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Monthly June 2013 Volume 6

Feast Day of Sts. Peter & Paul June 29th, 2013

The mission of St. Paul's Greek Orthodox Parish of Savannah, Georgia is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and to serve the spiritual needs of the faithful through worship and sacramental life. We enable individuals to come together in communion with God and with each other through ministries that are centered on the beliefs and values of our Orthodox Faith.

Celebration of our Nameday

(June 28-30)

This year Sts. Peter and Paul Day falls on Satur-day, June 29. We were honored for many years by the presence among us of our Shepherd, Met-ropolitan Alexios of Atlanta. As this year, the Clergy –Laity Conference in Boca Raton, FL, is scheduled for the same weekend (June 27-30), our Metropolitan delegated his right arm, the “ierokyrix” (preacher/confessor) of Atlanta, Fr. Christodoulos Papadeas, to represent him and to preside over Services. The Program of celebrations includes:

Friday, June 28, 6:00pm, Great Vespers of Sts. Peter and Paul. An Artoklasia Service will be also chanted. A reception will follow in the Hellenic Center. Introduction of Fr. Christodoulos by Fr. Vasile. All parishioners are invited to join us in a gathering/discussion with Fr. Christodoulos, together with the Education, Culture, Youth and Diakonia Committee, and all the ministry leaders.

Saturday, June 29, Sts. Peter and Paul, Orthros at 9:00am, Divine Liturgy at 10:00am, followed by a reception in the Hellenic Center. Fr. Christodoulos will be available for the holy confession and/or spiritual guidance from 1:00 to 4:00pm.

Sunday, June 30, All Saints and Synaxis of the Holy Apostles, Orthros at 9:00am, Divine Liturgy at 10:00am. At the end of Services, St. Paul’s Award will be presented by Fr. Christodoulos. St. Paul’s Luncheon will take place in the Hellenic Center. Notes: Archimandrite Christodoulos (Papadeas), originally of Denver, CO is a graduate of our Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. He was ordained as an Archimandrite (priest-monk) at the Holy Archangel Michael Mission-Monastery of Thari, Rhodes in Greece. In Denver he founded the Hesychasteirion, “The Brotherhood of Saint George“. Most recently, he served as Chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of New Zealand for Archbishop Amphilochios Tsoukas, his Geronda and Abbot at Holy Archangel Michael. Fr. Christodoulos will arrive in Savannah on Friday, June 28, and he will meet with parishioners and leaders of the parish. He will be available to hear confessions on Saturday, June 30, after the Services and Reception. There are some people in our parish who have never been to con-fession, for whatever reason. This is just one of the reasons that we have a travelling preacher/confessor, so that everyone in a parish has the opportunity to avail themselves of this important sacrament. And if you don’t want confession, just some spiritual conversation or spiritual coun-sel, that is alright as well. We look forward to welcoming Fr. Christodoulos to our parish!

Fr. Vasile Mihai

Holy Apostles Peter and Paul

(June 29) The Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul is

celebrated in the Orthodox Church on June 29th. The icon of the feast shows the two embraced and symbolizes the extraordinary contributions brought by these two men, paramount among the apostles. In the Roman Catholic Church only one day separates their celebrations, St. Peter’s on June 29th and St. Paul’s on June 30th. On 29th of June we commemorate the martyrdom of both apostles. The date is the anniversary of a day around 258, when under the persecution of Valerian, the relics of the two apostles were both moved temporarily to prevent them from falling into the hands of the persecutors. What is known about St. Peter comes from the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, and from oral tradition. St. Peter was a native of Bethsaida and was introduced to Christ by his brother Andrew, the first-called disciple. He was given the name ‘Cephas’ which is the Aramaic equivalent of the Greek Petros, which comes from petra, rock. In all the lists of the apostles, Peter figures the first. Obviously, he belonged to the ‘inner circle’ and was present with Christ at the Transfiguration, at the raising of Jairus’ daughter and at Christ’s agony in the Garden of Gesthemane (Mt. 26:37).

Peter was the spokesperson for the rest of the apostles; after professing his belief at Caesarea Philippi that Jesus was the ‘Christ’, the Mes-siah, the Son of God, Christ told him that this truth was not revealed to him by flesh and blood but by the Father in Heaven. Then Peter received the promise, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Mt. 16:18-19).

On this passage the Popes of Rome based their desire to have full authority over the Christian Church. The authenticity of the passage is widely accepted; however it is much disputed whether the ‘rock’ refers to Peter himself or to his faith. Moreover, Christ gave to the other disciples the same author-ity to bound and loose: “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Mt. 18:18).

During the Passion, Peter showed his courage in striking Malchus with a sword, but he ended up abandoning his Master and even denied Him three times in the high priest’s courtyard. He was the first among the apostles to see Jesus risen and, after the ascension took leadership of the growing Christian community.

On the day of Pentecost, he spoke in the name of all the apostles and converted three thousand people. His authority grew constantly and miracles were performed by him alone or with other disciples. About the year 43, Peter was active in Jerusalem and that caused Herod Agrippa to imprison him. He was freed after a while and returned to Jerusalem in the year 50, presiding over the Council of the Apos-tles, and deciding with St. Paul on the entry of the Gentiles into the Christian Church.

St. Paul was born in Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia, into a Pharisee family of the tribe of Benja-min. He was named Saul after the tribe’s earlier hero, the first king of Israel. St. Paul’s knowledge of the Law, the Prophets, and the Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek languages can be attributed not only to his excellent intellect, but also to a rigorous education.

From his father, St. Paul inherited two citizenships, Tarsian through his father’s residency in that city, and Roman because of his forebears’ Roman naturalization (171 BC) who were brought together with other Jews to Tarsus for the promoting of business. St. Paul attended the rabbinical school of the Pharisees at Jerusalem at the age of twenty and studied under the famous Gamaliel. He fell under the clutches of fanaticism and actively persecuted followers of Jesus of Nazareth. Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus is an important turning point not only in his life but also in the life of entire humanity. From the day of conversion he was wholly devoted to spreading the knowledge and love of God.

St. Paul preached in Damascus and “in Arabia”, staying for different lengths of time in Jerusa-lem, Caesarea, Tarsus, and Antioch. From 45 to 48 AD he was in Cyprus, in Pamphilia, in Pisidia, and in Lycaonia. In the year 50 AD he conferred with St. Peter and St. James in Jerusalem. From 50 to 52 AD he journeyed through Phrygia, Galatia, Macedonia and preached at Philippi, Thessalonica, Beroea and Athens. He visited Churches in Macedonia, Achaia, passed through Corinth, stayed in Aegean Is-lands for a while and returned to Jerusalem for Pentecost in the year 58. There the Jews attempted to kill him, but they succeeded only in having him arrested by the Roman authorities. After two years of jail in Caesarea, he was transferred to Rome following his appeal to Caesar. After two more years of jail in Rome, he was set free in the spring of 63 AD. St. Paul resumed his traveling to Crete, Ephesus, Troas, Macedonia and Epirus; some people believe that he traveled also to Spain. Though, it was in Asia that he was arrested by Nero’s soldiers and brought to Rome. There he was imprisoned and as a benefit of being a Roman citizen was beheaded rather than to be crucified. He was beheaded in the place called Tre Fontane (Three Fountains) along the Via Ostiense and buried nearby, on the site where the basilica bearing his name now stands. Ac-cording to Eusebius his martyrdom took place in 67 AD, three years after that of St. Peter. Sts. Peter and Paul differed in education and temperament, but they were equal in their love for Christ; they had different upbringing but they ended in the same way, giving up their lives for Christ and His Church; they came in different ways to the faith, but their contribution to the faith was fundamental, sometimes they argued, but eventually they embraced one another for the sake of the Church. Fr. Vasile Mihai Both apostles share the same feast day, for these two were one; And even though they suffered on dif-ferent days, they were as one. Peter went first, and Paul followed. And so we celebrate this day made holy for us by the apostles' blood. Let us embrace what they believed, their life, their labors, their suffer-ings, their preaching, and their confession of faith. St. Augustine, Sermon 295 After the Lord's Ascension, the Apostles returned to Jerusalem with great joy as the Gospel says (Luke 24:52). The Lord knows what joy He gave them, and their souls lived this joy. Their first joy was that they came to know the true Lord Jesus Christ. Their second joy was that they loved Him. Their third joy, that they came to know eternal, heavenly life. And their fourth joy was that they longed for the sal-vation of the world, as for their own salvation. And, finally, they rejoiced because they came to know the Holy Spirit and saw how He acts inside them. The Apostles traveled the earth and preached the word about the Lord and the Kingdom of Heaven. Their souls, however, longed and thirsted to see their beloved Lord. For this reason they did not fear death but faced it with joy. And if they wished to live in earth, this was only for the sake of the people whom they loved. They feared neither martyrdom nor death and for this reason the Lord sent them out into the world to enlighten the people." St. Silouan of the Holy Mountain

The Ascension of Our Lord

(June 13) Wednesday after the fifth Sunday of Pascha is the fortieth day and, in liturgical terminology, we ‘take leave’ of the Pascha/Easter feast. This is the last day of physical presence of the risen Christ among his disciples. The next day, Thursday, the Church celebrates the feast of Ascension.

The hymnology of the services prescribed for the Ascension refers to the Lord’s house on the top of the mountain, alluding to the Mount of Olives, from where Jesus ascended to his Father. In His love and compassion for us, Jesus prepared the way for us, car-ried the weak and raised the dead. The Gates of Para-dise are now opened.

This is the last time when the disciples will see Jesus. Then He will ‘disappear into a cloud’, but the disciples are comforted with the good news (evangelion) of the coming of the Spirit, the Comforter, the Paraclete, whom Jesus will send to them and to us. This good news quenches their fear of separation and soothes their grief. Their hopes are so great that they “returned to Jerusalem with great joy” (Lk. 24:52). Like them, we are comforted and filled with gratitude and joy; gratitude for the divine gift of redemption, joy for His coming back to His Father.

Jesus will take now again His position at the right hand of the Father. He will sit on the Throne of Glory and on the Throne of Judgment. The cloud in which Jesus disappeared and which is carrying Him into heaven is similar to the smoke of the incense rising from the Altar to God. The sacrifice is accepted and God’s blessings will be sent down in an eternal and heavenly manner. The work of our salvation has been accomplished and is blessed.

Jesus does not return to His Father in isolation. He came down as incorporeal Logos, took flesh and became man, and as true God and true man He enters the Kingdom of Heaven. He is bringing back to His Father the human nature that He had assumed, thus opening the door of the Kingdom to humanity. As if by proxy, we are enjoying the benefits offered and made possible to us: God had “raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Je-sus” (Eph. 2:6). The Ascension makes our thoughts about heaven more immediate, more actual. Most of us think of heaven as a ‘place’ transcending our empirical space and that is not theologically impossible. But heaven is more that that, it’s a state, a state of perfect happiness. This happiness comes from the intimate union with the three persons of the Trinity and their life of love. When we reach the heaven, we become ourselves part of the divine life, which is the source of perfection and happiness.

Our lives would be transformed if, from now on, we have a change of heart (metanoia) which prompts us to renounce the ‘worldly desires’ and to acquire instead ‘treasures in heaven’. In heaven we will find not only our own true good, but also the good of those whom we love. It was for the chance to get in this awesome place that the disciples gave their life for Jesus. Likewise, that was the reason for which many martyrs accepted with joy their martyrdom; this was the reason for which so many Christians accepted the death as liberation from sin and corruption. Hopefully, we too will follow in their steps, thus grabbing the chance to dwell forever in the ‘mansions’ of God.

Fr. Vasile Mihai

An Explanation of the Icon of Ascension The feast of the Ascension is the feast of salvation consummated. The whole process of salvation: birth, passion, death and resurrection are completed in the Ascension. “When Thou fulfilled for us Thy dispensation, and united the things in earth with the things in Heaven, Thou, O Christ our God, did ascend into glory, in no wise being parted from those that love Thee, but Thou did re-main with them inseparably and proclaim to them: I am with you, no one is against you.” As an expression of the meaning of this festival, the theme of the Ascension used to be placed in the dome of Ancient churches, thus completing the scheme of paintings they contained. The first glance at Orthodox Icons of this feast creates the impression that they do not quite correspond to their name. The principal place in them is given to a group consisting of the Mother of God, angels and apos-tles, whereas the principal figure, the ascending Savior Himself, is almost always much smaller than the other persons depicted and it is almost as though He is secon-dary in relation to them. Yet in this very disparity Ortho-dox icons of the Ascension conform to the Holy Scrip-tures. The fact of the Ascension itself is given there in only a few words. The accounts of the Evangelists concentrate all their attention on something else - on the last precepts of the Savior, establishing and defining the role and significance of the Church in the world and its connection and relationship with God. The Acts of the Apostles, along with the account in the Gospel of St. Luke, give us the factual data that is the basis of Orthodox iconography of Christ’s Ascension. The center of gravity in the Holy Scriptures and the ico-nography lies not in the fact of the Ascension itself, but in the significance and consequences it has for the church and the world. According to Holy Scripture, the Ascension of our Lord took place on the Mount of Olives. Therefore in the icon the action takes place either at the summit of the mount or in a hilly landscape. In accordance with the special service of the festival, the Savior Himself is represented as ascending in glory, sometimes sitting on a richly ornamented throne. In iconography His Glory is rep-resented as a mandorla, oval or round, composed of several concentric circles, the symbol of the high heavens. Graphically this idea is conveyed by means of an image of the visible sky as the ancients saw it, which corresponds to our modern conception of it as consisting of several spheres (troposphere, stratosphere, ionosphere). This symbolism shows that the ascending Savior abides outside the earthly plane of existence and through this the moment of Ascension acquires a character that is outside of time. Angels support the mandorla, the angels and the mandorla are expressions of His Glory and greatness. In the foreground, with the Theotokos in the center, are two groups of apostles and two angels. Here the angels are messengers of Divine Providence. The presence of the Mother of God is affirmed by Tradition. In the icons of the Ascension the Theotokos occupies a very special position, placed di-rectly below the ascending Savior, She is the axis of the whole composition. Her gesture always corre-sponds to Her significance in the icons of the Ascension. In some it is the gesture of orison - the ancient gesture of prayer—uplifted hands, expressing Her role and the role of the Church She personifies in re-lation to God, connection with Him through prayer, intercession for the whole world. In other icons it is the gesture of profession of faith, expressing the role of the Church in relation to the world. In that case the Theotokos, like the martyrs, holds her hands palms outwards before Her breast. Her outline, of wonderful purity and lightness, clear and precise, stands out sharply from the background of the white

garments of the angels. This group, with the Mother of God in the center, represents our Savior’s in-heritance- the Church. The Ascending Savior Himself, leaving the earthly world in the flesh, does not abandon it in His Divinity. “And, lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the world” (Mat. 28:20). He gestures to-wards the group whom He is leaving behind and towards the external world. The icon conveys the connection between our Savior and His Church by depicting Him as blessing with His right hand and usually holding the Gospels or a scroll in His left hand - the symbol of the teacher, of preaching. By this, the icon shows that the Lord, while dwelling in Heaven, remains not only the source of blessing but also the source of knowledge, given to the Church through the Holy Spirit. (Adapted from Leonid Ouspensky and Vladimir Lossky, The Meaning of Icons, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Crestwood, New York, 1982, pp. 194-197).

Chapel of the Holy Resurrection, Jerusalem

The Chapel of the Holy Resurrection is located on the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem. Christian Tradition tells us that there was the spot from which the Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, ascended to heaven. In the small chapel there is a stone that has an imprint of the feet of the Lord (see the bottom picture) Biblical records: “Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven. And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God.” (Luke 24:50-53).

“And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-12).

ASCENSION DAY MEDITATION

Forty days after Jesus rose from the dead he ascended into heaven. Thus, forty days after Easter, the church celebrates Ascension Day. Because Ascension never falls on a Sunday, it is often overlooked, but the Church continues to celebrate the Ascension in a festive and formal way. What is the meaning of Ascension? Why would we celebrate Jesus’ return to the Father? Wouldn’t it be better to have Jesus with us on earth? Actually, it is better for us that Jesus returned to his Father’s right hand in heaven. This is so for at least six reasons:

First, Jesus’ ascension means that the incarnated one shared our own flesh and blood and fi-nally has entered into the heavenly sanctuary at the Father’s right hand. In the Old Testament God’s people were shut out of his presence. They could worship from a distance at the earthly tabernacle and temple (and occasionally at other appointed sites), but they had no access to heaven. On that first As-cension Day, Jesus became the first man to “break through” – to enter into the heavenly sanctuary, the heights of heaven. And this is a great gift to us.

In the Ascension, the original trajectory established for humanity at creation has been fulfilled, as man has entered into full union with the Trinity. In Jesus, God descended to the lowest place so that in Him, man might ascend to the highest place. Because we are in union with Christ, His Ascension is our ascension. This is why St. Paul says we may sit with Him in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:6;Col. 3:1-3).

The Ascension is good news because it means heaven and earth are no longer barred from one another. Even on earth, we have a way into the heavenly sanctuary through the flesh of the ascended Christ (Heb. 10:19ff). We can draw near before the throne of grace (Heb. 4:16) because Christ has cut a pathway back into God’s presence for us. Worship in the Old Testament took place on mountains. Wor-shippers ascended to meet with God (cf. Eden, Mount Moriah, Mount Sinai, Mount Zion, etc.). Now wor-ship takes place in the “high place” of heaven itself. The Ascension is not just a way of explaining why we no longer see Jesus on earth. Yes, the appearances of Jesus came to an end. But this was so He could begin to appear in heaven on our behalf. The Ascension is a necessary event, one which completes the resurrection. Second, we know that because Jesus has ascended, he will reign until all his enemies have been defeated (cf. Ps. 110; 1 Cor. 15). Again, this is good news – this is why the Ascension is a necessary piece of the gospel story. The Ascension is a sign of Christ’s coming victory. It is the guarantee of his es-chatological triumph. In the Old Testament, priests were never able to sit down in the tabernacle/temple because their work was never done. But Jesus completed his priestly offering on the cross and then took his seat at the Father’s right hand. From that position he exercises judgment and sovereignty. Death will be defeated last of all, when He comes again in glory to resurrect his people into the final form of the new creation.

While the Ascension is an important piece of the story, following on the heels of the resurrection, it is not the last chapter. Jesus will return to this world to unite heaven and earth in God’s finalized new creation. As we work faithfully and diligently in our callings, we share in his reign over the earth and cul-ture (Gen. 1-2). Christ is the True Adam who fulfills the dominion mandate, given to the first Adam in Genesis 1:26-28. Jesus now has total rule over the creation and fills the whole creation with his presence (Eph. 1:20-23).

It seems that God always intended to have a wise, mature, obedient leader at the helm of the uni-verse; in Christ, this plan has been fulfilled. Because we are called to sit with Him in the heavenly places, we know that our work is woven into the kingdom of Christ and serves to fulfill God’s original design for the world. We have authority over creation because we are in Christ; in Him, all things are ours (1 Cor. 3:21-23). Most specifically we share in Christ’s dominion through prayer. The Church exercises unthinkable power in prayer because God of the entire universe listens as she speaks her requests and petitions. Like a good husband, God consults with and listens to his bride, even when he wisely chooses to over-rule her requests. We must think prudently and biblically about what to pray for in the heavenly sanctu-ary. We must also pray with fervency and constancy. Prayer is power because it is the primary way God invites us to share in his total rule over the universe. Third, the Ascension means that Jesus is continually interceding for us at the Father’s right hand. Jesus prays for us in ways we cannot even understand. He continually applies the efficacy of His once and for all sacrifice to us, to grant us ongoing forgiveness and enable us to die to sin. We should

be greatly assured by this intercessory ministry. Jesus ascended to heaven so He could become our heavenly high priest. Just as in the Old Testament the high priest passed through the temple rooms to-wards the Holy Place, so Jesus ascended into the inner sanctuary of heaven on our behalf. He lives there to prepare a place for us, to call us to salvation. Jesus’ prayers are not limited to the Church’s present membership. He also asks the Father to give Him the nations as inheritance (Ps. 2). Thus, the ministry of the ascended Christ is the key to the Church’s mission in the world. This means that our hope for victory on earth and in history is not in vain; Jesus will receive the nations because He died to redeem them from the dominion of Satan. All these things – Jesus’ intercessory prayers, the promises of the Father, and the commission of the Church – mesh together to show us where history is going. History continues so that the nations can be drawn into the kingdom of Christ, resulting in nothing less than the salvation of the world. Fourth, the Ascension is important because it prepares the way for Pentecost. This is why Christ’s ascension is associated with the giving of the gift of grace to the Church (cf. Eph. 4:7ff) and to men. He began to bestow his Spirit upon his people in a new way, equipping them for greater service than ever before. Through the Spirit, the ascended Christ equips every member of his body for ministry in the church and in the world. This complex of events – the death/resurrection/ascension of Jesus, followed by the sending of the Spirit at Pentecost – is what strengthens the Church’s mission. The Church is sent as Jesus was sent (John. 20:21). We are not send to condemn the world, but that the world through us might be saved (John. 3:17). The ministry of Jesus determines the shape and form of our ministry. But we can have confidence that our ministry will be successful because the Spirit makes the risen and reigning Christ present with us in all that we do. The Church cannot fail because Jesus cannot fail. Fifth, His Ascension means He is coming again. As already noted, his going away cannot be the final chapter in the story; he must come again to fulfill his work. In His death/resurrection/ ascension, Jesus opened heaven for us. He opened up a new way of living into the sanctuary of God. But heaven and earth are not yet fully united. (Note that the separation of heaven and earth on day two of the creation week in Genesis 1 is not called “good”; in other words, it was intended to be only a tem-porary design feature of the creation). At the last day, when Jesus comes again in glory (Acts 1:9-11), God will fully “marry” heaven and earth together into one realm, where God will dwell with his people forever in beauty, glory, and love. Jesus returned to dwell among us through the Spirit at Pentecost. This is a wonderful manifesta-tion of Christ’s glory. But the best is still to come. The Ascension is a necessary step towards His final coming back (eschaton). At that time, Christ will return to earth, resurrect the saints, execute judgment on all men, and send everyone to their final destiny. The righteous will dwell forever in a glorified new creation as God brings heaven and earth together in an eternal marriage. The Ascension is a pointer to that final coming, for when He ascended, the angel said to the dis-ciples, “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11). Just as Jesus rode his glory-cloud chariot into the heaven, so He will descend on the cloud in blazing glory and awesome power at the last day. Jesus did not go to heaven to escape this world; He will return to complete his work of rescuing creation from the ravages of sin. The Ascension is the sign that heaven and earth will ultimately come together. Sixth, the Ascension is a key piece of our assurance of salvation. The Ascension is the Father’s acceptance of the Son and of his work on our behalf. Indeed, when the Father accepts the Son, he ac-cepts us as well. The ascension is the completion of His mission on earth. But because we have been united to Christ, we share in that reunion; we have been made part of that flow of love that binds to-gether the Father and Son. The Ascension is the guarantee of our welcome into heaven (at death) and the new creation (at the last day). If the head is in heaven, how can the body be left behind?

Ascension is a mysterious event. We do not know to explain how Jesus ascended into heaven. How do you get there from here? How can a body pass out of this realm into the realm of heaven? Heaven is a place and in the same time a state of mind. This revealed truth escapes scientific explana-tion. And yet, it really happened. Jesus is really seated at the Father’s right hand, reigning over all things, until He will come again to judge the living and the dead. At that last day, He will hand over the kingdom to his Father for approval and final glorification.

Fr. Vasile Mihai

The Pentecost (June 23)

When John the Baptist had prophesied: “I baptize you with water, but someone is coming who is much greater than I am...He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Lk. 3:16) he was referring surely to Jesus and His complete baptism. On the day of Pentecost the glorified Christ poured out the Spirit upon his followers, enabling them to transmit this wonderful gift to generations and generations of bishops and priests. It was at Pentecost that God gave humanity the gift of the Spirit, the pledge of a new Promised Land, God’s coming kingdom. When he completed His mission on earth, the risen Christ charged his followers to remain in Jerusalem: “Wait for the gift I told you about, the gift my Father promised...In a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit...You will be filled with power, and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:4-5, 8). Who were the followers of Christ at Pentecost? The Book of Acts tells us that there were “about a hun-dred and twenty in all” (Acts 1:15). Among them were the eleven apostles and Matthias, the one who replaced Judas Iscariot, Theotokos and other women disciples, the “brothers of the Lord” and others. They gathered in the upper rooms and prayed together, waiting for the Lord to empower them at Pente-cost for their mission of preaching and teaching. The ordinal πεντικοστος was used to denote a year of jubilee. The noun pentikosti denotes the 50th part, or 2% of the value of taxable goods. Such a tax of 2% was levied on all goods brought to the port of Piraeus or exported from it. The Jews of the Old Testament used the term Pentikosti for the Feast of Pentecost or the Feast of the Weeks. This feast was a harvest festival, celebrated fifty days after the Passover. Pentecost, literally means “the fiftieth day; it was the day on which people gave thanks to God for His protection and for the rich provisions procured by the harvest. On the day of Pentecost the Jews read the Book of Ruth and then prepared for their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. As hymns were sung, led by priests and Levites, the pilgrims carried baskets on their shoulders with the first fruits of the new wheat harvest. The Pentecost indicates the divine origin of Christianity on its subjective side, and on that day the Church was endowed with the Holy Spirit needed for her future work. The ‘mighty wind’ was the natural

emblem of the Almighty Spirit; the ‘tongues of fire’ coming on the disciples symbolized the universal gift of power to proclaim the Gospel; the polyglot utterances of the believers were a sign of the world-wide destination of the truth. These miraculous events associated with the Pentecost had been foretold by the prophets. For St. Luke and for the Fathers of the Church, the Pentecost is the birthday of the Chris-tian Church. In the Christian Church the importance of Pentecost continued and its significance emphasized by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on that day. From St. Luke’s account (Acts 2), we know that the Pentecost is now related to the salvation of humankind, a day when the Holy Spirit gives power to praise and pro-claim the Triune God. In the early church Pentecost was celebrated as a long and continuous feast, starting on the eve of Pascha and ending on the Holy Trinity, the day after the Sunday of Pentecost. On these days fasting and kneeling were not required, Pentecost being a prefiguration of the heavenly kingdom. Fr. Vasile Mihai

One Thing is Needful

Our Savior said this saying; One thing is needful (Lk. 10:42) to us all, O Christians! Many Christians trouble themselves and take care for one thing or another, but they them-selves often do not know for what they trou-ble themselves. The Lord warns us of this useless care and says to all, One thing is needful. What is it? Eternal salvation. This is the foremost task of a Christian. With Chris-tians the foremost care ought to be for this. We need food, clothing, a house and other things necessary for this life, and we also pray for this to our Heavenly Father, Give us this day our daily bread (Mt. 16:11). But eternal salvation is so necessary that without it everything else is as nothing. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his soul? (Mt. 16:26). There is no profit, truly none, where there is no sal-vation. What use is it to us if, though we gain the whole world, we lose our soul? We protect our temporal life above all things. How much

more ought we to protect our eternal life, which is more precious than the whole world! Then just as for each man his main task is his calling – as for a judge it is to judge, for a farmer it is to farm, for a mer-chant it is to ply his merchandise, for a herdsman it is to herd his cattle, for a teacher it is to teach, for students it is to learn, and so on – so for the Christian his foremost task should be to please God, Whom he confesses and reveres, in faith and in truth, and so to hope for and await eternal life from Him. This is the Christian’s foremost task, care and labor. This one thing is needful. St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, Journey to Heaven: Counsels on the Particular Duties of Every Christian, pp. 184-185.

An Explanation of the Icon of Pentecost

With the Ascension “the works of Christ while in the flesh finish, or rather the works relating to His physical sojourn on earth; and the works of the Spirit commence”, says Gregory the Theologian (1). These works of the Spirit begin by the fulfillment of the “promise of the Fa-ther” (Acts 1:4) in the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. After worshipping the Holy Trinity on the first day of the festival (Sunday), the Church offers, on the following day, special worship to the Holy Spirit, Who descended visibly on Christ’s disci-ples. Although the Acts of the Apostles (Acts, 2:1-13) say that the descent of the Holy Spirit was accompanied by a sound and by general perturbation, the icon shows us the reverse- an harmonious order and strict composi-tion. In contrast to the Ascension, where the Apostles are gesticulating, here their posures express an hieratic calm, their movements are full of solemnity. They are seated; and some turn a little towards one another, as though talking. In order to understand the contradiction between the text of the Acts and the composition of the icon, one should bear in mind that the icon is addressed to the faithful and so shows not what external, uninitiated people saw at this event, which made them assert that the Apostles were “full of New wine”, but what is revealed to the participants of this event, to mem-bers of the Church - that is, its inner meaning. Pentecost is the baptism of the Church by fire. Being the fulfillment of the revelation concerning the Holy Trinity, it represents the culminating moment of the formation of the Church, unfolding its life in the fullness of its grace-given gifts and institutions. If the icon of the Holy Trinity gives an indication of the mystery of God’s being, the icon of Descent of the Holy Spirit reveals the providential action of the Holy Trinity in relation to the Church and the world. “At Pentecost it is not by His action that the Spirit is present as formerly (in the prophets and in Christ’s disciples prior to the descent of the Holy Spirit), but He is substantially present, cohabitating and coexisting.”(2) The Divine service of that day contrasts the confusion of tongues in Babylon to their harmoni-ous union on the day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit. “When the All-Highest, descending, confounded the tongues, He divided the nations; but when He distributed the tongues of fire, He called all men to unity; wherefore with one accord we glorify the All-holy Spirit.” For the Fathers of the Church (3) say that it was necessary that the peoples, who had lost their unity of tongue and were dispersed during the building of the earthly tower, should once more recover this unity and should be collected together in the spiritual building of the Church, fused into its single holy body by the fire of love. ”Thus, according to the likeness of the Holy Trinity, Undivided and distinct, there is formed a new being, the holy Church, one in its being, but multiple in persons, whose head is Christ and whose members are angels, proph-ets, apostles, martyrs and all those who have repented in faith.” (4) This unity in the likeness of the Holy Trinity, this clear and precise inner structure of the Church- its single body filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit- is indeed shown to us in the icon of the Pentecost. The twelve Apostles, together forming a definite figure - a semicircle - are a beautiful expression of the unity of the body of the Church, with all the multiplicity of its members. Everything here is sub-jected to a strict and majestic rhythm, which is the more strongly emphasized by the fact that the Apos-tles are represented in the inverse perspective-their figures grow bigger as they recede from the fore-ground. Their grouping is completed by an empty, unoccupied place- the place of the invisible Head of the Church, that is Christ. This is the reason why some ancient images of the Pentecost are completed by an ετοιµασια - an altar prepared, a symbol of the invisible presence of God. Some (the Evangelists)

hold books in their hands, others scrolls, as a sign of their having received the gift of teaching. Out of the segment of the circle, that goes beyond the edge of the panel, and symbolizes heaven, there de-scend upon them twelve rays or tongues of fire, as a sign of baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire, according to the prophesy of John the Forerunner (Matt. 3:11), and a sign too of their sanctification. Sometimes small tongues of fire are also placed on the halos, immediately over the heads of the Apos-tles. This shows that the Holy Spirit descended in the form of tongues, which alighted “on the heads of the Apostles, as a sign of sanctification both of the principal controlling members of the body and of the mind itself” and “showing that the Holy Spirit reposes in the saints.” (5) The inner unity expressed by subordinating the Apostles to a single form and a common rhythm in no way stamps them with uniformity. No movement in one figure is repeated in another. This ab-sence of uniformity corresponds also the inner meaning of the event. “The Holy Spirit appears in the shape of separate tongues, owing to the diversity of gifts”, says Gregory the Theologian. (6) Conse-quently He descended upon every member of the Church separately and, although there is “one and the selfsame Spirit”, “there are diversities of gifts…” and “there are diversities of operations…”. “To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge…to another the gifts of healing…” and so forth (I Cor. 12:4-31). Tradition says that, to fulfill the prophecy of Joel (Joel 2:28-29), the Holy Spirit descended not only on the twelve chosen Apostles, but also upon all those who were with them “with one accord in one place” (Acts 2:1), that is, on the whole Church. This is why on our icon there are represented Apos-tles not belonging to the twelve - Apostle Paul (sitting with Apostle Peter at the head of the circle of Apostles), and among the seventy, Luke the Evangelist (third from the top on the left) and Mark the Evangelist (third from the top on the right). In ancient manuscripts, the multitude, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, is represented at the bottom of the composition. Yet very soon it was replaced by one symbolical figure of a King, per-sonifying the people or peoples, with the inscription “Cosmos”. An explanation of this figure can be found in the collections of the XVIIth century - “Why at the descent of the Holy Spirit is there shown a man sitting in a dark place, bowed down with years, dressed in a red garment with a royal crown on his head, and in his hands a white cloth containing twelve written scrolls? The man sits in a dark place, since the whole world had formerly been without faith; he is bowed down with years, for he was made old by the sin of Adam; his red garment signifies the devil’s blood sacrifices; the royal crown signifies sin, which ruled in the world; the white cloth in his hands with the twelve scrolls means the twelve Apostles, who brought light to the whole world with their teaching.” (7) The Icon reproduced here belongs to the best period of Russian iconography and represents one of the best examples of an icon of Pentecost (8), expressing most fully the ecclesiological meaning of the festival connected with the central dogma; for triunity, that is singleness of nature and multiplicity of persons, is the principal according to which the Church lives and builds the Kingdom of God upon earth. Both its canonical structure and the principle of all Christian structure (Church community, mon-astery, etc.) is a reflection on the earthly plane of the Divine triune life. Thus it is that both of the icons brought out for worship at the festival of Pentecost are, in their essence, an image of the inner life of the Church. Edited from: Leonid Ouspensky and Vladimir Lossky, The Meaning of Icons, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Crestwood, New York, 1982, pp. 207-208 Notes: 1. St. Gregory the Theologian, Discourse 41: P.G. 36, col. 436. 2. St. Gregory the Theologian, Discourse 41: P.G. 36 3. St. Gregory the Theologian, Discourse 41: P.G. 36, and St. Gregory of Nyssa, In praise of the holy martyr Stephen. 4. Archbishop Anthony, Collected Works, vol. II, pp. 75-76 5. St. Gregory the Theologian, ibid. 6. St. Gregory the Theologian, ibid. 7. N. Pokrovsky, The Gospels in Iconographic Records, St. Petersburg, 1892, p. 463.

Personal Experience Of The Holy Spirit by Kallistos Ware, Bishop of Diokleia The Holy Spirit supplies all things: He causes prophecies to spring up, He sanctifies priests, To the uninitiated He taught wisdom, The fishermen He turned into theologians. He holds in unity the whole structure of the Church. — From an Orthodox hymn on the Feast of Pentecost “The worst of all heresies” The vital significance of the Holy Spirit for the Christian East will be apparent if we consider one of the outstanding mystical authors of the Middle Byzantine period, St. Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022). Each of us, he maintains, is called by God to experience the indwelling presence of the Spirit ‘ in a conscious and perceptible way’, with what he describes as the ’sensation of the heart’. It is not enough for us to possess the Spirit merely in an implicit manner: Do not say, It is impossible to receive the Holy Spirit; Do not say, It is possible to be saved without Him. Do not say that one can possess Him without knowing it. Do not say, God does not appear to us. Do not say, People do not see the divine light, Or else, It is impossible in these present times. This is a thing never impossible, my friends, But on the contrary altogether possible for those who wish.3

All the charismata available to Christians in the apostolic age, Symeon is passionately convinced, are equally available to Christians in our own day. To suggest otherwise is for Symeon the worst of all pos-sible heresies, implying as it does that God has somehow deserted the Church. If the Gifts of the Spirit are not as evident in the Christian community of our own time as they are in the Book of Acts, there can be only one reason for this: the weakness of our faith. Symeon goes on to draw some startling conclusions from this. When asked, for example, whether lay monks, not ordained to the priesthood, have the power to ‘bind and loose’ that is to say, to hear confes-sions and to pronounce absolution he answers that there is one essential qualification, and one only, which empowers a person to act as confessor and to bestow forgiveness of sins; and that is the con-scious awareness of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Monks who possess such awareness, even though not in holy orders, may confer absolution upon others; but anyone who lacks such aware-ness – even though he may be bishop or patriarch – should not attempt to do this.4

Symeon speaks also of a ’second baptism’, the baptism of tears, which is conferred on those who are ‘born from above’ through the Holy Spirit: When someone suddenly lifts up his gaze and contemplates the nature of existing things in a way that he had never done before, then he is filled with amazement and sheds spontaneous tears without any sense of anguish. These tears purify him and wash him in a second baptism, that baptism of which our

Lord speaks in the Gospels when He says, ‘if someone is not born through water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.’ Again He says, ‘If someone is not born from above’ (cf. John 3:5,7). When He said ‘from above’, He signified being born from the Spirit. Symeon even seems to consider the second baptism more important than the first; for he regards the first baptism – sacramental baptism through water – as no more than a type’ or foreshadowing, whereas the second baptism is to be seen as the truth’ or full reality: ‘The second baptism is no longer a type of the truth, but it is the truth itself.’ 5

How far is Symeon’s standpoint typical of Eastern Christendom? He himself warns his readers that he is a ‘frenzied’ or ‘manic zealot’:6 are his remarks, then, to be discounted as the ravings of an extrem-ist? Let us compare Symeon with three other writers, all of whom emphasize the Holy Spirit, and all of whom are held in high esteem within the Orthodox spiritual Tradition: with St. Mark the Monk (Plate fourth or early fifth century), alias Mark the Hermit or Mark the Ascetic; with the author or authors of the Homilies attributed to St. Macarius of Egypt, but in fact of Syriac origin (late fourth century); and with St. John Climacus (c.570-c.649), author of The Ladder of Divine Ascent, a work which Orthodox monks are supposed to reread each Lent. Three Questions In assessing how these different writers understand baptism ‘with the Holy Spirit and fire’ (Luke 3:16), let us ask three more specific questions: i. Must the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit be always a conscious indwelling, or can there be an indwelling of the Paraclete which is unconscious yet nonetheless real? ii. What is the relationship between sacramental baptism that is to say, water baptism – and ‘baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire’? Is the ’second baptism’ in the Spirit to be seen as something radically new, conferring a fresh grace distinct from that of water baptism, or is the ’second baptism’ essentially the reaffirmation and fulfilment of the first – not a fresh grace but the realization and manifestation of the grace already received in our sacramental baptism with water? iii. What outward experiences – tongues, tears and the like – accompany and express our attainment of a conscious awareness of the Spirit? Any answers that we propose need to be offered with diffidence and humility, for it is hard to contain within verbal formulae the living dynamism of the Spirit. Pointing as He does always to Christ and not to Himself (John 15:26; 16:13-14), He remains elusive and hidden so far as His own personhood is concerned. He is ‘everywhere present and filling all things’, to use the words of a familiar Orthodox prayer, but we do not see His face. Symeon the New Theologian emphasizes this mysterious charac-ter of the Paraclete in an Invocation to the Holy Spirit which precedes the collection of his Hymns. ‘Hidden mystery’, he calls the Spirit, treasure without name … reality beyond all words … person be-yond all understanding’; and he continues: ‘Come, for Your name fills our hearts with longing and is ever on our lips; yet who You are and what Your nature is, we cannot say or know.’ 7

Let us display, then, an apophatic reticence in all that we assert concerning the free and sovereign Spirit, who is like the wind that ‘blows where it chooses: and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where goes’ (John 3:8). Note: Text abbreviated from a Paper presented at the European Pentecostal/Charismatic Research Conference held in Prague on 10-14 September 1997.

Footnotes 3. Hymn 27:125-32. 4. See Kallistos Ware, Tradition and Personal Experience in Later Byzantine Theology', Eastern Churches Review 3:2 (1970), pp.131-41, especially pp. 135-9. 5. Practical and Theological Chapters 1:35-36. 6. Catechesis 21:139-40. 7. Sources Chretiennes 156 (Paris 1969), p. 151.

Christianity without Pentecost

What happens when Orthodox Christian experience Ascension, but not Pentecost?

On June 12, the day before Ascension and the Apodosis (eave-taking) of Pascha we cease the sus-tained celebration of the Holy Resurrection of the Lord as well as our saying, “Christ is risen. Truly He is risen.” The next day we celebrated the Glorious Ascension of our Savior into the heavens to sit at the right hand of the Father. For these days between Ascension and Pentecost we have been in a waiting mode. We, like the Apostles of old, have been heeding our Lord’s ascension instructions to “wait in Je-rusalem to be clothed with power from on high” (St. Lk. 24:49). We have been waiting for the Holy Spirit to come. Why were the Apostles waiting? The obvious answer to this question is that they were waiting because the Lord Jesus commanded them to tarry until Pentecost. There is, however, much more to this waiting than that. We must understand very clearly the difference between the apostles before Pentecost and after Pentecost. Something dra-matic happened to them that changed them personally. They were transformed. Fear turned into mar-tyric boldness; fishermen became the world’s teachers; doubt was replaced by mountain-moving faith. All because of Pentecost. The Necessity of Pentecost Some of us do not understand the necessity of Pentecost. Pentecost is many things, and we have spo-ken about these realities before. Pentecost is revelation of the Holy Trinity to the world. This is why this Feast is also called “Trinity Day” in the Church. The Apostles knew the Father. They had become the disciples of the Son. And now they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is also the birthday of the New Testament Church. It is the democratization of the Spirit of God to all believers. It is the unification of all mankind, and the definitive beginning to the reversal of the chaos of the Tower of Babel. All of these things we have previously discussed, but today I wish to point out that Holy Pentecost is the evi-dence that Christianity is not a man-made or earthly religion. It is not a set of ethical standards. It is not for moral guidance. Christianity is a miraculous and divine communion between God and man. Christi-anity is the spiritualization or divination of man. If Christianity were simply a man-made religion, even if it were the best and most beautiful man-made religion, there would be no need for the disciples to tarry in Jerusalem these days awaiting Pentecost. Why would they need to? They had for years lived in close contact with Christ, and had been His most intimate students. They could have simply begun to write and teach and pass on what they had learned. They had been fully trained, and so it is time to start training. This is how it is with every other of the world’s religions. Not so with Christianity. Christianity is not about ideas, moral guidance, ethical norms, social structures, etc.. Christianity, of course, is not free from these things, but this is not what Holy Or-thodoxy is about. Holy Orthodoxy is about the coming of the Holy Spirit into man. It is about human transformation and deification, not ideas. There is no Christianity without Pentecost. Orthodoxy without the Holy Spirit is not Orthodoxy. Many Christians tragically live between Ascension and Pentecost With that said is it not tragic how often we live with our Orthodoxy as a set of ideas. We think we are Or-thodox because we believe certain things in our heads and were born or converted to a certain family or at a certain time. If the Apostles had remained in the state they were in between Ascension and Pente-cost they would never have brought the Gospel to the world. They would never have become the great saints they did. They would never have crushed the demons like they did. They did all of these things because they were living in union with the Holy Spirit of God. Sometimes we Orthodox evidence little proof that we are living post-Pentecost. Our faith is weak. We are bound by sins. We have little Christian joy. We read or listen to the Acts of the Apostles and think that the Apostles were living a different way of life. We pick up and read a book on the life of a particular saint and the saint’s mode of being appears to us to be foreign and almost unintelligible. Why? Because we are not living in the Holy Spirit. We are more like the fearful and doubting disciples prior to Pente-cost.

Others around us seem to be radiant. They endure trials with joy. They don’t worry. Why? Because they are in a dynamic relationship with the Holy Spirit. They are sincerely praying the Prayer to the Holy Spirit, “O Heavenly King, O Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, Who art in all places and filleth all things, the Treasury of Good Things and Giver of Life, come and abide in us, and cleanse us from every stain, and save our souls O Good One.” The Holy Spirit is in these ones abiding in them, cleanses them, and saving them! Christianity without Pentecost is Empty Form! If our Orthodox life is not permeated with the presence of the Holy Spirit it is all in vain! Consider first that the Holy Sacraments or Mysteries of the Church are all dependent completely upon the Holy Spirit. Bap-tism saves us because we are not born of the water alone, but of water and the Spirit (St. Jn. 3:3-5). Chrismation itself is an individual’s personal Pentecost. The seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Ordination is the special bequeathal of the Holy Spirit to men, and the substance of the priesthood is that priests bear the Holy Spirit in the community. This is why our Lord gathered the twelve together and breathed upon them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whoever’s sins you remit are remitted. Whoever’s sins you retain are retained” (St. John 20:23). Marriage is simply temporal and earthly if it is not consecrated by the Holy Spirit and bound together in His love. Holy Unction without the Holy Spirit is simply a complex skin treat-ment! It is the Holy Spirit in the sacred oil healing our souls and bodies! Confession is insincere and point-less unless it is a Spirit-inspired compunction and a Spirit-empowered absolution. And think of the Mystery of Mysteries and the Sacrament of Sacraments: the Holy Eucharist. The existence of the Holy Eucharist is completely dependent upon the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit Whom the priest calls down upon the Holy Table in the epiklesis: “changing them by Thy Holy Spirit.” This liturgical reality is beautifully evidenced in many different saints’ lives, especially those saints who were bishops or priests responsible for the celebration of the eucharist. The story is told of St. Basil the Great that he had hanging over his altar a beautiful oil lamp made in the form of a golden dove. Always at the time of the transformation of the gifts the dove would begin to swing. A similar story is told about St. John of San Francisco and Shanghai. St. John would see the Holy Spirit descend as fire into the holy chalice at the epiklesis as he served liturgy. On one occasion the liturgy was delayed because St. John would not go on since he saw no fire. Wondering why he turned to his deacon and saw his face was cov-ered over in a black cloud. Asking the deacon what was wrong, the deacon confessed that he had not prepared for the liturgy properly. Once the deacon divested and left the altar the fire came and liturgy could continue. All of the Holy Mysteries are empty forms without the Holy Spirit, and this may be said about all matters of our faith and practice. Fasting is simply dieting if it is not an attempt to acquire the Holy Spirit. It is not a coincidence that our Lord went into the desert to fast for forty days “led by the Holy Spirit” (St. Lk. 4:1). Sin is not overcome except by the Holy Spirit. He is One Who enables us to “mortify the deeds of the body” (Rom. 8:13). We could go on and on. There is no prayer without the Holy Spirit praying in us. There is no church without the Holy Spirit. There is no Church Temple without the Holy Spirit. This is why when we erect a true church temple the bishop chrismates the altar and the temple itself. The Temple has its own Pentecost for it truly becomes not simply a functional gathering place, but the House of God and Temple of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives there. If He does not then the Temple become a Temple of Satan (Rev. 2:9). Our Goal is to Acquire the Holy Spirit In the light of truth we see then that St. Seraphim was correct when he was asked by someone, “What is the purpose of this life?”, and he answered, “The acquisition of the Holy Spirit.” “If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a ser-pent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Lk. 11:11-13). All of our Christian effort and spiritual struggle is guided toward this one thing: ob-taining an increase of the Holy Spirit. This is what it means to become spiritual. This is the goal of Christi-anity: the union of man with God by the Holy Spirit. Let us not betray the true nature of our religion by liv-ing as though Orthodoxy was about ideas, morals, etc.. Nonsense. Christianity is about becoming one with the True God: by grace becoming what He is. Fr. Josiah Trenham is the pastor of St. Andrew Church in Riverside, CA.

Nativity of St. John the Baptist (June 24)

John the Baptist and Jesus Christ’s lives were intertwined not only in divine fate but also in the historical destiny. They were from illustrious families and they were cousins. John was the son of priest Zachariah and Elisabeth, a daughter of a priest herself. Priest Zachariah was be-stowed with many blessings from God; he had even the privilege to be elected high priest and to enter in the Holy of Holies. However, he and his equally righteous wife Elisabeth were not blessed with a child. As in the story about Abraham and Sarah and Jacob and Rachel, both Zachariah and Elisabeth were advanced in age and lost the hope to have a child; to their fervent prayer, an angel of God announced the birth of a son. The name of the son and his fate was predestined: “you will give him the name John (‘God is gracious’) and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in the mother’s womb” (Luke 1:13, 15). To an unusual birth, made possible only by the outpouring of God’s

mercy, an important mission was reserved for John. His godly destiny was to “go as a forerunner be-fore Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous; so as to make ready a people prepared for Lord” (Luke 1:17). This divine plan reserved for John is again confirmed by the visit of Virgin Mary, herself heavy with Je-sus, to her cousin Elisabeth. Elisabeth, in awe recognizes in Virgin Mary “the mother of my Lord”, and her baby leaped in her womb when she heard the greetings from Virgin Mary. Both boys grew up in the world, but their ways were separated for a while. The Scriptures put them together in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, in 26 A.D. John, who was living an ascetic life in the wilderness, came down around Jordan river and “Preached the baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:3). As people wandered that he might be Christ the Messiah, John reveals the divine plan: “As for me, I baptize you with water, but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of his sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16). The baptism in the Holy Spirit occurred at the Pentecost and is done with any new baptized Christian. The baptism by fire refers to the judgment that accompanies the Second Coming of Christ. Jesus forcefully asked John to baptize him in order to “fulfill all righteousness”; even that Jesus was sinless and he did not needed a baptism of purification, he submitted to it, in order to show that he be-longed to the same body of Christ (the Church) as everyone else. At Jesus’ baptism, John witnessed that the heavens were open and “he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him, and behold, a voice out of heavens, saying: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased’” (Matthew 3:16-17). The Christian Church celebrates in John the Baptist the one who prepared the way for Jesus Christ by preaching the need of radical change in the life of the people. The ones who departed from God will be brought back by the “new birth” of baptism. A new life is started, one of self–determination and growth in faith. The baptism is now done in the Church, with God’s participation in all three hypostases, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; that assures the healing of bodily and spiritual infirmities and the cleansing of sins. “For what is the use of the baptism which cleanse only the flesh and the body? Baptize the soul from wrath and from covetousness, from envy, and from hatred” (Justin the Martyr, 160 AD). Fr. Vasile Mihai

“Preparing the Tomb”

Margaritsa

Resurrection Service

AGAPE Service 5-05-13

Easter Egg Hunt (rain date 5/12/13) ~ A chance to enjoy our beautifully renovated courtyard

GOYAn’s presenting flowers on Mother’s Day 5-12-13

Prelude to “11,595” Dolmades!!!! Many Thanks to all who participated!!

Certificate Sunday 5-19-2013

THANK YOU To the Day & Evening Crews who helped with the making of Dolmades. We know it’s a hard job and we appreciate everyone’s efforts!! Thanks again~ Stamata Karfakis & Bonnie Danos

“The Family of William A. Lamas wish to express their sincere appreciation for all of the phone calls, food, cards and donations made in the memory of ‘Billy’. May his memory be eternal!” Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

CONGRATULATIONS

To Nicholas James Taylor, who graduated this May from the University of Georgia, Magna

Cum Laude, with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Envi-ronmental Geology. Nick is the son of Georgianne Chappas Taylor and grandson of Bess Chappas and the late Jimmie Chappas. Kai se anotera!

To Roz Goodson, recent high school graduate, who was recipients of the Philoptochos Volunteerism Award and the St. Nektarios Scholarship. Good Luck to you!!

To Mary Christine Miltiades who graduated May 25th from Savannah Country Day. She is the daughter of Chris/Sheri Miltiades; granddaughter of Ann Miltiades.

To Mary Rose Davis who was presented a 30Year Pin for her Volunteer Service to Memorial Hospital and a 30 Yr. Pin and a pin for 9,000 hrs from Candler Hospital.

To Joseph and Paula Hough who were married here on May 11th, 2013. Koumbari were Catherine Stewart and Vanessa Jones..

To our two nominees for the Archan-gel Michael Award Mary Rose Scor-dos Davis and William Norse who will be presented their awards by His Eminence Metropoli-tan Alexios in November at the 16th Annual Archangel Michael Feast and Honors Banquet in Atlanta. Congratulations to you both!

FESTIVAL NEWS

PASTICHIO - June 13th & 14th and June 20th & 21st

We will continue cooking next month for the Festival. making SPANAKOPITA - JULY 11th & 12th.

We had such great teams for the Dolmades -Thank-you!! …..whatever time you can give us will be appreciated. Come join in the fellowship

and make new friends and catch up with the old friends! Mark your calendars and come and support your Festival !!

ST.PAUL’S DAY LUNCHEON

On June 30th we will hold our St. Paul’s Day

Luncheon.

Tickets will be on sale starting June 2nd for $8 We will be serving; Pork

Tenderloin, Rice, Vegetable, Salad and Dessert. There will be free spaghetti for the children.

We will also present the St. Paul’s Day Award. Please join us for this celebration!

VACATION CHURCH SCHOOL

The Registration Form for the Vacation Church School for children 4 yrs. to 12 years old may be obtained on line @ www.vcsstpauls.com and also in the Hellenic Center. VCS will be held on June 17th-June 21st from 9:00am (drop-off @ 8:30am) to 11:30 am (pick-up by noon).

The VCS theme this year is: “Journey to Athens with St. Paul”. Join us as we create cool projects in the Marketplace, play Bible-time games, visit with St. Paul and eat some interesting new food + meet lots of fun friends!!

St. Paul's News & Notes

St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church 14 West Anderson St. Savannah, GA 31401 Phone: 912-236-8256 Fax: 912-236-7321

GREEK SPEAKING GROUP

Notice to members: we will not meet for June, July and August. Watch the monthly newsletter for further announcements.

ST. PAUL’S NEWS AND NOTES PHILOPTOCHOS NEWS

Volunteerism Award 2013: Congratula-tions to Roz Goodson for being awarded the Volunteer Award. Good luck to all seniors graduating this year!

Calendar of Events:

June 2nd: Philoptochos Tray and 40 Day Memorial and Coffee Hour for Elpie Parris

June 9th: 40 Day Memorial & Coffee Hour for Tallulah Babanats

June 13th, 14th & 20th, 21st: FESTIVAL COOK-ING- PASTICHIO ~WE NEED EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU!! Please try to attend one or all of our Festival baking sessions.

June 16th: 20 Yr. Memorial and Coffee Hour for Sylvia Halatas, also for George Halatas & Kathe-rine Foster

June 28th:Great Vespers Sts. Peter and Paul- 6pm we will serve at the Reception afterwards.

June 29th: Divine Liturgy of Holy Apostles Peter & Paul -10 am - we will also serve at this Reception-following the service.

June 30th: St. Paul’s Day Luncheon ~sponsored by Parish Council-Please make plans to attend!!

August Philoptochos Meeting-Look for more de-tails to come!!

Don’t forget to support AHEPA’s Convention being held here in beautiful Savannah-June 6th-9th!

Have a wonderful and safe summer! May God bless each and every one of you with good health and much happi-ness. ~ Betsy Varlagas

SUNDAY SCHOOL NEWS

. Another Sunday school year has gone by and we had a great year. Thank you to all

the children who participated in Sunday school and to our wonderful teachers. We had our certificate presentation in May, and if you missed it, you can pick up your certificate in the church office.

This year our Summer Session will begin on June 23rd and meet every Sunday thru July 28th. Lessons will be for Pre K - Elementary age students. If you are interested in teaching a class

please contact Bonnie Danos. All lessons are prepared for you and include a simple craft.

FALL TAG SALE

Moving… or just clearing out your household…

There will be a joint Tag Sale by Philoptochos and St. Paul’s GOC on November 2nd.

We are accepting donations starting NOW- we need your donations to make this a successful, fun and festive event!! Please contact: Kay Litchfield @ 665-4279 or Susan Horner @ 257-0866 to make arrangements for pick-ups or more info. See our flyer for donation suggestions.

St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church 14 West Anderson St. Savannah, GA 31401 Phone: 912-236-8256 Fax: 912-236-7321

for our 11th Annual Food & Wine Tasting and Silent Auction

September 7th, 2013 from 4-7 pm

AHEPA DISTRICT CONVENTION The Savannah AHEPA Chapter is hosting the District Convention on June 6th, 7th, 8th & 9th. On Saturday, June 8th we will hold our Dinner Dance w/live music by the Grecian Echoes!!

6:30 pm-Cocktail Hour Ticket Prices: 7:30pm-Dinner $30 Adults 9:00pm Music/Dancing $15 Students

Sponsored by AHEPA~ Call Andy Caparisos with any questions @ 706-202-2593

$15-Dance only (after 9:00pm)

Fall Tag Sale- November 2nd

FALL TAG SALE IDEAS

WE HAVE DECIDED TO TAKE A LIMITED AMOUNT OF BETTER DRESSES/SUITS OR WEDDING DRESSES/VINTAGE CLOTHING. LADIES: GENTLEMEN:

BETTER DRESSES/SUITS/COATS MEN’S SUIT AND SPORTS COATS

VINTAGE OUTERWEAR SPORTS AND HOBBY ITEMS

GLOVES, SCARVES, PURSES, HATS LUGGAGE, BAGS, HATS & SCARVES

JEWELRY GLOVES, , GARMENT BAGS

NO INTIMATE APPAREL, PLEASE GENERAL:

OFFICE SUPPLIES, TOOLS PULL CARTS, GLASS TABLE TOPS, ELEC-TRONICS, GLASSWARE, RE-GIFTS,

PICTURE FRAMES, MIRRORS OF ALL SORTS AND SIZES, CLIP LIGHTS, PET SUPPLIES, CHRISTMAS DÉCOR.

TEACHING SUPPLIES, LANGUAGE COURSES, REFERENCE MATERIAL, LINENS, BEDSPREADS, THROW PILLOWS, AREA RUGS, HOME AND OF-FICE ACCESSORIES.

ARTWORK OF ALL SORTS, SCULPTURE, GARDEN ART AND IRONWORK, PATIO FURNITURE, STOOLS,LADDERS, CANDLES, READING GLASSES/SUNGLASSES

COLLECTIBLES OF ALL TYPES, ROCKERS, BEDROOM GROUPS……. WE ARE GATHERING ITEMS FOR THE STORAGE SPACE NOW. CALL SUSAN HORNER OR KAY LITCHFIELD FOR ARRANGEMENTS TO HAVE ITEMS TAKEN TO THE SPACE IN GARDEN CITY.

SUSAN 912-257-0866 or 912443-5004 KAY: 912-665-4279

BETTER KEEP IN TOUCH

Cowboy Poetry

Jake, the rancher, went one day To fix a distant fence.

The wind was cold and gusty And the clouds rolled gray and dense.

As he pounded the last staples in

And gathered tools to go, The temperature had fallen,

The wind and snow began to blow.

When he finally reached his pickup, He felt a heavy heart.

From the sound of that ignition He knew it wouldn't start.

So Jake did what most of us

Would do if we had been there. He humbly bowed his balding head

And sent aloft a prayer.

As he turned the key for the last time, He softly cursed his luck

They found him three days later, Frozen stiff in that old truck.

Now Jake had been around in life And done his share of roaming.

But when he saw Heaven, he was shocked, It looked just like Wyoming!

Of all the saints in Heaven,

His favorite was St. Peter So they sat and talked a minute or two,

Or maybe it was three. Nobody was keeping' score,

In Heaven, time is free.

'I've always heard,' Jake said to Pete, 'that God will answer prayer, But one time I asked for help,

Well, he just plain wasn't there.'

Does God answer prayers of some, And ignore the prayers of others?

That doesn’t seem exactly square - I know all men are brothers.'

Or, does he randomly reply,

Without good rhyme or reason? Maybe, it's the time of day, The weather or the season.'

'Now I ain't trying to act smart,

It's just the way I feel. And I was wondering', could you tell me,

What the heck's the deal?!'

Peter listened very patiently And when Jake was done,

There were smiles of recognition, And he said, 'So, you're the one!!'

That day your truck, it wouldn't start,

And you sent your prayer a flying, You gave us all a real bad time,

With hundreds of us trying.'

'A thousand angels rushed, To check the status of your file,

But you know, Jake, we hadn't heard From you in quite a long while.'

'And though all prayers are answered,

And God ain't got no quota, He didn't recognize your voice,

And started a truck in Minnesota.'

Conclusion: Prayer is not a "spare wheel" that you pull out when in trouble,

but it is a "steering wheel" that directs the right path throughout the journey.

St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church 14 West Anderson St. Savannah, GA 31401 Phone: 912-236-8256 Fax: 912-236-7321

Stewardship Comparison

St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church

April 2012 As of April 30th, 2012

April 2013 As of April 30th, 2013

Total Collected Year To Date:

$ 42,364.18

Total Collected Year To Date:

$ 54,430.61

Total Pledged Year To Date:

$ 108,100.00

Total Pledged Year To Date:

$121,449.00

Total Families who have turned in a pledge card

155

Total Families who have turned in a pledge card

164

Thank you to those St. Paul’s members who have pledged for 2013. We encourage everyone’s participation in order for our church to fulfill it’s financial obligations and be able to fund the activities and ministries

June 2nd

Ushers: *George Polites, Tommy Danos, Jamie Newman, **Pete Simon, Frances Spirides, George Donkar & Steve Mousourakis Acolytes: Michael Mamalakis, Eugene Mihai, Alex McDonnell, Atha Stathopoulos& Channing Stroud Nursery: Open w/Parental Supervision Bookstore: Alexis Donkar

June 9th

Ushers: Jimmy Stevens, Jimmy Anestos. *Gabrielle Franklin, Eddie Lambros, Tom Sideris **Chris Simon, & Andy Crawford Acolytes: Drew Deleanides, Timothy Newport, & Andoni Sideris Nursery: Open w/Parental Supervision Bookstore: Mary Ann Gonis

June 16th

Ushers:*Kostas Karfakis, Mary Ann Gonis, George Gonis, Tony Morris, **Billy Norse & Jerry Welsh, Sr. Acolytes:Michael Mamalakis, Eugene Mihai, Alex McDonnell, Atha Stathopoulos & Channing Stroud Nursery: Open w/Parental Supervision Bookstore: Marie Danos

June 23rd

Ushers: George Polites, Tommy Danos, *Jamie Newman, **Pete Simon, Frances Spirides, George Donkar & Steve Mousourakis Acolytes: Drew Deleanides, Timothy Newport & Andoni Sideris Nursery: Open w/Parental Supervision Bookstore: Anna Gounaris June 30th

Ushers: Jimmy Stevens, Jimmy Anestos. Gabrielle Franklin, Eddie Lambros, *Tom Sideris **Chris Simon, & Andy Crawford Acolytes: Michael Mamalakis, Eugene Mihai, Alex McDonnell, Atha Stathopoulos & Channing Stroud Nursery: Open w/Parental Supervision Bookstore: Helen Xenakis

St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church 14 West Anderson St. Savannah, GA 31401 Phone: 912-236-8256 Fax: 912-236-7321

*Denotes PC Member opening; ** denotes PC Member closing

ERA Southeast Coastal Real Estate Office: (912) 927-1088 Cell: (912) 660-6412

Historic Church Tours of Savannah Day Tours include tour of 9 churches and lunch. Overnite tours and 2 Nite Tours available. For pricing and to book tours call 912-306-5543 or email us @ churchtoursofsav@yahoo.com St. Paul’s Hellenic &

Cultural Foundation Educate * Promote * Assist * Support

Your Donations are Needed and Appreciated!

1425 Dean Forest Rd. Garden City, GA 31405 (912) 234-7505 Phone; (912) 234-7533

Kostas & Paraskevi Petropoulos- Owner/Operators

*** We’ve Moved!!!!

912-484-3438 fun@artbashstudio.co www.artbashstudio.com www.artbashstudio.com

7704 Waters Ave. *** Savannah, GA 31406 912-484-3438 fun@artbashstudio.co

www.artbashstudio.com

ALL TAG SALE- Moving… or just clearing out your Household ...There will be a joint Tag Sale by Philoptochos and St. Paul’s GOC on November 2nd.

We are accepting donations starting NOW- we need your donations to make this a successful, event!! Please contact: Kay Litchfield @ 665-4279 or Susan Horner @ 257-0866 to make arrangements for pick-ups or more info.

CRYSTAL BEER PARLOR SINCE 1933 301 WEST JONES STREET SAVANNAH, GEORGIA 31401 912-349-1000

JOHN NICHOLS 912.844.8591

Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage

Paid Permit No. 179 Savannah, GA.

Place Label Here!

St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church 14 West Anderson Street

Savannah, Georgia 31401

Address Service Requested

Happy Father’s Day June 16th