Called To Holiness — 20140427

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As I have shared with you, I believe that when members of a Christian community truly understand that they are Called to Holiness, the community becomes vibrant.  One might ask: What makes a parish or community vibrant? People who truly believe in the Good News given to us by God through Jesus Christ and who demonstrate this belief by their involvement in the parish community and their willingness to pray. When God calls us to Holiness, He typically calls us to be a part of a community, that is a group of people who share the same vision of life and see the value and necessity of being a part of the Body of Christ extended in time, a part of the Church.  

While it is true that you don’t have to belong to a Church in order to pray to God or to be a good person, for some reason God chose to establish a Church. An essential part of our spiritual growth is directly connected to our involvement in a spiritual community. There is value to communal prayer. A spiritual community – the Church – is a place where we can learn how to unconditionally love others. We need to be a part of the Church. Why? Because God shared this reality with us through His Son. His Son Jesus brought people together and got them to see the importance of authentic relationships and living in community. God obviously had a reason for allowing the Church to develop through Jesus’ efforts.

Learning to live peacefully in community with others and develop a common vision of life, is the way that God planned humans should live.

I say this because that is what Jesus did. The problem often is that people chose to join a community and not be active or fail to learn the lesson of how to live in community. For example, we know that there will always be disagreements when people live in community. The challenge is to learn how to work out the disagreements and not damage the community by walking away.

When we profess to be a member of a Christian community, it is essential that we understand that we have a responsibility to take our membership as seriously as possible and, to the best of our ability, support the community in any way that we can and be convinced that our spiritual growth can only be achieved within the context of the spiritual community.

Jesus chose to live and work in a community. A vibrant community supports its members in their efforts to live a Christian life.                          Χριστός Ανέστη!

Learning Our Faith from the Church Fathers — 20140427

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When Christ revealed the identity of the Father and of God, he placed this revelation within another, still more inaccessible mystery, that of the Trinity. God is Father because he has a Son who is God, Jesus Christ. The basic principle of divine fatherhood was thereby transposed to a level which surpasses merely human thought.

Again the Church, in Her understanding of Who Jesus is, had to come to a new understanding of Who God is. The result of the Church’s belief that Jesus is both Divine and human was the development of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity – a doctrine that says that God, while He is one God, is comprised of Three distinct Persons.

The divine Trinity is the fundamental mystery of the Christian faith. It is the one starting-point from which the other elements of the Christian faith can be understood. This doctrine could not have been truly formulated without the help of Greek Philosophy.

For the Greeks, the perfection of knowledge consisted of theology, that is the knowledge that results from the study of God. For the Greeks, the aim of theology is knowledge of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the opinion of Gregory Nazianzen the grace of the kingdom of heaven consists in the Holy Trinity uniting itself wholly to the whole soul.

It seems that two different ideas are found in the theology – the knowledge – that has developed about the Trinity. There is the “Alexandrian-Latin” view and the so-called “Greek” view. The teaching of the Western Church goes back to Augustine and Boethius who assert that in God everything is one to the extent that there is no opposition of relations. Therefore, God is the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. By contrast the Greek Fathers of the Church seem to remain more faithful to the terminology of the New Testament. The Father Almighty is the creator of heaven and earth, and hence the principle of cosmic unity in the extra-divine universe. This Father, however, is also the source of intra-divine unity. The Son and the Spirit are one in the Father. And since the function of the divine Persons corresponds to the place each occupies in the bosom of the Trinity, the salvific value of the mystery of the Trinity is manifested. It is the Father who is the ground of human divinization.

Trying to put words to this Mystery, seems to boggle human thinking. One of the important ideas that emerged in the struggle to understand God is the fact that the Son is the Word of God – that Person Who gives expression to the Father’s thoughts.       Christ IS Risen!

Learning About the Practices of Our Religion — 20140427

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As we think about the Divine Liturgy, we must ask: What was the Divine Liturgy like at the time of John Chrysostom? We know that he attempted to simplify the Divine Liturgy of Basil the Great and the other Fathers that formulated Anaphoras.

John Chrysostom, the golden-mouthed, won his reputation as a preacher during his years as a priest at Antioch, 386-98. In the latter years he was chosen, we might say unwillingly, to be the Bishop of Constantinople. For six years he presided over the church in the capital, attempting to reform its life and morals. The hostility of the Empress Eudoxia and Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria caused him to be deposed in 404.

Theophilus of Alexandria had little tolerance for anything that was not   Christian. After he became Patriarch of Alexandria in 385, he ordered the destruction of all pagan temples in North Africa and used the stones to build churches. He supported Origen until questioned by a group of monks about the immateriality of God. Having pondered the issue for a few years, he condemned Origen c. 400 and began to persecute monks who followed him. When four Origenistic monks appealed to John Chrysostom, the Patriarch of Constantinople, he began to attack John and attended the Council of Oak that deposed John. Some believe that Theophilus acted as much out of jealousy over the primacy of Constantinople as from the love of Christian doctrine. When Theophilus died in 412, his nephew Cyril succeeded him as patriarch. Theophilus’ tract against Chrysostom is extant.

Interesting enough is the fact that Theophilus is declared a saint as well as John Chrysostom.

John Chrysostom was, in his own day, linked with liturgical reform. His name became linked with the Divine Liturgy that we typically use throughout the year.

From his sermons preached in the capital we can form some impression of the Eucharist there in his time, while scattered literary references and the results of archaeological investigations enable us to place the Liturgy in its architectural setting.

Many people do not think about the fact that the formation of the Divine Liturgy was also closely connected with the shape and architecture of the church building in which it was celebrated. The worship ritual that has been passed down to us and that we use, was influenced by many different things which, hopefully, I can address during the next several weeks. The space that we worship in, whether we are aware of it or not, does influence our sense of worship and our feeling of worship.       Kristus vstal zmŕtvych!

From the Pastor’s Desk — Sunday April 27, 2014

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A BIG THANK YOU

Another BIG THANK YOU is truly in order after last week’s celebration. It was absolutely glorious! I loved every minute of it. We had absolutely great singing and I felt the regular members brought the spirit of the day to all of our visitors. Bob Boyko, Stephen Pipta, Len Mier really helped make it special as well as all those who sang. I truly love your spirit and willingness to truly celebrate the Good News given by Jesus Christ!

Christ IS Risen! Indeed He Is Risen!

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O day of Resurrection.
Let us beam with festive joy!
O Pasch; O Pasch of the Lord.
For from death to life, from earth to heaven Christ our God has led us who sing the hymn of victory
Ode 1

 

My Dearest Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

resurrection_iconChrist IS Risen! Indeed He Is Risen!  

Хрїстóсъ воскрéсе! Воистину воскресе! (Old Slavonic)
Christos voskrese! Voistinu voskrese (Transliteration)

 Христос воскрес! Воістину воскрес! (Ukrainian)
Chrystos voskres! Voistynu voskres! (Transliteration)

 Χριστός ἀνέστη! Ἀληθῶς ανέστη! (Greek)
Khristós Anésti! Alithós Anésti! (Transliteration)

By the grace of God we again, as believers in Jesus, celebrate a most wondrous revelation: human life is immortal. Our God, according to our belief, has, through the Person of Jesus, affirmed that the life we experience is none other than a sharing in His own life. Therefore the Resurrection of Jesus affirms our own resurrection after death. This is why, according to our tradition, we declare this the Great Day – Velikden!

Easter declares that Death has no hold on us. Death is but a means of making a transition from this present life to the next. This truth is further affirmed by the fact that history records that Jesus not only raised Lazarus from the dead but also others. Through Jesus’ actions God has revealed the truth about human life.

This truth gives us cause to rejoice! Our celebration today is not about a past event that only happened to one person, Jesus. It is a celebration about life. Just like Jesus, we shall be raised from the dead despite any challenges, struggles or sufferings we may have had to endure during life. This present existence is meant to help us learn how to be spiritual beings and to hope and trust in our God. Death and the challenges of life are not meant to harm us but, rather, to help us to become the   persons that God intended when He created us.

It is my sincerest priestly prayer that the joy of this day may truly touch your hearts and lives and that you may sing with me the hymn of victory: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling Death by death and to those in the graves bestowing life.

With all my love,
Father Wayne

Learning Our Faith from the Church Fathers – 20140420

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As all, I am sure, are probably aware, the early Christians were criticized for their belief in the Resurrection. It was one of the primary subjects of the earliest apologetic works of the Church Fathers. Some of the Fathers wrote on the subject in the context of their own suffering, even martyrdom.

Clement of Rome wrote:

Day and night declare to us a resurrection. The night sinks to sleep, and the day arises; the day again departs, and the night comes on. Let us behold the fruits of the earth, how the sowing of grain takes place. The sower goes forth, and casts it into the ground; and the seed being thus scattered, though dry and naked when it fell upon the earth, is gradually dissolved. Then out of its dissolution the mighty power of the providence of the Lord raises it up again, and from one seed many arise and bright forth fruit. Having then this hope, let our souls be bound to Him who is faithful in His promises, and just in His judgments. He who has commanded us not to lie, shall much more Himself not lie. The apostles have preached the Gospel to us from the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ has done so from God. Christ therefore was sent forth by God, and the apostles by Christ. Both of these appointments, then, were made in an orderly way, according to the will of God. Having therefore received their orders, and being fully assured by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and established in the word of God, with full assurance of the Holy Spirit, they went forth proclaiming that the Kingdom of God was at hand.

Clement, looking around at creation and seeing how God has planned it and accepting the word of the apostles and others who knew the Lord,  declares that it is totally reasonable to believe in the Resurrection of our Lord.

Our Father among the Saints, Irenaeus, wrote:

For as the Lord went away in the midst of the shadow of death, where the souls of the dead were, yet afterwards arose in the body, and after the resurrection was taken up into heaven, it is manifest that the souls of His disciples also, upon whose account the Lord underwent these things, shall go away into the invisible place allotted to them by God, and there remain until the resurrection, awaiting that event; then receiving their bodies, and rising in their entirety, that is bodily, just as the Lord arose, they shall come thus into the presence of God. For no disciples is above the Master, but every one that is perfect shall be as his Master. As our Master, therefore, did not at once depart, taking flight to heaven, but awaited the time of His resurrection prescribed by the Father, which had been also shown forth through Jonas, and rising again after three days was taken up to heaven; so ought we also to await the time of our resurrection prescribed by God and foretold by the prophets, and so, rising, be taken up, as many as the Lord shall account worthy of this privilege.

 

Christ IS Risen!

The Resurection in The Gospels — 20140420

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All four Gospels of the New Testament indicate that the Resurrection of the Lord took place on the first day of the week and that Mary of Magdala was one of the first persons to find the tomb empty. Matthew’s Gospel is the only one that adds some additional details to the story. Matthew’s Gospel states:

Mary Magdalene came with the other May to inspect the tomb. Suddenly there was a mighty earthquake, as the angel of the Lord descended from heaven. He came to the stone, rolled it back and sat on it. In appearance he resembled a flash of lightning while his garments were as dazzling as snow.

In the other three accounts, Mary comes to the tomb, whether with companions or not, to find it empty. Why the difference in these accounts? One would think that there would be identical records of the event.

The reality of the matter is that no one actually saw the resurrection (one of the reasons why the traditional Byzantine icon of Easter does not depict Christ coming out of the tomb). This apparent inconsistency in the Gospels was of no concern to the early Christians since the Gospels also record that many people actually experienced Jesus after the Resurrection. What the Gospels truly present are accounts of people actually experiencing Jesus as alive after His   burial.

Another aside, I think, is interesting. The original version of the Creed, the one that we use, does not include the word, died, that the Western Church inserted. We declared that Christ was crucified, suffered and was buried, thus eliminating reference to death even in the Creed.

The Resurrection of Christ is a matter of belief. We have the eye-witness accounts of people who saw Jesus after His Resurrection. Although there are differences in the accounts, there are no reasons not to believe in this truth!

 

1 Cor.

Mark

Matthew

Luke

John
Day

Third day after the Crucifixion

The first day of the week

The first day of the week

The first day of the week

The first day of the week
Time  

Very early, just after sunrise

Dawn

Very early in the morning

Early, while it was still dark

Mentioned at the tomb

  

Mary           Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome

Mary           Magdalene and the other Mary

Mary       Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them

Mary Magdalene

From the Pastor’s Desk — Sunday April 20, 2014

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A word of sincere welcome…

is extended to all who joined with me and St. Michael’s or Holy Ascension communities to celebrate Easter. On behalf of these communities, I greet you in the name of the Risen Lord and hope that your visit was spiritually rewarding. Whether you came as a first-time visitor or as a friend from the past, know that we are happy you joined us and hope you will join us again. Please know you are always welcome. It is our prayer that you will be filled with the joy that comes from truly believing that Christ IS risen!

 

Singing With Enthusiasm

All are reminded that the Easter Tropar should be sung with “joyful enthusiasm.” It is not a funeral dirge! It is a hymn of victory! The pace should be “quick” and upbeat. It should reflect a certain “eagerness” to share the Good News of the Lord’s Resurrection. Resist the temptation to drag the tempo. This Tropar is our declaration of joy! Ask yourself: would strangers know I’m happy and excited when they hear me sing? Let us sing out with joy for truly

 Christ IS Risen! Christos Voskrese!
easter2

GREETINGS:

I would extend a very special Easter Greetings to those who receive my Bulletin in the mail or by email. If you do, it probably means that you were unable to be with us to celebrate Easter. Please know that you were in my thoughts and prayers.

 May God Bless Each of you and
Grant you health and happiness!

 The ARTOS . . .

Is the special loaf of bread we bless on Easter and distribute on St. Thomas day.   This loaf is meant to remind us that Christ, Who is truly the bread of life, is with us.  Христос Воскрес!

REMEMBER . . .

Monday and Tuesday are “Splash” Days. Guys splash gals on Monday and on Tuesday the gals have their revenge. Silly? Perhaps, but a wonderful way to make our joy real.      Christ IS Risen!

 Standing In Prayer

All are reminded that it is our tradition To Stand in Prayer during the period from Easter to Pentecost, the next 50 days. We even stand for private prayer. Sitting is permitted if you are fatigued or elderly. It is not more pious to kneel! This tradition highlights our belief that we truly are the children of God, privileged to stand in His presence.  

BRIGHT WEEK . . .

is the eight days that follow Easter. The last day, St. Thomas’s Day, is the Anti-Pasch. We celebrate Easter each day of Bright Week instead of only on the week-end. This   tradition is a direct carryover of the Jewish Passover which is  celebrated for eight days. During the period from Easter to Pentecost Sunday is counted as the first, not last, day of the week.

 A Big Thank You!

Again I would thank all of those who, in any way, helped to make our Holy Week and our Easter celebrations truly holy and spiritual experiences. I am deeply aware that we worship as a community. Thank you for praying with me.

…. is extended to each and every person who took the time to remember me with Easter wishes and greetings. Your thoughtfulness is truly appreciated and cherished. Thank you for making me a part of your life. I pray that each of you may be blessed with health and happiness.

. . .is extended to all who generously donated for Easter flowers, allowing our worship space to be so beautifully decorated. Please know that your generosity has brought great joy to me and to many others.

. . . is also extended to all those who made a special effort to help with the singing during this sacred time. Your efforts are truly appreciated. Singing is a way to become truly involved in our worship and praise of God.

Special Thanks

…. is offered to Steve Pipta & Mike Christie for their help at the altar. Jobs well done!

 

The Icon of the Resurrection

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easter4I would, as I have done so many times before, exhort you to take a serious look at our traditional Easter Icon. The true Easter icon depicts the Lord’s Descent into Hades and does not represent Him as coming out of the grave. It conveys the impact of His Resurrection, namely the destruction of Death and the granting of eternal life to humankind, which is depicted by the raising of Adam and Eve.

In the Western Christian world, Easter is all about Christ coming out of the grave. While we Eastern Christians do not deny the fact that He came out of the grave, that fact is of little importance to us. What is of importance to us is what His being raised from the dead means. God revealed, by raising His Son from the dead, that human life is immortal. It is immortal because life is a sharing in God’s own life.

These truths are represented in the Easter icon by the fact that the Risen Christ is depicted as pulling Adam and Eve out of the grave and smashing the very gates of Hades, the place of Death. The destruction of Death is depicted by Christ smashing the gates or doors of Hades and the key, lock and hinges being separated from the doors.

There is an almond-shaped nimbus around Christ – called the Mandorla, from the Italian word for almond. This Mandorla represents the uncreated, eternal light of Christ. In the writings of the Eastern Christian mystics, God is often experienced as light. This is not simply a pretty bright light.  It is the same light which filled the apostles with wonder when they saw Christ Transfigured. It is the light which Christ Himself described as the power of the Kingdom of God. It is the light that filled the once perpetual darkness of Hades when Christ descended and brought life into the realm of death.

The icon on the cover of this Bulletin presents a slightly different version of the Easter Icon. In this icon, Christ is only pulling Adam out of the grave while he is holding a scroll in His left hand. The scroll, a sign of wisdom and authority, represents God’s revelation to all mankind about the true nature of human life and death – the scroll is God’s mandate.

Other persons appear besides Adam and Eve. Among them are John the Baptizer, King David and the Patriarchs of the Old Testament. This clearly tells us that immortality is a part of human life – all humans, because they share in God’s own life, are immortal. A person doesn’t become immortal just because of belief. Since human life is a sharing in God’s own life, it is immortal.

Χριστός Ανέστη!

Called To Holiness – 20140420

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Being Called to Holiness through my initiation into the Church, means being called to believe that human life is immortal because it is a sharing in God’s own life. True holiness means putting on the mind of God – of thinking like His child. It means thinking and living like Jesus thought and lived.

It is our belief that God’s life-force fills all creation, bringing it into existence and sustaining it. It is also our belief that we humans not only share in His life-force but that we have also been made in His image and in His likeness.

These beliefs change – or should change – the way we look at life and creation. This faith-filled way of looking at ourselves and all creation is the beginning of holiness. Why? Because it puts God at the very center of our thinking and lives.

Think about it. If I firmly adhere to these beliefs, I begin living in God’s Kingdom and don’t become seduced by the attractions of this world. The things of this world, whether they are things I own or positions and status I enjoy, are all temporary and finite. They pass with time. I cannot take them with me into the next life. That is why Christ exhorts us to store up those things which we can take into the next life, namely loving memories of people with whom we have shared life – human experiences.

This way of thinking also helps us to become less self-centered, more God and other-centered. We    develop our relationship with God through loving relationships with others.

When we are self-centered we cannot have a real relationship with God or anyone else.  We find an example of complete selflessness in the person Jesus. He never put Himself before others, even during His suffering and crucifixion.

God has given us, in the Person of Jesus, a wonderful model of how to live. The Call to Holiness is a call to become as much like Jesus as possible.

Some years ago there was a movement which actually made rubber bracelets that had the following question printed on it: What would Jesus do? This is the approach that we need to take. As we are confronted by events in life we simply need to stop and ask ourselves this important question. If we base our reactions to the events in life upon how we think Jesus would have responded, we can never go wrong.

 Хрїстóсъ воскрéсе!easter3