Newsletter Sept. 29, 2022

The most important thing in the spiritual life is to strive to receive the grace of the Holy Spirit. It changes our lives (above all inwardly, not outwardly). We will live in the same house, in the same circumstances, and with the same people, but our life will already be different. But this is possible only under certain conditions: if we find the time to pray fervently, with tears in our eyes. From the morning to ask for God’s blessing, that a prayerful attitude may define our entire day.
– St. Sophrony of Essex

I forgot to mention it last week: apologies. As you have seen, Sunday School has started up again for this year. As a reminder: please allow the children to receive Holy Communion first so that they may then proceed out for their class.

Many thanks to Vince and Shauna for running our Sunday School!

Did you know that we have a great family practice Physician’s Assistant in our community? Please speak to Sara W. if you are interested. I have seen her for some problems and she has been a great blessing!

Thomas Gorman – Nameday: 10-06

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 SECOND LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 6:1-10

Brethren, working together with him, we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, “At the acceptable time I have listened to you, and helped you on the day of salvation.” Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in any one’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, tumults, labors, watching, hunger; by purity, knowledge, forbearance, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Gospel: LUKE 6:31-36

he Lord said, “As you wish that men would do to you, do so to them. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”

For Beginners Only: Building Our Spiritual House
Fr. Michael Gillis

Where do we begin in the spiritual life? Is it best to focus on one or a few virtues and spiritual disciplines? Should we start with the Jesus Prayer or with the reading of spiritual classics like the Philakalia? St. John the Dwarf, one of the Egyptian Desert Fathers, compares building the spiritual life with building a house and offers very insightful comments about how this is to be done.

What St. Dorotheos does for us, however, is he fleshes out what the gold, silver and precious stones are, namely the virtues. The virtues are the bricks (or stones) we lay on the foundation of faith. But which virtues do we develop? How do we know what virtues to build into the spiritual house of our soul? This spiritual house is nothing less than our life. We are building who we are.

…

Saint Dorotheos tells us that whatever virtue is necessary at any given moment is the one virtue we have a chance to add as a stone to our spiritual house if we will practice it a little in that moment: “Is there occasion for obedience? A stone must be laid, obedience. Does a disagreement arise among the brethren? The stone of patience must be laid. Is there a need for self control? That stone too must be laid. So whatever the virtue required, that stone must be laid in the building, and in this way the perimeter of the building rises up. One stone for forbearance, another for mortifying self-will, one for meekness, and so on.”

Read the entire article:
https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/prayingintherain/2022/09/for-beginners-only-building-our-spiritual-house/

A Pastoral Conscience – Archpriest Alexey Mechev of Moscow
Orthodox America

“Come to the grave of this great pastor, a pastor of the Russian Church, and learn from him how to be a pastor ill the world…”

These words were spoken at the funeral of Archpriest Alexey Mechev who, in the years proceeding his death in 1923, was popularly esteemed among Moscow’ s outstanding pastors. He was a rare example of a married priest endowed with clairvoyance, a gift which enabled him to heal countless battered souls, in the tradition of the great Optina elders whose spiritual offspring he was. And like St. John of Kronstadt, another of his mentors, this skilled physician operated in the midst of a great metropolis with all the complexities that this brings to life.

Although no formal biography exists, memoirs left by his spiritual children reveal a wealth of pastoral experience and counsel which can be effectively applied even now to souls oppressed by the multiple distractions and demands of today’s world.

Read the entire article:

A Pastoral Conscience – Archpriest Alexey Mechev of Moscow