Postage

S t . T i m o t h y O r t h o d o x C h u r c h

4 5 9 3 C e n t r a l W a y

F a i r f i e l d , C A 9 4 5 3 4

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C h r i s t i s R i s e n ! I n d e e d H e i s R i s e n !

Beloved in Christ, boys and girls, this is the joyous season of our Lord Jesus Christ triumph over death. A standing joke amongst the clergy at this time of year is, "Christ is Risen!—but the priest is dead.” Yes, our Lenten labors were long and laborious, and the frequency of the church services, cut into our schedules. Oftentimes we were inconvenienced, but really what a small price to pay for the spiritual benefits and blessings that God poured out upon us. We submitted our flesh and learned humility with the many low bows and prostrations (that came our way) with the services, as we chanted and sang penitential praises to our God and Lord. Visually we saw dark purple altar coverings and vestments and heard read the stories of penitential saints, such as St. Mary of Egypt. We entered into Holy Week "reduced of ourselves," and by that reduction of self, better prepared to embrace the significance of our Lord’s earthly passion, and the salvation of mankind and newness of life, that He accomplished for us in His passion and death on the cross.

Now our Lenten labors are over, and the season of fasting is behind us as we celebrate the "Bright Week" of our Savior’s Third Day Resurrection from the grave. Through His great condescension as the God-man, and through His earthly suffering, crucifixion on the cross, and physical death, He obliged the natural order of things, as mortal man, and descended into the lower parts of the earth. Through His death, as was heralded in the wee hours of the night last Sunday in the Paschal Homily of St. John Chry-sostom,

"He has destroyed death by undergoing death. He has despoiled hell by de-scending into hell. He vexed it even as it tasted of His flesh. Isaiah foretold this when he cried: Hell was filled with bitterness when it met Thee face to face below; filled with bitterness, for it was brought to nothing; filled with bitterness, for it was mocked; filled with bitterness, for it was overthrown; filled with bitterness, for it was put in chains. Hell received a body, and en-countered God. It received earth, and confronted heaven. O death, where is your sting? O hell, where is your victory?"

The eternal significance of what was accomplished for mankind, and in fact the whole created universe, by His voluntary and man-befriending Death on the Cross and Resurrection on the Third Day, is of a depth unfathomable

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Pastor’s Reflection

St T imothy’s Newslet ter S p r i n g – P a s c h a 2 0 1 5 V o l u m e 3 , I s s u e 1

W h a t ’ s I n s i d e :

Parish Council in Action

Men’s Fellowship Report

Photos of Holy Week & Pascha

Can You Forgive Someone

Else’s Enemies?

55 Maxims of Fr Tom Hopko

and beyond reason and human understanding. As we declare in the Sacra-ment of Baptism, "Great are thou O Lord and mar-velous are thy works and there are no words suffi-cient to hymn thy won-ders."

We are a privileged and blest people to be sure!

Privileged, because He chose us and invited us to be His people, sons and daughters of the Most High God. Blest, because as sons and daughters we receive an unearned inheritance, freely given, which entitles us, through His mercy and grace, to an eternal crown of glory in the Age to come, and now, while on this earth, Christian joy, peace, and spiritual prosperity.

At the time of this Spring Newsletter’s publication we will have celebrated the "Bright Saturday" picnic at the Haskins' beautiful lakefront home in Vacaville. Kids run-ning around having fun, BBQs flame on, grilling scrumptious meats and fish, fellowship and celebra-tory time together, the love of the brethren. And again as we did at St. Timothy's in the wee hours of Pascha morning on April 12th, we will have sung the Troparion of the Feast, "Christ is Risen from the Dead Trampling Down Death by Death, and Upon those in the Tombs, Bestowing Life!"

As the Psalmist David says, "Praise befits the just". This is our Orthodox Christian heritage, this is our strength and song amidst a world that does not know Him, this is our sustenance, for He is our real food and drink. May God continue to mightily bless each one. "Christ is Risen!"

Fr John

Pastor’s Reflections ....................................... (Continued from page 1)

S p r i n g N e w s l e t t e r P a g e 2

Hello Everyone!

With Lent coming to an end and Spring in full swing, our hearts bloom even as all nature seems to rejoice! There is truly reason to give thanks at this time of the year! Even more so now that we have the building per-mits and are nearly ready to embark on the final phase of our building remodeling project, the Link Road wall.

We are beginning to receive bids back from the 3 con-tractors that we have asked to respond. Once started, the job should take less than 2 months. It will be so nice to have more space, windows that open for venti-lation and a beautiful new front that actually invites people in. Our humble commercial building will be changed into a space that truly feels more like a Church and less like a warehouse. Once completed, we will have time to celebrate, just in time for the long warm days of summer!

But the celebration will not end there. God willing and with your help, we will host celebrations with other Orthodox churches, have retreats in our own beautiful space, spread the word of Orthodoxy to our commu-nity while raising funds for our next building phase and even take those first steps towards carrying the Gospel to neighboring cities. Now that is a beautiful vision of our future in Christ!

In His Name,

Tom Bennett

Parish Council Chairman

Parish Council in Action ............................................ from Tom Bennett

55 Maxims from Father Thomas Hopko

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1. Be always with Christ and trust God in everything

2. Pray as you can, not as you think you must

3. Have a keepable rule of prayer done by discipline

4. Say the Lord’s Prayer several times each day

5. Repeat a short prayer when your mind is not occu-pied

6. Make some prostrations when you pray

7. Eat good foods in moderation and fast on fasting days

8. Practice silence, inner and outer

9. Sit in silence 20 to 30 minutes each day

10. Do acts of mercy in secret

11. Go to liturgical services regularly

12. Go to confession and holy communion regularly

13. Do not engage intrusive thoughts and feelings

14. Reveal all your thoughts and feelings to a trusted person regularly

15. Read the scriptures regularly

16. Read good books, a little at a time

17. Cultivate communion with the saints

18. Be an ordinary person, one of the human race

19. Be polite with everyone, first of all family members

20. Maintain cleanliness and order in your home

21. Have a healthy, wholesome hobby

22. Exercise regularly

23. Live a day, even a part of a day, at a time

24. Be totally honest, first of all with yourself

25. Be faithful in little things

26. Do your work, then forget it

27. Do the most difficult and painful things first

28. Face reality

29. Be grateful

30. Be cheerful

31. Be simple, hidden, quiet and small

32. Never bring attention to yourself

33. Listen when people talk to you

34. Be awake and attentive, fully present where you are

35. Think and talk about things no more than neces-sary

36. Speak simply, clearly, firmly, directly

37. Flee imagination, fantasy, analysis, figuring things out

38. Flee carnal, sexual things at their first appearance

39. Don’t complain, grumble, murmur or whine

40. Don’t seek or expect pity or praise

41. Don’t compare yourself with anyone

42. Don’t judge anyone for anything

43. Don’t try to convince anyone of anything

44. Don’t defend or justify yourself

45. Be defined and bound by God, not people

46. Accept criticism gracefully and test it carefully

47. Give advice only when asked or when it is your duty

48. Do nothing for people that they can and should do for themselves

49. Have a daily schedule of activities, avoiding whim and caprice

50. Be merciful with yourself and others

51. Have no expectations except to be fiercely tempted to your last breath

52. Focus exclusively on God and light, and never on darkness, temptation and sin

53. Endure the trial of yourself and your faults se-renely, under God’s mercy

54. When you fall, get up immediately and start over

55. Get help when you need it, without fear or shame

The Right Reverend Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko reposed in the Lord in March. Author of many books and articles, he was also known for these simple guidelines to the Orthodox life. May his memory be eternal!

Images of Holy Week

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Clockwise from bottom left

1. The Red Egg Brigade!

2. Clergy and Servers during Palm Sunday Procession

3. Rose Petals & Bay Leaves: Holy Saturday

4. At the Divine Liturgy of Pascha

Thanks to Fr John and the Bishops for the photos

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Men’s Fellowship ......................................................... from Steve Allen

The Men's Fellowship is off to a great start for the year!

We held our first meeting on Saturday, March 28, with 9 people in attendance, and several more sending their well wishes and thoughts in.

We covered a large range of discussion, centered around our core goal(s) for the group in general, and specifically for this year. The consensus was that each of those present will strive to exemplify personally, and as a group, active service to each other, to the Church, to the Community, and to the world. We invite all those who weren't present for whatever reason to join us.

Our activities will revolve around the idea of service: either enriching us spiritually for it, creating opportuni-ties for it, encouraging each other in it, etc. Not every activity will be obviously about it (we do have some "just plain ol' fun" activities planned), but all serve the larger idea.

Speaking of activities: I'm putting the finishing touches on a schedule. I intend to be rather ambitious in this regard, creating multiple activities targeted at certain age groups, and also at all ages, so that everyone has a chance to be part of the group at some time or other.

We're going to start on a spiritual note. Our first Activ-ity will be a trip to a monastery. Date and location TBD, but it will be relatively soon, and most likely to Platina. I will let you know once we've finalized the details. Keep your eyes peeled!

In conclusion, I'm excited about the upcoming year, and I'm looking forward to many great opportunities and fun times we have planned.

In Christ,

Steve Allen

Men's Fellowship President

The Family Gets Together on Palm Sunday

This article is by Father Stephen Freeman, from his blog “Glory to God for All Things,” and is reprinted here with his kind permission.

I have written from time to time about the concept expressed in Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, “Forgive everyone for everything.” It is a quote taken from the fictional Elder Zosima, but it is certainly a sen-timent well within the bounds of Orthodox thought. I have recently been challenged in several places by peo-ple arguing that we cannot forgive those who have not sinned against us – that this right belongs only to the victims involved. I believe this is profoundly untrue. But to understand why, it is necessary to look deeply into the meaning and function of forgiveness.

What happens when we forgive? A very important ex-ample is found in St. Mark’s gospel:

Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”– He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” (Mar 2:3-11)

What sin did Jesus have in mind when he forgave the paralytic? Had the man done something wrong to bring a punishment of paralysis upon himself? There is no such indication. Indeed when Christ healed the man born blind He was asked who had sinned, the man or his parents such that he was born that way. Christ says, “Neither.” But it would seem clear from the greater

context of the gospels that Christ could have said to the man, “Your sins are forgiven,” and he would have received his sight. There is a simple conclusion to be drawn from this: forgiveness is not, strictly speaking, the remission of a legal debt or wrong that has been done. It is far greater.

There are parallel passages in the gospels regarding the forgiveness of sins:

If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. (Joh 20:23 NKJ)

and

Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. (Mat 16:19 NKJ)

Forgiving is “loosing.” Refusing to forgive is “binding.” The imagery of loosing and binding helps move the imagination away from a legal construction. When we sin, or even when we are involved in sin, we become bound. There is a binding that occurs because we our-selves were the cause of the sin. There is a binding that occurs because we ourselves were the victim of a sin. There is a binding that occurs because we simply wit-ness the sin. There is even a form of binding that oc-curs to the whole of humanity because of the diminish-ment of even one of its members. If everyone were somehow only responsible for their own actions the world would be quite different. As it is, the action of one involves the binding of all. Adam’s sin has left us bound ever since. We are not being held legally respon-sible for Adam’s action. We are existentially and onto-logically bound by Adam’s sin. Through his sin, death enters the world, and all men die (Ro. 5:12).

And just as there is a binding that occurs in each of these things, so there is a loosing that is appropriate to each. Obviously, the injury that a victim suffers binds them far tighter to their enemy than someone who is at a remove. And such a loosing is greater and repre-sents a greater spiritual effort. But that effort is itself impeded by the refusal of all around to share in the

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Can You Forgive Someone Else’s Enemies? loosing. And just as the refusal of all around impedes the loosing, so the participation of others makes the loosing easier.

These things are difficult to under-stand if we insist that all of reality is, at best, psychological or legal. But the death of Adam is not shared in a merely psychological or legal manner: we all die. And the resurrection of the Second Adam is shared in a manner that encom-passes the whole of creation. The Paschal Canon contains the verse: “Let us call brothers even those that hate us, and forgive all by the resurrection.” It is a perfectly strange thing to sing unless we un-derstand the true nature of forgive-ness – and how it is that the Resurrection of Christ makes it possible for us to forgive everyone for every-thing.

Of course it jars us to hear that someone dares to for-give the killer of a child. “Only the child could offer such forgiveness!” These words were spoken by Ivan Karamazov as he professed his refusal of God’s mercy. He demanded justice for an injured child. Forgiveness that works by justice is no forgiveness at all. Forgive-ness is not the child saying, “What you did to me is ok.” It is loosing the bonds that are forged in sin.

We often think that not forgiving someone is only de-structive for them. But the lack of forgiveness is often equally devastating for their victim as well. I had op-portunity some years ago to be involved with a Victim-Offenders Reconciliation Program. In it, mediators helped work to bring restitution and reconciliation for

various crimes. I eventually be-c a m e i n v o l v e d w i t h efforts of ministry with families that had suffered a murder (as had my family). The darkness of the crime extends mercilessly be-yond the victim alone. Forgive-ness is the only way forward.

It is striking how utterly central forgiveness was to the ministry of Christ. It dominates almost every-thing He did. Many observe that He kept company with “sinners.” But He first and foremost forgave them. Their loyalty and devotion to Him flowed from the spiritual loosing that they found in Him. A woman “who was a sinner,” bathes Christ’s feet with her tears

and anoints them with fragrant spices. Those around Him are offended. But He says:

Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is for-given, the same loves little. (Luk 7:47 NKJ)

I cannot make your enemy be reconciled to you, nor can I do for you what you alone must do. Your enemy is yours to forgive. But he is mine as well, and the bond of unforgiven sin that links my life to his is still mine to loose. It is for this reason that we are bidden in the wis-dom of the Fathers to forgive everyone for everything. Anything less is a bondage of destruction. Forgive all by the resurrection.

Father Stephen is pastor of St. Anne Orthodox Church in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. You can read his blog at http://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/

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