Just a few things:

1.  Vespers at 5:00 p.m. this Saturday.

2.  Divine Liturgy: Hearing of confessions and the reading of the hours at 9:30 a.m.  Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m.

3.  In honor of Mother’s Day, Holy Cross will be collecting baby layette items for new mothers in need for the Thelma Wynne Project located in Winnipeg.  The Thelma Wynne Project has been in existence in one way or another for over 50 years. For much of that time it has been located within St. Matthew’s church building. Dedicated women from Anglican churches in the city make or collect items and then prepare layettes for newborns. The layettes are distributed through social agencies in the city to new mothers who need them. The project has evolved somewhat over the years but originally was started by Thelma Wynne after whom it is named.  The items are to be new and include:  diapers, blankets, sleepers, caps, booties, baby soap, lotions, etc.  Holy Cross will be collecting these items for the month of May until May 30.  You can bring your donation to Holy Cross on Sundays or you can contact either Fr. Evan or Sylvia Kitzul at 256-8370 and we can arrange a pick up.

4.  “As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, ⁷but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. ⁸We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. ⁹Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you.”  (1 Thessalonians 2:6-9)

This Sunday is Mother’s Day, or, as I like to refer to it, the day I thank my mom for bringing me home from the hospital instead of a puppy like my sister Tania asked for.  Although, she did teach me to fetch, roll over, and play dead…except she never really wanted me to come back alive.  “Roll over Evan.  Play dead.  Stay…stay… oooo, Flintstones are on.  See you later.”  I would still be there to this day if my mom had not come by and said, “Evan, you know you are not a dog, right?”  Thanks mom.

The scripture passage is from St. Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians.  St. Paul compares the work done by the Apostles to the the role of a mother. St. Paul is talking about how the Apostles treated and acted among the faithful and states that they were gentle like a mother caring for her little children.  St. Paul talks of the joy that comes from sharing the Gospel of Christ, which is a message of sacrificial love, much like the joy a mother must feel about sharing their love with their child’s.  A mother’s love for her children, for her family, is a sacrificial love.

St. Paul talks about the toil and hardship, how they worked night and day.  Much like a mother who has to stay up until 3:00 in the morning typing up a social studies report on Hawaii (thank you for that mom), a mother will toil, will suffer hardships, and do so willingly and in silence for her child.  The sacrifices are done out of love.  The toil and the hardship, the working day and night, is a mother’s preaching of God’s gospel of love to her children.

So, to all the mom’s that read this bulletin, happy Mother’s Day.  Thank you for everything you have done for us, given us, sacrificed for us.  Thank you for showing us God’s love through your love teaching us that we are valued—no matter what.

God grant you all many years.
(Love you mom, thanks for bringing me home)

Answer to last week’s question:
True or false?  Jesus was sold into slavery by His brothers.  False.  That was Joseph in the Old Testament.  (And believe me, my brother would regularily quote this passage to my dad about getting rid of me.)

This week’s question:
True or false:  Jesus told a story about a housewife who lost her ring.

See you in church.

In Christ,

Fr. Evan

The Way of the Cross – May 9,2010

Just a few things:

1. Vespers at 5:00 p.m. this Saturday.

2. Divine Liturgy: Hearing of confessions and the reading of the hours at 9:30 a.m. Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m.

3. Thank you all that came out for Fr. Michael’s farewell barbecue. Fr. Michael will be making his way back to Australia next week. Please keep him in your prayers. It was a joy and a blessing to have him visit our mission and pray with us and hear his words of encouragement for us.

4. Mother’s Day is fast approaching. In honor of that, Holy Cross will be collecting baby layette items for new mothers in need for the Thelma Wynne Project located in Winnipeg. The Thelma Wynne Project has been in existence in one way or another for over 50 years. For much of that time it has been located within St. Matthew’s church building. Dedicated women from Anglican churches in the city make or collect items and then prepare layettes for newborns. The layettes are distributed through social agencies in the city to new mothers who need them. The project has evolved somewhat over the years but originally was started by Thelma Wynne after whom it is named. The items are to be new and include: diapers, blankets, sleepers, caps, booties, baby soap, lotions, etc. Holy Cross will be collecting these items for the month of May until May 30. You can bring your donation to Holy Cross on Sundays or you can contact either Fr. Evan or Sylvia Kitzul at 256-8370 and we can arrange a pick up.

5. On the Sundays that follow Holy Pascha we have our Provody or Graveside services. On these Sundays, the priest will go out to the cemeteries, do a Panakhyda/Litia service during which the deceased members of that congregation, of that cemetery are commemorated. Growing up, I always had mixed feelings about it. It meant that the service would go longer, that we would have to drive to the cemetery, it would be hot, and I would just want to go home. But then my baba would give me a plastic bag and I would make my way with my sister and we would go and get “goodies” from the different memorial offerings: cookies, candies, fruit. It was almost like…Orthodox trick or treating.

As I have “matured” (I know, I couldn’t even write that with a straight face), and have had
the opportunity to serve these services, I have a real deep appreciation for the spiritual and emotional importance of these services.

The Holy Orthodox Church teaches that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We believe in the bodily resurrection of the body. We are against cremation.

If anyone wants to know how we, as Orthodox Christians, are to understand death, the value of the body, all one has to do is attend the services of Great Friday, the commemoration of our Lord and Savior’s death. Christ’s body is taken down from the Cross with great care, His body is wrapped in linen, anointed with tears, placed in a new tomb.

The Orthodox Church has unequivocally taught since Christ’s crucifixion that the proper way to treat the dead is a reverent burying of the body in the ground, in the context of a proper funeral and prayers for those who have fallen asleep in the Lord. We are called to be imitators of Christ, to live as Christ did, and that includes His death as well. We follow the template that Christ established with His own death.

And like the myrrh-bearing women who came to the tomb to anoint Christ’s body, to pay respect to one whom they loved, we too return to the cemeteries and pay respect. We pray for those who no longer can pray for themselves. That is true love. That is how we honor those who have passed away. That is how we keep their memory alive, keep on loving them. We pray for them and ask our Lord and Saviour to grant them peace.

Graveside services are a communal event. It should be attended by all the members of a parish regardless if you have a deceased family member resting in the cemetery or not. We join with those who have lost someone dear to them and by our presence and our prayers we pay respect and testify to the victory of Christ over death.

Answer to last week’s question:
True or false: In Chapter 9 of John’s Gospel, Jesus says He is the light of the world? True. John 9:5

This week’s question:
What sin was Jesus condemning in His parable about the Pharisee and the tax-collector?

See you in church.

In Christ,

Fr. Evan

The Way of the Cross – April 25, 2005

Just a few things:

1. Vespers at 5:00 p.m. this Saturday.

2. Divine Liturgy: Hearing of confessions and the reading of the hours at 9:30 a.m. Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m.

3. This Saturday is the WOCA Sponsored Youth Bowling Tournament at Roxy Lanes on Henderson Hwy. 2-4 p.m. Please come and join us for a really fun afternoon. If you have any carpentry work to be done, let Fr. Evan know, because he will be hammering pins all afternoon long.

4. Mother’s Day is fast approaching. In honor of that, Holy Cross will be collecting baby layette items for new mothers in need for the Thelma Wynne Project located in Winnipeg. The Thelma Wynne Project has been in existence in one way or another for over 50 years. For much of that time it has been located within St. Matthew’s church building. Dedicated women from Anglican churches in the city make or collect items and then prepare layettes for newborns. The layettes are distributed through social agencies in the city to new mothers who need them. The project has evolved somewhat over the years but originally was started by Thelma Wynne after whom it is named. The items are to be new and include: diapers, blankets, sleepers, caps, booties, baby soap, lotions, etc. Holy Cross will be collecting these items for the month of May until May 30. You can bring your donation to Holy Cross on Sundays or you can contact either Fr. Evan or Sylvia Kitzul at 256-8370 and we can arrange a pick up.

5. I often wonder what it must have been like, those first few days after Christ’s crucifixion. The confusion, the sense of despair, the fear. The disciples going into hiding, wondering if the man they chose to follow was truly the Messiah, the Son of God or did they “back the wrong guy”? I understand the going into hiding. They were scared. They knew they would be “guilty by association”. Heck, even Peter, they disciple who answered Christ’s question,”Who do you say I am?” with “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” would end up denying that he knew Christ. Everything in their world was turned upside down and the feelings of comfort and understanding that they might have had from the words we hear in the Gospel of John, chapters 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 were forgotten. The very words Christ spoke to His apostles, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.” John 14:1 Their hearts were troubled, they could not trust.

But Christ’s death and burial affected not only His apostles, but all those who followed Him. And we see a contrast between the actions of the apostles and the myrrh-bearing women whom we commemorate this Sunday. The apostles ran and hid. The myrrh-bearing women, on the other hand, went to the tomb to anoint Christ’s body, to fulfill the traditions of anointing the dead, to give Christ the honor and respect due to Him. These women show great courage, great love and great devotion to Christ.

Often in life, when we are faced with troubles, the fight or flight instinct kicks in. One of two things will happen. We will face the problem or we will run from it. We will lock ourselves behind a big door, with a big lock, and hope the problem will not get to us, that it won’t find us. That is what the apostles did.

Or we can fight. We can be like the myrrh-bearing women and we can walk that path to the tomb of Christ. I don’t know if they were scared. I think they were. All the events that preceeded the crucifixion, the arrest, the trial. I believe it was not an easy journey. To go to the tomb of the man they believed was the Messiah, the Saviour, and they were going to annoint His dead body. It required courage to go to that tomb.

And their courage was rewarded. They were the first to hear the good news, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him.”

We will all face troubles in our life. We will have the choice to run or fight. We can face those difficulties because we have heard the angel’s voice, “He is risen. He is not here.” Every day of our life is a journey to the tomb of Christ, and the path will not always be easy. There will be dangers in many different forms, dangers that will challenge our faith and our conviction, undermine our trust. But we carry the knowledge and the comfort of knowing the tomb is indeed empty. That our trust has been rewarded, like that of the myrrh-bearers. “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death. And upon those in the tombs, bestowing life.” That, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is where we get our courage from.

Answer to last week’s question:
How many times is Jesus called “Son of David” in Matthew’s Gospel? 10 times.

This week’s question:
True or false: In Chapter 9 of John’s Gospel, Jesus says He is the light of the world?

See you in church.

In Christ,

Fr. Evan

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

1. Great Vespers at 5:00 p.m. this Saturday. We are back. Woo-hoo! There will be a special choir rehersal at 3:00 for specific parts of the Holy Week services. At 4:00 there will be a general choir rehersal for everyone interested in learning some of the basic melodies for the Holy Week services. Make sense? I hope so because I have a head cold and things are a bit fuzzy for me right now.

2. Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m. with the hearing of confessions and the reading of the Hours at 9:30 a.m. Please be advised that we will be blessing the pussy willows at the beginning of the service so that you may hold them during the liturgy, and espeically during the reading of the Gospel, “13. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! How blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!”, we can all wave our pussy willows and proclaim with joy the entry of our Lord King into His city.

3. Just a reminder of the schedule of services:
Holy Wednesday, (March 31) – Holy Unction at 7:00 p.m. at All-Saints in Transcona
Holy Thursday, (April 1) – Reading of the 12 Gospels at 6:00 p.m. at Holy Cross
Holy Friday, (April 2) – Shroud Service at 3:00 p.m. at Holy Cross
Holy Saturday, (April 3) – Vesperal Liturgy at 11:00 a.m. at Holy Cross
Holy Pascha, (April 4) – Paschal Matins at 5:15 a.m., Divine Liturgy to follow. We will be breaking the fast together in the multi-purpose room in the basement at St. Andrew’s College so you are invited to stay.

4. Holy Cross has a new webpage/blog set up. Thanks to the hard work of Bob Kaminsky, we have revamped our web-page. Now you can be up to date on everything that is happening in the wonderful world of Holy Cross, and let’s be honest, your lives were just a little bit empty not knowing, right? No? You were doing okay? I don’t believe you. You are all just putting on a brave face. You can check out the new site at www.holycrosswpg.ca

Anyhoo, we have revamped the site. You can now check out pictures of some of the activities Holy Cross has been involved with. You can catch up on missed bulletins. Heck, you can now collect them all, maybe get them bound in a book, put it on the shelf. If you ask nicely I will even autograph it for you. No, no one is asking? Anyone? did I mention that the site is www.holycrosswpg.ca?

Check it out. We would love to hear from you. If your own parish has a webpage let us know so that we can post a link to it. Let us know what is going on in your parish, in your part of the world. www.holycrosswpg.ca

5. Came across an interview that I wanted to share a portion of with you. The interview is with Ed Dobson, who is the subject of the book, “The Year of Living Like Jesus”. The book records his journey of eating kosher, attending synagogue, observing the Sabbath, celebrating feasts and festivals, and trying to think and act like Jesus Christ. (sounds like he was trying to be, oh I don’t know, say…Orthodox?)

One of the quotes from the interview that struck me as really interesting is this one: “When I pastored at Calvary Church (Grand Rapids, MI), we canceled all programs for a year – all youth activities, outreaches, Christmas and Easter programs, everything. We only had Sunday and Wednesday services. We read the Bible, shared the faith, and invested in relationships. We lost hundreds of members who were attached to the programs.”

One of the big things a priest will be asked is, “How active is your parish?” Do you have a Sunday School program, Bible Study, Catechism Classes, an active women’s group/sisterhood, an active men’s group? Do you have youth programs? Do you have an outreach program? And if the priest says no then the priest is seen as a failure. That the church is dying. And here we have a pastor that cancelled all of that and got down to what is the basic fundametal activity for a Christian: Worship and glory of God.

In my humble and sinful opinion I think the success of a church is not in the financial success of the perogie dinners it puts on, it is not in number of members in the women’s organization, it is not even in the number of paid members.

The true measure of the life a church, its health, is on that Sunday morning, or at the various other opportunities that we are called to come together and worship and give glory to God and whether or not the faithful come to that. You will have many that will say, “I do my part. I express my devotion to the church in the kitchen, in the meetings, etc.” They are sadly, attached to the programs…and not the church.

Pastor Ed Dobson tried to reverse that trend in his church. He spent a year eating kosher. For Orthodox Christians, the equivalent is following our fasting guidelins. He attended synagogue. For Orthodox Christians, the equivalent is attending the Divine Liturgy. He observed the Sabbath and celebrated feasts and festivals. For Orthodox Christians the equivalent is actually making an effort to participate in the liturgical calendar of our Holy Church. He cancelled the programs and told his flock that it was time to get down to basics.

It is time for all of us to get attached to our Church again it is time for us to get to the basics again. To make the worship and glory of God the reason for attending and allowing the joy and spiritual fulfillment that comes from it, then, and only then, inspire everything else we do in God’s name.

Answer to last week’s question:
Who did Jesus say would be remembered whenever the gospel was preached throughout the world? The woman who poured expensive perfume on Jesus’ head.

This week’s question:
What are the final words of Jesus, as recorded in the Book of Acts?

See you in church!

In Christ,

Fr. Evan

The Way of the Cross – March 28, 2010

Just a few things:

1. Great Vespers are at St. Ivan Suchavsky U.O.C.C, (939 Main St.), 5:00 p.m.

2. Divine Liturgy: Hearing of confessions and reading of the Hours at 9:30 p.m.

3. Passia Service: St. Ivan Suchavsky, 6:00 p.m.

4. Perogy sales: 512 dozen sold – $2066.50 raised. Thank you to everyone that helped out, placed orders, made deliveries, donated potatoes, flour or in my case, stayed far away from the pinching process.

5. Something about this Sunday’s Gospel lesson caught my eye. 35. In the morning, while it was still very dark, Jesus got up and went to a deserted place and prayed there. 36. Simon and his companions searched diligently for him. 37. When they found him, they told him, “Everyone’s looking for you.” Mark 10:35-37

The disciples go looking for Jesus and when they find Him, they say, “Everyone’s looking for you.” A lot of times, when we are faced with trouble, adversity, pain, we will ask “Where is God?” That somehow, God is hiding from us, that He is playing the best game of hide and seek.

The truth is, God does not hide. God is ever present. The best example of this is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Second Person of the Holy Trinity, God incarnate. Present, real, tangible. God “out in the open.”

This lenten journey is a journey of discovery. We hopefully take the time to stop being distracted by everything around us and look for Christ. Through prayer, through confession, through fasting, giving of alms, we will find Christ at the heart of every one of those spiritual actions.

If someone asks you, “Where is Christ?” tell them He is not hiding. He is there in your prayers. He is there in your fasting, in your confessions, in everything that we do, Christ is there. The challenge is to open our eyes, to ignore the distractions around us. That is what Great Lent and the spiritual life of the Church is all about. Every prayer, confession, time of fasting, church service, the writings of the Church Fathers, the lives of the saints, all these things are meant to be “eye-opening” moments. All these things should leave us wide-eyed and amazed.

Answer to last week’s question:
True or false? In Chapter 6 of the Gospel of John, Jesus is depicted as the water of life.
False. Jesus is depicted as the bread of life.

This week’s question:
Who did Jesus say would be remembered whenever the gospel was preached throughout the world?

See you in church!

The Way of the Cross – March 21, 2010
In Christ,

Fr. Evan