.

REMINDER: Lenten confessions must be competed before Holy Wednesday (May 1). There will be no confessions from Holy Wednesday (May 1) until the weekend of Thomas Sunday (May 11-12).

All services at 5:00 PM

These are also listed on the parish calendar: https://stjfc.org/Pages/Calendar/calendar.php

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

Full schedule: https://stjfc.org/Pages/Ministries/Altar/Docs/epistle readers for 2024.pdf

Epistle: ST. PAUL’S LETTER TO THE HEBREWS 9:11-14

BRETHREN, when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Gospel: MARK 10:32-45

At that time, Jesus took his twelve disciples, and he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles; and they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise.” And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him, and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant of James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Revelation: Removing the Veil (Part 4)
For the Time Is at Hand…

Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol

In matters of faith that are transmitted to us through the word of God, through Holy Scripture, we can be absolutely firm. God says it, the Gospel says it, Christ says it—we don’t discuss it. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God (Mk. 12:30)—it’s not me saying it, it’s God. I can be mistaken in my words; you can argue with me. I’m a human being, and it’s highly likely that I make mistakes. We all have to accept that we make mistakes—in ourselves and in others. Don’t be so surprised when someone makes mistakes. There’s nothing surprising about this. Human nature is imperfect, so it’s characteristic of it to make mistakes, sin, and have flaws.

True servants of God can be recognized by humility (the seal of truth is humility), by purity of heart. Then man accepts what God says, he receives Divine revelation with a pure and humble heart. God gave a revelation to Jesus Christ to show His servants what would happen soon. Someone might say: “So, all this is going to happen. And why do we need to know that this is going to happen? How are we to counter this? Tomorrow may come the day when they start giving people the seal of the antichrist, the number 666, and whoever doesn’t have this seal won’t be able to do anything—neither buy, nor sell, nor move, and so on. In any case, it’s going to start. And what are we supposed to do? Fight? Resist?”

All of this will happen, but we mustn’t bow our heads and be like a lamb to the slaughter (Is. 53:7); we shouldn’t accept all of this carelessly. We’re all responsible for ourselves. It’s important for us to keep our conscience, not to accept what isn’t good according to the teaching of the Holy Gospel, of Holy Scripture. The fact that this will inevitably happen doesn’t mean we have to just accept it all.

And it certainly doesn’t mean that those who take action are instruments in the hands of God, as, for example, in times of persecution. There were persecutions in the first centuries of the Church: Christians were persecuted, millions of people were tortured during the first three centuries. Nero killed thousands of Christians. But the fact that he destroyed so many Christians and Paradise was filled with saints doesn’t at all mean that Nero was an instrument of God’s providence and he’ll also go to Paradise. No. He was able to fill Paradise with martyrs, but he himself will go to hell for killing them. Those who do the works of satan, evil deeds, works that are not of God, are not justified by the fact that they serve for the salvation of others, participating in the providence of God.

Many people say about Judas: “What’s Judas to blame for? After all, it was foretold that Christ would be betrayed. He served God’s plan exactly. What’s this poor man guilty of?” But that’s not how it is. Judas didn’t do this because it was planned. It doesn’t mean this prophecy was recorded many years ago and therefore it must be fulfilled; rather it’s written because he betrayed. It was foretold. Prophecies are given because certain events will happen, but not the other way around; If there’s a prophecy, then it must come to pass. And those who contribute and commit what was foretold bear full responsibility for their actions. Those people who will destroy the universe tomorrow and bring this world to an end will be responsible for it. It can’t be said that they fulfilled God’s plan. You’re responsible for the crimes and the evil you commit. And prophets simply foresaw it.

I want you to understand this subtlety regarding the prophecies of God. God doesn’t determine what will happen; but rather, because it will happen, God foretells it to prevent people from following after it, and to protect them. Christ tried to stop Judas many times, as we know from the Gospel, so he wouldn’t commit this evil, but Judas wanted to do it. He’s responsible for this and for how he ended his life.

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Read the entire article: https://orthochristian.com/159112.html