St. Innocent Orthodox Church Z Founded in 1967 Z Moscow Patriarchal Parishes Z 23300 W. Chicago _ Redford, MI 48239 _ 313-538-1142 _ Fax: 313-538-8126 Church Website: www.stinnocentchurch.com _ E-Mail: [email protected] St. Innocent Monastic Community: 9452 Hazelton, Redford, MI 48239 _ 313-535-9080 PASTOR: Rt. Rev. Mitered Archpriest ROMAN STAR _ Cell: 313-319-0590 Dean, Central States Deanery, Patriarchal Parishes March 13, 2016 ASSISTANT PRIEST: Rev. DANEIL SHIRAK _ 313-295-3073 EPISTLE: Romans 13:11 - 14:4 (#112) DEACON: Rev. Dn. Comerford GOSPEL: St. Matthew 6:14 - 21 (#17) SUBDEACON: Dr. Joshua Genig TONE: 8 ATTACHED: Sister Ioanna CHOIR DIRECTOR: Elizabeth Star Hatfield READERS: Robert Joseph Latsko & George Hanoian

Z EXPULSION FROM PARADISE & CHEESEFARE & Z FORGIVENESS SUNDAY Z Pre-Lenten Sunday #4 Z

_ 9am— HOURS _ 9:30am— GENERAL EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE & ABSOLUTIONS _ _ 10am—DIVINE LITURGY OF ST. & FORGIVENESS VESPERS _

COMMEMORATED TODAY: The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. Translation of the relics of St. Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople (846). Sabinus (Abibus) of Egypt (287). Africanus, Publius and Terence, of Carthage (3rd c.). Martyr Alexander of Macedonia (305-311). Martyr Christina of Persia (4th c.). Ven. Aninas of the Euphrates.

FOR THE REPOSE OF: Estelle & Joseph Star; Anna & John Witkowski; Michael Sr. & Margaret Rusko; Mary, Andrew, , Michael & Lottie Yakuber; Ross & Margaret Falsetti; Helen, John & Carole Andrayko; Peter & Theresa Harvilla; Marc Dade; Betty Martell; Frances & Todd Smoly; Peter Glover; Irene Adams; Ethel Elizabeth & Wayne Joshua deVyver; Horka; Michael Rusko, Anna Lichagina, Yelena & Zinaïda Korniyevskaya, Joseph Nossal, Michelle Tucker, Todd Comerford ALSO FOR: Fr John Udics (newly departed; 40th-Day, Today; Philadelphia, PA ), by Fr. Roman

MEMORY John Johnson (newly departed, February 7th; St. Andrew Church, E. Lansing), by Fr. Roman & Mat. Rose Marie

ETERNAL! Fr. James Bertolini (newly departed, February 29th; retired in Las Vegas, NV, previously in Detroit), by Fr. Roman Daniel Yakuber, whose anniversary of his repose is Wednesday, 16 March

FOR THE HEALTH OF: Archimandrite Seraphim; Priest Daneil, Matushka Debra & Corrina Shirak; Deacon Michael, Matushka Mary Ellen & Julius Comerford; Matushka Mary Donahue; Subdeacon Joshua & Abigail Genig; Reader Robert Latsko, Reader George & Betty Hanoian, Rose Nossal, Mary Glover, Nancy Cupp, Deborah Dade, Vasiliki Stamoulis, Gerald Martell, Azbehat, Donald Yakuber, Carl deVyver, Jo Anne Nicholas, Joan Rusko, Daria, Alice Ladhu (cancer); Joseph Nossal; Ed Manier (recuperating from stroke); Theodore Gomulka ALSO FOR: Thomas Witkowski, who celebrated his birthday Yesterday, Saturday, 12 March MANY YEARS! Jason Wess, who celebrates his birthday Today, Sunday, 13 March William Costa, who celebrates his birthday on Saturday, 19 March Š MAY GOD GRANT THEM MANY YEARS! Š

SCHEDULE FOR THE COMING WEEK *** Today, Cheesefare Sunday, is the last day to eat dairy, eggs & fish until Pascha. *** Monday 3/14 6:30pm GREAT CANON OF ST. ANDREW OF CRETE & GRAND COMPLINE Tuesday 3/15 6:30pm GREAT CANON OF ST. ANDREW OF CRETE & GRAND COMPLINE Wednesday 3/16 6:30pm PRESANCTIFIED LITURGY #1, followed by pot-luck supper (all Presanctifieds at St. Innocent this year) Thursday 3/17 6:30pm GREAT CANON OF ST. ANDREW OF CRETE & GRAND COMPLINE Saturday 3/19 4pm GREAT VESPERS & CONFESSIONS Sunday 3/20 1st Sunday of Great Lent: Orthodoxy Sunday 9:15am HOURS & CANON; CONFESSIONS 10am DIVINE LITURGY, Procession with Icons, followed by Coffee Hour 6pm COCC LENTEN VESPERS #1; at St. Lazarus, E. Outer Dr & Van Dyke, Det; w/ Fr. Michael Oleksa CANDLES FOR LAST SUNDAY, 6 MARCH CHURCH VIGIL LAMPS: Royal Doors Lamp: In Memory of Husband Joe; Son Kenneth; parents Michael & Margaret Rusko, & John & Martha Nossal, by Rose Nossal Altar Candles: In Memory of Nicholas and Susan Yakuber, by son, Donald Yakuber Iconostasis Lamps: In Memory of parents, Ethel Elizabeth & Wayne Joshua; Robert David H; & Health of brother, Carl, by Sister Ioanna Candles on the Solea: In Memory of Pete & Theresa Harvilla, Norman & Monica Holst, & Ricky Ellis, by Jason & Debra Truskowski Nave Reliquary-Icon Lamps: (1) In Memory of Ross & Margaret Falsetti, by daughters, Margie Martell & Rose Ann Everhardt Nave Reliquary-Icon Lamps: (2) In Memory of Edwin Rusko, by the Nossal Family Table of Oblation Lamp: In Memory of parents, Helen & John Andrayko, Sr. & sister, Carole Andrayko, by John Andrayko, Jr. IN MEMORY OF (MEMORY ETERNAL!) Joseph & Estelle Star, by son Father Roman and family Paul & Alexandra Yupco, Basil & Ellen Starinshak, by grandson, Father Roman and family John & Anna Witkowski, by daughter, Matushka Rose Marie and family & Mary Kupec, by granddaughter, Matushka Rose Marie and family Parents, Helen & John Andrayko, and sister, Carole Andrayko, by John Andrayko My husband, Joe; my sisters, Margaret & Ross Falsetti, Anna & Mike Elaschat, Theresa & Pete Harvilla, Irene, & brothers, Michael, John & Edwin Rusko; niece, Rose Mary & Dean Hough; Joe’s brothers, Raymond & Walter Nossal, & sisters, Theresa, Florence & Helen Nossal, by Rose Nossal ++ + Pete & Theresa Harvilla, by Mary Ann Harvilla & Kay Truskowski + + + My husband, Michael Rusko, by Joan Rusko Parents, Ethel Elizabeth & Wayne Joshua; David H; Nina I; Marion P; Fr. Photius; Mo. Benedicta; Archm. Roman; Olive, by Sister Ioanna Child Lana Wilson, Shirley Troyer, Marsha Olsen, Betty Stelmaszek, by Becky Jurczyszyn + + + Thelma Ratcliff, Louis Pitts, Gloria Robinson, Reginald Bell, Lessie Favor, Lois Hamby, by Manier Family + + + Archpriest James Bertolini (newly departed), by Fr. Roman & Mat. R-M FOR THE HEALTH OF: (MANY YEARS!) Elizabeth & Lawrence, Caitlin & Zachary, by parents & grandparents, Father Roman & Matushka Rose Marie Gregory & Tamiko Star, by parents, Father Roman & Matushka Rose Marie Children, Grandchildren & Great-grandchild; Monk Fr. Sdn. Tikhon (Dade); by Rose Nossal Father Roman & Matushka & family; Sister Ioanna; John Andrayko; Nancy; Mary G; Jo Anne N; Grandson Joey (in the Navy Reserves) & all people in the Armed Forces; & all the people of St. Innocent Church, by Rose Nossal My Mom, Jaime Truskowski, by Kay Truskowski + + + Family & Friends, by Mary Ann Harvilla & Kay T. Brother, Greg & Donna, nephew, Gregory & Liz & nephew, Alex, by Mary Ann Harvilla & Kay + + + Ed Manier, by Mary Ann Harvilla & Kay Archimandrites Nafanail, Gregory & Seraphim; Fr. Roman & Mat. Rose Marie; Fr. Lawrence & fam; Fr. Laurence & fam; Fr. Daneil & fam; Dcn. Michael & fam; Mat. Mary D; Carl; Sdn Fr. Tikhon; Sdn Andrew; Sdn Joshua, Abigail & children; Rdr Robert; Robert M; David Samuel & Sky & baby, Avi; Jo Anne & Nick; Athanasius; John A; Ed (stroke) & Tiffany; Vasiliki; Rose; Emil; Billy & Fonda; Lena, by Sister Ioanna Kim, Claire & Eva (for their Chrismation, 3/6), by Sr. Ioanna + + + Jay Nossal, by Rose Nossal + + + John Andrayko (May God watch over him), by Rose Nossal + + + Rose Nossal, by John Andrayko + + + Leia, Mike & Reece Wilson; Joan & Bob Jurczyszyn; Paul Stelmaszek, Sr. & Jr.; Damon Trestain; Levi Troyer & Briann Saylor; Toni & Richard Bussen; Liz Tomechewsky & Andrea Faust, by Becky Jurczyszyn Sdn. Joshua Genig, by Genig Family + + + Health & Salvation of: Breonna & Bronte Manier; Brittany Truitt; Krystal Gardner (pain-pill addiction); Donna Williams (MS); Eleanor Moore (Lupus); Karen Phillips (breast cancer), by Manier family Olga Ludwick + + + Galina Chernuhina & Oleg Chernuhin + + + Jason, Marianna, Amilia, Liliana Wess, by Wess Family PROSPHORA FOR TODAY IS OFFERED BY: Subdeacon Joshua & Abigail Genig In Memory Eternal of: Karl & Emma Genig, Dale & Pauline Moore, Arthur & Hermine Just, Gertrude Genig, Harry Genig, Linda Genig, Barbara Hoppe, and all departed family & friends; and For the Health of: Dennis & Martha Genig, Hannah Genig, Arthur & Linda Just, Nicholas Just, Just, Paul & Carol Hoppe, Rev. William & Emily Willenbrock, Catherine & Elizabeth Willenbrock, Fr. Roman & Mat. Rose Marie, Fr. Daneil & Mat. Debra, Fr. Dn. Esteban & Mat. Amanda Vazquez, Fr. John & Mat. Julie Fenton, Fr. Lawrence Bacik, Fr. Walter Ptak, Matthew & Rachel Strutzel, Drake, Charlie, Maddox, August, Beckham, and Esme Strtuzel, William Hand, Amelia Grobien, Audrey Nelson, Liam Herman, and all St. Innocent parishioners & friends.

ANNOUNCEMENTS 1) SUPPLIES NEEDED FOR THE KITCHEN & COFFEE HOUR, etc.: Please be so kind as to bring in supplies still needed: 8-oz. (foam) cups; 6-oz. (juice) cups; coffee-stirrers; bottled water; 1-gallon zip-lock baggies; micro-fiber dust cloths. 2) THANK YOU’S: We express our sincere thanks to the kind people who did necessary electrical work in the church kitchen and in the rectory. 3) WELCOME BACK, THOMAS! We are pleased to have Matushka’s brother, Thomas Witkowski, with us again. Welcome back! Happy B-day! 4) PASCHA FLOWERS & BOWS: Please donate for our Pascha flowers to decorate Christ’s tomb, and the church for Pascha. (You get to take them home after Pascha.) Also, Pascha Bows, like Christmas Bows, are our two annual fund-raisers, vital for paying our bills. Please donate at least 1 ‘Bow’ for the living and 1 for the departed. Write their names on index-cards and the decorated cards will be attached to our large cross until Ascension. See Mary Ann Harvilla for both the flowers and Pascha Bows. Please help us to meet our goal of having at least 100 Pascha ‘Bows.” 5) 1st PRESANCTIFIED LITURGY THIS WED., MARCH 16th, AT ST. INNOCENT AT 6:30PM. The Presanctified Liturgy is one of the most beautiful of the special Services of Great Lent. This year all 6 Presanctified Liturgies will be held at St. Innocent. We have a casual pot-luck supper afterwards. (See Matushka about what to bring.) Do make a special Lenten effort to come to as many of the Lenten Services as possible. 6) NEXT SUNDAY, MARCH 20th: 1st Sun. of Great Lent: 6PM, COCC Orthodoxy Sunday Lenten Vespers, at St. Lazarus Church, 8 Mile & Outer Dr., Detroit SPECIAL SPEAKER: FR. MICHAEL OLEKSA OF ALASKA (An opportunity NOT TO BE MISSED!) 7) FRI.-SAT., MARCH 25th & 26th: 3 Free Lectures by Abbot Fr. Tryphon, at St. Demetrius Church in Jackson. See more info on our website on our homepage: http://stinnocentchurch.com/ Scroll down to “News/Announcements.” Includes link to PDF flyer. FORGIVENESS SUNDAY By Fr. Alexander Schmemann In the Orthodox Church, the last Sunday before Great Lent – the day on which, at Vespers, Lent is liturgically announced and inaugurated – is called Forgiveness Sunday. On the morning of that Sunday, at the Divine Liturgy, we hear the words of Christ:

1. "If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses..." (Mark 6:14-15) Then after Vespers – after hearing the announcement of Lent in the Great Prokeimenon: "Turn not away Thy face from Thy child for I am afflicted! Hear me speedily! Draw near unto my soul and deliver it!", after making our entrance into Lenten worship, with its special memories, with the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, with its prostrations – we ask forgiveness from each other, we perform the rite of forgiveness and reconciliation. And as we approach each other with words of reconciliation, the choir intones the Paschal hymns, filling the church with the anticipation of Paschal joy. What is the meaning of this rite? Why is it that the Church wants us to begin Lenten season with forgiveness and reconciliation? These questions are in order because for too many people Lent means primarily, and almost exclusively, a change of diet, the compliance with ecclesiastical regulations concerning fasting. They understand fasting as an end in itself, as a "good deed" required by God and carrying in itself its merit and its reward. But, the Church spares no effort in revealing to us that fasting is but a means, one among many, towards a higher goal: the spiritual renewal of man, his return to God, true repentance and, therefore, true reconciliation. The Church spares no effort in warning us against a hypocritical and pharisaic fasting, against the reduction of religion to mere external obligations. As a Lenten hymn says: In vain do you rejoice in no eating, O soul! For you abstain from food, But from passions you are not purified. If you persevere in sin, you will perform a useless fast. Now, forgiveness stands at the very center of Christian faith and of Christian life because Christianity itself is, above all, the religion of forgiveness. God forgives us, and His forgiveness is in Christ, His Son, Whom He sends to us, so that by sharing in His humanity we may share in His love and be truly reconciled with God. Indeed, Christianity has no other content but love. And it is primarily the renewal of that love, a return to it, a growth in it, that we seek in Great Lent, in fasting and prayer, in the entire spirit and the entire effort of that season. Thus, truly forgiveness is both the beginning of, and the proper condition for the Lenten season. One may ask, however: Why should I perform this rite when I have no "enemies"? Why should I ask forgiveness from people who have done nothing to me, and whom I hardly know? To ask these questions, is to misunderstand the Orthodox teaching concerning forgiveness. It is true, that open enmity, personal hatred, real animosity may be absent from our life, though if we experience them, it may be easier for us to repent, for these feelings openly contradict Divine commandments. But, the Church reveals to us that there are much subtler ways of offending Divine Love. These are indifference, selfishness, lack of interest in other people, of any real concern for them – in short, that wall which we usually erect around ourselves, thinking that by being "polite" and "friendly" we fulfill God’s commandments. The rite of forgiveness is so important precisely because it makes us realize – be it only for one minute – that our entire relationship to other men is wrong, makes us experience that encounter of one child of God with another, of one person created by God with another, makes us feel that mutual "recognition" which is so terribly lacking in our cold and dehumanized world. On that unique evening, listening to the joyful Paschal hymns we are called to make a spiritual discovery: to taste of another mode of life and relationship with people, of life whose essence is love. We can discover that always and everywhere Christ, the Divine Love Himself, stands in the midst of us, transforming our mutual alienation into brotherhood. As l advance towards the other, as the other comes to me – we begin to realize that it is Christ Who brings us together by His love for both of us. And because we make this discovery – and because this discovery is that of the Kingdom of God itself: the Kingdom of Peace and Love, of reconciliation with God and, in Him, with all that exists – we hear the hymns of that Feast, which once a year, "opens to us the doors of Paradise." We know why we shall fast and pray, what we shall seek during the long Lenten pilgrimage. Forgiveness Sunday: the day on which we acquire the power to make our fasting – true fasting; our effort – true effort; our reconciliation with God – true reconciliation. Source: http://www.schmemann.org/byhim/forgivenesssunday.html THE BEGINNING OF GREAT LENT By St. John (Maximovich) of San Francisco & Shanghai

The doors of repentance are opening, Great Lent is beginning. Every year Great Lent is repeated, and each time it brings us great benefit if we spend it as we should. It is a preparation for the life to come and, more immediately, a preparation for the Bright Resurrection. Just as a stairway is built into a tall building in order to enable one, by climbing the steps, to easily reach the top, so too, the various days in the year serve as steps for our spiritual ascent. This is especially true of the days of Great Lent and Holy Pascha. By means of Great Lent we cleanse ourselves of the filth of sin, and at Holy Pascha we experience the blessedness of Christ's Kingdom that is to come. In climbing a high mountain, one tries to eliminate all unnecessary weight. The less a person carries, the easier it is for him to climb and the higher he is able to climb. So, too, in order to ascend spiritually, it is necessary first of all to free oneself from the weight of sin. This weight is lifted from us through repentance, provided that we banish from ourselves all enmity and forgive each person whom we consider to be at fault before us. Once cleansed and forgiven by God, we then greet the Bright Resurrection of Christ. And what a priceless gift of God we receive, at the culmination of our lenten struggle. We already hear about this in the first hymns of the daily lenten stichera: "Our food shall be the Lamb of God, on the holy and radiant night of His Awakening: the Victim offered for us, given in communion to the disciples on the evening of the Mystery." (Aposticha sticheron, Sunday of the Last Judgment). Communing of the Body and Blood of the Risen Christ, unto life eternal — this is the aim of the holy Quadragesima [Forty Days]. Not only on Pascha do we commune, but during Lent also. On Pascha those people should commune who have fasted, confessed and received the Holy Mysteries during Great Lent. Just before Pascha itself there is little opportunity for a proper and thorough confession; the priests are very busy and most of the time occupied with the Passion services. Rather one must prepare ahead of time. Each time one receives the Mysteries of Christ, one is united with ChristHimself; each time it is a soul- saving act. Why, then, is such significance attached to receiving Holy Communion on the night of Holy Pascha, and why are we all called to do so? Then, especially, we are given to experience the Kingdom of Christ. Then, especially, we are illumined with the Eternal Light and strengthened for the spiritual ascent. This is an irreplaceable gift of Christ, an incomparable good. Let no one deprive himself of this joy and, instead of receiving Holy Communion on Pascha night, hasten to eat meat and other foods. Communing of the Holy Mysteries on that night prepares us for the banquet in the eternal Kingdom of God. BY THE WATERS OF BABYLON By Fr. Lawrence Farley “Reflections in Christ,” 2/26/16, oca.org

Recently I was finishing up in the altar while the choir was practicing, and I heard them sing (beautifully, as always) the pre-Lenten Matins hymn, “By the waters of Babylon.” After it was all over, I stopped to ask them, “Do you know where Babylon is?” After a few blank stares, someone tentatively offered, “East of here?” It was a safe guess; we live on the west coast, and pretty much everything is east of here. No doubt the person meant, “somewhere in the Middle East,” which is of course correct.

But I was thinking of something else. I pointed to the doors leading out from the church into the parking lot, and said, “It is just on the other side of those doors.” We live in Babylon, in a world fixed in its rebellion against God and its oppression of His people. “And here,” I continued, “is Jerusalem. Right here in this nave. When we stood before the chalice earlier this morning, our feet were standing within Jerusalem.”

This is perhaps why we sing the hymn “By the Waters of Babylon” just before we enter Great Lent. This hymn is based on Psalm 137, and the psalm is not so much a song as a cry of pain, a pang piercing the heart set to the music of a harp. Israel had been ravaged and raped by a foreign invader, both metaphorically and literally. The overthrow of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians in 586 BC was accomplished with all the horror of ancient warfare—soldiers cut down, old men killed where they sat, women and young girls ravished, children’s brains knocked out against the rocks. Then the defeated and starved survivors were taken far away to languish in exile in Babylon. To cap it all, as they languished there, their Babylonian “hosts” demanded that they take their harps and use them to play for them some of the Temple songs they had heard so much about. Zion’s Temple had some great music, right? How’s about playing some for us?

It was the crowning humiliation, the final blasphemy. To think of the holy hymns once sung in the sacred Temple courts to the praise of Yahweh now being used as secular entertainment, reduced to a kind of pagan drinking song! The Psalmist’s heart overflowed with pain and indignation—by the rivers of Babylon, sitting beside its canals, he sat down and wept over it all. How could one sing the Lord’s song like this in a foreign land, forgetting and debasing all that one once knew as holy? If I ever do that, the Psalmist promised, if I ever use my skillful right hand to play one of the songs of Zion for the amusement of Zion’s ravagers, may my right hand wither up and never play anything again! No: I refuse to settle down and accept Babylon as the new normal, forgetting the joy of knowing God and worshipping Him in His courts. I refuse to become Babylonian. In my secret heart, I will live and die as one from Jerusalem. I will exalt Jerusalem above my highest joy.

This must be our song too, for we also live in Babylon. Is the world so very different? Christians and their faith are openly mocked in the public square, and icons are sold as objets d’art. The values enshrined and protected by law fly in the face of everything the Church has held dear, and the pressure is constant for Christians to acquiesce and support the secular status quo. Forget the old ways, and the Church’s dogmas and values and canons. It’s a new day; it’s 2016. You’re in Babylon now.

Indeed we are. But our hearts do not forget where we came from or where we truly belong. Babylon is not our home. Here we are but strangers and sojourners, exiles upon the earth (1 Peter 2:11). Our true home is Jerusalem. If we ever forget this and settle down and live like the Babylonians, may our right hands wither and our tongues cleave in silence to the roofs of our mouths. Let us take courage. The exile will not last forever. Jesus is coming. Soon enough we will all go home. For more info about the author, see: http://oca.org/reflections/fr.-lawrence-farley/by-the-waters-of-babylon

PSALM 136/137 (RSV) 1 By the watersof Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. 2 On the willowsthere we hung up our lyres. 3 For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? 5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! 6 Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy! 8 O daughter of Babylon, you devastator!Happy shall he be who requites you with what you have done to us! 9 Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock! THE INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR EVANGELISM OF GREAT LENT By Fr. John Parker

The Great 40 Days are generally considered to be a time of introspection and repentance. The very first words of the Great Canon of Andrew indicate the way: “Where shall I begin to lament the deeds of my wretched life? What first-fruit shall I offer, O Christ, for my present lamentation?” The kontakion we sing in the Great Canon is resoundingly personal:

My soul, my soul, arise! Why are you sleeping? The end is at hand; destruction hangs over you! Come again to your senses, that you may be spared by Christ our God, Who is everywhere, filling all things!

The Prayer of Saint Ephraim likewise turns inward:

O Lord and Master of my life: Take from me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk! But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own sins, and not to judge my brother, for Thou art blessed unto ages of ages. Amen.

Our fasting, while a corporate practice (those who are able all fast from the same things at the same time), is personal, and for the change of my own heart, my own willfulness, my own ways. The Sunday of the Last Judgment, which we have just completed, shows the balance point between the inward and outward foci of Great Lent. To summarize using the words of Saint James, “faith without works is dead.” Or in the words of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John in his first epistle, “If any one says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.” Or, in another place, read on Meatfare Saturday: “the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.” The season of Great Lent is, to a significant degree, a return to conformity to the likeness of God, a transformation back into a human being. Having lived in the world almost a year since the last Pascha, we fall into the routines and device of what Saint Paul calls “the old man.” Precisely into those ways enumerated in the Prayer of Saint Ephraim—the facets from which we ask God to deliver us. Some of us, thinking that we can earn God’s love, seek to do good deeds in Lent, as if it were a way to store up or to regain merits, in a deficit personal spiritual economy. But neither is this the case, nor is it the way God works. He already loves us—on His part, there is no love lost, or lack to regain. He doesn’t love us less—we love ourselves more than we love Him! One surprising aspect of the Gospel from the Sunday of the Last Judgment is how the righteous reply when Jesus says, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” They didn’t deny doing these things, with a false sense of humility. It just didn’t dawn on them that there was any other right thing to do. That is to say, their actions were based on love for those in need, not on some perceived benefit, temporal or spiritual, to themselves. The inner work of evangelism—to hear the Good News afresh ourselves, and to return to Christ—intends to produce external evangelism: the sharing with others, rooted in gratitude, of the bounties given to me by the God Who is love. Standing outside the closed Gates of Paradise with this coming Sunday’s “Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise,” what is our practical evangelism? It is, through the services, through the prayers, through the fasting, through acts of mercy, to become a human being, perhaps for the first time. All of these ascetical practices are an opportunity to see and experience God for Who He truly is, and to be transformed ourselves into whom we are called to be. The gift is offered to you and to me. Why deny it? Source: www.oca.org