On Sunday October 6, some Sunday School classes will observe (in the nave) the Liturgy of Preparation (proskomedia) during class time as part of their curriculum this year. This service (which is celebrated before every Divine Liturgy) is rarely seen except by the clergy. All are invited to attend with the students.
Clergy will take their entrance prayers and vest in the nave at approximately 9:10 a.m. The rest of the prothesis will continue in the nave as well.
by Dn. Mark Oleynik
To get my classmates (and me) quiet, an elementary teacher of mine often told us, “people have two ears and only one mouth so we should be twice as ready to listen than speak.” Scripture agrees in the claim that a quick ear and a cautious tongue are marks of real greatness. St. James cries to us: “Be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (1:19).
As we enter Great Lent—the season of solemnity and quietness—we are taught to not only abstain from foods, but that our fasting also involve our eyes, ears, feet, hands, and all the members of our bodies. Sometimes the lack of our favorite foods is the easier part of fasting while these other aspects prove to be more difficult. To meet these challenges perhaps we (both parents and children) can consider engaging more heartily in the study of quietness.
In 1 Thessalonians 4:11 we read “study to be quiet.” This apostolic advice seems to be a strange ambition for us today. Most are not ambitious “to be quiet”—but rather to make the greatest possible noise in the world. Our society is often ready to hang the biggest medal around the neck of the person who has succeeded in causing commotion. But as followers of Christ, we should strive to live quietly; and peaceably in all godliness and honesty. Silence, to be sure, is not always golden, but it can be the prevailing tone and temper of life. The greatest powers, like the deepest rivers, make little noise. Our perfect example was Jesus before Herod: His silence was more eloquent than any words.
Another facet to quietness is to have the good sense to be “slow to speak.” Most words that have wounded, rankled, and broken hearts—the words that you would give anything to take back—were spoken in haste. It is the mark of a master to be able to hold one’s peace under such circumstances. “Those who desire life and desire to see good days, let them keep their tongues from evil and their lips from speaking deceit.” (1 Peter 3:10).
Finally, be ambitious to be quiet when you are tempted to speak evil of others. Much of the sorrow and darkness in our world is due to evil speaking, and most of that is due to a lack of sympathy. When we do speak our words should always be spoken in truth and with love otherwise we should ask God to help us be quiet. If we could perceive the secret struggles and difficulties and heartaches of one another it would not be possible for us to think and speak unkindly towards others.
Jesus frequently said, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Our Lord knew that those to whom He spoke had ears; but He also knew that few people know how to use their ears. During this Lenten season let all of our families attempt to use our ears twice as much while becoming better students of quietness.
by Dn. Mark Oleynik
We now are in the midst of preparing for the great feast of the Nativity of Christ. This is an especially busy time of the year—a time of much activity but not always action.
Activity is necessary, looks outwardly good, and is usually rooted with good intentions, but can often overwhelm our day and eventually get in the way of what really needs to be done. Action, on the other hand, means taking control of something which can move one closer or result in achieving one’s ultimate goals and dreams. When contemplating how to act during this season we can look upon Jesus’ mother Mary. Let’s remember what she did during the events of Jesus’ birth—the most momentous happening to have come to pass on the face of the earth at the time. Even though our Lord’s Advent involved eternal and infintessimal consequences, St. Luke writes that “Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart” (2:19). Here we have a model of action that we can emulate.
Picture the relative simplicity of Palestine in Mary’s day. Compare that with our life, our mode of living, and our environments. Perhaps the comparison represents two extremes, neither one of which might seem ideal, but between the two, so far as taking time to live, we are left to ponder in our hearts no other choice than that of the ancient life. To the people of the modern world, it would seem that Mary was demonstrating a mode of inaction. This is because we tend to live in a world that is purely sensory. We hear and see and smell and feel. We hardly ever stop to reflect, and if we do, it is only because we have been forced to, and thus reflection, as a means of salvation, comes too late.
We haven’t time to think deeply. We have gone so long without exercise in that direction that countless of us have never been able to think seriously and will never feel any inclination to do so. Everything is in motion. The day is of speed, of rush, of hurry. The only one who knows rest and quiet is the one in the grave. Our countless sacrifices laid on the altar of speed have denied us the real joy of life. We haven’t time to live, say nothing of experiencing its joys.
Let us strive to cultivate the peculiar grace which shone in the Theotokos. This is not something that only parents need—it is vital that we teach our children to take time to meditate upon God as well. We must become families of this action.
If we read little, let us keep it well. If we hear little, let us keep that which is worth pondering upon. Let us practice keeping and pondering, especially in those things pertaining to the health of the soul. One moment of solemn contemplation with the windows of the heart wide open towards God can be so full of hope, so full of promise, so full of blessing, that it may lead us to realize that the Lord is indeed in this place.
LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION!
The Sunday School will present a Christmas play following the Divine Liturgy on Sunday, December 23. Everyone is invited to stay and join in the retelling of the Nativity story and sing along with the students. (Children will practice on December 22 at 4 p.m.)
NEW BANNERS for Nativity were created by our Sunday School and are now hanging in the Narthex. Many thanks to Patty Doty for leading the students.
Parents of area middle school students can group register through our parish for the 2012 St. Herman of Alaska Retreat at Antiochian Village, taking place December 14-16.
Holy Trinity’s Sunday School is sponsoring tuition and transportation for the annual winter camp themed on the Scriptures. The weekend schedule includes games, fellowship, wor-ship, great food, and, if God provides the snow, even sledding!
Registration and release forms are available at holytrinity-oca.org and due by Sunday, November 11. Email dnmark@holytrinity-oca.org for more information.
by Dn. Mark Oleynik
For parents, one of the most important things we must do for our children is build a Christian home. If we fail here, we fail everywhere.
Clearly there are two things necessary in the building of a Christian home. It isn’t a question of one or the other: it is a question of both. The first is to have a place to live in—that means shelter. The second is to have something to love by and for—that is salvation.
Abraham offers us a striking example of a man who sought to provide for himself and his inner circle of friends when he, “pitched his tent…and he built an altar to the Lord” (Gen. 12:8). A tent—something to live in and under—for the body; an altar—something to live by and for—for the soul.
Obviously there are many differences between us and Abraham—between his time and today; the way he made a living, and the ways we make ours. But these differences do not nullify the implications of his action: the fundamental needs of man remain the same across the generations. Today we may call our dwelling an apartment or a bungalow, it may be one or a hundred stories high, but, like a tent, it is the place and means of shelter. The point is we all must be conscious of two fundamental needs: a place in which to live and something to live by and for. We all need these from the day of our birth to the day of our departure.
A home is not simply a shelter; nor is it simply an altar. It is both. But because the need for shelter is so obvious, our primary emphasis must be placed upon our need for an altar. Whatever else a child may do or become, he needs guidance to give expression to the altar-building instinct of his soul. It is sad to see many men and women, through no fault of their own, live without so much as a tent over their heads. But it is infinitely more disturbing to see the rich as well as the poor struggling to live without an altar. Many have become blind to the fact that paganism begins where prayer ceases. If the light of Christ is to gather and grow in the life of the world, it must be nurtured, guarded, and shared by the family at home.
Our homes must be grounded upon spiritual experience and reality: prayer, Bible reading and study, fellowship with God. Without these, not only is the heart taken out of the home, but the home—though it be a castle built of rock—will be as insecure as an umbrella in driving rainstorm.
Courage, integrity, character—these are not assured by having roofs over our children’s heads but, rather, by having moral and spiritual principles girding their lives. Tremendously interested in having a tent for their children, fathers and mothers must be no less interested in an altar for their souls. For it is the altar and not the tent which gives security against the greatest of all enemies of the home: fear, pain and death. It is at the altar that the home finds a heart, a focus and fellowship, a source of refreshment, and a place of vision. It is at the altar that family life and love remain unbroken, parents and children transcend the ebb and flow of earthly circumstance and hold together with mystic hands, something better than life itself—something no unceasing procession of the years will wear away in their home, in their school, and throughout their life.
PARENTS SESSION
On Sunday October 7, following the Divine Liturgy, all parents are asked to gather in the Narthex for a “Parents” session. The objective of this session is to explore the possibility of parents meeting on a regular basis to discuss the religious training of their children, common concerns regarding the raising of Orthodox children in a non-Orthodox world, and to help parents understand the basics and basis of Orthodox teachings and practices. There will be babysitting available for parents of young children and the session will be limited to thirty (30) minutes.
“ANOTHER BANNER DAY”
All children are invited to get into the holiday spirit while we create new Christmas-themed banners for the church on Saturday, October 13 at 3 p.m.
TEACHERS are vital to our Sunday School and this year our parish is blessed by an abundance of talent and enthusiasm. Please take a few minutes to say thank you to the teachers and lift up their names in prayer: Ravi Patel, Becky Oliver, Holly Torbic, Samar Al Maalouf, Anna Stickles, Ann Therese Pelikan, Darrin Torbic, Gary Cattell, and Megan Leathers.
Please join us throughout the day on Sunday, March 11 for a packed day of worship, service, fellowship, and food.
After the Divine Liturgy, the Church School will be hosting “Souper Sunday”, its annual Lenten charity luncheon. Students will prepare, serve, and host the meal. All proceeds from the free-will offering will be given to Housing Transitions, a local shelter and housing resources provider. All Sunday School children are asked to come to the church Saturday, March 10 at 4 p.m. to prepare.
That evening, students from St. Vladimir’s Seminary will sing responses at the weekly Deanery-wide Vespers service hosted by Holy Trinity this week. A complimentary catered pasta dinner will follow. Volunteers from the parish will make salad and desserts to accompany the meal. If you are interested in providing this hospitality, please coordinate with Dn. Alexander Cadman.
Also, Daylight Saving Time begins that same Sunday at 2 a.m. Set your clocks forward an hour the evening before.
Holy Trinity’s younger students (Pre-K through fifth grade) will participate in a pre-Lenten retreat designed especially for them. Entitled Ready…, Set…, Lent!, the retreat will be held on Saturday February 11, beginning at 9 a.m. and concluding at lunchtime. Participants of the retreat will “journey” through the various disciplines of Great Lent: fasting, prayer, charity, reconciliation/confession, and going to Church (more often). The retreat is intended to help younger students understand how to prepare and spiritually grow during this season.
The retreat will conclude with a pizza lunch for the participants.
On Sunday, December 18 following the Divine Liturgy, our children will once again act in a play presenting the story of our Lord’s birth. Those interested in participating should attend the “rehearsal” on Saturday, December 17, at 4:30 p.m. Everyone is invited to see and hear the telling of Christ’s birth.
Several ministries at Holy Trinity—including the Church School and the Penn State Orthodox Christian Fellowship—are making arrangements for a Monday, January 23, 2012, pilgrimage to our nation’s capital. We will stand in support of the millions of innocent unborn children lost to abortion each year. Next year’s March For Life marks the 25th anniversary of the event.
More details will be forthcoming in the coming weeks, but please mark your calenders now and begin making the necessary arrangements for as many members of your family to attend.
