St. Anna Greek Orthodox Church

ON LOVE FOR ONE’S NEIGHBOUR

Love for God and for one’s neighbor, they go together and cannot be divorced

With silence, tolerance and prayer we benefit others in a mystical way

When we see that the people around us have no love for God we are distressed. But with our distress we achieve nothing at all. Nor do we achieve anything by trying to persuade them to change their ways. That’s not right either. There is a secret, however, and if we understand it, we will be able to help. The secret is our prayer and our devotion to God so that His grace may act. We, with our love, with our fervent desire for the love of God, will attract grace so that it washes over those around us and awakens them to divine love. Or rather God will send His love and will rouse them all. What we are unable to do, His grace will achieve. With our prayers, we will make all worthy of God’s love.

And you should be aware of something else. Souls that have known pain and suffering and that are tormented by their passions win most especially the love and grace of God. It is souls such as these that become saints, and very often we pass judgment on them. Remember what Saint Paul says, Where sin abounded, grace flowed even more abundantly.1 When you remember this, you will feel that these people are more worthy than you and than me. We see them as weak, but when they open themselves to God they become all love and all divine eros.* Whereas previously they had acquired different habits, they now give all the power of their soul to Christ and are set on fire by Christ’s love. That is how God’s miracle works in such souls, which we regard as ‘lost’.

We shouldn’t be discouraged, nor should we rush to conclusions, nor judge on the basis of superficial and external things. If, for example, you see a woman immodestly dressed, don’t have regard only for her outward appearance, but look more deeply into her soul. She may be a very good soul with an existential restlessness, which she expresses through her shocking appearance. She has a dynamism within her, the power of self-projection; she wishes to attract the eyes of others. But through lack of awareness she has distorted things. Think what would happen if she were to come to know Christ. She would believe and she would turn all her passion towards Christ. She would do everything to attract the grace of God. She would become a saint.

It is a kind of self-projection of our own when we insist on other people becoming good. In reality, we wish to become good, but because we are unable to, we demand it of others and insist on this. And whereas all things are corrected through prayer, we often are distressed or become outraged and pass judgment on others.

Often through our anxieties and fears and our poor psychological state, without intending to and without being aware of it, we do harm to another person, even if we love him very much, as, for example, a mother loves her child. The mother transmits to the child all her anxiety about its life, about its health and about its progress, even if she doesn’t speak to the child and even if she doesn’t express what she has inside her. This love, this natural love, that is, can on occasion be harmful. This is not true, however, of the love of Christ that is combined with prayer and holiness of life. This love makes a person holy; it brings him peace, because God is love.

Let our love be only in Christ. In order to benefit others you must live in the love of God, otherwise you are unable to do good to your fellow man. You mustn’t pressurize the other person. His time will come, as long as you pray for him. With silence, tolerance and above all by prayer we benefit others in a mystical way. The grace of God clears the horizon of his mind and assures him of His love. Here is the fine point. As soon as he accepts that God is love, then abundant light such as he has never seen will come upon him. Thus he will find salvation.

From “Wounded by Love: The Life and the Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios” (1906-1991)

Do you want to show love for your neighbor? Stay inside. Keep a safe distance if you need to go out.

Protect yourselves. Protect those whom you don’t even know!

Attention St. Anna Parishioners:

Though we have not altered the church calendar printed in the Bulletin, we are awaiting instructions from the Archdiocese and Metropolis as to how we are to celebrate the Divine Services of Holy Week and Pascha during our present pandemic situation. The schedule will most certainly change.

As soon as I have concrete direction, I will redesign our Holy Week Flyer and send it out.

Hope to have you with us online for tonight’s chanting of the Akathist Hymn at 7:00 pm on YouTube.

God Bless!

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

God bless and keep you all. I pray you are well. I pray you are not lonely. I pray you are hopeful. I pray you find joy in this shaken world.

Christ is Joy!

Thank you for sending in your pictures of your home churches. I will be sharing them from time to time. It is important that we begin to identify our personal, home altars as the sacred spaces that they are. We are unable to be together, gathered as a worshiping body in the holy space which we all worked so hard to acquire. But do not be despondent or grieving. We are learning the lessons that countless Orthodox Christians through history have experienced.

When war raged around the cities and villages, the home became the church.

When Islamic Turks attempted to eradicate the presence of Christ for nearly 400 years, the home became the church.

When communism attempted to silence the voice of the Saints for nearly 70 years, the home became the church.

As the Coronavirus Pandemic rages on, the home, your home has become the church!

Of course the difference is, that we can literally have the church in our homes, given the miracles of technology.

Tomorrow morning at 9:00 am we will celebrate the Liturgy of Presanctified Gifts.

Tomorrow evening at 7:00 pm, we will celebrate the Fourth Stanza of the Salutations to the Theotokos.

Sunday Services are as scheduled. Following Sunday’s Divine Liturgy, St. Anna’s will also be open from Noon to 1:00 pm for Communion and for you to come into the church and pray. Please keep respectful distances to maintain the safety of the greater community. Members of the Parish Council will be there to assist.

The link to our YouTube Channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8PbdstnLVq-reIVOb3GiwA

The proper equipment for our live streaming capabilities is slowing coming in. People are working hard to deliver to you the best quality experience.  So thank you for your continued patience.

But then again, to my prior point, we are praying comfortably in our homes, with televisions, computers and smart phones. We are not held up in the basements of Leningrad or in the caves of Cappadocia. I suppose our grainy picture and garbled, under-water sound isn’t so bad after all!

Please work to establish and continue a proper discipline of prayer; using this newly-found time to your spiritual benefit and salvific advantage. My family and I, gathered around an icon of the Holy Trinity this evening at 10:00 pm and prayed the prescribed and altered version of the Jesus Prayer, asking God’s mercy upon His created world. Our simple, six-person contribution to the universal voice of collective Orthodox Christian prayer was palpable. Please prayerfully participate. God will hear our plea. He will receive our prayers. He will accept our petitions.

And lastly, c’mon now, there are still a few empty chairs in the church. I need you there with me. Send in your pictures. Once this is all over and we can come together again, I will bind all of these pictures together as an eternal reminder of our love for one another, united in the Body of Christ, while gratefully calling St. Anna’s our home.

Stay strong. Be well. Check in on each other. Pray the new Jesus Prayer. Pray the actual Jesus Prayer. Pour yourselves into the Scriptures. Chant the Liturgy at home. Be as One!

With Much Love in Christ,

Fr. Anthony

I really, really, really miss you.