Newsletter March 28, 2024

On Lent

The joyful Lent is here again. Let us approach it with joy and eagerness. This season nourishes us spiritually, purifying us to rise to the level of life worthy of human beings created in the image and likeness of God.

In our Christian circles, Lent is often approached as a mere religious obligation or abstinence from certain foods and drinks for a period of time. In reality, it is an intensive and liberating spiritual exercise when believers lay aside their worldly concerns and replace them with a yearning for the heavenly realms and living according to their faith.

The idea of liberating ourselves from the ties that bind and enslave us to earthly things, which prevent us from realizing our full humanity and purpose of our existence, is crucial to our understanding of Lent. If we focus on minimizing the quantity and quality of food, it is precisely because this helps free us from a fundamental passion that grips human nature, namely gluttony. As St. John Climacus said: “I wonder if anyone has gotten free of this master before settling in the grave” (The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 14:1).

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If in our Lent we experience true freedom, we experience the saying that “God alone is enough.” If we experience true freedom, then we have entered into His spirituality, beauty and joy.

Read the entire article: https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/1990

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 1:10-14; 2:1-3

IN THE BEGINNING, Thou, Lord, didst found the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of thy hands; they will perish, but thou remainest; they will all grow old like a garment, like a mantle thou wilt roll them up, and they will be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years will never end.” But to what angel has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand, till I make thy enemies a stool for thy feet?” Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation? Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For if the message declared by angels was valid and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him.

Gospel: MARK 2:1-12

At that time, Jesus entered Capernaum and it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room for them, not even about the door; and he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and when they had made an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “My son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak thus? It is a blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question thus in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven, ‘ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your pallet and walk? But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins”-he said to the paralytic-“I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home.” And he rose, and immediately took up the pallet and went out before them all; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!

Revelation: Removing the Veil (Part 1)

Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol

The Revelation of the Apostle John is the last book of the New Testament. The New Testament is not one book, but a collection of twenty-seven books. The last book, the Revelation of the holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, was also the last to be written. It’s a prophetic text that speaks about future events, about events that are taking place, and about events that have already happened, explaining them in a peculiar way, through images, visions, inspiration, and the use of symbols. The holy Apostle John, while on Patmos, saw what God showed him. If you’ve been to the island of Patmos, you know there is still the cave where the Apostle John, while in prayer, saw the revelation described in the book of Revelation.

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The pursuit of truth isn’t some kind of ideology—it’s the Church. Christ made His Church the pillar and ground of truth (Tim. 3:15). The Body of Christ is the Church (all of us, not just the bishops, priests, and deacons), just as the Apostles and saints organized and handed it down to us. And the Church is the keeper of the truth, the keeper of the books of the New Testament. But the books of the New Testament have no value unless their truth is sealed by the Church. The Church chose twenty-seven books and said they contain the truth, and they constitute the God-inspired books of Holy Scripture.

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The Church said: “We accept nothing but what the Apostles, their successors, and the disciples of their successors taught us.” Thus appeared what the Church calls Apostolic Tradition. Who were the eyewitnesses of Christ? The Apostles. What the Apostles said is correct. Thus it was possible to gather the teachings of the Church and determine the canons of truth of the texts of Sacred Scripture. People could say these books are true, authentic, God-bearing, they make up the New and Old Testaments.

In this way, the Church resolved this difficult problem, which found its final conclusion in the epistles of St. Athanasios the Great. This is one of the answers to Protestants, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and everyone who says today: “We recognize only the Holy Scriptures, but not the Church and its Tradition.” But what are they saying? The Sacred Scriptures were determined by the Church, whichsaid that they were Divinely inspired. St. Athanasios and the assembly of bishops said it. So how can you accept only the books that the Church chose while rejecting the Church itself? It’s absurd. The Church has established the authority and truth of Scripture. The Church is the seal of truth. The Church puts its seal on what is true and does not recognize what is false or falsified. The only reliable way of understanding and distinguishing what Christ said to us about false prophets, false messiahs, and false christs is the Church, the ark of truth and salvation.

Read the entire article: https://orthochristian.com/158753.html