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.  These following words are from the writings of Fr. George Florovsky.  I hope you will take the time to read them and reflect upon them and if you learn one thing from them, hopefully it will be that you are valued and that you matter.  I don’t mean in it the way that we may think of ourselves as a “big deal”, but that we are loved and that we are valued by Christ, by God, and that on the day of Ascension, which our holy church has just celebrated, humanity ascends with Christ.

In the Ascension resides the meaning and the fullness of Christ’s Resurrection.

The Lord did not rise in order to return again to the fleshly order of life, so as to live again and commune with the disciples and the multitudes by means of preaching and miracles. Now he does not even stay with them, but only “appears” to them during the forty days, from time to time, and always in a miraculous and mysterious manner. “He was not always with them now, as He was before the Resurrection,” comments St John Chrysostom. “He came and again disappeared, thus leading them on to higher conceptions. He no longer permitted them to continue in their former relationship toward Him, but took effectual measures to secure these two objects: That the fact of His Resurrection should be believed, and that He Himself should be ever after apprehended to be greater than man.” There was something new and unusual in His person (cf. John 21:1-14). As St John Chrysostom says, “It was not an open presence, but a certain testimony of the fact that He was present.” That is why the disciples were confused and frightened. Christ arose not in the same way as those who were restored to life before Him. Theirs was a resurrection for a time, and they returned to life in the same body, which was subject to death and corruption – returned to the previous mode of life. But Christ arose for ever, unto eternity. He arose in a body of glory, immortal and incorruptible. He arose, never to die, for “He clothed the mortal in the splendor of incorruption.” His glorified Body was already exempt from the fleshly order of existence. “It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body” (I Cor. 15:42-44). This mysterious transformation of human bodies, of which St Paul was speaking in the case of our Lord, had been accomplished in three days. Christ’s work on earth was accomplished. He had suffered, was dead and buried, and now rose to a higher mode of existence. By His Resurrection He abolished and destroyed death, abolished the law of corruption, “and raised with Himself the whole race of Adam.” Christ has risen, and now “no dead are left in the grave” (cf. The Easter Sermon of St John Chrysostom). And now He ascends to the Father, yet He does not “go away,” but abides with the faithful for ever (cf. The Kontakion of Ascension). For He raises the very earth with Him to heaven, and even higher than any heaven. God’s power, in the phrase of St John Chrysostom, “manifests itself not only in the Resurrection, but in something much stronger.” For “He was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19).

And with Christ, man’s nature ascends also.

“We who seemed unworthy of the earth, are now raised to heaven,” says St John Chrysostom. “We who were unworthy of earthly dominion have been raised to the Kingdom on high, have ascended higher than heaven, have came to occupy the King’s throne, and the same nature from which the angels guarded Paradise, stopped not until it ascended to the throne of the Lord.” By His Ascension the Lord not only opened to man the entrance to heaven, not only appeared before the face of God on our behalf and for our sake, but likewise “transferred man” to the high places. “He honored them He loved by putting them close to the Father.” God quickened and raised us together with Christ, as St Paul says, “and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephes. 2:6). Heaven received the inhabitants of the earth. “The First fruits of them that slept” sits now on high, and in Him all creation is summed up and bound together. “The earth rejoices in mystery, and the heavens are filled with joy.”

5.  Don’t forget!  Holy Cross has a newly designed webpage. We have pictures. (Please try to not laugh at the ones of me.  My mommy says I am very handsome.  So there.) We have our bulletin on-line.  You can make comments.  You can let us know what you think.  If you are coming to Winnipeg and would like to visit with us, pray with us, there are directions on the website.  And let’s be honest, who wouldn’t want to come and hang out with the coolest all English mission parish in the UOCC?  And heck, if you can’t come to us, we will come to you.  Just send us an invite and we will pack up our little mission into the Kitzul van and into Sylvia’s hummer and we will come and visit you.  We will bring strudel and Fr. Evan will bring his finger puppets.

Answer to last week’s question:
True or false:  Jesus told a story about a housewife who lost her ring.  FALSE.  It was a coin.  (Luke 15:8)  Congratulations to Doctor Scott who answer correctly.

This week’s question:
Jesus only once gave someone a name in His parables.  Who was it?

See you in church.

In Christ,

Fr. Evan

The Way of the Cross

1.  Great Vespers, 5:00 p.m. this Saturday.  Divine Liturgy, 10:00 a.m. this Sunday.  Reading of the Hours and the hearing of confessions at 9:30 p.m.

2.  Holy Theophany/Great Blessing of Water – January 18, at St. Andrew’s College.  6:00 p.m.  Please bring a container to take the blessed water home with you.

3.  Holy Cross is looking for a new secretary.  Sigh, in my short time serving Holy Cross I have now had to post this request twice.  And for the record, I don’t believe you when you say, “It isn’t you Father, it is me.”  I heard that way too many times in high school and university to know it is me.  Except for Chantel.  It was totally all her.

Anyway, Holy Cross needs a new secretary.  As your signing bonus, you will get a jar of jelly, a container of honey, life time supply of Holy Cross perogies and the secret to Fr. Evan’s more meat chili.

Please contact our parish president Sylvia Ptashnik if you are interested in the position.

4.  One of the parishes I used to serve is located in the Rossburn/Oakburn area.  Nice little parish located at Seech.  Sts. Peter and Paul.  On their altar, they have the words, “God is with us” carved in Ukrainian.  I always liked standing at that altar and seeing those words because they always reminded me that what we do each and everytime we come together to give worship and glory to God, to partake of the divine Body and Blood of the Son, it is not empty, it is not hollow gestures.  “God is with us”.

Take a look at the verses used during the Great Compline service served on the eve of the Nativity.

FOR GOD IS WITH US.

And of your fear we shall be neither afraid nor in dread.

FOR GOD IS WITH US.

But the Lord our God, Him will we hallow, and he shall be fear unto us.

FOR GOD IS WITH US.

And if I be trusting in Him, He shall be unto me sanctification.

FOR GOD IS WITH US.

And I will be hoping in Him, and shall be saved by Him.

FOR GOD IS WITH US.

Behold I and the children which God hath given me.

FOR GOD IS WITH US.

The people that walk in darkness have seen a great light.

FOR GOD IS WITH US.

Ye that dwell in the region and shadow of death, a light shall shine upon you.

FOR GOD IS WITH US.

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.

FOR GOD IS WITH US.

Whose government is upon His shoulder.

FOR GOD IS WITH US.

And of His peace there is no end.

FOR GOD IS WITH US.

And His name shall be called Angel of Great Counsel.

FOR GOD IS WITH US.

Wonderful Counselor.

FOR GOD IS WITH US.

Mighty God, Ruler, Prince of Peace.

FOR GOD IS WITH US.

Father of the age to come.

FOR GOD IS WITH US.

God is with us.  That is the message of the Incarnation.  That we have not been abandoned.  That God has not turned His back to us.  He has given us that which is most precious to Him.  His divine Son.  God is with us.

That message is the true joy of this feast we have celebrated.

I think about that altar in Seech.  I still remember that first service I served there and I looked down and saw the wood carving that had the words “God is with us” attached to the altar.  God has blessed me with the opportunity to stand at that altar, to stand with those wonderful people, to share with them the joy that “God is with us”.

As each of us embark on this new year of 2010, it is my hope and prayer that you carry the joy, hope and peace that come from the knowledge that “God is with us”.

Answer to last week’s question:

Who as Jesus for a drink at the well?  A samaritan woman.

This week’s question:

What did Jesus say about a city on a hill?

See you in church!

In Christ,

Fr. Evan