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Sunday Bulletin for October 18, 2007

Sunday Bulletin for October 11, 2007

Sunday Bulletin for October 4, 2007

Sunday Bulletin for September 23, 2007

In Christ, August 5, 2007 Fr. S David Mahaffey

Sunday Bulletin for August 5, 2007

Sunday Bulletin for July 29, 2007

Sunday Bulletin for July 15, 2007

From Orthodox Wiki: http://orthodoxwiki.org/Virtues

Today, the Holy Scriptures relate to us the wondrous event of the coming of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles. The reading from Acts says that they were all in one place and of one accord, that is to say that they were all of the same mind, the same belief, the same will and purpose as followers of Christ. It was at this time that the Spirit came upon them in a way that nearly defies description. That is why the terms “a great rushing of wind” and “fiery tongues” are used, for they are the closest ideas we can give to the power that came upon them. And not only this, but what happened to them when this power came was also beyond comprehension. They spoke in languages or tongues that were not of their upbringing. They began to communicate to those who had gathered in Jerusalem so that each person, no matter what country or language he knew, heard and understood what was said. The word of the Lord on that day became not just the word of the Jew, but of the gentile and anyone else that God had put upon the earth, as well. They were able to hear the saving word of God for themselves, as God had intended them to hear. As he spoke to His disciples in the end of the Gospel of Matthew, go into all the earth teaching whatsoever things I have commanded you, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If we look at this from our own perspective, we can see that God did not intend for us to just take in the Gift of the Holy Spirit as it is given by the Church, and do nothing else. That same Holy Spirit that came upon the Apostles at Pentecost, also comes to us today with the same power and energy. It is the same Holy Spirit that we receive when we are Baptized and Chrismated, given to us by God to become not only the keepers, but the doers of His word. When we realize that the Holy Spirit is within us, we should be bursting at the seams to use it to help others. We should be anxious to speak to those around us of the great power and salvation we have in Jesus Christ, through this newly-given power of the Holy Spirit. But it seems that that is not the case. We seem to lack the perception for this saving power of the Holy Spirit. It does not seem to change us much at all. We have come here today to be a part of this Holy Pentecost, and yet most of us will change very little because of our being here. Is it because we are not of one accord? Is it because we want to wait to see what everyone else does before we act? Is it because we have somehow come to deny the affects of our own baptism? Our own Chrismation? What ever the reason, if we do not see any other benefit for our being here today than what we might get out of this sermon, then let these words be the ones we ponder on for this week. When the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles, they did not just say wow, now I am complete, or now I know I’m saved, they did not blurt out babbling in some strange tongue which no one else understood, the began immediately to tell others about the saving words of Jesus Christ, even though they knew it might mean their own death. They were so moved by the power of that Holy Spirit that they could not contain themselves, they knew they had to tell others, and they did. So what about us? Do we think that we do not receive that same Holy Spirit? Do we think that ours is a lesser cause than theirs? Do people today not need to hear about the Lord? Do we not see that the Holy Spirit is given to us with the same purpose in mind? We cannot keep it to ourselves, we must feel compelled to share it with others, for it is only when we give it to others that it gains any real and lasting value for us. So let us too, this day, say unto the Lord, come Holy Spirit to us, and abide in us forever. Amen.

Sunday Bulletin for May 13, 2007

Sunday Bulletin for May 6, 2007

In the reading from Acts today, we hear these words: “Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.” This was spoken to the Apostles who had been thrown into prison by an angel of the Lord who had come and released them from their prison cell. This was after they had been taken prisoner by the high priest due to their speaking out in the Temple. They were being asked to go right back into the very place that had got them in trouble in the first place and continue to preach the words that would bring salvation to those that would hear them. These are the followers of Jesus who had witnessed the resurrection and could not keep silent about who Jesus was. They needed to spread the word and tell everyone that Jesus had come to save them all. Why is it that the high priest and those with him do not want the Apostles preaching in the Temple? Why do they seek to imprison the disciples? Aren’t they simply doing what Jesus wanted them to do? Are they not the ones in the bests position to explain the good news about Jesus and His plan of salvation for all? Why would not these Sadducees and the high priest be interested in hearing what the Apostles were telling them? The answer is simple; they did not want to lose their power over the people. They felt threatened by these followers of Jesus and their ability to perform many miracles. So strong was Peter’s power that if even his shadow passed over someone they could be healed! The Scripture says that all that came to them were being healed of all their ailments. Yet, the high priest does not want this, he is filled with indignation! This word translated as indignation comes from the Greek word meaning “an envious and contentious rivalry.” He does not have the same power and lacking in this way, he seeks only their removal so he can again be in control. What he truly fears, he does not know; he only knows that these men of Jesus are not helping him in the least, so they must go. Notice how the Apostles’ are given the command. They are not told to go back and ask the priest’s forgiveness. They are not told to go back and heal more people, although that may have happened, instead, they are told to go back to the Temple and give the people all the words of life. Nothing is more important than that. Their own lives are not as important as the message of life that they can give to others. Even St. Thomas, a man who first seeks to see for himself Jesus in the resurrected state, quickly changes his own doubt into a wonderful proclamation of who Jesus is, His Lord and his God. The message is what is important, not the messenger. The words of life are what should matter, not who says them. Often, we find ourselves caught up in the ways of the world. We want things to go our own way. We seek not the will of God, but our own wants, our own desires. We doubt, we lose hope, we think that if God really wants us to change, then we will be given a miraculous event to tell us to change. When we act this way we fail to see the Gospel for what it is, the very words of life. They are all here to be read by all. They are given to us each week to ponder and to meditate, but ultimately, we each must decide how they will be used, or not used as the case may be. Just as the first Apostles were not afraid to go out and proclaim the risen Lord, so too, should we not be afraid to proclaim the words of life of our savior. We do not need to wait to see the holes in His hands, nor the pierce of His side before we act, we are freely able to speak these words at any time and in any place. No one is going to imprison us; no one is going to take away our life, yet we still remain silent. We have the words of life, let us be sure to use them to help bring life to others, as well. Christ is risen!.

Today, we proclaim the beginning of our salvation, that is what we say in the Troparion. How does it begin? With the salutation of the Archangel Gabriel unto the Holy Virgin Mary. He says to her, “rejoice, highly favored one!” This statement gives us cause to inquire about Mary. We ask what was it about her that made her highly favored? From our Orthodox understanding, we state that she was ever-virgin and most pure, but we do not say that she was in some way different from you and I either in her conception, or in her birth. She was most pure, because she kept herself that way. From the time she was very young, she maintained an attitude about her soul that saved her from the perils of the world. She remained in the Temple from a very young age, she spent her time contemplating the Divine and Holy things, she was fed on the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures and she was also fed by angels. In this way, by her own efforts and her own struggles, she remained in a grace-filled state that prepared her for her special calling from God. We must be careful that we do not ascribe her state of grace as being somehow unattainable by anyone else, that her calling, while it is totally unique in the sense that only one person needed respond to that call, could not have been fulfilled by another person at another time, for indeed that would be possible. We must also be careful not to diminish what she has done by thinking in this manner, for indeed she has earned a place in salvation history second only to our Lord, Himself. The point is, Mary has accomplished what no one before her had managed to do. She maintained a God-fearing, God-centered, God-revealing and God-receiving life, in such a way, that God had no need to look anywhere else for the receptacle of His Only-begotten Son, for He had found it in Mary. All of the other Old testament women, Holy though they were, were not prepared, as was Mary for the calling to which she responded. If we think that she did not maintain a natural state of human development through all this, one only need look at her first response to the Archangel’s words. When he has told her that she will conceive a special Son of God, Mary responds by doubting that it can take place for, as she says, “I know not a man.” Here, we see how only a person who was totally human, even though fully inspired by the grace of God, could respond in this way. What we learn from her statement is how fully her humanity is intact. In other words, she is the same as you and I. Which leads us to another question, if the Archangel came to make such an announcement to us, would we be able to respond as the Virgin Mary did? Have we lived our life in such a way, that we would be a fitting receptacle for the Son of God? Before we answer that question, let us contemplate what it is we are really saying. Could the Son of God dwell within us? Has the son of God ever dwelt within us? What do we think that Holy Communion is? Is it not the very flesh and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? It is our “Annunciation” if you will, our gaining a favored status with God. Sometimes we seem to forget that Mary’s role has two levels to it. On the one level, her participation in the Divine Plan for Salvation was unique and needed only once. Her prayerful life and humble nature made her singly and uniquely qualified to be the womb that would hold its creator. But on another level, she became the first to receive Christ into her body, the first to have Christ dwelling and mingling the Divine blood with her own blood. It is that same blood, that same flesh that we experience through our own preparation, our own participation, and our own, “yes” to the invitation of the Holy Spirit. We may not be like the Holy Virgin Mary in many ways, we may find ourselves lacking in many of the features that made her the Birth-giver of God. But what is the same about us is the desire of God to be one with us, to enter into our soul and dwell within us. We no longer wait for the Archangel Gabriel to come make the announcement, for the Church makes that announcement to all of us at each divine liturgy, the only question that remains is shall we answer “yes”, or shall we answer “no.” Do not be afraid to answer yes, for as the scripture tells us today, with God nothing is impossible. Amen.

Sunday Bulletin for March 18, 2007

Everyone loves a crowd, that is, as long as it’s a crowd for something that appeals to us. We can imagine how crowed that house was for people to go so far as to tear up the roof to get this sick man near Christ. There are many places in the New Testament where we hear of the great crowds that follow Christ; the Sermon on the Mount, the Sea of Galilee when he had to go out in a boat to be able to speak to the people. And of course, Jerusalem after the raising of Lazarus, all places and times that showed how popular Jesus was when He was healing the sick or preaching about the coming kingdom of God. But what happens to the crowd when He speaks about the necessity to eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood? What happens to the crowd when He is brought before Pilate for trial? In the former case, they all left Him because they could not comprehend His words, in the latter case they turn on Him and call for His death. But in both cases, we see how the will of a crowd can change when what they want and what they get are two different things. We speak about this today because this particular Sunday is about following our hearts and not the crowd. This Sunday is about a life of prayer that leads to our salvation, and it can only come about when we pray not aloud in the market, but from the depths of our soul. It is about listening to the inner voice that cries out to God from within, and it is a voice that no one else can cry with. St. Gregory Palamas is most remembered for his contribution to this particular type of prayer, called the prayer of the heart. Its words are simple; they can be committed to memory easily and repeated at any time during the day or night, while at work or at leisure. We need no book to remind us of what exactly to say, no choir to give us the melody, no priest or deacon to begin the prayer, for it is a prayer that is borne of our own sincerity and love for God. Unlike the prayers we use while at one of the beautiful divine services, this one requires only our own desire to speak to God for it to rise up and enter the realm of the inner speech, that realm where we control all of its motives and desires. We can speak to ourselves about any number of subjects, all the while being completely oblivious to our surroundings. No matter how may people may be near us, no matter what the crowd might be shouting at that particular moment, we can open that direct connection that is uniquely ours and say those simple words which carry so much weight and effect, “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God have mercy on me, a sinner.” In that moment, we transport our spirit from the din of the crowd to the oasis of God’s nurturing love and we begin within our bosom the cry of the penitent reaching out above the crowd for the saving grace of God. We sometimes get bogged down during lent with all the distractions that are constantly around us. The noise of the television, the attraction of the theatre, the smell of some forbidden food, the gossip of a friend, they all become instruments of the devil to take us away from our appointed task of renewing not only our life, but reclaiming our spiritual values and preparing ourselves for the coming day of resurrection. You see, lent is not just about giving up some food, or watching less television, it is also about increasing our attention to prayer, to the divine services and to the health of our soul. It is not our bodies that need healing right now, it is our inner self, our spirit and our soul that cries out for renewal, and that is what our Lenten journey is about as well. So as we continue now into the third week of our Lenten journey, let us forget about what the crowd is doing, and concentrate on what God wants us to be doing, falling down on our knees and crying out to Him, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Sunday Bulletin for February 25, 2007

Sunday Bulletin for February 18, 2007

When you go home today, I want you to take out your checkbook, look at your balance (if you have one) and write a check out for the entire amount. Don’t even leave one penny in that account, but write the check for the whole thing. Then, when you have written the check, where it says pay to the order of, write in there one word, make it payable to one person and you spell his name G-O-D. Then, put it in an envelope and make sure that you put the right address on it. Since the check is written out to God, you are going to have to send it to His address, which, of course, is heaven. Now, I don’t know the zip code for heaven, but maybe you could ask a postman, like Diane Reinwald, and I’m sure she can tell you. Now why would I want you to do that? This may be proof enough for your suspicions about my mental health, but before you call for the men in the white suits, just think about what this exercise really means. Over that last few weeks we have seen a variety of illustrations about how we achieve salvation, first, we had Zacchaeus who restored his wrongs fourfold to receive salvation, we saw the Prodigal Son come to his sense after he had squandered all his money and received the forgiveness of his loving father, then we had the publican who came to the temple to ask forgiveness and he received it. Then, we were taken to the Last Judgment, and saw that salvation depends on how we treat others, especially those less fortunate than ourselves. Now, today we come to that last lesson concerning our salvation, and the instructions from the Lord are quite clear. He has made it very plain that our salvation also depends on where we put our focus. In this gospel we see that it has three main points of attention. Forgiveness, fasting and finances, let’s call them the three “F’s”. It is how we focus on these three F’s that shows the Lord how serious we are about our faith and our attaining of salvation. We can say all the prayers we want to, we can cry to others about how sorry we are for our sins, we can be in church for every service, but if our actions do not reflect our words, then we are no further advanced towards salvation than anyone who has never even uttered one word in prayer. In fact, we may even be worse off, because at least the one who never prays has not promised God that he would do anything! It is only when we put our minds to the task of contemplating the degree of faith we are trying to obtain that we give our words their needed meaning in terms of salvific action. Remember the check book, what would mean more to God than an honest effort to prove our heart and our mind are in the same place as our words? When we can trust God so completely that we would no longer feel the need to store up for ourselves in this earth, it is then that we would truly discover the power of the words of our Lord when He says, “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” You see, we use the analogy of finances because it is the one we participate in on a daily, almost an hourly basis. We stop for a coffee on our way to work, we use our finances, we order a new appliance, we use our finances, we talk to our insurance agent about our life insurance policies, we use our finances, we go to the grocery store, we use our finances, we stop to pick up some medicine and we use our finances, we look at the mail and organize our bills, again, we use our finances. We carry then around with us in our wallets and purses, we store them away in banks and investment companies, we stuff our mattresses with them. We will miss appointments with our hairdresser, our dentist, even our doctor, but we will not miss depositing our paycheck in the bank on time. Now, if we would have a faith strong enough to empty our checking account for God, and rely totally on Him to replenish it, then we could also do the other two F’s with the same vigor. We could overcome our weaknesses during the great fast and endure pangs of hunger, pass on a trip to the movies, turn off the television, or avoid a succulent dessert. We would find the time to pray more, to be in church more, to read the Bible more, or any other spiritually beneficial activity. Which now brings us to the last of the three F’s. Admittedly, it is perhaps the hardest one to accomplish. Because it requires of us more than just time or money. It requires a change in our hearts towards someone who may have offended us, or insulted us, or said hurtful things about us, or lied to us, or attacked a member of our family, or worst of all, acted towards us with friendliness, but when we aren’t around spoke evil about us to others. We might be able to pray more without too much effort, we might be able to fast more by altering our eating habits, we might be able to easily turn off the TV for an extra hour each night, these we can do first because they require little financial involvement. We may not be so inclined to part with our entire worth so easily, but we all know this, that it is easier to empty our checking account of all its worth than it is to forgive a person in total for an offense that has cut us to the heart. But what we also know is this, we can pray harder, fast more, and seek fewer pleasures, we can even give away all our money, but if we cannot forgive even one person for one offense, then we fail to do that which God wants from us first. For if we look at the Gospel, it starts with forgiveness, and that is exactly how we begin our Lenten Journey, by forgiving one another. For if we can forgive each other, then we are truly laying up our treasures in heaven, and our heart shall be there also. Amen.

The Publican and the Pharisee - Sunday, January 28th

Father David's Address to the Parish at the Annual Meeting - Sunday, January 28th

Dearly beloved in Christ, This is my first time to stand before you as your Father in Christ. I have only been here for a few days, actually, and already I have participated in a baptism, and two interments. Quite frankly, this is more like my old parish than I would like, but if it is God’s will, I do my utmost to fulfill it. There are many areas of Parish life that I would like to address in our brief time together today. Let me begin with what I feel, and have always felt is our most important duty, as Christians to fulfill. St. Paul tells us to pray without ceasing; this is understood in many different ways. To some it implies the Jesus prayer, a private and personal continual prayer that is beneficial to the person who is praying in that fashion. To others it is the worldwide, continual prayer of the Church that is ongoing in one area or another of the world as the sun travels form east to west. But there is yet another way to understand this prayer and that is in the community to which we all belong, right here in Pottstown; it is our prayer, prayed by all of us at various times of the day and evening that brings us together in Christ and is the cause of our growth both individually and collectively. Without this constant attention to prayer, either corporate or private, or in better words, cenobitic or idiorythmic, we cannot expect God to bless even one of our endeavors. If we want spiritual growth, at the personal level, it requires prayer; if we want growth as the Body of Christian believers, it requires our prayer; if we want growth for Orthodoxy as a whole, then it requires prayer. Consider these words of our Lord in St. John’s Gospel, the 14th chapter: "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” To our ears it sounds too simplistic to be true, yet, we know our Lord is not capable of lying, so there must be another way to understand what He is telling us. There is. We cannot expect God to bless our activities if we do not have prayer as a priority. So let us pray together, often. Let us pray for each other, that we may grow in love of Christ and in love of each other, for again, our Lord’s words command us, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." Jn 13:34-5 If we want this Parish to grow, if we want the Lord to bless what we do, then we begin by asking Him to show us how to love each other, as He loves us. This is how others will know we are of God, when they see us love each other. Next, we need to be mindful of the many blessing we have already received and be good stewards of them. This church building, the Rectory, the Cemetery, they are all entrusted to us like the men in the parable of the talents. Being mindful, again, of our Lord’s command, “To whom much is given, much is expected.” This does not mean we all become “bean counters”, as it where, but quite the opposite. As with the parable of the talents, we must take what we have been given and multiply it. How do we do that? By becoming involved and active in the church in a beneficial way. We all have talents we were given by God, it means we must use them for His benefit as much as possible. We will speak more on this a little later on, but for now, let us think on how God has blessed us with our many gifts and how we can use them for His glory. Now, let me briefly comment on the general operation of the Parish, as I see it, and then conclude by speaking of our future together. Over the next few months I will be making some changes to the Liturgical life of the Parish. For example, now that we will be having Vespers every Saturday evening, I see little need to hear confessions on Sunday mornings and I think we can all adjust to coming to Vespers often enough for proper preparation for Holy Communion. For those who have a distance to travel I will make allowances, but for the most part I do not think it is too much to ask that we come to Vespers if we wish to receive Holy Eucharist. I have some ideas for involving more people in the Divine Services and have always felt that the more people are involved in worship, the more they will want to do so. I am grateful for the work of young John Black with the choir. I understand that he receives no remuneration for his work. I ask that we consider some stipend, even if only a token one, to show our appreciation for his sharing of his talents with the parish. I do not mean to make him an employee of the parish, per se, but that we should be willing to at least address his travel expenses and preparation for the many services he prepares. In addition, whoever is the chanter for a funeral should expect to receive an honorarium for their work and I ask the parish to establish a set fee for the chanter’s duties associated with funerals and Parastas services. The By-Laws for both the Parish and the Cemetery need examined and updated, I ask that we commit to reviewing and renewing them to reflect the changes that have occurred in recent times. What is missing from the beginning of our services? What sound is absent when we start to pray? There is no Trezhvon! I would like to make it a priority, once we are on track financially and without debt, to seriously examine the building of a bell tower, and to teach our youth especially, on how to ring bells. Bells are as necessary to Orthodox Worship as is a choir. We have a beautiful choir, so all we need now is to have beautiful bells. Now, let me change gears and speak to another Important area of the church. According to the Barna Group, an organization which studies and gathers statistics for churches, those churches who experienced growth, regardless of denomination, are the ones that committed a substantial portion of their budget to evangelization and growth, usually around 25%. When we review our budget today, let us think of this statistic and how it should apply to us. Having said this, I do not want us to make the mistake that all parish meetings are about money. Just think back to my opening statement and apply it to all operations of parish life, we begin by praying and then all other actions follow. The Gospel imperative, read at every Baptism, is to preach the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them into the Church. The command is of God, the leadership is from the bishop and priest, but the activity is the duty of all of us together. We know what we need to do, we just need to figure out how to do it. Let us do this together and see what blessings God has in store for us. What I have noticed so far, and that isn’t for very long, is that this parish has great potential and together we can accomplish much. It is our Divine call to duty and it is a call that includes all of us, no exceptions. The old, the young, the weak, the strong, and all those in between, all are needed to do the work of the Lord. If we never forget this, we will always be His servants and He will always be faithful to His promise to us. If, instead we choose to act independently, then we loose the power of the Gospel and the blessings of God; then we loose more than we can afford. So, let us all be mindful of our place in the Church, how we are all part of God’s family, He loves us, we love Him, and we need to be sure to love each other. If we do this, only God knows what we can do, If we do not do this, then only God knows what will become of us. In conclusion I ask for your continued prayers for my ministry and I shall continually pray for you all. May God grant us all to pray, love, and grow in Christ all the days of our life. Amen.

August 2006

July 2006