Forgiveness: Freedom, Health & Struggle

     The book of the Great Prophet Isaiah, who prophesied many of the most important prophecies about Christ, the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist has this beautiful passage: "Come now let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red as crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land..." Our God is able to forgive all sins. even the worst of sins, that seem like a permanent stain, can be washed away.
     What is the condition for his forgiveness? Simply that we seek it and that we do not deny it to others. "Forgive us our trespassses as we forgive those who trespass against us," says the Lord's prayer. But actually another way these words could be translated, with even more accuracy, would be "Free us of our debts as we have freed our debtors." Sin is something which is like a bad credit rating, it holds us hostage to a bad record and causes us to be bound and enslaved. But it doesn't have to be something dramatic: we could be bound by sorrow, regret, resentment, hatred for ourself or others, addictions, or an excessive need for approval. But God comes to free us, so that we can help in the general liberation of humanity. We are all called to a revolution against sin, following our great captain, Christ, who carries his cross ahead of us as we fight our oppression by demons and passions.
     We follow Christ's orders, so that we might participate in victory. We must identify our spiritual enemies so that we can fight. The "scarlet" of our sins is actually the mark of our wounds, like blood. To be cleaned, we must seek healing, so that the wound stops bleeding and staining the baptismal garment of our souls. Once we are healed we become free to fight for God and our own souls.This healing and cleaning cannot be real without a verbal confession of sin before a priest vowed to never betray our trust. The priest is a spiritual doctor, he carries the medicine of God's forgiveness, true freedom-let us seek divine healing through Confession.

ON CONFESSION

     On Sacraments, especially Confession, From the Eastern Orthodox Catechism, c.1954, arranged by Metropolitan Fan Noli:
"200. How many sacraments are there? There are seven Sacraments, namely: (a) Holy Baptism (b) Holy Confirmation [also called Chrismation]; (c) Holy Eucharist [i.e., Communion] (d) Holy Penance [i.e., Confession; "Pendimi" ose e Rrefimit] (e) Holy Ordination [the making of priest or deacon]; (f) Holy Matrimony; (g) Holy Uncion [the Holy Healing Oil]...
207. Which sacraments are obligatory?
...(a) Holy Baptism; (b) Holy Confirmation [Chrismation]; (c) Holy Eucharist; (d) and Holy Penance [Confession]...
321. What is confession? Confession is the Sacred Ceremony of telling our sins to a duly ordained priest for the purpose of obtaining forgiveness."

     When was the last time we had Confession? If never, then let us become more Orthodox and get know the great benefit of this Sacrament which is for our good, not something fearful and sad. Confession frees us of the weight of our sins, taking the burden off our hearts. And sin is all around us and within us. If we do not seek relief from it though asking the Lord to lift it off of us in Confession, then we are choosing rather to be enslaved to our passions and wayward emotions-we choose our own pride rather than God. From a distance Confession might seem humiliating; but it is not, it is an affirmation that we trust God and have faith that he can make our hearts clean and joyous.

LOOKING FORWARD:

Please plan ahead!
Pascha is April 11th; the beginning of Lent is February 23rd.
The full Lenten Fast is from Meat, all animal products, fish, and alchhol. Please fast from at least some of these things-especially meat.

Parish Council Message Lou Foundos, President
The celebration for St. Basil on New Years Day, was quickly followed by the Epiphany liturgy and the blessing of the waters.
     For those unable to attend the weekday service, bottles of the blessed water were distributed the following Sunday. The weather has made it very difficult to schedule any activity and this January even more so. We either had record cold or snow almost every weekend. Therefore, when the Icon presentation was held the crowd was a little thinner than usual. But in spite of the smaller numbers, the bidding was quite spirited! I would like to thank every one that participated for there generous donations. I would also like to encourage those that were not able to attend to make a donation in the name of the saint that you which remembered.
     The first half of the Church school is now over and the children have started the second half. I would like to encourage those children that may have not attended as much as they could to double their efforts to attend more regularly the remainder of the year. Of course, the parents must make more of an effort to bring the children regularly and strongly encourage them to attend. There is nothing more important than educating the young and setting the religious and moral foundation that will be with them the rest of their lives.

Daughters Of St. Nicholas Message

Welcome Winter! It has been a very snowy December and January and I guess more will come. With all this cold weather, we thought it is time for a Ladies' Luncheon-it will be held on February 15th at 12:30pm at the Sly Fox, on Union Turnpike just a few blocks from the Church. The brunch is $15 per person, which includes cocktail and entree, so come and join us for some good food with good friends. Hope the weather is good to us. A week after our luncheon, Lent will begin, and in March we will be hosting a Sunday evening Vespers, followed by a Lenten meal for visitors, and anyone from the parish who would like to attend and participate in the event is welcome to help. We had one last year for the first time-it was a great success. R. Zacharias, President
Sunday School

The parents were given the Trisagion prayers in Albanian and English and are expected to practice and pray these prayers with their kids at night, because the kids will be asked to recite them from memory for the Spring, end of semester exam. If you and your kids have not picked up a copy, please see one of the Sunday School teachers or Father Elijah.

     In this month, the children will be learning a pre-Communion hymn. Upcoming lessons will cover Lenten Feast Days and Confession in preparation for Pascha.
During this semester, as in last semester, once a month the kids will be singing liturgical hymns; once a month they will meet with Father Elijah; and twice a month there will be art projects through which they learn about the Orthodox faith in a fun activity.

     The kids were proud of their success on the exam this last semester and the teachers were happy that all went so well.
If your kids were not able to participate in the good things that were done in Sunday School this past Fall and Christmastime, please make an extra effort to get them to Church for these rewarding and fun activities, through which they will learn to worship God as Orthodox Christians, and live full, Christian lives.


Congratulations!
+To the Sunday School kids for passing the Sunday School exam: a written test for those 8 and up, and oral for those under 8, with all reciting a prayer from memory.

Thank You's
+Sunday school Teachers for working hard with exams for the kids.
+Christina Liolin, Premti Treska, and Rebecca Luft for baking Meshe.
+Adelina Llupa for the suceesful initiation of Albanian language classes.

+House Blessings+
Fr. Elijah will continue with house blessings in February. Time is limited, however. Please try to get your house blessing in before Lent, when House Blessings become nearly impossible. The best time to schedule is for Tuesday or Saturday. Please try to call Fr. Elijah before Sunday, so that the schedule can be arranged in a more orderly way.

++Coffee Hour++
2/1 O.Skendi & K.Bode
2/8 B.Papalexis/B.Filis
2/15 T.Peters/R.Zacharias
2/22 L.Foundos/C.Beno
2/29 O.Sera/L.Panajoti
3/7 R.Papajorgji/S.Kutali

+Women'sGroup+
Will meet again on Wednesday, February 18th to continue discussing the Gospel of St. Mark. Because of the heavy Lenten schedule, this will be our last meeting until after Pascha.

+New Class:
Preparation for "L.A.S.T." Exam.
This class will begin on Friday February 6th and continue through Sunday February 22nd. The Fridays will be at 6pm and the Sundays at 12:30pm, for two hours each session. The class will focus on the essay part of the test, that causes the most problems. Please call Fr. Elijah by Wednesday, February 4th to let us know that you will be coming. The class is free, sponsored by the Church. Please be on time. May God bless you future teachers, we know it is a good and sacrificial calling to be a teacher. The class will be taught by an experienced ESL teacher, Theresa Brelan, daughter of our own Barbara Duggan.

Daughters Luncheon
The Daughters of St. Nicholas will hold their February Luncheon at the Sly Fox on Union Turnpike, at 12:30 on February 15th. The cost will be $15. All women please come to this good social occasion.

Can We Trust the Bible?
Recently a number of books have come out which challenge the veracity of the documents that we call the Bible, especially the New Testament. This is an old issue. However it is scientifically recognized that the New Testament as we have it today is almost entirely the same as it was for the first Apostolic and post-Apostolic authors of it. Drastic revisions were never done to these books.      Large portions of the New Testament, which preserve almost entirely the same text that we have now have, come down to us from the third century. Not only this, but much of the content of the Gospel is mentioned by fathers of the 2nd and 3rd century, against those who were attempting to introduce myths to support their own strange theological agendas-groups such as the Gnostics and Manicheans, among others. Not only do archeologically dated texts and admittedly partisan witness of the fathers preserve evidence of the text that we have as the New Testament, but also there is vast evidence from the fact that very early translations into other languages (Syriac, Coptic, etc.) from the New Testament's Greek prove that the early text of the New Testament was entirely the same as ours, except for minor differences of a word here or there.
     But the Question is moot if we don't read the Bible closely. And we should not be lead off by other "stories" if we believe that salvation is revealed to us in the Gospel. We may find details uncomfortable, but we should meet the challenge, simply by asking, "why?" and seeking the answer not out of idle curiosity, but out of admitted need for salvation and God's self-revelation. If we have scientific proof for the antiquity and accuracy of the New Testament as we know it, we should see that our faith is not built on immaterial and blind trust, but on incarnate truth,

Jesus Christ.