Daily Scripture - II Corinthians 7:10 and God's Gift

Friends,

This week we got a little bonus in our daily scripture readings. This verse ended Thursday’s Epistle reading and began Friday’s:

For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. (II Corinthians 7:10)

Whenever this happens, that is, that we have a little “repeat” like this in the scripture readings, I think (this is MY opinion – not a dogma of the Church) that it is good for us to take a closer look at what is there. It isn’t a mistake that the verse is repeated – so it probably means that something important is written that we should be attentive to.

This particular verse is rather clear – lots of exegesis is not needed. That being said, it is never bad to see what the fathers have to say about scripture!

Paul was regretful before he saw the fruit of repentance, but afterward he rejoiced. This is the nature of godly sorrow. Worldly sorrow, in contrast to this, is regret for the loss of money, reputation, and friends. That kind of sorrow merely leads to greater harm, because the regret is often a prelude to a thirst for revenge. Only sorrow for sin is really profitable. (St. John Chrysostom)

He who is sad according to God is sad in repentance for his sins; sorrow because of one’s own iniquity produces justice. (St. Augustine)

This is truly the time of fruitful sorrow, so that we may lament the state of our mortality, the abundance of temptations, the stealthy attacks of sinners, the clash of desires, the conflicts of passions ever rebelling against good thoughts. On this account let us grieve; let us be sad because of this state of affairs. (St. Augustine)

...you cannot persuade the Judge during the time of the tribunal. It is possible for you to plead with the Judge before the time of judgment. (St. John Chrysostom)

The fathers quoted above make it clear that St. Paul is talking about repentance as a kind of godly sorrow. This is quite important for us as Orthodox Christians. There are many differences between Orthodox Christianity and the various iterations of Western Christianity. Some of those are quite deep, others are less so. But this difference, our focus on repentance (many of the fathers repeat again and again that this life is given to us as a time for repentance), is perhaps the deepest and greatest difference. Frankly speaking, the concept of repentance has been lost in the west. None of our leaders (or others in the elite classes such as celebrities, oligarchs, etc.) ever seem to be a model in this regard. Rather, they seem to focus on one of our great human sinful super-powers: self-justification. Orthodox Christians, on the other hand, have repentance front and center in our lives and strive to fight against self-justification. Perhaps this is because the first instructions the Lord gave to the disciples after His Resurrection was this:

Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. (John 20:21-23)

He we see the Lord establishing a new law – a new spiritual way. No longer must we bring animal sacrifices as a way to make up for our sins. Rather, God FORGIVES our sins if we repent. This is radical, incredible, novel! This is not found in ANY other religion in the world. Only Christianity offers us this path of forgiveness. The sins are gone! But we have some work to do on our part...

As with all our spiritual life, we work TOGETHER with God towards our salvation. We do not wait for God to do the work, and we don’t try to do all the work without His blessing. This synergy of our effort and God’s Grace crowning that effort is how our spiritual lives work. At least how they work best. If we don’t have this approach we aren’t going to make much progress at all quite frankly. Salvation is not knowledge. Salvation is not effort. Salvation is theosis – transfiguration – transformation: our sincere struggle + God’s Grace. There are many ways in which this happens in our lives – we are striving to walk with God all day every day – in every waking moment. As St. Paul says: pray without ceasing. But that is not an attainable reality when we begin the race. Most of our work and progress comes from trial, error, repentance, and learning from our mistakes. And this happens for most of us mostly through the sacrament of Confession. Which is really named Repentance. And thus we circle back to the verse from II Corinthians noted above.

Confession and forgiveness are GREAT gifts of God to us! Let us take advantage of these gifts more often! Reference to St. John Chrysostom above: let us persuade the Judge (that is, God) before the time of the tribunal (that is, the Last Judgment). The Church teaches us two important things in this regard:

ONE – we answer for our sins either in this life via Confession or in the next life at the Last Judgment in front of all the saints and the angels. The sins we confess here are GONE – we do not need to answer for these there and then.

TWO – one can only repent and be forgiven in this life. There is no repentance after death. We can be SORRY for what we have done and not repented of, but we cannot be forgiven there. 

So let us take advantage of God’s mercy and confess our sins here and now. None of us are promised tomorrow. We will probably see it, but some will not. Let us decide today that we will more often be at Confession, that we will more often partake of the Holy Mysteries, and that thereby we will more efficiently facilitate our transfiguration into the sons and daughters of God by His Grace. This is our privilege and gift – a gift the Lord Himself has given us. Let us not waste this gift, but rather use it wisely and often, engaging in the fight against vice with God’s help, and striving to replacing that vice with virtue!

Confessions are heard before, during, and after all Evening Services. Before Liturgy on Sunday morning by appointment, and at other times too.

FR. GREGORY APPOINTMENTS ~ FR. COLIN APPOINTMENTS

We have lots more resources in this regard on our web site – please have a look at your convenience:

CONFESSION AND COMMUNION AT STV

Let us continue to discuss! Share your thoughts in the comment section, ASK A QUESTION ON CURIOUS VLAD (which will finally return from its decadently long summer break in October), or attend one of our forthcoming Spiritual Discussions (more on those to come soon) at the church on some Sundays after our meal. 

Asking Your Prayers,

Fr. Gregory

Venerable Pimen the Great and Social Media

Venerable Pimen the Great

Friends,

Today the Holy Church commemorates Venerable Pimen the Great, one of the holy eminent fathers of the Egyptian desert. When I was listening to his life on Fr. Josiah’s web site, PATRISTIC NECTAR, someone sent me a note about how some search engine is blocking returns of Hillsdale’s free on-line classes. But maybe because I was listening to St. Pimen’s life, I had a little different thought about this latest drop in the ocean of evil that is fighting everything good and true and beautiful in our world today. 

All that exceeds measure comes from the demons. (Venerable Pimen the Great)

The examples are replete – every day brings many. There are so many, in fact, that it is rather easy to fall into despair if we let each one take away a bit of our joy in Christ. And perhaps this is just another consequence of allowing our lives to be run by algorithms rather than the Gospel. Whether we have chosen one side or another by our browsing habits, we are attacked and urged to continue to move more and more to the extremes. These extremes drive us further and further away from other humans and make it harder and harder to form relationships with those who do not occupy our own personal extreme position. Thus, social media shows itself again and again as the most destructive and efficient tool of those who wish to do away with all that is good and true and beautiful, of course beginning with Christianity. It is not good for us to have a persecution complex. It is also not good for us to be foolish in the face of overwhelming evidence. And in the Gospel we find the stance of the Church in this regard:

If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. (John 15:18)

St. Pimen suggest we be “destroyed” drip by drip not by the evil of the world, which uses every opportunity to try to truly annihilate us via algorithms, and which we welcome so zealously into our lives as those who irrationally love to consume poison, but rather he instructs us:

The nature of water is soft, and that of stone is hard. But a goat skin hung above a stone, letting the water fall drop by drop, will bore through the stone. So it is with the word of God. It is gentle, but our hearts are hard. Yet, the man who hears it often will open his heart to the fear of God. (Venerable Pimen the Great)

Our parish is on social media. Because that is where the world is, and we must meet the world where it is in order to bring it to a higher plane. We must meet the suffering where they are suffering so that we can bring them to health. But we should not, as St. Vladimirians, mistake this presence on social media as an affirmation of the good of social media BY ANY MEANS. Quite to the contrary in fact. But the Church has always sought out the lost sheep wherever they are, and will continue to do that until the end of the world. If you are still on social media, try to wean yourself off as quickly as you can. Imagine how many good spiritual books you could read for your salvation, the prayers you could say, the Divine Services you could attend, how often you could read the Gospel and strive to conform you life to that “algorithm” of Christ, rather than the algorithm of destruction that is found on social media, if you could only free yourself from this snare of the Evil One. 

If I was the Emperor of the World things would change. :) Not necessarily for the better probably, which is why the Lord does not give such control and power to sinners like me. But the first edict I would publish would be the removal of all social media from the world. This is principally how vices are delivered to us now. This is principally what pulls us off The Way of following Christ. But of course, if there was not social media evil would find another way to fight, because the Author of Lies is quite wise in worldly terms. So my fantasy emperorship might not be all that helpful after all. Therefore, let us embrace the reality: we will never be victorious over evil by falling into despondency due to the fact that evil opposes good in our world. That is simply the baseline reality that we need to come to terms with. And that despondency is a tool of the Devil. Rather, let us fight evil by overwhelming it with good! And that starts with ceasing from the endless distraction that is social media:

The principle of all the vices is distractedness. (Venerable Pimen the Great)

Put the phone down. Pick up the Gospel. Leave off distraction. Flee the other vices that flow from it. Embrace all that is good and true and beautiful (that is, virtue), beginning with a life centered on Christ, His Gospel, and His Church. Thus we will destroy evil by overcoming it with good, as have our fathers and mothers in the faith who came before us and pointed the way for us to the Heavenly Kingdom. The path is clear as day, but not when you are consumed by the evil that is social media.

Let us continue to discuss! Share your thoughts in the comment section, ASK A QUESTION ON CURIOUS VLAD (which will finally return from its decadently long summer break in October), or attend one of our forthcoming Spiritual Discussions (more on those to come soon) at the church on some Sundays after our meal. 

Asking Your Prayers,

Fr. Gregory

Forgiveness Vespers - How to and Why to too

Friends,

Elsewhere here we have discussed WHY it is important that we participate in the Rite of Forgiveness, but it may also be helpful to discuss HOW the Rite of Forgiveness takes place. Folks have asked, so we will tell…

The Rite of Forgiveness takes place twice during Great Lent. The first is at the first liturgical service of Great Lent: Forgiveness Vespers. This takes place at STV on Sunday, immediately after the kissing of the cross at the Divine Liturgy. We do this just before we have our last non-lenten meal so that the maximum number of people can participate, since we understand your time is valuable. And if we are honest, we need to ask forgiveness of all our parish family members to begin Great Lent appropriately and we want the maximum number of folks to attend. The second time the Rite of Forgiveness takes place is after the Presanctified Liturgy on Holy Wednesday (not strictly speaking part of Great Lent, but that is another note for another day). In the present note we will concentrate on Forgiveness Vespers and how we participate in this unique and beautiful service.

As with all the Sunday Vespers services of Great Lent this one too begins as Great Vespers, but after the Great Prokimenon at the entrance, changes to daily lenten Vespers. This change is marked visually by the change of vestment color by the clergy. At Forgiveness Vespers the change is from gold to black. Black is the standard weekday vestment color for Great Lent. The icon stand covers are changed too, and the choir replies to the priest’s petitions with the Great Lenten melody. Prostrations are done at certain times of the Vespers service now, and the faithful should prostrate when the priest does. 

The end of the Forgiveness Vespers is the same ending that is done at Great Compline during the first week of Great Lent – different than all other Vespers services. The priest kneels facing the people. The people make a great prostration to the ground and remain there until the priest finishes the long dismissal at which he invokes the major saints and the patron saint of the parish. The priest then stands, as do the people. The priest blesses the people, asks forgiveness with a prostration, and the people reply. This is the script of that part of the service:

Following the dismissal/prayer the priest stands.

Priest: Bless holy masters (this refers to bishops present), holy fathers and mothers (this refers to clergy and monastics present), brothers and sisters, and forgive me a sinner, all wherein I have sinned this day in deed, word, and thought, and in all my senses.

Priest makes a great prostration towards the people without the sign of the cross.

People: May God forgive and have mercy on thee, holy father.

People make a great prostration without the sign of the cross.

Priest: Through His grace may God forgive and have mercy on us all.

Priest blesses the people and turns towards the altar to begin the ektenia.

Priest: Let us pray for our Great Lord and Father… and the rest of the ektenia.

After the exclamation there is usually a short sermon describing the order of forgiveness and its historical origin. Undoubtedly the sermon at the Liturgy immediately before this service would have been about WHY it is important to forgive. The sermon here is more technical as a rule: HOW we execute the order of forgiveness and from where the practice comes.

St. Paul wrote “let all things be done decently and in order” (I Corinthians 14:40) This applies first and foremost to the Divine Services, but really to all our lives as Orthodox Christians. As for the application to the service at hand, we forgive each other in order. That is, the priests come in their order to the main celebrant, then the deacons, subdeacons, etc. Each makes a prostration to the ground, on one’s knees and touching one’s head to the ground (without making the sign of the cross) and says “forgive me a sinner”. The main celebrant replies “God forgives – forgive me a sinner”. The one who first asks replies “God forgives”. Then they kiss each other on the cheeks three times. If the person from whom you are asking forgiveness is a priest or a bishop you would then kiss his right hand. And thus we all ask forgiveness of each one in the church at the rite of forgiveness and we enter into Great Lent having fulfilled, as best we could, the words from the Gospel read earlier at the Divine Liturgy: 

For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:14-15)

Great Lent is a special time of year at which we focus especially on repentance, seeking the Lord’s forgiveness. The fathers of the Church say that repentance is only found in this life – not in the next – so we should especially concentrate on repentance here. Moreover, it seems likely that few of us will attain the Heavenly Kingdom due to our incredibly righteous lives. Rather, much more likely is that we attain the Heavenly Kingdom through sincere repentance. 

Finally, what to do if someone refuses to forgive us? Surely that means we should refuse to forgive them too? “An eye for an eye…” so to speak? That is definitely Old Testament thinking – not at all in alignment with the Law of Love that is the Gospel our Lord brought to us and taught us. If your brother refuses to forgive you he is running to perdition. If you refuse to forgive him you are racing with him to see who can get there first. Stop struggling for the Kingdom of Hell and start struggling for the Kingdom or Heaven! How? By forgiving your brother, even if he will not forgive you. And for praying for him, that he will stop his sprint towards the Devil and embrace forgiveness also before it is too late. Again – repentance is for THIS LIFE ONLY – not the next. Our only chance is to forgive here. The wise man forgives all, understanding that the forgiveness he gives is not so much a gift to the one he forgives as it is a gift to himself: an easy step towards the Heavenly Kingdom. May our participation in Forgiveness Vespers be a radical beginning to a life filled with forgiveness and repentance that leads us all to the abode of the saints with our Lord in Heaven!

Asking Your Prayers,

Fr. Gregory 

The Meeting of the Lord 2024 ~ Сретение Господне 2024

Sermon prepared for the Litugy at the Dormition Cathedral in Ferndale, MI, February 2/15, 2024
Translation: Deacon Peter Longan

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!

Во имя Отца, и Сына, и Святаго Духа!

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Дорогие братья и сестры во Христе,

Today we celebrate one of the twelve great feasts of the Holy Church - the Meeting of the Lord. This feast marks the fortieth day after the Nativity of Christ, when He was brought as a young child to the Temple of the Lord according to the Law of Moses. At the Temple, brought by Joseph and the Mother of God, the Lord was met by the Righteous Simeon, one of the translators of the Old Testament into Greek some 200 years previous. Simeon was responsible for translating Isaiah, and when he came to the seventh chapter and the fourteenth verse he intended to translate into Greek “a young woman shall be with child” since he could not grasp how a virgin could be with child. But as he began to write “young woman” an angel of the Lord grabbed his hand and corrected him, and moreover informed him that not only would a virgin be with child, but that he would live to meet the Lord born of that virgin. Anna the Prophetess had dedicated her life to the service of God at the Temple of the Lord as a widow. This was a sort of proto-monastic undertaking found in the life of the Old Testament. Surely, having fulfilled this life at the Temple she would have know the Theotokos, who just a few years previous had also served at the Temple as a young girl.

Сегодня мы отмечаем один из двунадесятых - Сретение Господне. Этот праздник знаменует сороковой день после Рождества Христова, когда Он был принесен младенцем в Храм Господень по закону Моисееву. В храме принесенного Иосифом и Богородицей Господа встретил праведный Симеон, один из переводчиков Ветхого Завета на греческий язык, жившего около 200 лет назад. Симеон отвечал за перевод книги пророка Божьего Исайи, и когда он дошел до четырнадцатого стиха седьмой главы, то он готов был перевести еврейские слова на греческий как "молодая женщина родит", поскольку не мог понять, как девственница может родить. Но когда он начал писать "молодая женщина", ангел Господень схватил его за руку и поправил его, а также сообщил ему, что не только дева родит ребенка, но Симеон сам доживет до того дня, когда сможет встретить Господа, рожденного от этой девы. Анна Пророчица посвятила свою жизнь служению Богу в Храме Господнем после того, как стала вдовой. Это было своего рода протомонашеское начинание, порой встречающееся в жизни Ветхого Завета. Конечно, проводя свою жизнь в Храме, она должна была хорошо знать Богоматерь, которая всего за несколько лет до этого также служила в Храме, будучи юной девушкой.

Having met the Lord at the Temple, Simeon recited the prayer that is heard at Vespers daily: “Now lettest thou Thy servant depart in peace O Master…”. He then returned to his quarters and gave up his soul, having fulfilled the prophecy of the angel that promised him that he would indeed see the Lord born of a virgin. Anna spread the word of the coming of the Messiah to the Temple throughout Jerusalem and the areas round about.

Встретив Господа в Храме, Симеон прочитал молитву, которая ежедневно звучит на вечерне: "Ныне отпущаеши раба Твоего...". Затем он вернулся к себе и отдал Богу душу, исполнив пророчество ангела, обещавшего ему, что он увидит Господа, рожденного от Девы. Анна разнесла весть о приходе Мессии в храм по всему Иерусалиму и окрестностям.

Today’s feast is a very interesting one in that it is entitled “The Meeting of the LORD”. However, in examining the service itself it is clear that it is really more a feast of the Theotokos. We wear blue for the feast, prostrations are done at Liturgy (never the case for a feast of the Lord), and there are other peculiarities of the feast that make it’s title a bit of a misnomer: this feast “of the Lord” is really more a feast of the Theotokos. 

Сегодняшний праздник очень интересен тем, что он называется "Сретение Господне". Однако при изучении самой службы становится ясно, что на самом деле это скорее богородичный праздник. В этот праздник мы одеваемся в голубое, на Литургии совершаются земные поклоны (чего никогда не бывает в господский праздник), есть и другие особенности этого праздника, которые делают его название немного неправильным: этот   "господский"  праздник на самом деле больше богородичный праздник.

But what is the lesson for us in the feast? What can we learn here today that we can put into use in our lives for our salvation? I would submit that indeed the most important lesson we can learn from today’s feast is that if we are diligent and sincere to fulfill the duties that we are called to as Christians, just as the Theotokos fulfilled the then existing Law of Moses by bringing the Christ child to the Temple on the fortieth day, and just as the Righteous Simeon waited patiently for so many years to meet the Messiah, we will be blessed by God. As Christians we are called to live a life of duty. We are called to do what is right - even when others are not looking. We are called to be the children of God. But sometimes we can lose heart. Sometimes we don’t want to do what is right - even though we know it is right. Today’s feast is meant to show us that there is a reward for doing our duty - to fulfilling our obedience - to serving the ministry God has called us to as His disciples. 

Но в чем урок для нас в этом празднике? Чему мы можем научиться здесь сегодня, что мы можем применить в своей жизни для нашего спасения? Я бы сказал, что самый важный урок, который мы можем извлечь из сегодняшнего праздника, заключается в том, что если мы будем усердно и искренне исполнять обязанности, к которым мы призваны как христиане, подобно тому как Богоматерь исполнила существовавший тогда закон Моисея, принеся Младенца Христа в храм на сороковой день, и подобно тому как праведный Симеон столько лет терпеливо ждал встречи с Мессией, мы будем благословлены Богом. Как христиане мы призваны жить жизнью долга. Мы призваны делать то, что правильно - даже когда другие на нас не смотрят. Мы призваны быть детьми Божьими. Но иногда у нас могут опуститься руки. Иногда мы не хотим делать то, что правильно - даже если знаем, что это правильно. Сегодняшний праздник призван показать нам, что награда за исполнение долга - за послушание - за служение, к которому Бог призвал нас как Своих учеников, будет!

The “heroes” of today’s feast were those who did their duty, who fulfilled their obedience. We are called to be like them and to fulfill our duties with Christian love and joy, thanking God for the opportunity to emulate those heroes of today’s feast: the Theotokos, the Righteous Simeon, and the Righteous Anna the Prophetess. In our society that mocks earnest striving for duty, honor, and country, for what is beautiful and true, let us push back. Let us strive to negate such evil by our good example and with God’s help. If we do so, we can have hope that we will leave this life as did the Righteous Simeon, assured that we have done all we were called to do to glorify God. May the Lord grant such zeal to us all, and such a beautiful end. Amen.

"Герои" сегодняшнего праздника - это те, кто выполнил свой долг, кто исполнил свое послушание. Мы призваны быть похожими на них и исполнять свои обязанности с христианской любовью и радостью, благодаря Бога за возможность подражать героям сегодняшнего праздника: Богородице, праведному Симеону и праведной Анне Пророчице.  Давайте дадим отпор нашему обществу, которое высмеивает искреннее стремление к долгу, чести и служению отечеству, к тому, что красиво и истинно. Давайте своим добрым примером и с Божьей помощью постараемся свести на нет это зло. Если мы будем так поступать, то сможем надеяться, что уйдем из этой жизни, как и праведный Симеон, уверенные в том, что сделали все, к чему были призваны, чтобы прославить Бога. Пусть Господь дарует всем нам такое усердие и такую благословенную кончину. Аминь. 

THE MONDAY FIVE: THIS WEEK AT STV

FIVE LINES FOR EVERY ST. VLADIMIRIAN TO READ FOR THE WEEK!

ONE: Early on the morning of Tuesday, March 5 our brother in Christ Igor Obertas will have an operation on his thyroid. Please remember Igor in your morning prayers tomorrow! We will update you on his progress as we learn more.

TWO: WE DID IT! WE SURPASSED OUR GOAL OF RAISING $10,000 AT OUR BALL ON FRIDAY NIGHT! Congratulations to all who make this incredible outcome possible! AND PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO SAY "OUR FATHER" EVERY EVENING AT 8:00 P.M. AND ASK THE LORD'S BLESSING ON OUR PARISH SCHOOL!

THREE: ANN ARBOR ORTHODOX CLASSICAL ACADEMY 2024 TUITION SET! SPREAD THE WORD! ENROLLMENT IS OPEN – REGISTER NOW!
Tuition for the 2024-25 school year full time program is set at $6,000 per year, or $500 per month. THIS IS SIGNIFICANTLY LESS THAN PREVIOUS ESTIMATES! If you have a child from 4 years old (Junior Kindergarten) to Second Grade REGISTER NOW! If you children older or younger than this, or you don’t have children: TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW! Don’t forget: there are other programs besides the full time program. CHECK OUT OUR WEB SITE TO LEARN MORE! When we start posting information on Social Media (this week or next) spread that with zeal! We all have work to do to make sure our school is successful – join the winning team and let’s make this happen! And if you have ideas about how to best spread the word, please share those with us!

FOUR:DIVINE SERVICES THIS WEEK!
A. Wednesday
B. Saturday
C. Sunday

FIVE: EVERY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN should have their home blessed between the feast of the Lord’s Theophany and the 5th week of Great Lent. House Blessing Schedules are available here:[b]

FR. GREGORY
FR. COLIN
FR. DMITRI (contact via email: dmitrim@protonmail.com)

FOR THE NEAR FUTURE: Great Lent begins March 18 – Resources for St. Vladimirians
Great Lent, our Christian Spring, begins March 5/18. Resources for St. Vladimirians can be found at the links below. Please direct questions to Frs. Gregory or Colin.
First Week of Great Lent Schedule
Full Great Lent Schedule
Evening Presanctified Liturgy Schedule
Soul Saturday Schedule
Holy Week Schedule
Prayer of St. Ephraim

See you soon at STV!

Fr. Gregory  

The Friday Five

FIVE LINES FOR EVERY ST. VLADIMIRIAN TO READ TO PREPARE FOR THE WEEKEND!

ONE: ANNUAL MEETING THIS SUNDAY! THERE IS HOMEWORK!
Each year on the Sunday of the Last Judgment we hold our annual parish meeting. That means that THIS SUNDAY we have the opportunity to come together as a parish family, hear reports from various members of our parish that head specific ministries, to celebrate our victories of the past year, and to share ideas about how we can improve in the coming year. Annual Meetings can be terribly long and rather unpleasant - but that is not what we are after! Rather, we ask you to do some homework so the meetings can be as focused and useful as possible. In this vein, we ask everyone to review ALL the materials found at this link BEFORE we meet on Sunday during our Annual Blini Dinner. These reports will not be read at the meeting, but rather, we will field questions on the reports. At this link you can find information about how to ask questions before the meeting, and how to make other suggestions to improve our parish:

MATERIALS TO REVIEW BEFORE THE ANNUAL MEETING

STV MEMBERSHIP PAGE

TWO: LET US ATTEND! THIS IS A CRUCIAL TIME FOR OUR PARISH SCHOOL!
A. Please Read and Share: Archbishop Peter’s Nativity Epistle
B. Please Watch and Share: Fr. Josiah Trenham on Church Schools and the Future of Orthodoxy
C. Please Read and Share: Interview with Fr. Gregory in the Sun Times
D. Please Watch and Share: Video from Fr. Gregory Regarding our Ann Arbor Orthodox Classical Academy
E. Please Read and Share: How we can Best Support our Parish School on Blogtushka
F. Join us! This is a Parish Family Issue! We are ALL called to hearken until Archbishop Peter’s instructions and ACT! Fr. Gregory’s video and the piece on Blogtushka give us the details of how we do this at STV. Join the winning team – invest in our school to invest in our parish to invest in the spread of Orthodox Christianity in Michigan to invest in the spread of Orthodox Christianity in America. It starts with us! Let us labor in the Lord’s Vineyard!

THREE: EVERY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN should have their home blessed between the feast of the Lord’s Theophany and the 5th week of Great Lent. House Blessing Schedules are available here:

FR. GREGORY
FR. COLIN
FR. DMITRI (contact via email: dmitrim@protonmail.com)

THREE: MARCH SCHEDULE AVAILABLE
Please take a moment and get those services on your schedule that you do not want to miss! Especially note the first week of Great Lent please! The standard practice for Orthodox Christians is to attend each of the first four evenings to participate in the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete. Start Great Lent right! Join us for those evening services!

FOUR: DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME BEGINS THIS SUNDAY!
Please remember that this Sunday we "spring forward" one hour as we transition to Daylight Savings Time. This is important because if you do not change your clocks you will be not less than one hour late to church! And no one wants that! Please remember to move your clocks forward one hour after vigil on Saturday night. See you - on time - at St. Vladimir's this Sunday! :)

FIVE: BLINI DINNER THIS SUNDAY - DO NOT MISS!

FUTURE: More to come!
A. We will collect alms this Great Lent to provide ultrasounds to mothers in crisis pregnancies
B. We have a June 1 deadline to finish our work on our school! Great Lent will be VERY focused on this work!
C. There will be a lecture during the parish meal each Sunday of Great Lent. The theme for this year is "Virtues & Vices".

See you soon at STV!

Fr. Gregory 

Finishing the School, Starting the New Church & Hall, YOUR PART!

 

Dear Friends,

Thank God, after years of labor, donations, struggles, prayer, and action we have come to a truly crucial point in the life of our parish, that is, the opening of our parish school! Yes, we have been holding classes for two years already, utilizing our parish church several times per week, and with the young people studying at home with parents and on-line several times per week. We have been serving the Divine Liturgy every Wednesday that school is in session for nearly two years. And through the prayers, hard work, and other support of our parish family and the friends of our Ann Arbor Orthodox Classical Academy we are ready to open enrollment for the 2024-25 school year! And we have been able to lower our tuition to $500 per month – A HUGE BIG DEAL!

a2oca.org

Such good news! Surely this means we are done with this project! But on the contrary, one of our biggest temptations as Orthodox people is to get things done about 95% and then stop. At least for me. You might not have that temptation. But the reality is, we need to not only get close to winning the game, we need to play right until the last second ticks off the clock. We need to REDOUBLE our efforts now that we are in view of victory!

In other words, now is NOT THE TIME to rest on our laurels and admire the good job we have done. Rather, now is the time to push, to make sure that we don’t just build a school, but to make sure that the school is successful by ever metric we can measure, not the least of these being a robust enrollment when we open the doors in the September of 2024. 

But how can you help at this late date? How can you make sure that we run the race right until we cross that finish line? I am calling upon all our parish family – EVERY SINGLE MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD – to pray every day for the success of our school, beginning on Monday, February 12 (the feast of the Three Hierarchs – the patron saints of education!) until December 12 (the feast of the patron saint of our school, St. Mardarije of Ann Arbor). Let us all, at 8:00 p.m. every night, say the prayer that the Lord taught His disciples: The Lord’s Prayer. And let us concentrate especially on the words: “...Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven…”, for we believe that indeed we are doing the Lord’s will by investing in the education of the next generation of Orthodox Christians who have found themselves living in a secular humanist world that is diametrically opposed to Christianity. And we are encouraged in our confidence that this is the Lord’s will by the words of Archbishop Peter’s Nativity Epistle. We also encourage your entreating St. Mardarije for his prayers before the Lord. And for this reason we will have the relics of St. Mardarije available for veneration of our St. Vladimir’s faithful every Saturday evening and Sunday morning beginning this Saturday, February 10.

Who among us cannot join this prayerful labor? And if your child does not know this prayer yet, let us use this opportunity to teach it to him. And if you desire to know this prayer in Church Slavonic, let us take this opportunity to learn the prayer in Church Slavonic. If we all pray for the Lord’s will to be done we can be confident in His blessing. For He said: “... where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20) Moreover, He assured us: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” (Luke 11:9) And if we all pray together each evening we are talking about hundreds seeking, asking, and knocking together. Let us encourage our friends and loved ones to join us in this effort as well, entreating the Lord for His blessing on our school!

Above I write that we are investing in the school. And I think it is crucial that we see our efforts towards our school as an investment indeed. Not just and investment in the children and families that will benefit from the school, but in our entire parish, our state, our nation. In other words, yes we should thank God that we can plan and execute the building of the first Orthodox parish school in Michigan, but this is not just abject altruism. On the contrary, the children and families that will benefit from our school will also benefit our parish. It is these children and families that will grow into the leaders of our parish, and it is through the growth in the parish that the school will drive the successfully complete (with God’s blessing) the next project for our parish family: the building of our new church and hall. The school will drive growth. The school will educate children. The school will bring new converts. The school will make it possible to continue to bring new people to Christ, and to continue to outgrow our present parish church, which honestly, we outgrew some years ago. 

We announce here for the entire parish family to know: we are actively negotiating with Lima Township on the date of the groundbreaking for our new church! The school therefore is not the END of a project, it is the FIRST STEP in the greater building plan of our parish, and construction of the new church and hall will, barring any really unforeseen circumstances, start this year if the Lord 2024!

Therefore, I hope that we all see that we are not entering a time of rest, but having completed our parish school as a base for continued growth, we will be REDOUBLING our efforts as a parish family and building our new church and hall, using the success of our school as a jumping off point and a proof of concept. We built the school with our efforts and God’s blessing – we can do the same with our new church and hall! 

And so brothers and sisters, let us thank God for the challenges He gives us. For if He gives a challenge He also gives the strength to bear it, and the grace to spiritually grow from it. Working together with Him, and through the prayers of our Sts. Vladimir and Mardarije let us not turn back, but reengage in our parish family’s effort to complete the school strongly, and push right through to the next big project of our new church and hall! If we add our time, talent, and treasure to our sincere prayer, and from that prayer we receive the Lord’s blessing on our labor, THERE IS NOTHING WE CANNOT ACCOMPLISH AS A PARISH FAMILY!

Join us in prayer! Join us in labor! Join us to win the victory for the Lord’s Church and for all those that will know Him and be saved by Him through our humble and sincere efforts!

Asking Your Prayers,

Fr. Gregory