Tag: Pastoral Notes

Dear Friends in Christ,

Summer is here again, but was there really a Spring this year in North Carolina?! We’ve all been trying to cope with the heat in various ways. I’m certainly thankful that our Church building has great air conditioning, especially when I serve the liturgy wearing several layers of vestments!

With summer comes one of the four fasting seasons of the year, the Apostles’ Fast. This fast varies in length each year based on when Pascha occurs. It can be anywhere from 8 to 42 days; this year, it is 22 days (June 20 through July 11, on the civil calendar). It’s a time when we can take a break from all the festivities of summer to refocus our spiritual priorities and honor the Holy Apostles who carried the Gospel to the ends of the known world.

Why do we have this fast? As we know from Scripture, “And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast” (Matthew 9:15). Christ ascended to Heaven 40 days after Pascha, and then on the 50th day, the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles, and they went out to preach. Holy Tradition teaches us that the Apostles’ Fast comes from their desire to prepare for their missionary activity by fasting, just as Jesus had fasted before beginning his ministry, and as He stated they would do when He was no longer with them (Jesus is the Bridegroom in the verse above).

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Dear Friends in Christ,

Have you ever noticed that it is easier to organize someone else’s space than your own? I remember when I was in college, I needed a part-time job. I had formerly worked in a customer-service role, and was eager to find something that didn’t require being in front of dozens of people every day. After all, I interacted with people at school all day, and wanted to be able to do some work by myself. I applied for a position cleaning someone’s private home, and was accepted. The pay was quite good, and I could perform my work quietly. When I told my parents and other people who knew me well, however, a general look of surprise came over their faces, because I was generally unable to keep my room straight my whole childhood and collegiate life!

Going through someone else’s home and cleaning just wasn’t as hard as and cleaning my own home. I would go in and basically follow a list of tasks. I was not emotionally invested in anything there (although I did stop to read some books during breaks…), and so it was not hard to go in and get the job done. With my own room, however, I was confronted with having to think hard about what to do with things, where to put them, whether to keep them at all. The choice was sometimes daunting, and I was always one step behind, it felt.

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Dear Friends in Christ,

I’m writing this message the week before the Third Sunday of Lent, when we commemorate the Holy Cross. The Holy Cross has such an important meaning to us, that we celebrate it twice a year. Back in September’s bulletin, I wrote about the appearances of the Cross in history. Appearances of the Cross led to such miracles as the conversion of the Emperor St. Constantine in AD 312. Since we’ve so recently covered the appearances of the Cross, I would like to take this opportunity to speak about a related subject, namely, the Sign of the Cross.

Humans seem to have a natural desire to identify themselves as part of a group. One of the ways that members of a group identify themselves to one another, and cement their ties, is by the use of signs. A well-executed performance elicits a thumbs-up, the peace sign became a symbol of a generation opposed to war, and a certain obscene gesture can be used to insult others. The handshake is used to greet and to seal a deal, and a salute is used to show obedience to a superior.

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Dear Friends in Christ,

Oftentimes, one of the first things that our Non-Orthodox friends notice when they enter an Orthodox Church are the icons. Icons are pictures of Christ, His Mother, and the saints, which are hung or painted directly onto the walls of our churches and monasteries. They are often called “windows into Heaven.” How often do we think about them more deeply, though? Icons are one of those things that just make our faith more “real” (by real, of course, I mean tangible), and yet isn’t it remarkable that that which is “down-to-earth” succeeds in becoming a “window into Heaven”? Icons also are essential in our modern times to counteract the culture of over-informality and reintroduce reverence and awe.

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Dear Friends in Christ,

Lent begins this year on Monday, March 7 (n.s.), and Pascha will occur on Sunday, April 24 (n.s.). The Church gives us forty-seven days to reflect and renew our lives and our commitment to Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ. The saying, “you get out what you put in to it” applies here, though; March 7 is just around the corner, and we could easily forget about the beginning of Lent until it already in full gear! The Church knows we need spiritual sticky-notes, though, and for this reason, we have four Sundays leading up to Lent to remind us and prepare us.

To make an analogy, a lot of people commit to a diet before going on vacation, but before they know it, it’s time to hit the road and they haven’t got the look they were hoping for. By getting familiar with the diet plan, planning out the meals, and talking over our goals with our spouse or family several times before starting the diet, we’ll be accustomed to the new plan and ready to jump in completely. In the same way, we have four reminders. For convenience, I will list the four Sundays here, the basic theme, and a key point to reflect on.

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Dear Friends in Christ,

I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year! Given the snow event, we had to cancel liturgy on Sunday, December 26, and so I decided to hold a Vespers service Friday night so we could start off our New Year with prayer and meet together for our customary three services per month. Presbytera Michaela and I ended up spending the night quietly at home with family. We hope you enjoyed your holiday weekend, too!

This is the time when everyone talks about making a resolution to begin a new project, or to quit a bad habit. I won’t write today about making resolutions, because we all know how to do that, and we also know how often they are broken! Instead, I would like to comment on what can keep us from making the resolutions we should make in the first place: fear.

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Dear Friends in Christ,

Owing to the computer crash last month, the bulletin was not sent out, which also meant I missed being able to send out a reflection. We’ve had a lot happen since then; our regular Divine Liturgies, the celebration of our second anniversary, the Ohi Day Lecture of Dr. Papalas, and of course the Thanksgiving Day holiday. I hope you all were able to enjoy it as much as Presbytera Michaela and I did!

When presented with an obligation, we often ask about the “bottom line,” “the absolute minimum,” “the bare essentials.” In relation to Church, as a priest, I am sometimes asked “what is the minimum one has to do to be a good Christian?” This is nothing new; in today’s Gospel, we saw a similar question posed of Jesus:

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Dear Friends in Christ,

During September, we celebrated our parish feast day, and a few days later, we celebrated the Holy Cross. We recalled the birth of the Virgin Mary, a miracle in and of itself, as her parents had been unable to conceive until they besought God powerfully in prayer, and then in a few short days, we were transported to Our Lord’s Passion, the culmination of His redemptive work. It is a lot to cover in such a short time!

We remember the Cross on two main occasions during the year; the Third Sunday of Lent, and on September 14/27. The commemoration of the Cross is an event that is rich in Old Testament parallels, but which also has been realized in Church history on three occasions as well. The hymns of the feast point especially to three events in the history of Old Testament Israel: Moses parting the waters of the Red Sea by signing a Cross (Exodus 14:21-29), Moses leading the Israelites to victory over the Amalekites by stretching out his hands in the form of a Cross (Exodus 17:10-14), and Moses curing the snake-bitten idolaters by means of a bronze serpent placed on a pole, in the form of a Cross (Numbers 21:8-9; John 3:14).

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Dear Friends in Christ,

Fellowship After Our First Orthodox Liturgy in Greenville, NC, 2008

September 21 will mark the second year anniversary of the first liturgy at our mission parish, Nativity of the Holy Theotokos in Greenville! Eastern Carolina is a place where Orthodox Christianity is not familiar to most, and as such founding our mission presented a unique series of challenges. Yet in each case, God’s blessings allowed a solution to be found, often in an equally unique way.

I want to take the opportunity to thank all of the parishioners who have worked with me since Day One to establish, maintain, and grow this community. Those who help to establish a mission are pioneers of sorts, stepping into unfamiliar territory often with nothing more than hope and a vision for a bright future. God allowed a diverse group of people to meet each other and form the core nucleus back in early 2008. Property became available at a most convenient time, and I was ordained a priest by His Eminence Metropolitan Pavlos that summer. From the start, we have realized we are fulfilling a plan that is bigger than any of our own desires, or even the sum total of all our goals and dreams. I certainly look forward to each liturgy, to fellowship with such dedicated persons, and in anticipation of new visitors, who always seem to enrich our church family in some way. We hope you’ll be inspired to attend liturgy if you have not already.

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