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.  This Sunday is also kid’s sermon.  Yay!!!!!!!!

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.  This Sunday is Holy Pentecost, or as I like to refer to it, Rider Sunday.  Why?  Because Fr. Evan gets to wear green and white vestments.  Woo-hoo.

I came across a quote by St. Gregory Nazianzus.  “So that by gradual increase…and progress from glory to glory, the light of the Trinity might shine upon the more illuminated…for this reason it was, I think, that He gradually came to dwell in the disciples.  He measured Himself out to them according to their capacity to receive Him:  at the beginning of the gospel, after the Passion, after the Ascension, making perfect their powers, being breathed upon them, and appearing in fiery tongues…”

I find the line “He meaured Himself out to them according to their capacity to receive Him” really interesting.  Each and every one of us is on an individual spiritual journey.  It is true that we come together in common confession of faith and belief that will shape our journey, that we can share that journey with family, with friends, but when all is said and done, the journey is a singular one.  Our Lord and Saviour is not only the Saviour of humanity as a whole, but is the Saviour of the individual.

The reason I make mention of this is that the spiritual journey that each of us is on is not always going to be easy.  There will be moments that we will feel that we are totally closed off from God, that our prayers go unheard, that we will feel that we have not deepened our spirituality, failed in our ascetic attempts.  And then there will be days that we will feel like the Apostles on Holy Pentecost, feel the power of the Holy Spirit, that we will be bursting with love and joy.

What we have to remember and hold onto each and every day of our life is that just as Christ Himself gradually came to dwell in the apostles, so to does Christ gradually come and dwell in us.  As we mature spiritually our capacity to receive Christ into our hearts grows.  There will be times in our life when our capacity to let Christ fill our lives will great, and there will times when it is not so great.  That is why constant prayer is so important.  Prayer is our asking Christ to be a part of our life because we are engaging Him, asking Him to fill us.  Holy Confession is so important.  It is realizing that we have filled our heart, filled our soul with so much sinful junk that we have made it impossible to allow Christ in.  Holy Confession is the emptying out of the bad to allow the good in.  The Holy Eucharist is so paramount to our spiritual health because it is the actual filling of the vessel that is us with Christ Himself.

What we have to remember is that it is progression.  Just as it was for the Apostles, so too it is for us as well.  I guess what I really want to say is, never get discouraged, never give up.  Christ is there, Christ is always there and He responds to our needs in the most perfect way, His way.

5.  Don’t forget!  Holy Cross has a newly designed webpage. Check it out.  You can download any missed bulletins.  Maybe make a collection of them.  Get them bound in fine Corinthian Leather or genuine Saskatchewan Seal Skin, gold lettering on the cover, and Fr. Evan will personally autograph each copy.  Our website is: www.holycrosswpg.ca Take a look, post a comment, let us know what you think.

Answer to last week’s question:
Jesus only once gave someone a name in His parables.  Who was it?  Lzarus the beggar.

This week’s question:
How many loaves of bread did Jesus use to feed the 4000?

See you in church.

In Christ,

Fr. Evan

The Way of the Cross – May 23, 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. 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