Volume 60 No. 9 November 2016 VOLUME 60 NO. 9 NOVEMBER 2016 COVER: ICON DEESIS EDITORIAL at St. Siouan Monastery Chapel in Wichita, Kansas. contents Icon written by the hand of Janet Jaime,
[email protected] 3 EDITORIAL by Bishop JOHN Am I Any More Ready to Receive Christ 4 AND THE WORD BECAME FLESH by Fr. Stavros N. Akrotirianakis Today Than Israel Was 2,000 Years Ago? 6 METROPOLITAN JOSEPH VISITS METROPOLITAN TIKHON AT THE OCA CHANCERY ast week a young man came to me lamenting change our lives to re ect our beliefs and values. is 8 PREPARING FOR MASS over not living as if Christ is resurrected and the takes some deliberate e ort. by V. Rev. John W. Fenton tomb is empty. I invited him to explore with e Church has given us two major fasting periods 15 IOCC me what that “living after the Resurrection” each year to bring us back to the reality of God’s presence. L should look like. He thought that there should We celebrate His Nativity and Resurrection, preceded by 16 ORATORICAL FESTIVAL by Jordan Khabbaz be some peace, arising from a simple understanding that periods of fasting, intensi ed worship, almsgiving and God has accomplished already those things that we fear private prayer. e messages focus on what God does 18 EXPERTS “RE-THINK” SACRED ARTS AT ST. VLADIMIR’S SEMINARY and dread. We should not need to compete for God’s in our lives, and we are called to encounter Him. We attention or love; He has come to us! erefore we can look forward to the messages the Church provides 19 HELPING WOMEN SAVES LIVES should live without fear.