Newsletter October 5, 2023

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 2023 web.pdf

Full schedule:
https://stjfc.org/Pages/Ministries/Altar/Docs/epistle readers for 2023.pdf

Epistle: ST. PAUL’S SECOND LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 9:6-11

Brethren, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work. As it is written, “He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor; his righteousness endures for ever.” He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your resources and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for great generosity, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

Gospel: LUKE 7:11-16

At that time, Jesus went to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he drew near to the gate of the city, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a large crowd from the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” And he came and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up, and began to speak. And he gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all; and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!

The Way of the Cross

Hieromonk Gabriel

My brothers and sisters, we stand together today in the presence of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of Christ! The Holy Church commands us to display the Cross not on the Feast of the Exaltation alone, but also during the entirety of the afterfeast — for truly, as St. Isaac the Syrian writes, “the Cross is the door to mysteries,” and it is not possible for us to comprehend such mysteries in a brief amount of time. So let us take advantage of this opportunity which the Holy Church is giving us, and as we gaze upon the saving wood of the Cross, let us pray that the Holy Spirit will reveal to us at least some small portion of the heavenly mysteries which it contains.

In the shadow of the Cross, nothing in all of life is as it once seemed. In the presence of the Cross, all worldly pride and all earthly wisdom are seen to be only shame and folly. Since the dawn of time, since the Garden of Eden, mortal man sought for immortality but could not find it — and now, the Immortal One has deliberately chosen to clothe Himself in flesh, precisely in order to suffer a shameful death. Throughout all human history, men sought to win glory and renown by taking up arms and slaying their enemies — and now, the Son of God and King of Glory comes meekly as a lamb to the slaughter, not in order to slay His enemies but to be slain by them, out of love for them, in order to make them into gods.

…

Just as “greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13), so too there is no greater joy than to become a partaker in such divine and transcendent love. Let us never forget that it was “for the joy that was set before Him [that Christ] endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

Therefore, as we gaze one final time upon the Precious and Life-giving Cross as it is exalted in all the churches of the world for us to see, let us with eagerness and joy make our own the words of the Apostle:

Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’
John 11:16

And likewise those of St. Paul in the Epistle lesson appointed for this Sunday:

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Galations 2:20

And as the Holy Church Herself sings:

As the Lord went to His voluntary Passion, He said to His apostles on the way: ‘Behold! We go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be betrayed — as it is written of Him.’ Come, therefore, and let us also journey with Him, purified in mind. Let us be crucified with Him and, for His sake, die to the pleasures of this life, so that we may also live with Him and hear Him say: ‘No longer do I ascend to earthly Jerusalem to suffer. But I ascend to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God. And I shall raise you up to the Jerusalem on high in the Kingdom of Heaven.’
Sticheron for Great and Holy Monday

Read the entire article:
https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/2023/09/21/playing-with-god/