Newsletter Dec. 30, 2022

I would like to create the opportunity to deepen / expand our spiritual life. I am going to start with a men’s group because there has already been some expressed interest. However, I am planning also to develop and start a similar group for Women. From the reading that I have been doing in this regard, it is clear that men and women experience and express their spiritualtity differently and that it is there beneficial to both that unique settings exist for both. I need to hear input from all of you. Please help me discern and formulate what these groups will function / look like. Let me hear from you!

I have set (tentatively) dates for the initial informational meetings. The initial Men’s Spirituality Group meeting will be Monday January 9 at 6:30 PM (at Church). The initial Women’s Spirituality Group meeting will be Tuesday January 17 at 6:30 PM (in conjunction with the monthly Women’s group meeting).

Please remember that our full calendar continues to be available at our parish web site. Here is a link:
http://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 LETTER TO THE COLOSSIANS 2:8-12

BRETHREN, see to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fulness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; and you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Gospel: LUKE 2:20-21, 40-52

At that time, the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him. Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom; and when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the company they went a day’s journey, and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances; and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking him. After three days, they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions; and all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when they saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously.” And he said to them, “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” And they did not understand the saying which he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.

What is Truth?: A Pastoral Word
Fr. Mikhail Baleka

Truth. The truth — as both a principle and the very reality of the Person Truth (Our Lord) and His Church — is something that should be the basis of Christian life and conduct. It is easy to get swept away in many different narratives, as the internet provides a means by which information is shared (for better or for worse); it is easy for us to get carried away by the tumultuous currents of differing views, opinions, and in our current milieu, heresies. Throughout the ages, the Church has dealt with various factions, from both within and without her walls, which have attempted to dilute the truth with delusion, personal opinion, and in some cases, outright blasphemy and slander.

…

We can see the effect that seeking to redefine the truth and what it means to be Orthodox has in the actions and efforts undertaken by those who will vocally attempt to redefine our faith. We see not only a consistent appeal to economia (exception) over akrevia (exactitude), but a submission to the worldly spirit of “dialogue” and compromise, oftentimes neglecting the truth as revealed by the Saviour, or an outright avoidance of the mention of His name or ethos in which we should approach the world and its issues. We must always remember the Lord’s words: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6). As St. Justin Popovich wrote: “Outside of Him (the Truth) a man turns into an apparition, into a scarecrow, into nonsense.”

As Orthodox Christians, our culture should be based on the Person of Christ, the Theanthropos. God became human in order to lift man up to God. The Person of Christ must be pre-eminent in all things. It is neither man alone, nor is it God alone but the God-Man. Humanism is outside of the God-Man Christ, outside of God, and thus, outside of the Church. It isolates human beings from their spiritual dimension. We see this blind acceptance that is encouraged by many who seem to confuse the rejection of an error or an evil as the rejection of a person, in which the proponent of such error encourages us to “keep an open mind”, to be “loving”. In other words, to be lukewarm and to quickly forget the words of the Saviour when He said: “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” (Revelations 3:16). What good is prayer if it comes from a lukewarm heart? What good is idle talk if the person at the other end is no closer to repentance than before? Truth more often is exchanged for political correctness and the desire to be inoffensive to anyone, all the while having no care for offending God. It is this spirit of humanistic thought that is a characteristic feature of western civilization in that it makes an absolute of something that is relative, thereby destroying the truth. In the Church, which is the kingdom of heaven, we live genuine humanism, or rather Theanthropism, which is preserved in the All-Holy Virgin and the saints.

Read the entire article:
https://www.orthodoxethos.com/post/what-is-truth-a-pastoral-word