|
How Often Should One Receive the Sacrament of Confession |
 |
 |
|
This month, I would like to address how often one should go to Confession. This is not an easy issue to discuss because depending on which Orthodox Church you go to, and who your parish priest is, there are a wide variety of expectations on Confession. As I said in the introductory note to you last March, some bishops and priests equate going to Communion with going to Confession. So, if you want to receive Eucharist every week, you must go to Confession every week. Some will say Confession is important but leave it up to the person to choose. Thus you end up with scenarios where some will receive Communion throughout their life having never received the sacrament of Confession. Another practice that people observe is to only go to Communion and Confession once a year. Here in America, since the early 1960's, there has been an attempt to encourage more frequent participation in Holy Communion. This has been well received by the churches here. The only problem is that it doesn't address the question of whether there is a relationship between going to Communion and receiving Confession.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Weekly Bulletin, February 5, 2012 |
|
|
|
Welcome to Saint George’s today. We are glad to have you! If you are here for the first time, please stay for the coffee social in the parish hall after liturgy so we can get acquainted.
SCRIPTURE READINGS THIS WEEK
Feb 6th After feast of the Entrance; St. Bucolus, Bishop of Smyrna
2 Peter 1:20-2:9 Mark 13:9-13
Feb 7th After feast of the Entrance; St Parthenius, Bishop of Lampsacus
2 Peter 9-22 Mark 13:14-23
Feb 8th After feast of the Entrance; Great Martyr Theodore Stratelates, the General
2 Peter 3:1-18 Mark 13:24-31
Feb 9th Leave taking of the Entrance; Martyr Nicephorus of Antioch in Syria
1 John 1:8-2:6 Mark 13:31-14:2
Feb 10th Hieromartyr Haralambos, Bishop of Magnesia; Martyr Porphyrius
1 John 2:7-17 Mark 14:3-9
Feb 11th Hieromartyr Blaise, Bishop of Sebaste; Righteous Theodora
2 Timothy 3:1-9 Luke 20:46-21:4
Greeter: Sherry Timofeev Reader: Mikel Hill
Activities/Services this Week
Compline/Akathist: Wednesday February 8th, 6:30 PM, at the church
Great Vespers: Saturday, February 11th, 5 PM, at the church
Family Soiree/Potluck Social: Saturday, February 11th, 6 PM, at the church hall
Last Sunday, January 29th, 44 Adults and 18 youth attended Divine Liturgy.
The Sanctuary Lamp is burning this week for the health of Sophie Timofeev.
All Saints Food Pantry/Gas Cards
During the month of February bring in pasta or pasta sauce in whatever quantity you can afford to donate for the All Saints Food Pantry. On January 31st, 40 cans of soup, 2 large cans of chow mein and a $100.00 donation were delivered to the Food Pantry. Thanks for your help. Furthermore, $73.00 was collected for Gas Cards. With money we had from before, 4 cards were purchased and sent to students. Again, thanks to those who donated!
Family Soiree Potluck
Will take place on Saturday, February 11th, at 6 PM following the Saturday Vespers service. There will fun, games, music, and dancing. The event is open to all (young and old) to attend. Hard copies of a flyer are available in the narthex. RSVP to Anastasia Widmer at 419-490-1332
St. Anna’s Bookstore has expanded the card section to include many reasonably priced options for Birthday, Get Well, Encouragement/Thinking of You, Sympathy and Thank You cards. Stop by and take a look!
The St. Anna’s Women’s Guild will meet on Sunday, February 19th, after Divine Liturgy. The women will also be gathering for their monthly luncheon on Tuesday, February 14th, 12:30 PM, at Burger Bar 4400 Heatherdowns Blvd. in Toledo; phone: 419-724-5844. Make your reservation with Joanne Pentsos by February 12th at 419-698-1884.
"God can save the sinners we are but not the saints we pretend to be." -- Metropolitan Anthony Bloom
Ideas for youth projects:
• Servant Saturdays: Plan a Saturday every six months when your youth group will help people in the parish (elderly, shut-ins, single parents, etc.) Obtain a list of people from your parish priest and call them to ask if they have any tasks your group can do to help them. Make a list of all the people you will be helping along with their addresses and phone numbers, the jobs requested, and estimate of how long it will take to do them, and the number of people needed. Schedule to do it on a Saturday. Meet at the parish with a bunch of bag lunches, transport everyone to their assignment and meet back at the end of the day for pizza and a movie.
• In Search of a Square Meal: Prepare a list of groceries needed to a complete nutritious meal, including dessert. Choose a local agency that distributes food to people in need. Form groups of 4 or 5 (include at least one adult in each group). Give a copy of the grocery list to each group along with cloth grocery bags and a supply of your church’s business card. Instruct the groups to go door to door asking the people to donate one or more of the items on the list. Be sure to supply the people one of the church’s business cards so that they know this is legitimate. Have groups explain that the food is being collected as a donation to (name of the agency with which you are working). Give groups 2 hours to collect all their items. Tell them that they are not to buy anything. When they have completed their list or at the end of 2 hours, have everyone return to the church to gather the food and debrief their experience over pizza and maybe a movie. (More to follow)
Taken from: http://oca.org/news/oca-news/orthodox-youth-month-involving-youth-in-service-to-others
During the week of February 5th we read New Testament passages that describe contrasting groups of people: those who honor God's promise of salvation, and those who abuse it for their own purposes.
Mark 13:1 warns believers to "take heed to yourselves; for they will deliver you up to councils; and you will be beaten in synagogues; and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear testimony before them." But when they stand before hostile powers, believers should not be anxious beforehand about what to say. Instead they should "say whatever is given to you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit." Those who do bear testimony, and preach the true Gospel, will be "hated by all for My name's sake." Yet even then there is no reason to turn away from Christ, because God's promise is that "he who endures to the end will be saved." Honoring that promise will lead to the Kingdom, even though the road is rough.
II Peter 2 and 3 describe those who abuse rather than honor God's promise. In the previous chapter, Peter has reiterated the assurance that the Holy Spirit inspires those who preach the Gospel in the right way: "...no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." But he goes on to warn that just as false prophets put forth their destructive teachings in earlier days, "there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their licentiousness, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled." Peter says that these false teachers have "hearts trained in greed." They are exploiters of others who "despise authority." They are scoffers who cynically ask, "Where is the promise of His coming?" So rather than honor the promise, they abuse it by their ridicule, encouraging others to doubt it. They "entice unsteady souls" to revere them instead of Christ.
What motivates these scoffers? Peter answers when he writes about their greedy hearts and their attitude toward authority. Christians must place God at the center of their lives. They can't be greedy for notoriety, trying to gather personal followers. They can't despise authority, because God asks His people to submit freely to His loving authority. For people greedy for acclaim and who despise authority, submission to God is impossible. It's equally impossible for them to believe God's promise, and honor it. Peter warns us against these people who he says are like "waterless springs." He acknowledges that some things are hard to understand, including Paul's teaching. But knowing this, and knowing that some people will twist the teachings, we can leave their wrong ideas aside and concentrate on growing in the "grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Taken from: http://dce.oca.org/page/bulletins |
|
|
The Moral Lives We Lead Part 2 |
|
|
|
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19
I said last month that I would begin with this quotation from Ephesians because I wasn’t completely at peace with how I approached the topic of our moral lives and its relationship to Holy Communion. This quote from Ephesians and especially the last line expresses something about the mystery of the Christian life that is necessary for us to realize in our life if we are ever going to properly understand the teachings of our Church and why they matter.
One of the problems with trying to discuss topics like abortion, sexual sin, or other ethical issues is that we live in a secular, humanistic, culture today that provides very little support for living the type of lives our Church calls upon us to live. For many, the life and the culture of the Church is no longer the main force that shapes our lives. It is this secular, humanistic culture that is now shaping the way many of us think or live. As priests, we try and present a rational argument quoting scripture, church fathers, or church canons to explain why something is right or wrong. That is what I did in last month’s letter to you. The problem with this approach is two fold. One is that you can easily get into a game of mental gymnastics with someone, quoting scripture, canons, and church fathers. Someone else may counter back with arguments quoting their favorite scriptures, and church sources. Thus we end up arguing seeking to justify our position. We stop listening to what the other has to say. The goal of dialogue on matters of faith is to seek the Truth and remain faithful to the Teaching our Lord Jesus Christ passed onto the Apostles.
The other problem is that if one’s life is no longer being shaped by the culture and life of the Church, it is not going to matter what scriptures or church sources you cite to make your point because you may be talking to someone who has “ears to hear, but can’t hear,” and “eyes to see, but can’t see.” In a recent sermon I mentioned that when Jesus healed people who were blind, the real healing that took place besides the physical, was a spiritual healing. The blind man in John Chapter 9, and the blind man in Luke Chapter 18, sees Jesus for who he really is, the coming Messiah as prophesized in the Old Testament. These men have spiritual eyesight and worship Jesus as God come in the flesh. Meanwhile the religious leaders of the time who have knowledge of the Scriptures are spiritually blind and don’t see Jesus as who He really is. Our Church Teaching is that the Truth is not embodied in a philosophy, a moral code, or a law. It is embodied in a person. Jesus tells us in Chapter 14 of the gospel of John, “I Am the Way the Truth, and the Life, no man comes to the Father but by Me.” He tells the leaders of the synagogue in Chapter of 5 of the same gospel, “You search the Scriptures for in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness to Me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” We need to have healthy spiritual eyesight if we are ever going to comprehend the importance of this Truth! This brings me back to the quote from Ephesians 3:14-19 that I began with.
Paul’s prayer for the church in Ephesus (and for the church in Rossford) is to “be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,” that “Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith,” and that we may be filled with “all the fullness of God.” He also tells believers in the church at Corinth ‘“who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.’ (1 Corinthians 2:16) In order to accept and understand Church Teaching on how we are to live our moral lives and why, we first need to know Christ, and find fulfillment in this relationship. Unless we “have the mind of Christ” and constantly pray for His fullness to abide in us, no scripture quotations, or canon citations will ever hit the spot in helping us to understand why the Church calls us to live in a certain way.
Take care, Fr. Paul |
|
What is a Prayer Rule? |
|
|
|
Seven times a day I praise You, because of Your righteous judgments. (Psalm 119:164)
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
A public or private prayer rule is a commitment to pray at specific times, and to pray for specific things on a regular basis. This definition might to be too simplistic and can be misleading about prayer if not understood properly. The psalm verse cited above is the basis of our daily cycle of services in the Orthodox Church. The seven times a day that one praises God gets liturgically fleshed out in the Church in the services of: Midnight Office, Matins, the Hours 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 9th, Vespers, and Compline. This is the public prayer rule of the Church that is regularly observed in most monasteries. In parish life, fragments of this daily cycle are celebrated with various degrees of frequency, consistency, and content. Some parishes do more, some do less. In addition to this, if we personally are serious about living the Christian life, it is necessary that we keep a private prayer rule of our own. In most cases this takes the shape of saying prayers in the morning when you arise, and then at the evening as you prepare for sleep.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
