Newsletter May 1, 2024

The Renewal of Pascha

Pascha is here again. It is a season dear to all of us, bringing us face-to-face with the reality of the salvation that Christ gave us through his voluntary death and glorious resurrection. Today, we renew our hope in the value of life. Today, we straighten our path toward true life. Today we understand that eternal life is our goal; and that our earthly life, with all its joys and sorrows, becomes true life when we live it as eternal life here and now.

In the light of the Resurrection, we examine our faith, our behavior, and our condition. Are these leading us to experience eternal life now in the active, living and revitalizing presence of God? Christ did not endure His passion to give us only a happy life which passes after a few decades. He fulfilled His divine plan to make this earthly life a gateway to eternal life. In us, the children of the Resurrection, the world begins its passage to eternity.

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Read the entire article: https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/2038

We will again share fellowship together as part of our celebration of The Lord’s Resurrection / Pascha. It is tradition that we all bring a Pascha-Basket of NON-Lenten food to the Paschal Divine Liturgy (which starts at 12:01 A.M. on Pascha Sunday, or Saturday night at midnight). The baskets are blessed as part of the Paschal service and then we stay and enjoy eating from our baskets together (whatever time that may be: usually around 3 A.M.).

Then, after some rest at home, we return Pascha Sunday afternoon for the Paschal Vespers service (3 P.M.) and a Paschal pot-luck picnic.

I look forward to the great joy of joining together in prayer and fellowship with you all for our greatest of feast days!

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: ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 1:1-8

In the first book, O Theophilos, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of lsrael?” He said to them, “it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

Gospel: JOHN 1:1-17

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light.The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. (John bore witness to him, and cried, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, for he was before me.'”) And from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Revelation: Removing the Veil (Part 6)
He Hath Made Us Kings and Priests

Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol

What did Christ do for us? We read in verse six: And [He] hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen (Rev. 1:6). He made all of us partakers of His authority—He made us kings. As He is the King, so He has made us kings by grace, inasmuch as we are children of the King of kings. I want to say how deep these things are when a man lives them in God. A man who is close to God, my dears, truly feels like a king—he has no need of anything. At the same time, he may have absolutely nothing.

I remember an encounter during my second trip to the Holy Mountain that made a great impression on me. I went to the Katounakia desert where there was a hermit from Cyprus. He’s still alive, quite old already. There was a veranda in the middle of the cliffs, overlooking the sea. He told me: “I feel like a king here.” And what kind of king was he? He had nothing. His kallyva was so poor! There was nothing in it. His clothes were all torn. He treated me to some fruit and I tried not to look at what I was eating—there were five or six worms in every piece. Extreme poverty. And he tells me he’s a king!

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Read the entire article: https://orthochristian.com/159326.html