(Above: Icon of Archangel Michael referencing Revelation 20)

J.R.R. Tolkien had his creepy character Gollum use the term “tricksy” to describe corrupt shenanigans from the standpoint of his own corrupt character, albeit one whose life was spared in hope of redemption.

Maybe that’s a good analogy for American secular culture’s love affair with the tricksy side of Halloween.

It’s a secular and ultimately anti-Christian holiday today, which has replaced Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter in the affections of its main advocates, the “Peter Pan” holiday for adults who not only won’t grow up but don’t want others to do so, and end up dabbling in neopaganism at best.

A few erstwhile Christians still defend it as continuing traditions of Catholic All Hallows Eve and even alleged Celtic autumnal festivals. Much digital ink has been spilled on this issue, even among some Orthodox Christian pop-culture writers explaining that it’s all fine, Day of the Dead, etc. etc.

Actually, not.

Redoubtable Orthodox Christian lands, by God’s help, preserved All Saints Day in the early summer Pentecost season, like the hidden “Second Foundation” of Asimov’s Foundation series. In Halloween we are stirring dead embers and worse, not a living Orthodox Christian tradition.

For Halloween in a decadent West has become more and more of an occult holiday and a sign of the times.

But help is on the way. This year again as it falls on Saturday night we have a reminder of the choice between secular neopaganism and Orthodox Christianity, in the question of whether some families may opt to be at Halloween celebrations rather than at Vigil or Vespers in Church.

St. John the Wonderworker of America provides the response, from the early 1960s, even in days when Halloween supposedly was more wholesome.

When he was in San Francisco, he had worked hard to have St. John of Kronstadt declared a saint. On the eve of the first celebration of that sainthood (on St. John of Kronstadt’s feast Nov. 1, which we will be marking this weekend as well), our patron St. John noticed very few people were in Church for Vigil. He found out that many members of the Russian Orthodox community were at a Halloween ball.

According to one account, “After the service, Vladika went to the place where the ball was still in progress. He climbed the steps and entered the hall, to the absolute astonishment of the participants. The music stopped and Vladika, in complete silence, glared at the dumbfounded people, slowly and deliberately making the round of the entire hall, staff in hand. He spoke not a word, and none was necessary; the mere sight of Vladika stung the conscience of all, as was evident from the general consternation. Vladika left in silence. The next day in church he thundered his holy indignation and his flaming zeal calling all to the devout Christian life.”

Maybe if children dress up as historical or biblical figures or other non-occult characters it’s ok still to treat it as a bit of a civil holiday of sorts, bearing in mind that ancient canons of the Church prohibit wearing masks, because of pagan and occult associations.

But at this point, why bother with propping up the corruption?

And no doubt it’s best to be in Church for the eve of St. John of Kronstadt’s feast in this era in which the spirit of Anti-Christ is abroad in the land, in worship of our Lord and in commemoration of a saint who stood for holy adherence to Orthodoxy alongside practical help to those in need in society.

Elder Anatoly of Optina gave us this prayer:

“Deliver me O Lord from the deceptions of the God-hating and evil antichrist, whose coming is at hand, and shelter me from his snares in the secret desert of Thy salvation. Grant me O Lord strength and courage to firmly confess Thy Most Holy Name, that I may not abandon You because of the devil’s fear and that I may not deny Thee my Saviour and Redeemer, nor Thy Holy Church . But grant me o Lord cries and tears for my sins, and spare me o Lord in the hour of Thy dread judgement.”

Amen

(Top) Saint-King Edwin of Northumbria, and (above) fall foliage along Penns Creek in our region.

Today we commemorate, alongside the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, a few notable saints of the British Isles, includng Martyr Edwin of Northumbria, who reposed in the early 600s, killed in a battle with rival kings known to be anti-Christian. Such early saints of the British Isles remind us of how close the Orthodox Christian Tradition runs to us in ancient roots, even in the history of our English-speaking land far from Russia and the Holy Land. The Venerable Bede, an ancient English scholar living a century after King Edwin wrote of how an adviser encouraged the king originally to embrace Christianity. According to Bede, the King’s adviser spoke thus:

“The present life of man, O king, seems to me, in comparison with that time which is unknown to us, like to the swift flight of a sparrow through the room wherein you sit at supper in winter amid your officers and ministers, with a good fire in the midst whilst the storms of rain and snow prevail abroad; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one door and immediately out another, whilst he is within is safe from the wintry but after a short space of fair weather he immediately vanishes out of your sight into the dark winter from which he has emerged. So this life of man appears for a short space but of what went before or what is to follow we are ignorant. If, therefore, this new doctrine contains something more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed.”^[25]

Bede summarized Edwin’s reign as Christian King of Northumbria in this way:

“It is told that at the time there was so much peace in Britannia, that whenever King Edwin’s power extended, as is said proverbially right up to today, even if a woman with a recently born child wanted to walk across the whole island, from sea to sea, she could do so without anyone harming her.”

In the Liturgy we ask, “For a Christian ending to our life, painless, blameless, peaceful, and a good defense before the dread judgment seat of Christ, let us ask of the Lord.”

May St. Edwin King be both a model and an intercessor for us today, together with the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council whom we also commemorate today. They lived the virtue of courage in standing up for the holy icons when they had been banned. Many became martyrs and confessors  after the resumption of iconoclasm for a time after the Council. But their witness lives on. Together with Martyr King Edwin they remind us of how an awareness of our own short life on earth can move us to make the best of it with God’s help.

Our modern Father among the saints, John of Kronstadt, lived a life of devotion to the faith in the world. Like many saints who were not monastic but lived in the world, he brought with him to his life in Orthodoxy some of the same qualities of devotion, hard work, ans attentiveness to the faith. He cared not only for Liturgy and prayer but also caring for the poor, the sick, the imprisoned. He wrote a prayer showing how each of us in the world with families and jobs can still like Martyr-King Edwin live a life for Christ. The prayer for confession speaks to me and perhaps all of us as Orthodox Christians of the need to keep our hearts open to God in the world. Let us attend.

“I, a sinful soul, confess to our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, all of my evil acts which I have done, said or thought from baptism even unto this present day.

I have not kept the vows of my baptism, but have made myself unwanted before the face of God.

I have sinned before the Lord by lack of faith and by doubts concerning the Orthodox Faith and the Holy Church; by ungratefulness for all of God’s great and unceasing gifts; His long-suffering and His providence for me, a sinner; by lack of love for the Lord, as well as fear, through not fulfilling the Holy Commandments of God and the canons and rules of the Church.

I have not preserved a love for God and for my neighbor nor have I made enough efforts, because of laziness and lack of care, to learn the Commandments of God and the precepts of the Holy Fathers.

I have sinned: by not praying in the morning and in the evening and in the course of the day; by not attending the services or by coming to Church only half-heartedly, lazily and carelessly; by conversing during the services, by not paying attention, letting my mind wander and by departure from the Church before the dismissal and blessing.

I have sinned by judging members of the clergy.

I have sinned by not respecting the Feasts, breaking the Fasts, and by immoderation in food and drink.

I have sinned by self-importance, disobedience, willfulness, self-righteousness, and the seeking of approval and praise.

I have sinned by unbelief, lack of faith, doubts, despair, despondency, abusive thoughts, blasphemy and swearing.

I have sinned by pride, a high opinion of my self, narcissism, vanity, conceit, envy, love of praise, love of honors, and by putting on airs.

I have sinned: by judging, malicious gossip, anger, remembering of offenses done to me, hatred and returning evil for evil; by slander, reproaches, lies, slyness, deception and hypocrisy; by prejudices, arguments, stubbornness, and an unwillingness to give way to my neighbor; by gloating, spitefulness, taunting, insults and mocking; by gossip, by speaking too much and by empty speech.

I have sinned by unnecessary and excessive laughter, by reviling and dwelling upon my previous sins, by arrogant behavior, insolence and lack of respect.

I have sinned by not keeping my physical and spiritual passions in check, by my enjoyment of impure thoughts, licentiousness and unchastity in thoughts, words and deeds.

I have sinned by lack of endurance towards my illnesses and sorrows, a devotion to the comforts of life and by being too attached to my parents, children, relatives and friends.

I have sinned by hardening my heart, having a weak will and by not forcing myself to do good.

I have sinned by miserliness, a love of money, the acquisition of unnecessary things and immoderate attachment to things.

I have sinned by self-justification, a disregard for the admonitions of my conscience and failing to confess my sins through negligence or false pride.

I have sinned many times by my Confession: belittling, justifying and keeping silent about sins.

I have sinned against the Most-holy and Life-creating Mysteries of the Body and Blood of our Lord by coming to Holy Communion without humility or the fear of God.

I have sinned in deed, word and thought, knowingly and unknowingly, willingly and unwillingly, thoughtfully and thoughtlessly, and it is impossible to enumerate all of my sins because of their multitude.

But I truly repent of these and all others not mentioned by me because of my forgetfulness and I ask that they be forgiven through the abundance of the Mercy of God.”

Brothers and sisters, let us keep this spirit of confession in our heart each day of all the year, that each day even out and about in the world, we may renew our baptism, and feel Jesus Christ reborn and resurrected in our life, even in this beautiful autumn season in northern Appalachia. May the autumn tree colors touch our hearts to remind us both of the beauty of God’s glory and the nearness of mortality in the fall toward winter, and to do our best to do something beautiful for God by His grace, like the Martyr King Edwin and the Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council. Even so the Gospel readings remind us today of how our Lord Jesus Christ gave compassion and healing in the world even as He led to the heights of theology in his prayer that we may all be one as He and the Father are one. Glory to God for all things!

***

The Reading from the

Holy Gospel according to Luke,

§30 [7:11-16]

At that time, Jesus went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went with Him, and many people. Now when He came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And many people of the city were with her. And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said unto her, ‘Weep not.’ And He came and touched the bier, and those who bore him stood still. And He said, ‘Young man, I say unto thee, arise.’ And he that was dead sat up and began to speak. And He delivered him to his mother. And there came a fear on all, and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet is risen up among us’; and, ‘God hath visited His people.’

Holy Gospel according to John,

§56 (17:1-13]

At that time Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, ‘Father, the hour is come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee, as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. And this is life eternal: that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee on the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own Self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. I have manifested Thy name unto the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world. Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to Me, and they have kept Thy Word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever Thou hast given Me are of Thee. For I have given unto them the Words which Thou gavest Me; and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send Me. I pray for them; I pray not for the world, but for them whom Thou hast given Me, for they are Thine. And all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy name. Those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to Thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves.’

Read all about it at the Union of Orthodox Journalists:

https://uoj.news/man-and-church/an-orthodox-perspective-on-bible-study

An Homily from St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church in Winfield, PA, for the 20th Sunday After Pentecost

In junior high, a classmate was always getting on the wrong side of our teacher, who was very old school so to speak, for he had grown up in a sod house on a farm in Nebraska and was a dedicated Seventh-Day Adventist, although we were in a secular school just outside Chicago affected by the aftermath of the 1960s.

Once as a punishment my fellow pupil was given the assignment of writing the Golden Rule 100 times.

This was the era before artificial intelligence, and my classmate was quite puzzled, to begin with, about just what was the Golden Rule, for he was Jewish and the Golden Rule seemed more like a phrase from old-time American Protestant culture back then.

We were told not to tell him what the Golden Rule was, which maybe went against the Golden Rule itself.

I think he must have figured it out, though, because he passed eighth grade with the rest of us.

Anyway, we don’t have to guess about the Golden Rule today, even if we don’t know it by that name, because the Gospel presents it to us today:

“The Lord said, ‘As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.’”

St. Theophylact of Ohrid in his commentary on the Gospel writes that this Golden Rule draws on natural law, which Orthodoxy defines as the spark of God’s love in each of our hearts. It’s from our perspective in Creation, what we would like to have done to us.

But what comes after it, St. Theophylact wrote, points more directly to the divine, to the goal of theosis, or oneness with the divine energies, for it speaks of God’s perspective on this.”…love ye your enemies, and do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest; for He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.”

The Golden Rule for Christians really follows from what Jesus Christ our Lord identified as the two Great Commandments of the Old Testament law, namely to love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our will and all our mind, and to love our neighbor as ourself. To love our neighbor as ourself, we first have to have love for ourself, but the Great Commandments answer how to do that as Christians: It is to love God so wholly that we empty ourself in Him in effect.

Then to love our neighbor as ourself becomes to love our neighbor as we love God, not idolatrously, but iconographically, our neighbor also being an icon of Christ, made in the image of Christ, and following our Lord’s New Commandment to love one another as He loved us.

That goes beyond the Old Testament law, or rather fulfills it, because our Lord loved us more than Himself, as He died for us.

He also prayed that we be one with His Father as He is, in love, and one with Him. This is why we are part of the Body of Christ in His Church, to experience that oneness, or sobornost, that we also find with one another in Christ.

The other Gospel Reading today also tells us to let our light shine, and this is the same message really as the Golden Rule. We love others because Christ loved and loves us. He is the Light of the world, and because of that He said also in today’s Gospel that we are the light of the world. This is the uncreated light of God shining through. To let our light shine, St. Theophylact also explains, is not to display virtue, or virtue-signal as we say today, but is simply to shine, to love by example, and let the uncreated light flow through us from Him.

He notes that the jot and title of the law described as being fulfilled was understood by some Church Fathers as mystically referring to the upright beam of the Cross, the jot, meaning an upright letter, and the cross beam as the tittle, a crossed symbol of writing. This points symbolically to the law being fulfilled in our Lord’s love for us more than Himself.

We can think of this being sealed on the Cross but also expressed in our Lord’s sorrowful and co-compassionate embrace of all our sins, in the Garden of Gethsemane, where in agony he sweated as blood, mingling with tears on the earth, just before He was betrayed. So pierced by a spear on the Cross, water symbolizing baptism and blood symbolizing the Eucharist sprang from his most pure Body, emblematic of the mysteries of the Church, His Body still today.

As we commemorate the synaxis of the wonder-working hierarchs of Moscow today, we can remember how Metropolitan Jonah in the 15^th century A.D. stood for such love, along with other faithful, in rejecting the false council of Florence and false union with Rome, which had fallen away from Orthodoxy.

Metropolitan Jonah with the support of a Russian Orthodox Church Council became the first such hierarch to be appointed without the Patriarch of Constantinople, because the latter was embroiled in the false ecumenism with Rome.

Later good relations were properly restored with the Constantinople church, after the false union was no longer a threat, and eventually the position of Metropolitan of Moscow became for a time the Patriarch of Moscow, although that too was lost for a while after the Westernization of Peter the Great.

Still , St. Jonah of Moscow fulfilled the law in loving enough to risk all to stand for the truth against falsehood that would have damaged our Lord’s Church on earth and harmed or misled many spiritually. He marked the formation of the Russian Orthodox Church in a stand for freedom in Christ, more significant spiritually even than our secular 250^thanniversary of American freedom today.

His stand bore good fruit. Even today the Russian Orthodox Church in recent years has taken a stand against a type of false union with the West in terms of rejecting the schism in Ukraine supported by the non-Orthodox, and breaking official communion with Constantinople in resistance to it.

In Church history, this break, we pray, will be temporary, and must be handled in terms of love, exemplified by the Golden Rule. We seek to bear each other’s burdens, and in humility even when taking a stand for truth, must do so humbly, realizing that tomorrow undoubtedly we will need lessons ourselves.

But sacrificial Christian love sometimes means also being confessors of truth, not enablers of falsehood for our neighbors, as we strive to love them when the devil tempts them.

Let us pray in our little mission parish that we may always preserve our zeal in the Spirit, but with humility avoiding pride. May the Golden Rule be our banner in standing for truth with love for our neighbors, by helping them to find safe haven in the ark of the one holy apostolic and Catholic Orthodox Church.

Glory to God for all things!

***

The Reading for Sunday from the Holy Gospel according to Luke,

§26 [6:31-36]

The Lord said, ‘As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. For if ye love them that love you, what thanks have ye? For sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them that do good to you, what thanks have ye? For sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them from whom ye hope to receive, what thanks have ye? For sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest; for He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.’

Holy Gospel according to Matthew,

§ 11 [5:14-19]

The Lord said to His disciples: ‘Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in Heaven. Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle shall in any wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.’

From St. John Russian Orthodox Mission Church, Winfield PA, stjohnthewonderworker.com, 570-863-9039

(Note: The civil calendar runs 13 days faster than the Orthodox Church calendar, so our monthly newsletter appears in secular dating on the 14^th of each month, and dates are given first on the Church calendar and then on the civil.)

Special Pokrov Edition

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ of St. John’s Parish,

We begin October auspiciously as always on the Feast of Pokrov, the Holy Protection of the Mother of God, the original name of our parish, which we preserve in the mid-week Akathist of Holy Protection throughout the year. Please come if you can to our 7 p.m. Akathist for the Holy Protection Wed. Oct. 1/14, commemorating in particular this special feast.

May our Lady extend her protecting veil across our parish, our community, our country, and our outreach efforts on behalf of the Orthodox Christian mission to North America!

(Above) Photo by Longinus of St. John’s on a Fall morning.

A Season for Prayer

As we enter the Fall in earnest, the quiet time sometimes known as “Indian Summer” in these parts, having just celebrated our fall feast of St. John the Wonderworker of America a couple days ago (Sept. 29/Oct. 12), let us give thanks to the Lord for His Providence, including the joyful time with our Bishop Luke of Jordanville for the feast. During his visit we added our third Reader, Reader Nicolas, recently married to our new member Sofia. Axios and many years!!! Reader Nicolas now serves alongside Readers Luke and Nicholas–all three remote students in the Seminary that Vladyka Luke directs as Rector, glory to God!

(Above) Ordaining our third Reader at St. John’s. Axios!

Vladyka also led a lunch discussion for laity and inquirers, reminding us of the missionary nature of our community. In his remarks at the end of Liturgy, he reminded us of the need to follow the missionary example of our patron St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco, as we also ask St. John for his intercessory prayers for our works and lives, so that we may continue growing “step by step” under God’s direction.

Archdeacon Paisios, the Jordanville beekeeper, also checked out the site for our planned parish apiary on the Church land, which was then blessed by Bishop Luke. With remote help from the Archdeacon, we hope to have bees in residence this coming year. This is a first phase of our effort to engage in community gardening on our Church land, called the Garden of the Theotokos.

October is a relatively quiet month on our parish calendar, but we have a significant film outreach opportunity (see below), following first of all on the unmeasurable gift of Divine Liturgy each Sunday. Please invite your neighbors, friends, co-workers, and inquirers.

The new Church year of 7535 hits her stride this month, and the evening of the year moving toward the reminder of wintry mortality, yet glowing with the promise of the Nativity of our Lord, affords us time for meditation and renewed attention to prayer and spiritual study (see also the appendix to the newsletter).

Special Free Film Showing

Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky’s famed film Andrei Rublev, about the iconographer-saint, will be shown by the Bucknell Orthodox Christian community with St. John’s on Tuesday, Oct. 2, at 7 p.m. at the Elaine Langone Student Center Forum, Level 2, at Seventh Street and Moore Avenue, on the Bucknell campus. All are welcome! Discussion will follow led by St. John’s Priest Paul, a Bucknell English professor and Orthodox Christian campus chaplain.

Regular Weekly Services and Programs

Saturday Vigil 4:30 p.m.
Sunday Divine Liturgy 10 a.m. (Hours at 9:40)

Wednesday Akathist 7 p.m. (usually to the Holy Protection of the Mother of God, and specially dedicated to the Feast of Pokrov on Oct. 1//14).

Orthodoxy Online Class 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday (please check in with Fr. Paul for the link, priestpauls@pm.me; we are working through Priest-Martyr Sysoev’s Law of God book, copy available online)

Bible Class Sundays 2:30 p.m. at the Bucknell Barnes & Noble bookstore café in Lewisburg (finishing the Wisdom of Sirach and then to start Acts of the Apostles; no homework or prior knowledge is needed)

Coffee-Hour Education Program, after Divine Liturgy each Sunday. Oct. 18, 25, Nov. 1: Iconography Introduction by Reader Luke. In November/December: Sessions on Orthodox approaches to Bible Study by Ephraim, proper conduct during services, and Orthodox Christian time.

New Officers-Elect

At our recent parish annual meeting we had our yearly election of officers, with some rotation after three-year terms. We are very grateful in particular for Treasurer Vince Mazeski’s invaluable work, and Cam Mazeski for her dedicated help in many ways, as they rotate off, and also thank Reader Nicolas for all his work as Warden, while he rotates now to the Treasurer-elect position. Here are the new officers-elect (recommended by Priest Paul to Metropolitan Nicholas for his blessing, and not yet “sworn in”):

Warden, Justin Bogar

Treasurer, Reader Nicolas Teisher

Secretary, Reader Nicholas Maher

Parish Council Member and Cemetery Director, Reader Luke Soboleski

Parish Council Member and Sisterhood Representative, Matushka Olga

Auditor (not on the Council), John Osgood

The current Officers and Parish Council will continue until the swearing-in of the new Council hopefully within a few weeks, God willing.

Fundraising Projects in Future

At the recent annual meeting, we discussed fundraising projects for the new Church year, including for the permanent iconostasis, and food fundraisers. Also we discussed a plan to institute annual pledges for regular donations starting in January 2027, to add budget planning. Stay tuned!

“Halloween” Vigil

The popular and increasingly occult holiday of Halloween in the secular West falls on Saturday this year (Oct. 18/31). Please make our child-friendly Vigil service at 4:30 p.m. the focus of your activities.

Fellowship Cookouts/Gatherings

We begin the first of our fellowship cookouts/gatherings (‘remote coffee hours”) on Sunday Oct. 19/Nov. 1, at John and Makayla’s house. Thanks to them for hosting! We hope to schedule more of these in future, following discussion at our Annual Meeting this fall. Glory to God!

Prison Ministry

Priest Paul continues to visit the Muncy SCI regularly, with a couple other volunteers from our parish in the process of having their clearances completed to help. We hope to have Bucknell students involved as well. Please pray for our Orthodox sisters there, Tania and Tatiana, and also our catechumen Elisabeth. Please contact Fr. Paul if you would like to help volunteer or support.

Brotherhood of St. Alfred the Great

We are planning a fellowship hospitality lunch at a member’s home on Sunday Nov. 1, with hopefully a rotation of others to come. Stay tuned!

Sisterhood of St. Olga of Alaska

The Sisterhood has been occupied with gardening and cleaning projects, and at the annual meeting a return to a regular schedule for coffee-hour prep was discussed, for the Sisterhood to follow up on as doable.

Sick/Shut-in Ministry

Fr. Paul continues to make home, hospital, and nursing-home visits as needed. Many thanks to Justin for helping with rides.

Help for the Poor

The Rector in his report mentioned a few options for developing this ministry further, hopefully this Church year, and perhaps in the Christmas season.

A reminder on preparation for Communion

Please come prepared for the Eucharist by saying Preparation Prayers (in the Jordanville Prayer Book, and in the little “blue booklet” from Jordanville, and posted on our website here: https://4c966451-a460-4c35-b2e2-1fda434811be.filesusr.com/ugd/729f7e_7171a90ddb0e499a8e141483b6c26a7d.pdf

Also, if you cannot attend Vigil the night before for a good reason, please say Reader’s Vespers at home, and come early on Sunday to ask a blessing from Fr. Paul to receive, or refrain. (Here is the Reader’s Vespers service: https://www.saintjonah.org/services/vespers.htm)

You should be fasting properly during the week, and on the night before receiving please fast from all food and drink starting at midnight, unless you have a medical reason not to, asking Father’s blessing; likewise from marital relations the day before.

Confession should be given whenever any sinful act or passion is a stumbling block to receiving, remembering that we pray that our receiving may not be to our condemnation. When in doubt, it is better to come to confession, a mystery of the Church that provides a “spiritual reboot” with healing prayers, or to refrain. Confession is completely confidential and a benefit to all of us as sinners. Please observe the tradition of a minimum of confessing at each of the four major feasting seasons of the Church year. When possible, contact Fr. Paul in advance to schedule. As Bishop Luke pointed out at our recent feast, such preparation is not legalistic, but healing, and part of our spiritual training. Even as athletes train for their worldly contests, or we may train and sacrifice for worldly careers and family life (none of those being considered legalistic but essential for different types of health), so we must do for our spiritual warfare, with God’s help. Our Diocesan Bishop in a recent statement highlighted that confession and counseling as a spiritual father should be with done the Parish Priest (though with an exception for monasteries). If you have questions, please consult with Father Paul. Glory to God for all things!

A reminder on appropriate dress at Church

Long-sleeve shirts or jackets for men, with long pants.

Long dresses or skirts for women with shoulders covered, head coverings especially when coming up for Communion.

Please pray for our catechumens!

Noah, Corey, Charles, Ty, Laura, James, Wyatt, Aaron, Elisabeth

***

APPENDIX: PRAYER GUIDE

Please consult with Fr Paul, but this adaptation below of the “Optina 500” prayers for people living in the world may be helpful. It involves simplified Orthodox Christian morning prayers and readings, and other daily prayers based on the famous Russian Orthodox Optina Monastery’s 500 cell rule, but adapted for those living in the world in America. Again, please consult first with Priest Paul, priestpauls@pm.me.

***

Morning prayer: (these prayers can be found in complete form in prayer books or online, and are also given in full below under Small Compline/Evening Prayer below)

“Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God have mercy on us.”

O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth…

Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal… x3 with bows

Glory to the Father… Both now…

Most Holy Trinity have mercy on us, Lord be gracious to our sins, Master pardon our transgressions, Holy One visit and heal our infirmities for Thy name’s sake.

Lord have mercy x3
Glory…. Both now…

Lord’s Prayer, ending with:

“Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers…”

***

[Then during the day a total of 500 “Jesus Prayer” daily, with 50 prostrations daily, which can be divided up during the day]

Prayer Rope Prayers (could be 3 groups in the morning and 2 in the evening, on a 100-knot prayer rope, or other combinations of 5 x100 per day)

First group of 100. One hundred prayers with prayer rope, on each knot: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. Make the sign of the Cross with your right hand as you say the prayer standing if possible. A full prostration every ten prayers, or in whatever combination works well, 10 prostrations per 100 prayer-rope prayers. At each prostration, cross yourself as you say the Jesus Prayer.

Second group. Then again as above with the first group. [again the groups can be divided throughout the day]

Third group. Then again as above with the first group.

Fourth group. One hundred prayers on the rope consisting of “Most Holy Theotokos save me.”

One prostration for each ten 

Fifth group: As above with the first group.

Scripture reading daily: One chapter of the Gospel each day

***

Evening prayer: Small Compline (simple version without extra Akathist/Canon, see text below)

Small Compline as a Reader Service (Note that a booklet with Small Compline is available from Jordanville; please again keep in touch with Fr Paul for guidance and any questions, priestpauls@pm.me)

Note: The translation used is primarily that of Fr. Lawrence of Jordanville.   The order of service is based primarily on the Reader Service Typikon by Bishop Daniel (the Old Rite Bishop of the ROCA) and translated by Fr. George Lardas.  All the psalms are from The Psalter According to the Seventy, © Copyright Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Brookline, MA, used by permission. Some other material, such as prayers and hymns, are also Copyright HTM, used by permission. All rights reserved. These works may not be further reproduced, beyond printing out a single copy for personal non-commercial use, without the prior written authorization of Holy Transfiguration Monastery.  

Senior Reader:  Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us. 

Reader: Amen.  Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee. 

O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, Who art everywhere present and fillest all things, Treasury of good things and Giver of life: Come and dwell in us, and cleanse us of all impurity, and save our souls, O Good One. 

Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us. (Thrice)

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

O Most Holy Trinity, have mercy on us. O Lord, blot out our sins. O Master, pardon our iniquities. O Holy One, visit and heal our infirmities for Thy name’s sake. 

Lord have mercy. Thrice.

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

Our Father, Who art in the Heavens, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. 

Senior Reader:  O Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us. 

Reader: Amen. 

Lord have mercy. Twelve times.

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

O come, let us worship God our King. 

O come, let us worship and fall down before Christ our King and God. 

O come, let us worship and fall down before Christ Himself, our King and God. 

Psalm 50

Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy; and according to the multitude of Thy compassions blot out my transgression. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know mine iniquity, and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee only have I sinned and done this evil before Thee, that Thou mightest be justified in Thy words, and prevail when Thou art judged. For behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother bear me. For behold, Thou hast loved truth; the hidden and secret things of Thy wisdom hast Thou made manifest unto me. Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be made clean; Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow. Thou shalt make me to hear joy and gladness; the bones that be humbled, they shall rejoice. Turn Thy face away from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and with Thy governing Spirit establish me. I shall teach transgressors Thy ways, and the ungodly shall turn back unto Thee. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation; my tongue shall rejoice in Thy righteousness. O Lord, Thou shalt open my lips, and my mouth shall declare Thy praise. For if Thou hadst desired sacrifice, I had given it; with whole-burnt offerings Thou shalt not be pleased. A sacrifice unto God is a broken spirit; a heart that is broken and humbled God will not despise. Do good, O Lord, in Thy good pleasure unto Zion, and let the walls of Jerusalem be builded. Then shalt Thou be pleased with a sacrifice of righteousness, with oblation and whole-burnt offerings. Then shall they offer bullocks upon Thine altar. 

Psalm 69

O God, be attentive unto helping me; O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be shamed and confounded that seek after my soul. Let them be turned back and brought to shame that desire evils against me. Let them be turned back straightway in shame that say unto me: Well done! Well done! Let them be glad and rejoice in Thee all that seek after Thee, O God, and let them that love Thy salvation say continually: The Lord be magnified. But as for me, I am poor and needy; O God come unto mine aid. My helper and my deliverer art Thou, O Lord; make no long tarrying. 

Psalm 142

O Lord, hear my prayer; give ear unto my supplication in Thy truth; hearken unto me in Thy righteousness. And enter not into judgment with Thy servant, for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified. For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath humbled my life down to the earth. He hath sat me in darkness as those that have been long dead, and my spirit within me is become despondent; within me my heart is troubled. I remembered days of old, I meditated on all Thy works, I pondered on the creations of Thy hands. I stretched forth my hands unto Thee; my soul thirsteth after Thee like a waterless land. Quickly hear me, O Lord; my spirit hath fainted away. Turn not Thy face away from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit. Cause me to hear Thy mercy in the morning; for in Thee have I put my hope. Cause me to know, O Lord, the way wherein I should walk; for unto Thee have I lifted up my soul. Rescue me from mine enemies, O Lord; unto Thee have I fled for refuge. Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God. Thy good Spirit shall lead me in the land of uprightness; for Thy name’s sake, O Lord, shalt Thou quicken me. In Thy righteousness shalt Thou bring my soul out of affliction, and in Thy mercy shalt Thou utterly destroy mine enemies. And Thou shalt cut off all them that afflict my soul, for I am Thy servant. 

The Doxology

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace and good will among men. We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we worship Thee, we glorify Thee, we give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory. O Lord, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty; O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ; and O Holy Spirit. O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that takest away the sin of the world; have mercy on us; Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer; Thou that sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us. For Thou only art holy; Thou only art the Lord, O Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father. Amen. Every night will I bless Thee, and I will praise Thy Name forever, yea, forever and ever. Lord, thou hast been our refuge in generation and generation. I said: O Lord, have mercy on me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee. O Lord, unto Thee have I fled for refuge, teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God. For in Thee is the fountain of life, in Thy light shall we see light. O continue Thy mercy unto them that know Thee. Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this night without sin. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, the God of our Fathers, and praised and glorified is Thy name unto the ages. Amen. Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we have hoped in Thee. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes.. Blessed art Thou, O Master, give me understanding of Thy statutes. Blessed art Thou, O Holy One, enlighten me by Thy statutes. O Lord, Thy mercy endureth forever; disdain not the works of Thy hands. To Thee is due praise, to Thee is due a song, to Thee glory is due, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

The Symbol of Faith

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father, by Whom all things were made; Who for us men and for our salvation came down from the heavens, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man; And was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried; And arose again on the third day according to the Scriptures; And ascended into the heavens, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father; And shall come again, with glory, to judge both the living and the dead; Whose kingdom shall have no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life; Who proceedeth from the Father; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; Who spake by the prophets. In One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, And the life of the age to come. Amen. 

Then: 

It is truly meet to bless thee, the Theotokos, ever blessed and most blameless, and Mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim, who without corruption gavest birth to God the Word, the very Theotokos, thee do we magnify. 

Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us. Thrice.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

O Most Holy Trinity, have mercy on us. O Lord, blot out our sins. O Master, pardon our iniquities. O Holy One, visit and heal our infirmities for Thy name’s sake. 

Lord have mercy. Thrice.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

Our Father, Who art in the Heavens, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. 

Senior Reader:  O Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us.   

Reader: Amen. 

If the temple be dedicated to the Lord or to the Theotokos, the troparion of the temple is said first, then the troparion of the day (see below), then “O God of our Fathers…”, etc. 

If the temple be dedicated to a saint, the troparion of the day is said first, then the troparion of the temple, then “O God of our fathers…”, etc.  See the question about Patrons, if you are unsure about which troparion to use here.  If need be, you could simply omit the troparion for the temple, and use only the troparia given here.

Lo, thy care for thy flock in its sojourn/ prefig­ured the supplications which thou dost ever offer up for the whole world./ Thus do we believe, having come to know thy love,/ O holy hierarch and wonderworker John./ Wholly sanctified by God/ through the ministry of the all-pure Myster­ies/ and thyself ever strengthened thereby,/ thou didst hasten to the suffering,/ O most gladsome Healer.// Hasten now also to the aid of us who honour thee with all our heart.

On Sunday night:

Supreme Commanders of the Heavenly Hosts, we unworthy ones implore you that by your supplications ye will encircle us with the shelter of the wings of your immaterial glory, and guard us who fall down before you and fervently cry: Deliver us from dangers since ye are the Marshals of the Hosts on high. 

On Monday night:

The memory of the righteous is celebrated with hymns of praise, but the Lord’s testimony is sufficient for thee, O Forerunner; for thou hast proved to be even more venerable than the prophets since thou wast granted to baptize in the running waters Him Whom they proclaimed. Wherefore, having contested for the truth, thou didst rejoice to announce the good tidings even to those in Hades; that God hath appeared in the flesh, taking away the sin of the world and granting us great mercy. 

On Tuesday night:

Save, O Lord, Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance; grant Thou unto Orthodox Christians victory over enemies; and by the power of Thy Cross do Thou preserve Thy commonwealth.· 

On Wednesday night:

O holy Apostles, intercede with the merciful God, that He grant unto our souls forgiveness of offenses. 

And to St. Nicholas, Fourth Tone:

The truth of things hath revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, an icon of meekness and a teacher of temperance; therefore thou hast achieved the heights by humility, riches by poverty. O Father and Hierarch Nicholas, intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved. 

On Thursday night:

Save, O Lord, Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance; grant Thou unto Orthodox Christians victory over enemies; and by the power of Thy Cross do Thou preserve Thy commonwealth. 

Troparion of the patron of the Temple is sung here.

Troparion for our Patron

Lo, thy care for thy flock in its sojourn/ prefig­ured the supplications which thou dost ever offer up for the whole world./ Thus do we believe, having come to know thy love,/ O holy hierarch and wonderworker John./ Wholly sanctified by God/ through the ministry of the all-pure Myster­ies/ and thyself ever strengthened thereby,/ thou didst hasten to the suffering,/ O most gladsome Healer.// Hasten now also to the aid of us who honour thee with all our heart.

Then, Sunday night through Thursday night (if simple service):

O God of our fathers, Who ever dealest with us according to Thy kindness, do not withdraw Thy mercy from us, but through their intercessions guide our life in peace. 

Adorned in the blood of Thy martyrs throughout all the world, as in purple and fine linen, Thy Church, through them, doth cry unto Thee, O Christ God: Send down Thy compassions upon Thy people; grant to Thy community, and to our souls great mercy. 

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. 

With the saints give rest, O Christ, to the souls of Thy servants, where there is neither sickness, nor sorrow, nor sighing, but life everlasting. 

Both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

Through the intercessions, O Lord, of all the saints and the Theotokos, grant us Thy peace, and have mercy on us, as Thou alone art compassionate. 

On Friday night:

O Apostles, Martyrs, and Prophets, Venerable and Righteous Ones; ye that have accomplished a good labor and kept the Faith, that have boldness before the Savior; O Good Ones, intercede for us, we pray, that our souls be saved. 

Glory to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. 

With the saints give rest, O Christ, to the souls of Thy servants, where there is neither sickness, nor sorrow, nor sighing, but life everlasting. 

Both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

To Thee, O Lord, the Planter of creation, the world doth offer the God-bearing martyrs as the first-fruits of nature. By their intercessions preserve Thy Church, Thy commonwealth, in profound peace, through the Theotokos, O Greatly-merciful One.

On Saturday at Compline, the troparion and Kontakion of the Resurrection in the occurring tone for Sunday are read, if available. If not, available, then use the weekday version above.

IT SHOULD BE KNOWN: that from the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, and during all of the Holy Great Lent, on all Saturdays at Compline the Kontakion of the Resurrection is not read, but rather the one from the Triodion (except the fifth week of Lent), as also during the Holy Pentecost season on all days, the Kontakion from the Pentecostarion is read, until the Sunday of All Saints. If there occur on Sunday a feast of the Lord, only the Kontakion of the feast is read. But if there be a feast of the Theotokos, or one of the saints that have a Polyeleos, or a great doxology, the Kontakion of the Resurrection is read, but that of the occurring feast or saint is omitted.

Reader: Lord, have mercy. Forty times.

Thou Who at all times and at every hour, in heaven and on earth, art worshipped and glorified, O Christ God, Who art long-suffering, plenteous in mercy, most compassionate, Who lovest the righteous and hast mercy on sinners, Who callest all to salvation through the promise of good things to come: Receive, O Lord, our prayers at this hour, and guide our life toward Thy commandments. Sanctify our souls, make chaste our bodies, correct our thoughts, purify our intentions, and deliver us from every sorrow, evil and pain. Compass us about with Thy holy angels, that, guarded and guided by their array, we may attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of Thine unapproachable glory; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

Lord have mercy. Thrice.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

More honorable than the Cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim; who without corruption gavest birth to God the Word, the very Theotokos, thee do we magnify. 

Senior Reader: Through the prayers of our holy fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us.

Reader: Amen. 

On Sunday nights during Great Lent, the prayer of St. Ephrem is said here.

Then in any case:

The Supplicatory Prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos

O undefiled, untainted, uncorrupted, most pure, chaste Virgin, Thou Bride of God and Sovereign Lady, who didst unite the Word of God to mankind through thy most glorious birth giving, and hast linked the apostate nature of our race with the heavenly; who art the only hope of the hopeless, and the helper of the struggling, the ever-ready protection of them that hasten unto thee, and the refuge of all Christians: Do not shrink with loathing from me a sinner, defiled, who with polluted thoughts, words, and deeds have made myself utterly unprofitable, and through slothfulness of mind have become a slave to the pleasures of life. But as the Mother of God Who loveth mankind, show thy love for mankind and mercifully have compassion upon me a sinner and prodigal, and accept my supplication, which is offered to thee out of my defiled mouth; and making use of thy motherly boldness, entreat thy Son and our Master and Lord that He may be pleased to open for me the bowels of His lovingkindness and graciousness to mankind, and, disregarding my numberless offenses, will turn me back to repentance, and show me to be a tried worker of His precepts. And be thou ever present unto me as merciful, compassionate and well disposed; in the present life be thou a fervent intercessor and helper, repelling the assaults of adversaries and guiding me to salvation, and at the time of my departure taking care of my miserable soul, and driving far away from it the dark countenances of the evil demons; lastly, at the dreadful day of judgment delivering me from torment eternal and showing me to be an heir of the ineffable glory of thy Son and our God; all of which may I attain, O my Sovereign Lady, most holy Theotokos, in virtue of thine intercession and protection, through the grace and love to mankind of thine only begotten Son, our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ, to Whom is due all glory, honor and worship, together with His unoriginate Father, and His Most Holy and good and life creating Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. 

A Prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ, by Antiochus the monk

And grant unto us, O Master, in the coming sleep, rest for body and soul, and preserve us from the gloomy slumber of sin, and from every dark and nocturnal sensuality. Subdue the impulses of passions, extinguish the fiery darts of the evil one that are cunningly hurled against us, assuage the rebellions of our flesh, and every earthly and fleshly subtlety of ours lull to sleep. And grant unto us, O God, a watchful mind, chaste thought, a sober heart, a sleep gentle and free from every satanic illusion. Raise us up at the time of prayer firmly grounded in Thy precepts and keeping steadfastly within us the memory of Thy judgments. All the night long grant us a doxology, that we may hymn and bless and glorify Thy most honorable and majestic name: of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

Most glorious, Ever-Virgin, Mother of Christ God, present our prayer to thy Son and our God, that through thee, He may save our souls.

My hope is the Father, my refuge is the Son, my protection is the Holy Spirit: O Holy Trinity, glory to Thee.

Choir:  Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.  Amen.

Lord, have mercy.  Thrice.

O Lord, bless.

Senior Reader (Facing the East, rather than facing the people):  O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, for the sake of the prayers of Thy most pure Mother, our holy and God-bearing fathers, and all the saints, have mercy on us and save us, for Thou art good and the Lover of mankind.  

Choir:  Amen.

Senior Reader:  Remit, pardon, forgive, O God, our offenses, both voluntary and involuntary, in deed and word, in knowledge and ignorance, by day and by night, in mind and thought; forgive us all things, for Thou art good and the Lover of mankind.

Choir:  Amen.

Senior Reader:  O Lord, Lover of mankind, forgive them that hate and wrong us.  Do good to them that do good.  Grant our brethren and kindred their saving petitions and life eternal; visit the infirm and grant them healing.  Guide those at sea.  Journey with them that travel.  Help Orthodox Christians to struggle.  To them that serve and are kind to us grant remissions of sins.  On them that have charged us, the unworthy, to pray for them, have mercy according to Thy great mercy.  Remember, O Lord, our fathers and brethren departed before us, and grant them rest where the light of Thy countenance shall visit them.  Remember, O Lord, our brethren in captivity, and deliver them from every misfortune.  Remember, O Lord, those that bear fruit and do good works in Thy holy churches, and grant them their saving petitions and life eternal.  Remember also, O Lord, us Thy lowly and sinful and unworthy servants, and enlighten our minds with the light of Thy knowledge, and guide us in the way of Thy commandments; through the intercessions of our most pure Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, and of all Thy saints, for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages.  

Choir:  Amen.

Choir:  Lord, have mercy.  Thrice.

Senior Reader:  Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us.  Amen.

Good King Wenceslaus went out
on the Feast of Stephen 
When the snow lay round about, 
deep and crisp and even;
Brightly shone the moon that night, 
tho’ the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight, 
gath’ring winter fuel.

“Hither, page, and stand by me
If thou knows it telling:
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?”
“Sire, he lives a good league hence
Underneath the mountain
Right against the forest fence
By Saint Agnes’ fountain”

“Bring me flesh and bring me wine
Bring me pine logs hither
Thou and I will see him dine
When we bear them thither”
Page and monarch, forth they went
Forth they went together
Through the rude wind’s wild lament
And the bitter weather.

“Sire, the night is darker now
And the wind blows stronger
Fails my heart, I know not how
I can go no longer”
“Mark my footsteps, my good page
Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter’s rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly”

In his master’s step he trod
Where the snow lay dented
Heat was in the very sod
Which the saint had printed
Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing”

So goes the famous old English carol for the passion-bearer Prince Wenceslaus whom we commemorate today, the patron saint of the Czechs and Bohemia, his feast being the national day of the Czech Republic to this day. In Slavic, by the way, his name is Vyacheslav.

This Orthodox Christian duke or prince was known as a righteous ruler, meaning a just ruler in Christian terms. Although his martyrdom true to his faith is commemorated, his life was remembered for deeds of kindness such as the one celebrated in the carol.

Our Lord’s Gospel teachings remind us at the start of the Beatitudes that blessed are ye poor in spirit, for yours is the Kingdom of heaven, and blessed are the meek, for ye shall inherit the earth. In the original Greek, poor in spirit can mean destitute in the spirit, having no other hope but the Holy Spirit. Meek in the original Greek carries the meaning of mild or gentle. All these remind us of the importance of following our Lord’s command to love our neighbor as he loved us, and to ourselves be that poor in spirit and meek person, even if we are in some situations powerful and privileged, like Prince Wenceslaus.

There was a brilliant electrical engineer, mathematician, and philosopher, outstanding in many fields, Father Pavel Florensky, a devoted Orthodox Christian priest, who however got somewhat offtrack in some of his views about so-called Sophiology at the time of the Russian Revolution. That heresy, advanced also by others, was condemned by the Church, although he was not sanctioned personally. Father Pavel bravely wore his priestly clothes while working on Soviet industrial projects and became sentenced to prison for his faith. It is thought that he was condemned partly because of his efforts to save the relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh, whom we commemorated this past week. While in trouble with the authorities, in order to save another man, Father Pavel signed a false confession. At the same time, the relics of St. Sergius were saved by the secret committee that Fr. Pavel chaired.

Those miracle working relics were restored to St. Sergius Monastery of the Holy Trinity after World War II because of this, but Fr Pavel in the meantime had been killed by the godless communists. Although he is included in a famous icon of the New Martyrs of the Church, he has never formally been glorified. Like all of us he made mistakes, notably his confusion about so-called Sophiology, a heresy. Yet nonetheless his care as a priest for his flock led him to put his own life at risk for the sake of another man even though that other man had falsely informed on him. And he risked his life again to preserve the relics of one of Russia’s greatest saints for the sake of the faithful in time to come, even as those faithful were spiritually destitute under the godless Communist state.

In this he, like the deeds and intercessions of the Passion-bearer Wenceslaus, remind us of the Christian imperative that we care for others even more than for ourselves, even with all our sins and unworthiness, as we must seek wisdom humbly from God.

As we move ahead in this new Church year, growing the missionary work that Christ also made part of our purpose in His great Commission, let us consider how we too can care for others more. Consider our parish ministries to the ill and shut-ins, and to prisoners, we can always use more volunteers and support for those efforts.

Also, consider how, in the spirit of Christ’s words in Matthew 25 that when we help the least of those in need, we help Him, and He will remember us.

How can we in the Church year ahead also expand our ministries to the poor, perhaps through a program of Christmas gifts to children in need, expanding our existing help to poor children of Orthodox families in Africa, perhaps making food for poor families in the area, and so forth.

Such efforts also can include inviting those destitute in spirit and meek to come to Church, to events such as our Bishop’s visit tonight and tomorrow–by being ourselves destitute in the Holy Spirit and meek in emptying our selves in our Lord, to help others.

For in losing ourselves, as He said, we find ourselves in Him.

Glory to God for all things!

Rector’s Report from St. John’s Russian Mission Orthodox Church Annual Meeting, on the Sunday of the After-feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, 7535/2026, by Priest Paul Siewers. (The Annual Meeting came shortly after the 11th anniversary of the Mission Parish and covers the second year of his rectorship.) Above, a Russian painting of a priest blessing soil for farming.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

As we enter the new Church year of 7535 we ask God’s grace for continued strength, growth, and wisdom in our mission work. We thank God for all His help, and we ask His forgiveness for our sins and omissions. And as your sinful Rector I thank all of you for your sacrifices and work and especially prayers on behalf of our Lord’s mission.

As illustrated in this month’s newsletter, https://ecosemiotics.com/2026/09/14/st-johns-september-newsletter/, two images stand out in representing our mission as we pass from the old year to the new. One is the hawk perched on the Cross above our Dome, which finally was installed this past summer. This is a nice image of our aspiring faith and taking up the Cross for our mission work. The recent installation of that dome, together with the work done on our siding, marked a beautiful completion this year of the exterior work on our Temple, glory to God!

The second photo was of the marquee of the Campus Theatre featuring our outreach movie event. It was a reminder of all our outreach events this past year, for we remain a mission parish whose prime goal is missionary work in our region.

During the past year we have had eight baptisms, and we have eight catechumens. We also had an additional Reader, and his wife, a choir musician, take on helpful roles in the Church as new members, together with other new members, some starting as servers and chanters, one of whom is nominated to be Auditor this coming year, and another who has become our chief groundskeeper. Glory to God!

Our mission’s growth has also been distinguished this past year by a growing and young clergy team of converts. This past year we had our second Reader join our first in studies at the Pastoral School, my alma mater, which this year merged with Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville. Our outgoing Warden also joined the Pastoral School, and is scheduled to become a Reader when the Bishop visits next week. A community our small size having three seminary students (and soon to be three Readers) is unusual and a blessing, glory to God! It is my hope that we will continue to develop our clergy team in the next few years, if blessed by our Bishops, to include a full range of clergy ranks for our services and missionary work, glory to God! Given that we are a small mission lacking resources to provide clergy salaries and benefits, developing a homegrown local clergy team over time is very important. Please pray for our clergy!

In relation to the liturgical life of our Church, we also have seen the choir develop with help from the compiling of music binders for services. These follow the ROCOR framework of services more closely than we as a mission did in earlier years. Thanks especially in the past year to Elisabeth and Reader Nicholas for their work on this, as well as of course Sophia, and others for their continued work for the choir and chanting.

We had one wedding recently that drew many non-Orthodox to our Church, and in the process we added a new married household including a new member to our parish. Many years to the newlyweds Nik and Sofia!

And during the past year we had our first funeral that involved the first burial in our Orthodox cemetery next to us here. Memory eternal to our brother in Christ John Sam!

In our campus ministry, we have had a student at Bucknell and another at Susquehanna step forward to help with renewing campus Orthodox activity, which I am advising. We developed with students the film series as outreach, and will have our fourth film coming up at Bucknell on Tues. evening Oct. 20, the classic movie Andrei Rublev about the iconographer saint, followed by discussion. Please come and invite friends!

Matthew 25 raises the question of what we have done for the prisoners and the sick. In our ministry to those unable to attend Church due to health reasons, we  make regular visits, often weekly, and have traveled in that ministry as far as Harrisburg in the south and up to Williamsport in the north.  Justin has helped with rides to Church for one member at a nursing home who otherwise could not make it. The Sisterhood has gathered at the home of one of our shut-ins. We also have started a prison ministry at the Muncy Women’s State Correctional Institution, where I am volunteer Orthodox Chaplain. This work has included bringing confession and communion to some inmates who have not had that opportunity for many years. We have had a baptism and also made a catechumen there. Glory to God! We hope in future also to do more for the poor also mentioned in the Gospel.

We had two families depart this past year who had joined up with us for a few years after an unfortunate dispute at another parish in the region in a different jurisdiction. They live a distance away, and decided to rejoin their former parish closer to them, with a healing of sorts, thank God. They all left on good terms and we wish them well. One of those families experienced a very sad loss, and I beseech your continued prayers for them.

As Rector I have traveled to the Clergy conference at Jordanville last spring, as well as representing the mission at the feast day of our cathedral in Mayfield. I plan to travel with one of our parish to the triennial Diocesan Congress in a couple weeks. Other travels have included going with a few members to the conference on Orthodox mission in the South and by extension our region Appalachia, and earlier Warden Nik and I attended a ROCOR conference on Church music in West Virginia. I have regular visits, often weekly, to members unable to attend Church due to medical reasons, which this past year have involved going as far as Harrisburg in the south and up to Jersey Shorein the north.  I also have traveled this past year for house blessings and hospital visits, from Frackville to Mifflinburg, Jersey Shore to Elizabethville, sometimes during the night. I let you know of these travels only so that you will keep praying for this work. Glory to God!

Our Diocesan Bishops have issued a statement this summer in which they stated as a rule for us to follow that confession and the counseling of a spiritual father needs to be received from the parish priest, not from a priest elsewhere (with an exception for monastic situations). In the past I’ve been flexible about this, but this is a firm rule from our Bishops. As part of that I remind everyone that the minimum is to have confession at each of the four great fasts each year, but confessing regularly is spiritual self-care; the prayers are healing. Some do it more and that is good, and the blessing of this spiritual “reboot” needs to be sought of course whenever a sin or passion would be an obstacle to communing.

Speaking of spiritual self-care, when I traveled to Jordanville to see Bishop Luke and talked with him about his upcoming visit here, he gave me an obedience as your Rector: To guard time for prayer and contemplation and keeping whole for service. As your sinful and unworthy priest I’m glad to give and this is not meant to complain or brag; it is a great blessing to serve. But as we are planning for new clergy ranks, we have to plan for how to sustain them, recognizing that such work and expenses also are a sacrifice for clergy family members as well. While we are unable to pay clergy salaries and cover expenses as we did for my predecessors, Fr Claude when I saw him recently on his own suggested starting with a gas allowance. This would be helpful also for clergy families in our service team who travel far.

To return to the basic reason for our community, it is like a marriage, to support one another’s salvation, and to help save our neighbors and family members also, as a mission parish and Church family. Our Bishop’s upcoming visit illustrates this. Even with our small community, Bishop Luke is eager to emphasize a teaching element in his visit, so that our lunch will be with his blessing an experiment in not featuring visiting clergy, as much as we love to have them, but God willing a kind of round table where he will teach us on pastoral and doctrinal matters necessary for our salvation and evangelism. This means hopefully by the way that we need turn out and bring friends! Secondly, his visit will feature an Archdeacon who is a very accomplished beekeeper, to help us with plans to get long-planned beekeeping started, God willing. Since we acquired our land, some eight years ago, we have had interest by members in shaping a community landscape potentially including beekeeping, a small orchard, and gardening, to build our community and invite in others. We had have called this idea “the Garden of the Theotokos.”

Foremost of course comes the joy of celebrating the Eucharist with our Bishop, our living link to Apostolic times. To circle back at the end to Church activities, in addition to hosting services for all 12 major feast days, services across Holy Week, and weekly Vigils, we continue to host the weekly Online Orthodoxy class and Bible Study, and hope to engage more of us and more of the neighborhood so to speak next year in these ongoing activities. We have started coffee-hour education programs, which so far have included Cuthbert’s account of his pilgrimage to Georgia, discussion of a model of the Old Testament Tabernacle and its prefiguring of our Orthodox Christian Church worship, and currently Reader Luke’s iconography classes, with future topics to include such issues as Orthodox time-keeping and approaches to Bible study. Also, we’ll hear later at today’s meeting about fundraising to build out the iconostasis design by nationally prominent Orthodox architect Andrew Gould as part of our Temple beautification. This will hopefully help with outreach as well in the beauty of our services.

Finally, we hope to keep growing our community presence. Just yesterday we were out at the Mifflinburg Oktobertfest passing out brochures about our Church and about Orthodox Christianity. This past year we were at the Pineknotters Festival in Norrie with a table, and also did mini-processions at the Christkindl festival and in downtown Lewisburg and Sunbury. More visitors and inquirers than ever find us online. We hope this year to renew our online outreach further, too. May the Lord prosper our efforts.

In conclusion, as your Rector and spiritual father I ask your prayers as you are always in mine along with St. John Mission Parish. I give a metanoia in prostration before you all, with thanks for your sacrifices, prayers, and work for our Lord’s Church, and to ask your forgiveness for my sins and offenses. Let us thank God for our mission, and hold each other up in love and unity in the Orthodox Gospel of Jesus Christ. Glory to God for all things!

An homily from St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church for the Leave-taking of the Exaltation of the Cross, 7535/2026, by Priest Paul Siewers.

St. John’s mission had a presence at the Mifflinburg Oktoberfest this weekend, which also marks on the Church calendar this year the Synaxis of all the Saints who have shone forth in Germany. Two of the most famous early Orthodox Saints of Germany came from Britain. They are St. Ursula of Cologne, who lived on earth in the fourth century, and St. Boniface of Mainz from the eighth century. Both were martyred by pagans. German Orthodox saints also include in the last century the Martyr Alexander Schmorell, a young man who witnessed to the Orthodox faith in opposing tyranny in Germany during World War II, a period when many Orthodox Christians were martyrs for our faith both to neopagan Nazism and atheistic Communism.

This year also marks the centennial of our Russian Church Abroad’s presence in Germany, where it grew first under refugees from Communism, and again from displaced persons after World War II. Our diocese in Germany recently acquired Seifriedsberg Castle in Bavaria for a monastery, symbolizing its growth now from converts.

The commemoration of the German Synaxis today also marks a fitting Apodosis or leave-taking on our Church calendar to the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross that, together with the Nativity of the Theotokos, mark the opening of our new Church year. For just as the Theotokos exemplified the joyful sorrow of ascetic self-sacrifice in her life from her birth, fulfilling Old Testament prophecies, so too must we witness to Christ both on the Cross and Resurrected, by emptying ourselves into Him as symbolized by the Cross. In doing so, we find ourselves by losing ourselves, and learn to love as He did, to love our neighbor more than ourself, in Christ.

Our patron Saint John, whose upcoming commemoration Oc.t 11-12 we will commemorate with a visit from our Bishp, God willing, also illustrated bearing a Cross of witness in different ways. Helping orphans in dangerous streets of Shanghai, enduring an unjust lawsuit by parishioners, working wonders with his prayers, he slept briefly in a chair and reposed beneath our beloved Kursk Root Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God. So, unworthily following our saint’s example, may we too carry our Cross. 

Elder Ephraim of blessed memory, whose spiritual children founded the Monastery of Holy Protection near us, and who is profiled in the book Glorified in America published by Holy Trinity Press in Jordanville, once gave a short homily that relates to our Gospel today about taking up the Cross. https://otelders.org/theology-and-spirituality/st-macarius-and-the-skull-elder-ephraim-of-arizona/ He said,

Saint Macarius the Great, walking in the desert, found in his path a human skull. He struck the skull with his staff and asked it: “Who were you in life? What kind of person were you?” A voice was heard from the skull, saying: “In life I was a pagan priest.”

And that voice added: “You are Macarius, the man of God, and your prayers reach even me, who am in hell.” And the Saint, being amazed, asked: “How, then, do idol-worshippers benefit? And what is the benefit of my prayers?”

The other replied again: “Your prayers reach so far as to bring a little light to the place where we dwell, to this dense darkness in which each one believes that he is alone in hell”—another measure of hell as well: for a person to think that he is alone in hell and that there are no others, for to believe that there are others is also a small consolation.

“And your prayers bring a little light, and we see that beside us there are others condemned to hell; and for us this is a consolation.” And immediately the Saint struck the skull again with his staff and said: “God forbid that such a situation could ever be a consolation: for a man to see those who are tormented together with him in hell!”

And through all the signs and proofs of the ascetic Tradition, clearly and beyond all doubt, is fully confirmed the teaching of our Church concerning eternal hell.

What remains for us, if we Orthodox Christians firmly believe that, if we sin, if we do not repent, if we do not weep, if we do not change our lives, we shall go to hell, and our hell will be that dreadful hell, that eternal hell, that eternal death and separation of our soul from our sweetest God, is to compel ourselves and take heed to our life, so that it may be fitting for salvation.

As human beings, we all err, without exception, however great and powerful we may be. To be without sin belongs only to God alone. Every person is sinful. More or less, we all have sinned; we have grieved, embittered, and wounded the heart of God.

Now we must restore it, sweeten it and gladden it through repentance and change. And at each of our sins, at each wandering astray, we must immediately turn our mind and our word, both spoken and inward, toward saying: “My God, I have sinned; forgive me, I have erred!”

And immediately, if possible, let us shed tears, for this repentance and these tears receive power; they receive God’s forgiveness. And when we come under the epitrachelion [at confession], we receive forgiveness in deed. That is, we receive perfect forgiveness from God.

And if you have known, and surely you have known, the joy and rest of the soul at the moment when we confess and receive forgiveness. And merely with the concern for all that I have said, all in which I have erred, all by which I have embittered God, at this moment I receive the remission of sins, I receive forgiveness, the gate of Paradise is opened to me, I am set free, at the hour of death, from despair and hopelessness.

For how will a man despair and lose hope when his conscience will testify for him, saying: “Yes, I have sinned, but I repented and received forgiveness according to the law”? Since the sinner receives forgiveness according to the law, there should not be, at the hour of death, despair and hopelessness.

Hopelessness and despair follow and grievously afflict the one whom the hour of death finds unrepentant and uncorrected. Hopelessness and despair are the fruit of this life. Therefore, not only do we receive forgiveness, the remission of sins, and become blessed, but we also gain deliverance from despair and hopelessness at the difficult hour of the separation of our soul from the body.

For the separation of the soul is grievous. We have not tasted this separation. We perceive it in imagination and in theory, but not in reality. Those who have died have tasted this separation, but they were not permitted to convey it to us, to tell us what this pain is like, this grievous and terrible pain of death.

We understand it from the expression of the face. We see people at that hour when they surrender their soul to God; we see it in the features of their face. If you have known, if you have seen, most often it becomes very grave. But this does not mean that the person has gone to hell. Yet this is how things are. It is their nature.

If the Christian becomes conscious of these realities, these truths which we see in practice, internalizes them, and reflects upon them and lives them, then from these is born the light of the fear of God; and when the light shines, a man walks uprightly.

And I must humbly pray that not only we, but all our Christians may be made worthy of this saving preparation for death. For, as we have said, after death there is no repentance.”

In conclusion, Brothers and sisters, let us remember the mystery that the fear of God is also identifiable with the Christian virtue of love. This involves taking up the Cross, with a sense of wonder at God’s love for us, and a willingness to go the extra mile in denying ourself in Christ to love our neighbor more than ourself. May God make it so. Glory to Jesus Christ!

(Above, icon of the finding of the Cross. Below, Vigil for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross at St. John’s Church.)

An homily for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, 7535/2026, from St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church, by Priest Paul Siewers.

Let us consider an ancient prophecy of the Cross from more than 2,600 years ago. In the Orthodox (Septuagint) Bible, the Prophet Habakkuk exclaims:

“ O Lord, I have heard thy report, and was afraid: I considered thy works, and was amazed: thou shalt be known between the two living creatures, thou shalt be acknowledged when the years draw nigh; thou shalt be manifested when the time is come; when my soul is troubled, thou wilt in wrath remember mercy.”

Saint Augustine wrote that the “two living creatures” mentioned in Habakkuk’s prophecy of Christ can be understood as the two thieves crucified on either side of our Lord. One, the Wise Thief, sought Jesus’ mercy and received it according to Scripture and Tradition. This is why the so-called foot rest on our Russian Cross, as seen also above our temple, tilts upward to the Right of Christ. “Today you shall be with me in Paradise,” says our Lord, Who through His Cross reopened Paradise for all of us.

This is why also the Wise Thief, known in Russian Orthodoxy as Saint Rakh, historically was portrayed in iconography on a door of the iconostasis to the north of the royal doors. He was depicted as being in Paradise, the meaning of his name in Slavonic. He showed entry into Paradise through Christ, symbolized as an entrance through the iconostasis into the Church altar area, the fulfillment of the old “holy of holies” in the Old Testament Temple, which opens for believers at the time of the Eucharist. The second figure crucified beside our Lord on the other side, the foolish thief, reviled and blasphemously ridiculed Christ. The two thieves represent all of us and each of us, in the conflict between emptying ourselves in Christ versus wrongly asserting ourselves.

Saint Augustine secondly at the same time said the “two living creatures” could represent Moses and Elijah with our Lord at the Transfiguration, with them personifying the law and the prophets. This too relates to our feast today, the Exaltation of the Cross. For today’s feast comes 40 days after the Feast of the Transfiguration, following a traditional timeline for the Crucifixion. The Feast of the Transfiguration is understood by Church Fathers as a day when Jesus Christ showed His glory to His closest disciples, so that they could remember and not be overwhelmed by the Crucifixion to come. Later, the Church deemed the Feast of Transfiguration too joyous to be celebrated during Great Lent, and so it was moved to the harvest time of the season of the fast leading up to the Dormition, which is known as the Summer Pascha. So today’s commemoration of the finding of the Cross under St. Helen and the recovery of the Cross from the heathen Persians was moved to today, 40 days after the Transfiguration. We have in effect a sense of Holy Week here that straddles the beginning of the Church Year. It is a reminder too, so near the Nativity of the Theotokos, of the prophecy by Righteous Simeon to her as a new mother aged 14 that a sword also would pierce her heart—meaning that she would participate in the sorrow of the Crucifixion of her Son, becoming an intercessor for us.

Finally, St. Augustine also said that Habakkuk’s prophecy of “two living creatures” on either side of our Lord could be interpreted in terms of the Old and New Testaments. Our Lord fulfilled both combined in synergy. He fulfilled the Old Testament law and prophets, in His New Testament, as fully God and fully man. The Cross also symbolizes the coming together of the transcendent or divine, with its vertical bar, and the incarnational or human in its horizontal bar. Maybe one could speak also of the coming together of Greek or Gentile wisdom with Old Testament wisdom, since the New Testament was composed in Greek, and the old originally in Hebrew, although it survives most authentically in the Greek Septuagint. The crossing so to speak in that sense indicates the Byzantine aspect of Orthodoxy mixing Greek with biblical terminology and culture, from which Russian Orthodoxy takes her role as the outgrowth of the so-called “Third Rome” of the Christian Roman Empire of the Greek-speaking world.

It could also be said the two creatures, related to this, symbolize the Word and the Son, if the Word is taken as the divine and the Son as the human (although the phrase Son of God can also refer of course to the divine). This coming together of the two natures, fully God and fully man, must be understood however as unconfused and undivided, as the Church teaches, two natures in one Person.

In any case, the Cross, bringing together the transcendent and the incarnational, is the answer to the greatest mystery of classical philosophy, of Plato’s emphasis on the ideal and Aristotle’s emphasis on the organic. They both come together and are fulfilled in the Word made flesh and crucified and Risen.

But ultimately the Cross most of all indicates Christ’s giving of His life for us, of course. The footrest in the Orthodox Cross significantly indicates the outreach from our Lord’s sacrifice to us as saving grace, in His love. 

St. Theophan the Recluse, a major saint of 19^th century Russia, spoke of the inner meaning of our major feast today in these terms: https://orthochristian.com/48848.html 

“The Exaltation of the Lord’s Cross has arrived. Then the Cross was erected on a high place, so that the people could see it and render honor to it. Now, the cross is raised in the churches and monasteries. But this is all external. There is a spiritual exaltation of the cross in the heart. It happens when one firmly resolves to crucify himself, or to mortify his passions—something so essential in Christians that, according to the Apostle, they only are Christ’s who have crucified their flesh with its passions and lusts (cf. Gal. 5:24). Having raised this cross in themselves, Christians hold it exalted all their lives. Let every Christian soul ask himself if this is how it is, and let him hearken to the answer that his conscience gives him in his heart. Oh, may we not hear, “You only please your flesh in the passions; your cross is not exalted—it is thrown into the pit of the passions, and is rotting there in negligence and contempt!”

“When the Lord was taken down from the Cross, the Cross remained on Golgotha, and then it was thrown into the pit that was in that place, where this instrument of execution was usually thrown, together with other refuse. Soon Jerusalem was razed and all of its edifices were leveled to the ground. The pit containing the Cross of Christ was also filled over. When the pagans rebuilt the city (the Jews were forbidden to come near the place where it was), it happened that on the place where the Cross of Christ was hidden, they placed an idol of Venus, the pagan Goddess of fornication and all manner of lusts. This is what the enemy suggested to them. This is how it is with our inner cross. When the enemy destroys the spiritual order in the soul, this is our mental Jerusalem, and then the spiritual cross is thrown down from the Golgotha of the heart and is covered over with the garbage of the affections and lusts. Lustful self-pleasure then rises like a tower over all our inner peace, and everything in us bows down to it and fulfills its commands until grace shines upon us, inspiring us to cast down the idol and lift up the cross of self-crucifixion.”

This is why we as Orthodox Christians wear a Cross. Laity wear the Cross next to their skin under their shirt, so it is close to the heart and it is worn in humility that we bear the Cross as such. I did this for 24 years after my baptism into the Orthodox Church. But the last three years of my life, since being ordained as a priest, obediently I now wear a Cross outside my black robes as a priest, publicly around my neck. Why? Purposely to be a fool for Christ, as a sinful Priest who is in the public role of handling the bloodless sacrifice, as a shepherd unworthily representing our Bishop and ultimately our Lord, yet all sinfully in black. For the great human temptation is pride, which led Judas to betray our Lord. Wearing a Cross publicly means I am accountable for my role in the Church and my behavior, and also that I am marked as a target to be killed for others in times of persecution, so that others may be able to escape, which is part of our Russian Orthodox tradition too. It also marks me, like a red light on an old-fashioned emergency phone box, as an Orthodox priest in public for those who are in urgent spiritual need or may try to find the true faith. But we all do and must bear the Cross we receive at baptism as Orthodox Christians in our heart. To do that in the most authentic way we must start by recognizing our own sins first and foremost of all, so that we can follow our Lord. Crucifying our old self, taking up our Cross, we remember how John was the only one of the Apostles who did not meet a violent martyr’s death like our Lord. That is because he did not run from the Crucifixion initially as did the others. He kept with our Lord until the end and embraced the Cross in that way.

But for all the Apostles came the bright morning of the Resurrection. And remember brothers and sisters, every Sunday is the Lord’s Day, the Day of Resurrection, when we are blessed to partake of our Lord’s sacrifice and make ourselves a sacrifice of our lives for Him. Today too is the day of Resurrection. Thus the Cross is the Ladder for us to climb to obey our Lord’s New Commandment, to love one another as He loved us.

Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!

Remarks from a wedding at St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church in Winfield, PA, on the afternoon of the Feast of the nativity of the Theotokos, 7535/2026, by Priest Paul Siewers.

The wise Solomon said that the way of an eagle in flight is too wonderful, like the way of a man and a woman. For both are mysteries in a way that stand for larger mysteries.

Nicolas and Sofia, your Church family, your families, and friends are so grateful, blessed, and joyful today for your wedding, and for the coming together as one of two beautiful but arduous spiritual journeys. These journeys led you first from youth to the Orthodox Church and then to one another. And in a sense you bring all your families and friends together with you now. You can today feel all the love not only between you but among us, and from God, here in this mystery of the ancient Church. Glory to Jesus Christ! He is with us as He was at the Wedding at Cana of Galilee ,in the icon before us.

What is the most important thing in marriage, Matushka and I were asked by an Orthodox priest before our wedding years ago. Love I said, respect she said. No you’re both wrong, said the priest. It is commitment! Commitment to one another and to Jesus Christ. And that is symbolized in the icon of the Wedding at Cana before us today. It is a mysterious icon in its way, and a portal to the spiritual realm, as is marriage in Orthodox Christianity. The purpose of marriage is to help one another find salvation and also to help others with that along the way. And the Orthodox Christian wedding service like the icon is also a sign of the Marriage of Jesus Christ to all in His Church including the wedding couple.

A wise priest has said of this icon, “In a sense, the only groom in the icon of the wedding in Cana of Galilee is Christ himself, and the bride is identified twice: once crowned and sitting at the head of the banquet celebrating her coronation, and once as Mary, the Mother of God, intimately standing close, to His right and behind Jesus, talking softly to him, with Jesus’ head turned toward her.  These are both mystically pictures of the bride, at once exalted to the head and prominent position as queen of the heavenly household, and at the same time hidden behind Christ Her Groom speaking softly only to Him and receiving His full attention…” (https://www.pravmir.com/the-marriage-icon/)

This also is an especially beautiful day to start your journey together in married and family life. Today is the first major feast of the Church year, the Feast of the birth of the Virgin Mary to the patron saints of marriage, Joachim and Anna. When in the wedding ceremony you go around with me the icon of the Wedding at Cana, the choir sings,   “Rejoice, O Isaiah!  A Virgin is with child, and shall bear a Son, Emmanuel, both God and man. Orient is His name; Whom magnifying we call the Virgin blessed.” The names Emmanuel, or God with us, and Orient for rising dawn, are so hopeful and appropriate for today’s celebration of this mystery of the Church. The verse from Isaiah is so important that even Protestant translators of the King James Bible turned to the earlier Greek Septuagint for translating it, when usually they used the later Hebrew, which did not detail the virgin birth. In Trinitarian terms, the Virgin Mother, our Intercessor the Lady Theotokos, as Bride of God becomes also the Mother of God the Son. Christian marriage likewise is blessed as symbolic of such a mutuality of love that includes all of us in the Body of Christ and families and friends of the beloved couple together as well. The Slavs have a name for this mystical unity of the Church, sobornost.

But why is it that often we weep in feeling such unity, at happy as well as sad happenings, sometimes with both feelings together? In a film, there may be some moment that moves us as we watch, and we find our ears tearing up, but it is not sad but joyful. Even in tragedy we can have joyful tears; at a recent commemoration of 9-11 I wept when hearing again of one man’s effort against the attack. That was a tragic story but wondrous at the true tale of self-sacrifice. At a wedding, we find tears when we are happy, lifted up partly I think by such a beautiful moment of self-sacrifice motivated by love, and in Christ, above the daily struggles and challenges that also are part of life. It symbolizes how St. Simeon the New Theologian said we should have tears, however small, when coming to joyfully but repentantly receive the body and blood of Christ at the Eucharist.

Certain moments in this fallen world catch us up in a larger experience of life, into a sense of other worlds, and weddings are among the most of those moments. Even in our small country church in American Appalachia we dwell, in this service, in living traditions with biblical and apostolic roots, in the sense of a natural supernatural beauty that surrounds us at this wedding today. This lifts us all into what in Orthodoxy we call joyful sorrow or bright sorrow. Such tears become like a waterfall we pass under into a hidden land as if on a boat at Niagra Falls. It is a sense of simultaneous joy and sorrow, joy for the moment and the coming together of the bride and groom with Christ in the Church, sorrow perhaps for our own regrets and the passing nature of mortal things. But still the tears are joyful, like a reminder of the salvific water of baptism, or the tears of our Lord at the Garden of Gethsemane, which watered the earth and bore fruit as the Cross bloomed like Aaron’s Rod as the Tree of Life in the Resurrection.

Likewise the crowns given the bride and groom today are crowns of joy for them as king and queen of a new family household, a little church and a little kingdom. Yet they also are crowns of martyrdom, reminding us all of the hard work and struggle that goes into marriage and family. Echoing this combination of meanings, at the celebration of Orthodox weddings afterward, by Russian custom guests will call out gorka (“bitter”) to call the bride and groom to kiss in a sweetness of life.

As the Patriarch Confessor Tikhon of Moscow wrote, “matrimony is perfect and acceptable to God, but only when at its foundation there is no desire of material gain, no low impulse, but the mutual love and devotion of the husband and wife, joined to self-forgetfulness, constancy, gentleness, patience, when the husband loves his wife and takes care of her, and the wife respects her husband and obeys him, as the head, which the Holy Church also demands from them (Ephesians 5, 22-29). Moreover, in order to be acceptable in the eyes of God, marriage must be entered in only in the Lord (Corinthians 7, 39), the blessing of the Church must be called on it, through which it will become a sacrament, in which the married couple will be given grace, that will make their bond holy and high, unto the likeness of the bond between Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5, 23-32), which will help them in the fulfillment of their mutual duties.” (https://www.orthodoxhistory.org/2010/07/06/st-tikhon-address-to-a-newly-married-couple/)

Brothers and sisters, often in Church we will wish a new priest or deacon “many years” and “Axios,” meaning worthy. While this is not of course an ordination of clergy, it is also a mystery of the Church. We humbly and lovingly wish to you both, Nicolas and Sofia, in the same spirit, that God may grant you many blessed and happy years together, and that with His grace and your hard work you may be worthy of your calling as husband and wife together in Christ. May you keep your zeal in the Holy Spirit and avoid worldly pride, and all of us too, by your example and our memory of this day. For as Alexei Karamazov said in Dostoevsky’s great Orthodox novel, “And if even only one good memory remains with us in our hearts, that alone may serve some day for our salvation.”Amen.