In the Orthodox Conscience

By Metropolitan Saba (Isper)

When you approach matters of faith, information alone is not enough. You need a spiritual mindset to approach religious issues. This mindset is formed gradually, through your living connection with God and His Church. The more you experience life in the pure face of the Lord’s Church, the more the “Orthodox conscience” takes root in you. This in turn shapes your mind to become truly Orthodox.

There is no school or textbook that can teach you how to acquire this conscience, mindset, or spiritual sense. The only school is your life in the heart of the Church, your humility, and the work of the Holy Spirit in you. If you pursue humility, it shapes your entire being, not just your mind, so that you are truly open to the Holy Spirit, to your brothers and sisters, and to those around you in the world. Then, the action of the Spirit appears in the way you approach every Church matter: with humility and detachment, seeking God’s will and mind, not your own ideas or desires. His action toward your brothers and sisters shows itself in your dealings with them in love. This allows you to distinguish between individual persons and their opinions, enabling you to understand them, even if you disagree. Only then is real dialogue possible. Without it, you reject not only their opinions but also the persons themselves.

Let us make this clearer with examples. For centuries, there has been debate about frequent versus occasional communion. Both sides find canons, teachings, and practices to support their view. How do you discern the truest approach? If you rely only on theological studies, rules, and teachings, you will naturally gravitate to what fits your own thinking, preference, or desire. But the key question remains: How do you know God’s will and mind? How do you discern what is best for you and the Church? Here, the Orthodox conscience is essential, for it helps you distinguish between your will and the Spirit’s will, between Holy Tradition and local customs that shift with cultures and times, between what the Church has faithfully lived and what today’s pressures try to impose.

In every matter of faith, God’s mind must shape your churchly conscience alongside the spirit of the canons, the theological sciences, and their purposes. This only

happens when you live with a mindset enlightened by the Holy Spirit and His living action from the Church’s foundation until today. In Orthodoxy, Holy Tradition means precisely “what has been handed down to us.” Tradition is literally “the handing over.” When you live in the spirit of this Tradition, your sense of it strengthens. Then the canons, teachings, and theology support you. But if you rely on them alone, you risk distortion, even while you seek the truth. It is no accident that our holy Fathers and Mothers taught that humility is the garment of divinity and the condition for receiving any grace. Clinging stubbornly to what you consider “the truth” can close your eyes to the fuller truth beyond you, and in this way, you harm your Church and your faith, even if you call your version of truth “theological.”

Never forget: the Church does not call “theologians” those who study theology in universities, but those who know God through living experience with Him. From the beginning, the Church has said: the true theologian is the one who prays.

The same applies to today’s debates about deaconesses. There is much confusion here. It is not enough to simply point to historical evidence of deaconesses and then interpret it to fit today’s mindset, crafting a “new” form to suit modern thought. Scientific study requires objective research that seeks the truth. Only then can decisions be made upon it. For example, one must first know the role deaconesses played before their order disappeared, the reasons for their disappearance, and the reasons behind any movement to revive the order today. The discussion must be rooted in Tradition and a forward vision shaped by an Orthodox, patristic mind. To approach it through the lens of gender equality, or inequality, is mistaken, because this uses the spirit of the age, not theology. Likewise, treating ordination as a job of equal opportunity is wrong. Priesthood is not a business.

The Church is filled with many and varied gifts. Her Tradition has always affirmed that Christ did not choose women for the liturgical priesthood: they were not among the Twelve at the Mystical Supper where He instituted the Eucharist, nor when He breathed the Spirit upon them and gave them authority to bind and loose sins. Yet at the same time, He entrusted women as heralds of His Resurrection, sent the Spirit upon men and women alike at Pentecost, and made some of them equal to the apostles in preaching and witness. Women have served and continue to serve

in countless Church ministries, whether as deaconesses, laywomen, or married women.

For decades now, Christianity has faced the temptation to reshape its theology according to dominant humanist and secular thought. This is a dangerous path, because it bends theology, spirituality, and the mind of the Church to human ideas rather than to the Gospel and Tradition.

May God preserve His Church from the traps woven against her from within and from without.

Speak the Truth  - - WITH LOVE

- By Metropolitan SABA (Isper)

            Much is said these days about “truth.” All people cling to their own truth, seeing it from their own perspective, whether for personal benefit or the interests of their group. Yet the Absolute Truth, God Himself, is often the most forgotten. Strangely, people still appeal to Him to justify their cause, and to strengthen their battle to obtain what they call their rights. But in our faith, truth is not simply a law or custom—it is God Himself. The Lord said in the Holy Gospel: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6). He is both the Truth and the Way to the Truth. To follow Him, to walk according to His commandments, to love Him and to humble ourselves before Him – these allow His presence to fill us, protecting us and those around us from error and falsehood. The Lord also says: “If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). If you are a follower of Christ, you belong fully to the Truth – not partially, but wholly. The presence of Christ within you purifies you from every stain and falsehood. You cannot belong to Him and to someone else at the same time. Either you open yourself entirely to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17 and 15:26), or you remain divided and unstable.

            How, then, can you remain faithful to Him while sin still finds a place in you? Faithfulness lies in your sincere striving toward Him, in following His footsteps wherever they lead, and in remaining conscious always to live in loyalty to Him. Yes, you will face obstacles and temptations either from within yourself or from the outside. Do not be afraid, although the devil never sleeps. “Like a roaring lion, he prowls around looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Do not despair if you fall once or many times. What matters most is that you rise quickly after each fall. Faithfulness to the Lord does not mean you will never sin. Rather, it means that when you do sin, you are ready to repent, to be corrected, and to continue walking toward Him in truth. The Lord has not left you alone in this struggle. He promised: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:16–17).

            To stray from the truth, then, is to turn away from the Spirit of God dwelling within you. People may disagree endlessly about what they call “truth.” But too often they forget that truth cannot be separated from love. If in your pursuit of truth you lose love, you are no longer on the right path. At such moments, you must pause, examine yourself carefully in the light of the Gospel, and repent. In your search for truth, you may sometimes confuse what is actually the truth with what only appears to be so. Your passions and lack of purity — whether as an individual, a group, a worldly institution, or even a church in this fallen world — play large roles in clouding your vision.

            Imagine, for example, the magnitude of the deception when you are under pressure from your friends or those around you! Reflect also on how dangerous it becomes when the truth to which you cling and defend is shaped by competing interests, politics, and the struggles for influence and power that dominate this world. To remain faithful, you must be willing to die to yourself in order to live in truth, integrity, and loyalty to God. Your spiritual confusion will provide you with many justifications, sometimes disguised as logic, self-interest, craftiness, or wisdom. All of this pushes you to walk by the standards of this world, protecting yourself and your reputation, and supporting them with the spirit of the world — a spirit that is not yours if you are a disciple of Christ. For the world does not place its priority on bearing witness to the truth, but rather on cunning and compromise, which stand against the Gospel.

            The lure of power and influence, and the love of possession can lead you to build a seemingly logical structure for your ambitions, filling it with noble goals that justify your actions — while in reality you are only covering up the evil within and the harm of your behavior. Do not forget the Gospel’s warning about wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15). You could be that wolf when you let evil lead you to seek your own desires disguised as virtue, or poison in honey.

            Be watchful, lest you become a tool of the evil one even while believing you are resisting him. Your distortion of truth is most painful when you direct it against those closest to you. Remember what Christ said: “Because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me” (John 8:45). The Lord said: “A man’s enemies will be those of his own household” (Matthew 10:36). And the Arab poet reminds us: “The injustice of kin is the hardest to bear.” Your suffering is also made heavier when people label you as belonging to one camp or another, simply because the truth you spoke happened to align with their position. This, too, is part of your cross, if you remain faithful to the Gospel and the teachings of the Church. Expect your reward from the Lord alone. Many before you stood against the entire world and paid a heavy price, yet it was the truth they proclaimed that triumphed in the end. What grieves the Lord is that some entrusted with His Church busy themselves with things He never asked for, while His children hunger for the word of life and thirst for the living water that could relieve their suffering.

            While God’s creation longs for salvation, attention is instead directed to pursuits that have nothing to do with salvation, and efforts are poured into superficial concerns that feed and heal no one. Even more painful is that those who clearly understand their evangelical mission and pastoral responsibility are forced to spend their energy correcting distortions, rather than dedicating themselves fully to nurturing true righteousness in the hearts of Christ’s beloved. And so, you are called to remain steadfast in both truth and love. Speak the truth as you see it, but always with love (Eph. 4:15). The moment you sense within yourself the presence of anger, pride, or malice, remain silent and turn to the Lord in humble prayer. Ask Him to place His word on your lips, so that you may become a real witness to the Truth. As for false witnesses, leave them to the Lord and to the judgment of history.

THE LORD’S DAY

Did you know Orthodox Christians observe the Sabbath on Sunday — the Lord’s Day? In the book of Exodus, God commands His people to keep the Sabbath — Saturday — as a day of rest, because on the seventh day, God rested after creating the world (Exodus 31). This was a holy command for the people of Israel, shaping their entire rhythm of life. But everything changed with Christ’s Resurrection. In the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 28), we read that “after the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week,” the women came to the tomb — and found it empty. Christ had risen. That first day of the week, Sunday, became “the Lord’s Day” (Κυριακή in Greek), the day of joy, of new creation and eternal life in the light of the Resurrection. The early Christians, including the Apostles, gradually shifted communal worship from Saturday evening into Sunday, celebrating the Holy Eucharist (the breaking of bread — what we now know as the Divine Liturgy) and gathering in the joy of the Resurrection. The Didache, a first-century Christian text, tells believers to gather and give thanks on “the Lord’s Day.” By the second century, Saints like Ignatius of Antioch encouraged Christians to worship on Sunday, not the Sabbath. By the time of the First Ecumenical Council in 325, Sunday had become the central day of Christian worship. In Greek, they don’t call it “Sunday” but Kyriake (Κυριακή) — “the Lord’s Day.” We don’t rest because of the seventh day — we rejoice because Christ is risen. We worship the Risen Son of God, who fulfilled the Sabbath and gave us eternal rest in Him.

Matushka Olga Michael of Kwethluk

Matushka Olga Arrsamquq Michael, a Native Alaskan of Yup’ik origin, was born on February 3, 1916. She was the daughter of Evan Qamulria of Kwethluk and Olinka Paniik of Napaskiak. Her maternal grandfather was the Paingarmiut trader Wassillie Egoak and her paternal grandfather David Qaltayak Nicolai. Her paternal grandma Elizabeth Arrsamquq was who she was named after. Arrsamquq is her Yupik name.

Her husband, Nikolai Michael, was the village postmaster and manager of the general store, who later was ordained a priest and subsequently was elevated to Archpriest. While her husband served 12 villages, Olga tended the home, raised their eight children, baked prosphora for the Divine Liturgy, and supported the entire community, offering warm clothing to those in need. As a midwife, she helped women give birth and brought comfort to those suffering from traumas. Matushka Olga gave birth to thirteen children herself of which eight survived and were raised by her. Many of the children to whom she gave birth were without the aid of a midwife of her own.

Matushka Olga was known for her empathy and caring for those who had suffered abuse of all kinds, especially sexual abuse. While her family was poor, she gave generously to those who were poorer, often giving away her children’s clothes to the needy. She was also known for her ability to tell when a woman was pregnant, even before the woman herself had missed her period.

When Matushka Olga reposed on November 8, 1979, many people from miles around wanted to come to her funeral, but since it was November, the winter weather made it impossible. But on the day of her funeral a wind from the south brought warm weather, thawing the ice and snow to make the trek to Kwethluk possible. When the mourners exited the church to take her body to the graveyard, a flock of birds followed. Those who dug her grave found that the ground, too, had thawed. The evening after her funeral, the normal harsh winter weather returned.

Blessed Olga is venerated in the area in which she lived her earthly life and beyond, and also receives personal veneration from many Orthodox women touched by her life story. She has appeared in the dreams of the faithful, sometimes alongside the Mother of God.

While all of the canonized saints of North America have so far been men, over the past few years an Orthodox woman, native of North America, has slowly become known to more and more people, particularly other Orthodox women.

Matushka Olga Michael, wife of the departed Archpriest Nikolai O. Michael from the village of Kwethluk on the Kuskokwim River in Alaska, as described in Fr. Michael Oleksa's book, Orthodox Alaska, was neither a "physically impressive or imposing figure." She raised eight children to maturity, giving birth to several of them without a midwife. While her husband was away taking care of many other parishes, she kept busy raising her family and doing many things for other people. One is reminded of the story of Tabitha in the book of Acts (9:36-ff) when hearing that "[i]n addition to sewing Father Nikolai's vestments in the early years and crafting beautiful parkas, boots and mittens for her children, she was constantly sewing or knitting socks or fur outerwear for others. Hardly a friend or neighbor was without something Matushka had made for them. Parishes hundreds of miles away received unsolicited gifts, traditional Eskimo winter boots ('mukluks') to sell or raffle for their building fund. All the clergy of the deanery wore gloves or woolen socks ... [which she] had made for them" (p. 203). While fulfilling many of the other tasks (like preparing the eucharistic bread) that are often assumed by other priests' wives, she also knew the hymns of many feast days, including Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Pascha in Yup'ik (her Eskimo language) by heart. After, miraculously surviving an initial bout with cancer when it seemed that nothing could be done, she eventually succumbed to a return of the disease, preparing herself for death which took place on November 8, 1979 with great courage and faith.

It appeared that the normal snow and river ice of that time of the year would prevent many people from attending her funeral. But, the weather uncharacteristically changed and a southerly wind helped to melt the ice and snow allowing parishioners from the neighboring villages to make the journey to Kwethluk. "Hundreds of friends ... filled the newly-consecrated church on the extraordinary spring-like day of the funeral. Upon exiting the church, the procession was joined by a flock of birds, although by that time of year, all birds have long since flown south. The birds circled overhead, and accompanied the coffin to the grave site. The usually frozen soil had been easy to dig because of the unprecedented thaw. That night, after the memorial meal, the wind began to blow again, the ground refroze, ice covered the river, winter returned. It was as if the earth itself had opened to receive this woman. The cosmos still cooperates and participates in the worship of the Real People [i.e. the name native people give to themselves] offer to God" (p. 205).

However, it is not just her story that has been so special and life changing to others, but the actual encounter with her presence that has taken place in remarkable ways. One woman, originally from Kwethluk but now living in Arizona, had a dream in which Matushka Olga appeared, assuring her that her mother would be alright because she was coming to join her in a bright and joyful place. This woman did not known her mother was sick at the time, that she had been rushed to Anchorage, and that she would soon die. But the next day she received news of her mother's emergency evacuation and rushed from Arizona to Alaska, comforting her mother with the news Matushka Olga had brought her about her eternal destiny. The woman died in peace and with her daughter without the shock and grief that would have certainly ensued if the dream had not reassured her.

Another woman, after viewing a picture of Matushka Olga, experienced a "compassionate, loving, gentle, and very real—very accessible presence."

The most detailed account comes from an Orthodox woman who, as in the previous example, had suffered for many years from the consequences of severe sexual abuse experienced as a child. This is her testimony of meeting Matushka Olga:

One day I was deeply at prayer and awake. I had remembered an event that was very scary. My prayer began with my asking the Holy Theotokos for help and mercy. Gradually I was aware of standing in the woods feeling still a little scared. Soon a gentle wave of tenderness began to sweep through the woods followed by a fresh garden scent. I saw the Virgin Mary, dressed as she is in an icon, but more natural looking and brighter, walking toward me. As she came closer I was aware of someone walking behind her. She stepped aside and gestured to a short, wise looking woman. I asked her, "Who are you?" And the Virgin Mary answered, "St. Olga."

St. Olga gestured for me to follow her. We walked a long way until there weren't many trees. We came to a little hill that had a door cut into the side. She gestured for me to sit and she went inside. After a little while some smoke came out of the top of the hill. St. Olga came out with some herbal tea. We both sat in silence drinking our tea and feeling the warmth of the sun of our faces. I began to get a pain in my belly and she led me inside. The door was so low I had to duck like bowing in prayer.

Inside the hill was dry and warm and very quiet. The light was very soft coming from a shallow bowl and from the open hole on the top of the hill. Everything around me felt gentle, especially Mother Olga. The little hill house smelled like wild thyme and white pine in the sun with roses and violets mixed in. Mother Olga helped me up on a kind of platform bed like a driftwood box filled with moss and grasses. It was soft and smelled like the earth and the sea. I was exhausted and lay back. St. Olga went over to the lamp and warmed up something which she rubbed on my belly. I looked five months pregnant. (I was not pregnant for real at that time.) I started to labor. I was a little scared. Mother Olga climbed up beside me and gently holding by arm, she pretended to labor with me, showing me what to do and how to breathe. She still hadn't said anything. She helped me push out some stuff like afterbirth which kind of soaked into dried moss on the box bed. I was very tired and crying a little from relief when it was over.

Up until this she hadn't spoken, but her eyes spoke with great tenderness and understanding. We both got up and had some tea. As we were drinking it, holy Mother Olga gradually became the light in the room. Her face looked like there was a strong light bulb or the sun shining under her skin. But I think the whole of her glowed. I was just so connected to her loving gaze that I didn't pay much attention to anything else. It was the kind of loving gaze from a mother to an infant that connects and welcomes a baby to life. She seemed to pour tenderness into me through her eyes. This wasn't scary even though, at that time, I didn't know about people who literally shone with the love of God (it made more sense after I read about St. Seraphim). I know now that some very deep wounds were being healed at that time. She gave me back by own life which had been stolen, a life that is now defined by the beauty and love of God for me, the restored work of His Hands.

After some time I felt like I was filled with wellness and a sense of quiet entered my soul, as if my soul had been crying like a grief-stricken abandoned infant and now had finally been comforted. Even now as I write ... the miracle of the peacefulness, and also the zest for life which wellness has brought, causes me to cry with joy and awe.

Only after this did holy Mother Olga speak. She spoke about God and people who choose to do evil things. She said the people who hurt me thought they could make me carry their evil inside of me by rape. She was very firm when she said, "That's a lie. Only God can carry evil away. The only thing they could put inside you was the seed of life which is a creation of God and cannot pollute anyone." I was never polluted. It just felt that way because of the evil intentions of the people near me. What I had held inside me was the pain, terror, shame, and helplessness I felt. We had labored together and that was all out of me now. She burned some grass over the little flame and the smoke went straight up to God who is both the judge and the forgiver. I understood by the "incense" that it wasn't my job to carry the sins of people against me either. It was God's, and what an ever-unfolding richness this taste of salvation is. At the end of this healing time we went outside together. It was not dark in the visioning prayer. There were so many stars stretching to infinity. The sky was all shimmer with a moving veil of light (I had seen photos of the northern light but didn't know that they move.) Either Matushka Olga said, or we both heard in our hearts—I can't remember which—that the moving curtain of light was to be for us a promise that God can create great beauty from complete desolation and nothingness. For me it was like proof of the healing—great beauty where there had been nothing before but despair hidden by shame and great effort.

What is one to make of these accounts? If nothing else, for now, one can acknowledge the special place that Matushka Olga has had in the lives of certain native people and a growing number of contemporary women. But it is in the slow and gradually expanding process of knowledge which moves from local veneration to broader awareness that God reveals how He can be "wonderful in His saints." Matushka Olga was herself a midwife and may have also known from personal experience the traumas of being abused earlier in her life. Perhaps it is in this role as an advocate for those who have been abused, particularly sexually, that God will continue to use Matushka Olga in drawing "straight with crooked lines," His work of "creating beauty from complete desolation and nothingness."

If God wills, may it also one day be possible to exclaim: "O Blessed Mother Olga, pray to God for us!"

Fr. John Shimchick

Jacob's Well

10/7/2015

Preparing for the Theophany Blessing of Home & Family

• A lit church candle (or votive light), an icon and/or Cross, and a bowl of Holy Water available from the church should be placed on a clean table in the family kitchen or dining area. This table should be covered by a clean, white table-cloth with all other things removed from the table.

• All televisions, radios, I-pods, tablets, computers, video games, etc. should be turned-off before the service begins. All cell and land-line phones and any other electronic devices should be turned-off. Cigarettes, cigars, etc. should be extinguished.

• All present in the home should come together and stand near the table where the service will be offered to the Lord as they wear “appropriate” clothing for a church service. Parents with young children present at the time of the blessing are asked to prepare their children in advance by reviewing what they are about to be part of and how to behave in a “church-like manner” during the blessing service. Fr. Bill will often ask the children to participate in the service by carrying a blessed icon as he goes room to room.

• The first names of those for whom special prayers are to be offered (including all members of the household) can be clearly printed on a sheet of paper with the clear distinction between    those living and those who have departed. (The departed can be indicated with a “+” sign before the name.)

• Any household pets should be removed from the room (or restrained from wandering or making noise) where the prayer service will be conducted.

• All rooms to receive a blessing should have the door open and the room light turned on; it may be advisable to lead the priest around the home while all present sing the Theophany Troparion.

• While not required, if it is the family custom to offer a monetary honorarium to the priest on this occasion, it should be given in an envelope at the conclusion of the service or laid on the table so marked.

^          It is an honor and a great blessing to receive our Savior into our homes annually through this Theophany blessing service! Fr. Bill will contact you at least one day in advance to schedule an approximate time for his visit during January (or February – if needed) - weather permitting!

^          Holy Water will be blessed during the January 6^th Theophany Liturgy. Attendees of this Liturgy are reminded to bring an appropriate container with you to carry the newly blessed Holy Water home. Plastic Holy Water containers will also be available for purchase on the vestibule candle desk. The Holy Water vat will remain in the rear of the church nave through January 26^th from which to draw Holy Water. Holy Water is always available throughout the year from the metal container on the right side of the church nave to replenish your supply at home to consume when not feeling well. Please ask a church officer or Fr. Bill for assistance if needed.

Decorum in God’s House

(...some annual reminders from Fr. Bill as we begin summer)

*          Out of respect for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, His Mother the Theotokos, the Holy Saints, the Holy Orthodox Church, and those worshiping around us, suitable and modest attire and behavior are required of all guests and members who wish to worship God in the ancient Orthodox Christian manner. This means, minimally, shorts are not proper anywhere in the church for men or women above 12 years of age. All Altar servers, especially, are also included in this ban. Shorts are not proper attire to serve the Lord in the Holy Sanctuary – full-length pants are necessary. Likewise, shoes and socks are also required in the Altar … no sandals with bare feet, etc.) Women’s skirts should be modest in shortness; no sleeveless shirts or halters; no bare midriffs; no scandalous “plunging necklines.” No beach, sports, or athletic gear, flip-flips, or similar “overly casual” attire.

*          No Tee-shirts/sweatshirts with slogans, logos, pictures, or mottos. Shirts and blouses should be modestly buttoned. Men, please remove caps or other head-covers.

*          Please consider all of the church property (including the Youth Center) to be a no smoking zone.

*          Food and drink is not permitted in the nave of the church at any time. Likewise, chewing gum/candy is prohibited. (Exception: the feeding of snacks to young children should be very limited in scope and eliminated as soon as possible as the child matures. Please make every effort to clean up the “residue” when the service is completed.)

*          Lip stick, lip balm, etc. should be blotted before venerating icons or the Holy Cross as well as before receiving Holy Communion.

*          It is not necessary to venerate the tetrapod icon after having just received Holy Communion.

*          Exiting the church during the divine services should be done only in the event of emergencies. If for any reason you must leave at any time, please exit/return quietly as you strive not to disturb those around you. This should be kept to a minimum. (Parents with children are expected to minimize the usage of the restrooms/fountain by children as much as possible.) The basement audio/video transmission is only for those parents with “rambunctious” young children or for adults who are ill. The basement is not a “permanent alternative” to standing in the church nave with the other believers as we face the Holy Altar. The aisles and stairways should be kept clear so people can move safely and quickly without hindrance.

*          You are encouraged to study the Bible, read the pre-Liturgy prayers, read the service hand-out sheets, or silently meditate before the service while you minimize conversations. (Please whisper if you must have a brief conversation - including while in the vestibule area.) Except for the parish officers, please do not “linger” in the vestibule.

*          Turn off cell phones and other electronic devices off before you enter the church.

*          Believers are encouraged to come to church well before the scheduled service starting time. (This means you are, in effect, already late for Liturgy if the Third Hour is already being chanted when you enter the church!)

*          Proper Orthodox etiquette is to always come forward to venerate the various icons and light a candle offering when entering the church. It is not “good manners” to merely go to your place in the church without doing these things first. Similarly, it is “rude” to make a habit of leaving the church before venerating the Holy Cross. Please light personal candles prior to the start of a service to avoid distraction to others during worship.

*          Altar servers should make every effort to arrive and enter the Altar prior to the start of the service. They are reminded to properly venerate the Holy Altar (Prestol).

*          Reception of the Holy Eucharist is reserved for those baptized Orthodox Christians who have prepared themselves by conducting a proper Eucharistic fast, prayer, and participation in Holy Confession according to the established guidelines set by the parish priest. (Receiving Communion is a privilege, not an “automatic right.”)

Please remember that the Church is an “oasis of like-minded people” who come together to BE the “Body of Christ,” not just to “attend church” as disconnected worshipers. Let us be courteous! Let us be patient! Let us be merciful as we would have the Lord Jesus be courteous, patient, and merciful with us! Let us remember that we are mutually accountable to each other as well as to God for our actions and words as believers in Christ!

Second Sunday of Great Lent - St. Gregory Palamas

(An explanation by: Fr. Nicholas Belcher)

            On the second Sunday of Lent, the Holy Orthodox celebrates the memory of Saint Gregory Palamas, the Archbishop of Thessalonica, who struggled valiantly to uphold the patristic teaching that God's energies are uncreated against those who held that God's grace is a created intermediary. While the distinction between uncreated energies and created grace may sound like an arcane debate between religious scholars, this dispute greatly disturbed the life of the Church and required a series of six councils in Constantinople over the course ten years to finally proclaim the Orthodox teaching. In our age of theological relativism, this type of vociferous debate over wording seems nothing short of a waste of time causing unneeded division, but upon reflecting on these issues, we see the importance of St. Gregory's principled stand and ultimate triumph.

            St. Gregory was born into a noble and saintly family in Constantinople, and his father was a dignitary in the emperor's court. When his father died, the emperor took an interest in his upbringing and education, and St. Gregory excelled in all his studies. Although the emperor had hoped that he would devote himself to a life of government service, St. Gregory decided to depart from the world for a life of prayer and asceticism on Mount Athos. He gave himself over a life of hesychasm (stillness, silence) and achieved a great number of spiritual gifts to coincide with his intellectual ones.

            The crisis came, ironically, when St. Gregory read the work of an Orthodox theologian, Barlaam, criticizing the western interpolation of the filioque into the Creed of Faith. Normally, one would not think that an Orthodox monastic father would take issue with an Orthodox theologian offering a sharp critique of something the Christian East had so decisively rejected, but St. Gregory saw something very dangerous in the reasoning used by Barlaam to attack it. Barlaam's work emphasized the complete unknowability of God to the extent that he argued no human being could know whether the Holy Spirit could proceed from the Son. Therefore, he wrote the western teachers were arrogant to theologize about the inner relations between the persons of the Trinity and were wrong to add the double procession of the Spirit into the Creed. St. Gregory agreed that God was unknowable in His essence and that the westerners were wrong about the filioque, but he also believed that Barlaam's work went too far in describing God as so completely inaccessible to His creation.

            St. Gregory began to write works that expressed the teaching of the Fathers that God is unknowable in His essence, yet we know Him in His energies. The question at the heart of the matter was this: When human beings experience God – Moses in the cloud on Mount Sinai or the apostles beholding the vision of Light on Mount Tabor, for example – is that experience God or is God creating something for them to experience that is like Him? For Barlaam, human beings cannot directly experience the unknowable God; therefore, the cloud on Mount Sinai and the light of Mount Tabor were created intermediaries between God and Moses, God and the apostles. Drawing on his own personal spiritual life and the witness of countless holy Fathers, St. Gregory could not agree to this.

            Those experiences of God, while not experiences of God's essence, were experiences of His energies – which must be understood as uncreated. St. Gregory summed up the issue with Barlaam's vision thus:

If the God preached by Barlaam is not communicable through His uncreated energies, but is a God distant and incommunicable, somewhere above the sky, people will reject Him and will need another God.

            In other words, man longs for communion with his Creator. In the season of Lent, we reflect on Adam and Eve losing that perfect communion with God they enjoyed in Paradise, and we acutely feel that desire for the restoration of that relationship with Him. We fast, pray, participate in divine

services, partake of the Mysteries, reconcile with our neighbors, and repent of our sins to be united with God, not to experience something God creates to make us feel as though we are united to God.

We desire the God who revealed Himself in His Son – the Son Who united His divinity to our humanity, prayed in the Garden of Eden that we may be one with God as He is one with His Father, willing suffered death on Cross, destroyed the gates of Hades and rose from the dead, sent the Spirit on His disciples at Pentecost to establish His Church, and feeds us with His very Body and Blood. This is the God revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and the One Who revealed Himself throughout history to His Saints.

            To be clear, St. Gregory did uphold that we cannot know God in His essence or nature. To describe how we can understand participating in God's energies but not His essence, he offered the example of the sun:

Just as the sun, in that without diminution it bestows a measure of warmth and light upon those who participate, possesses these activities as normal and essential energies, so too the divine communications, in that without diminution they inhere in the one who bestows participation, are natural and essential energies of God, and therefore are also uncreated.

            We cannot grab hold of the sun, but we do experience the light and warmth that radiates from it. While any such example comparing God to created things like the sun (or the Trinity as a clover) are not perfect, St. Gregory taught that God's sanctifying power, grace, and energies are uncreated and pour out from God onto to those who seek to know Him through the life of the Church. In this way, we do know Him, not something He creates.

            After the series of councils in Constantinople, and after a period of suffering imprisonment, St. Gregory and his teaching were victorious. In an interesting side note, the arrogant theologian, Barlaam, began the whole dispute by attacking the western theologians, and when his teaching was refuted, he ended up becoming a cardinal in the Roman church! This episode shows us that merely studying the theology of the Fathers merely as scholars, without the illumination that God grants to those living the theology in prayer and asceticism, can lead us to delusion and error.

            In the Triumph of Orthodoxy celebrated last week, there were those who felt the Uncircumscribed God could not be portrayed with paint and brushes. The Church reaffirmed that the Son and Word of God truly became Man. We paint His Image precisely because He became circumscribed in the flesh through His Incarnation. Because of His uniting His divinity to our humanity, the created world can become holy. One can argue that the iconoclasts also wanted to put God in His Heaven and deny that He has fully united Himself to us.

            We celebrate the memory of St. Gregory Palamas as a second Triumph of Orthodoxy. We again reaffirm the God Who truly took flesh to dwell among us and share with us His divine life. We truly become – as St. Peter wrote in his second epistle – "partakers of divine nature." Let us celebrate this feast with joy and increased spiritual labors the remainder of this Lenten season that we may come to know the unknowable God Who wills to reveal Himself to us.

Pastoral Thoughts - What Makes a Confession a “Good” Confession

I was asked in an email, “As a priest, how do I define a Confession as being a “good confession?” A good place to start is to remember that this Holy Mystery was given us by Jesus Christ Himself. Through it, we sinners are able to meet the Lord in faith, receive His forgiveness in a tangible way, and begin our lives anew in His peace. In Holy Confession, the sins we commit after our Baptism are forgiven - literally, “forgotten” by God. We are restored to the grace of God that none of us deserve, yet are offered by our Savior through His Body, the Church. The power to forgive sins (i.e. “missing the mark”) belongs to God; as the Son of God, Jesus has that power. Jesus then gave that power to forgive sins to His apostles - - as He appeared to them following His Resurrection, He breathed on them saying,

“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven.” (Jn. 20:21-23)

The Mystery of Holy Confession (i.e. Penance) has been called a “Second Baptism” by the Ancient Holy Fathers of the Church - - it washes away our sins; it gives us God’s grace; it enables our souls to become pure and holy as they were supposed to be when God created us in His likeness and image. The Bible is filled with the hope of forgiveness - - the story of the Prodigal Son is the example per excellence. The story of the Publican and the Pharisee is another - - both of which are chanted liturgically annually as we prepare ourselves for Great Lent - the ultimate season of repentance in advance of celebrating Holy Pascha. In James (5:13-16), the Apostle writes: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” I John (2) reads, in part: “If we say we have not sinned, we make Him (i.e. God) a liar, and His word is not in us.”

Practically speaking then, how do we put this into

practice personally for a “successful Confession?”

+          First, a penitent should examine themselves honestly and without shame prior to coming to the confessional. Think about the sins you’ve done; think about the things you should have done as commanded by Christ but haven’t, since your last Confession. Think about the commandments of God and the teachings of the Holy Scripture and the Church - - have you been remiss in living these practically? Also - do not approach the confessional hurriedly!

+          Second, the penitent must truly be sorry for their sins. It’s important to feel sorrow in your heart for these things - for without this humility, you are cut off from God’s loving embrace.

+          Third, the penitent must promise God to try to do better in daily life. This means a commitment to the best of our ability to keep away from sin as best as we can. This can only be accomplished by turning ourselves over to God daily and seeking His presence wherever we go; no matter what we’re doing.

+          Fourth, we must openly confess our sins. This means unashamedly telling our sins - out loud - to our Father Confessor. Periodic confession is important because it forces us to evaluate ourselves honestly and not trust ourselves to “self-delusion” or the promptings of the devil, our ancient enemy. We cannot hide any sin, we can’t allow our pride to make us feel ashamed, because the Father Confessor stands as God’s servant to witness to our repentance and to help us feel joy in our sorrow for that sinfulness. Have you noticed recently the picture & saying I put in the confessional? “Be ashamed when you sin - not when you repent.” In other words, the Father Confessor is the witness to our sorrow - he represents the entire community of faith.

Following Confession, you are encouraged to light a candle as an offering to Christ, and either say the “Our Father” standing before that lit flame or light the candle and then return to a pew, kneeling down, and saying those words.

So, rather than let our spiritual problems build up to serious size, Holy Confession is an excellent opportunity to work out those problems. We need to have a healthy soul just as much we need to exercise our bodies to keep them healthy - confession is a “spiritual check-up.” The more we come to (Private) Confession successfully, the more we come to feel Christ’s love - and - it prepares us to receive “The Fire of the Holy Spirit” in the Holy Eucharist - the very Body and Blood of the All-Pure Christ - and NONE of us should DARE to receive it UN-worthily or carelessly to avoid condemnation and instead receive healing.

Please contact me should have any questions about this critical Holy Mystery! See you soon?!

- Fr. Bill

PREPARATION GUIDE FOR CONFESSION

YOU AND GOD

            Do you believe in God, the Holy Trinity, in the Divinity of Christ and the Holy Trinity?  Do you respect the Holy Virgin Mary, the Saints and the Angels?  Do you believe in the Church and Her Mysteries?  Do you believe that Heaven and Hell exist?

            Do you entrust yourself always, and especially in the difficult times of your life, to the care of God?  Or do you despair and show a lack of faith?

            Perhaps in your problems, afflictions, sicknesses and trials of life you whine/moan against God and lose your faith and confidence?

            Do you believe in mediums, card fortune telling, astrologists, magicians, palm reading, fortune-telling, coffee-cup reading, voodoo, superstition or luck?

            Do you do your prayer morning and night and at the table?  Are you embarrassed to do your cross in front of other people, e.g., in a restaurant or outside of the Church?  Do you make your cross properly and with reverence?

            Do you read the Holy Bible and other Orthodox spiritual books daily?

            Do you go to Church on Sundays and on the big feast days of the Church?

            Do you follow the Divine Liturgy carefully from the start till the end or do you go late and leave before the end?  Do you let you mind wander in Church?

            At Church do you go dressed in a proper and dignified way?  Are you careful not to talk or laugh or cause distraction to others?

            Do you perhaps prevent or restrict or discourage your spouse or children or friends from going to Church?

            Do you commune regularly, with proper preparation and prayers and confession?

            Do you give oaths without need or lie?  Do you perhaps not fulfill your oaths, vows or promises?

            Do you blaspheme (degrade) the name of God, the Virgin Mary, and our Saints by speaking irreverently of them?

            Do you fast on Wednesday and Friday and the Lenten periods of the year?

            Do you treat religious books and items with proper respect and reverence?

YOU AND OTHERS

Do you have hatred and ill-feelings against someone who did you wrong or insulted and abused you in their anger?

Are you suspicious and without reason suspect that everyone talks about you, that they don’t like you or want you or love you?

Do you worry about what others think of you?

Do you judge others, setting yourself up as the example of righteousness, when in fact you are a sinner?

Are you jealous and upset about the progress, the fortune, the beauty and the possessions of others?

Are you unmoved by the misfortune and needs of your fellow men?

In transactions with your partners, co-workers and clients, are you honest and forthright?

Do you criticize or slander your fellowman?

Are you ironic and patronizing towards the believers, those who fast and endeavor to live a Christian life, or those that have some physical or material or mental problems?

Although you heard some information or criticism against someone, did you pass it on and harm the reputation and respect of your fellow man?

Have you gossiped?

Did you criticize the conduct, actions, faults and mistakes of another when they were not present, even if you said the truth?  Have you ever cruelly criticized the clergy?  Do you gossip about and criticize the personal lives of others?  Did you listen to someone blaspheming God or someone else and did not protest?

Do you curse anyone who did you harm, or yourself in difficult moments of your life, or the hour and time you were born?

Did you send others “to the Devil” or do you give them rude hand gestures?

Do you respect your parents?  Do you look after them?  Do you put up with their elderly weakness?  Do you help them with their bodily and spiritual needs?  Are you mindful of their spiritual needs by ensuring they go to Church and worthily partake of Holy Communion?  Have you cruelly abandoned them?

Have you misguided you parents to cause harm to others in your family?

Perhaps in your anger did you hit anyone with your hands or hurt them with your words?

Do you perform your job or occupation properly and with a good conscience?  Or are you unfair to others?

Do you steal?  Perhaps you encouraged or helped another to steal, or agreed to cover up a thief, bought or accepted known stolen goods?

Are you ungrateful towards God and generally towards you helpers and beneficiaries?  Do you grumble and murmur against them?

Do you keep company with bad and sinful people or associates?  Have you pushed anyone, with words or with your example, into sin?

Have you committed forgery?  Have you embezzled or defrauded the public?  Have you borrowed money and other possessions and haven’t returned or repaid them?

Have you ever committed murder, in any way?

Do you entangle yourself in the life of others or in their work, or their families and become the cause of strife, quarrels and disturbances?

Do you have mercy and compassion on the poor, on the orphans, on the elderly, on the needy families that you know?

Have you lied or added or subtracted from the truth?  Do you flatter others to get your way?

Have you ever sent anonymous or cruel correspondance?

YOURSELF

            Are you a slave to materialism and worldly blessings?

            Are you stingy, or a lover of money?

            Are you greedy?

            Are you wasteful?  (with money, time, food, goods, etc.) Whatever you have that is left over belongs to the poor.  Do you have too much love towards pets and waste money on them, while people die of starvation?

            Do you have conceit and arrogance?  Do you talk back to your elders and superiors?

            Do you like to show off with your clothes, your wealth, your fortunes and the achievements of your children or yourself?

            Do you seek attention and glory from people?  Do you wear perfume and makeup and change the look your creator gave you?  Are you ashamed of the way God made you to be?  Are you vain?

            Do you accept compliments and praise from others gladly and like to be told that no one exists as good as you?

            Do you get upset when others show up your faults and do you get offended when others examine you and when your seniors make comments about you?  Do you get angry?

            Are you perhaps stubborn, high-minded, egotistical, proud or cowardly?

            Do you gamble or play cards, and do other meaningless activities in order to “kill time?”

            Do you waste time watching too much television?

            Have sexual sins polluted your body, mind or soul?  (fornication, masturbation, prostitution, homosexuality, or other forms of sexual perversions)

            Do you watch dirty shows on television or at the cinema?

            Do you read pornographic, immoral books or magazines?

            Have you ever considered committing suicide?

            Are you a slave to your belly (gluttony)?

            Are you lazy, careless, and negligent?  Do you not help when you can?

            Do you say words that are improper, immoral, and dirty?  Do you swear, for the sake of humor or to insult or humiliate others?

            Do you have a spirit of self-denial?  Or are you a total slave to your own will?

            Do you expel from your mind bad or sly or tempting thoughts that come to pollute your heart?

            Do you take care that your eyes don’t gaze or stare at provocative pictures or persons?

            Are you careful what your ears hear?  Do you like to hear sinful music or talk?

            Do you dress immorally?  Do you scandalize others with your appearance?  Do you dress provocatively?

            Do you dress appropriately for Church?

            Have you appeared naked or partially dressed in public places?

            Do you dance sinful dances?  Do you sing or listen to sinful or immoral songs?  Do you frequent parties, discos, clubs or bars?  Do you celebrate sinful worldly festivals (Mardi Gras, gay parades, etc?)

            Are you a drunkard?

            Do you smoke or use any illegal drugs?

            Do you talk excessively and about meaningless things?

FAMILIES (for spouses)

            Do you remain faithful to your spouse?

            Do you embarrass or fault your spouse publicly or privately?

            Do you not endure the weakness of the other?  Do you show harshness?

            Do you or your spouse follow the latest fashions in society and all that is opposed to the law of God?  Are you obsessed with popularity, fashion and the things of this world?

            Do you consider the struggle the other has outside and inside the home, so that you both help each other in the struggle, the one helping the other both bodily and spiritually?

            As a spouse have you had excessive marital demands and degraded your relationship?  Do you abstain from marital (sexual) relations as part of the fast called for on all the fasting days and before Holy Communion?

            Do you prevent your spouse from going to Church, spiritual gatherings, or talks?

            Do you bring up your children in the instruction and council of Christ?  Do you perhaps only concern yourself (or even primarily) with their intellectual and physical growth, and not with the nature of their character?

            Do you direct them to Church, Confession, and regular Holy Communion (with preparation)?  Do you teach them the Holy Virtues with word and example?  Have you taught them to pray morning and evening and at meals, and to pray with reverence and attention?

            Are you careful of the things they read?  Do you buy books and periodicals of Orthodox spiritual subjects for them to read and learn from?

            Do you watch whom they keep company with and who are their friends?

            Do you lead them to sinful shows and entertainment, or do you let them watch television unsupervised?

            Do you teach them humility and meekness?

            Do you curse them when they upset you?

            Have you committed abortion or do you prevent yourself from having children?

            Have you been unfair or unjust to you children?

            Do you accept the responsibility of raising and educating your children?

            Do you scorn them or reprimand them with improper language?

            Does each of you love and respect the parents of the other?  Do the parents or relatives get too involved in your family and cause disagreements or disputes?

            Do you interfere in your children’s families?

            Have you ever considered divorcing your spouse?

            Do you allow your children to become fanatical about sports or other activities and even to miss Church is order to do them?

            Are you fair and just with your family, considering and respecting their views and wishes, or do you behave like a dictator?

FROM THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

1. “I am the Lord thy God; Thou shalt have no other Gods before Me.”—Have I believed in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? Have I failed to trust in God and His mercy? Have I complained against God in adversity? Have I been thankful for God’s blessings? Have I doubted the Christian faith and the teachings of the Church? Have I tried to serve God and keep His commandments? Have I given way to superstition? Have I frequented the religious gathers of heretics and schismatics? Have I neglected my duties to God through fear of ridicule or persecution? Have I failed to pray to God faithfully? Have I failed to put myself before God?

1. “Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image.”—Have I made an idol of any person or thing? Have I given to anyone or anything the worship that is due God alone? Have I set before myself the holy life of Jesus and tried to imitate Him? Have I read the Holy Scriptures regularly? Have I been irreverent during Church Services, let my attention wander, or been insincere? Have I neglected to receive Holy Communion regularly or without due preparation?

III.  “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”—Have I profaned the holy name of God in any way? Have I cursed anyone or anything, or sworn a false oath? Have I failed to give proper reverence to holy persons and things? Have I had due respect for the clergy of the Church or hindered them in performing God’s work? Have I broken any solemn vow or promise? Have I entered into any unlawful contract or made an unlawful promise?

1. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”—Have I stayed away from Church on Sundays or prevented others from going? Have I done unnecessary work on Sunday? Have I spent the day in unwholesome fashion or profaned it by improper conduct? If I could not go to Church because of illness or other grave cause, have I prayed at home? Have I caused anyone else to profane the Lord’s Day? Have I kept the Fasts and Festivals prescribed by the Church?

1. “Honor thy father and mother.”—Have I respected my parents and been obedient to them? Have I been guilty of deception, or caused them pain by my words or actions? Have I neglected them or failed to help them? Have I done my duty towards my family? Have I been lacking in love or kindness towards my spouse, or harmed them in any way? Have I set my children a good example and tried to bring them up properly? Have I corrected their faults with patience and not with anger? Have I over-indulged or spoiled them? Have I neglected my godchildren and failed in my obligations towards them? Have I worked for my employers honestly and diligently? Have I treated fairly all those who have worked for me? Have I honored God as my Heavenly Father by treating others as my brothers, and have I honored the Church as my spiritual Mother by honoring and practicing my faith in accordance with her teachings?

1. “Thou shalt not kill.”—Have I caused the injury or death of anyone, or wished that I were dead? Have I done anything to shorten my own life or that of someone else by injuring health, or though evil and intemperate living? Have I given way to anger, or harmed another with words or actions? Have I defamed others who needed help, or failed to stand up for those unjustly treated? Have I been cruel to anyone? Have I mistreated animals or destroyed any life unnecessarily? Have I failed to forgive anyone or harbored evil thoughts against them?

VII.  “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”—Have I given way to impure thoughts, words or deeds? Have I committed any unworthy actions alone or with others? Have I degraded myself in any way, or forgotten human dignity? Have I read immoral books or magazines, or delighted in obscenity of any kind? Have I associated with bad companions or frequented unsavory places? Have I eaten or drunk or smoked too much? Have I been lazy, idle, or wasted my time? Have I led others to commit sinful acts? Have I been unfaithful to any trust confided in me?

VIII.  “Thou shalt not steal.”—Have I stolen anything or wished to do so? Have I kept anything that did not belong to me? Have I tried honestly to find owners of lost articles I have found? Have I cheated anyone? Have I paid my debts? Have I lived within my income, and not wastefully and extravagantly? Have I given to the Church and to charitable causes in proportion to my means? Have I been honest and upright?

1. “Thou shalt not bear false witness.”—Have I told lies, or added to or subtracted from the truth? Have I made careless statements or spoken evil of anyone? Have I told any secrets entrusted to me, or betrayed anyone? Have I gossiped about anyone or harmed their reputation? Have I concealed the truth, assisted in carrying out a lie, or pretended to commit a sin of which I was not guilty? Have I tried to see the good in others rather than their shortcomings?

1. “Thou shalt not covet.”—Have I envied anything good that has come to others? Have I been jealous of another’s good fortune? Have I wished for anything that was another’s? Have I damaged or destroyed the property of another? Have I wished for things God has not given me, or been discontented with my lot? Have I been stingy? Have I held back anything due another? Have I hoped for the downfall of anyone so that I might gain by it? Have I failed to be gracious and generous to anyone? Have I expected God to give me that which I would refuse my fellow man?