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files/Bulletin-February-15th.pdf (10054kb)

How Will We Be Judged?

As Orthodox Christians, we must take care not to take the outcome of God’s final judgment for granted. Just because we are part of Christ’s Body the Church does not guarantee us anything in the

age to come. This is why, in every Divine Liturgy, we pray “for a good defense before the dread Judgment Seat of Christ." One of the most deceptive aspects of our culture and society is the belief that when we die, we will become nothing. We just cease to exist. However, we as Christians understand the words of Jesus Christ as the truth and the reality of life. We test everything that we hear and see and understand against the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord reshapes and reforms our reality by His teachings, by His words. And through this reshaping of our reality, He then reshapes our lives and reshapes each of us. Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us when we die, we will not simply cease to exist. We will not simply vanish. Even among many of the Protestant and evangelical denominations we see the belief that when we die, all will be well if we have believed in Jesus Christ, if we were “saved.” That we will avoid judgment and that God will not even judge us. All of these opposing philosophies seek to undermine the truth of the gospels. The truth as spoken by the Lord Jesus is that God is a judge, that there is indeed a judgement and that each of us will be judged and separated. Some will be numbered among the righteous and others will be numbered among the unrighteous.

What are the criteria for this judgment? How will God judge each of us? He will judge us based on our actions! Not only based on what we say or what we believe, but on our actions themselves.  Jesus Christ tells us that at the judgment, each and every one of us will stand and have to give an account for our actions. What actions? Specifically these: Did we feed the hungry? Did we give drink to the thirsty? Did we welcome strangers? Did we clothe those who lacked clothing? Did we visit those who were sick? Did we come to those who were in prison? (Matthew 25: 31-46)

Our spiritual life and death are based in part, on our actions and those actions are determined by whether we know and are growing towards God. If we know God, we will know a life of love towards others. It’s not enough that we do the things mentioned in the gospels every once in a while. It assumes that we busy ourselves with acts of love and have no time for the works of darkness. We have to avoid living sinfully, judging others, speaking ill of others, acting in uncharitable and unloving ways towards those around us, even those who disagree with us. We are not called to judge our brothers and sisters in Christ, but to humbly try to reconcile and love them. We have to love everyone, the poor, the sick and naked, the prisoners, the strangers and we even have to go further. We have to love those whom we regard as our enemies because God will judge us and we cannot avoid this judgment. St. Silouan once wrote, “Whoever will not love his enemies cannot know the Lord and the sweetness of the Holy Spirit.” Let us be His children and reflect this mercy and love in all of our dealings with others. May the Lord judge us worthy to be numbered among His faithful sheep.

NOTES...

• Pray with us this week at Saint Mary's.

Saturday, February 14th - Soul Saturday

- Divine Liturgy at 9:00 AM, with Trisagion (Memorial) Prayers for the Departed.

- Great Vespers Service at 6:30 PM (Confessions 30 minutes prior).

Sunday, February 15th - Judgement (Meatfare) Sunday

- Confessions at 8:30 AM; Matins at 8:50 AM; Divine Liturgy at 10:00 AM.

- Trisagion (Memorial) Service: 

Ralph Haselmann (40 Days), Ralph Haslemann Jr. (25 Years). Offered by Kathy Haslemann, Camile Waser & Crystal Senour.

Lydia Welch (5 Years). Offered by the Shalhoub and Welch families.

Wednesday, February 18th 

- Vespers Service at 7:00 PM (Confessions 30 minutes prior).

• Attached this week's email is The Weekly Bulletin. Please take a few minutes to read through it.

"God values deeds according to their intentions. For it is said, "The Lord grant unto you according to your heart" (Ps. 19:5) ... Therefore, whoever wants to do something but can't is considered as having done it by God, who sees the intentions of our hearts. This applies to both good and evil deeds alike."     +Saint Mark the Ascetic

With love in Christ,

Fr. Peter

files/Bulletin-February-8th.pdf (9425kb)

As we prepare for Great Lent (which begins February 23rd), the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15: 11-32)  provides a powerful image of what happens when we come to our senses and recognize our sins, turn away from them, and turn towards God. Jesus Christ offers this parable to show the overwhelming mercy of the father as an image of the abundant grace of God. For He does not settle simply with forgiveness, but restores us fully to the dignity of His sons and daughters. He makes us true participants in eternal life. He does not scold or shame us, but truly welcomes us home with love beyond what we can understand. How tragic it would have been for the prodigal son to have remained as a starving laborer on a pig farm due to his wounded pride, for him to have chosen such lonely misery over the joyful restoration that he found when he went home. The same is true for us, no matter what we have done, thought, or said, no matter how far we have strayed from our Heavenly Father.

files/Bulletin-February-1st.pdf (10441kb)

files/Apologetic-Theology-Today-EN.pdf (145kb)