In this email
Message from Fr Alexander — Enter the Temple
News …
Names for Prayer
Canon of Supplication to the Mother of God
Monastery of St John the Baptist talks
Archimandrite Philip: Ten at Ten
Lockdown Response
Live stream information
Resources
Saints and Feasts — 4th–11th February
Offer of help
Dear Friends
Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace,
According to Your word;
For my eyes have seen Your salvation
Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples,
A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles,
And the glory of Your people Israel.
— Luke 2:29–32
On seeing his Lord enter the Temple, the Elder Simeon—who had been promised by God that he would see Christ—gave us this most beautiful prayer. The feast we celebrated on Tuesday, and continue to celebrate for a whole week, brings us into this mystery. Like all the feasts celebrating part of the life of the Lord, we do not commemorate merely an event of two thousand years ago, we celebrate Christ here and now coming in to his Temple.
And we can say even more than this. As the Apostle puts it,
For you are the temple of the living God.
— 2 Corinthians 6:16
So the present feast, sometimes called either The Presentation of our Lord in the Temple or The Meeting of the Lord, is a remembrance here and now that the Lord today offers to come into our hearts and be with us. We need only to open the door and receive him.
We are in challenging times. We need to work hard to make our hearts a welcome home for Christ. We temporarily are not able to go to Church and, in any case, our mission is yet to find a home (please keep praying!). Would either of the following suggestions be a way for you to keep your hearts alive to Christ?
1 — A Community WhatsApp Group
WhatsApp is a quite popular messaging service on mobile phones and could provide us with a quick and easy way to message the whole community in one group. Would such a service suit you?
2 — A Zoom meeting
Would a regular Zoom meeting where we can ask questions about our Faith and Life be of interest to you?
If either, or both, suggestions are of interest, please contact me: [email protected].
News
Names for prayer
If you have not yet done so, please do send me a list of those whom you would like me to pray for at the Liturgy. Please separate them out into four groups:
Living who are Orthodox
Living who are not Orthodox
Departed who are Orthodox
Departed who are not Orthodox
Just their Christian (first) names are needed. Please include your own names at the top of the list.
Canon of Supplication to the Mother of God
This service is often called by its Greek name, the Paraklesis. In it, we ask the prayers of the Mother of God that she ask her Son and her God to protect us. It is full of beautiful poetry mixing the themes of her protection for us alongside her asking God for our protection.
Our bishop, Metropolitan Silouan, has asked all who can in our Archdiocese to pray this service together at 7 pm on Wednesdays in our homes so that we all may raise our prayers as one to the Lord that he may bring an end to this pandemic.
Could you take this on? It usually takes 30–40 minutes. If you do not have a copy of the service I can email it to you: let me know.
Monastery of St John the Baptist talks
Each Sunday evening, 5.30–7pm, the Monastery in Essex, founded by St Sophrony, produces a talk on Zoom. Up until now these have been given either by Archimandrite* Peter, the abbot, or by Archimandrite Zacharias. You need to register for these in advance.
If you would be interested in joining the talks, please get in contact and I can send you the registration details. They are of great benefit.
[* Archimandrite is a title for a senior priest who is celibate.]
Archimandrite Philip: Ten at Ten
Also online, Archimandrite Philip of the monastery of our Archdiocese in Shropshire produces a Bible-study every weekday at 10 am from his YouTube channel—if you cannot watch live they are archived. Although called Ten at Ten, its length is somewhat a changeable feast.
You can reach his YouTube channel by clicking here or by searching “Archimandrite Philip” on YouTube.
Lockdown Response
We are in lockdown and our Metropolitan has given a clear directive that all churches in the Archdiocese are to be closed until the end of February at least. Our Archdiocese, without judging what others are doing, has taken the position that we do not want any transmission to take place in our churches and we want to keep everyone safe.
This is not what any Church wants to do: all want to welcome people for worship, yet our worship is not the totality of what we do as Christians and now is an opportunity to make even more use of other aspects of our Faith. Pray. Really pray. Make prayer a regular part of your life. Study. Read the Scriptures, read what the Fathers say about the Scriptures. Give. Give to the poor and needy. Give you time to a friends: call them and say hello.
I am here for you: get in contact if you would like help and support. Together, by the grace of God, we can emerge with a stronger Faith.
Live stream
The Monastery of Saints Antony and Cuthbert, Shropshire, is live-streaming its services for all who are unable to go to their own churches. These are over YouTube and can be accessed here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfWMaefJYqFEZkYiK2WmeEw
Usually Vespers on Saturday evenings at 5 pm and Matins and Liturgy on Sunday mornings from 7.30 am.
Resources
Have a look at our website — orthodoxeastleigh.uk
If you click on the “Blog” link, or directly here, you will see all past emails as well as sermons etc.
Our Facebook Page, facebook.com/orthodoxeastleigh, too, has daily additions during the week as well as on feast days. Please do like and share our page and content so we may reach a wider group of people.
Do you receive the weekly (on Fridays) text message? If not, then let me know.
Saints and Feasts
Thursday 4th February — Afterfeast of the Meeting of the Lord. St Isidore of Pelusium. St Aldate the Hieromartyr, Bishop of Gloucester (6th).
Friday 5th — Afterfeast of the Meeting of the Lord. Martyr Agatha. St Theodosios of Antioch.
Saturday 6th — Afterfeast of the Meeting of the Lord. St Photios the Great, Ecumenical Patriarch. Sts Barsanuphios and John of Gaza. St Ilyan of Homs.
Sunday 7th — 16th of Matthew. Afterfeast of the Meeting of the Lord. St Parthenios, Bishop of Lampsacus. St Richard of the West Saxons (720).
Monday 8th — Afterfeast of the Meeting of the Lord. Great Martyr Theodore the Commander (319). St Cuthman, Hermit of Steying (8th).
Tuesday 9th — Leavetaking of the Meeting of the Lord. Martyr Nikephoros of Antioch (c 257). St Teilo, Bishop of Llandaff and Llandeilo Fawr in Wales (6th).
Wednesday 10th — Hieromartyr Charalambos, Bishop of Magnesia in Thessaly (202).
Thursday 11th — St Blaise the Holy Martyr of Sebastia. St Cædmon of Whitby, monk and hymnographer (c 680). St Gobnait, Abbess of Ballyrourney, Cork (5th).
Can I help you?
I am here for you, you need only ask. Is there a way I can support your life of faith? Get in touch.
Can you help the mission?
Yes, absolutely. Offer yourselves to the Lord: pray! Make available to him all your talents and ask him how he would like you to use them — listen for his reply.
Your prayers!
With love in Christ
Fr Alexander
[email protected]