Dear all.
Gospel Reading
- “I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are thine; all mine are thine and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them.” Yesterday’s gospel reading (John 17:1 – 13) tells something about prayer. Prayer is a fundamental need for a Christian. Prayer permits communion with God. Communion permits a relationship of intimacy. Intimacy leads to trust and trust leads to love. Without prayer you cannot be close to God. Without prayer the Father cannot be close to you.
- Do you notice that Christ devotes a large portion of his ministry to prayer – to talk to the Father. You would think that Christ, who is co-eternal and co-existent with God, would have no need for communion with the father. Yet, Christ actively seeks communion because communion is love. Father, Son and Holy Spirit have such close accord that they, within themselves, are complete. This is important to understand because what it tells as is that God had no need for creation – he had no need to make us – as the love contained within the Godhead is perfect and as perfection lacks nothing whatever. We call this self-sufficiency, the aseity of God. God does not therefore need our love, our friendship or our adoration.
- Therefore, what we need to understand is that God did not create us because he needed to. He created us because he wanted to. When man transgressed God assumed a relationship with us through Christ simply out of love for the works of his hands and not because he was lonely. You may now ask: why then did God manifest his love through creation – now that is the great mystery!
- Yet Christ did come into the world for a specific reason – namely to redeem the world and to take it away from the embrace of the wily one. And he did it through the cross for one simple reason, namely, so that the dignity of man could be profoundly respected. Thus it is man that has to use his free will to follow the Son, who by his example, does good works and thus manifests the Father to the world. After all Christ tells his disciples: “believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me; or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, he believes in me will also do the works that I do.” (14:11 – 12)
- So there it is – God creates out of absolute love. Our natural response to the absolute love of God is that we have the need to reciprocate that love. But our love is imperfect and flawed. No matter. So long as we never give up. So long as we continue to pray. Take a lesson from a child learning to walk. It seems to collect its thoughts then try and stand up. After countless attempts it manages it. Then the first tentative, teetering steps that find it invariably on its bottom . Determined it rises, walks a step only to fall down again. Finally, it begins to walk. Notice it never thinks of giving up. We to should never give up . We know how to talk to God and God listens to all prayer and we will succeed provided that we don’t give up .
Around our church
- At last we are now able to return to a real semblance of church life. From Saturday (the day of all souls) we are allowed 100 people into the church provided that we maintain social distancing of 2 square meters. Given the size of St Nektarios there is no problem in that regard. The services this week will be as follows: Saturday 6th June Saturday All Souls. His Grace Bishop Elpidios will be in attendance; Sunday Pentecost from 8 AM, Monday the Holy Spirit service from 7:30 AM. Take notice that the services schedule for Saturday p.m. and Sunday noon are now cancelled.
- I thank those of you who, despite these difficult times see it proper and right to help those of us in greater need. We need non-perishable items to distribute to the poor. If you wish to contribute financially (and all contributions are welcome) then payment can be made to the general account of the church (BSB 082057 account 608494969). If you wish to assist with our food bank, payment can be made into the following account: BSB 082057 account 616004624.
- Our Zoom sessions continue to grow. If you wish to join you can do so from your PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone or Android device. We will be ” zooming” from Thursday 6:30 PM. This week we continue looking at the positive ways our church can provide spiritual healing.
- From next week I’ll be commencing catechism class through Zoom. To those class members (and anyone else interested in participating) I will provide you details of that session during the week.
- Don’t forget my radio program on 6 EBA FM on Tuesday from 5 PM to 6 PM (the hour of orthodoxy). On each Thursday from 1:30 PM there is broadcast from the same station the divine liturgy in English that has been recorded at the church of St Nektarios the previous Saturday from 1.30 to 3 PM and from 4:30 PM to 6 PM the divine liturgy recorded on the Sunday is broadcast. You can listen via the net : 6eba.com.au
- A special thank you to M & M who bought and plant out geraniums along the front fence line on Saturday morning. Now would be a great time for all those who are growing geraniums for the church to bring them to the church so we can plant them out. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.
Thought of the week
What can we give God who has everything. At the divine liturgy, we elevate the gifts to be changed by the Spirit whilst rightfully declaring: “your own from your own, we offer you in every way and for everything.” We acknowledge everything that we have is God’s. So when we offer alms or good works we are doing no more than transferring stewardship of those alms and good works to another creature who then becomes accountable for them to God. You see, God wants us to be good but he also wants us to be fair. Now, as to what is fair?… Now that is the sticking point isn’t it?
Till next time.
In Christ.
Father John Athanasiou 0411 061 554
