An homily from St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church by Priest Paul Siewers, for Forgiveness Sunday, 7534/2026.

Father, forgive them for they know not what they do, said our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross, in the worst type of tortured death, and the worst possible sin committed against God. Yet He forgave, and at His Resurrection he appeared to those Apostles who had not stayed with Him at the Cross as well as to John who had. He had breathed on them the Holy Spirit to forgive sins, and promised them the fuller coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to establish the Church to redeem humanity which had killed Him. From the Church the Body of Christ He did not separate Himself from all of us of bad character, He welcomed us to redemption. Following His example, Tsar-Martyr Nicholas wrote in His diary how he was surrounded by All around me there is treachery, cowardice, and deceit.” But his daughter Saint Martyr Olga sent these words to the royal family’s supporters during their imprisonment before their execution: “Father asks to have it passed on to all who have remained loyal to him and to those on whom they might have influence, that they not avenge him; he has forgiven and prays for everyone; and not to avenge themselves, but to remember that the evil which is now in the world will become yet more powerful, and that it is not evil which conquers evil, but only love.” As the Lord’s Prayer tells us, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

Forgiveness beloved gives us insight from God into our lives and lifts us up out of the stresses that kill us to see on the horizon the Resurrection of Pascha beyond Great Lent. There is a healthy restorative otherworldliness to forgiveness, an anti-toxin. Dostoevsky’s character Elder Zosima said we must recognize that we are connected to otherworlds, other dimensions of God, to find meaning in life. Recently a friend died and had an Orthodox Christian funeral. She was a caring person, particularly to the sick. A young family friend was in the hospital the day of the funeral, under general anaesthesia for surgery. When she came too she was in a panic: Tell them to stop the funeral, she said, our friend is alive. For she had seen the friend who had passed two or three days before, in the operating room with her, comforting her. She described the friend’s clothes and head covering and their colors, and they matched exactly what the deceased was wearing in the coffin at the funeral, although the young friend would not have known this. Now maybe this was hallucination from the anaesthesia, some would say. But in Orthodox Christian tradition, the soul can wander for a short time after death with the guardian angel. Such events we don’t look for to make a big deal of the supernatural. That’s because they are natural in Christian tradition. As an early Christian writer once put it, drawing on St. Maximus the Confessor’s writing, in God nature is (from a human perspective) both that which is and that which is not. Forgiveness draws us into that kind of natural otherworldliness, into another dimension. Orthodox Christianity after all finds a closer analogy to quantum physics than to Newtonian physics. In quantum thinking, you find that the closest difference between two points lies in folding the paper, so the two points are atop one another, not in drawing a straight line between them. Forgiveness is like that, too. It is as necessary to forgive as it is to breathe. God counts each heartbeat and moves it by the Holy Spirit. Forgiveness renews our heartbeats by removing blockages of hate and stress. The flow of uncreated light (or grace) from God in us keeps us truly alive, gives meaning to our life. This uncreated energy of God sustains us in body and soul. For what the world calls sustainability comes from meaningfulness, the working of divine Providence, and letting our light shine from Him.

St. Theophan the Recluse (from Now is the Accepted Time) wrote of Forgiveness Sunday:

Lent seems gloomy until one enters into its field Glory to Thee, O Lord! We are again vouchsafed to live until Great Lent; still we are given time to come to our senses; and still the Lord has declared His readiness to receive us in the Fatherly embrace of mercy….We stand at the entrance of Great Lent: the field of repentance and God’s mercy to us. Let us enter with boldness and enter with desire. Let no one refuse. Let no one turn aside and go elsewhere. Lent seems gloomy, until one enters its field. But begin and you will see that it is light after the night, freedom after bondage, respite after a burdensome life. Have you heard what the Apostle now says: “The night is far spent, the day is at hand” (Rom 13:12). The night is the time before the fast, but the fast is the day. The Apostle desires that meeting the fast would be just as desirable for us, as meeting the day after a long night…. For what does the fast require? Repentance and correction of life. What does it give? Forgiveness of all and a return of all the mercies of God. What does it promise? Joy in the Holy Spirit here and eternal blessedness there. Take all this to heart, and you cannot help but desire the fast. The flesh alone rebels against the fast, and those not favorable to the fast are carnal, although they do not want to put themselves in this category, and they explain their estrangement from the fast somewhat more plausibly. They do not desire to abandon a life of freedom for the flesh, so they raise up complaints against the fast. But our spiritual side loves the fast, thirsts for the fast, and is at ease in it. We should say: “Awaken and develop the spiritual side in yourself, and you will be in harmony with the fast, as with a friend.” But it is for the purpose of revealing this side, that the Lord has enacted the fast. That is why self-compulsion is necessary beforehand. Bitter labor is necessary first, in order to later taste sweet fruits Let carnal reasoning shun the fast. Submit to the yoke of faith and heed the Apostolic teaching: “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” (Rom 8:6–7). That is why those who follow this wisdom “cannot please God” (Rom 8:6–8). This is what estrangement from the fast due to pleasing the flesh and submitting oneself to carnal “wisdom” borders on: the loss of the opportunity to please God and even enmity against God! Thus, whoever has even a small spark of the fear of God will not be alienated from the fast, but with the light of this fear will ward off all deceptive pretexts for violating it. We should say: “Revive the fear of God in yourself and you will gladly enter the field of the fast, and without difficulty will pass through it all, from the beginning to the end.” But again, how can one revive fear without the fast? Vanities, cares, empty amusements, comforts, passionate preoccupations, and even just the hustle and bustle of established relationships do not allow us to enter into ourselves, to come to our senses, and to vividly acknowledge our obligatory relationship to God! It is therefore necessary to force ourselves to enter the field of the fast and fulfill all its requirements. Then vain desires, thoughts, and passions will subside, the voice of conscience will be clearly heard, and the awareness of God and our responsibility before Him will vividly arise….. the fear of God, having in this way been revived, will become an irresistible force that knows no barriers, the action of which is aimed directly against all pleasing of the flesh, supported by self-pity. When you enter this state, then all the rights of the flesh to the privileges that we provide it in ordinary life will seem strange and ridiculous. But until you enter this state, there is nothing to expose the falseness of pretexts for pleasing the flesh, which divert us from the fast… pass through your entire life, no matter how long you promised yourself, stand at your deathbed and consider: can your conscience promise you a good outcome if at this moment death finds you as you are now? If it cannot, then know in advance that in that moment you will be ready at once to undertake the burden of ten, a hundred, a thousand fasts in order to only receive mercy, and it will not be granted to you. Thus, instead of then experiencing such a bitter rejection, Lent is now given to you, which alone is sufficient to receive mercy. Enter into it cheerfully and spend it according to God’s intention. Who knows, it could be your last Lent, and your last mercy? If you miss it, do not expect more. It seems that this would be sufficient motivation to resolve to embitter the flesh with ascetic struggles of self-mortification in the approaching fast. But something strange occurs with us. He who might be able to give the flesh ease, embitters himself more than others through fasting. But he who should embitter the flesh more than others, gives himself the most liberties. The righteous undertake toil after toil, but sinners allow themselves exemption after exemption. Is this not because the righteous feel themselves to be sinners, but sinners place themselves in the ranks of the righteous? But if so, then what better indication of the self-blindness, in which love of the flesh holds us, and what more reasonable a basis for not heeding it, and acting in opposition to it? Let us enter with courage into the field of the fast. Let there be among us no timid pleasers of the flesh, who tremble for their life, if you deprive them of any dish or remove any comfort. Let there be among us no vainly wise pleasers of the flesh, for whom coddling of the flesh has turned into a law by some special teaching of theirs. From the beginning, the Apostle put such people to shame, calling them “enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things” (Phil 3:18–19). Nowadays, we hear of many teachings that expand the paths of life, and many customs have already been introduced in which our flesh is ease. But let us remember the words of the Lord: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matt 7:13–14). Let us also cleave to those few and watchfully enter the gate of the confining fast that is opening before us, not allowing oneself superstitious interpretations and willful deviations from what was legitimized so wisely and what has been so salvifically fulfilled and is being fulfilled by all who understood and understand the purpose and value of life in the flesh but not “according to the flesh” (Rom 8:12). Amen.

So writes St. Theophan about today. Brothers and sisters, metanoia is Greek for repentance. But its full meaning really is closer to the English word transformation. And it also means to bow. To give a metanoia to someone in Orthodoxy is to bow physically before them and ask forgiveness, as we will soon do at Forgiveness Vespers. In this, forgiveness is synonymous with repentance. Glory to Jesus Christ! 

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew,

§17 [6:14-21]

The Lord said: ‘If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. ‘Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. ‘Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 

Today marks an unusual intersection of one of the 12 major feasts of the Church year, the Meeting of the Lord, with the Sunday of the Last Judgment, also known as Meatfare, in the immediate lead-up to Great Lent. In the Gospel we heard of how our Lord and God as a baby was brought to the Temple in accordance with Old Testament Law, and recognized by the Righteous Simeon and the Prophetess Anna while in the hands of the Most Holy Theotokos as the Righteous Joseph looked on. Simeon said, “’Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.’ And Joseph and His mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of Him. And Symeon blessed them and said unto Mary His mother, ‘Behold, this Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against (yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.’”

We also heard in the other Gospel reading today of the Final Judgment, when our Lord will ask who has helped the stranger, the hungry, the poor in need of clothing, the prisoner. Who helps them helps Me, our Lord tells us. And Meatfare reminds us to be less carnivorous during Lent, less brutal toward other creatures including one another. The Gospel readings and today’s overlapping feasts in the Church remind us of the unity of sinful human nature, and how it can be restored and healed and saved in our Lord. We should be sober and repentant and attend to this healing during Great Lent.  St. Theophan the Recluse writes of the Last Judgment that, 

“…this is what the holy Church wants now to impress in our hearts. Let us accept with feeling the desolation of the situation of the sinner on the last day, the desolation in which the Judgment, condemnation, and decision of that time will place him. Let us accept it and take care to avoid it. No one can escape the Judgment. Everything will be as it is written. “Heaven and earth shall pass away” but the word of God concerning this and the Judgment “shall not pass away” (Matt 24:35). Are we our own enemies? No. So let us hasten to avoid the calamity, anguish, and despair with which the Last Day threatens us. How do we avoid it? Either by righteousness or by justification through mercy. If you do not have the righteousness, by which you could stand with those on the right hand of the Judge, then be zealous to justify yourself before God in advance, washed by tears of repentance and purified by ascetic struggles of self-rejection, and you will be accepted into their number by justifying grace, if not by righteousness. Behold, the acceptable time has already begun (2 Cor 6:2). The eve of the fast already approaches. The reduction in the satisfaction of the needs of the flesh is now instituted to give more scope to the actions of the spirit. Prepare yourselves! And flee as much as it is possible according to your conditional relationships and the weakness of you character, that which has spoiled the coming week, the evil customs of the world; so that we are sufficiently prepared to enter the field of fasting and preparation for holy communion, to be purified, to establish ourselves in purity, and to confirm for ourselves the possibility to appear purified before the terrible throne of God the Judge of all. Amen.” (From Now is the Accepted Time.)

There also is an American secular holiday tomorrow, adjoining in the world our feasts and making it a long weekend for many in the world, whose history goes largely unnoticed today because it relates to an old sense of virtue. It is called Presidents’ Day, originally George Washington’s Birthday. In light of today’s Meeting of the Lord Feast, and Sunday of the Last Judgment, thd diminished secular holiday reminds us of how insufficient are all worldly cares. No matter how great a leader may be in worldly terms, no matter what powerful position and inspirational model someone can provide, it is nothing in the face of mortality and the vastness of God’s creation and His power, and fades over time. The old law was fulfilled by Jesus Christ even as a baby. Legalism and mechanics of government and economics, even when promoted through a leader like a George Washington, are no match for the ravages of time or the power of the Holy Spirit given to us by our Lord in the Church.

President Washington was a Freemason and a vestryman in a Protestant denomination and a slaveowner, but he was renowned for his character, and his expression of biblical virtues such as courage, self-control, and prudence was seen as a necessity for self-government in the new country of America. First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was called.  Yet even the imperfect but renowned character virtues of a Washington, at their deepest level gifts from God in human nature, cannot in any legalistic framework save souls or nations. They may act as signs or encouraging reminders, alongside their imperfections. But the sustaining Spirit of real virtue comes through the Orthodox Church, in which uncreated energies of God support virtue as grace. That message of the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord has endured for two millennia, longer than any nation now on earth.

Saint Innocent of Kherson writes of how the Righteous Simeon in the account of the Meeting of the Lord is a model of virtue for us as Orthodox Christians for all time, of whom we are reminded today as we approach Great Lent. For while Simeon long before according to Church Tradition had doubted the Virgin birth when translating a prophecy of it from Isaiah, and was told he would not repose until he saw the prophecy fulfilled, he had learned patience and faith

St. Innocent wrote: “All the virtues were gathered together in St. Simeon: Love for neighbor nourished love for God and the fear of God in him; fear and love strengthened his faith in the Redeemer; his faith attracted the Holy Spirit; the Spirit accounted him worthy of revelation and gave him the chance to behold the Savior; beholding the Savior banished the fear of death – and St. Simeon departed in peace to where others can’t even look without trembling! Thus, here is the holy mystery of St. Simeon! This is how he came to such a precious opportunity – to die in peace! Whoever desires a death like his, let him walk his path: Be righteous and pious, believe in the Redeemer, try to become the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit – and you will be vouchsafed to behold your Savior!” (cited by Fr. Stephen Kaznicka)

Today Orthodoxy is increasing in the U.S. Some of us were at a conference this fall on Orthodoxy missionary work in America that bore the name of Philip Ludwell III, the first American Orthodox Christian, who was a cousin of First Lady Martha Washington and who moved in George Washington’s circles. Taking the long view, without the Orthodox mission to America, personified in Ludwell’s history, our country over time must devolve into just another declined power like many.

That would be like, at the Meeting of the Lord, focusing on the disappearing Old Testament laws being followed, rather than the baby Who is honored. Even at Church, it would be like following outward niceties of Orthodoxy, including practices of Great Lent, without giving to those in need from the heart, as our Lord says we must do, for Him to know us.

Brothers and sisters, let us not become just cogs in the wheels of what the Orthodox writer Paul Kingsnorth calls the global Machine of worldliness. Let us not in today’s world hurry to help with building some new tech Tower of Babel, whether it be via AI or other means, while trying to be good technocrats, or even superficial Orthodox Christians but not in the heart.

Let it not be so. Let this weekend’s conjunction of calendar dates from different dimensions remind us of the need for us to seek good strength and virtue from God in the Church for our missionary work, to help those in need, who are made according to the image of Christ, keeping the Last Judgment in mind. 

The Church is not legalistic or reducible to technology, however advanced. She is the Body of Christ. He fulfilled the law when He deigned to be borne in the arms of Simeon for our salvation in the Temple as a baby. Simeon’s prophecy applied not only to the early Church but in our day; “This Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against… that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” Remember that Israel today is the Orthodox Church. Let us reveal our hearts by repentance, remembering the Final Judgment as we near Great Lent, and the danger of falling without seeking God’s mercy and His strength to grow our righteousness.

Following Simeon’s prophecy, with the Theotokos as intercessor, let us unworthily ask that a sword pierce through our own soul also, so that our hearts be opened and emptied in her Son, and that in Christ, in His Church, we may love our neighbors more than ourselves.That, by God’s grace. will save us at the Final Judgment. Glory to God for all things!

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew,

§106 [25:31-46]

The Lord said: ‘When the Son of Man shall come in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory. And before Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, ‘Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I hungered, and ye gave Me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took Me in; naked, and ye clothed Me; I was sick, and ye visited Me; I was in prison, and ye came unto Me.’ Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when saw we Thee hungering and fed Thee, or thirsty and gave Thee drink? When saw we Thee a stranger and took Thee in, or naked and clothed Thee? Or when saw we Thee sick, or in prison, and came unto Thee?’ And the King shall answer and say unto them, ‘Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.’ ‘Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I hungered, and ye gave Me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in; naked, and ye clothed Me not; sick and in prison, and ye visited Me not.’ Then shall they also answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when saw we Thee hungering or athirst or a stranger, or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister unto Thee?’ Then shall He answer them, saying, ‘Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me.’ And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.’

Holy Gospel according to Luke, 

§7 [2:22-40]

At that time, the parents of the child Jesus brought him to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord: ‘Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord’), and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord: ‘A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.’ And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Symeon, and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for Him after the custom of the law, then he took Him up in his arms, and blessed God and said, ‘Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.’ And Joseph and His mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of Him. And Symeon blessed them and said unto Mary His mother, ‘Behold, this Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against (yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.’ And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. She was of great age and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity, and she was a widow of about fourscore and four years. She departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And she, coming in that instant, gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee to their own city, Nazareth. And the Child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him. 

February Newsletter, February 7534/2026. St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church, Winfield PA. 570-863-9039
Rector: Rev. Dr. Paul Siewers, priestpauls@pm.me

Our Journey Toward Pascha

This past couple weeks, your unworthy Rector has traveled blessing homes from Jersey Shore in the north to Mount Pleasant Mills in the South, from woods west of Mifflinburg to Frackville and Elizabethtown in coal country, blessing a nursing home room, and also engaging in prayers and Church/biblical discussions with inmates at the Muncy Women’s Prison and with Bucknell University students. Glory to God! These journeys offered new views of the depths and variety of our little mission parish, whose riches lie in the faith of our people. God’s help, with your prayers and your commitment to the mission, make this possible. The heart of the Church is the ecclesia or gathering in the Body of Christ to which we all are joined, and of which our country parish is a fractal, the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. The cleansing holy water, from the blessing at Theophany including of the Susquehanna River, used in the house blessings, reminds us of how Christ’s sanctification of His Church and Creation carries us forward into Great Lent, including in all the “little churches” of our homes.

Truly, as the Russian martyr to Communism St. Hilarion Troitskoy put it, “there is no Christianity without the church.”

Our mission work is to help people find our Lord’s Body, the Church, by God’s grace.

This February, as we move from the major Feast of the Meeting of the Lord into Great Lent, may the Lord give us good strength for the Fast!

Pre-Lenten and Lenten Services in February

The Meeting of the Lord and the Final Judgment, Feb. 2/15. Meatfare Sunday. This is one of the 12 major feasts of the Church year, and commemorates the fulfillment of the Old Testament in the New, of Israel realized in the Body of Christ as the Church, with the bringing of our Lord Jesus Christ as a babe into the Temple, where he is recognized by the Righteous Simeon (according to tradition one of the translators of the Septuagint) and the Prophetess Anna, in accord with Old Testament law. We are also reminded on the last day of eating meat before Lent, of the Final Judgment, to give us a sober outlook as we approach the Great Fast and the hope of Resurrection in Pascha beyond.

Forgiveness Sunday and Clean Week

–Forgiveness Vespers follows Sunday Liturgy, Feb. 9/22
–Monday Feb. 10/23, Great Compline with Reading of the Canon of St. Andrew, 4:30 p.m.
–Tuesday Feb. 11/24, Great Compline with Reading of the Canon of St. Andrew, 7 p.m.
–Wed. Feb. 12/25, Pre-Sanctified Liturgy, 10 a.m.
–Wed. Feb. 13/26, Great Compline and Canon of St. Andrew of Crete, 7 p.m.
–Thurs. Feb. 14/26 Great Compline and Canon of St. Andrew of Crete, 6:30 p.m.
–Fri. Feb. 15/27, Akathist for the Departed, 7 p.m.

The Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, Feb. 16/March 1

—Pre-Sanctified Liturgy Wed. Feb. 19/March 4.

The Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas, Feb. 23/March 8

—

Please Pray for the Sick

Mary, Magdalena and Paul, Chloe, Father James and Matushka Nancy, Hieromonk Claude, Reader Luke, Gregory, Innocent and John, among others. 

Please Pray for the Catechumens

Zachary, Camron, Scott, Ryan, James, Aaron, Corey. Also the newly illumined Cuthbert and Nicholas.

Alms-giving and Church-giving during Lent

Part of the fasting season is helping those in need, including our Church outreach work and beautification of the Church that is a part of that. Our Church is an all-volunteer operation (no clergy salaries or expense accounts currently). Please give generously as you can.

Reminders

Four rules for good Church order mentioned in the last newsletter. These are not necessarily the most important rules and are not meant to be legalistic, but to discipline ourselves for humility, especially during Lent. Please keep them “in your heart,” remembering their spiritual meaning.
1. Attending Vigil (or at least Vespers) is part of traditional preparation for Liturgy. If you can’t make it, please plan to arrive early for Sunday Liturgy and ask a blessing from Fr. Paul to receive if you can. In either case, please plan to do something “extra” at home Saturday night if unable to attend, such as watching a Vespers service “livestream” or saying a Readers Vespers at home. Attending Vigil means we keep watch with our Lord and show proper honor for the blessing of Communion. 
2. Appropriately modest attire: For men, long-sleeve shirt or jacket, and long pants. Women: long skirt or dress, shoulders covered, and head covering (the latter especially when receiving). This is to show respect for receiving the Holy Gifts of our Lord and not to draw attention to ourselves, in that way also respecting others. This has been our tradition from the start of the mission.
3. Proper Church etiquette for receiving communion elsewhere when traveling: First, please ask a blessing from Fr. Paul for such a visit (you can email). Then also email the Rector of the Church you are visiting elsewhere in advance, asking for a blessing to receive, and explaining that your parish Rector has blessed you to ask. This indicates to the host priest that you are in good standing as an Orthodox Christian and blessed by your home priest as prepared, and shows loving respect to your host Church.
4. Please remember to confess at least once during the season of Great Lent. Confession once during each of the four major fast seasons of the Church year is a basic requirement for participating in this penitential mystery of the Church–and more as needed, if anything would prevent you from taking Communion.

Home for Innocent and John

Our brothers in Christ and fellow Church members Innocent and John Sam are looking for a ground-floor or elevator-building apartment (preferably allowing a cat) in the Greater Lewisburg Metropolitan area 🙂 (i.e. including Northumberland, Sunbury, Selinsgrove, Milton, Mifflinburg, etc.). Please be in touch if you have any leads.

Prison Ministry

Our weekly prison ministry continues to the Women’s Prison in Muncy. Please be in touch with Fr. Paul if you would like to participate. Orthodox Study Bibles or donations for the same are needed for this ministry. Thank you!

Schedule

You can always double-check our service and event schedule at stjohnthewonderworker.com.

Asking for your prayers as always! May the Lord bless our community and all of us! +++

An homily from St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church in Winfield, PA, by Priest Paul Siewers, on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, 7534/2026.

Dearest to Christ,

There was an historical photo on the internet this week of thousands of Russians gathered to celebrate joyously the 300^thanniversary of the Romanov dynasty. Only several years later, the crowds would ecstatically be celebrating the revolution and the removal of God’s anointed, the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas who with his family would little more than a year later die at the hands of the God-hating Communists. Where were all those who had professed allegiance to the Christian monarch? Swept away by what became a hellscape of atheist persecution of the Church.

On this day of the Prodigal Son, as we look toward Great Lent, we also commemorate the Holy Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. And there is a connection. Whole nations and societies can become prodigal or wandering in sin, and it starts with each of us not being faithful. First of all, the antidote involves being faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ and His Body the Church. The claim to go it alone outside of the Church He established is a false claim that Christianity can exist outside of the Church. And this is the gateway to atheism, nihilism, revolution, and many sins that bedevil society today, both collectively and individually.

St. Hilarion Troitskoy, a martyr to atheistic Bolshevism, wrote on this topic under the title, “There is no Christianity without the Church.” For before and during the worldly seeming triumph of Bolshevist atheism came the false belief that there can be Christianity without the Church. This is a great mass delusion and temptation in America in our own time as well. It comes from ignorance and malice against the Orthodox Church, the Body of Christ in human history. It leads to efforts to change Orthodox tradition in worldly ways, and to throw away any sense of the one holy catholic and apostolic church as a reality, in order to support the assertion of self-will.

In Russia under Communism, it came with people dissociating themselves from the Church. They as in the West today wanted to stay home on weekends with friends and families comfortably, and not attend Vigil and Liturgy. They said they could pray in their own thoughts and in their own ways, and read at home on their own about spiritual things, and leave off fasting while they had their own meditative feelings. But all this is a trap by the devil to separate us, and pick us off, like lone wandering sheep by a wolf. The Good Shepherd Jesus Christ comes to rescue and protect us, and He does this most of all by offering us His Body and Blood in the Church.

St. Hilarion the Martyr wrote, “The life of Christ the Saviour presents the reader of the Holy Gospels with numerous great moments which fill the soul with some special sense of grandeur. But perhaps the greatest moment in the life of all mankind was that occasion when, in the darkness of a southern night, under the hanging arches of trees just turning green, through which heaven itself seemed to be looking at the sinful earth with twinkling stars, the Lord Jesus Christ, in His High Priestly prayer, proclaimed: Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. . . . I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. (John 17:11; 20–21) Special attention must be focused upon these words of Christ, for in them the essence of all Christianity is clearly defined. Christianity is not some sort of abstract teaching which is accepted by the mind and found by each person separately. On the contrary, Christianity is a life in which separate persons are so united among themselves that their unity can be likened to the unity of the Persons of the Holy Trinity. Christ did not pray only that His teaching be preserved so that it would spread throughout the universe. He prayed for the unification of all those believing in Him. Christ prayed to His heavenly Father for the establishment, more correctly for the restoration, on earth of the natural unity of all mankind. Mankind was created from one common origin and of one source (cf. Acts 17:26).”

Wandering from the unity of the Church is the temptation of the prodigal son for us today.  Of the parable of the Prodigal Son, St. Theophan writes in one of his pre-Lenten homilies:

“This is how every sinful fall and every man’s descent from a good state to a worse, confused, passionate state is accomplished. It always begins with a trifle, and a trifle that is plausible. The enemy knows that sin in its true form is repulsive, and therefore he does not directly lead you into it, but begins from afar, almost always covering his first attacks with the appearance of good. Then, little by little, the enemy sows impure thoughts and the heat of desire, shaking the strength of the will to oppose him and weakening its supports, until there forms in the man’s heart a secret inclination to sin, after which it is almost a matter of opportunity, and he is ready to sin in deed. And then, there is sin after sin and the repetition of the bitter fate of the prodigal’s fall. Keeping this in mind, of course, each of us will surely impose on ourselves the responsibility to strictly fulfill the command of the Apostle: “Be sober, be vigilant” (1 Pet 5:8)! Look in and around yourself and note the rounds and strivings of the enemy, who seeks to devour every zealot for goodness and purity. The first trick of the enemy is to confuse the thoughts. Usually he begins to sow only one such thought, but does so in order that it touches the heart and settles therein. As soon as he succeeds in this, immediately beside this insignificant, if not always bad thought, he gathers a whole cloud of secondary thoughts. In this way, the hitherto pure and bright atmosphere of the soul is obscured. By this the enemy prepares for himself a place and space for activity, and soon begins to act in this fog, striking the soul with passionate provocations, which leave wound after wound…. Then and there the enemy sits close to the heart and little by little begins to arouse passionate movements there. This is already the second step. Look out for this! If you notice this, stop, go no further, because anything further is already very bad. Perhaps we might not succeed in noticing this confusion of thoughts, because we happened to be involuntarily occupied with many things. But how can we not notice the movement of passions, especially when the intention to not yield to them is still intact. If this is very difficult for you, I will show you an even more tangible sign. Take note: as soon as a cooling of the heart occurs, as a result of being carried away by one thought, and then being confused by many, know that wounds and scabs have already begun in the heart, although they are not yet entirely noticeable. The cooling of the heart toward pleasing God is already more than halfway to a fall, while others say that it is a sure fall. After this, you will see what the matter involves on our side: do not permit the first alluring thought to reach the heart and do not accept them. By rejecting the first thought, you will destroy all the machinations of the enemy and cut off every opportunity for him to act on you and tempt you….If our foremother Eve had immediately driven away the tempting serpent, she would not have fallen. But instead, she entered further and further into conversation with him, became entangled in the net of the enemy and fell. Such is every fall.”

Brothers and sisters, we must keep our hearts warm to ward off temptations, and we do so through staying connected to our Lord in His Church. Let not the devil during this approach to Great Lent tempt you through spiritual warfare to separate yourself from the body of Christ, His Church, in any way, by slothfulness or pride. As St. Hilarion said, there is no Christianity without the Church. The sin of those who martyred millions of believers under Communism started with the argument and temptation that there can be Christianity without the Church. The rest unravels quickly. But God helps. Like the Prodigal Son, both individuals and nations can turn back into the loving arms of God. The Good News of the Gospel is that there is redemption in Him, no matter how bad the situation. St. Cyprian of Carthage said, to have God as our Father, we must have the Church as our Mother. Let us keep the warmth in our heart of the Prodigal’s Father, the warmth in our heart of the Church’s martyrs under Communism, and the warmth in our heart of God’s love letting that light shine in mission work for an Orthodox Christian America. Glory to God for all things!

The Reading from the 

Holy Gospel according to Luke,

§79 [15:11-32]

The Lord said this parable: ‘A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.” And he divided unto them his estate. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine ate, and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, “How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, ‘Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants.’” And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, “Father, I have sinned against Heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.” But the father said to his servants, “Bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. And bring hither the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” And they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, “Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound.” And he was angry and would not go in; therefore came his father out and entreated him. And he answering said to his father, “Lo, these many years have I served thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment; and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy son was come who hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.” And he said unto him, “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad; for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.”’ 

Holy Gospel according to Luke, 

§106 [21:12-19]

The Lord said to His disciples, ‘Beware of men, they shall lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons, and you will be brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake. And it shall turn to you to bear testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand what ye shall answer. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. And ye shall be betrayed both by parents and brethren and kinsfolk and friends, and some of you they shall cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated by all men for My name’s sake. But there shall not a hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls.’ 

Saturday Feb. 7 we’ll start a new reading in St. John Church’s “Online Orthodoxy” class: Reading the first part of The Orthodox Church by Timothy Ware (1963-63), first edition (later the author became Metropolitan Kallistos), on Church history. We’ll be reading and discussing in sections. Please join us Saturdays 10 to 11 a.m., and contact Father Paul for the link (priestpauls@pm.me), A pdf of the first edition is attached here, and a physical copy is also available in the Church library.

Glory to God for all things!

A talk from this fall (7534/2025) at the Ludwell Fellowship conference in Stafford, Virginia. Glory to God!

(Above) Saint Theophan the Recluse, a Russian hesychastic practitioner and writer.

An homily from St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church in Winfield, PA, by Priest Paul Siewers.

Dear brothers and sisters today we begin the Lenten Triodion, which lasts ten weeks through Pascha. This is the first of the three Sundays before Great Lent. Now we should prepare ourselves and flee from all that is spiritually toxic and corrupt in our lives, seeking God’s help, fleeing as did Lot from Sodom, and Noah to the Ark. 

We should prepare as if we are on a beautiful but arduous trail working upwards. For the uplands are those of Paradise to which our Lord Jesus Christ beckons us, across the mountains of Lent that are more rugged than those of our Appalachia, while so radiant on the horizon lies the glorious heights of the Resurrection of Pascha.

In today’s Gospel reading, the Publican, the corrupt tax collector and sinner, says “God be merciful to me a sinner.” He utters in this Gospel parable from our Lord the basis of the Jesus Prayer in Orthodox Church Tradition. The short form of that prayer builds from this, and personalizes it, to “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me.” In Greek, in Slavonic, and even in an Appalachian English, this becomes five words, in effect the five words that the Apostle Paul said was better than a multitude of vain words: Lord Jesus Christ, mercy me. It is what we as Orthodox Christians pray when we can not pray anything else, and when we want to pray without ceasing: Lord Jesus Christ, mercy me. As the Apostle put it, “I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue” (I Cor. 14:19). These are the words of the prayer that warms our heart, so that, as Saint Seraphim of Sarov put it, we can acquire the Spirit of peace, that thousands around us may be saved. By contrast, the vain words in a tongue today can be anything from texting, media reports, social media posts, heartless theological musings, political sloganeering, self-promoting rhetorical lies, to abstract academic language. Instead: Lord Jesus Christ, mercy me.

In this little heartfelt prayer of the Publican is summed up all the Gospel. Lord is the recognition of Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Christ indicates Jesus’ identity as the anointed One of God the Father. Here we have the Orthodox Trinity, the fullest teaching of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a relation uncorrupted by the heretical filioque of the West. In the prayer is also the inherent understanding and participation in the uncreated energies of God, which also is a teaching fully found only in Orthodoxy. And this prayer brings the humility we need in our practice of Orthodox asceticism and govenie, the strong preparation for the Eucharist, another distinctive feature of our Orthodox faith. Let us take up our prayer ropes, our chotki or komboskini, as our weapons in this spiritual warfare against the demons with God’s help.

In this short prayer we have the name of Jesus, He Who saves. How powerful is the name of the Incarnate God recognized as Lord, more than we can imagine. The Holy Scripture tells us for millennia the power of the name of God, especially in the New Testament history of the Acts of the Apostles, in healings by His name.

Church Tradition teaches us that such continuous prayer with our prayer ropes helps prepare us for opening our hearts to the divine uncreated light of God, which comes from that whole Trinity, to transform us, so that we may kindle the spark of God’s love in our heart into a beacon of hope.

The time-honored Orthodox classic book Unseen Warfare offers good instruction for cultivating this light in prayer from the heart during Great Lent, with our prayer ropes as a kind of generator so to speak. It tells us at the beginning that the externals of worship and even private prayer are not enough. What is needed is submission to God, emptying ourselves in Him. The book tells us how we need “submission not only to God but also to all creatures, for the sake of our love of God; renunciation of all will of our own and perfect obedience to the will of God; and moreover desire for all this and it spractice with a pure heart in the glory of God… This is the law of love, inscribed by the finger of God Himself in the hearts of His true servants! This is the renunciation of ourselves that God demands of us! This is the blessed yoke of Jesus Christ and His burden that is light! This is the submission to God’s will, which our Redeemer and Teacher demands from us both by His word and by His example!” (Nun Christina quotation)

The little prayer, Lord Jesus Christ mercy me, exemplifies all this. The Greek work here for mercy, a verb, is related in its root to healing oil, the kindness of anointing.

What is the history of this book Unseen Warfare, a companion to our preparation for our Lenten expedition? It is improbable but wonderworking in its way. Written originally by a Catholic, it was re-written by St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, one of the translators also of the Philokalia. Then it was edited and revised again by St. Theophan the Recluse, one of the great Russian saints of hesychastic or quiet continuous prayer as inner stillness and humility. The book illustrates how the Athonite and Russian Orthodox traditions of continuous prayer meet. This is how Orthodoxy in fulfillment of biblical prophecy forms a new nation across all the nations as Israel, the Church of God.

Across the earth in human history, mightier than the march of armies is the power of an idea whose time has come, the French writer Victor Hugo wrote. But infinitely more powerful than any idea is the Word made flesh, Whose suffering we remember in Great Lent as we move toward the inescapable Resurrection and the light exploding from the tomb that cannot be stopped. Today the Publican remembers this, the Pharisee does not.

There is no greater task before us brothers and sisters than oneness with the uncreated energies. They are divinity touching us and beckon us to participate in God’s activities, beyond which lie His essence, an ineffable mystery of love beyond us but caring. Those uncreated energies, the uncreated light of God also called grace, inflame our heart with love. This sparkling is the natural law in Orthodox Christianity, not fixed and legalistic, but dynamic and transforming. It is articulated in the Jesus prayer that can be on our lips and in our mind and into our heart even in the worst trials.

May we in this leadup to Great Lent feel the great love of God in our heart, pouring forth as the water of Life, from the Holy Ghost, and from Him Who is the Life. Let us remember in this threshold time before Lent how Jesus Christ at the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of his betrayal is said to have sweat blood for us. Metropolitan Antony Khrapovitsky, the first first hierarch of ROCOR, explained that Jesus in the Garden suffered so not because his human nature felt at risk, but because of His great love for all of us His people, and His sadness at our many sins, for all time. He poured out His human heart so it would have broke, but filled with His divinity His compassion shines to us to this day and forever and ever.

Brothers and sisters, let us nurture the spark of God’s love gifted to our heart, humbly yet powerfully, like the Publican. Let us embrace at every moment the short five-word phrase that embraces all the Gospel and fulfills the prophecy of Paul: Lord Jesus Christ, mercy me. 

Glory to God for all things!

The Reading from the 

Holy Gospel according to Luke,

§89 [18:10-14]

The Lord said this parable: ‘Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are: extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other; for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.’ 

The Online Orthodoxy Class at St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church in Winfield, Pennsylvania, will begin a study of Church History with the arrival of the Lenten Triodion on the Church calendar.

Beginning Saturday, Feb. 7, God willing we will start discussion of the first part of the first edition of The Orthodox Church by Timothy Ware (later Metropolitan Kallistos Ware). A pdf is attached below, and physical copies can be found used online often, please note that we are using the first edition, which is especially respected for its traditional approach to Orthodoxy. At the time of its writing c. 1960s, Metropolitan Kallistos was a lay scholar in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

This reading follows our previous reading-discussions of sections from Genesis, Creation, and Early Man by Hieromonk Seraphim Rose (3rd edition), and The Mystical Theology of the Orthodox Church by Vladimir Lossy.

The Online Orthodoxy class is held usually on Saturdays 10 a.m. to 11. It is open to inquirers, catechumens, and new and longer-term Orthodox Christians alike. For questions, details, and a link, please contact Priest Paul of St. John’s, priestpauls@pm.me.

Glory to God for all things!

Thanks to St. John’s Reader Nicholas for compiling this based on materials from Fr. John Whiteford. Glory to God!