{"id":2230,"date":"2017-02-16T23:56:35","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T06:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stannagocutah.org\/?p=2230"},"modified":"2017-02-16T23:56:35","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T06:56:35","slug":"pastoral-letter-february-19-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stannagocutah.org\/?p=2230","title":{"rendered":"Pastoral Letter February 19, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cFor You are the resurrection, the life and the repose of Your departed servants, O Christ our God, and to You we give the glory, as to Your Father who is everlasting, and Your all-holy, good and life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.\u201d – Prayer of the Trisagion, Funeral and Memorial Service<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
\nThere is a common question that many elderly Orthodox people ask their children and grandchildren. Eventually, we will all have this question posed to us around the dinner table, through an email or while watching a kid\u2019s soccer game. It\u2019s not something they thought about as children and grandchildren themselves, but one day, and all of a sudden, the question pops into their minds. If we are blessed to live a long and productive life, the question will streak through our heads as well; with a dramatic sense of urgency, coupled with slight pangs of panic.
\nThe age-old question:
\n\u201cWho is going to make Kollyva for ME when I die?\u201d
\nOf course, this question had more relevance generations ago, before we could call Jim, or Mary or whoever any given parish directs you to \u201corder\u201d Kollyva (boiled Memorial wheat). Back in the day, you didn\u2019t \u201corder\u201d Kollyva; you stayed in the kitchen with Yiayia for an entire Saturday and learned how to make it. And you did this many times throughout your youth, because it, like many things, is harder than it seems, and involves many steps towards completion. And at some time, you were called upon to put all of that practice, experience, and secret ingredients to the test when a Loved One departed this earth and their Memorial Service was approaching.
\nSo, in these \u201cmodern times,\u201d the question stands:
\nWho is going to make Kollyva for me when I die? That\u2019s a rhetorical question for literary sake of course. You will recall, I\u2019m still too young to worry about such things.
\nEven though the art (and it is an art) of creating beautiful trays of Kollyva has been largely forgotten in many homes, it\u2019s not so tragic, in that Yiayia\u2019s question has less to do with boiled wheat than it does remembrance. What she is really asking is this:
\n\u201cWill you remember me when I\u2019m gone?\u201d
\n\u201cWill my positive influences, prayerful lessons, tender moments and fond memories fade with time, or will I live on to posthumously touch your grandchildren through the patterns, traditions, tendencies and mannerisms which you received from me?\u201d
\n\u201cWill you remember that I loved you more than life itself and continued to make great sacrifices for the sake of your becoming a faithful, productive and decent person?\u201d
\n\u201cWill you forget about me?\u201d
\nOur precious Orthodox practice of memorializing the dead answers that question. We keep our loved ones in mind so that their voice never fades and their influence never becomes irrelevant. And as Christians, we remember through prayer. It\u2019s not enough to experience affectionate recollections. We pray for the dead. We pray with the dead. We experience Christ Who is the victory for the dead.
\nSince Saturday is the day which the Church dedicates to the memory of those who are asleep in the Lord, the practice of dedicating the last two Saturdays before Great Lent, and the first Saturday of Great Lent as Saturdays of the Souls. We set aside this time to collectively lift up those who have gone before us in the hope of the Resurrection.
\nPiously, and with our grandmother\u2019s question in mind, we bring small bowls of Kollyva to the church in honor of her memory, and ALL of our departed Loved Ones. There isn\u2019t really anybody to bail us out of this practice. It\u2019s one thing to ask \u201cthat guy or lady\u201d at church to make Kollyva for a Sunday Memorial \u2013 you know, industrial sized for the entire congregation. But the Saturday of the Souls services, while universal in scope, as we are all gathered together in prayer for the same purpose, are also intimate and personal, for we bring our own names, carry our own memories, and lift up our own remembrances.
\nDon\u2019t forget your Kollyva.
\nThe Kollyva is symbolic of the resurrection of the dead on the day of the Second Coming of Christ. Saint Paul said, “What you sow does not come to life unless it dies” (1 Corinthians 15:34), and Saint John wrote, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (St. John 12:24).
\nThus, as the wheat is buried in the soil and disintegrates without actually dying, but is regenerated into a new plant that bears more fruit, so then, our bodies will be raised again from the very corruptible matter from which it was created. However, it will be raised not in its earthly substance but in an incorruptible, transfigured state which “will clad the mortal body with an immortal garment,\u201d in the words of Saint Paul
\n(1 Corinthians 15:53).
\nI hope to see you in the church for these services the next three Saturdays. If you are truly unable to prepare and bring a Kollyva, please don\u2019t use that as an excuse not to come. Write down your names (for the departed) and bring them to the services. They will be read and lifted up in prayer, just the same.
\n\u201cWho is going to make Kollyva for me when I die?\u201d
\nDon\u2019t worry, Yiayia. We got this!
\nWith Love in Christ,
\nFr. Anthony<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cFor You are the resurrection, the life and the repose of Your departed servants, O Christ our God, and to You we give the glory, as to Your Father who is everlasting, and Your all-holy, good and life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.\u201d – Prayer of the Trisagion, Funeral […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pastoral-letter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stannagocutah.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stannagocutah.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stannagocutah.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stannagocutah.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stannagocutah.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stannagocutah.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2231,"href":"https:\/\/stannagocutah.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2230\/revisions\/2231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stannagocutah.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stannagocutah.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stannagocutah.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}