Newsletter 8 – Sunday, 25th September 2011

Patronal Feast of St Silouan of Mount Athos and Sunday before the Exaltation of the Cross

Venerable father Silouan of Mount Athos, Troparion in Tone IV
By thy prayers thou didst receive Christ as thy Master on the path of humility;/ and in thy heart the Holy Spirit witnessed unto thy salvation./ For this cause all people called to live in hope/ are now rejoicing and celebrating thy memory.// O holy Father Silouan, pray to Christ to save our souls.

Kontakion of the Venerable one in Tone VIII
During thy life on earth thou didst serve Christ, following His path/ and now in Heaven thou dost contemplate Him Whom thou hast loved;/ dwelling with Him as He promised to His elect,// O holy father Silouan, instruct us in the way that thou hast gone.

Troparion of the feast in Tone IV
Thy nativity, O Virgin Mother of God,/ hath proclaimed joy to all the world;/ for from thee hath shone forth Christ our God,/ the Sun of righteousness,/ Who hav­ing annulled the curse,/ hath given His blessing,// and having abolished death, hath granted us life everlasting.

Kontakion of the Feast in Tone IV
In thy holy nativity, O all-pure one, / Joachim and Anna are freed from the reproach of childlessness, / and Adam and Eve from mortal corruption. / And, delivered from sin, thy people celebrate it, crying out to thee:// A barren woman giveth birth to the Mother of God, who sustains our Life!

Epistle Galatians 6:11-18 Sunday before the Exaltation of the Cross
See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand! As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire you to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.

But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.

And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

Epistle Galatians 5:22-6:2 St Silouan of Mount Athos

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Gospel John 3:13-17 Sunday before the Exaltation of the Cross
No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, “that whoever believing in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved”.

Gospel Luke 6:17-23 St Silouan of Mount Athos
And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases, as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits. And they were healed. And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all. Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said:

“Blessed are you poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God.   
Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake.

Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets”.

Calendar for September
Tuesday 27th September: THE UNIVERSAL EXALTATION OF THE PRECIOUS AND LIFEGIVING CROSS (Fast day)

Times of next Liturgies
Sunday 9th October Hours and confession 10.30 Liturgy 11.00
Sunday 6th November Hours and confession 10.30 Liturgy 11.00

Parish News

Parish Eastern European Food Fayre
The Parish of St Silouan is hoping to hold an Eastern European Food Fayre towards the end of November to raise valuable funds for our church and for necessary parish development.

We hope to have a Saturday fayre which will last approximately 4-5 hours. We would like to sell food of an Eastern European background (or any food people would be willing to contribute!) in a cafe-style setting to eat-in or to take-away. We need people to help by:

– contributing food to sell

– contributing any vital equipment for the day (napkins, plates, cutlery, tablecloths, decorations etc)

– helping with setting up and clearing away

– advertising posters in places of work/places of study

– offering any help and support for this event, even if it is just 1 or 2 hours helping out at the fayre

All help will be most gratefully received as it is really necessary for our parish to raise funds to help our community expand and for the purchasing of necessary items for the church itself. There will be a board at the back of the church after liturgy for those who would like to sign up to help out at this annual event. Alternatively, please speak to Paula.

Exaltation of the Cross
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. 

We  have  been  keeping  these days the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.  There is a passage in the Gospel in which the Lord says to us, «No  one  has  greater  love  than  he  who  gives  his  life  for his neighbour». And these words resolve the antinomy between the horror of the  Cross  and  the  glory of it, between death and the Resurrection. There  is nothing more glorious, more awe-inspiring and wonderful than to  love  and  to  be loved. And to be loved by God with all the life, with  all  the death of the Only-Begotten Son, and to love one another at  the  cost  of all our life and, if necessary, of our death is both tragedy and mainly victory. In the Canon of the Liturgy we say, «Holy, most  Holy art Thou and Thine Only-Begotten Son and Thine Holy Spirit! Holy  and most Holy art Thou because Thou hast so loved Thy world that Thou hast given Thine Only-Begotten Son that those who will believe in Him  do  not  perish  but  have  life  eternal, Who hath come and hath fulfilled  all that was appointed for our sakes, and in the night when He  was  betrayed  - no! - when He gave Himself up, He took bread, and brake it and gave it to His disciples ...» 

This  is  the  divine  love. At times one can give one's own life more easily  than  offer  unto death the person whom one loves beyond all - and  this  is what God, our Father has done. But it does not make less the  sacrifice  of Him who is sent unto death for the salvation of one person or of the whole world. 

And  so  when  we  think  of the Cross we must think of this strangely inter-twined  mystery of tragedy and victory. The Cross, an instrument of  infamous  death, of punitive death to which criminals were doomed, because Christ's death was that of an innocent, and because this death was a gift of self in an act of love - the Cross becomes victory. 

This is why Saint Paul could say, «It is no longer I, it is Christ Who lives  in  me  ...»  Divine  love filled him to the brim and therefore there was no room for any other thought or feeling, any other approach to  anyone apart from love, a love that gave itself unreservedly, love sacrificial, love crucified, but love exulting in the joy of life.  And when we are told in today's Gospel, «Turn away from yourself, take up  your  Cross,  Follow Me» (St Mark VIII: 34) - we are not called to something  dark  and frightening; we are told by God: Open yourself to love!  Do  not  remain a prisoner of your own self-centredness. Do not be,  in  the  words  of  Theophane the Recluse, like a shaving of wood which  is  rolled  around  its own emptiness. Open yourself up! Look - there  is so much to love, there are so many to love! There is such an infinity  of  ways in which love can be experienced, and fulfilled and accomplished...  Open  yourself  and love - because this is the way of the  Cross!  Not  the  way  which the two criminals trod together with Christ to be punished for their crimes; but the wonderful way in which giving oneself unreservedly, turning away from self, existing only for the other, loving with all one's being so that one exists only for the sake of the other - this is the Cross and the glory of the Cross. 

So, when we venerate the Cross, when we think of Christ's crucifixion, when  we  hear  the call of Christ to deny ourselves - and these words simply  mean:  turn  away  from yourself! take up your cross! - we are called  to  open  ourselves  to the flood of Love Divine, that is both death to ourselves and openness to God , and to each, and to all. 

In  the  beginning  of  the Gospel of Saint John we are told, «And the Word  was  with God». The Greek version says «Godwards». The Word, the Son had no other love, no other thought, no other movement but towards the  Beloved  One, giving Himself to Him Who gave Himself perfectly to Him.  Let  us  learn  the  glory  of  crucified  Love,  of  this  Love sacrificial  which is in the words of the Old Testament, stronger than death,  stronger  than  hell,  stronger  than all things because it is Divine  Life  conquering  us  and poured through us onto all those who need  to  be  loved  in  order to come to Life, to believe in Love and themselves  to become children of Love, children of Light, to inherit Life eternal. Amen.

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

September 28, 1986