Today on the Western Calendar it is the feast of All Saints. This is from the Catholic encyclopedia in reference to this feast:

Solemnity celebrated on the first of November. It is instituted to honor all the saints, known and unknown, and, according to Urban IV, to supply any deficiencies in the faithful’s celebration of saints’ feasts during the year.

In the early days the Christians were accustomed to solemnize the anniversary of a martyr’s death for Christ at the place of martyrdom. In the fourth century, neighboring dioceses began to interchange feasts, to transfer relics, to divide them, and to join in a common feast; as is shown by the invitation of St. Basil of Caesarea (397) to the bishops of the province of Pontus. Frequently groups of martyrs suffered on the same day, which naturally led to a joint commemoration. In the persecution of Diocletian the number of martyrs became so great that a separate day could not be assigned to each. But the Church, feeling that every martyr should be venerated, appointed a common day for all. The first trace of this we find in Antioch on the Sunday after Pentecost. We also find mention of a common day in a sermon of St. Ephrem the Syrian (373), and in the 74th homily of St. John Chrysostom (407). At first only martyrs and St. John the Baptist were honored by a special day. Other saints were added gradually, and increased in number when a regular process of canonization was established; still, as early as 411 there is in the Chaldean Calendar a “Commemoratio Confessorum” for the Friday after Easter. In the West Boniface IV, 13 May, 609, or 610, consecrated the Pantheon in Rome to the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs, ordering an anniversary. Gregory III (731-741) consecrated a chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter to all the saints and fixed the anniversary for 1 November. A basilica of the Apostles already existed in Rome, and its dedication was annually remembered on 1 May. Gregory IV (827-844) extended the celebration on 1 November to the entire Church. The vigil seems to have been held as early as the feast itself. The octave was added by Sixtus IV (1471-84).

Today’s Gospel reading was from Luke and the story of the daughter of Jarius and the woman with the issue of blood. These are stories about faith and the faith that we need in this world today. You see if we don’t have faith then everything we do is just theater and nice stories. We need the faith of the woman in the story that all we have to do is to touch the hem of the garment and be healed. How many of us believe this? How many would believe enough to have total faith in something we have never seen? There are no simple answers to these questions, only time to ponder and see what comes next.

I think sometimes we try and place all the faith in ourselves and what we are capable of doing and we seem to only turn to God when we need Him. It’s like we say I know he is there when I need Him. Sort of like a fire extinguisher it’s there and ready when we need it. Our faith needs to be more than this. Christianity is not something that we put on a shelf and take it off only on Sunday. Christianity is a job, a lifestyle and one that takes work. We are all broken and we all need to just reach out and take the hem of the garment and be healed.

Well today should be kinda busy for me here at the parish. Tonight we have our annual turkey party. This is a real hoot, and if you are in the area you should not miss this event. We have a bunch of turkeys, or should that be a flock I don’t know. Anyway, we have all these turkeys and people buy tickets with numbers on them for $.50. We spin a big wheel and the number it lands on wins. Simple, and lots of clean family fun. And a good fundraiser for the church. So the folks will be here most of the day getting ready for that, and on top of that my parents are coming out for the night so I have to clean the spare room.

tomorrow is the memorial service for the fire fighter that dies a few weeks back at home. This will be my first memorial service for a fire fighter so please pray for me and the family.

Sunday the usual church service and coffee hour and then some rest. The bishop comes next week so we will be cleaning and sprucing things up around here. More on this latter…

I am not one to preach politics from the pulpit. I do not think it is the place of the clergy to preach about political topics. People in this country, for better or worse, do not want anyone telling them how to vote. People who vote want to be able to make up their own mind. Now, I am not saying that the clergy should not speak about issues and inform the people where the church stands on such things as abortion, capitol punishment, war, etc. but we need to be careful how we put the message across.

With the election only a few weeks away how are we to vote? Are there candidates that as orthodox we could support? Are there candidates that hold to the positions that we hold? Can an orthodox person vote for someone they know supports abortion or capitol punishment? How are we to work all of this out? These are just some of the issues that the clergy face each day.

There are no easy answers to these questions but we need to try and work them out for ourselves.

Today is the feast of St. James the brother of our Lord. Fr. Greg and I served the Divine Liturgy of St. James. We had been preparing for this for months and it turned out okay. A very different liturgy then the one that Orthodox are used too. Much of it is spoken and the prayers of the priest of wonderful. The Liturgy begins at the entrance to the church and moves to the middle where the priest remains until the time of the great entrance. Communion is another different part of the Liturgy. Served in the hand and then the communicant drinks from the cup. Many people from around the council of churches attended the liturgy. It was nice to see so many people out for this feast day.

I guess you could consider today to be a very busy day for me. I have no less then three meetings to attend to today. And I guess you could say that they are some what ministry related. First up is a local planning meeting. As chaplain for the Fire Department I have been asked to participate in this meeting with the leaders in the town. As we prepare for emergencies that I hope never come I will be the person who links the town with clergy in the area in case we need them for housing or counseling.

After that, off to Framingham for a meeting of Massachusetts Volunteers Active in Disaster. Tis group is a collection of NGO’s that will be called upon in the event of a disaster in Massachusetts. Organizations like the Red Cross and Salvation Army belong to this organization. I will be representing the International Orthodox Christian Charities here in Massachusetts. The hope is that we could play some role here in the satate if something did happen. After our response last year to the Gulf Coast we are trying to be more proactive in our response.

In beteewn these two meetings, I have to meet with some folks to plan a memorial service for a a fire fighter that we lost over the weekend.

There is another meeting this evening, but I am not sure about that one. We shall see.

Sometime in there I need to pray and do some office work. Busy day today, I love it!