Marriage as a Vast Ocean

Ocean at Corona Del Mar, Ca.

Dear and Pious Readers

Blessings of the Lord!

“Life is not a party, as some people think, and after they get married take a fall from heaven to earth. Marriage is a vast ocean, and you don’t know where it will wash you up…It is an adulteration of marriage for us to think that it is a road to happiness, as if it were a denial of the cross. The joy of marriage is for husband and wife to put their shoulders to the wheel and together go forward on teh uphill road of life. ‘You haven’t suffered? Then you haven’t loved’, says a certain poet. Only those who suffer can really love. And that’s why sadness is a necessary feature of marriage. ‘Marriage,’ in the words of an ancient philosopher, ‘is a world made beautiful by hope, and strengthened by misfortune.’”

Archimandrite Aimilianos, THE CHURCH AT PRAYER

Paraklesis to the Theotokos 6pm tonight.

Family Nights resume tonight as we begin a new class in the St. John Chrysostom Catechetical School entitled The Twelve Prophets. This evening we will cover the book of the Holy Prophet Hosea- 7pm.

DIOCESAN FALL GATHERING (Oct. 10-12) will be hosted by St. Andrew Church. Have you registered yet? To do so, go to our website www.saintandrew.net or see registration instructions in our September St. Andrew Newsletter.

SPECIAL “INTRODUCTION TO ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY” Class to be offered by St. Andrew Parish beginning Saturday, Sept. 6th, at 4pm. The class will run for 5 weeks. It is designed to be an outreach to the local community- this is a great class to invite neighbors, co-workers, and friends who may be interested in discovering the history of the Orthodox Church. For more info see the link on our parish website www.saintandrew.net and the YouTube Video there.  A invitational flyer is available on the web-site (to be printed out) and also on the table in the narthex. Please feel free to take them and pass them out to those who may be interested.

Forgive me.

Fr Josiah

The Common Cup of Marriage

 

The Holy Prophet Hosea

Dear and Pious Readers

Blessings of the Lord!

“What then is the purpose of marriage?…first of all, marriage is a path of pain. The companionship of man and wife is called a ‘yoking together’, that is, the two of them labor under a shared burden. Marriage is a journeying together, a shared portion of pain, and, of course, of joy. But usually it’s six chords of our life which sound a sorrowful note, and only one which is joyous. Man and wife will drink from the same cup of upheaval, sadness, and failure. During the marriage ceremony, the priest gives the newly-weds to drink from the same cup, called the ‘common cup’, because together they will bear the burdens of marriage. The cup is also called ‘union’, because they are joined together to share life’s joys and sorrows.”

Archimandrite Aimilianos, THE CHURCH AT PRAYER

Our new St. John Chrysostom Class dedicated to The Twelve Prophets will begin tomorrow Wed. Sept. 3rd and run for 12 weeks. We will cover one prophet each week. 7pm! Paraklesis at 6pm followed by potluck. You are invited to hear the prophetic words.

 SPECIAL “INTRODUCTION TO ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY” Class to be offered by St. Andrew Parish beginning Saturday, Sept. 6th, at 4pm. The class will run for 5 weeks. It is designed to be an outreach to the local community- this is a great class to invite neighbors, co-workers, and friends who may be interested in discovering the history of the Orthodox Church. For more info see the link on our parish website www.saintandrew.net and the YouTube Video there.  A invitational flyer is available on the web-site (to be printed out) and also on the table in the narthex. Please feel free to take them and pass them out to those who may be interested.

Our former parishioners, the Cascios, have sent us a picture of their nearly-completed new home in Idaho. God be with them! http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/New_house_almost_finished_012.JPG

Forgive me.

Fr Josiah

On Proper Courtship

The Holy Martyr Phanourios, the Newly-Revealed - August 27th

Dear and Pious Readers

Blessings of the Lord!

“The process of getting acquainted, which is such a delicate issue- but of which we are often heedless- should take place before marriage. We should never be complacent about getting to know each other, especially if we’re not sure of our feelings. Love should not blind us. It should open our eyes, to see the other person as he is, with his faults…someone once said that, during the period of getting to know one another, you should hold on to your heart firmly with both hands, as if it were a wild animal. You know how dangerous the heart is: instead of leading you to marriage, it can lead you to sin.”

Archimandrite Aimilianos, THE CHURCH AT PRAYER

Vespers this evening 5pm. Parish Council at 7pm.

Many of you have, no doubt, heard House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (who claims to be an ‘ardent Catholic’) awful comments about the fact that the “doctors of the church” have not been able over the centuries to answer when life begins. Such blatant misrepresentation and deceit drew a very strong response from leading Roman Catholic hierarchs in our land. For more see http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/aug/08082601.html

Forgive me.

Father Josiah

Necessary Preparation for Marriage

St. Natalie

Dear and Pious Readers

Blessings of the Lord!

“A woman must learn to be a housewife, even if she has a [formal] education. She should learn to cook, to sew, to embroider. But, my good Father, you may say, that is all self-evident. Ask married couples, however, and you’ll see how many women who are about to marry know nothing about running a household. Once we reach a certain age, moreover, the choice of one’s life partner is a matter which should not be put off. Neither should one be in a hurry, because, as the saying goes, ‘quick to marry, quick to despair.’ But one should not delay, because delay is a mortal danger to the soul. As a rule, the normal rhythm of the spiritual life begins with marriage. An unmarried person is like someone trying to live permanently in a hallway: he doesn’t seem to know what the rooms are for.”

Archimandrite Aimilianos, THE CHURCH AT PRAYER

Vespers this evening 4:45pm.

SPECIAL “INTRODUCTION TO ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY” Class to be offered by St. Andrew Parish beginning Saturday, Sept. 6th, at 4pm. The class will run for 5 weeks. It is designed to be an outreach to the local community- this is a great class to invite neighbors, co-workers, and friends who may be interested in discovering the history of the Orthodox Church. For more info see the link on our parish website www.saintandrew.net and the YouTube Video there.  A invitational flyer is available on the web-site (to be printed out) and also on the table in the narthex. Please feel free to take them and pass them out to those who may be interested.

Forgive me.

Fr Josiah

The Relationship of Marriage and Spiritual Life

Visit The Website Today And Place Your Endorsement on Their Good Work

Dear and Pious Readers

Blessings of the Lord!

“One wonders what people today think about the sacred institution of marriage, this ‘great mystery,’ blessed by our Church. They marry, and it’s as if two checking accounts or two business interests were being merged. Two people are united without ideals, two zeros, you could say. Because people without ideals, without quests, are nothing more than zeros. ‘I married in order to live my life,’ you hear people say, ‘and not to be shut in four walls.’ ‘I married to enjoy my life,’ they say,  and then they hand over their children- if they have children- to some strange woman so they can run off to the theatre, the movies, or to some other worldly gathering. And so their houses become hotels to which they return in the evening, or, rather, after midnight, after they’ve had their fun and need to rest. Such people are empty inside, and so in their homes they feel a real void…a worldly marriage, as it is understood today, can only have one characteristic- the murder of a person’s spiritual life.  Thus we must feel that, if we fail in our marriage, we have more or less failed in our spiritual life. If we succeed in our marriage, we have also succeeded in our spiritual life. Success or failure, progress or ruin, in our spiritual life, begins with our marriage.”

Archimandrite Aimilianos, THE CHURCH AT PRAYER

Vespers this evening at 5pm. Following vespers our St. Andrew Homeless ministry will be feeding the homeless. You are invited to participate.

ENDORSE PROTECTMARRIAGE.COM Go to http://www.protectmarriage.com/endorse and endorse the work of ProtectMarriage.com as an individual or as a church. Ask your pastor, your city councilman, your mayor, etc. to send in his endorsement from his parish.

SPECIAL “INTRODUCTION TO ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY” Class to be offered by St. Andrew Parish beginning Saturday, Sept. 6th, at 4pm. The class will run for 5 weeks. It is designed to be an outreach to the local community- this is a great class to invite neighbors, co-workers, and friends who may be interested in discovering the history of the Orthodox Church. For more info see the link on our parish website www.saintandrew.net and the YouTube Video there.  A invitational flyer is available on the web-site (to be printed out) and also on the table in the narthex. Please feel free to take them and pass them out to those who may be interested.

ST. ANDREW HOSTING THE DIOCESAN FALL GATHERING. This October our St. Andrew Parish will host the annual Diocesan “Fall Gathering” (the former “delegates meeting”). Each year in each diocese of our Archdiocese there are two gatherings to facilitate the on-going work of our various ministries and to gather around our bishop. A different parish hosts this each year. The summer meeting (usually over the 4th of July (Wed-Sun) is the Parish Life Conference. It is usually attended by about 1000 persons. The second gathering is in October and is on a much smaller scale and is called the “Fall Gathering.” Representatives from each of the 55 parishes of our Diocese of Los Angeles and the West attend, and we are hosting this October 10-12. Meetings of the Antiochian Women, the Fellowship of St. John the Divine, and Teen SOYO take place. His Grace, Bishop JOSEPH, addresses each group, and addresses the assembly. We at St. Andrew will be responsible for the arrangements, meals and socials. For more information and to register check our parish website.

GROUNDBREAKING FOR THE NEW CHURCH TEMPLE is set to take place following the Hierarchical Liturgy on the concluding day of the Fall Gathering: October 12th! 

CALIFORNIA IS CONTINUING ITS ATTACK UPON CHRISTIANITY AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. The Family Research Council reports, “The California Supreme Court ruled against two Christian doctors who refused to artificially inseminate a lesbian because of their religious beliefs. The doctors had referred the lesbian woman to another specialist, but the woman sued alleging sexual orientation discrimination. The court found that the physicians were in violation of the California Unruh Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation. Moreover, the court found that the U.S. Constitution and its First Amendment guarantee of religious freedom did not protect the physicians, stating, “[A] religious objector has no federal constitutional right to an exemption from a neutral and valid law of general applicability on the ground that compliance with that law is contrary to the objector’s religious beliefs.” The ruling could have a chilling affect for all people of faith throughout California. Christians working in the wedding industry will be forced to service homosexual “weddings,” attorneys will be forced to handle homosexual adoptions and same-sex divorces, and bed and breakfast owners and others businesses will be forced to surrender their religious convictions.” For more information see http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=218780

Forgive me.

Father Josiah

Marriage as the Means of Salvation

St. Nino, Equal to the Apostles and Evangelizer of Georgia

Dear and Pious Readers

Blessings of the Lord!

“Nobody would dispute that the most important day in a person’s life, after his birth and baptism, is that of his marriage. It is no surprise, then, that the aim of contemporary worldly and institutional upheavals is precisely to crush the most honorable and sacred mystery of marriage. For many people, marriage is an opportunity for pleasures and amusements. Life, however, is a serious affair. It is a spiritual struggle, a progression toward a goal- heaven. The most crucial juncture, and the most important means, of this progression is marriage. It is not permissible for anyone to avoid the bonds of marriage, whether he concludes a mystical marriage by devoting himself to God, or whether he concludes a sacramental one with a spouse.”

Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonopetra, THE CHURCH AT PRAYER 

Vespers this evening at 5pm.

SPECIAL “INTRODUCTION TO ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY” Class to be offered by St. Andrew Parish beginning Saturday, Sept. 6th, at 4pm. The class will run for 5 weeks. It is designed to be an outreach to the local community- this is a great class to invite neighbors, co-workers, and friends who may be interested in discovering the history of the Orthodox Church. For more info see the link on our parish website www.saintandrew.net and the YouTube Video there.  A invitational flyer is available on the web-site (to be printed out) and also on the table in the narthex. Please feel free to take them and pass them out to those who may be interested.

ST. ANDREW HOSTING THE DIOCESAN FALL GATHERING. This October our St. Andrew Parish will host the annual Diocesan “Fall Gathering” (the former “delegates meeting”). Each year in each diocese of our Archdiocese there are two gatherings to facilitate the on-going work of our various ministries and to gather around our bishop. A different parish hosts this each year. The summer meeting (usually over the 4th of July (Wed-Sun) is the Parish Life Conference. It is usually attended by about 1000 persons. The second gathering is in October and is on a much smaller scale and is called the “Fall Gathering.” Representatives from each of the 55 parishes of our Diocese of Los Angeles and the West attend, and we are hosting this October 10-12. Meetings of the Antiochian Women, the Fellowship of St. John the Divine, and Teen SOYO take place. His Grace, Bishop JOSEPH, addresses each group, and addresses the assembly. We at St. Andrew will be responsible for the arrangements, meals and socials. For more information and to register check our parish website.

GROUNDBREAKING FOR THE NEW CHURCH TEMPLE is set to take place following the Hierarchical Liturgy on the concluding day of the Fall Gathering: October 12th! 

CALIFORNIA IS CONTINUING ITS ATTACK UPON CHRISTIANITY AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. The Family Research Council reports, “The California Supreme Court ruled against two Christian doctors who refused to artificially inseminate a lesbian because of their religious beliefs. The doctors had referred the lesbian woman to another specialist, but the woman sued alleging sexual orientation discrimination. The court found that the physicians were in violation of the California Unruh Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation. Moreover, the court found that the U.S. Constitution and its First Amendment guarantee of religious freedom did not protect the physicians, stating, “[A] religious objector has no federal constitutional right to an exemption from a neutral and valid law of general applicability on the ground that compliance with that law is contrary to the objector’s religious beliefs.” The ruling could have a chilling affect for all people of faith throughout California. Christians working in the wedding industry will be forced to service homosexual “weddings,” attorneys will be forced to handle homosexual adoptions and same-sex divorces, and bed and breakfast owners and others businesses will be forced to surrender their religious convictions.” For more information see http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=218780

TROUBLE IN THE CAUCASUS. More than 100,000 persons are reported to be displaced in Georgia in the recent conflict with Russia. IOCC is working to bring humanitarian relief. See www.iocc.org

Forgive me.

Father Josiah

Holy Dormition of the Theotokos 2008

Church of the Virgin’s Tomb in Gethsamane

Dear and Pious Readers

Blessings of the Lord! Joyous Forefeast of the Dormition of the Theotokos.

 ”Therefore, O Lady, generously share your mercy and your graces with all your people, your inheritance. Rescue us from the terrors that encompass us. See how many dangers of all kinds afflict us, from our own people and from strangers, from within and without. Through your power turn everything for the best. Bring mutual calm between fellow citizens at home, and drive away those who attack like wild beasts from outside. Bestow your aid and healing on us to counteract our passions, and give our souls and bodies abundant grace sufficient for every need. And if we are unable to contain it, increase our capacity and give us more, that saved and strengthened by your grace we may glorify the pre-eternal Word, Who took flesh from you for our sake, together with His Father without beginning and the life-giving Spirit, now and forever and unto unending ages. Amen.”

Prayer to the Theotokos on Her Dormition by St. Gregory Palamas

Services for the Great Feast of our Lady’s Dormition are this evening as follows:

Great Vespers w/ Litya and Artoklasia 5pm / Festal Orthros 6pm with Lamentations at the bier at 6:45pm / Divine Liturgy at 7pm.

Please bring a lenten dish to share following the Liturgy.

EXCITING BUILDING NEWS! Tuesday evening the Riverside City Council approved our St. Andrew Phase 2 Building Project, confirming the unanimous decision of the Riverside Planning Commission that was made on July 3rd. Congratulations to all! This means that we are now cleared to go to our groundbreaking!

GROUNDBREAKING FOR OUR CHURCH TEMPLE HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED FOR SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12! His Grace, Bishop JOSEPH, has confirmed that he will be with us for the Fall Gathering that weekend, for the hierarchical liturgy on Sunday, and will break ground following the Divine Liturgy.

Currently Mr. Saba Saba, our building committee chairman, is obtaining bids for the grading and utilities hook ups. We are now submitting our completed construction documents for plan check by the city. We ask the prayers of all our parishioners that God’s good and perfect will would be done.

SPECIAL “INTRODUCTION TO ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY” class will be offered at St. Andrew beginning Saturday, September 6th, at 4pm. This will be a five week class designed to introduce Holy Orthodoxy to our neighboring community. Keep your eyes out for our ads in the Saturday paper for the next few weeks. We have made a YouTube video to promote the class. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRGD36BTu6Y for either the 2 1/2 minute video introduction or the 7 minute intro. All parishioners are encouraged to invite friends, relatives and neighbors who may be interested in finding out more about Orthodoxy to this class. There is no cost apart from the books.

Forgive me.

Father Josiah

On Prosperity from St. Alfred the Great

St. Alfred the Great, First King of the English

Dear and Pious Readers

Blessings of the Lord!

“In the midst of prosperity the mind is elated, and in prosperity a man forgets himself; in hardship he is forced to reflect on himself, even though he be unwilling. In prosperity a man often destroys the good he has done; amidst difficulties he often repairs what he long since did in the way of wickedness.”

St. Alfred the Great, Founder of the English Nation

Oh for political leaders who actually speak to us about our souls and virtue, and not just as though we are animals, statesmen with principles rather than politicians who are simply policy pushers.

Paraklesis this evening at 5pm.

For a nice news clip on Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s funeral with brief commentary on his life see  http://www.russiatoday.ru/news/news/28543/video

The Dormition Fast continues through August 14th. During this period we obseve the traditional fasting discipline (no meat, poultry, eggs, cheese, milk and other dairy products, fish, wine and olive oil), but with katalysis for wine and oil on Saturdays and Sundays.

Forgive me.

Fr Josiah

Blessed Feast of the Transfiguration

 

Icon of the Holy Transfiguration of Jesus Christ

Dear and Pious Readers

Blessings! Joyous Feast of the Transfiguration of our Savior!

Paraklesis this evening at 5pm.

For video clips of the funeral of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn see http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=9148321&ch=4226714&src=news

 

Elder Sophrony’s Prayer at Daybreak
to be said each day on rising from sleep

 

O Eternal King without beginning, You who are before all worlds, my Maker, Who have summoned all things from non-being into this life: Bless this day that You, in Your inscrutable goodness, give to me. By the power of Your blessing enable me at all times in this coming day to speak and act for You, to Your glory, in Your fear, according to Your will, with a pure spirit, with humility, patience, love, gentleness, peace, courage, wisdom and prayer, aware everywhere of Your presence.Yes, Lord, in Your immense mercy, lead me by Your Holy Spirit into every good work and word, and grant me to walk all my life long in Your sight without stumbling, according to Your righteousness that You have revealed to us, that I may not add to my transgressions.

O Lord, great in mercy, spare me who am perishing in wickedness; do not hide Your face from me. And when my perverted will would lead me down other paths, do not forsake me, my Savior, but force me back to Your holy path.O good One, to Whom all hearts are open, You know my poverty and my foolishness, my blindness and my uselessness, but the sufferings of my soul are also before You. Wherefore I beseech You: Hear me in my affliction and fill me with Your strength from above. Raise me up who am paralyzed with sin, and deliver me who am enslaved to the passions. Heal me from every hidden wound. Purify me from all taint of flesh and spirit. Preserve me from every inward and outward impulse that is unpleasing in Your sight and hurtful to my brother.

I beseech You: establish me in the path of Your commandments and to my last breath do not let me stray from the light of Your ordinances, so that Your commandments may become the sole law of my being in this life and in all eternity.

O God, my God, I plead with You for many and great things: do not disregard me. Do not cast me away from Your presence because of my presumption and boldness, but by the power of Your love lead me in the path of Your will. Grant me to love You as You have commanded, with all my heart, and with all my soul, and with all my mind, and with all my strength: with my whole being.

For You alone are the holy protection and all-powerful defender of my life, and to You I ascribe glory and offer my prayer.

Grant me to know Your truth before I depart this life. Maintain my life in this world until I may offer You true repentance. Do not take me away in the midst of my days, and when You are pleased to bring my life to an end, forewarn me of my death, so that I may prepare my soul to come before You.

 

Be with me then, O Lord, on my great and sacred day, and grant me the joy of Your salvation. Cleanse me from manifest and secret sins, from all iniquity hidden in me; and give me a right answer before Your dread judgment-seat. Amen

 

 

 

Forgive me.

Fr Josiah

Standing Against Evil

 

Dear and Pious Readers

Blessings of the Lord! May this 5th day of the Dormition Fast be blessed for your salvation.

Great Vespers for the Great Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ is tonight at 4:45pm.

Festal Orthros (9am) and Divine Liturgy (10am) with the Blessing of Grapes tomorrow morning.

On the Death of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

In 1974, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was re-arrested by the KGB. They roughly handled the Nobel Prize winning writer and brought him to the prison that in Moscow is known as the Gates of Hell. Because his great work, The Gulag Archipelago, had been published in Paris, the KGB threatened Solzhenitsyn with death. “Kill me,” he said, “and the other volumes I’ve secured in the West will be published immediately.” The KGB was prepared for the writer’s courage. So they threatened to kill his wife and and his three fine sons and make it look like a traffic accident. Kill them, Solzhenitsyn told his captors. Frustrated, the Communist bosses of the USSR decided to kick Solzhenitsyn out of the country. They reckoned that the West would soon tire of this severe prophet and his endless calls for courage in the face of evil. In the U.S., President Ford refused to meet with the exiled writer. His press secretary informed the media that the President did not see what he might learn from Solzhenitsyn. Columnist George Will agreed but noted it probably said more about Gerald Ford’s ability to receive-rather than Solzhenitsyn’s ability to impart-wisdom. Solzhenitsyn crafted The Gulag Archipelago, his multi-volume indictment of the 70 year history of godless Communism in Russia, to document the tens of millions who had been cast into the Soviet slave labor system. Solzhenitsyn launched his books like missiles of truth from deep within Russia. Marxism-Leninism has never recovered. Solzhenitsyn showed how the USSR was “an empire built on bones.” If, as the Russians say, “one word of truth can move the world,” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s millions of words of truth have helped to liberate the spirit of man by reminding us all what happens when “we forget God.” We should thank our Lord for giving us men of courage and genius like Solzhenitsyn. May his witness and his works inspire all who serve the living God. “

From the tribute posted by the Family Research Council

Defending Traditional Marriage. As we approach the November elections my attention is riveted on the effort to overturn the hideous California State Supreme Court decision of May 15th which legalized homosexual “marriage.” To erase this radical invasion of secularism it is necessary to pass a ballot measure, listed as Prop. 8, amending our state constitution to affirm what our state statutes have always held: that marriage is a union between a man and a woman. 26 states have already done just this, and in 2000 61% of Californians passed Prop. 22 affirming again that marriage is between a man and a woman. Recent polls have indicated that the homosexual lobby and its secularist network (including the state legislature, the Board of Education, public schools, etc.) have succeeded in de-Christianizing the common Californian yet further. This has been called the “Armageddon of the culture war” and certainly the outcome of this conflict in our state will have tremendous consequences here and throughout our country. It is incumbent upon all religious persons (Christians, Orthodox Jews, Muslims, etc) to raise their voices, their checkbooks, their voting hands, etc. to support Proposition 8 and to defend traditional marriage. Towards this end I will be passing on ways in which our readers can put their hand to the plow to support righteousness in our land. We do not have the leisure to ignore this conflict. It has been brought to us by secularlist judges and politicians who do not respect God. We can either do our duty before God and work for good, or we can be indifferent, but we cannot escape the conflict.

We have “YES ON PROPOSITION 8″ stickers at the church now, and I ask that each family at the parish obtain one and post it prominently on their car until the November ballot is over. This is a little something we can do to raise our voices against evil in our state, and protect the sanctity of marriage.

Services for Our Lady’s Dormition are next Thursday eve (14th). Khouriya Catherine asks that any ladies wishing to assist her in decorating the bier on Thursday morning (or even Wed. eve) please notify her.

Forgive me.

Fr Josiah