{"id":4639,"date":"2020-02-29T23:26:48","date_gmt":"2020-03-01T06:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stannagocutah.org\/?p=4639"},"modified":"2020-02-29T23:26:50","modified_gmt":"2020-03-01T06:26:50","slug":"pastoral-letter-november-26-2017-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stannagocutah.org\/?p=4639","title":{"rendered":"Pastoral Letter March 1, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In vain do you rejoice in not eating, O soul!
For you abstain from food,
But from passions you are not purified.
If you persevere in sin, you will perform a useless fast!<\/p>Hymn of Great and Holy Lent<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tonight\n at 7:00 pm, in just under a couple hours, we will celebrate our first \nParaklesis Service to the Mother of the Theotokos, and the Righteous \nAncestor of Christ, our Matron St. Anna. I encourage and remind you all \nto participate in this joyful celebration of thanksgiving for all that \nthe Lord has provided us, through, no doubt, the intercessory influences\n of His maternal grandmother. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomorrow\n is also the second of the Saturday of the Souls Services. If you are at\n all available, you can also prepare a Kollyva, or traditional memorial \nwheat, to bring to the service. It would be a blessing for us to be \ntogether in prayer for the repose of our loved ones and to express our \nhope in the Resurrection of Christ. Orthros, 8:00 am and Divine Liturgy \nat 9:00 as usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then\n on Sunday, our hearts, minds, souls, and every fiber of our physical \nbeing shift into the glorious preparatory time of Great Lent. Sunday is \nthe Sunday of Forgiveness and on that very evening during the Great \nVespers Service, we will encounter the transformation from the \nPre-Lenten Season into the throws of the Great Fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n order to help prepare us for that transition, I would like to share a \nparticularly informative and inspirational writing, concerning these \ndays, from a paramount theologian of our day, Fr. Alexander Schmemann. \nEnjoy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n the Orthodox Church, the last Sunday before Great Lent\u2014the day on \nwhich, at Vespers, Lent is liturgically announced and inaugurated\u2014is \ncalled Forgiveness Sunday. On the morning of that Sunday, at the Divine \nLiturgy, we hear the words of Christ:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf\n you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also \nforgive you, but if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will \nyour Father forgive your trespasses…\u201d (Mark 6:14-15).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then\n after Vespers\u2014after hearing the announcement of Lent in the Great \nProkeimenon: \u201cTurn not away Thy face from Thy child, for I am afflicted!\n Hear me speedily! Draw near unto my soul and deliver it!\u201d, after making\n our entrance into Lenten worship, with its special melodies, with the \nprayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian, with its prostrations\u2014we ask \nforgiveness from each other, we perform the rite of forgiveness and \nreconciliation. And as we approach each other with words of \nreconciliation, the choir intones the Paschal hymns, filling the church \nwith the anticipation of Paschal joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\n is the meaning of this rite? Why is it that the Church wants us to \nbegin the Lenten season with forgiveness and reconciliation? These \nquestions are in order because for too many people Lent means primarily,\n and almost exclusively, a change of diet, the compliance with \necclesiastical regulations concerning fasting. They understand fasting \nas an end in itself, as a \u201cgood deed\u201d required by God and carrying in \nitself its merit and its reward. But the Church spares no effort in \nrevealing to us that fasting is but a means, one among many, towards a \nhigher goal: the spiritual renewal of man, his return to God, true \nrepentance and, therefore, true reconciliation. The Church spares no \neffort in warning us against a hypocritical and pharisaic fasting, \nagainst the reduction of religion to mere external obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a Lenten hymn says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn vain do you rejoice in not eating, O soul!
For you abstain from food,
But from passions you are not purified.
If you persevere in sin, you will perform a useless fast!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now,\n forgiveness stands at the very center of Christian faith and of \nChristian life because Christianity itself is, above all, the religion \nof forgiveness. God forgives us, and His forgiveness is in Christ, His \nSon, whom He sends to us so that by sharing in His humanity we may share\n in His love and be truly reconciled with God. Indeed, Christianity has \nno other content but love. And it is primarily the renewal of that love,\n a growth in it, that we seek in Great Lent, in fasting and prayer, in \nthe entire spirit and the entire effort of that season. Thus, truly \nforgiveness is both the beginning of, and the proper condition for, the \nLenten season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One\n may ask, however: Why should I perform this rite when I have no \n\u201cenemies?\u201d Why should I ask forgiveness from people who have done \nnothing to me, and whom I hardly know? To ask these questions is to \nmisunderstand the Orthodox teaching concerning forgiveness. It is true \nthat open enmity, personal hatred, real animosity may be absent from our\n life, though if we experience them, it may be easier for us to repent, \nfor these feelings openly contradict Divine commandments. But the Church\n reveals to us that there are much subtler ways of offending Divine \nLove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These\n are indifference, selfishness, lack of interest in other people, of any\n real concern for them\u2014in short, that wall which we usually erect around\n ourselves, thinking that by being \u201cpolite\u201d and \u201cfriendly\u201d we fulfill \nGod\u2019s commandments. The rite of forgiveness is so important precisely \nbecause it makes us realize\u2014be it only for one minute\u2014that our entire \nrelationship to other men is wrong, makes us experience that encounter \nof one child of God with another, of one person created by God with \nanother, makes us feel that mutual \u201crecognition\u201d which is so terribly \nlacking in our cold and dehumanized world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\n that unique evening, listening to the joyful Paschal hymns we are \ncalled to make a spiritual discovery: to taste of another mode of life \nand relationship with people, of life whose essence is love. We can \ndiscover that always and everywhere Christ, the Divine Love Himself, \nstands in the midst of us, transforming our mutual alienation into \nbrotherhood. As I advance towards the other, as the other comes to me\u2014we\n begin to realize that it is Christ who brings us together by His love \nfor both of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\n because we make this discovery\u2014and because this discovery is that of \nthe Kingdom of God itself: the Kingdom of Peace and Love, of \nreconciliation with God and, in Him, with all that exists\u2014we hear the \nhymns of that Feast, which once a year \u201copens to us the doors of \nParadise.\u201d We know why we shall fast and pray, what we shall seek during\n the long Lenten pilgrimage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forgiveness\n Sunday: the day on which we acquire the power to make our fasting\u2014true \nfasting; our effort\u2014true effort; our reconciliation with God\u2014true \nreconciliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Father Alexander Schmemann<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forgiveness\n Great Vespers is this Sunday Evening at 7:00 pm. Please make every \neffort to bring your family and attend. This service is usually and \nsadly, sparsely attended. This should not be so. Take your first steps \nof Great Lent in a proper way. Come to this service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Much Love in Christ,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fr. Anthony Savas<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, please forgive me, the sinner. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In vain do you rejoice in not eating, O soul!For you abstain from food,But from passions you are not purified.If you persevere in sin, you will perform a useless fast! Hymn of Great and Holy Lent Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Tonight at 7:00 pm, in just under a couple hours, we will celebrate […]<\/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-4639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pastoral-letter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stannagocutah.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4639","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=4639"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stannagocutah.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4641,"href":"https:\/\/stannagocutah.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4639\/revisions\/4641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stannagocutah.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stannagocutah.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stannagocutah.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}