Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, If we
believe that the things above, the Kingdom of God and His
righteousness, are worth seeking, then the Lenten requirements are not
burdensome. It is our lingering “old man,” the relic of our fallen
nature that looks for the things of this earth. From our fallen state,
we sense deprivation when we are asked to follow our Lord’s
commandments through the traditions of the Church. These
acts that maintain the Church’s life, the fasting and other Lenten
observances and commemorations, are part of his Apostolic commission to
“observe all things” that He commanded His disciples to teach us. The
Gospel selection that records His commission of the Apostles is read at
every baptism. With every baptism, there is a sense of brightness and
celebration. With every baptism, there is a newfound freedom, not the
freedom of license, but that liberation that comes with enlightenment
and renewal. Just so, through the season of the Fast, we seek to renew
what we received at baptism. We want to anticipate and experience with
clear eyes and clean hearts just what it is that God has done and is
doing for us. His great
salvation wrought through His earthly life culminating in His death and
resurrection should be kept ever in our mind’s eye. To do this, we use
the Lenten observances to train our faculties to enable us to better
cooperate with the words prayed every day: “Create in me a clean heart,
O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” It will
soon be time for spring-cleaning to refresh our houses and gardens for
the new season of growth. Just so, with joyful anticipation and hope of
heightened and renewed understanding and fervor informing our patience,
let us as faithful Orthodox Christians move toward the “prize of our
high calling,” both in this season and for our whole life. Father George
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From 'St John of Shanghai and San Francisco, Zealous Builder of Churches'
Everywhere he went he either oversaw the building of churches or supported the same with his attention and prayers... He wrote about the godly work of building churches:
"In building churches here on earth, we create for ourselves eternal habitations in heaven."
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