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Dear Parish Faithful,
The Lord is mu light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid? (Ps. 27:1)
The Sun is Shining! - The days have been beautiful with the sun shining to lift up our spirits. I hope it continues. Perhaps a good time to catch up with work around the house. But I hope even more that everyone is well. We are perhaps now fully realizing what Jesus was getting at when He basically taught us to approach life "one day at a time." I again ask: Is anyone in need of any assistance? If so, please do not hesitate to let me know. Please continue to communicate with one another.
Fourth Sunday of Great Lent - On this Sunday, we commemorate one of the truly greatest of our spiritual writers, St. John of the Ladder. His book, The Ladder of Divine Ascent (hence the title given to him) remains possibly as the classic of Orthodox spirituality. Here is a link to a brief summary of St. John's life: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2020/03/30/100943-venerable-john-climacus-of-sinai-author-of-the-ladder
A St. John Chrysostom Type Question? - If St. John were to pose a question to us in today's chaotic times, I think he would ask something like this: Are you reading the Scriptures, Lives of Saints and Orthodox literature as much as you are reading up on the coronavirus or spending time on various forums of social media? With his rhetorical skills he would challenge - or perhaps even chastise us all - for any lack of caring for our "souls" at a time when we are so anxious about our bodies. He would most probably refer us to the words of Christ in Matt. 6:25-34. With our travel and gathering restrictions, we are unable to assemble in church, thus making it all the more imperative that we find a balance in our homes between our necessary daily preoccupations and the tools given to us by the Church to nurture our spiritual life at a time when so much in our lives has been disrupted. I again make the point that our domestic practice of observing Great Lent will offer structure and discipline to our lives when things are "out of sync."
I understand that now the "social distancing" mandate will be in effect at least through the month of April. It thus seems virtually certain that we will not be able to gather in church for Holy Week and Pascha. Painful just to write that! Who would have thought that just a few weeks ago? I will do my best to offer at least an edited version of the Holy Week services in the church with presvytera Deborah. By then, I will have figured out zoom or we will stream the services. I would also highly recommend purchasing all of the Holy Week and Pascha booklets that contain the full text of the services. These booklets, the same ones that we use in church for the services, are ideal for maintaining a semblance of Holy Week in our homes. Through the text of these services, we can follow Christ from Palm Sunday to Golgotha, and then to the empty tomb.I believe that some of you already have this set. Be that as it may, here is a link to St. Vladimir's Press - hoping, of course, that the press is still mailing out orders. The price is quite reasonable for about ten or so booklets.
