Pope Shenouda is the Pope of Alexandria and the Patriarch of All Africa of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.  He is the head of The Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria.  He is a great churchman of our day and has guided the Coptic Orthodox Church through much change and expansion beyond the African continent.

The title “Pope” comes from the Greek word ‘pappas’ and the Latin word ‘papa’.  We are most familiar with this title as it is used for the Western Bishop of Rome – the ‘Pope of Rome’.  Whereas Pope Shenouda is referred to by his flock as ‘Pope’, there is no association with the Pope of Rome or the Papacy of Rome.

The book, The Spirituality of Fasting is a very helpful book for those fasting during Lent and wanting to have a better understanding of the spiritual benefits of fasting.  Fasting, its purpose and benefits, is terribly misunderstood in our culture.  Pope Shenouda’s book puts the art of fasting in the correct context.  Here’s why I like this book so much:

1. The book is concerned about the spiritual benefits of fasting.  It is practical and useful in the every day.  It talks of fasting in terms of the love of God and the growth of the soul.
2. Each paragraph of this short book is a simple and useful reflection of the discipline of fasting.  One could take a paragraph or two a day and reflect on the lessons and insights found there.
3. The book is strongly rooted in the scriptures.  One can clearly see how pervasive and basic fasting has been throughout the history of man.
4. The book is written in simple terms.  There are no footnotes or abstract and technical wanderings.  Pope Shenouda keeps his language simple and straightforward.

This book is great for anyone wanting to keep a better fast, better understand the spiritual benefits behind fasting, or who need help explaining fasting to family and friends.   If you are keeping a fasting discipline this Great Lent, I highly recommend you read a little from this book everyday.

Question:  How does fasting fit into your Lenten season?

The extraordinary thing about the image of St. Nicholas in the Church is that he is not known for anything extraordinary. He was not a theologian and never wrote a word, yet he is famous in the memory of believers as a zealot for Orthodoxy, allegedly accosting the heretic Arius at the first ecumenical council in Nicaea for denying the divinity of God’s Son. He was not an ascetic and did no outstanding feats of fasting and vigils, yet he is praised for his possession of the “fruit of the Holy Spirit… love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22-23). He was not a mystic in our present meaning of the term but he lived daily with the Lord and was godly in all his words and deeds. He was not a prophet in the technical sense, yet he proclaimed the Word of God, exposed the sins of the wicked, defended the rights of the oppressed and afflicted, and battled against every form of injustice with supernatural compassion and mercy. In a word, he was a good pastor, father, and bishop to his flock, known especially for his love and care for the poor. Most simply put, he was a divinely good person.

Like God and like Jesus, St. Nicholas was genuinely good. Real goodness is possible. For, to quote the Lord again, “with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Mt 19:26). A human being, even a rich human being who believes in God, can be genuinely good with God’s own goodness. “For truly I say to you, says the Lord, “if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed… nothing will be impossible to you” (Mt 17:20-21).

The Messiah has come so that human beings can live lives which are, strictly speaking, humanly impossible. He has come so that people can really be good. One of the greatest and most beloved examples among believers that this is true is the holy bishop of Myra about whom almost nothing else is known, or needs to be known, except that he was good. For this reason alone he remains, even in his secularized form, the very spirit of Christmas.

— from “The Winter Pascha”

by Fr. Thomas Hopko

Holid

In a sense, these stories unknowingly reflect salvation history (all stories do). The initial joyful enthusiasm and holiday spirit is paradise. The ensuing chaos is man’s fall and wrestle with sin and self. The resolution – the warm and pleasant feeling – is salvation and redemption. These stories are poor and shallow reflections of the true story of salvation, but in our consumer culture they entertain and make us feel good. These things rule in a consumer culture. We are drawn in to partnering with our culture to sentimentalize Christmas and, even worse, to play a role in saving Christmas.
Meanwhile, the true and life-giving content of Christmas (which doesn’t need saved by the way) is given token, if not minimal, attention. The scriptural, theological, liturgical and moral realities of Christmas are squeezed out by the sentimental, commercial and self-indulgent pageantry produced by a world struggling with peace and stability.

The holiday movies and TV programs work to an extent because the narrative is familiar enough to our experience. The holidays – which encourage us to consume, consume, consume – promise much at the start, wear us down in the middle, an in the end utterly consume us. Though we may have had sincere intentions to keep a better focus on our church life, we find ourselves stressed-out, burned-out, fatigued, and out of fuel.

At Holy Trinity, we’ve tried to make increases to three areas of our Christian life to help us stay focused on the beauty and mystery of Christmas amidst all the hustle, bustle, distraction and silliness of the holidays. Recognizing that it is not Christmas that needs to be saved, but rather our own minds and heart, we’ve resolved to try and do the following during the 40 day Nativity Fast:

1. Keeping the Nativity Fast. There is much confusion in our modern world about the benefits of fasting. Yet the Church is wise and experienced in this world. She knows how to feast, but she also keeps telling us: be still, be silent, and watch what you consume because life is with God.

2. Increasing our attendance at Saturday evening Vespers. Saturday evening Vespers begins with a silent censing of the sanctuary – a silence as at the creation of the world with God’s Divine Word. The Liturgy on Sunday ends with: “We have seen the true light, we have received the heavenly kingdom, we have found the true faith . . .” The Saturday/Sunday cycle of liturgical services always pulls us away from the shallow and impoverished narrative of the world and into the true reality of God’s life. During the winter months, Saturday evening Vespers begin at 4:00 pm.

3. Reading the Gospels. For the second year in a row, many of us have taken up the task of finding 10 minutes in our day to read the gospels. We don’t read to memorize verses or to be proud Christians, or to find ways to argue with others. We read to have our minds and hearts shaped by God. We simply show up to be still and to read and allow God to take us where He will. It’s a small sacrifice of time and energy that we give to God.

Now that Christmas is even closer, how will you stay focused on your Church life and stave off holiday stress?

November 21^st is the feast of the Entrance into the Temple of Mary, the mother of our Lord. The event is not found in the bible; its celebration belongs to the tradition of the church and takes place every year early in the Nativity fast.

Mary holds a special place in the church because she is the mother of our Lord. Also, she is the model disciple of Christ because she:

• Hears the word of God
• Believes the word of God
• Keeps the word of God

We are called to the same – each of us. We desire to hear and believe and keep God’s word and our life of prayer, fasting, vigil, charity and virtue is aimed at that.

A large theme of this feast is the celebration of Mary as the temple of God. Christ lives in her virginal womb and she becomes the temple of God – even more so than the physical temple she enters. Our Old Testament ancestors celebrated the goodness of God who lived in the physical temple built of mortar and stone. The temple was holy because God dwelt in the temple and God is holy. On this feast day, that physical temple receives Mary who in ways unimaginable to our ancestors is herself the temple of the holy God. Mary is holy because God dwells in her and God is holy. Every disciple of Christ is holy because Christ dwells within us. On this feast day, the faithful marvel over Mary as the temple of the living God.

One aspect of this feast reflects on Mary’s formation as the model disciple. Her parents were devout and pious. They raised their daughter and provided for her life. They were not merely concerned with her social, cognitive, physical, musical, athletic and emotional development. They saw the Jerusalem temple as an essential part of her life and development. They took her to the temple where she was formed by the hearing of the scriptures and the liturgy of the faith to become the mother of our Lord, the model of discipleship, and the living temple of God. She was formed to be holy.

Questions: How do I hear God’s word? Do I have faith in His word? How can I better keep His word?

The Nativity Fast is with us. Two things generally mark this Nativity Fast for us:

1. A normal dietary fast as prescribed by the Church. (There are four fasting seasons in the church year. The fast included meat, dairy, fish, wine and oil.)
2. A difficult struggle to keep this fast while the ‘spirit of the Christmas season’ offers so many occasions to feast.

Here, the discipline of the church year is in strong tension with the consumerism of the secular year. The church wants to best prepare us to celebrate the feast of Christmas. And so we fast to quiet our bodies and get our hearts and minds prepared for the feast. Fasting is not about dietary rules; it’s about hearts and minds. The Nativity season is thick with anticipation. Fasting heightens that anticipation while keeping hearts and minds open and stimulated to the gift of salvation.

Consumerism, on the other hand, over stimulates us before the holiday even arrives. The stimulation is so excessive and unrelenting that we become dull and tired throughout the Christmas season. Often in the end we feign a mask of good cheer while beneath it all we feel rather empty and disappointed. Anticipation gets crushed down under the massive inventory of stimulation.

This year, there is an added discipline to our Nativity Fast – the Gospel Challenge. The challenge is to read all four gospels during the course of the Nativity Fast. Beginning with St. Matthew’s gospel and reading a little bit every day, we are offering a plan to read all four gospels during this season of anticipation.

Let us get ready for the feast of Christmas. Let us prepare our bodies, hearts, and minds with a simple and modest fast. Let us nourish ourselves with the gospels.

Question: What is one spiritual discipline I can take up during the Nativity Fast that will help me stay aware of Christmas as the incarnation of God in the flesh?

Christian Stewardship goes beyond –way beyond—clever tactics and schemes familiar to the commercial world.  Christian Stewardship is squarely about my life in Christ.  It is less about the financial needs of our parish or Church and more about our spiritual lives.  We must take our Christian Stewardship seriously because it affects our life of faith.  If we are really interested in strengthening our faith, we must make a deeper consideration and commitment to Christian Stewardship.

Do I handle my financial stewardship as an obligation or duty or do I see it as a way of building up my Christian faith?

The Church has experienced this prayer of St. Ephraim as richly rewarding to the Lenten journey. It is short and direct, it is negative and positive, it convicts and liberates. It places before us the human passions to look out for (sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk) and the Godly virtues to win (chastity, humility, patience, and love). These passions and virtues involve our bodies as much as they do our minds and hearts—and so too does our Lenten journey. Our journey involves our minds, hearts, bodies, appetites, possessions, time, etc . . .

Question: What strikes you about the lenten prayer of St. Ephraim?

“To serve God is bliss itself.” St. John of Kronstadt

When we fast, our attention shifts from self to God. Our focus falls less on our trials and appetites and more on the needs and presence of our neighbor. Fasting helps us to be more God-centered and neighbor-centered Christians. It strengthens us in our spiritual life rather than weakening us. St. Paul calls this ‘putting on the Lord Jesus Christ’. He writes in his epistle to the Romans:

Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (I Cor. 3:14)

A Parish Community has a foundation and builds a life on that foundation.   That Foundation is always the person of Christ.  A deep Foundation of Christ built with the walls of Worship, Education, Fellowship, and Charity gives rise to a higher Christian life.

Our parish reaches for the higher life and so we need to build upon our Foundation.  An awareness of that Foundation and good stewardship of its care are important.  Our parish needs to be attentive to our life of Worship, Education, Fellowship, and Charity.

Our website in general and this blog in particular will be about The Foundation of our parish.  Working, learning, reflecting, and praying together on our life of Worship, Education, Fellowship and Charity will help us grow our parish, strengthen our faith, and deepen our communion with God.

Here are some things we will reflect on:

1.     Worship.

a.     Prayer

b.     Fasting

c.     The Eucharist and other Sacraments

d.     Silence

e.     Stewardship

2.     Education.

a.     The Scriptures

b.     The Liturgy

c.     The Saints

d.     Doctrines and Dogmas

e.     Spiritual Literature

3.     Fellowship.

a.     Church, Community, and Family

b.     Support and Encouragement

c.     Hospitality

d.     Leisure

e.     Friendship

4.     Charity.

a.     Giving and Receiving

b.     Sacrifice

c.     The Neighbor

d.     Alms-giving

e.     Love

None of this stands alone.  All of it rests up the person of Christ.

Welcome to our Blog.  Let’s get to work on building up our Foundation!

Question: How does a parish strengthen its Worship, Education, Fellowship, and Charity?

Here’s a wonderful story often shared in Christian Stewardship literature.

Charles Laughton was a successful English actor and theater personality in the mid-20^th century.  Once he was at a large family Christmas party.  At the party everyone was given an opportunity to showcase their talent – singing, playing an instrument, reciting poetry etc.  Laughton recited psalm 23 (The Lord is my Shepherd . . .) bringing to force his talent from the theaters.  His recitation was excellent and received applause.

As Laughton and others performed, an aged aunt quietly napped in the corner of the room.  When all had finished, the aunt was awakened and given the chance for the stage.   She agreed, stood, and also recited psalm 23.  When finished, the room was silent – the family audience moved to profound silence.

Later when the party resumed someone asked Laughton what he made of the opposite reactions to his and the aunt’s recitation.  Laughton’s answer was brilliant: “I know the psalm; she knows the shepherd.”

We can learn many things from this story.  One important lesson is that acts of Christian Stewardship, even great acts, can be routine and commonplace – much like a polished recitation of psalm 23.  But acts of Christian Stewardship, even small acts, bolstered with faith can be profound.   Faith enables us to offer our time, talent, and treasure to God.

A small faith makes a small offering; a larger faith makes a larger offering.

As our faith grows stronger and larger, our offering follows the same.  In the gospels, the fishermen begin by listening to the preaching of Jesus while they clean their nets.  In the end they are apostles and martyrs of the kingdom.  As their faith grew, their stewardship grew.   Faith in the person of Christ leads them to a very great stewardship.

And, offering strengthens faith.

A small offering will leave us with a little faith; a greater offering leads us to a stronger faith.

Offering to God gives us life and we want life.  This is basic Christianity.  Giving our offering elsewhere will not give us life.  Our consumer culture incessantly reminds us of what we still don’t have.   No matter how much we offer to consumerism, we’re left short.   The real gift of stewardship is this: giving to God leads us to see what we have, not what we don’t have.  It builds our faith in the source of life.  Our Stewardship, when bolstered by faith, out performs what we may believe to be our own limits.

Question:  What are concrete actions I can take to strengthen my faith in God?