Meditation of His Eminence Archbishop NICOLAE at the start of Great Lent 2009

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Ten weeks before Pascha, the Orthodox Church enters the Triodion, a season completely set apart in the ecclesiastical year. It is a preparation in different steps, a spiritual ascent toward the Resurrection of the Lord. Firstly we spend three weeks before the Paschal Lent, a period in which we are guided toward humility, as the publican of the parable, toward return to the heavenly Father as the prodigal son, and taking stock of our actions and thoughts, realizing that we will reach the Judgment before the Lord. Secondly we step into Lent, a season of abstinence from foods that originate from animals, and abstinence from bodily passions, both completed by spiritual pursuits. The special food consumption makes no sense in and of itself, unless it is completed through labor of the soul, prayer, repentance, and works of mercy.

St. Ignatius Briancheaninov, in his sermon on the Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas, leans toward this spiritual understanding of Lent. And his point of departure is a statement of the Savior, different than the words He gave as answer to the temptation of the evil one on the mountain of Karanthania. Quoting St. Ignatius: “The struggle of lent is not only of the body, it is useful and beneficial firstly for the mind and the heart. But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing and drunkenness. The Savior has revealed through these words a consequence of our unreasonable use of food and drink, an unprofitable consequence for the soul. Gluttony of the stomach weighs down the heart with rudeness and insensitivity, and the mind lacks its freedom and spirituality – man becomes solely a physical being.”

St. Ignatius tells us that the struggles of lent refer to the body, but the benefit of lent pour out upon the heart. The soul becomes heavy together with the body, and the heart becomes hardened. Eating inappropriately and without moderation, we condemn ourselves to absence of sensitivity of the heart and to spiritual misunderstanding of our lives and the world. We lose our sense of existence on earth, because food, or matter in general, surrounds that which is non-matter and it alters its function of knowing.

If the command to keep lent was heard by Adam in Paradise and was disobeyed, lent is all the more necessary after the fall of the first man. St. Ignatius continues: “We are nailed to the earth, we are bound to it with the entire soul, not just the body; we have become completely of the body, lacking spiritual feeling, unable of heavenly ponderings. The command to keep lent is again revealed as the first command, absolutely useful for us. Only through the help of lent we are able to tear away from the earth! Only through the help of lent we are able to withstand the powerful attraction of the earthly passions! Only through the help of lent we are able to break our bond to sin! Only through the help of lent our reasoning is able to rise up from the earth, facing high toward God!”

The Church Fathers have called lent the foundation of all virtues, because through lent our mind is kept in its appropriate purity and awareness, and the heart is kept in its appropriate astuteness and spirituality. He who shakes the foundation of virtues, shakes their entire building.

Let us be attentive to these words of the Church Fathers and let us keep the lent so that we may become worthy of its fruits!
† NICOLAE

Crazy Week

Posted on by Fr. Peter
It is only Wednesday and this has been a crazy week. If you follow me on Twitter you know that I have been filling in on WESO for the morning show whilst the usual host is on vacation. This has been fun and exhausting. It brings me back to my days of college radio on WENC at Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy.

Well today is my last day and in fact I have to leave in about 15 mins to get to the station. I have two guests today. Sen. Richard Moore will be calling and and the Fire Inspector, Lt. Steve Lavoie from the Southbridge Fire Department will be in the studio around 8am.

On top of all of this we are having a parish retreat day, a visit from the Archbishop on Sunday, and a clergy meeting Monday night and Tuesday, all here at St. Michael’s so things will be busy the next few days.

I promise to keep posting and I owe all of you my homily from Sunday and a post on forgiveness and I owe one to the group Lent blog I am participating in as well. More on that in another post.

Off to the studio!

Let us be Attentive

Posted on by Fr. Peter

I would like to draw your attention to something going on here. It would appear the all Town employees in the Town of Dudley, Massachusetts received lay off notices this week. ALL town employees to include the guys that I work with on the Fire Department. I hope people get outraged enough to write to the Town Manager and Selectmen and call them on this. It is not fair to the employees and it is not fair to the town residents. These selfless servants have given years of service to the town and they deserve better than this. The deserve to be treated better than this for all of the years of service.

Write to:

Mr. Peter Jankowski
Town Administrator
Town of Dudley
71 West Main Street
Dudley, MA 01571
508-949-8000

Mr. BRIAN GERMAIN, Chairman
Board of Selectmen
Town of Dudley
71 West Main Street
Dudley, MA 01571
508-949-8000

Eastern Rite Anglicans

Posted on by Fr. Peter
My friend Huw has been discussion the possibility of Eastern Rite Anglicans over on his blog. He has posted three FAQ’s about this possibility. It is a very interesting thing to consider. I find it interesting that we have a group of people in the Anglican Church interested in Eastern Rite Worship and we have a group of Orthodox who are interested in Western Rite Worship. Down is up, left is right, white is black, I need a score card. However give it a read it is very interesting.

Eastern Rite Anglicans FAQ (Part 1)

Eastern Rite Anglicans FAQ (Part 2)

Eastern Rite Anglicans FAQ (Part 3)

Reaching the Next Generation

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I read and follow a lot of blogs on a daily basis. I am always looking for the next great idea or something that will help in ministry. We never stop learning and we can learn how to do things from lots of sources. One of the blogs I follow is called Swerve. Great blog about ministry and the practice of ministry or should I say the Art of the practice of ministry. That is what it is after all an art and we practice ministry. As a lawyer practices law or a doctor practices medicine, clergy practice ministry. I digress.

Last week there were three posts on reaching the next generation and they deserve some reading and discussion. I was going to just re post them here but I will pit the links below but please comment here with your thoughts. Let’s get some conversation going here on how to reach the next generation.

Reaching the Next Generation

Missional Ministry

Generational Ministry

Again please leave comments here

Sunday of Cheesefare and Mission Sunday – March 1, 2009

Posted on by Fr. Peter
March 1, 2009
Sunday of Cheesefare and Mission Sunday

The Lord has commanded us: I have set you as a light to the Nations, that you should be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. (Acts 13:47)

To the Most Reverend Clergy, Venerable Monastics andThe Devout Faithful of the Holy Orthodox Churches in the Americas

Dearly Beloved in the Lord,

We greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we set our eyes on the coming celebration of Christ’s glorious Resurrection through our joyful participation in the Great and Holy Lent. The Sunday preceding our Lenten journey has been designated by the Hierarchs of SCOBA as Mission Sunday. For 2000 years, Christians have worked to share Christ’s message of hope and His promise of salvation with the world by serving as living lights and witnesses to His truth among all nations, even unto the ends of the earth.

In 1994, the Hierarchs of SCOBA sanctioned the Orthodox Christian Mission Center to provide the Orthodox Faithful in the Americas with the resources and opportunities they needed to answer the call to mission. Orthodox Christians have served in 34 countries by preaching, baptizing, and teaching the newly illumined; supporting and educating priests, and helping the Church to minister to the spiritual and physical needs of Her people through the many ministries of the OCMC. Through this work, guided by the Holy Spirit, thousands of people who were once in darkness are now embraced by the eternal light of Christ.

This year the doors of the new Archbishop Anastasios and Archbishop Demetrios Missionary Training and Administration Building will open. This building, the first permanent building of a SCOBA agency, will facilitate the continued growth of our Holy Churches’ worldwide missionary efforts. It will be a resource for the training up of new missionaries and the coordination of international mission ministries, and it will allow the Orthodox Faithful of North America to share the light of Christ with even more people.

This Mission Sunday, and throughout the Lenten season, let us embrace our call to shine as lights in the darkness. Let us re-commit to pray for those who have yet to hear the Gospel. Let us soften our hearts, that the Holy Spirit may guide our response to the command to be light to the Nations, to be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. Let us, as God’s children, shine brightly with the light of Christ before others.

May our hearts be filled with hope and love as we prayerfully anticipate the triumphant Resurrection of Christ our God; and may we be given the strength and courage to share this glorious promise with our brothers and sisters around the world.

With paternal blessings and love in Christ,

+Archbishop DEMETRIOS, Chairman Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

+Metropolitan PHILIP, Vice Chairman Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America

+Metropolitan CHRISTOPHER, Secretary Serbian Orthodox Church in North and South America

+Metropolitan NICHOLAS of Amissos, Treasurer American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese in the USA

+Archbishop NICOLAE Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in the Americas

+Metropolitan JOSEPH Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Church

+Metropolitan JONAH Orthodox Church in America

+Metropolitan CONSTANTINE Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA

+Bishop MERCURIUS of Zaraisk Representation of the Moscow Patriarchate in the USA

+Bishop ILIA of Philomelion Albanian Orthodox Diocese of America

Politics and Religion

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Last week House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was in Rome and had an audience with The Pope. It has been reported that the Pope told the Catholic Pelosi what the Church teaches on issue around life. In other words the church is, regardless of what people think, the church is Pro Life. The Roman Catholic Church believes in the sanctity of the life from the womb to the tomb and the Pope reminded Speaker Pelosi of this fact.

So I got to thinking about how politicians are supposed to act. Now I am pro life so don ‘t get me wrong in what I am going to say. The majority of Americans support some for of abortion rights this is fact. It is also a fact that abortion has been legal in this Country since 1974. So how is a politician supposed to act?

During the election season we try and find candidates that have the same thoughts and beliefs that we do, or at least most of the time, and that is the person we vote for. Now a person is elected to represent all of the people in a given area that they represent be that local, state, or federal. The person takes an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States which includes the body of law that has come down since the Constitution was written.

So I ask again how is a politician supposed to vote? Do you vote the way your faith teaches or do you vote the way the people of your district want you to vote? Now I will say if you call yourself something, in this example Roman Catholic, then you say you believe what the church teaches. Some people believe that they can pick and choose what they want to believe and what they do not want to believe. As I have often said religion is not a buffet you cannot just pick somethings and not the others it is a package deal. If you do not like what the church teaches, then find a church that believes what you do, or do what many people are doing now, start your own church! The other part of this is the church does not run it’s theology by opinion polls and the church is not a democracy.

So how to we vote and how should religion and politics play a role? The question for the day, let the comments begin.

Judgment Sunday (Meatfare Sunday)

Posted on by Fr. Peter

Sermon Audio

This past Sunday the Orthodox celebrated (I guess that is the right way to say that) Judgment Sunday. We are reminded in the Gospel passage that we will all the judged and the criteria for how we will be judged.

“Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ “Matthew 25:31-46

We will be judged on how we treat each other and what we do for each other. As Orthodox Christians we believe that faith is not static. It is not enough to just have faith we must put that faith in action and action for the other. It is not enough for us to sit on the sidelines. Christianity is an active faith and we must be active. Its the little things that make the difference.

Tomorrow night (Thursday) we will have our second Community Meal here at the church. We began last month offering a free meal to the community to those who cannot afford a meal, or those who are alone, or those who just want to come together with other people from the community and share a meal. This is the church in action, this is what we are called to do, we are not sitting on the sidelines anymore. Join in and Lent is a great time to do this.

This is also the start of the fast for us Orthodox. We slowly begin the fast starting Monday (Yesterday) by abstaining from meat and meat products until after Easter. Next Monday we begin to abstain from dairy and dairy products as well as wine and olive oil until after Easter. I am working on a post on fasting so look for that latter in the week.

Weird Liturgical Happenings

Posted on by Fr. Peter
During the winter months and even during some summer ones I am usually cold in church. Up where the altar is the heat does not usually get there and because of the Icon Screen the air does not move around. Even under the usual four layers of vestments I get a little chill. Mostly my hands are affected as they were this past Sunday.

As I was standing at the altar and my hands were cold I began to rub them whilst singing the various parts of the liturgy. Sometimes I tuck them under the front of the vestments and try to steal some heat. But then something really weird happened that has never happened to me before.

If you are unfamiliar with the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom about 2/3rds of the way through we have consecration of the Holy Gifts. The priest recites the words, “and make this bread to be the precious body of the Your Christ, and that which is in this cup to be the Precious Blood of Your Christ, changing then both by the power of the Holy Spirit.” My congregation is singing a little tune at this point so often times they do not hear this. Whilst the priest is saying these words he makes a cross over each of the elements. Right at that point my hands became hot, I mean hot, not warm, but hot! After the last blessing of that part of the Liturgy my hands did cool a little but they stayed warm for the rest of the Liturgy.

So I ask the priests that read this blog, has this ever happened to you? To others, the Liturgy Geeks of your out there, any thoughts on this?

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