More icons going up at St. Basil

As we continue the repair work at St. Basil church, I've attached below four new icons that will be going up on the altar screen. I may be biased, but I think they look fantastic. Thanks to Tom Clark our iconographer.

Saturday (Commemoration of the Dead)

1 Thess. 4:13-17; John 5:24-30

“Now the Holy Church directs our attention beyond the borders of our present life, to our fathers and brothers who have passed on from here. The Church hopes, by reminding us of their state (which we ourselves shall not escape), to prepare us to spend Cheese-fare Week properly, as well as Great Lent, which follows. Let us listen to our mother, the Church; and commemorating our fathers and brothers, let us take care to prepare ourselves for our passing over to the other world. Let us bring to mind our sins and bemoan them, setting out in the future to keep ourselves pure from any defilement. For nothing unclean will enter the Kingdom of God, and at the Judgment no one unclean will be justified. After death, you cannot expect purification. You will remain as you are when you cross over. You must prepare your cleansing here. Let us hurry, for who can predict how long one will live? Life could be cut off this very hour. How can we appear unclean in the other world? With what eyes will we look at our fathers and brothers who will meet us? How will we answer their questions: “What is this that is wrong in you? What is this? And what is this?” What shame will cover us! Let us hasten to set right all that is out of order, to appear at least in a somewhat tolerable and bearable state in the other world.”

St. Theophan has a beautiful reflection here. As it is the first Saturday of the Souls, we are called to remember those who have died. As stated in Scripture, God destroys death and brings new life. We must take into account where we are at in our lives and work towards purification to enter the Kingdom of God. The sacrament of Confession is one of the ways that we can work towards this purification. We lay down our burdens, our shame, our sins, but we lift our face to Christ, the ultimate healer. During Great Lent, we need to come to Christ with all the brokenness and hurt that we have in our hearts. As a result, we can move forward in our lives and grow closer in our relationship with God.

Written by Jackie Loupakos 

Presentation at St. Basil - "Loving Your Neighbor: Speaking to Others About Orthodoxy"

Girls Ministry Calendar for Sprint 2016

Saturday

II Tim. 3:1-9; Luke 20: 21-45:4

A passage from St. Theophan the Recluse

“Who are those having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof? (II Tim. 3:5). Who are those others, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth (II Tim. 3:7). The former are those who maintain all the external routines in which a godly life is manifested, but who do not have a strong enough will to maintain their inner dispositions as true godliness demands. They go to church and stand there readily, but they do not make the effort to stand with their mind before God continuously and to reverently fall down before Him. Having prayed a bit, they release the reins of the control of their mind, and it soars, circling over the entire world. As a result, they are outwardly located in the church, but according to their inner state they are not there; only the form of godliness remains in them while its power is not there. With them everything else, (in the spiritual life) can be thought about in the same way.

The latter are those who, having entered the realm of faith, do nothing but invent questions: ‘What is this? What is that? Why this way? Why that way?’ They are people suffering from empty inquisitiveness. They do not chase after the truth, but only ask and ask. Having found the answer to their questions, they do not dwell on them for long, but soon feel the necessity to look for another answer. And so they whirl about day and night, questioning and questioning, and are never fully satisfied with what they learn. Some people chase after pleasures, but these chase after the satisfaction of their inquisitiveness.”

In this passage, St. Theophan focuses on the idea of truth in the Christian life. He explores the rituals of people who say their prayers and go to church and that is the farthest extent to which they go. St. Theophan inquires, do they really know God? Do they make an effort to become close with Him in mind, body, and spirit? Their actions are what they express outwardly but God truly knows the state of their spiritual hearts. This piece was written in the 1800s and it goes to show that the topic of people’s true spirituality is still relevant today. St. Theophan also goes into the nature of the constant questioning that becomes apparent in our humanness. We have the tendency to ask what the reason is for everything but we know that with God’s will, He has all the answers. As Orthodox Christians, we are encouraged to trust in the Lord with all of our being. I believe this is something that we all struggle with at some point in our lives. This is something that I personally struggle with at times being a college student and uncertain about what the future will bring. But at the end of the day, I need to remember that God is on my side and by trusting in Him, I have faith that His plans are best for me.

Written by Jackie Loupakos

Saturday

2 Tim. 2:11-19, Luke 18: 2-8

A passage from St. Theophan the Recluse

“To more strongly impress the truth that men ought always to pray, and not to faint (Luke 18:1) and that they should continue to pray if their prayer is not soon heard, the Lord told the parable about the judge who neither feared God nor regarded man. The judge complied at last with the widow’s petition, not because he feared God and regarded man, but only because that widow gave him no peace. So, if such a callous man could not withstand the persistence of this woman’s petition, will not God, Who loves mankind and is filled with mercy, fulfill a petition raised up to Him persistently with tears and contrition? Here is the answer to why our prayers are often not heard: Because we do not send up our petitions to God zealously, but as though in passing; furthermore, we pray once today, then expect our prayer to be answered by tomorrow, not thinking to sweat and trouble ourselves any more in prayer. That is why our prayer is neither heard nor answered. We ourselves do not fulfill as we ought the law laid down for prayer-the law of hopeful and zealous persistence.”

In this reading, St. Theophan uses the Parable of the Widow and the Judge to talk about how important it is that we have persistence in our prayers. Sometimes we may think, “I should stop praying because God hasn’t answered that prayer yet, so it’s not worth it.” God has His own timing and it will always be different than ours. And that is perfectly okay. God listens to us and hears everything we tell Him. Prayer is our daily conversation with God and it is also the time when we call out to Him in times of need. Persistence in prayer is essential when building an intimate relationship with God. Prayer gives us the strength to endure this life knowing that God is by our side, and as a result, we feel closer to Him. “If we have died with him, we shall also live with Him” (2 Timothy 2:11). God lives with us every single day, so we live with Him by being aware of His presence and praying and communicating with Him.

Stewardship/Outreach Thought for the Day

In the period from the Resurrection to Pentecost, the Sunday Epistle readings tell us of a community of believers that were so totally devoted to God that their life together was charged by the power of the Holy Spirit. They prayed and served together in true Christian fellowship, loving each other and sharing their lives with one another.  Those with more shared with those who had less, and people related in ways that blurred the lines of gender, race and culture.  Unbelievers coming into contact with this community of believers saw a vision of life that was so dynamic that they could not resist it.  We read in Acts 2:47 that “the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” This is the Church that we as Orthodox Christians claim to be.

- From outreach@goarch.org