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Fasting is not just abstention from food, but primarily strict abstinence of the senses. When the senses are fed by external things, they transmit a corresponding amount of poison to the nous and the heart, which kills the poor soul’s life in God. Our Watchful Fathers have so much to tell us about the holy fasting of the senses. Their entire THE

teaching is mainly directed at the purification of the nous from sinful fantasies and thought, and the purification of the St. Orthodox Church

heart from feelings that defile it. Furthermore, they teach St. Clair, Pennsylvania that we must eradicate every evil thought in its beginning to keep the soul clean. As soon as any evil thought whatsoever approaches even slightly, it is absolutely necessary that we drive it away and say the prayer right away. And when in this manner we confront the thoughts coming from the sense and the devil, very soon we will feel the joy and the profit derived from the fasting of the senses. If Eve had re- strained her sense of vision, she would not have poisoned the offspring of her womb, that is, all the people who were born from her. In short, abstinence with the senses saves man from hell.

—Elder Ephraim, Counsels from the Holy Mountain

+ Please Remember St. Michael Orthodox Church in your Will + June 17, 2018

Happy Father’s Day Rev. Fr. Jeff L. Zias: 570-429-0670

Joseph T. Yarashus: 570-691-4143 Epistle: Romans 5:1-10 (Parish Council President) The Gospel of St. Matthew 6:22-33

Website: www.stmichaelorthodox.org

The American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of the U.S.A ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE OF CONSTANTINOPLE 8 St. Michael’s Prayer List

Ed & Violet Pogera, Mary Zuk, Paul Thomas, Sr., Mike & Michelle Mistishen, Robert Cauley, Olga Lutza, Jean, Paul & Gregory Semanco, Denise & Jody Spayd, George Hatalowich, Sr., Verna Prock, Michael Laurie, Jr., John Laurie, Margaret Umbenhen, Irene Fessler, Helen Sidella, Mike Sidella, Marge Premich, Helen, Linda & Ed Udut, Joan Bickleman, Lori & Jenny Roshannon, Andy & Regina Hertz, Joanne Strenkowski, Helen Pogera, Helen, Jake, Jaclyn & John Mogish, Nancy & John, Helen Udit, John Fessler, George, Marge Homa, Tri- sha Bootsma, Roxanne, Sabrina & Jonathan Spontak, Michael, Tanya, Tanner, Macy, Madi- son, Robert Dembinsky, Leanne, Mike, Mother Maria, Marsha &Coralia Chwastiak, Jason Perez, Martin & John Gursky, June & Carolyn Paulin, Marlene & Scott Rowe, Alice Angst, Marian Katchur, Anna Meinhold, Charlie Ross, Rodney & Sandy Vargo, Richard Enders, Francis Plasha, Brad Dembinsky, Ed Leininger, Blazena Rodava, Catherine Bardzak, Eleanor Ryan, Paneda, Bindi, Beth Mendenhall, Donna Hatalowich, Matushka Sophie Daniels, Marge Minchoff, Leah Arters, Shonda, Gabrielle McKay, Nancy M., Baby Ilya, Joyce Haberle, Zachary & Zoe, Roy, , Lou Lubrea, Lonia Stramova, Jared, Amanda, Bernie Liptock, Ken DePauli, Gloria & Renee Austerberry, Dorothy Welker, Matilda, Rose Con- ville, Joanne Vince, Barbara Rogens, Rada Family, Lukacova Family, Lipa Family, Gloria Shadle, Michael & Colleen Mochnoc, Vera & Paul Mumbauer, Sam Heaton, Charlie &Mary Ann, Minnie Miller, Vera Poleck, Edward Lindenmuth, David Christensen, David Musket, David Vinc, Nicholas Hammer, Michael Sutzko, Elaine, Kathy Charney, Eleanor Bezos, Victoria Parker, Pat & Bernie Myro, Bowman Family, George Kania, Patricia Kania, Charlie Palina, Jr., Gerald Mogish, Megan Butcher, Dawn Walsh, Andy Premich, Alec McGovern, Roseann Heckman, John Flaim, Millie & Ken Potts, Bill Boshby, Mary Ann Lu- A Father’s Day Prayer binsky, Mallery Ebert, Mark Bennyhoff, Angie Lewis, Whitacre family, Gail Neiswender, Bob Scherr, Stanley Leganza, Tina Walz, Diana De Pauli, Savannah and the child to be born O Lord God, our heavenly Father! We beseech You to hear the of her, Chris Corby, Grigas, Eileen Chernisky, The McClintock Family, Patti Razzis, supplications which we, your humble and lowly children, offer this day on Mark, Kellie & Haley Cummings, Lisa Hill, Michael Hammer, John Malusky, Kermit Fix, ... behalf of all of fathers. Grant your guidance and wisdom to our young father. Reassure and inspire our fathers in the prime of life, endowing them with Agatho was accused by certain people of various spiritual joy. Comfort and sustain our elderly fathers. Look kindly upon our sins and he replied each time “I am a sinner”. But when they fathers whom You have called into your heavenly Kingdom. Kindle within said “Agatho is a heretic” he objected. When they asked him our hearts the burning love and faithful devotion that your only-begotten Son, why he had suffered all the accusations with patience, but our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ showed his earthly father, holy did not endure this last one, he replied “Those sins are in- the Betrothed. We pray to You, O Heavenly Father, on this Fathers' Day to accept our prayers and to graciously hear us and have mercy. herent in a man, and we hope to receive forgiveness of them through the mercy of God. But a heretic is separated from

God. No one is sinless except God, even if his life is but a Orthodox — single day, but when it comes to the truth of faith that is a different matter.” The Church that Christ Built! —The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers

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2 7 We can think and believe wrong things about everything: the world, God, the Church and even ourselves. In one sense it could be argued that if one person falls into heresy the loss of a single soul has a limited effect. But if the Church were to start teaching falsely then all would be lost. Martyrs have given their blood for what may seem insignificant details of faith, and yet they knew that all truth is God’s truth and to be upheld. If we begin to believe falsely about God then we cannot be obedient to Him and may easily wander down alternative paths. The true path of faith has been carefully guarded by the Church and was referred to as “straight” and ST. MICHAEL’S LITURGICAL CALENDAR

“right”: in Greek this orthos, hence “Orthodoxy”. June 16, Saturday 6:00 p.m. Vespers (Tone-2)

Belief about God is not the only way we can become confused and delusional.

Many people carry false ideas about themselves and about other people. Prelest is June 17, SUNDAY St. Metrophanes the of fantasizing about our spiritual condition and not being able to see the 9:00 a.m. Orthodox Ed. (Last Class, until September 16) truth of our own sinfulness. An Athonite once advised me that all of us, every 10:00 a.m. The Divine Liturgy of St. human being on the planet, is in some form of prelest because we do not ever fully June 19, Tuesday +Michael Laurie, Newly Departed grasp how deeply our sin goes and how often we have failed to love. Whenever we 9:00 a.m. Memorial Liturgy, offered by brother, John Laurie begin to imagine ourselves making any spiritual progress, whenever we imagine that we are becoming good or even worse, better than someone else, then we are de- June 21 Thursday +Paula Christensen, Newly Departed 9:00 a.m. Memorial Liturgy, offered by the Mogish Family luded.

The refer to this as kind of spiritual blindness for which we all  Parish Council Meeting@ 7:00p.m. need Christ’s healing. It is a spiritual blindness that prevents us from seeing God, June 23, Saturday 6:00 p.m. Vespers (Tone-3) from seeing ourselves and from seeing others. So long as we carry with us mere car- June 24, SUNDAY Apostle Bartholomew icatures of other people it is easy to treat them cruelly. But once our blindness be- 9:00 a.m. Confessions gins to lift we see the full person, the individual who carries pain and a desire to 9:30 a.m. Hours of Prayer know love. We can only fully love when we think clearly about other people and 10:00 a.m. The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom don’t see or treat them as a means to fulfilling our desires or wishes.

The Church Fathers teach us to never imagine ourselves worthy of spiritual com- June 26, Tuesday +Zoya, Nikolaye, Michael, Nina, Vasilia, Alexandra forts and to accept our struggles as something we deserve. On Athos are re- 9:00 a.m. Memorial Liturgy, offered by Tatiana Moyer minded of the tradition that should an angel knock at their door while they are in June 28, Thursday +Parents, Kuzma & Anna Katchur, and family prayer they should turn it away in case it is a demon. We are vulnerable to the 9:00 a.m. Memorial Liturgy, offered by Mary Katchur demons’ promptings if we think for a moment that we have made such spiritual pro- gress that God would send an angel to us. The matter is really very simple. When we June 30, Saturday 6:00 p.m. Vespers (Tone-4) July 01, SUNDAY Martyr Leontius focus on our own sins and not the sins of others, when we judge ourselves and no one else, when we never consider ourselves for a moment worthy of any exalted or 9:00 a.m. Confessions visionary state, then we can guard against the demons’ attempts to trip us into delu- 9:30 a.m. Hours of Prayer 10:00 a.m. The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom sion. The full horror of our own sinfulness is something few of us could bear to see, but this must not allow us to imagine we are yet .

—Father Spyridon Bailey, The Ancient Path

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Prelest and Heresy Independent thinking is an important goal of our education system.

Thinking to find the love of God in consoling feelings you are seeking not We want our children to grow up thinking for themselves so that they can make God, but yourself, that is, your own consolation, while you avoid the path of rational judgements and not be led by the impulses of emotion. We want them to sorrows, considering yourself supposedly lost without spiritual consolations. question the information placed before them and weigh up evidence in order to reach conclusions. This applies to the Christian faith as much as to anything else. - Elder Macarius of Optina We do not want what is sometimes called “blind faith” from our congregations, The cult of “experience”, religious experience, is a substitute for the true where anything and everything is accepted in a lazy haze of unthinking. Part of lov- spiritual experience. When man, and not Christ, is regarded as the center of ing God is to be humble in our thinking so that we do not place ourselves as the fi- experience, man becomes belittled and searches for momentary “inspirations” nal judge on everything, but similarly we must use the mind God has given us. which make him forget the pettiness of being human in the new sense. These Today’s culture values above all else the new, the innovative, the artist who experiences tend to make a person think he is something special for having breaks new ground. There is a sense of always pushing on into new territory. Old them, and so leads to further enslavement. ways are quickly dropped as unfashionable until, of course, the cycle moves around and someone rediscovers them and they are prized once again. We see this pattern - Father Seraphim Rose in many fields of life, in music, educational theories, child-rearing and even econom- A lie is a delusion of the mind, while evil is a delusion of the will. The sign ics. by which one is distinguished from the other is the judgement of God Him- The extent to which this thinking has affected us is for each of us to identify. We self. Truth is that which leads a man to will the good. But whatever contra- are caught up in this world’s thinking no matter how much we want to believe oth- dicts this is entirely false, entirely evil. erwise. The world takes the view that each of us must find our own way, our own

- Saint Nicholas Cabasilas beliefs, and that whatever sits comfortably for us is enough. For many unimportant aspects of life this might not be a problem. But when it The only hope of salvation from the delusions and the heresies, the inno- comes to faith in God our calling is to use the rational and spiritual capacities God vations and the traps of wicked people and of the devil is prayer, repentance has blessed us with to discern the objective truth that He reveals to humanity. and humility. Christ taught that He is the Truth, the living Truth that came into the world. The - Elder Joseph the Hesychast doctrines and practices of the Church are the means by which we encounter Him.

Unless a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God. That is, This is not to say God is limited in any way to only allowing such encounter within this context, but that the ordinary and common way that it happens is through the unless you are born again and receive the right doctrines, you are wandering Church. somewhere outside, and are far from the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore false belief of any kind at best inhibits or prevents us from drawing - Saint John Chrysostom closer to God; at worse it puts us in the hands of the demons. In the Church Fathers How can heresy, which is not the spouse of Christ, generate sons to God by we see a clear understanding of right belief as belonging to the realm of morality. Christ? For it is the Church alone which, conjoined and united with Christ, That is, morality is not only about right actions, but also about right belief. We are spiritually bears sons. morally obliged to do the right thing but also believe the right thing. The world would have us see the landscape of our mind as being a private affair where we are - Saint free to indulge ourselves in whatever way we please. But our thoughts are an im- Falsehood separates us from God. False thoughts, false words, false feel- portant part of the spiritual battle. It is through thoughts that so many temptations ings, false desires. Behold the aggregate of lies that leads us to none-being, enter us and lead us to sin. We are responsible for guarding our minds as far as we illusion and the rejection of God. can from evil thoughts. Allowing our imagination to linger on sinful ideas is a dan- - Saint Nicholas of Serbia gerous pastime. (Continued on Page 6)

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