ALL SAINTS: NOTICES -- SECOND SUNDAY OF LUKE, 2024
DIVINE LITURGY — NEXT SATURDAY, 5th OCTOBER
Holy temple opens at 09:30.
Holy service starts at 10:00
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Today's Holy Gospel (Luke 6:31-36) tells us about having mercy and forgiveness and loving our enemies.
Loving family and friends, people with whom we have things in common, is easy and comes naturally, but is of little value to God.
Loving our enemies is difficult and is above and beyond nature. It is those whom we dislike, those who are difficult or unattractive to us whom we must love if we are to please God.
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LOVE LOVE LOVE
Loving enemies is difficult but fundamental to the Christian life.
We must not ask God to help us do what we can do but to help us to do what we cannot; we must constantly push our self beyond limits; as Christians we are called to go beyond our "comfort zone"; when time or money is short we must do more, give more not less; the Church must be our one true concern if we are to attain union with God. We must love God as much as we expect Him to love us.
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LOVE: A WORD OF SAINT SILOUAN
Saint Silouan (whom we feasted on 24th September), writes that, ‘the soul that has not known the Holy Spirit does not understand how one can love one’s enemies, and does not accept it.’ The saint says most categorically that, ‘without God’s grace we cannot love enemies’, and that ‘he who has not learned to love from the Holy Spirit, will certainly not pray for his enemies.’
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MEMORY ETERNAL!
Our beloved Crina-Mihaila has reposed in the Lord. She was a dear friend and a member of our community for many years, making her confession here; she was a quiet and kind; a generous benefactor to our parish - gifting vestments, altar cloths, carpets, rugs, and other items; she gave weekly to the priest. Crina bore her crosses with faith and dignity. Until the very end she remained a resolute friend and a faithful Orthodox Christian. She was an example to us all, and we have no doubt that she is now with the Lord.
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ALL GLORY TO GOD!
- We are truly grateful and offer all glory to God that we have reached the milestone of 100 ISSUES of our weekly magazine for Orthodox Christian children.
It has been a long journey, with many challenges, but it has been a journey filled with love and light and joy. Our magazine is our little gift to all children and their families.
Thank you to all those who have worked so hard to produce our magazine- especially, Nadezhda, Natasha, and Emily.
- All who bring food and drink to share.
- Ted, for bread.
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YOUR PRAYERS
For the people of Lebanon, in particular for our Patriarch, clergy and people. There are many, many Christians in the country, but let us pray for all of the people of the country.
Bianca-Gabriela- starting university on Tuesday.
For Savvas (Gareth) - health issues. May God bring strength.
For those attending this weekend's Orthodox youth event in Wales.
Crina- reposed in the Lord. Memory eternal! Please pray for her son, Nathan and husband, Colin.
For our katechumens- Aidan, George (unwell).
Pina (non-Orthodox)- recovering from eye operations
May God bless us all!
Father Jakob
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LOOKING AHEAD -- TWELVE GREAT FEASTS
To help you plan ahead, for those of you who are able to take time off work, etc., here are the dates of GREAT FEASTS for the year ahead.
These are dates upon which we should try to be in Church (sadly, many of us do not always have this choice).
These are days upon which the Divine Liturgy should be served at All Saints. Servers, singers, helpers- please do what you're able.
14th SEPTEMBER -- EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS
21st NOVEMBER -- ENTRY OF THE THEOTOKOS INTO THE TEMPLE
25th DECEMBER -- NATIVITY OF CHRIST
6th JANUARY -- HOLY THEOPHANY
2nd FEBRUARY -- PRESENTATION OF OUR LORD IN THE TEMPLE
25th MARCH -- HOLY ANNUNCIATION
17th APRIL -- ENTRY OF OUR LORD INTO IERUSALM*
24th APRIL -- HOLY PASCHA*
2nd JUNE -- HOLY ASCENSION*
12th JUNE -- HOLY PENTEKOST*
6th AUGUST -- HOLY TRANSFIGURATION
15th AUGUST -- HOLY DORMITION
[ * The dates of these feasts vary from year to year. ]
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ORTHODOXY 101 : ATTENDING THE DIVINE LITURGY
Christianity is experiential; it is not just 'read about', it must be lived. The Holy Eucharist is at the centre of our worship, at the centre of our Life in Christ.
We come to the Church, we remain in the Church in order that our souls be saved. That is all. It is our soul's salvation - there is nothing else.
The Holy Services are a store-house of spiritual treasures. To be saved, we need to gain knowledge of ourselves. We do this by discovering our sins and weaknesses, and by fighting against their pull. Our faith is war on personal pride. When our pride is wounded in the course of Church life, we should thank God!
We fight best when we are supported. For support we have the Holy Gospels; the Holy Fathers, their Lives and Teachings; we have God and we have each other.
The Church Community (both living and departed) is our Family in Christ. Our God is LOVE. And we are giving of our best, when we give love to God and to each other.
The Holy Eucharist is the body and Blood of Christ. It is life itself, it is Salvation. It is our treasure: "Where your treasure is there will your heart be also"(Matthew 6:21). We spend time with - we are attentive to - the people, the things we love the most.
Canon LXXX (Sixth Oecumenical Council) reads, "A cleric or layman shall not go three consecutive Sundays without attending church, unless some necessary business requires him to leave his town. The usual penalties apply: deposition for a cleric; excommunication for a layman".
It is not always possible to come to every holy service, but our good practice, and simple good manners, is to notify the priest of our absence, or if we have moved away. Notification demonstrates love and humility, and allows the priest and community to pray for us, for example - when we are sick.
We pray for those who are absent from the divine services for legitimate reasons. The others, who come infrequently or have not attended for long periods, have become prodigal sons, wanderers. They have distanced themselves from Christ and from their Christian family. Their love has become luke-warm. A full and proper return to Church requires a full and proper repentance, taking responsibility for our failings.
Church life is about responsibility. It is about stepping up and being adult. This is done by singing, standing throughout the holy services, fasting, making regular confession, reading in Church, serving, cleaning and tidying, cooking, reading the morning and evening prayers every day, preparing properly for confession and communion. Above all it is about praying.
To be blunt, Church (parish) life is about giving time and money to the glory of God. Church life is about commitment. Without commitment, we will never become deeply Orthodox or even remain Orthodox.
Love of God and love of neighbour are entwined. We cannot love God if we do not love our neighbours, especially our fellow Christians; and we cannot love our neighbours if we do not love God (1 John 4:20).
We spend time with God, we spend time with each other. We do so not because we feel 'obliged' or even because we 'want to' but simply because our heart draws us, and we follow Christ's new commandment (Luke 10:27): "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself".
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AΓAΠH = CARITAS = CHARITY = LOVE
John 4:16: Ὁ Θεὸς ἀγάπη (koine Greek) = Deus caritas est (Latin) = God is Love (English)
GIVING TO OTHERS
All glory to God! Our small parish has been able in little ways to help the poor, offer love to the stranger, to help heal the wounded.
GIFTAID
This past year we received £2,000 back from the UK government. Our parish trustees have authorised this and future monies raised through giftaid to be passed on to our poorer neighbours. If more of us donated by giftaid we could do even more to help the poor, the wounded, and the marginalised who are our neighbours.
'HOW CAN I HELP?'
Every penny helps! Donate to our parish via gift aid. If you pay tax in the UK you can use giftaid. It's free, it's easy, and as you can see above, it helps us to help others. The UK government pays us back for what you give to us via gftaid. This is the only official help that UK charities receive.
Our hope and ambition is that every penny given to us by you comes through giftaid.
LAZAROS, OUR NEIGHBOUR
The dying Lazaros is lying outside our door (Luke 16:20). We Christians have a duty of care (John 21:17), this is a constant in our life (Matthew 26:11), we must not ignore him (1 John 3:17). Let us do all that we are able to help to help our neighbour (John 15:12). May I ask you - please make a start, and donate to the parish by giftaid.
CHRIST IS RISEN!
In the Risen Lord,
Father Jakob
Presbyter, All Saints North Benfleet
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