Newsletter January 24, 2026

Divine Education: The Old Testament

Divine revelation in Christianity is founded on God’s own initiative to reveal Himself. God revealed Himself fully in Jesus Christ: “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9); “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6); “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). Yet this divine self-revelation required preparing human beings to become capable of receiving it. God patiently endured centuries of human frailty until He formed a faithful remnant—people who, through the spiritual maturity they attained, were able to respond to His transcendent truth. This spiritual growth came about through a direct, gradual, and formative divine education, beginning with Abraham and culminating in John the Baptist. God’s salvific plan required that He Himself take the initiative, drawing near to humanity step by step and revealing, at each stage of human spiritual development, something new about Himself.

After the fall of the first humans from Paradise, humanity lost the path back and became incapable of walking it. Yet the image of God within humanity, though distorted by the fall, continued to long for its original source and archetype. Humanity imagined its god to be found in the forces that frightened it or sustained its life, and so it worshiped the sun, the wind, the rain, and the like. Christianity understands the rise of pagan religions as the expression of humanity’s longing for its origin—an origin it no longer recognized. When a child is thirsty, he puts whatever is available into his mouth, thinking it will quench his thirst—whether water or alcohol, because cannot tell the difference. Only when he tastes does he realize his mistake. This is what happened to humanity. For this reason, no people before Christ existed without some form of religion.

Read the entire article: https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/2712

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 LETTER TO THE HEBREWS 7:26-28; 8:1-2

Brethren, it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; he did this once for all when he offered up himself. Indeed, the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect for ever. Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent which is set up not by man but by the Lord.

Gospel: LUKE 19:1-10

At that time, Jesus was passing through Jericho. And there was a man named Zacchaios; he was a chief collector, and rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not, on account of the crowd, because he was small of stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaios, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” So he made haste and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it they all murmured, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaios stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded any one of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Grace Without Illusions. The Theophany as a Judgment Upon Our Life

Metropolitan Luke (Kovalenko)

God is with us! He is! And He ever shall be!

Today we stand on the banks of the Jordan—not only in remembrance, but in the very reality of our spiritual life. We celebrate Theophany. And while our imagination paints majestic scenes—heaven opened, the dove, the voice of the Father—the Apostle Paul in today’s reading brings us back from the contemplation of heaven to our everyday earth. He utters words that are the key to understanding the feast: For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us (Titus 2:11).

We are often accustomed to perceiving grace as a kind of “cloud of comfort,” an invisible energy meant to solve our problems, calm our nerves, or magically set life right while we remain passive. But the Apostle speaks of something else. Grace is a teacher. If for years we stand in church, yet our heart remains cold and our habits unchanged, then we are not learning in this school. We have taken the “key” to the Kingdom of God, but are afraid even to put it into the lock, because beyond the door lies the labor of transformation. Grace does not cancel our effort; it makes our effort fruitful. God does not save us without us.

…

My dear ones! The feast of Theophany is a mirror. Christ enters the Jordan not because He needs purification, but because purification is what we need. He offers us not merely a rite, but a way of life. If we leave the church today without resolving to change at least one trait of our character, at least one habit of justifying our anger, then the feast has passed us by. May the grace that has appeared to the world today become for each of us not merely a beautiful memory, but a real power. May it teach us to be honest, to be whole, and—above all—to be loving, despite everything.

Read the entire article: https://orthochristian.com/175224.html