Newsletter 1 – Sunday 6th March 2011

Cheesefare Sunday, Sunday of Forgiveness: Tone 8.

Romans 13:11-14:4 Epistle

And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.

Matthew 6:14-21  

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

St. Silouan on Repentance

Do not murmur, O children of God, because you find life difficult. Only wrestle with sin and entreat help from the Lord, and He will hearken, for He is full of compassion.

(From St. Silouan the Athonite (Fr. Sophrony Sakharov, Patriarchal Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist, Essex, 1991) p.345).

   

Forgiveness Sunday

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.  To-day two themes dominate the readings of the Holy Scriptures. St Paul speaks to us about fasting and the Lord about forgiveness, and St Paul insists on the fact that fasting does not consist simply of depriving oneself of one form of food or another, neither does it, if it is kept strictly, obediently, worshipfully, give us any ground to be proud of ourselves, satisfied and secure, because the aim of fasting is not to deprive our body of the one form of food rather than the other, the aim of fasting is to acquire mastery over our body and make it a perfect instrument of the spirit. Most of the time we are slaves of our bodies, we are attracted by all our senses to one form or another of enjoyment, but of an enjoyment which goes far beyond the purity which God expects of us.  

And so, the period of fasting offers us a time during which we can say not that I will torment my body, limit myself in things material, but a time when I will re-acquire mastery of my body, make it a perfect instrument.  The comparison that comes to my mind is that of tuning a musical instrument; this is what fasting is, to acquire the power not only to command our body, but also to give our body the possibility to respond to all the promptings of the spirit.  

Let us therefore go into fasting with this understanding, not measuring our fasting by what we eat and how much, but of the effect it has on us, whether our fasting makes us free or whether we become slaves of fasting itself.  If we fast let us not be proud of it, because it proves simply that we need more perhaps than another person to conquer something in our nature. And if around us other people are not fasting let us not judge them, because God has received the ones as He receives the others, because it is into the heart of men that He looks.  

And then there is the theme of forgiveness, of which I will say only one short thing. We think always of forgiveness as a way in which we would say to a person who has offended, hurt, humiliated us, that the past is past and that we do not any more hold a grudge against this person. But what forgiveness means more deeply than this is that if we can say to a person: let us no longer make the past into a destructive present, let me trust you, make an act of faith in you, if I forgive you it means in my eyes you are not lost, in my eyes there is a future of beauty and truth in you.  But this applies also to us.  Perversely, we think very often of forgiving others, but we do not think sufficiently of the need in which we are, each of us personally, of being forgiven by others. 

We have a few hours left between the Liturgy and the Service of Forgiveness tonight, let us reflect and try to remember, not the offences that we have suffered, but the hurts that we have caused. And if we have hurt anyone in one way or another, in things small or great, let us make haste before we enter into Lent tomorrow morning, let us make haste to ask to be forgiven, to hear someone say to us: in spite of all that has happened I believe in you, I trust you, I hope for you and I will expect everything from you. And then we can go together through Lent helping one another to become what we are called to be  - the disciples of Christ, following Him step by step to Calvary, and beyond Calvary to the Resurrection. Amen.

   

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh 

Forgiveness Sunday                      

19February 25, 1996  

    

Calendar for March

• 13th March 2011:  Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy: We remember the ending of the iconoclasm in AD 843 where icons were restored to all the churches

• 20th March 2011: Second Sunday of Lent: St Gregory of Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica: St Gregory was a monk on Mount Athos at Vatopedi and at the Great Lavra. He was a great Hesychast: he died in 1359

• 27th March 2011: Third Sunday of Lent: This Sunday is dedicated to the Holy Cross

Times of Services of future Liturgies

Sunday 3rd April 2011:  Hours and Confession 10.30am Liturgy 11am, followed by a meal. Donations of food on the day would be much appreciated.

Saturday 30th April 2011 Bright Saturday – Liturgy and Paschal celebration

Parish News

Baptism of Joshua Alexander Kessel took place at the Cathedral of the Mother of God and All Saints, London on Saturday 26th February 2011. Fr Joseph was the presiding priest and the Godparents were Paula Nicholson and Adam Bondaruk. May God grant Joshua and his Godparents Paula and Adam Many Years!

Future Diocese events

Sourozh Diocesan Conference Friday 3rd June-Sunday 5th June 2011. For further details, visit the diocese’s website for the conference www.sourozh-conference.org 

 

This Newsletter and the Sermon on Forgiveness by Met. Anthony can be downloaded in the Word format.

Pictures of the service can be viewed in the Photogallery.