Time Off

Posted on by Fr. Peter
If you have been following these pages for any length of time you will know that back in January I was appointed Chief Administrative Officer of the Dudley Fire Department.  That position has now ended as we have a new Chief.  As hard as it is to believe that position was very stressful as it was budget time in a world where there just was not enough money to go around.  Difficult decisions had to be made on how the Department was going to function for the coming year.  I am glad all of that is behind me but it was a great experience.
I asked for and was granted a little time off that I am calling a mini sabbatical.  According to this article in Wikipedia a sabbatical is an extended period of rest that actually gets its origins in Leviticus where the command to not work the land after seven years is put forth.  So I am on this little retreat if you will.  Time away is good if it is used in the right way.  I started at home for a few days ad have now ensconced myself in a little cabin in the woods of New Hampshire. 
One of the things that led me to this idea was a blog post I read on Deacon Michael Hyatt’s blog about a 30 day sabbatical that he and his wife Gail took not long ago.  Deacon Michael was the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing House, a very demanding position I can imagine, and has now transitioned to another phase of his life.  He and Gail took time away for refreshment and that is exactly what I am doing.
So what is the plan?  Well no plan really other than to rest, physically and spiritually.  I have a stack of books to get through and I have been thinking of turning my Bible study notes on the Epistle of St. James into some kind of book.  I will also take this time to plan out my sermons for the fall and do a little forward reading.  I also need to get back to some serious prayer!
Time away is good to slow down and reconnect with what is important.  We can get so mired in the day to day that we forget to stop and smell the roses, I know that sounds silly but it is true!
Please pray for me during this time away, and I will pray for all of you.
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The Inventor of the Doughnut

Posted on by Fr. Peter

I have begun a little period of rest that I am calling a mini Sabbatical.  During this time of rest and refreshment I am also performing a little research on topics that I find of interest.  The other day I journey to the JFK Presidential Library in Boston.  I have not been there in years.  If you have a chance to go you need to go and see the place.  Even if you are not exactly fond of the Kennedy’s you have to admire the place.

On the way back home I remembered a legend from the days of my youth in Quincy.  There is located in the Beachwood Knoll section a cemetery dating back to the Civil War.  I turned off of Quincy Shore Drive on to Fenno Street and sure enough there is a sign right there on the street leading to the Sailors’ Home Cemetery.  I parked and walked up the path and found a wonderful little cemetery with 119 graves of sailors from the Civil War.

The cemetery was part of the National Sailors Home in Quincy that has been gone since about 1931 but the cemetery is still there maintained by the City of Quincy.  I decided this would be a good topic of research to start off my sabbatical, don’t worry religious topics will return soon, and so I did a quick Google search and found some amazing things.  One of the items I found interesting was the fact that there was another home and cemetery in Quincy much like this one, the Snug Harbor Sailors Home in the Germantown section not far from my boyhood home.

Yesterday I drove out there and could not find the place so I stopped a couple of elderly gentleman and asked them.  Sure enough they knew right where it was and one of them asked me if I was in search of the inventor of the Doughnut!  “Sure” I said not to appear uninformed of the events of the day, he told me that the final resting place of the inventor of the doughnut was just over the hill. This was yet another reason to continue this journey.

I found the place and right there in the entrance is a head stone to Captain Hanson Gregory.  On the stone is the following inscription, “Capt. Hanson Gregory, recognized by the National Bakers Ass’n as the inventor of the doughnut.”  Who would have thought that right here in Quincy, where Dunkin Doughnuts got its start by the way, was the final resting place of such a great man!

I needed more information so I turned again to Google.  I came across this article with a little summation of how it all happened.  It would appear that a 16 year old Hanson Gregory was a cook on a merchant ship and found the doughnuts too greasy and under cooked.  He had a brain storm and cut a hole in the middle the top of the ships pepper box and presto the new creation cooked just right. “Was Columbus pleased? Well, sir, them doughnuts was the finest I ever tasted. No more indigestion—no more greasy sinkers—but just well-done, fried-through doughnuts.”

What a fascinating little discovery behind the Snug Harbor Elementary School on the Germantown section of Quincy.

I am preparing another essay on the Sailors Home itself and that will follow in a few days.  I am constantly amazed by the history that is right under our noses and we don’t even know it is there.

Sermon ~ Not One Dot or Iota will be Changed

Posted on by Fr. Peter
The Reading is from Matthew 5:14-19
The Lord said to his disciples, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Today our Church remembers the fathers of the seven ecumenical councils held between 325 and 787. These fathers met and put together the faith that we hold to this day.

Over the last few weeks I have engaged in several conversations with people, Orthodox and non-Orthodox, who believe that the theology of our Church is stuck in the past and needs to move with the time. If have always found this to be an interesting question from the non-Orthodox but coming from someone who is Orthodox it concerns me.
The very term Orthodox means straight and true teaching. We pride ourselves on the fact that the theology and teaching of our Church has not changed since those men met all those years ago and put it all together. The way we speak about the Church, the language we use and the way we use it, has changed but the message has stayed the same.
There is a mistaken conception in the world today that the culture of the day needs to influence the Church. That is a backward way of thinking about how the Church exists in the society around us. We, the Church, need to influence the culture.
Today’s Gospel states that we are the light of the world, a city on a hill that cannot be hid. These words are as true today as they were when Jesus spoken them more than 2,000 years ago.
Historically speaking, our Church has never undergone a reformation. Our Church did not meet the same fate as the Church of the West mainly because the Church is not in need to reformation! When I or any Orthodox priest preaches, we do not preach our own words but the words of the Church back through the ages. We preach the words not only of Jesus but of Ss. Basil, Chrysostom, John the Theologian and all of the men who were present at those councils.
The other thing to keep in mind is that our Church has gone through persecution. Not our American Orthodox Church, but the Orthodox Church around the world. I will remind you of our very own Fr. Vasilachi who spent 18 years in a Communist prison, not because he broke a law but because he spoke the truth. He spoke the truth about the Church and society at a time when it was not popular to do that. He spent 18 years in prison and when he was released he was banished from his home land.
There are countless numbers of martyrs for the faith under the Communist yoke, too many for us to even remember. If I change one word of the faith, if I take it upon myself to change what the Church has taught all these years, then I dishonor the memory of all of those brave men and women who gave their life for the faith that we preach.
We face a problem here in the Church in America. Not just the Orthodox Church but Church in general. People have stopped coming to Church and church leaders wring their hands and cannot figure out why the church is empty. One reason that I think of is that most of the Churches out there spend more time trying to be politically correct then they do trying to be Christian! Many so called churches out there in the world have given up on the concept of good and evil and traded it for some watered down touchy feely version of the Gospel. Yes Jesus loves everyone, but if you read your Bible you will see that he was not afraid to tell someone when they were sinning and that they had to get their life right with God and the Church. This plays right into the cultural shift that says we are all winners! This is why some kid’s sports teams do not keep score any more and every team wins! How can that be?
Today we are told that we are the City on the Hill, we are the light of the world!
Jesus also has this to say:
“Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
Some pretty stern words from Jesus to the leaders of the Church.
1. He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it
2. Not and iota or a dot will pass from the law until ALL is accomplished.
3. Whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven!
I have told you before that being a Christian is hard. I have told you before that the world will hate us. Jesus tells us today that the world needs us, all of us, to be that light and that city on the hill!
While all the others change with the times, the Orthodox Church stands as that beacon in the night, that safe haven along the shore of the stormy sea. We stand here, tall and strong, in what we believe and what we preach.
We have found the true faith! And we preach it because to do any less would dishonor all of those who came before us!

18 July ~ St. Enoch/St. Thenew

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Many legends but few facts are recorded about Kentigern (d. c. 603/612), who with his mother Thenew is a patron of Glasgow. Thenew was a princess whose father set her adrift in a coracle when he learned that she was pregnant out of wedlock. Some tales say that she was thrown off a cliff into the Firth of Forth. She was to die for her sin. She landed at the hermitage of St. Serf at Culross, and he raised her son, whom he named Kentigern and called Mungo, “darling”. Kentigern became a hermit at Glasghu (Glasgow) and followed Irish monastic customs. He was a successful missionary and became c. 543 the first bishop of Strathclyde. When pagans defeated Mungo’s royal benefactor, about ten years later, the bishop went to Wales, where he is said to have founded a monastery that became St. Asaph’s. Kentigern returned to Scotland c. 573/581 after a Christian victory at Arthuret. He is said to have exchanged croziers with Columba; in art, the scene takes place in a column of fire. Kentigern is said to have died on the octave of Theophany while bathing. His tomb is supposed to be in Glasgow Cathedral.

The most famous story about Kentigern accounts for the fish and ring in Glasgow’s seal. A king who suspected his queen of infidelity took a ring he had given her from the finger of a sleeping knight. The king threw the ring into the ocean and demanded that his wife produce the ring in three days. The woman sought Kentigern’s aid; one of his monks found the ring in the mouth of a salmon. Kentigern returned the ring to the queen.

17 July ~ St. Kenelm, Prince of Mercia

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Died c. 812-821. According to a popular legend of the Middle Ages, Kenelm was seven when his father, King Kenulf (Coenwulf) of Mercia, died, and he succeeded to the throne…
His sister Quendreda (Cynefrith or Quoenthryth) bribed his tutor, Ascebert, to murder him in the forest of Clent so that she could claim the throne. Ascebert did, but when the body was discovered and enshrined at Winchcombe in Gloucestershire, all kinds of marvels occurred at his grave. All three are actual figures, but Kenelm did not die at seven and may even have died before his father. It is certain that he lived until his adolescence and may have been killed in battle.
He was highly honoured in England during the Middle Ages as a saint and martyr, and still is venerated at Gloucester and Winchcombe, where his relics are enshrined.
In art, Saint Kenelm is depicted as a young prince with a blossoming rod. The picture may also contain a dove with a letter in its mouth.

Source

Evangelism in the Orthodox Church

Posted on by Fr. Peter
The single most comprehensive, contemporary lesson in Church growth (specifically, how to evangelize effectively in your parish) can be learned by standing in any Orthodox church on the first Sunday of Great Lent (Great Lent being a traditional time for the catechumenate) and listening to the Gospel reading (John 1:35ff.). A paraphrase of the events in this passage is as follows:
1.Jesus told Andrew, “Come and see,” and they did.
2.Because it was important, Andrew went and found his brother Simon Peter and brought him to Jesus.
3.Jesus told Philip, “Follow me,” and he did.
4.Because it was important, Philip went and found his friend Nathanael and told him, and Nathanael came to Jesus.
Anyone who can fully grasp the implications of points 2 and 4, and is willing to apply them actively, is on the way to successful evangelism in their local parish….
The following statistics on recruited membership are generally accepted by Church analysts in North America. Typically, members of any parish have joined their church because of:
•Visitations (by priest or member of parish) 1-2 %
•Walked in off the street 2- 3 %
•Special need met by parish 2-3 %
•Program offered by parish 3-4 %
•Sunday School 3-5 %
•Clergy 3-5%
•“Crusade” .001 %
•A relative or friend 70-90 %
Throughout the New Testament, it is assumed that the primary mode of Church growth is evangelism. Sometimes individuals from native Orthodox cultures lose sight of this reality because of their native situation. There are only three means whereby people become members of parishes: birth, transfer, and evangelism. Christian parenting cannot be expected to be the process by which the entire world becomes Christian. Likewise, transfer of membership to a “new” parish means that an “old” parish has lost a member, so the process is a “wash.” The icon or image that we are given to imitate is that of evangelism, the draught of fishes, the making of disciples. Individuals who hear the Gospel are expected to proclaim the Gospel.
—from the Orthodox Church in America’s Department of Evangelization

h/t Fr. Matthew

General

15 July ~ St. Swithun, Bishop of Winchester

Posted on by Fr. Peter
St. Swithun had been Abbot of the monastery attached to the cathedral, before he was made Bishop of Winchester in AD 852…
He was, say the chroniclers, a diligent builder of churches in places where there were none before and a repairer of those that had been destroyed or ruined. He also built a bridge on the east side of the city and, during the work he made a practice of sitting there to watch the workmen, that his presence might stimulate their industry.One of his most edifying miracles is said to have been performed at this bridge where he restored an old woman’s basket of eggs, which the workmen had maliciously broken.It is more certain that Swithun was one of the most learned men of his time and the tutor, successively, of King Aethelwulf of Wessex and of his son, the illustrious Alfred.He died on 2nd July AD 862 and was buried, according to his own desire, in the churchyard of the Old Minster (Cathedral) at Winchester, where “passers by might tread on his grave and where the rain from the eaves might fall on it.”

His reputation as a weather saint is said to have arisen from the translation of his body from this lowly grave to its golden shrine within the Cathedral, having been delayed by incessant rain. Hence the weather on the festival of his translation (15th July) indicated, according to the old rhyme, what it would be for the next forty days:

“St. Swithun’s day, if thou dost rain,

For forty days it will remain;
St. Swithun’s day, if thou be fair,
For forty days ’twill rain na mair.”

June and July, however, have their weather saints in the calendars of France and of Belgium, as well as in those of other parts of Europe:

“Quand il pleut a la Saint Gervais (19th July)

Il pleut quarante jours apres.”
Is the old French proverb, while Wedermaend, the ‘month of storms’ wa sthe old Flemish name for July.Source
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15 July ~ St. Donald of Olgivy

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Donald_of_Ogilvy
St. Donald lived in Olgivy, in Forfarshire, Scotland, in the early part of the 8th century. Upon the death of his wife, he and his nine daughters began to live a monastic lifestyle at home under his direction, cultivating the land by hand, and eating barely bread and water once a day. After St. Donald’s repose, his daughters all entered a monastery in Abernethy, founded by Ss. Darlugdach and Brigid, where they became known as the Nine Maidens, or the Nine Holy Virgins.Source

Do not Fear

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Don’t be frightened; don’t fear any harm, even though the circumstances in which you work are terrible, worse even than those of Daniel in the pit with all those ferocious beasts. God’s hand is as powerful as ever and, if necessary, he will work miracles. Be faithful! With a loving, responsible and cheerful faithfulness to the teaching of Christ. Be convinced that our times are no worse than those of other centuries, and that Our Lord is always the same.  Josemaría Escrivá

h/t Fr. Z’s Blog

Sermon ~ 4th Sunday after Pentecost

Posted on by Fr. Peter
At that time, as Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, beseeching him and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, in terrible distress.” And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion answered him, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard him, he marveled, and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.” And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; be it done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment. (Matthew 8:5-13)
In this week’s Gospel passage we have another healing of Jesus but this one is a little different than the ones that come before and perhaps the ones that come after.
In the passage just before this, Matthew 8:1-4, Jesus heals a leper by touching him. This would have made Jesus ritually unclean and that is something that is unacceptable to someone who practices the Jewish faith. Lepers were sent away from the city for two reasons, one if they came into contact with someone that person, like Jesus in the story, would have become unclean and two, leprosy was, and is, highly contagious! Jesus reached out and touched the man and healed him.
In today’s Gospel we see a Roman Centurion come to Jesus and ask Him to heal his servant.
A Roman Centurion is a commander of more than 100 Roman troops, this is not a man who begs very easily for anything but we see him begging Jesus to heal his servant. Notice that the Centurion calls Jesus “Lord” another thing that a Roman Soldier, of any rank, would do. It is quite possible by the way that the Centurions servant is himself a Jew!
We now have a declaration by the Centurion that has become part of our Liturgical Services, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.” This is a reminder to us that none of us are worthy to have Jesus, our Lord and Savior, come under our roof. We are all of us, sinners and have fallen short of the Glory of God, but with one word, one action of Jesus, the Crucifixion, Jesus has put us on the road to worthiness. The faith of this man to recognize the fact that he, and we, are not worthy is a reminder to us all.
For the second time in the Gospel we see that Jesus was marveled. The first time was at the recognition of the unbelief of the people of His own hometown, and the second is here in this story. Jesus marveled at this man’s faith! The Lord and Savior of us all was marveled by this man’s faith. Here we see another example of the humanness of Jesus, the one who created all of us and knew us before we had a name, was marveled at this man’s faith. But there was something else going on here.
Jesus makes the pronouncement, “I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel.” He says that, “Many will come from East and West” but the, “Sons of the Kingdom of Heaven will be cast out into utter darkness.” He is speaking here not only of the Jews that refused to recognize Him as the Messiah but also those of us who do not “live” our faith!
I have told you before that it is not enough for us to come and follow all the rules and regulations of the Church we have to live our faith everyday out in the world. Mother Maria of Paris, a saint I have grown very close too over the last year, has this to say about our life as Christians:
“At the Last Judgment I will not be asked whether I satisfactorily practiced asceticism, nor how many prostrations and bows I have made before the holy table. I will be asked whether I fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the sick and the prisoner in jail. That is all I will be asked.”
Our lives as Christians should be not about ourselves, but about another! If we do not “live” our faith, Jesus tells us we will be cast into outer darkness!
This past week, I have been attacked in the local and statewide media for living our Christian faith. There were some pretty dark days this past week and I took great solace in two passages of Scripture that I think we would do well to commit to memory:
“If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” John 15:18-19
Jesus tells us that the world will hate us, and trust me when I say this too you, the world does hate us! The world hates us when we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and those in prison. But we do not have a choice to do these things or not because Jesus commands us to do this. But we are in good company as Jesus tells us to remember that the world hated Him first! We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood. We are a resurrection people and Alleluia is our Song!
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:11-12
This passage is part of the Sermon on the Mount or the Beatitudes and we sing this each time we celebrate the Divine Liturgy just before the Little Entrance. These words that I have heard hundreds of times have taken a new and very personal meaning for me. It is easy to be Christian when things are going well; the challenge comes to hang in there when the times are difficult. “Great is your reward in Heaven.” Well at least I have that going for me!
These are not easy words for us to hear and even worse when it is actually happening to us. I felt as though I was all alone. Looking back I can imagine this is how Jesus felt the night before His crucifixion when he went to pray and asked his Apostles to wait, and they fell asleep. Or when he was arrested and his closest friends left Him and one sold him, and the other denied Him!
Then a good friend emailed me both of these quotes and somehow I knew it was all going to be okay.
Jesus is calling each of us to step out of our comfort zone and live the kind of life that He is asking us to live. This is not an easy life. It was not easy for the Centurion in today’s Gospel to come forward and ask Jesus for help but he did it because he had such great faith that he knew that Jesus would grant his request.
We are being asked to live an extraordinary life for Jesus. To live for someone other than ourselves. To place our life in His hands and trust in Him that all will be okay. This is a lesson I learned this past week and one that I hope I will remember for a long time to come.
Are you willing, today, to take that step that is necessary to live your faith and not just practice it?
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