All Saints Orthodox Church - Pastor's Message

A parish of the Orthodox Church in America

We all by now should be following the teachings of the Church in preparing to receive Communion. But, how do we prepare for Confession?

Let us, though, first review our preparation for Communion: Those who do not regularly participate in Communion, that is coming more than once a month, have a need to participate in individual Confession before approaching the Chalice. Those who are or wish to participate in Communion regularly, as our Lord invites each of us to regularly participate in individual Confession. Regular does not mean once every few months or even more infrequent. If we have not been to Confession in the last two months we should not approach the Chalice before we do Confess.

These teachings are for our salvation. To ignore them risks condemnation of our soul. Having said that we turn to the truth that no one lives without sinning. It is sad, but true. We may be so cold spiritually that we are indifferent to sin. Some, though sincere, may not recognize sin to the delight of Satan. Others may be confused. It is through God’s Grace, and we must open ourselves to that Grace, that we come to know our sins.

And, as in all things we do or try to accomplish, we need to pray. We benefit in our preparation by using the Trisagion Prayers, as well as reading and praying some of the Psalms, especially Psalm 51. (After Confession we benefit from Psalms 23, 24 and 116 as well as others.), and the Canons.

We need to examine ourselves, which we should do each day, before our participation in individual Confession. We need to ask God to open us up to our weaknesses and guide us through His strength. We need to look at our attitudes, words, thoughts, actions toward each others; toward our Church and her clergy and hierarchs; and first and foremost toward God. When we come to Confession we come to be forgiven by God of our sins, the authority for which He exercises through His priests.

From there we can work on our repentance—that is the changing of our minds and hearts, our directions, so that we may live a life more closely united with God, and thus find true fulfillment in this world that will carry us into eternity.

What are some areas in which we need to examine ourselves? Here are some questions to assist us:

1. Do I pray mornings and evenings?

2. Do I attend and am I attentive at Church Services Sundays, evenings, Feasts?

3. Do I thank God for all things?

4. Do I use God’s name in vain? Swear?

5. Do I wish harm on others?

6. Do I judge persons, or been harshly critical of others?

7. Am I envious of others?

8. Do I rejoice in the good fortune of others?

9. Have I engaged in gossip?

10. Have I shown respect to my children and to my parents?

11. Have I been obedient to the Church and supportive of her? Her hierarchs? Her clergy?

12. Have I shown respect toward the bishops, priests and deacons of the Church?

13. Have I helped others in need?

14. Have I prayed for those who need God’s mercy?

15. Do I regularly read God’s word in the Bible?

16. Have I given joyfully to the Church?

17. Is there anything or anyone that I cannot give up for Christ?

18. Do I try to see Christ in each person that I meet?

19. If I had the opportunity, would I physically care for another?

20. Have I physically or mentally hurt my spouse?

21. Have I supported and shown love to my husband or wife?

22. Have I mistreated animals or anything living in God’s Kingdom on earth?

23. Have I been a good steward of the earth?

24. Have I forsaken my faith and the teachings of the Church to please another or to fit in with others?

25. Have I participated in abortion or encouraged someone to do so?

26. Is God and His Church truly the priority in my life? Do I come to Church to worship and to pray?

27. Have I hurt myself or another physically or spiritually?

28. Do I doubt God in any situation?

29. Am I sorry for my sins?

30. Do I truly desire to be a better Orthodox Christian?

Great Lent is a time for dying.

Death to sin.

Death to lukewarm faith.

Death to pride.

Death to lust.

Death to greed.

Death to gluttony.

Death to laxity in worship.

Death to hurtful words,

deeds, acts and thoughts.

Death to the demons

that seek to invade our minds and hearts.

Death to false gods

and pagan notions.

Let us so die to the old man

So we may cling to the new--

our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Great Lent is a humbling time,

and humility is what we so need

in a world that worships too often

and too much celebrity, riches, pride and power.

St. Andrew of Crete guide us through your Great Canon.

Lead us to understand

who we were intended to be,

who we are and

who will we become through God’s Grace.

We die with Christ and so we will live with him.

--Fr. William

There are many reasons to donate to the Church.

What are some of them?

We at All Saints do not often speak or write about the many needs for funds facing the Church, or about the broader implications of giving.

In fact if one visited many Churches in the region after having been a member of All Saints, one would be surprised at the pleas for contributions and the positive responses, heard regularly.

Why then do we give? We give first of all to pay expenses.

Simply put without sufficient donations we would not have the things that go into being a parish. Electricity, water, heat, candles, incense, maintenance, a priest.

We simply need to meet the costs of being a Church.

But giving goes beyond this.

We give because throughout the Bible we are taught the importance of giving—in both the Old and New Testaments are many examples offered us about giving.

St. Paul speaks of us as being good stewards of the mysteries of God—and those mysteries are found in His Church.

Being good stewards calls us to give.

The Lord Himself speaks of giving in several ways.

He cites the example of the widow who gave all she had in donating two mites to the Church.

And our Lord teaches that her gift is greater than all others as she gave from the heart, she made a sacrifice to do this, and she did not give from what was left over—nor should we, and that is the example He gives.

This in itself needs to inspire us in our attitude toward giving.

We also know from the Bible and teachings of the Church that we are made in the image and likeness of God.

And, that part of our effort in this earthly life is to grow in that likeness...

God loves, and so we love...

God is merciful and so we show mercy.

God is compassionate and so are we.

And God gives and so we give.

This giving brings us closer to God allowing us to share in yet another of His actions. And giving reflects God in our lives.

Also, it is in giving that we show thanks to God, acknowledging that all that we have is a gift from Him, and offering back a portion of all that is His.

And another wonderful aspect of giving, is that in giving to God and His Church, we in fact benefit from the act. It feels good to give. We have a sense of accomplishment, and a feeling of commitment and dedication to the Lord. . And the Lord pours His blessings upon those who do give as we read in the Bible.

Finally, too, in giving we find that rather than being deprived, we are enriched and even have more to share with others and the Church.

Luke 18:10-24

In the Name of The Father Son and Holy Spirit,

Glory Be To Jesus Christ

At Pentecost we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit and we spoke of the changes this can mean in our lives. We are given real examples of those changes as we celebrate All Saints Day - The Patronal feast day of our Holy House - which follows Pentetcost by a week.

Again we are not distant observers of these person, saints, nor are we spectators of their lives. In fact, our saints as we know even grow more contemporary to us and closer geographically. Now in our prayers we can speak of Saint Alexis - A priest of Wilkes-Barre, PA. Of St. Raphael, Bishop of Brooklyn, New York. And of course our Saints of Alaska who have touched the lands we have walked in: Persons like Herman, Innocent, Peter, Jacob and John and Juvenaly. Regardless of locale, our saints are not remote in anyway to us.

The fact that some appear in icons and on our iconostasis does not make them historic figures without relevance. In fact we look at our saints as links in a chain. A chain, St. Symeon the New Theologian described as golden. The saints of each generation are joined to those, he says, who have gone before, and are filled like them with light. They become a golden chain in which each saint is a separate link. Each is united to the next by faith, works and love. So, in the one God, they form a single chain which cannot quickly be broken.

The work for us today and in our future days is to become a link ourselves. How do we do this. The first thing we need to do is to resolve to be holy. We need to heed the Lord's words in the Gospel in which he calls on us to put him first in our lives. Not all are willing to do this…to try this…or to at least struggle to do this.

WHY WOULD SOME BE RELUCTANT?

The Elder Philotheos (Zervakos) says the reason is that they do not want to: To be a saint is to be holy - to dedicate one's life to God - and for some this is simply too difficult to contemplate. Yet we know from Christ's words and life that what we might need to give up does not compare to what we will gain. How do we work on forging ourselves into one of those links that can fit that golden chain? St. Paul says that we can imitate the lives of the saints, not simply by reading about them but trying to act as they did. To learn what they did, we can first turn to the many recorded histories of the saints.

It has been written by an elder on Mt. Athos (Agapios Landos) that a person is touched more profoundly by reading one beautiful life of a saint than by all discourses and philosophies. And once we read about the saints, and how they turned their lives over Christ - making him a priority in their life - we can heed their lessons as St. Paul teaches. Their lives speak to us of those gifts of the spirit that St. Paul speaks of in Galatians: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, Sobriety. Just think what meeting some with a few of those qualities would mean to us. Now think if we embrace those qualities what we will mean to others.

We can do it if we resolve to do so. If we seek to put Christ first in our lives. We are helped tremendously along the way on this journey by our Lord. He offers us first of all his body and blood, through which we attain cleansing and unity with him. And we are helped by our life of prayer and worship - which changes us if we are open to change. Helped by asking the saints, who are close to God through their lives - to intercede for us and to pray for us to God. St. Nectarios says that the saints listen to our entreaties and pray to the Lord, becoming bearers of the grace and mercy of the Lord.

My sisters and brothers in Christ it is not an accident that we are here…in this Holy House…that is named for all the saints. Let us in our lives take with us something from our Holy House. Let it be here that the metal is forged that make us those special links - links of the golden chain. A chain woven by God's grace with the lives of his saints and with the lives of each of us. May it be so according to his will.

Now and ever and unto ages of ages. Glory be to Jesus Christ…GLORY FOREVER.

The above was written by Archpriest William DuBovik, pastor of All Saints Orthodox Church, Hartford, CT.

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