Newsletter August 11, 2023

Faith and Science

The uniqueness of man; that which distinguishes him from all other creatures, lies in the fact that he is created in the “Image of God.” And in that his uniqueness is not limited only to the “Divine Image,” but also in the fact that this “Icon” is called to be in the “Likeness of God.” This is what Orthodox Christian theology has known and taught from the very beginning.

As bishop of Lyon Saint Irenaeus (130-202 AD), preached that the “Glory of God is the Living Man.” Some of the Fathers of the Church define or identify rather than combine the “Divine Image,” or the “Icon,” according to which man was created to mean the totality of his nature. Because man is viewed as a single entity uniting all the divisions known to human culture such as body, soul and spirit. Church Fathers consider the “Image” to mean the supreme manifestation of man, referring to his spirit and his spiritual understanding. Saint Gregory Nazianzus says: “Being dust, I cling to the life of this earth, but also being a masterpiece of God, I carry within me the desire for the life to come.” This is the understanding through which man obtains the knowledge of God and through it he lives in communion with God.

According to our faith, this means that the “Image of God” in man is what differentiates him from animals: his freedom, the ability to choose and change, the knowledge of good and evil, the ability of innovation, the power of creativity and the reshaping of the world, to praise and to re-offer the world as a transfigured world, etc. We should be aware that the thought of the holy fathers avoided defining the image of God with any part of the human being.

Read the entire article:
https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/1695

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 2023 web.pdf

Full schedule:
https://stjfc.org/Pages/Ministries/Altar/Docs/epistle readers for 2023.pdf

Epistle: ST. PAUL’S FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 4:9-16

Brethren, God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the off-scouring of all things. I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.

Gospel: MATTHEW 17:14-23

At that time, a man came up to Jesus and kneeling before him said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; for often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” And Jesus answered, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move hence to yonder place, ‘ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. But this kind never comes out except by prayer and fasting.” As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.”

Father Methodius: a Macedonian Turned Most Hospitable Hieromonk on Valaam Island

Anastasia Parkhomchik

This charismatic man with a southern temperament chose the way of monasticism with the blessing of his honourable grandfather. The wondrous ways of Divine Providence brought him to Valaam. Here, he became a greater Russian than many Russian-born. He brought the light of Christ to the Orthodox people and projected an outstanding example of God’s love. He made profound spiritual truths simple and easy to understand. He brought hundreds of people into God’s flock. In a tribute to the recently departed Archimandrite Methodius, Hieromonk Prokhor Jovanov, of North Macedonia, said: “Alexander the Great conquered the world with his sword, but Father Methodius won the world over with his love.”

Archimandrite Methodius, in the world Venko Petrov, was born on 16 February 1961 in the village of Banyane in Eastern Macedonia into a family of God-loving Orthodox Christians. His parents spent their entire lives in ceaseless work and were gentle and loving. However, his maternal grandfather, Peter, had the greatest influence on Venko. He had served for seventy years in the village church as a reader and warden. He prayed fervently and had a deep love of God. From a very young age, he took Venko to the Church and had him hold a candle before the priests during Liturgy. “My grandfather loved people very much. He was infinitely sociable. I am convinced that I have inherited some of his love by his prayers,” Father Methodius recalled. He would frequently invite 30-40 guests after services for tea.

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From Greece, Venko travelled to Bulgaria, also for the first time. In downtown Sofia, he walked into the Church of St. Nicholas and asked the elderly woman at the candle box in English how he could get to Russia. The woman looked at him carefully and wrote on a shred of paper: “Hieromonk Longin, train at 19:20, carriage such-and-such”. ” The train leaves in twenty minutes. Run!” Immediately, Venko hurried to the railway station, where he noticed a fine young priest surrounded by a crowd of people who had come to see him off. He approached him last and asked the same question: “How can I get to Russia?” The priest looked him over from head to toe and directed him to the Russian Ambassador in Bulgaria, who was standing among the escort.

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He said his first sermons were in broken Russian and with such a strong accent that no one could understand a word. But he spoke with such feeling that the parishioners bathed in the Holy Spirit at the sight of him speaking.

From his first days on Valaam Island, Father Methodius revealed himself as an industrious, cheerful, loving and compassionate person. He entreated everyone who cared to listen: “To be happy is to be able to fulfil someone’s request. But even happier will be someone who is asked for nothing, but who sees that his neighbour is in need by is too shy to request help, and makes the decision to help before being asked. Yet perhaps the happiest of all is someone who builds up a kind, honest, generous attitude to the extent that doing good becomes his life, like breathing.”

Read the entire article:
https://catalog.obitel-minsk.com/blog/2023/07/father-methodius-a-macedonian-turned-most-hospitable-hieromonk-on-valaam-island