We are In the Midst of Great Lent. How is Your Journey Going?

Transcription

1 VOLUME 27 NUMBER 3 March 2018 We are In the Midst of Great Lent. How is Your Journey Going? Dearest Spiritual Ohana, Now that we have reached the month of March, we find ourselves well into the midst of Great Lent and on a journey moving toward Holy Week. At the end of this month, on Saturday, March 31st, we will find ourselves making the transition into Holy Week, with the Saturday of Lazarus. How has each of our Lenten journeys been going? Are we whole-heartedly into this Holy Season, immersed in fasting, increased prayer, participating in spiritual exercise/discipline ( a s k e s i s ), r e p e n t a n c e, almsgiving, and being blissfully in our Lord s midst and bosom? Being the dynamic beings, that we are as humans, I m sure each of our responses vary greatly! For we are at times hot, cold, lukewarm, and everything in between the limits of the polar extremes. To help each us focus on what our true aspirations and goals should be during Great Lent, I offer the wisdom of our Father among the Saints, St. John Chrysostom, the Golden Mouth, when he speaks to us about what the true nature of fasting is, as this practice is a very crucial and necessary component of our participation throughout Great Lent. 1 Here is what St. John has to say to us: Fasting is a medicine. But medicine, as beneficial as it is, becomes useless because of the inexperience of the user. He has to know the appropriate time that the medicine should be taken and the right amount of medicine and the condition of the body which is to take it, the weather conditions and the season of the year and the appropriate diet of the sick and many other things. If any of these things are overlooked, the medicine will do more harm than good. So, if one who is going to heal the body needs so much accuracy, when we care for the soul and are concerned about healing it from bad thoughts, it is necessary to examine and observe everything with every possible detail. Fasting is the change of every part of our life, because the sacrifice of the fast is not the abstinence but the distancing from sins. Therefore, whoever limits the fast to the deprivation of food, he is the one who, in reality, abhors and ridicules the (Continued on page 2)

2 means in and of themselves. There are many deep, meaningful and purposeful things that are suppose to be happening during this blessed period of the year, a little more than 1/10 of it. Fasting, for example, is a most useful tool to curb our passions and sinful desires and making room in our hearts for the Lord to dwell and abide. It is meant to aid us in recognizing our hunger for what is truly and genuinely needed in our lives: a relationship with God, to Whom belongs all glory, honor and worship. He is our fulfillment in His SelfEmptying Love, His Mercy, Glory and in His Extreme Humility. He fulfills our lives in that He has, in paraphrasing one of the hymns in the Divine Liturgy, so humbled Himself by taking on flesh of the Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, with out change becoming man. And was crucified and conquered death by His Death. (Continued from page 1) fast. Are you fasting? Show me your fast with your works. Which works? If you see someone who is poor, show him mercy. If you see an enemy, reconcile with him. If you see a friend who is becoming successful, do not be jealous of him! If you see a beautiful woman on the street, pass her by. In other words, not only should the mouth fast, but the eyes and the legs and the arms and all the other parts of the body should fast as well. Let the hands fast, remaining clean from stealing and greediness. Let the legs fast, avoiding roads which lead to sinful sights. Let the eyes fast by not fixing themselves on beautiful faces and by not observing the beauty of others. You are not eating meat, are you? You should not eat debauchery with your eyes as well. Let your hearing also fast. The fast of hearing is not to accept bad talk against others and sly defamations. I wish you all a beautiful completion of your Lenten Journey, filled with our Lord s EverAbiding, Loving, Merciful, Glorious and Fulfilling Presence in your lives! ~St. John Chrysostom With Love in Christ, +Fr. Alexander So we see that this period of Great Lent is not about abiding by empty actions and rituals as Shorelines is published Monthly by: Saints Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Pacific 930 Lunalilo Street Honolulu, Hawaii Phone : (808) Fax : (808) office@greekorthodoxhawaii.org Parish Web Site: Regular Office Hours: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday thru Friday Rev. Father Alexander M. Leong fralexanderleong@yahoo.com Church Staff Maria Naval, Dimitri Nicholas, & Amanda Jackson - Office Coordinator Katherine Pasieta office@greekorthodoxhawaii.org Philoptochos Board Erica Jansen - Bookkeeper Anita Akel, President; Anita Higashi, 1st 2018 Parish Council Vice President; Eres Eddy, 2nd Vice pc@greekorthodoxhawaii.org President; Ludmyla Solyar,Treasurer; Trish Kiladis, President Julie Ličina, Recording Secretary; Valentina Varovaya, Corr. Secretary; Scott Pasieta, Vice President Alma Chu, Advisor Roni Katsikas, Treasurer Choir-Chanters Tyrone-Stavros Emery, Secretary Orest Saikevych, Music Director John Kiladis, Cleopatra Kritikos, Susan Gregory Malick, Protopsaltis Shaindlin, Dimitri Nicholas, and Parish Ministries Andrew Tujios. Stelio Scordilis, Aloha Youth Choir; Sunday School Director T.B.A., Bookstore; Dianna Graves, Presbytera Nicole Leong Greek Dance Groups; Stelio Scordilis, Sunday School Teachers Greek School; Julie Ličina Web Master; Shawn Chu, Alice Malick, Greg Malick, Anita Higashi, Facebook 2

3 LITURGICAL LIFE OF OUR PARISH WEEKDAY SERVICES IN MARCH PRESANCTIFIED LITURGY Wed. 3/7, 14, 21 & 28 6 pm SALUTATIONS TO THE THEOTOKOS Fri. 3/2, 9, 16 & 23 6:30 pm MAUI SERVICES Sat. 3/24 Orthros/Liturgy 9:30/10:30 am SATURDAY OF LAZARUS Sat. 3/31 Orthros/Liturgy 8:30/9:30 am 3/04 Cleo 3/11 Scott March Parish Council Teams 3/18 Stavros 3/25 Susan Announcements Please remember in your prayers Dina Giannakopoulos Paul Kelley Suzanne Keyser Julie Licina Alice Marie Malick The Melzak Family George Missias John Mitsis and all those needing our prayers. Adult Religious Education Understanding the Divine Liturgy Sunday, March 4th Great Litany Continued 12 to 12:45 p.m. Sunday, March 18th The Antiphons 12 to 12:45 p.m. Did you know that when you shop at AmazonSmile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of eligible smile.amazon.com purchases to our church?! It s so easy! All you have to do is shop via Happy shopping! Learn Greek! Beginners Sunday 1:00 2:00 PM Thursday 5:30 6:30 PM Intermediate Sunday 12:00 1:00 PM Advanced Tuesday 6:00 8:00 PM 3

4 Holy Week Needs Donations are needed for numerous items used throughout Holy Week, the Pascha Season and the entire year. If you or your family wishes to make donation toward any of the items below, please contact the Church Office directly. Questions about any of the items? See Fr. Alexander. Incense Palm Branches Flowers for Epitaphios Flowers for Nymphios Icon (Palm Sunday evening) Olive Oil Rose Water Wreath for the Cross of Christ Flowering Plants (for Pascha) Agape Vespers Readers At the Agape Vespers (Pascha Day), volunteers are needed to read the Gospel passage in languages other than English. If you wish to participate, please contact Fr. Alexander with your intention, particularly if you do not have access to the text in your language. Myrrh-bearers Young ladies wishing to be Myrrh-bearers at Friday and Saturday evening services during Holy Week, please call our office. Share your news! Announcements that you would like to see in the April issue of Shorelines should be submitted to the church office by March 15th. Weekly Bulletin announcements should be submitted by noon on Thursday for the upcoming Sunday. Call: Our Vision To be a beacon of Orthodoxy in the Pacific and proclaim the Gospel of Christ to all people in accordance with the Orthodox Faith Our Mission To proclaim the Gospel of Christ to all people in accordance with the Orthodox Faith. To sanctify and minister to the spiritual growth and needs of the faithful through liturgical worship and spiritual programs. To safeguard and keep the traditions, values, and faith of the Orthodox Church pure and undefiled. Or drop by with a copy of your announcement. Maui Orthodox Christian Mission reminds those who attend services on Maui to visit or call to verify services. or look for other activities that may be posted. 4

5 Christ is in our midst! Mrs. Dianna Graves teaches our faith to her grandchildren at Church and at home. She regularly uses our Sunday School Library and tells me how much she appreciates it. In responding to my request, she kindly wrote a message below to the parents. Thank you, Dianna! As you might know, I taught Sunday School here for 16 years (along with dance). Our Sunday School has given us such a wonderful Sunday School library. I wish more of you mothers would use this wonderful resource. You take your children to the regular library but also take them to the Sunday School library. You may take 2 books out at a time and return in 2 weeks. If it takes a little time to go through and look at the books, then you must sign the books out and return them in 2 weeks. We have to have this process so we don't lose books just like a regular library. These are some new books Sunday School has put in the library and I have taken out some and will return them in 2 weeks. PLEASE PARENTS TAKE THE TIME! WONDERFUL ORTHODOX BOOKS! In The Candles Glow --- how they make our beeswax candles, wonderful We Pray --- wonderful words, beautiful illustrations Sasha & the Dragon --- a little scary at first but a wonderful ending The Legend of The Cross, Special Agents of Christ: A Prayer Book for Young Orthodox Saints --- maybe 5th, 6th grades and above (parents look and see) Fasting as Family: Planning and Preparing Delicious Lenten Meals --- for parents during the Lent There are also other Parents Books I haven't checked out yet. Check them out and please tell me about them... Dianna Graves (Dance Minsitry Director) with 3 grandchildren whom I have read some of these books to. The Sunday School Events in March: Friendship Soup Fundraiser for OCMC (Orthodox Christian Mission Center) Sunday, March 18 th during the Coffee Hour Palm Cross Folding & Mini Retreat on Saturday of Lazarus Saturday, March 31st, following the Divine Liturgy Parents, please check the details in the upcoming s. Our Family's Lenten Journey (courtesy Illumination Learning): Almsgiving - A family activity to encourage and teach our children about almsgiving Prayer Encouragement for parents to pray with their children Fasting - An easy to follow food chart, simple recipes, and ideas for children beginning to fast Visit Have a Blessed, Joyful Great Lent! Pres. Nicole, Sunday School Director 5

6 Stewardship of work teaches us that we don t own our work, our position, our title. We are only stewards of a position for a period of time. We are responsible to fulfill our duties and also to prepare it for the person that will follow us in that position. We may also have the opportunity to mentor the person that will assume our position when we move on, empowering them to apply their particular gifts and talents to take the position to the next level. Christian stewardship of work also teaches us that we are responsible to those with whom we work and those that may be served by our work. We are called to reflect the light of Christ in their lives, encourage them, support them and even love them. We are also stewards of our co-workers inasmuch as we cooperate and support them in their efforts for the good of all. Please don t forget to submit your 2018 Stewardship Pledge. Stewardship Forms are available in the Narthex, upstairs in the Social Hall, and via . Mahalo! 6

7 Dance Group News FDF Magazine " OLI MAZI" on the Dance Shelf, check out Pg. 47 what 6 out of the 10 responses were from Hawaii kids WHAT DOES FDF MEAN TO YOU? In addition see Pg 40 the DIAKONIA PROJECTS from Nisiopeda/Aloha Youth Choir and Nisiotes. Wonderful Workshops done by the priests at FDF. I went to one of Fr Photios Dumont from St Demetrios in Seattle a convert to Orthodoxy he told his journey. If you have never been to FDF, I strongly suggest you go if you are Greek. Or if you are not a Greek as I am you should go, you will be amazed. All these Orthodox people in one building, it is like a Big Orthodox camp for adults and kids, spending time together. We have started an Outreach to the Russian Orthodox Church youth. We have asked if any of their youth would like to come an learn Greek and Serbian dances. I would like to tell the Dance Parent Moms and Dads and any parishioners with children please check out the Sunday School Library that Presbytera Nicole has set up. It is a wonderful source of Orthodox stories and information for children to read and a section for parents. These are some new books just been added and I recommend them: In the Candles Glow, We Pray, H is for Holy, Sasha & the Dragon, The Legend of the Cross, Special Agents of Christ: a prayer book for young Orthodox Saints, Easter---there are a lot more books... REMEMBER: YOU HAVE TO SIGN THE BOOKS OUT IN THE 2 BINDERS, FOR ONLY 2 WEEKS, BRING THEM BACK AND GET MORE... (just like the regular library so we don't lose books) We will be practicing dance steps without any music until after Pascha. Thank you to the person who left a bag of Recylces for the Dance Group by the Recycle Bucket at church,. Mahalo! Dianna, Dance Ministry Director C O F F E E H O U R Each individual/family is requested to sponsor a coffee hour one Sunday per year. Sign up on the calendar posted outside the Social Hall or contact Suzanne A. or Frances R. Instructions/tips for sponsoring a coffee hour are available in a 3-ring binder in a cupboard in the hall. The Ladies of Philoptochos appreciate any donations of coffee supplies, including paper supplies to help defray some of the coffee hour expenses. If you are hesitant to prepare and serve a coffee hour yourself, consider making a monetary donation. Please do not bring non-lenten food including cake & ice cream during fasting periods. Thank you to our February Sponsors! Sunday Coffee Hour sponsors! 2/4 Aloha Youth Choir 2/11 Kritikos 2/18 Valentina Yarovaya & The Malicks for the Philoptochos Fundraiser 2/25 Panagakis 7

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