Pastoral messages

The spiritual welfare of our students, staff and families is central to our mission at St. John's. As part of our commitment to supporting and fostering the Orthodox life of our community, the Chaplain and Principal periodically offer pastoral messages via our e-mail listing, letters, or other means. And electronic version of some of these messages is found here on this page.

Subscribe to posts

‘Their proclamation has gone out into all the earth…’ The Feast of the Glorious Leaders of the Apostles, Peter and Paul

posted Jul 13, 2010 1:10 PM by Ryan Thompson [ updated Jul 26, 2010 9:23 AM by Hieromonk Irenei ]

The following article was written by Hieromonk Irenei, the Academy's Principal, and published to the web site of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia for the Feast of Sts Peter & Paul, 2010. We re-print it here for those who may be interested.

-----

As the Church comes to the end of her long Apostles’ Fast, she approaches a most unique Feast in her liturgical life: the Feast of the All-Praised and All-Glorious Leaders of the Holy Apostles, Sts Peter and Paul. Amongst the great multitude of saints that sing from heaven to the glory of God, these two Apostles stand in a unique and incomparable place. This place is marked out by the splendour of the phrases used to cry out to them in the divine services:

       ‘With what wreaths of praise shall we crown Peter and Paul?’1

       ‘…you were an invincible team for the Trinity.’2

       ‘Let us praise Peter and Paul, the two great stars of the Church; they shine                brighter than the sun in the sky of faith.’3

The fast that has led us to this divine celebration is one of special intensity; and in a year such as the present, when the Apostles’ Fast is nearly the length of Great Lent itself, we are faced with the full emphasis the Holy Church puts upon this unique commemoration. The Church employs the fasts as periods and tools of preparation, calling us out of the sadly ‘normal’ state of our day-to-day lives, towards a life that is fully oriented around the celebration of, and participation in, true holiness. Our diets are restrained, our social activities curbed, our life of prayer and divine worship augmented, our attentiveness to almsgiving increased—all so that, through the grace of God who declared that ‘the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who take it by force’ (cf. Matthew 11.12), we may attain unto a real celebration of the sacred and life-giving Feasts of the Church.

The Feasts are life-giving, because they form the context, the ‘rhythm’, into which our
participation in the divine Mysteries is set. There is no celebration of the Divine Liturgy
which is not, in some sense, a clear participation in the Feast of Holy Pascha; for in each
participation in the Mystery of Communion, we are united to the true Body and Blood of the
risen Lord, who has defeated death and now gives us true and abiding life. There is no
celebration of the Divine Liturgy which is not in some sense a participation in the Feast of
the Nativity of Christ, for we receive bodily Him who took a body, the whole of human
nature, for our sakes. There is no celebration of the Divine Liturgy that is not in some sense
a participation in the feast of the Annunciation to the Theotokos, for that which was born of
her is the same Christ in whom we commune at the Holy Chalice.

The Feasts orient our lives around the sacred Mysteries, for they provide the very context of
life, of the history of salvation in which we are called through Holy Baptism to be
participants, in which we are partakers of those sacred realities which give us life.

And so it is with our present Feast. Indeed, the centrality of this Feast of Sts Peter and Paul
to our Orthodox lives is so significant, that it is one of only four in the year that is preceded
not by a single day or short period of fasting, but by a whole season. Only the Feasts of Holy
Pascha, of the Nativity According to the Flesh of Jesus Christ and of the Dormition of the
Most-Holy Mother of God are similarly preceded.

The Christian believer then, like a child who turns to its mother, must turn to his mother,
the Church, and ask the needful question: ‘Why?’ Why is it that this Feast, commemorating
two notable and glorious apostolic ministers of the Lord, is given such significance and
centrality to our lives as Christian people?

The answer is bound up in our witnessing the exemplary lives of these sacred and divine
servants of God. As the first sticheron at the Great Vespers of their Feast hymns:

       With what wreaths of praise shall we crown Peter and Paul?
       Separated in body, they were united by the Spirit;
       They rank first among preachers:
        One was the leader of the Apostles,
       While the other laboured more than them all.
       Truly, Christ our God, Who has great mercy,
       Has adorned them with the crowns of immortal glory.4

These ministers and leaders of the Church of Christ were joined in a common aim and work:
the carrying forth of the Light of Truth to all the world. Between them were gifts of
apostolic grace in its many forms: their preaching, which set forth the Word of God with
clarity, precision, and pastoral power; their leadership, by which they organised and tended
the flock and hierarchy of Christ’s Church; and their labours, by which they undertook the
conversion of the human heart—the heart of each person they encountered—just as Christ
had touched and converted their own hearts.

Their witness was borne of power, but that power was itself borne of love. In the case of St
Peter, it was a love that had been tried, and in his weakness he had been found wanting; and
yet Christ Himself, in His man-befriending love for His creature, had repaired and healed
that which had been broken.

       Three times Christ asked Peter: ‘Dost thou love me?’
       In this way He reversed the threefold denial of Himself.5
       Henceforth Simon was to lead those who had witnessed God’s mysteries.
       He cried out to the Lord:
       ‘Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee!’
       ‘Feed my sheep, tend my chosen ones!’ the Saviour said.
       ‘Feed my lambs, whose salvation I bought with My own blood!’
       O blessed Apostle, pray that He may grant us great mercy!6

It was because the Lord had called him back to the love of Himself, that Simon Peter was to
become the one ‘to lead those who had witnessed God’s mysteries’. In the same way, when
the holy Apostle Paul encountered the risen Lord in a vision on his way to Damascus, it was
the overwhelming love of the Lord, pained at the warfare Saul then meted out against Him,
that converted the aggressive heart of the persecutor into the loving heart of the Apostle.

Yet, the testimony of these saints was not made perfect solely in their receipt of God’s love,
which He grants to the whole world, nor in their inward response alone. It was made perfect
in the transformation this love brought about in their lives. Infused by the divine Grace of
the Holy Spirit, the love they had received from the Lord was poured out, through them,
upon the whole world; and they made of their lives offerings, that the whole of their being
might be employed to ‘the furtherance in all good things’ of the children of God.

Through them, Christ Himself spoke, and led, and taught, and converted the hearts of the
whole world. What the Church sees in her divine Fathers, Sts Peter and Paul, is the true
conversion of the human person: men who from fishers and scholars became true
evangelical preachers and missionaries. Men who had once caught fish and written scholarly
tomes on the Law, who now were become fishers of men and true initiates of the divine
Mysteries. So the Church cries out to them during the Lity as champions of the true Israel,
the Church:

       Citizens of heavenly Jerusalem:
       The rock of faith (St Peter) and the orator of the Church of Christ (St Paul):
       You were an invincible team for the Trinity.
       You have caught the whole world in your net;
       You have endured the contest of suffering.
       Today you depart this world for the throne of God:
       As you stand before Him with boldness,
       Intercede that our souls may be saved!7

‘You have caught the whole world in your net.’ In such a way do the divine services connect
the mission of Sts Peter and Paul to the receipt of the Holy Spirit, where this same image
forms part of the Festal Troparion of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit gave these men power, and
that power, as the Psalmist sang and as we now proclaim at the prokeimenon of the Divine
Liturgy, ‘has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the universe’ (Psalm
18[19].4).8

The Feast of the Glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul, is central to the life of the Christian,
because in it he sees a perfect icon of human life transformed by God, and through that
transformation, transfiguring all the universe. We are, in our sinful condition, marred by a
sadly diminished vision of creation. We are taught by the world that our place is
insignificant, our role minimal. We are but one organism in a sea of organisms, all essentially
going about the same functions of a debased vision of ‘life’. And yet the Church reveals the
true dignity of the human creature: alone among all of creation, he stands as the image of
God, called toward His likeness. Alone among all of creation, he is called to be priest to the
cosmos, to sanctify and transfigure the world in which he resides. Alone among all of
creation, He has dwelling within him the Most Holy Spirit, who illumines the universe. The
Feast of Sts Peter and Paul is our constant reminder that this creature can be called out of its
sin—would it only repent, only cling to the grace poured out by the Holy Trinity!—and
become a beacon for all the world.

The exultation poured out upon these two men, is a calling to each and every Orthodox
Christian.

       With what spiritual songs shall we praise Peter and Paul?
       They have silenced the sharp tongues of the godless.
       They are awesome swords of the Spirit.
       They are the adornment of Rome;
       They have nourished the whole world with the Word of God.
       They are the living tablets of the New Testament written by the hand of
               God.
       Christ, Who has great and rich mercy, has exalted them in Sion.9

If today the Christian lives, not as a ‘silencer of the sharp tongues of the godless’, not as an
‘awesome sword of the Spirit’, not as an adornment of his city or the ‘living tablet’ of God’s
love, then the present Feast is a reminder and a charge: this life, lived in such a way, is not
enough! God has not called His creature out of darkness into nothingness; He has called
humanity into life, into the full Life He offers by His Body and Blood. The human heart can
be transfigured, changed—made wholly radiant. And then, as we the faithful see in the image
of St Peter and St Paul, it can change the world around it.

The Feast of Sts Peter and Paul is fundamentally a missionary Feast. In it we see the calling
of the Christian, not towards ‘missionary work’ in the shallow sense of simply spreading
messages and passing out literature, but in the deep, abiding sense of being transformed by
the Holy Trinity, and in that transformation drawing up to Christ the whole of the fallen
world.

We see today the power of that mission. These two men, sanctified by God’s grace, continue
to convert the nations, and our own hearts. That ‘net’ which they cast, has caught us as well.
And the whole Church is the beacon of this same life-creating grace. Our Church has always
been a ‘missionary’ Church in precisely this: she changes the human heart, and that heart
changes creation—drawing it out of its sinful debasement, back into the glory of God. So
has our own Russian Orthodox Church, from the time of the conversion of the heart of the
Russian people in the days of St Vladimir, played her part in evangelising and transfiguring
the whole world. So does she, today, transfigure our hearts, drawing us into the divine
Mysteries of our Lord, that we, too, may become a Christian people of mission and true life.

It is this, in the end, to which the Feast truly calls us. The long fast has brought us to
participate in the memory of these two heavenly Apostles, and with them we participate in
the Mystery of Holy Communion in our Lord and God and Saviour. The Lord shows His
love to us, as He showed it to Peter, and as He showed it to Paul. He asks us, too, the
question He posed to Simon: ‘Dost thou love Me?’, and we must respond to His divine love.
We can do so by simply accepting it as a casual gift, then moving on and waiting for the
next; we can do so by ignoring it altogether (though woe to us, then!). Or we can respond by
taking the love we have received, and offering our lives back to Christ in gratitude, becoming
wholly His. It is only self-sacrifice that responds to love truly, and creates of the human heart
an icon of Christ that can speak to the world. Sacrifice is the avenue of real love. So we
hymn the sacrifice of these great Apostles:

       Let us praise Peter and Paul, the two great stars of the Church.
       They shine brighter than the sun in the sky of faith.
       Let the nations follow the rays of their preaching,
       And be led from ignorance to the knowledge of God!
       One was nailed to the Cross
       And received the keys of the Kingdom from Christ in heaven.
       The other, beheaded by the sword, departed to the Saviour,
       And is worthily counted blessed.
       Together they proclaim to Israel:
       ‘He Who was stretched out on the Cross is the Lord of all!’
       By their prayers, O Christ our God,
       Strengthen the Orthodox Faith and destroy our enemies,
       As Thou art the Lover of mankind!10

The present Feast calls us to change. To follow the example of our Glorious Fathers in the
Faith, St Peter and St Paul, and offer the whole of our lives back to the Giver of Life. It was
by such self-sacrifice and loving self-offering that they became ‘brighter than the sun in the
sky of faith’; and it is by such self-offering that we, too, by their holy prayers and
intercessions, may find salvation in the eternal Kingdom of the Holy Trinity.
___________________________________________________________________________________
1 From the first sticheron on ‘Lord, I have cried…’, Tone 2, by Andrew Pyrrhus.
2 From the sticheron in Tone 3 at the Lity, by John the Monk.
3 From the third sticheron at the Aposticha of Vespers, Tone 1.
4 First sticheron on ‘Lord, I have cried…’, Tone 2.
5 Cf. Mark 14.66-72.
6 Doxasticon on ‘Lord, I have cried…’, Tone 4, by John the Monk.
7 Sticheron at the Lity, Tone 3, by John the Monk.
8 Taken as the prokeimenon for the Divine Liturgy of the Feast.
9 Third sticheron on ‘Lord, I have cried…’, Tone 3.
10 Third sticheron at the Aposticha of Vespers, Tone 1.

| Attachments: Peter & Paul russian_icon_dk.jpg apostles.jpg

Keeping holy days - holy

posted Jun 18, 2010 9:21 AM by Hieromonk Irenei [ updated Jun 29, 2010 10:56 AM ]

At the St. John of San Francisco Orthodox Academy, our aim is to raise up children who, together with attaining the highest in academic standards, are also strengthened in their love and Orthodox piety toward God, secure and at-home in His Church. We are a school in which every student is exposed to an excellent academic curriculum stressing the classical dimensions of learning—the arts, the sciences, literature and culture; but we are also a community in which every student, every teacher, every family worships together in the Divine Services of the Orthodox Church, growing in what St. Nicholas Cabasilas famously called ‘The Life in Christ’.

As a school, we mark out our calendar not by the customary categories of the civil year, but by the festal cycles of the Church. While other institutions may partition the year around Spring Break, 'Winter Holidays' and the like, St. John’s forms its school year around Holy Pascha, Great Lent, and the major feasts of the Church’s worshipping life.

For the major Feasts of the Church’s year (e.g. Pascha, the Nativity of the Mother of God), we do not hold normal classes in the Academy. Rather, we provide a day in which children are free to keep the Feast with their families: attending the Divine Liturgy in the morning (either at their home parish or at the Cathedral) and then honoring the Feast at home, in their communities, in their lives. We ‘require’ children to attend such Liturgies, inasmuch as we are a Church school and it would be inconceivable for us not to insist that all our students and staff spend such holy days in the Church; but our aim is to build in our students a deep desire for such days and such worship—helping them grow in understanding of the Feasts, the services of which they are a part, and the whole Christian life manifest in these days. Our hope is always that what is ‘required’ becomes what is desired, and our day-to-day work is to foster the love and joy of young people for the Church’s life that will bring this about.

For some Feasts, St. John’s is unable to spend the day without classes—due to the fact that we are a professional educational institution and have an obligation to provide a certain number of days in school in each calendar year. However, these days, too, are holy; and in the new school year we will be doing even more to ensure that they kept sacred, special and unique in our school life.

Such Feasts (for example, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Precious Cross, which falls on Monday, 27th September 2010) will be marked out by students attending together either the early Liturgy at the Cathedral, or a special Liturgy in the crypt beneath the Academy. The day will then continue in school proper, but it will be a different sort of day. Classes will be modified to take note of the special nature of the Feast, and help mark the day as different in the hearts of students and staff. History classes might focus upon examples of the Feast’s significance in various historical periods; English classes might have students write a poem or short piece of creative writing on the Feast or saint commemorated that day; Religion classes might focus on the meaning of the Feast; music classes might learn the principal hymns of the day. Lunch will be a special communal occasion for the whole community of St. John’s to keep the joy of the day together.

In such a way, we keep holy days holy in our school life, extending and advancing our learning in a way that helps each of us—teachers as well as students—see the special character of these days the Church calls ‘feasts’, in the way they fit into our lives as Orthodox Christians.

One of our key aims at St. John’s is to help each of our students know, understand and implement the basic beliefs and practices of the Orthodox Christian faith in his or her personal life. The Feasts are a critical part of this faith, and in this way we will seek even further in the new school year to emphasize their uniqueness, and set them apart as sacred and holy to our life together.

INXC, Hieromonk Irenei
Principal, St. John's Academy

Note for parents:

You can find out precisely which Feasts in the 2010-2011 school year will involve classes on the day, and which will not, by visiting the School Calendar at any time. Click on any Feast day's entry for fuller details, including whether children are expected to attend Liturgy at their home parishes or together at the Cathedral/crypt; times of services on the day; etc.

| Attachments: 12 feasts.jpg

Greetings on the day of St. Pachomius

posted May 28, 2010 10:07 AM by Hieromonk Irenei

Today, 28th May 2010, is the feast day of St. Pachomius the Great of Egypt, one of the founding fathers of Orthodox monasticism. This great saint, who received his instructions in the monastic life from the hand of an angel in the late third century, has been an inspiration to countless millions throughout Christian history - not just monastics, who look to him as one of their great patrons, but all devout Orthodox who seek to live the life in Christ fully, completely, with their whole heart and mind.

One aspect of St. Pachomius' life is particularly relevant to the life of our school. He began his life not as a Christian, but as a Pagan soldier who, from the age of 20, was conscripted into the service of the imperial Roman army in Egypt. During his time as a soldier (in which, by the grace of God, he was spared ever having to fight in battle), Pachomius was imprisoned. By providence, the prison in which he found himself was looked after by Christians, who daily brought food and water to the inmates, cared for their needs, and tended to their well-being. So impressed and moved was the young soldier by the love and joyful spirit exemplified in these Christians, that he vowed to God from his cell that if he should ever be freed, he would dedicate his life to Him 'whom I do not yet know'. And so it came to pass: he was released from prison and the army, and became a Christian - exemplifying throughout the remainder of his life a deep devotion to God that expressed itself in love and service to others.

It was the joy of the Christian example, the love of the Christian people, that moved the heart of this young man to such zeal for the Holy Trinity. In his prison cell he knew no doctrine, had heard no homilies; but his Christian neighbours loved him and shared their spirit with him - a Spirit of joy that could not be overcome by war, by prison, by turmoil - and his heart was drawn up into a completely transforming life.

In this, St. Pachomius is truly an example and patron for our school community. In all we say and do, our hearts must burn with a love that we show towards others - first and foremost our students and school children, but truly all the world - so that 'their joy may be complete', and the Life in Christ become something craved, not drudged through.

May our holy Father, St. Pachomius, never cease in his prayers on our behalf! And may he guide us ever into the joy and love of the life in Christ.

Hieromonk Irenei

Principal, St. John's

| Attachments: Agios Paxomios2.jpg

A message for the Feast of the Pentecost

posted May 21, 2010 12:26 PM by Hieromonk Irenei

Dear Parents:

We now approach the end of the Paschal liturgical cycle with the major holiday of the Pentecost, coming this Sunday. Last week we saw the Savior ascend back into the Heavens to "sit at the right hand of the Father". He left with the promise to His disciples that He was going to send down to earth the Holy Spirit. The apostles were instructed to stay in Jerusalem until that happened - which they did. While waiting in prayer for the arrival, they chose the twelfth apostle to replace Judas, who had betrayed the Savior.

The Descent of the Holy Spirit is an event of supreme importance and joy for us. With the arrival of the Holy Spirit, the Church of Christ was established on earth and given the sacramental powers to enable us, the members of the Church, to live the kind of life on earth that would allow the Savior, through His mercy, to receive us into the Heavenly Kingdom. Without the Grace that the Church gives us though the Mysteries, we would not have the power to defeat the wiles of Satan. We would not have the power to live a Christian lifestyle. This is why this holiday is such an important and glorious one for us!

This year, our celebration of the Pentecost will be made additionally joyful by the presence in the Cathedral of the Hawaii Iviron icon of the Theotokos: a myrrh-streaming icon which reminds us of the continuing presence and power of the Spirit in our midst today. It will be a special blessing for each of us to be able to venerate this holy icon during the weekend services.

The schedule of the services at the Cathedral this Sunday is different from the usual one. The early Liturgy will begin at 7:00 AM (rather than 7:30) and the later one at 9:00 AM. Immediately after the late liturgy, the special Vespers service ('Kneeling Vespers') will begin, during which the Pentecostal kneeling prayers are read. This means that the later service will be very long; thus it is probably better for the families with the smaller children to attend the early Liturgy. Due to the particular holiness of this important day, I would like to encourage everyone to attend both the Vigil service on Saturday evening, as well as the Sunday liturgy.

In closing, please allow me to congratulate all of you with our holiday joy. May the Savior bless everyone and open our hearts to see that we need to use the full measure of Grace that the Holy Spirit offers us through the Church. If we do this, we will then be able to stand before our Savior when we are called into the other world, and confidently ask Him to allow us to share the blessedness of eternity with Him.

With love in Christ,

Archpriest Serge Kotar

The Ascension of Our Lord

posted May 11, 2010 5:06 PM by Ryan Thompson

May 11, 2010

Dear Parents:

This Thursday will mark the 40th day since the blessed Resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ. After His resurrection, the Savior did not immediately leave our world to return to His heavenly abode. His apostles were so shaken by His suffering and death that they lost all faith that He was the long-awaited Savior. They just could not comprehend how if Jesus was in fact God would He tolerate such an ignoble death and therefore, did not at first believe that He had resurrected. The Savior had to spend time with them to restore their faith and prepare them for their worldly mission of going out to teach all nations the Good News. Finally, on the fortieth day, this work was done, and He was able to return to the Throne of God in Heaven.

The Lord's Ascension is a very special event in the life of each Christian. When the Lord ascended, He ascended as both God and man. This means that a human being is now sitting on the throne on God at the right hand of God the Father. By this, humanity is elevated even higher than the angelic powers as no angel sits on the Throne of God. From His position as God-man, our Savior is able to plead for all people as a divine intercessor for humanity of which He is a part. Also, the descent of the Holy Spirit required first Christ's ascension. This descent into our world was vital because if the Holy Spirit had not descended, we would not have the Orthodox Church through which salvation is offered to people. It is through the Grace of the Holy Spirit that we are able to live a God-pleasing life on earth which enables us to attain salvation.

As this is a major holiday, it is an honor for each Christian to celebrate the day with our Savior. This means that we need to go to the church services which help us relive this joyous event. The vigil will begin at the customary time of 6:00 PM on Wednesday. Since this feast is part of our school day, all the students need to attend the early liturgy on Thursday which begins at 7:30 in the morning, in uniform. After the liturgy, the school will have a field day in the park, details of which will be given to you by the school administration in a separate announcement.

Please let me congratulate you in advance with this holiday. I look forward to sharing it with you during the services both on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. I would also like to offer from the school our heartiest and warmest wishes to the parents of the newest member in our school family. The Avronev family is richer by the birth of a new daughter making Nina a "big sister".

With Love in Christ,

Archpriest Serge Kotar, Chaplain

Some ideas for families during Paschaltide

posted Apr 17, 2010 10:46 AM by Hieromonk Irenei

Dear parents and families of St. John’s,

Christ is risen! It is a particular joy to be able to greet you with this Paschal proclamation—the reality at the heart of our faith and life as Orthodox Christians. ‘Christ is risen’, St. John Chrysostom wrote, ‘and life reigns!’ May this fact bring us all a new brightness, a new joy, and a new zeal to grow in the depths of this life!

Your children continue to bring profound joy to me, and to all our staff at the Academy. There is nothing quite so moving as a chorus of children singing the Paschal troparion together, vying for who can be the most exuberant (at times taking the Scriptural proclamation to ‘Shout your praises before the Lord’ quite literally!); nor as joyful as seeing a small kindergarten student run across the school hall, hands already cupped to receive a blessing, shouting during the run: ‘Christ is risen!’ To know joy in the Orthodox life is a high calling of our aim as Christian educators and families—for Christ has brought a joy that overcomes the world—and it is an overwhelming encouragement to see this joy grow and strengthen in our school during this season.

This season of Pascha is a fitting time to turn our attention towards new ideas for our spiritual, home, family and community life—taking the spirit of the Feast into every aspect of our lives and activities in God’s creation. With this in mind, I thought I might share a few ideas on activities families might consider in this festal period.

A few ideas for family activities during Paschaltide:

Consider a few minutes during the week to explore some seasonal spiritual reading. The Paschal Canon is the central text of the season, with its eight short odes sung continually, proclaiming the joyful news of the resurrection. If your children are old enough, might you consider reading through the canon, one ode at a time, perhaps in the evening or before bedtime? The messages of each ode are wonderful—the joy of creation, the devotion of the Mother of God, learning to love even those who hate us—and pertinent to our children’s lives; and the odes are short: the perfect length to be ‘digested’ by children of many ages. If you need a copy of the Paschal Canon in English, please simply let me know and I will provide you with one.
Some outdoor activities that take advantage of the nice spring-time weather can easily become ‘educational’: Spend an afternoon enjoying Golden Gate Park as a family—and bring along a garbage bag. For a few minutes of your outing, do a small ‘litter collection’ in your section of the park. It is an ideal moment to talk with young children about the need to care for the world God has fashioned for us, and to become responsible for creation—‘even the messes we didn’t make ourselves’.
If your children are a little older, consider encouraging some creative activity in caring for others. The coming of spring is joyful for those who are able to get out and enjoy it; but for the home- or hospital-bound can be disheartening. Could your children visit a home-bound parishioner (most parish priests will be more than able to provide you with the names of people who would welcome a visit), even for just a short 15-minute hello? Or visit someone in hospital? Please contact me if you would like some ideas, or some practical contacts.
Talk about music with your children! Listening to music—on CDs, iPods, MP3 players, etc.—is very popular amongst our youth; and children are aware that sometimes their tastes in music, and that of their parents, differs (to say the least!). Perhaps this season provides a chance to listen to some music with your children: their music. Ask them to tell you about it: what makes them enjoy it? Does it have a message? Is the message positive? Do they feel these questions even matter when picking music to listen to? It can be an eye-opening experience to have such discussions—and one that brings children and parents a little closer together.

These are but a few ideas—I’m sure the creativity of our families will lead to many others. Only let us not miss the opportunity provided by the energy and enthusiasm of the Paschal season, to take up our Orthodox life in new ways and encourage our children to make it more fully their own.

With fondness in the risen Christ,

Hieromonk Irenei

Services in Holy Week

posted Mar 26, 2010 12:16 AM by Hieromonk Irenei

Dear parents and families,

My greetings and warm wishes in this final week of Great and Holy Lent, as we prepare to enter into the Holy Week of the Passion that will lead us to Pascha and the Lord's resurrection. I hope that Lent has been spiritually profitable for each of you and your families: I have benefited myself from watching your children approach the fast with enthusiasm and zeal, and from the various discussions, prayers and services in which we have been involved together as a school community. Soon we will come together, as one Christian family, to the bright resurrection of our Saviour - and how much more profound will our joy be, for having journeyed to this great day together through the disciplines, struggles and growth of Lent!

May I take this opportunity to call to mind how important is participation in the various services of Holy Week: this a critical part of our children's (as well as our own) spiritual life each year, and from St. John's perspective, attendance at these services is a central part of each student's Orthodox formation. While our normal classes conclude with a half day on Holy Wednesday, they do so specifically to enable families to attend the remaining services of the week together. Thursday and Friday in Holy Week are technically 'school days' on our academic calendar, even if they do not involve on-campus teaching -- for formation in the services is a key part of our educational mission, and we expect all our students and their families to be in the services on these days.

My hope is that families will attend as many of the Holy Week services together as is possible, since each helps draw us closer to Holy Pascha and form in us the discipline and joy to participate more deeply in this central mystery of our faith. However, at a very minimum St. John's requires its students to attend the following key services of Holy Week:

The vigil for Palm Sunday of Saturday evening (at the Cathedral, if your family worships there, there will be two vigils held from which one can choose: the first at 3.30 p.m., the second at 6.00 p.m.)
The Divine Liturgy of Palm Sunday (7.30 a.m. / 9.45 a.m.)
The Divine Liturgy and Washing of Feet on Holy Wednesday (10.00 a.m.)
The 12 Passion Gospels service on Holy Wednesday (6.00 p.m.)
The bringing out of the holy shroud / burial service of Holy Friday (1.00 p.m.)
Paschal midnight services (Sunday of Pascha, 12.00 midnight)

Please note that I have indicated here the times of the services as they will be held at the Cathedral; however, families are welcomed and encouraged to participate in any/all of these services at their usual/home parish - you do not need to come to the Cathedral specially. Also, participation in these services is as a family, so children need not wear their school uniforms as had been done during the first week of Great Lent when we stood together as a school. If, however, you do plan to worship at the Cathedral for these services, please could I remind you how important it is for children to be in Church with their families (or, if work or other obligations mean you are not able to be in a service with your child, that they are there with another parent or adult): children are, after all, children - and the temptations to misbehave, run about, etc., are sometimes hard to resist! Ensuring that your children are not simply dropped off at church, but present at the services together with you or another adult, helps them focus on the prayers, on family, and on the miracles being wrought before them.

Please do not hesitate to let me know if you have any questions about the services of Holy Week, or any other queries. I'm always very happy to hear from you.

Finally, please remember me, our teachers and staff, and all our community in your prayers in the days ahead! May we come together to the true, abiding, and unending joy of our dear Saviour's rising from the dead.

INXC,
Hieromonk Irenei
Principal

13th / 26th March 2010

Sunday of the Prodigal Son

posted Mar 25, 2010 11:11 PM by Hieromonk Irenei

January 26, 2010 - Dear Parents:

This Sunday, January 31, begins the second week in which the Church prepares Her children for the start of Great Lent. Last week's physical preparation allowed us to not fast on Wednesday and Friday as we normally are expected to do. Thus having strengthened our bodies with a fast- free week, the Church this week reinstates the fast for these two days. As for our spiritual preparation, we are given the Parable of the Prodigal Son as our Sunday's Gospel reading.

This parable describes for us two spiritual temptations that all of us face at different times in our lives. We are the prodigal son whenever we sin. Our sin results in our leaving our Father's House, meaning that we become separated from God and the Holy Church. Our separation deprives us of God's blessings and protection and, unless corrected, results in our eventual complete spiritual poverty leading to spiritual death. How can this disaster be corrected? By our humble return to our Father's House- through repentance.

What is truly remarkable as demonstrated in the parable is how unquestioning and complete is the forgiveness given by the Father to His prodigal son. Seeing his son returning elicits only profound joy, and he rushes out to meet and embrace him. He asks no explanation, nor does he demand an explanation or apology. He simply restores him to his former position and orders a celebratory feast. What incredible love and mercy! Our Lord is anxious to forgive and restore every sinner no matter as to what depth of evil and sin that sinner has fallen into. All a sinner needs to do is to return to his Father's House. Meditating on this fact can only give us strength to examine ourselves during Great Lent, a period set aside exactly for this purpose, and sincerely, completely effect our return.

But there is a second temptation discussed in this parable that we must be very cautious about.We must never copy the behavior of the older son who never left his Father's house. Unlike his Father, there is no joy in his heart. He only feels resentment and utter condemnation for his brother. This often happens to us when we see and judge somebody whom we consider to be a sinner. We have no love for this person and reject him. We will even try to interfere with his return, considering him to be unworthy and beyond redemption. Sadly, we saw this kind of behavior in an extreme development when supposedly pious Orthodox Christians could not accept the reunification of the two parts of the Russian Orthodox Church and willingly left their Father's House rather than accept their supposed prodigal brothers.

We, too, need to be cautious because in small ways we also exhibit this kind of behavior. Only compassion and unquestioning love will allow us to remain in our Father's house throughout the whole of our life on earth. Great Lent is the perfect time to thoroughly examine ourselves in an honest manner and remove from our hearts through God's Grace the spiritual distortions of both the prodigal and the older son.May God bless and aid us in this very important work.

In closing, I wish all of you a blessed second preparatory week.

With Love in Christ,

Archpriest Serge Kotar

Chaplain

Celebrating the Nativity, 'Orthodox style'

posted Mar 25, 2010 11:08 PM by Hieromonk Irenei

January 4, 2010 - Dear Parents:

At this time, I would like to wish you and all of your family members the warmest greetings for the holiday of the Nativity of Jesus Christ, our Savior, as well as the biggest blessings for this new year of 2 010. For forty days now we have been preparing for this holiday by prayer and fasting, wanting to properly greet the new born Savior. The joyous date of His birth is now only several days away. We will begin our celebration on Wednesday, the eve of the holiday, by going to church for the evening vigil, either at 3:30 or 6:00 pm. The liturgies will be served the next morning at 7:30 or 9:30 am. Attendance at one of the vigils and one of the liturgies is, of course, mandatory, and going to confession and Holy Communion are appropriate ways to honor the newborn Child. The fast ends on the day of the Nativity and we are given a break with no fasting, even on Wednesdays and Fridays, until the eve of Theophany, on January 18. The school Christmas party is on this Friday.

I joyously look forward to sharing these wonderful days with you both in Church and at the school Christmas party when Ded Moroz will visit us and the children will entertain us with their Christmas program. After this, we will all immensely enjoy our two weeks of vacation.

With Love in Christ,

Archpriest Serge Kotar
Chaplain

Celebrating the Nativity Orthodox-Style:

Eastern Orthodox Christmas, celebrated on January 7th, is less about sensual pleasure than spiritual substance.

By Father John Mack

"Christ is born! Glorify Him!" These words express the great joy Orthodox Christians experience each year as they celebrate the Nativity of their Lord.

The wonder of Christmas is more than our minds can comprehend. And thus, for Christmas to be understood it must be experienced in our hearts. It is in our hearts that we understand, and it is with our hearts that we share the joy of Christ's Incarnation.

In the modern world, Christmas has been reduced to the sensual pleasures of the flesh. Each year, Christmas becomes less and less an event of spiritual substance. The joy of Christmas is now centered on what we eat, what we hang, and what we receive. How different the spirit of Orthodox Christianity.

St. Gregory the Theologian explains: "This . . . is this what we are celebrating today: the Coming of God to man, that we might go forth, or rather that we might go back to God, that putting off

the old man we might put on the New; and that as we have died in Adam so we might live in Christ, being born with Christ. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not after the manner of a pagan festival, but in a godly way.

"And how shall this be? Let us not decorate our porches, nor arrange dances, nor adorn the streets. . . . These are the ways that lead to evil and are the entrances of sin. Let us leave all these things to the pagans. But let us who are worshipers of the Word of God, if we must in some way have luxury, let us seek it in God's Word and in the law and the scriptural stories . . . ." (Oration 38)

This does not mean that the extras associated with Christmas are inappropriate. There is nothing wrong with decorating Christmas trees, hanging Christmas lights and enjoying wonderful Christmas treats.What is important, however, is that we understand why these activities are associated with Christmas. Orthodox faith is worked out in the fabric of our lives and involves more than our worship in the Temple, extending from there into our homes and other surroundings.

Sadly, in our modern era, many of the connections between Temple and home, between faith and life, have been forgotten. We no longer know why we put lights in our windows. It is no longer obvious to us why we hang ornaments on our trees.

It is this division between "sacred" and "secular" that Orthodox Christians must reject. Satan would like us to leave our worship of the Christ Child in the Temple; he would like us to live disjointed lives. Our struggle must be to bring our worship home with us; it must be to connect every aspect of our lives with the Divine Liturgy and the Holy Altar.

Thankfully, we do not have to figure out how to do this on our own. Our tradition is full of wonderful customs that already do it for us.

So, for example, in the Russian tradition the fasting meal that is served on Christmas Eve is eaten only after the first star appears in the sky. It is a joyous experience to watch the children peering out the windows into the sky looking for that first star. The anticipation of the centuries finds its counterpoint in the eyes and hearts of the children as they wait.

The fasting Christmas Eve dinner is also served on a table adorned with straw. We eat our dinner with the cattle and the lambs, in the cave eagerly awaiting the coming of the Messiah. The sights and the smells take us back in time to that first nativity.

Many of the more familiar Western traditions also come to us out of the bosom of the Church. The lights that we put in our windows are signs of hospitality for the Christ child. There is room in our homes and our hearts, we say to a watching world, for Christ to be born. The ornaments remind us of the fruits of the Spirit that Christ's incarnation has brought to us. The tree itself, with its evergreen needles, is a testimony to Christ, the life of the world.

Of course, these things get out of hand. Instead of supporting our spiritual celebration, they can divert our attention. Do we really need to put lights everywhere? Does our tree have to be perfectly adorned? Should we spend less on the "extras" so that we might give more to those who are in need? These questions are very much a part of our Christmas celebrations.

Even the tradition of gift-giving has to be considered. Do our children really need to be given things they don't need? Would they not experience more of the Christmas joy if they were taught to give more and receive less? What is important is that everything surrounding Christmas be judged by the spiritual joy it gives us and our loved ones.

It can and should be fun and enjoyable, but that which is lesser must always serve the greater. Let us keep the Feast, not in the way of the pagans, but in a godly way.

Protection of the Mother of God

posted Mar 25, 2010 11:06 PM by Hieromonk Irenei

October 13, 2009 - Dear Parents:

Tomorrow is the holiday of the Protection of the Mother of God. I will give you some information concerning the details of this holiday in a letter tomorrow. In the meantime, please bring your child a bit earlier as they will be attending a liturgy for this holiday at 8:00 AM in the lower church. Afterwards, we will continue with a normal school day.

What a wonderfully and spiritually fulfilling week in the school last week! I can only thank God that you have brought your children to St. John's Academy, allowing them through their attendance to be able to receive such incredible blessings.

Two miracle-working icons came to the school and blessed your children. The first one was the Kursk Mother of God who just returned from Russia where people stood for over eight hours at a time in all kinds of weather to venerate her. Our children did not need to do this because the icon came herself to us, allowing us to pray in a completely unhurried way. After this, the newly- revealed icon of the Mother of God, the Softener of Evil Hearts, came to the school. What phenomenal miracles are done by this icon to those who pray to Her in their needs. We were able to pray before her and be anointed with her miraculous myrrh, after which she stayed with us in the school the whole morning, allowing all who wanted, to come up to her and pray unimpeded with a personal prayer or need.

As if this was not enough, the school was visited by a church delegation from the country of Georgia led by a metropolitan. The delegation prayed before the relics of our St. John and the viewed the school, allowing the children to receive a blessing from our sister church, the Patriarchate of Georgia. Such fraternal communion became possible after the unification our two Russian Churches greatly enriching our spiritual life here in the Diaspora.

Glory to God and His most-holy Mother for all the grace that we receive in our personal life despite the fact that we remain sinful and unworthy of their love and care for us.

Wishing God's blessing on you, I remain,

With love in Christ,
V. Rev. Serge Kotar

Chaplain

‹ Prev 1-10 of 11 Next ›