Church Protest

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I believe wholeheartedly in the right to practice ones religion and the right of free speech but the folks at the Westboro Baptist Church have gone too far.  They are planning to protest at the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards because of her stance on issues that they disagree with.

This congregation of hate and unChristian behavior was recently in Massachusetts to protest at the Harvard Jewish Center because the Jews killed Jesus and they were also to protest at a high school play in Framingham.  This groups has also protested at military funerals with such hate filled signs as your son is burning in hell.  I was not going to comment, because to do so brings them more into the news, but I feel as a Christian and a priest I have to speak.

I believe that they have the right to practice their religion whether I agree with it or not.  I also agree that they have the right to protest as that is one of the guarantees we have in our Constitution but as I have written about before just because you can do something does not mean you should.  With our freedoms comes an enormous amount of moral responsibility.  Protest is you must but this is just not the place to do it.  Human decency would dictate that a funeral is not the place.

I very rarely discuss the religion of another group here on the blog but this so called church ranks right up there with the guy who wanted to burn the Koran, in fact I believe they are in co hoots with each other.

The Christian Scripture that I read has Jesus telling his followers that we have, notice I said tells, us that we are love one another as he loved us.  Christianity and Christians cannot hate anyone because it is not possible to be followers of Christ and hate.  Hatred comes from the evil one and not from the God who is all love.  All of humanity was created in the image and likeness of God and we are given the Divine Spark at our creation, to hate someone denies that image and likeness and therefore denies God.  We do not have to agree with the behavior of people but we do have to love them.  Protesting at funerals and holding up signs that say, “God hates fags” is not love and it is just bad theology because God is incapable of hating anyone or anything.  At least the God that I believe in and serve.

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength: this is the first commandment.  And the second is like, namely this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”  Mark 12:30-31

Taxes

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Let me start by saying taxes are a necessary evil.

The past few weeks all of the attention has been focused on the Bush tax cuts and their extension.  Whilst all of this was going on the Southbridge Town Council raised property taxes and no one even noticed.

At Monday’s Town Council meeting our leaders voted to tax all property owners, residential, commercial, and industrial at the same tax rate.  First I would say I disagree with a single tax rate.  I understand the argument that is we want to attract business to town we need to have incentives.  Since our Economic Development Office has done such a great job attracting business to town, and the moving vans are lining up at the boarder waiting to move in, I can see why this was done.

This year the average tax bill is $2,781 next year with the increase in taxes it will be $2,852 or a $71 increase.  Now that might not be seen as a large increase but if you add the sewer and water bills on top of that, and they will be going up as well, we are putting the squeeze on the homeowner for the sake of business that might move into town.  Business that generates income on their property that a residential homeowner will not make.  And for you apartment dwellers, your rent will go up to cover that cost!

Southbridge has 12.8% unemployment and 15% of the Community live at or lower than the Federal Poverty Level.  The people in this Town are faced some some pretty severe economic hardship and I am not sure how much more of a burden the residents of this town can carry.  Yes it’s only $71 but that might just be the difference between staying in your home or staying in your apartment or living on the street.

Current stats show that Southbridge ranks 280 out of 351 Cities and Town in Massachusetts for property tax but the Town ranks 337th out of 351 for median household income.  We cannot afford another $71.  If we need to raise taxes this much then we need to see some offsetting cuts in the budget.

I call upon our Town Councilors to reconsider this vote and to think about what this will mean to the people of this town.  We are being asked to pay for a new High/Middle school with a price tag of $89 million and rising sewer and water rates, on top of 12.8% unemployment how much more can we be squeezed?

Heroes

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I have been giving some thought to what it means to be a hero and who we should look up too when we talk about our heroes.  I turned to my dictionary to get the definition as I always find that the best place to start.  “A man distinguished for exceptional courage, fortitude, or bold enterprise.”  In other words going above what we would normally expect a person to do.

On Monday night, the New England Patriots slapped around the New York Jets on the grid iron.  It was a great game mainly because the Patriots won the game.  Some would call Tom Brady or for that matter other sports figures, a hero because of his ability to put the ball where he wants it most of the time.  Well that is his job!  That is not what being a hero is all about.

Last February, Southbridge Fire Lt. Jason Cantara was on vacation in Florida with his family.  Whilst traveling down the road they came upon a horrific car accident.  A U-Haul truck had lost control, struck a tree and caught fire with three people trapped inside the truck.

Lt. Cantara, and some other from passing vehicles, stopped to help and were able to pull two of the three out of the vehicle, the third man perished in the fire.  At great risk to himself, he did what needed to be done and rescued the men from the truck.  If Lt. Cantara had done this on duty I would say the same thing about him that I said about Tom Brady, it’s your job, and knowing Lt. Cantara I know he would say the same thing.  Firefighters and Police put themselves in harms way everyday, they do things that most of us would never consider doing, but they do it, willingly.  Their job is to protect and to serve and to put a fine point on it, it is to risk, and perhaps give their life to save mine.  I think it is extraordinary that they would do this, but it is their job.  Off duty is another story all together.

Lt. Cantara will be honored in a ceremony this month with other brave firefighters as one of the Firefighters of the year in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  An award most deserving I would say.

People like Lt. Cantara and the other selfless public safety servants out there are the ones we should look up too as our heroes not some sports figure.  The ability to hit a home run or the ability to throw a football is a skill and a gift but it does not come close to the risks our public safety professional make every day.  Paying someone millions of dollars to throw a ball, I think, is an absolute disgrace whilst we pay our police, fire, ems and School Teachers for that matter, such low wages.  Things seems to be upside down in our world.

Thank you to Lt. Cantara for doing what you did and thank you to all of our public safety folks who daily put their lives on the line.  God Bless all of you and your families.

Integrity

Posted on by Fr. Peter
This past week saw Chuck Turner removed from the Boston City Council after being convicted of taking a bribe. This was the first time in the 100 year history of the Boston City Council that someone was removed. Also this past week, the United States House of Representatives censured Rep Charles Rangel of New York on a variety of charges. This was another historic move.
Both of these issues got me to think about integrity. According to the American Heritage Dictionary the word integrity means, adherence to a strict moral code. This is something that seems to be lacking in the US today but most especially amongst our elected officials.
A few months back here in Southbridge, it came to light that one of our elected Town Council Members leaked the minutes from a session of the Council that was held in executive session. The minutes were leaked in their entirety to the local media. In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts this is against the law. An investigation was begun by the local police and as is their policy because it involves an elected official it was turned over to the State Police for further investigation. Nothing has been seen or heard of this investigation since and this was in June if memory serves me.
To me and my way of thinking, this is a violation of the public trust. Elected officials, upon their election, swear an oath that they will uphold the laws of not only the Town but of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. They are also given several documents that outline the rules of the open meeting law and the requirements of the executive session. The bottom line is unless a vote of the body that met in executive session is taken to release or make public the minutes they cannot be released nor can the participants speak about what went on at the meeting.
We the people need to start holding our elected official to the high standard they need to be held too. We need to pay attention and speak up when things like this happens. As long as this has taken to resolve I would not be surprised that there is some kind of cover up going on here.
Someone knows who the person is who leaked and the person who leaked knows it was them that leaked the information so they need to man up and do the right thing and step aside so we can elect people to the Town Council that will live up to their oath they swore when they were elected.
Have some integrity and do the right thing.

5 December ~ Savas the Sanctified

Posted on by Fr. Peter
This Saint was born in 439 in Moutalaska, a small village of Cappadocia. He entered the arena of the monastic life from childhood and was under that master trainer of monastics, Euthymius, the Great, the teacher of the desert. He became the spiritual Father of many monks and an instructor for the monasteries in Palestine, and was appointed leader (archimandrite) of the desert-dwellers of Palestine by the Patriarch of Jerusalem. In his old age he went to Constantinople, to the Emperors Anastasius and Saint Justinian the Great, in behalf of the Orthodox Faith and the dogmas of the Council of Chalcedon. Having lived ninety-four years, he reposed in 533. The Typicon for the ecclesiastical services had its beginning in the monastery established by this righteous one.

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone

With the rivers of your tears, you have made the barren desert fertile. Through sighs of sorrow from deep within you, your labors have borne fruit a hundred-fold. By your miracles you have become a light, shining upon the world. O Sabbas, our Holy Father, pray to Christ our God, to save our souls.
Kontakion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
O blessed Sabbas, thou wast offered from thine infancy through thy great virtue as a pure and spotless sacrifice unto God, Who ere thy birth, verily foreknew thee; wherefore thou wast an adornment of the righteous Saints, an all-praised founder of cities in the wilderness. Hence, I cry to thee: Rejoice, O Father of great renown.

Reading courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery

Apolytikion courtesy of Narthex Press
Kontakion courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery
Icon courtesy of Theologic Systems

On the Advantage of Patience by St. Cyprian

Posted on by Fr. Peter

The command of our Lord and Master which will save us is: He who endures to the end will be saved. And, If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

The hope of truth and of freedom is already ours, dearly beloved, but if we are to attain truth and freedom in reality we must endure and persevere. The very fact that we are Christians is the substance of faith and hope. But in order that faith and hope may attain their full fruit, there is need of patience. We are pursuing a future, not a present glory, in accordance with the admonition of Paul the Apostle: It is in hope that we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Waiting and patience are necessary if we are to fulfil what we have begun to be, and to receive, through God’s unfailing help, what we hope for and believe.
In another passage from the same Apostle, those who are holy, who work at laying up a treasure for themselves in heaven by increasing the capital that God has given them, are instructed to be patient as well: So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap. He urges us that no one give up his work through impatience, that no one stop halfway on the road to praise and glory, being turned aside or overcome by temptations so that past achievement perishes, while what is begun is not brought to completion.
The Apostle, finally, when he would speak of charity, joined to it endurance and patience. Love, he says, is large-souled, love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it thinks no evil; loves all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. He shows that it can tenaciously persevere, for the very reason that it knows how to endure all things.
And in another passage: Forbearing one another, he says, in love, using every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. He proved that neither unity nor peace could be kept unless the brethren treat one another with mutual forbearance, and preserve the bond of concord through patience.

4 December ~ The Great Martyr Barbara

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Saint Barbara was from Heliopolis of Phoenicia and lived during the reign of Maximian.
She was the daughter of a certain idolater named Dioscorus. When Barbara came of age, she was enlightened in her pure heart and secretly believed in the Holy Trinity. About this time Dioscorus began building a bath-house; before it was finished he was required to go away to attend to certain matters, and in his absence Barbara directed the workmen to build a third window in addition to the two her Father had commanded. She also inscribed the sign of the Cross with her finger upon the marble of the bath-house, leaving the saving sign cut as deeply into the marble as if it had been done with an iron too. (When the Synaxarion of Saint Barbara was written, the marble of the bath-house and the cross inscribed by Saint Barbara were still preserved, and many healings were worked there.) When Dioscorus returned, he asked why the third window had been added; Barbara began to declare to him the mystery of the Trinity. Because she refused to renounce her faith, Dioscorus tortured Barbara inhumanely, and after subjecting her to many sufferings he beheaded her with his own hands, in the year 290.

4 December ~ St. Alexander Hotovitzky

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Our righteous father Alexander Hotovitzky (or Hotovitsky), hieromartyr of the Bolshevik yoke, Missionary of America, was a Russian who came to the United States in the 1890s as a lay missionary and was ordained to the priesthood while there. He was active as a missionary among the emigrated Uniates in the northeastern United States before returning to Russia in 1914. In Russia he was active among the Orthodox Karelians before his assignment to Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow in 1917. After the Bolshevik coup he was subjected to the cruelties by the ungodly revolutionists as he defended the Orthodox faith, his people, and church property. Subjected to many arrests and exile Father Alexander serviced his beloved Church as best he could through these tumultuous times until after a final arrest he disappeared from history other than oral reports of his martyrdom. His glorification is celebrated on December 4.

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