their time, thought it advis-able to add another week, both to train and better prepare themselves to en-ter on the labor of fasting and to honor with their fasting the holy number forty days which Our Lord fasted. The 8 weeks, sub-tracting Saturdays and Sun-days, makes forty days, but we honor Holy Saturday

with a fast because it is a very holy day and the only Satur-day fast of the year.”

the Holy Mysteries of the Church: frequent Confession frequent Communion, fre-quent examination of our thoughts, words and deeds; daily reading of Scripture, the writings of the Fathers, & lives of the Saints; fasting, vigils, and prayer. As we participate in these grace-giving activities our nous is cleansed, polished like a dirty mirror and purified “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” As our nous is puri-fied, we ‘see’ more clearly & begin to reflect the glory of God in our lives. We see our sinfulness more clearly, but we also experience His great & rich mercy. We are moti-vated by love for Christ to turn away from this world’s allurements & attachments, which can never satisfy & will ultimately doom us. Instead we fix our gaze on our loving Lord & continually seek union with Him. FrJn

What is the goal of the Christian life? Theosis. What is theosis? Deification, becom-ing gods by grace: “God be-came Man so that Man might become god” (St. Athanasios). We become by grace what God is by nature, conforming more and more to the likeness of God, by acquiring the grace of the Holy Spirit in increasing degrees, progressing “from one degree of glory to an-other” forever, a process which begins in this life & continues into eternity. How do we do this? The first step (with faith) is called purgation or catharsis or purification. This is the

ascetic life: keeping the com-mandments of the Gospel of Christ. “If you love Me you will keep My command-ments.” We must purify our hearts, or our “nous.”

The nous is “the highest faculty in man, through which—if purified—we come to know God. It is not the same as reason, logic or dis-cursive thinking. The nous dwells in the depths of the soul. By it we understand truth by direct experience. The nous is the innermost aspect of the heart, the organ of contemplation, ’the eye of the heart’.” “The Kingdom of God is within you” says Christ.

When Adam sinned his nous turned away from the one uncreated God & turned toward & became fixed on & preoccupied with the multi-tude of created things. Our nous is now scattered, dark-ened. We MUST purify our nous and re-focus it on God. How do we do this? Through

A WORD FROM FR. JOHN

FROM THE HOLY FATHERS: DOROTHEUS OF GAZA (6TH C.) “On the Holy Lenten Fast”

In the Law, God laid down that the sons of Israel should each year give tithes of all they pos-sessed, and if they did so they were blessed in all their works. The holy Apos-tles, knowing this to be for the help and advancement of our souls, resolved to fulfill it in a better and

ST. HERMAN ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH

FEBRUARY 2006 VOLUME 9, NUMBER 2

THE PARISH PRESS

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

PARISH LIFE 2

2006 BBQ AND SQUARE DANCE

2

PRE-LENTEN SUNDAYS 2006

2

“WE’RE GOING TO PUMP YOU UP!”

3

ON CONFESSION 4

FEBRUARY 2006 CALENDAR

5

higher way, namely, for us to deliver up a tithe of the very days of our lives as if to con-secrate them to God, so that we may be blessed in all our works, and each year to be unburdened of the whole year’s sins. They elected to consecrate out of the 365 days of the year, seven weeks of fasting, and so they ordained; but our Fathers, in

Pre-Lenten Sundays (2006)

New Parish Council

Your 2006 Parish Council:

Warden: Greg Streech Asst. Warden: Brian Ambron Treasurer: Jon Douglas Secretary: Luann Martin Financial Sec.: Denise Mikita

Jack Acheff, Carolyn Kimberly, Peter Leising Margo Waisanen

Please contact anyone on the Council with questions or concerns about our parish (Fr. John is also always avail-able. Just make a phone call or an appointment to talk).

Each of the five Sundays before Great Lent begins prepares us gradually for Great Lent by giving us the meaning of Great Lent & the right attitudes we must have if we are to experience Lent in a spiritually profitable way:.

We should have these godly attitudes all the time, but before and during Great Lent we are to seek & acquire them more fully:

Feb. 5: Zacchaeus—a true desire for Christ and seeking Him w/zeal

Feb. 12: Publican & Pharisee— humility toward God & others

Feb. 19: Prodigal Son-returning to God in repentance & confession

Feb. 26: Last Judgment-love for others expressed in works of mercy

Mar. 5: Expulsion of Adam & Eve from Paradise & Forgiveness-without forgiving others from our hearts we will NOT be forgiven by God (in this world or the next).

We are all exiles from God & must return to Him with true desire and zeal, humility in our prayers, true repentance and con-fession, & genuine love for others.

February 17 at 6:30 pm

• Catered BBQ dinner

• Professional square dance caller who will in-struct us all

Tickets: $10 per person;

$5 for children under 10;

Free for children under 5.

2006 Fast-Free-Friday BBQ & Square Dance Come one, come all! Let us

enjoy the good things God has given us, like good food, good fun, & good fellowship!

Every year on the fast-free Friday before Great Lent (which doesn’t start until March 6) we hold a BBQ & Square dance for our parish family

Parish E-Loop

Thanks to the efforts of Gari Lukich & Anne Streech, we have set up an “E-loop” to help improve intra-parish communications. If you are a member or “friend” of St. Herman’s, sign up today by talking with Gari or Anne, or by sending us your email.

The purpose of the E-loop is to share important & edifying information relevant to promoting our parish life: prayer requests, updates, anything that is encouraging.

Adult Education

We are studying the new book “Breaking the Chains of Addiction,” by monk Victor Mihailoff. Classes remaining:

Feb. 1: No class; 6:30 pm, Vigil Feb. 8: Lesson 2 Feb. 15: Lesson 3 Feb. 22: Lesson 4 March 1: Lesson 5

“No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. And God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but will with the temptation provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Cor 10:13)

St. Herman Parish Life

This is the “normal” and true Christian life. Great Lent is a “school of repentance” in which we are privileged to enroll each year, (in which we must enroll if we are to be saved). But we must do so with the right prerequisite attitudes and values, given to us beforehand in the themes of the pre-Lenten Sundays.

It’s that time of year for a spiri-tual checkup, a time for honest reflection about ourselves, a time to put forth focused & intentional ef-fort in growing in our Christian life.

May God help us all by His grace!

PAGE 2 THE PARISH PRESS

Baptisms Jay (George) Lazorishak

at St. Anna’s Skete

Sponsors John Acheff

Kafa & Samir Chawi Anthe James

Ned & Sandy Puev Katherine & Alex Sirpis Kon & Birdie Worth

PAGE 3 THE PARISH PRESS

“WE’RE GOING TO PUMP YOU UP!”

By Carolyn Kimberly

The new Catechumen was in his perpetually jovial mood, thumbing through the pages of the thick Vigil

book. I turned to him with great seriousness. “Orthodoxy is a very manly religion”, I said. “What do you

mean by that”? he asked. “It takes a great deal of strength,” I said. “You’ll soon find out.” Two hours of

standing, chanting, and intense concentration later, he understood, at least on the physical level, what I

meant.

For the most part, religion has grown soft. What is left of Christianity in user-friendly America is a Neo-

Platonic shadow of what it was in the beginning or even in the recent past. Ascetic struggle, which alone

can soften our hearts and open them to an experiential vision of God, is not just ignored but studiously

avoided. It was the first thing discarded by the Protestants. Destroying monasteries was the first order of

business in Henry VIII’S England and revolutionary France. The Bolsheviks slaughtered monks, priests, and

nuns by the thousands as “useless” to the Party, and, in 1966, the Latin Church abruptly canceled its prac-

tice of fasting and abstinence to go along with the “signs of the times”. Only the Orthodox have held to the

truth that genuine familiarity with God as real and accessible is found only in enduring spiritual practice.

Studying the Bible or getting a degree in Theology may give one an intellectual idea of God, but it will not

give us the experience of God Himself. Saint Silouan went as far as to say that, “Even if all the sacred

books and written records of the Christian religion, including the Bible, were lost in a massive earthquake or

fire, they could be rewritten because they are stored deep in the hearts of the saints”—those who have ob-

tained purity of heart through long and arduous spiritual practices such as fasting, alms, ceaseless prayer,

Vigils, and works.

As Orthodox we cannot be spiritually or physically lazy. In our older members at St. Herman we can see

the fruit of spiritual labor. We cannot help but be awed by those in our midst who have stood seventy or

eighty years in the Faith despite trials, physical ailments, countless sorrows, and the disdain of the modern

world. Orthodoxy is a manly religion. It is very difficult to live in this time of self-gratification and actually

seek out opportunities for discomfort and memory of death. To the world this is self-hatred. To us, who

seek God’s face, it is spiritual fire.

[Editor’s Note: Great Lent is called a “School of Repentance,” which every Orthodox Christian is enjoined to

enroll in every year, not with reluctance: “Oh, why bother? I’ll never change”, but with great enthusiasm:

“Thank God, Lent is here! I really need a spiritual tune-up—I mean, honestly, a major overhaul. And I

know that with God’s help, if I take Lent seriously, and increase my prayer life & fasting, and if I attend

(with faith) many of the Lenten services—I just love the Presanctified Liturgies on Wednesdays & Fridays!—

I know that when Pascha comes and we start to sing, “Christ is risen!” it will all be worth it. God, please,

help me to make a good beginning by Thy grace…”]

PAGE 4 VOLUME 9, NUMBER 2