Newsletter Nov. 10, 2022

The Nativity Fast begins this coming week on Tuesday Nov. 15.

This Fast is divided into two periods: The first is November 15th through December 19th when the traditional fasting discipline (no meat, poultry, eggs, dairy, fish, wine, and olive oil) is observed on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with katalysis for wine and olive oil (some also permit fish) on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and for fish, wine, and olive oil on Saturdays and Sundays. The second is the period of the Forefeast, December 20th through 24th, when the traditional fasting discipline is observed Monday through Friday, with katalysis for wine and olive oil on Saturday and Sunday.

(katalysis means exception or lessening…)

Bill sent me a link to a video from the Pskov Caves monastery. It is filmed by the author of the book “Everyday Saints” when he was a young monk there at the monastery and shows many of the monks he described in the book.

The newsletters are sent out via a mail list. Hopefully everyone is receiving them. If you know someone who is not receiving them, or if you ever want to read tem and you are away from email, they are all posted at the website. The link is not presdently posted on the website menu, but you can read them directly with this link:
https://stjfc.org/newsletter/

I have noticed sometimes lately people saying “thank you” to those who are cleaning or otherwise working during our fellowship time. Can I humbly say that this is not really appropriate (although well intentioned). If you notice someone else working, the more appropriate response would be to get up and join them in the work…

Philip Vidaurri – Nameday: 11-14
Marie Groene – Birthday: 11-18

May God grant you many years!

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

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 10:25-37

At that time, a lawyer stood up to put Jesus to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered right; do this, and you will live.” But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed mercy on him.” And Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.

The OCA and the Academy
Hieromonk Gabriel

Several months ago at their 20th All-American Council, in response to the request of the faithful the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America issued an encyclical entitled Statement on Same-sex Relationships and Sexual Identity. Within the historical context of the Christian faith, the only thing even remotely remarkable about this encyclical is the fact that anyone felt the need to issue it at all (sadly, however, such a need is only too real). It consists merely of a simple and calm reaffirmation of “the unchanging teaching of Christ the Savior” regarding sexual identity and morality, a repeated emphasis that such teaching proceeds solely out of “love and out of sincere care for souls,” and finally an exhortation to the faithful not to publicly contradict or undermine the teaching of the Church in these matters.

The totally unremarkable content of this encyclical notwithstanding, it was not exactly surprising that the usual suspects immediately began to scream bloody murder. The ghost of Ezekiel Bulver1 busily began making the rounds on social media, everywhere declaiming that the Holy Synod had produced such a document because [it] was in the grips of (take your pick) authoritarian mania, ideological possession, irrational fear, or — incredibly — an unnatural obsession with sex (to assert, within the context of 21st-century America, that it is bishops who are inordinately fixated upon sex all but beggars belief). There was, of course, little-to-no discussion as to whether the Holy Synod was actually correct in its affirmation of universal Church teaching — indeed, such an approach would doubtless have proved considerably more difficult for the agitators than their attempt to cast the hierarchs as nothing more than a group of fearful, backward, power-hungry old white men.

…

The doors of the Church — the doors of Paradise itself — are open to one and to all. What is needed to walk through those doors is the same for one and for all. And the clergy of Christ’s Church (sinners though we be) stand ever ready to do what we can to strengthen each and every person to walk the “straight and narrow path” that leads unfailingly to eternal life and unending joy in the Kingdom of God.

But what we absolutely refuse to do is to pretend that sickness is health, that bondage is freedom, that the road to perdition is the road to paradise. And — to answer the charges brought by Bulver — the reason we refuse to do so has nothing to do with power or with politics, with judgment or with fear. The true reason is twofold: our pastoral love and care for each and every child of God, yoked together with our firm and unyielding faith that “the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth“ (1 Tim. 3:15) can be trusted implicitly to lead all of us safely home.

Read the entire article:
https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/rememberingsion/2022/10/25/the-oca-and-the-academy/