It Always Starts With Desire – Holy Apostle Zacchaeus

Holy Apostle Zacchaeus, is the same “short” man who desired to see Christ on the road through Jericho, thus climbing a sycamore tree.  After the Ascension of the Lord, St. Zacchaeus accompanied St. Peter on his travels. Tradition says he became the Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, where he died in peace.

In Fr. Alexander Schmemann’s Great Lent: Journey to Pascha, he describes the importance of the initial step in our Lenten journey – that of, “desire for God and His righteousness, for the true life.”  Fr. Alexander writes: “Zacchaeus desired the ‘right thing;’ he wanted to see and approach Christ.  He [Zacchaeus] is the first symbol of repentance, for repentance begins at the rediscovery of the deep nature of all desire:  the desire for God and His righteousness, for the true life.  Zaccheaus is ‘short’ -petty, sinful, and limited- yet his desire overcomes all this.  It ‘forces’ Christ’s attention; it brings Christ to his home.  [Like Zacchaeus] if we desire deeply enough, strongly enough, Christ will respond.”

“A Lenten Journey to Great and Holy Pascha” is an 11-week virtual youth Religious Education program created by the Orthodox Youth Mentorship Program of Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, Camarillo (under the direction of Father Gary Kyriacou) and sponsored by the Christian Education Ministry of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco.

All students in the San Francisco metropolis, grades Pre-Kindergarten through 8th grade, may sign up to participate.  This program will cover key themes of the liturgical cycle beginning with the Triodion, continuing into Great Lent, through Holy Week and concluding with Holy Pascha.  A team of volunteer teachers will engage students with lessons, activities, and service projects.

This program will take place live via Zoom.  High school and college students will participate as mentors and activity leaders.

The program dates are February 21st through Friday, April 30th.  Virtual classes will meet each Sunday at 12:30 for approximately one hour (slightly less for younger students). The final meeting will take place on Great and Holy Friday (April 30th).

There is no cost to attend, but registration is required.  The registration deadline is Friday, February 5.
Please contact Program Coordinator Maria Tangalos with any questions: mariatangalos@gmail.com

Student Participant Form & Information

Youth Leader  Volunteer Form and Information

Let us remember when we feel broken, when we feel helpless, that even the greatest saints have gone through the same experience; learn from them and never despair – by Anthony (Bloom) of Surozh

Today we are keeping the memory of St Anthony of Egypt. In the lives of saints we usually single out those passages that are to their glory, that show their greatness, their holiness, all that we should emulate. But from time to time, in the life of a saint we find an event that taught him something important and conveys something of importance also to us. Read more here

 

“When our Lord reached thirty years from His physical birth, He began His teaching and work of salvation. He Himself signified this ‘beginning of the beginning’ by His Baptism in the Jordan River. St Cyril of Jerusalem says: ‘The beginning of the world is water; the beginning of the Gospel is the Jordan.’ At the time of the Baptism of the Lord in water, the mystery was declared to the world — the mystery that was prophesied in the Old Testament; the mystery that was known only in fables in ancient Egypt and India — the mystery of the Divine Holy Trinity. The Father was revealed to the sense of hearing, the Spirit was revealed to the sense of sight, and the Son was revealed to the sense of touch. The Father spoke His witness about the Son, the Son was baptized in the water, and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove hovered above the water. When John the Baptist bore witness to Christ, saying: Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, and when John immersed and baptized the Lord in the Jordan, the mission of Christ in the world and the path of our salvation were shown. That is to say, the Lord took upon Himself the sins of mankind and died under them (immersion) and rose again (the coming out of the water); and we must die to the old sinful man and rise again as cleansed, renewed, and regenerated. Here is the Savior and here is the path to salvation. The Feast of Theophany is also called the Feast of Illumination. The event in the Jordan River illuminates us by manifesting God to us as Trinity, consubstantial and undivided. That is one way that we are illumined. And the second way is that every one of us through baptism in water is illumined, because we become adopted by the Father of Lights through the work of the Son and the power of the Holy Spirit. May our eyes always be illumined by the light of Christ, and today let’s receive this gift with humility and obedience, and so let’s live as true children of the Light. Amen!”

From ‘The Prologue from Ohrid: Lives of Saints’ by St Nikolai Velimirovich, Bishop of Zica, Serbia (+1956)

 

His Eminence Metropolitan Gerasimos

Brothers and Sisters in the Lord,

The year 2020 will be remembered as the year when everything changed. In an instant this past March, we began to live differently, to work differently, to send our children to school differently, and to worship and participate in the life of the Church differently. We also saw our nation gripped with social and political controversy, economic hardships and uncertainties, and environmental destruction.

However, what has not changed, what is not different, is that at Christmas we will welcome the same news that the Angels proclaimed to the shepherds centuries ago: “Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:10-12).

As we hear and contemplate the story of the Nativity of Jesus Christ in the Divine Services for  Christmas, notice how few details are offered about the birth of Christ itself. The Scriptures state very simply that Mary gave birth to her Son. There is no elaboration. What we do hear, however, is the reaction to the event. The heavenly hosts sing praises (Luke 2:14). Shepherds go to Bethlehem (Luke 2:16). Magi travel with gifts (Matthew 2:11). Joseph protects the child from Herod’s plot to kill Jesus (Matthew 2:14). And Mary ponders all the events in her heart (Luke 2:19). It is all as if the authors of the Gospel want us to consider our reaction to the event.

The event of Christ’s birth is a great paradox. God Himself becomes man. As Saint Gregory the Theologian writes, “He who is comes into being, and the uncreated is created, and the uncontained is contained.” (Oration 38). When we open our hearts and minds and begin to wrestle with this mystery, our first reaction, our first response becomes offering praise to Almighty God and bringing the gift of our self and placing it before the babe born in Bethlehem. We offer our praise to “God in the highest” (Luke 2:24) in the worship services of our Church, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We encounter Christ Himself in the Holy Eucharist.

Encountering the newborn Christ transformed permanently the lives of the shepherds, the Magi, and of course Joseph and Mary. But what about us? Once we have sung our carols and hymns, decorated our homes and given our gifts, what lasting effects will this Christmas have on us? This is the second response we can have to the Good News. Our transformation begins to come about though our response to the needs of the world that surround us are great. Our lives have been upended this year because of the pandemic, providing us with many opportunities to show our Christian love in meaningful and substantial ways. Our parishes offer many opportunities for you to share your many gifts with others. What could be better than working together as an Orthodox Christians to serve our neighbor in response to the Good News that the Savior has come into the world?

Sisters and brothers in the Lord, this will be a Christmas like no other in recent memory. We see the tragic stories about the effects of the pandemic on so many. We are being encouraged to celebrate only with those in our households. There are no Christmas pageants of children telling the story of the birth of Christ. But, we may still greet one another with phone calls and video gatherings. We may still sing the hymns of the Nativity and the beautiful Christmas carols of our culture. This year, bring the sights and the sounds of Christmas into your home, and celebrate the Nativity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with joyful and grateful hearts.

Christ is Born! Glorify Him! Χριστός γεννάται, Δοξάσατε!