CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED HE IS RISEN!
(Man I love saying that!)
Just a few things:
1. Vespers this Saturday at 5:00 p.m. We are back to our regular schedule. Just a thank you to all of you that came out and participated in the visiting of the other parishes for Great Vespers at the various other parishes. Every Saturday saw more and more people coming out. It was truly wonderful thing.
2. Divine Liturgy this Sunday. Reading of the Hours and hearing of confessions at 9:30 a.m. We will be having a memorial litia served after the Divine Liturgy for Lyle Kitzul’s mother on the one year of her falling asleep in the Lord. After the service the Kitzul family has kindly invited all for a luncheon in the dining room of St. Andrew’s College.
3. WE ARE GOING BOWLING!!! It is on Alexander. The rematch that everyone has been waiting for, the Clash of the Titans! Fr. Evan and Alexander! This one is for all the marbles. (I better go buy some marbles). Alexander, I want you to know that I have been in training and I am willing to share picture of how it has been going:
bad hair from kingpin the movie with bill murray bowling
WINNIPEG ORTHODOX CLERGY ASSOCIATION cordially invites all Orthodox parishes to its BOWLING EVENT to be held Saturday, April 17th from 2 – 4:00 pm at ROXY BOWLING LANES on Henderson Hwy.
Admission is free! Snacks provided! Fellowship guaranteed! Bring your family and friends for a fun-filled frolic of frivolity! RSVP to Fr. Ted Paraskevopoulos at fr.ted@me.com
4. Sometimes watching/reading the news is difficult. It seems that more often than not, the bad stuff gets the bigger headline or is the top story on the television news. The more tragic, the more horrifying the better. Good news seems…weird somehow. News programs will have 29 minutes of the bad stuff and then one minute of postive, touchy feely, heart warming story about a rescued puppy from a storm drain and that should make us somehow forget about all that bad stuff.
This past Wednesday was the Feast of the Annunciation. On this day, the Archangel Gabriel announced to Mary that she had been chosen by God to bear the Saviour into this world. It was the announcement of the greatest news mankind has ever heard/known. It was “good news”.
Fr. Anthony Conairis in his book “Daily Vitamins for Spiritual Growth Vol. 1″ has this to say about this day: “If there is bad news of a world gone mad, take heart, there is also the good news of One who can restore it to sanity. If there is bad news of man’s sin, guilt and anxiety, there is also the good news of a loving Saviour who says, “Him that cometh to me I will in no way cast out.” If there is bad news of suffering, there is also the good news of a God who loves and cares; a God who comes to be with us in our suffering to strengthen, comfort and support us. If there is the bad news of death, there is also the good news of the Resurrected Christ, by His death trampling upon death to grant those in the tombs life.”
We as Orthodox Christians have a choice: We can be like the newspapers and the news programs and focus on the “bad news”, focus on the negative, focus on the darkness or we can do something a bit “radical” and tell the world of the Good News of the Resurrected Christ. The greatest news in the world was never meant to be a secret. Never meant to be announced in the “last minute” of the news program. Christ’s resurrection from the dead always has been and will always be the lead story.
Answer to last week’s question:
Complete the sixth Beatitude, “Blessed are the pure in heart…” For they will see God.
This week’s question:
How many times is Jesus called “Son of David” in Matthew’s Gospel?
See you in church!
In Christ,
Fr. Evan
