Just a few things:

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

2.  This year, to honour our fathers for Father’s Day, Holy Cross will be making a special collection towards our building fund.  Donations can be made in memory of our fathers who may have passed away, are still with us, or are possibly fathers to be.  The collection will be made on June 20th.  We will also serve the Litany for the Departed at this service for our beloved fathers who have fallen asleep in the Lord.  Please pass along those names to Fr. Evan at this service so their names may be commemorated.  Those of you who would like to support Holy Cross but live outside of the city can mail your donation to Holy Cross Mission, 29 Dysart Road, R3T 2M7.  Thank you in advance for your generosity.

3.  On June 20th will also be the Manitoba Marathon.  That means we have to take an alternate route to get to St. Andrew’s College as University Crescent will not be accessible for us.

Go to Dalhousie Dr., follow along to Silverstone Ave., and then turn left onto King’s Dr. and follow it to the campus. Turn right once you get onto the campus and follow along until you come to St. Andrew’s College.  I think we should alter the running route and have them come through St. Andrew’s College.  Who is with me?  It isn’t mischief or vandalism if we change a few signs or turn a few arrows around…think of it as “creative evangelism”.

4.   I was reading a booklet of essays by Fr. Dumitru Staniloae, a noted Orthodox writer called Prayer and Holiness.  I wish to share a few excerpts from his essay “Pure prayer, or prayer of the heart, and obstacles in the way”.

“Pure prayer is concerned with the reuniting of the mind (nous) and the heart.  Neither mind nor heart can be allowed to remain alone.  Prayer that comes only from the mind is cold; prayer the comes only from the heart is sentimental and is ignorant of all that God has given us, is giving us now and will give us in Christ.  It is prayer without horizon or perspective, prayer in which we do not know what to thank God for, what to praise Him for, what to ask Him for.  The man who prays in this way has the feeling of being lost in an impersonal infinity.  Such a feeling knows nothing of encounter with a personal God.  And thus it is not prayer.”

“We must also be quite clear that this meeting between mind and heart is not brought about by the ascent of the heart into the mind, but by the descent of the mind into the heart.  In other words, it is not in the mind that the heart finds rest; but it is in the heart (or rather where the depths of the heart meet the depths of God) that the mind finds the rest for which it is searching.”

“In the heart it finds the infinity of God.  It is not the heart that comes to rest in the mind, for that would mean that the feeling of the infinity of God had become a theory, chilled by thought.  It is not feeling that must be chilled by thought, but thought which must warm itself in the feeling of the heart in real contact with the infinity of God, and thus give this feeling a different content.”

Answer to last week’s question:
In John’s Gospel Jesus gave Himself a name by saying “I am…” seven times.  What was the second name? I am THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.

This week’s question:
In John’s Gospel Jesus gave Himself a name by saying “I am…” seven times.  What was the third name?
See you in church.

In Christ,

Fr. Evan

The Way of the Cross – June 13, 2010