Adoration of the Magi

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Merry Christmas to all of the readers of the Blog!
Today we celebrate the 2nd greatest feast on the Church calendar the Nativity in the Flesh of the Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This feast is second only to the Resurrection that we will celebrate in a few months’ time.
However, today we also remember the Magi, the Kings that came from the East to worship the King of Kings. Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar brought the gifts of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh to Jesus in Bethlehem. We read their story in the Gospel of Matthew that will be read in Orthodox Churches on this day.
Tradition tells us that these three were baptized by St. Thomas and that they became bishops. They came from the East and followed the Star that led them to the birth place of Jesus. In Orthodox theology the star is not seen as an astronomical event but rather a supernatural event whereby an angel was sent to the Magi to show them the way to the Christ Child. In Orthodox icons, the Star of Bethlehem is often depicted not as golden, but as a dark aureola, a semicircle at the top of the icon, indicating the Uncreated Light of Divine grace, with a ray pointing to “the place where the young child lay” (Matt 2:9). Sometimes the faint image of an angel is drawn inside the aureola.
“Your birth, O Christ our God, dawned the light of knowledge upon the earth. For by Your birth those who adored stars (i.e. Magi) were taught by a star to worship You, the Sun of Justice, and to know You, Orient from on High. O Lord, glory to You.” (Hymns of the Nativity)

Celtic Christmas Carol

Posted on by Fr. Peter

This night is the eve of the great Nativity,

Born is the Son of Mary the Virgin,
The soles of His feet have reached the earth,
The Son of glory down from on high,
Heaven and earth glowed to Him
All hail, let there be joy!
The peace of earth to Him, the joy of heaven to Him,
Behold his feet have reached the world;
The homage of a King be His, the welcome of a Lamb be His,
King of all victorious, Lamb all glorious,
Earth and ocean illumed Him,
All hail, let there be joy!
The mountain glowed to Him; the plains glowed to Him,
The voice of the waves with the song of the strand,
Announcing to us that Christ is born,
Son of the King of kings for the land of salvation;

Shone the sun on the mountains high to Him,
All hail, let there be joy!

Shone to Him the earth and sphere together,
God the Lord has opened a door;
Son of Mary Virgin, hasten thou to help me,

Thou Christ of hope, Thou door of joy,

Golden sun of hill and mountain,
All hail, let there be joy!

Archbishop Nicolae’s Christmas Message

Posted on by Fr. Peter
PASTORAL LETTER ON THE FEAST OF THE LORD’S NATIVITY 2011
† NICOLAE
by the mercies of God
Archbishop of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in the Americas
To our beloved clergy and Orthodox Christians, peace and joy from Christ the Lord, and from us hierarchical blessings.
Your coming, O Christ, has shed upon us a great light,
O You Light of Light and Radiance of the Father!
You have illumined the whole creation.
(Great Vespers of the Feast)
Most Reverend Fathers,
Beloved Christians,
The Feast of the Lord’s Nativity offers us again an occasion for joy and proclamation of the wonder that took place in the Bethlehem cave, God’s descent to earth in order to bring us to God, to renew and to illumine all creation. The songs of the service of this holy feast together with the Church Fathers proclaim and interpret the wonder of the renewal of mankind and of the entire creation through the Incarnation of the Son of God.
Adam’s disobedience, instigated by Eve, brought us alienation from God and death. This is the ancestral sin or ancient sin that marks every person born of woman from Adam to Christ. But God found the way to overturn the fall and bring a remedy also through woman, through the Virgin Mary: “Today Adam’s bonds are loosed and Paradise is opened to us. Behold, the serpent is brought to naught, seeing that a woman he deceived has now become the Mother of the Creator. Oh the depths, the richness, the wisdom and the knowledge of God! That very instrument of sin that had brought death to all flesh now becomes today the first fruits of salvation to the world, through the Mother of God” (“Glory” of the Aposticha). Through a woman came sin and through a woman came salvation, turning Adam and Eve’s refusal into humility and obedience through the words Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it unto me according to Your Word.
It is God himself who accomplishes this remedy and renewal. The image of God in man, darkened by sin, could not be illumined and renewed by either angels or man. St. Athanasius the Great explains the necessity of the Incarnation of the Son of God himself for the salvation of man in this way: “When an image inscribed on wood is effaced by surface stains, it is necessary for the one whose image it is to come again, in order to be renewed in that material…. In the same way the Most Holy Son of the Father, Who is the image of the Father, came in our place to renew mankind created after His image and to find those who were lost” (Treatise on the Incarnation of the Son). God descended to earth and took on human nature in order to correct and renew it through this uniting of divinity with humanity. God could have saved mankind through a word or in another miraculous way, but he chose to be human like us, to bring us close and to illumine us through His Light: “For this reason (Adam’s fall),” says St. Gregory Palamas, “the Lord renewed him in a miraculous way, not only with His hand, but he held him near Himself, not only taking on human nature, which he raised up from its fall, but embracing it in an ineffable fashion and uniting Himself closely and inseparably with it, being at once God and man, born of woman, that He might be according to the nature of His creation and from that Virgin, in order to make man new” (Homilies). The same holy father explains why man could not save man: “For if he had been from (male) seed, he would not have been a new man, He would not have been the Master and Creator of the new and never-aging life, neither would He have been able, being from old material, to reveal in Himself the fullness of the Divinity that is above time, and to create from His body an unfailing spring of holiness by which to cleanse the ancestral defilement through the abundance of His power” (Homilies).
Thus the salvation of mankind is truly a re-creating and renewing of man. The proclamation of the Lord’s Nativity fills us with joy and hope because we are proclaiming our own salvation and renewal. These take place for each one of us in the water of Baptism, but also in the tears of repentance and correction. And then we receive Christ as food, “His Most Pure Body, which He took from the blameless body of the Most Pure Mother of God, Mary”, in the words of St. Simeon the New Theologian (Discourses).
Beloved believers,
Our celebration revolves around this joy infused with the sense of the renewal of our nature. It behooves us to share this joy with our fellow man, especially in this world marked by alienation from God, and at the same time confusion and disorder. The problems of our age are many, and understanding is seldom sought anymore in the Holy Scriptures and the Church, in God’s revelation to mankind. We Christians must continue to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. We Christians must continue to proclaim to the world the joy and hope that come from the manger of Bethlehem, for unto us is born a Savior, Christ the Lord (Luke 2:11). We Christians must live as those who are renewed, as those who have forsaken the old garment of sin and have put on the garment of re-creation in Christ. We Christians must show the world the Christ that has been born for our salvation: “This is for us the present festival and this is what we celebrate today: the coming of God to men, that he might bring us to God, or, better expressed, to bring us back to Himself so that, forsaking the old man, we might clothe ourselves in the new” (St. Gregory the Theologian, Oration on the Nativity of the Savior Jesus Christ). I wish you all, priests and faithful, to receive on this glorious feast the power to witness through word and deed the Incarnation of the Son of God for our renewal and salvation.
I extend a brotherly embrace in Christ the Lord; and may you experience the holy feasts of Christmas, the New Year, and Theophany in health, peace, and spiritual joys.
Many Years!
Your brother in prayer to God,
† NICOLAE
Chicago, the Feast of the Lord’s Nativity, 2011

Global Orthodoxy

Posted on by Fr. Peter
The Pew Research Group has released a study of Christianity in the world. The full study can be found here. They did a great job in presenting the information and I believe there is much we can learn from this study. I was surprised by some of the findings regarding the distribution of the world’s Orthodox.
Not surprisingly Russia boasts the largest Orthodox population with 101.4 million or 71% of the population of Russia. However number 2 was very surprising. Ethiopia came in second with 36 million or 43.5 percent of the population! I knew the Church was very active in Africa but I did not realize it was that active. Romania came in at number 4 after Ukraine with 18.7 million or 87% of the population. Sad to say the USA did not make the chart as less than 1% of the population is Orthodox.
If we look at the numbers based on the percentage of the population Greece still ranks number one with 88.3% of the population followed by Romania. 54.9% of the world’s Orthodox resided in just 10 countries. I find that just fascinating.
Europe has the largest percentage with 77%. This is not a surprise since Orthodoxy comes from this region and for the purpose of this report it includes all of Russia. Russia as you know is on both the European and Asian continent. Sub-Saharan Africa has the second largest population with 15% of all of the Worlds Orthodox! The Americas, that includes North, Central, and South America has 1% of the world’s Orthodox. We have some work to do for sure.
Of course this is the number of people who consider themselves Orthodox it says nothing of church attendance. A survey of Orthodox Churches in the United States completed last year showed that 28% of the 1 million Orthodox attend Church on a regular basis. We need to increase this number if we ever hope to increase the number of Orthodox in the United States.
So what is the “take away” from this information for me? We have a lot of work to do! The interesting thing it shows me is we need to evangelize our own membership about the necessity of coming to Church, if we cannot get out own people to come to Church how do we ever hope to reach those who have never heard of Orthodoxy?

Fr. Nathan Monk

Posted on by Fr. Peter
From Facebook
If you are a longtime reader of these pages you know that we at St. Michael (the I presently serve) have been providing a twice a month meal for the Community here in Southbridge. I am always interested what others have been doing along these lines and so recently I friended Fr. Nathan Monk on Facebook. Fr. Nathan is a priest in Pensacola, Florida and his church provides meals for the poor of his community.
Fr. Nathan can usually be seen holding a sign the sign in the picture I have included on this post. He stands on the side of the road to collect funds to help in the ministry to the poor. Recently the City Council of Pensacola has made this type of activity, panhandling, illegal. There has been much going back and forth between the people and the City Council about all of this and it has risen to a level of debate that some on the Council do not like.
In the video below you will see Fr. Nathan come before the City Council to address the issue. It seems from what I can gather from the video that at the previous meeting some people were removed from the Council chambers by the police and in this video you can see the Police Chief, he is the one with the four stars on this shoulders, come to try and remove this priest before he is finished speaking. Actually three police officers come to try and remove him.
Several years ago a priest from of mine was removed from a court room where he had gone to lend support for a parishioner who has having some legal problems and the judge objected to his wearing of his collar in the Court Room. This past summer the Town Council here in Southbridge tried to restrict the citizens right to speak at Town Council meetings. Is there any wonder people are occupying places all over the country?  The clergy, of all faith groups, need to be the voice of those who have no voice in the community and fight for what is right.  I believe it is what the Gospel is all about!
My hat is off to Fr. Nathan and his work with the poor of his community. He is trying to be the voice of the voiceless and he needs our support.

Festival of Lights

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Fr. Thomas Hopko
The Winter Pascha
Originally there was but one festival in the Christian Church for the Lord’s appearing. It was called the “festival of lights” and it was connected both to the Jewish festival of the season, as well as to the pagan celebration which took place at the time of the year when the sun stopped its southern march and began to move again towards the north, symbolizing the victory of light over darkness in the natural order. This feast for the Christians was the feast of the Epiphany, which literally means “appearing” or “manifestation,” also called Theophany, which literally means the appearance or the manifestation of God, and was kept on January 6. It was given this name, obviously, because God appeared on earth in the person of His Son, and manifested His glory in Him who called Himself the “light of the world.”
The separate celebration of Jesus’ nativity apart from the one general celebration of His appearance on earth – which originally included all aspects of His coming, from His birth to His public manifestation at His baptism in the River Jordan – was consciously done by the Christian Church, first in the West and later in the East, to offset the pagan holiday of the “Nativity of the Invincible Sun.” This pagan festival was celebrated on the twenty-fifth of December. It was a day of religious observance for those who worshipped the heavenly bodies, particularly the sun, as gods. When pagans were liberated from this worship and were blessed to adore the true God as Christians, it was only natural that the Church would replace the erroneous festival with the true one, thus giving genuine significance to a day which was already special in the life of many of its new members. It appears that the main hymn of the feast of Christ’s Nativity in the Eastern Church was formulated as a conscious polemic against paganism, with a very pointed flaunting of the fact that those who formerly worshipped the stars, including the sun, were taught by a star to worship the True Sun, God’s Son Jesus, who gives, and is, the True Light.
Your Nativity, O Christ our God,
Has shown to the world the light of wisdom
For by it those who worshipped the stars
Were taught by a star to adore You,
The Sun of Righteousness,
And to know You, the Orient from on high.
O Lord, glory to You!
Troparion of the Nativity
Some people fault the Christian Church for establishing the Feast of Christ’s birth on the day of the “birth of the sun.” Certain Christian sects even oppose the celebration. Orthodox Christians believe that it was an act inspired by the Holy Spirit. God has sent His Son into the world for its sanctification and salvation. The Messiah has come “not to condemn the world,” with its feeble and misguided attempts to find life’s meaning, “but that the world might be saved through Him” (Jn 3:17). For, as the apostle Paul has written, “it is the God who said ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face {literally, person} of Christ” (2 Cor 4:6).

Cleaning

Posted on by Fr. Peter
It seems I have spent the last two weeks cleaning my house. Here in the rectory it is just me and the dog so you would think it would not get that dirty, and I do try to keep up with it each week. This time of year, before I put of the Christmas tree, I do the big cleaning. I have hardwood floors that need attention and yesterday I pulled out the fridge and the stove in the kitchen to clean behind it. I was amazed how dirty it can get back there! I still have some to do but the tree will be going up today.
All of us spend time cleaning our homes or offices. We wash our clothes each week and do the dishes after each meal. I bet if we were to add it all up we spend a few hours a week on the task of cleaning. During the warm weather months we might spend time outside in the yard raking, pruning, and cutting the lawn. But how much time do we spend cleaning our souls?
Today in the Orthodox Church we celebrate the Sunday before the Nativity, also known as the Sunday of the Fathers. We read from St. Matthew’s Gospel all the names of the ancestors of Christ from Adam down to Joseph. This is to remind us of those who have come before us marked with the sign of faith. It also marks the final week of the season of Advent or as Fr. Alexander Schmemann called it Christmas Lent.
This time of year is a penitential season. Not as strict as Great Lent but we do fast and abstain from certain foods this time of year and the feeling of the Church services change. The Penitential seasons are a great time to go to confession. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is the big cleaning of the soul. This is our chance to unburden ourselves and get our relationship with God back on track. We all need to confess regardless of our age or state of life. We are all sinners and we can all do better. Now I would hope that none of you are murderers or anything like that, but we can all check in from time to time with God.
Perhaps our prayer life is not what it can be. Maybe we do not attend Church as often as we should or give our spiritual life the attention that we should. Perhaps we have broken relationships with friends or relatives, or we harbor feelings of envy, judgment, or jealousy. We need to bring all of these things to Christ and leave them at His feet.
There is a common misunderstanding amongst the non-Orthodox about this Sacrament. It is not the priest who forgives the sins “only God can do that” but the priest is the witness, the counselor, a fellow sinner who might offer a bit of advice on how one can proceed in their spiritual life. There is also something comforting about saying what we have done in the hearing of another human being and getting that assurance that, “as for the sins that you have confessed have no further anxiety about them, go in peace” as the words of the prayer of absolution say.
If you have not pulled the fridge of your soul away from the wall for year it is time to roll up your sleeves and just do it! Christ is waiting for you!

The Peace of God

Posted on by Fr. Peter
“As a matter of plain fact, Jesus Christ never promised to bring peace to the earth in the sense that nations would no longer fight with one another and that individuals would no longer quarrel. Such a peace is promised only at the end of the ages when the Messiah who was crucified comes in glory to establish the kingdom of God His Father, Then and only then, will the great and everlasting shalom of the Lord foretold by the prophets be established. Until then, strife and struggle remain. And Jesus Himself, as He foretold, will remain a great reason for much of it.”
“… But Christian saints also cause hostility and strife. They are sources of scandal and cause of contention. They witness to the truth of Jesus’ words that as He was hated and persecuted, so also His faithful followers will be arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and killed – not only by those who openly hate both Him and His Father, but by those who have come to the point where they commit murder and think that they are “offering service to God” (Jn 16:2).”
Fr. Thomas Hopko, The Winter Pascha

Prayer to Saint Herman of Alaska

Posted on by Fr. Peter
O Almighty God, We praise and glorify You, Our Lord and Creator. All the earth and everything within it acknowledges You as Creator, The Eternal Father.
Heaven and Earth, Angels and Men, together, praise and glorify You, the most glorious company of Apostles, the praiseworthy fellowship of Prophets, the great and noble gathering of Martyrs, the whole community of Saints, all praise You.
We the members of the holy community on earth pray: Make us worthy with all the Saints in Heaven, especially the newly glorified Elder, the Blessed Herman of Alaska, to reign in Your everlasting glory.
On this day the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church praises and glorifies You, our God, in joyful thanksgiving. The inheritors and children of the Holy Church of Christ which you, 0 Blessed Father Herman and your holy companions planted here, now flowering and growing throughout this great continent, gather at your reliquary. We gaze at your Relies in the knowledge that your soul joins together with the Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs, Saints and the Heavenly Hosts before the Throne of the Most Merci- ful God in praise of the Holy Trinity.
O Blessed Herrnit of Spruce Island, good teacher of the faith in the Holy Trinity, and our Spiritual Father, intercede before the throne of the Almighty God, for peace within the Church, the dispelling of all disunity, faithlessness and discord.
Come to the aid of our spiritual leaders that they may always be true and ef- fective instruments of the Holy Spirit, with the power to proclaim the evangelical truths, with the wisdom to enlighten the unenlightened, with the spirit to inspire all to love the knowledge of God, with the perseverance to defend the Church, even unto death, from all enemies both within and without and at all times.
May the hearts of your spiritual children be filled with that faith and love of the Holy Church which you manifested in your holy life; praying to Him to: deliver us from the temptations which cause us to fall; renew our child-like faith in our Heavenly Father; replace our trust in God, and in Him alone; satisfy our thirst for the true knowledge of God; teach us to serve God faithfully; transfigure our life that it may truly reflect the image and likeness of God.
O Holy Father and Patron of the Church in Araerica: Be a physician to the weak in faith; be a support to the fallen; be a defender to the defenceless; be a bulwark of strength to the weary in spirit; be a guide to the travelers by sea, by land and by air; be our heavenly intercessor.
O Blessed Father Herman of Alaska, together with all the Saints and the Heavenly Hosts, pray to God that on each of us He will bestow wisdom for our mind, strength for our will, light for our spirit, enabling us to attain to the true peace of life which is from God alone. We praise with joyous and grateful hearts, the Life-Creating Trinity: Father Almighty, Only-Begotten Son, Comforter, Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Source: oca.org

Our Lady of Guadalupe

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine Johnstown Cape Breton
On the Roman Catholic calendar today is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  I have kind of a weird connection to this feast day.

My mother’s family hails from Johnstown Cape Breton Canada.  The Roman Catholic Church that sits on the hill in the center of the town is the Church of the Sacred Heart.  Located behind the Church is a shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe.  A priest from the parish was serving as a chaplain to the Royal Canadian Navy and went to Mexico.  Whilst there he was impressed by the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe and brought a Mosaic of Our Lady back to Johnstown.  It has been installed in a shrine located on the hill behind the church.

Its an interesting world.  A Gaelic parish located on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia Canada has a shrine to a Mexican saint.  Well, I find that interesting anyway.

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