Parish Bulletin May -2015
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Vol. 03 Issue No. 5 MAY 2015 ST. THOMAS ORTHODOX CATHEDRAL - DUBAI for private circulation only P.O. Box : 2563, Dubai - UAE Tel : 04-337 1122, Fax : 04-335 2252 Email : [email protected] www.stthomascathedraldubai.org Fr. Lany Chacko Asst. Vicar We have been created to love God, and ‘If any man would come after me, let him this love is expressed in the fulfillment deny himself and take up his cross daily of the divine will, with the obedience of and follow me’. To follow Christ in our sons and daughters. But our first parents daily work is to fulfill there the divine will disobeyed, and through disobedience with the same obedience as Christ. The suffering and death entered the world. The goal is much higher: at every moment Son of God assumed our nature to make we have to strive to die to our own will, reparation for sin, fully obeying God’s will renouncing everything personal, so as to in his own human will. For as by one man’s make God’s will our own. In us, our own disobedience many were made sinners, will includes our selfishness, a disordered so by one man’s obedience many will be love of self. Now, with his grace, we can made righteous. The sacrifice of Calvary offer God, the struggle against selfishness is the culmination of Christ’s obedience for love. To become identified with the to his Father: he became obedient unto divine will, each of us has to reach the death, even to the death on a cross. By point of being able to say with St. Paul: I freely accepting suffering and death, have been crucified with Christ.“We must which are totally opposed to our natural give ourselves in everything, we must instincts, he manifested in a supreme way deny ourselves in everything” It is not a that he had not come to do his own will question of renouncing noble ideals and but the will of the one who sent him. But ambitions, but of always directing them to our Lord’s surrender in his passion and the fulfillment of God’s will. death on the cross is not an isolated act Obedience and the sacrifice of our of his loving obedience; rather it is the own will in work means using our talents supreme expression of a full and absolute for God’s glory and the service of others, obedience that was present throughout not for our vainglory and self-interest. And his entire earthly life. how does God want us to use our talents? The redemptive value of Jesus’ life He wants the talents he has given us to in Nazareth cannot be understood if yield a return. What must we do to fulfill one separates it from the Cross—if one his will in our work? This question can be fails to understand that in his daily work answered briefly if one understands well he fulfilled his Father’s will perfectly, all that is implied in the answer: God wants out of love, ready to consummate his us to fulfill our duty.Carry out the little duty obedience in the Passion. Therefore, when of each moment: do what you ought and the supreme moment of the sacrifice concentrate on what you are doing. God’s on Calvary arrived, our Lord offered his will is manifested in the duties of daily life. whole life. The Cross is the “last stone” in By its nature the fulfillment of duty his obedience. On Calvary, it was shown by demands subjecting our will to what has shedding his blood. to be done, and this is what constitutes 2 the obedience of a child of God. It means of God’s will, since he has created human rejecting our personal preferences and beings to perfect the world through their inclinations and taking what God wants as work, and this, in the case of the ordinary the supreme norm—which is that we fulfill faithful, involves carrying out temporal our duties. What are they? Work itself is a activities as perfectly as possible, in accord duty indicated by God from the beginning. with their own proper laws, and for the Afterwards there is the general duty which good of individuals, the family and society. crystallizes for each person in the specific This good is discovered through the use duties of one’s chosen profession—in of reason and, in a surer and fuller way, accord with one’s professional vocation, through reason illumined by a living faith, which forms part of the divine vocation. faith working through love. God rewards Among these are the duties of professional this with the divine mark of peace and joy: ethics, fundamental to Christian life, and on earth peace among men with whom others that stem from one’s personal he is pleased; the precepts of the Lord are circumstances. Fulfillingthesedutiesispart right, rejoicing the heart. St. George the Martyr (Geevarghese Sahada) The world is celebrating the memory pagan priest and writer Athanasius and a of Mor Geevarghese Sahada on April potentially fictional consort of Diocletian, 23rd. St. George was a Roman soldier the so-called Empress Alexandra, were from ancient Palestine in the third century converted on the spot and were executed AD. Hagiographers (those studying alongside George. hagiography: the lives and writings of By the end of the fourth century AD, the saints) indicate he was most likely his worship was popular in the Near East, a historic personage in the guard of the particularly in George’s native Palestine Emperor Diocletian (244-311 AD), an and in Turkey. He was canonized (made a emperor notorious for his persecutions of saint) in the 4th century in 494 AD . But early Christians. In the most popular and it was the Crusaders in the Middle Ages most likely scenario of those involving his who made Mor Geevarghese so popular real life story, George refused to offer up a and by their time, St. George’s story had sacrifice to the gods of the Roman Empire expanded to include what is today its (a type of refusal which was one of the most prominent and romantic element: primary issues of discontent between the George’s encounter with a dragon. Roman Empire and monotheistic cults Legend has it that during George’s like Christianity and Judaism). When travels with the Roman legionnaires, bribery to coerce his sacrifice failed, George found himself in Lydda in Palestine he was tortured and purportedly killed (potentially also his hometown) where a three times, all the while refusing to fearsome dragon was holding the town’s renounce his faith and allegiance to the water supply hostage. The townspeople Christian God. Supposedly his devotion had been distracting if with an offering of to his cause was so moving, that the a sheep a day in order to sneak past it to 3 collect water. But eventually the dragon it back to Diocletian in time for his later had tired of sheep (or they had run out of martyrdom; others have him monastically them) and the town had started sacrificing denying her devotion and the reward of its young woman to the dragon: one a day. her hand in marriage to pursue his celibate The maidens were chosen for sacrifice by military life. lot, and as it happens, the day George As such, it is appropriate that he is strolled into town was the day a local venerated so widely around the world. princess was being offered up. George He is the patron saint of Genoa, Georgia, promptly stepped in between the dragon Germany, Gozo, Greece, Istanbul, and the princess, crossed himself (hence Lithuania, Malta, Moscow, Netherlands, his emblem the St. George’s cross, which Palestine, Portugal, Spain, the United is prominently featured on the flags of the Kingdom, and Venice. He is also known United Kingdom), killed the dragon and as the patron of shepherds, horses, rescued the princess. Some legends have equestrians, warriors, battles, farmers, him briefly marrying the princess (who fighting diseases (all and specifically is occasionally given the name Sabra) snakebites, syphilis, herpes, and leprosy). before rejoining the army in order to make NG SA AM A A B M M U 2 0 D 1 U 5 K KUDUMBASANGAMAM 2015 AUGUST 18th - TUESDAY VENUE : ST. PETER’S & ST. 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