St Herman's Orthodox Church

2010 Pilgrimage to Holy Dormition Monastery in Rives Junction, MI is July 27-29
2010 Pilgrimage to Holy Dormition Monastery in Rives Junction, MI is July 27-29

July 4, 2010

WE WELCOME this morning Protodeacon Peter Danilchik and Deacon Nicholas Denysenko. We know Proto Peter as the father of Juliana. Deacon Nicholas is attached to St Herman’s, and serves with us this morning as he makes his way with his family to Los Angeles.

PARISH COUNCIL meets this Tuesday, July 6, at 730 pm.

FR PAUL AND FAMILY begin their vacation on Saturday, July 10. They’ll be back on Sunday, July 25. Fr Bill Neumann will serve St Herman’s while Fr Paul is on vacation. Vespers will be served on the next two Saturdays as usual.

THE WEDDING of Laura Simantz to Alex Zonn is this Friday (OMG!) at 2:30 pm, July 9, here at St Herman’s.

FOCUS NA served its first meal last Wednesday, June 30. Vera Proctor extends heartfelt gratitude to all the volunteers. Eight parishes were represented among those serving the meals to the hungry, which is most encouraging. It indicates the level of support we have to build on here in the Twin Cities for this ministry that will bring all the Orthodox faithful together in dutiful obedience to Christ’s command to serve the poor. In addition to the 35 or so people we served on Wednesday, there was enough food left over from what we had prepared for Wednesday that we also were able to help St Paul Fellowship church serve a group of hungry children who came to their church on Friday.

OUR ST HERMAN’S FOCUS team needs more volunteers. Under the direction of team leader, Rachel Wesche, the FOCUS team organizes and co-ordinates our St Herman’s parishioners in our endeavor to support the FOCUS ministry, so that we can be sure always to have enough, if not more than enough, St Herman’s volunteers to help at each FOCUS event. Please talk to Rachel Wesche. Let her direct you to the teams sign-up sheet on the bulletin board downstairs, to which you can sign your name under the FOCUS team! Then ask Rachel what your first assignment is!

FOR THE DIOCESAN ASSEMBLY in October, we will need to put together a hospitality committee of four individuals. Please see Fr Paul if you’d like to volunteer. We need individuals who are sharp go-getters, good organizers, and who can follow directions with initiative!

PILGRIMAGE to Holy Dormition in Michigan is July 27-29.

THE “PICTURE SHOWS” that Fr Paul presented on the ancient mythological image of the Sacred Marriage on the Saturdays of June, were just super swell! If you missed the Saturday Picture Shows, you can settle for reading the lectures (without the pictures) by going to our St Herman’s website, and clicking on the link “Presentations by Fr Paul”. There are four lectures on the Sacred Marriage at that link.

If your entire life has passed smoothly and without cares, then weep for yourself. For the Gospel and human experience assert with one accord that, without great pain and suffering, no one has left behind any great or beneficial work on earth or been glorified in the heavens. If, however, your earthly sojourn has been completely bathed with sweat and tears – to attain justice and truth – rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for your reward will be truly great in the heavens. Never succumb to the insane thought that God has abandoned you. God knows exactly how much each one can endure and measures the sufferings and pains of each accordingly. St Nilus of Sora says: “When even men know how much weight a horse can carry, how much a donkey, and how much a camel, and thus load them according to their strength; and when a potter knows how long to leave the clay in the kiln, so that it will neither be shattered nor over-baked – how could God not know how much temptation a soul can bear to make it ready and fit for the Kingdom of Heaven?”

Reflection from the Prologue of Ohrid for July 4

(Fr Paul’s note: We are blessed in this country with a calm and peaceful life. In love for God, we should voluntarily renounce the life of ease and indulgence that we enjoy in this country and voluntarily take up the suffering of the ascetic disciplines of the Church according to our strength for our salvation, as Christ voluntarily took up His Cross for our salvation. We who suffer no persecution, no threats to life or limb for our faith, what excuse will we offer to God on the Day of Judgment if we did not make good use of the peace and tranquility that God has granted to us to learn our Faith more deeply and to practice it with all diligence, to purify our senses, our souls and our bodies, to nurse and grow the seed of the Holy Spirit we have received in the mysteries of the Church, but instead, gave the freedom of our peace and tranquility over to the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life?)