Parish NewsLetter Pre-Lent & Great Lent 2015 O Lord and Master of my life, a spirit of idleness, despondency, ambition, and idle talking give me not. But rather a spirit of chastity, humble-mindedness, patience, and love Bestow upon me Thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my failings and not condemn my brother; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen."
SAINT GEORGE GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH 238 WEST ROCKS ROAD NORWALK, CT 06851 PHONE: (203) 849-0611 WEB: www.stgeorgect.org E-MAIL: sgorthodoxchurch@snet.net ΜΕΓΑΛΗ ΤΕΣΣΑΡΑΚΟΣΤΗ/GREAT LENT2015 From my youth, O Christ, I have rejected Your commandments. I have passed my whole life without caring or thinking, as a slave of my passions. Therefore, O Savior, I cry to You: At least in the end save me. (From the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete) Time goes quickly! It is time again to start our preparations for Easter. Year after year our introduction to Easter comes through the Great and Holy Lent. A period of time requiring more intense spiritual life a try at least! Lent is the time not only to fast from certain foods but also a time to reflect upon the status of our life, of the lives that depend upon us of life and death in general. It is time to pray, in our privacy and together with the church; it is a time to forgive and be forgiven; it is a time for almsgiving, spiritual and material. It is a time of preparation and if we try Easter is not going to be the same! Ἐκ νεότητος, Σωτήρ, τὰς ἐντολάς σου ἐπαρωσάμην ὅλον ἐμπαθῶς ἀμελῶν, ρᾳθυμῶν, παρῆλθον τὸν βίον διὸ κράζω σοι, Σωτήρ κἂν ἐν τῷ τέλει σῶσόν με. (Κανών Αγίου Ανδρέου Κρήτης) Ο χρόνος περνα γρήγορα! Καιρός ξανά να αρχήσουμε τις προετοιμασίες για το Πάσχα και όπως κάθε χρόνο η εισαγωγή μας στο Πάσχα γίνεται με την Μεγάλη Τεσσαρακοστή. Μιά περίοδο που ζητά πιό έντονη πνευματική ζωή...τουλάχιστον, μιά προσπάθεια! Η σαρακοστή δεν είναι μόνο περίοδος γιά νηστεία αλλά και περίοδος περισυλλογής γιά την κατάσταση της ζωής μας, της ζωής αυτών που βασίζονται σ εμάς...περισυλλογή γιά Ζωή και θάνατο. Είναι περίοδος γιά προσευχή, ιδιωτικά και εν τη Εκκλησία, περίοδος γιά συγχωρητικότητα και ελεημοσύνη, πνευματική και υλική. Η Μ. Σαρακοστή είναι περίοδος προετοιμασίας...και, εάν προσπαθήσουμε...το Πάσχα θα είναι διαφορετικό! Happy & Devotional Great Lent! /Καλή Σαρακοστή!
Fr. Nicholas Dassouras
Sundays of Lent Each Sunday in Lent has two themes, two meanings. On the one hand, each belongs to a sequence in which the rhythm and spiritual "dialectics" of Lent are revealed. On the other hand, in the course of the Church's historical development almost each Lenten Sunday has acquired a second theme. Thus on the first Sunday the Church celebrates the "Triumph of Orthodoxy"-- commemorating the victory over Iconoclasm and the restoration of the
veneration of icons in Constantinople in 843. The connection of this celebration with Lent is purely historical: the first "triumph of Orthodoxy" took place on this particular Sunday. The same is true of the commemoration on the second Sunday of Lent of St. Gregory Palamas. The condemnation of his enemies and the vindication of his teachings by the Church in the 14 th Century was acclaimed as a second triumph of Orthodoxy and for this reason its annual celebration was prescribed for the second Sunday of Lent. Meaningful and important as they are in themselves, these commemorations are independent from Lent as such and we can leave them outside the scope of this essay... As to the first and essential theme of Lenten Sundays, it also is primarily revealed in the scriptural lessons. To understand their sequence, we must once more remember the original connection between Lent and Baptism-- Lent's meaning as preparation for Baptism. These lessons are therefore an integral part of the early Christian catechesis; they explain and summarize the preparation of the catechumen for the Paschal mystery of Baptism. Baptism is the entrance into the new life inaugurated by Christ. To the catechumen, this new life is as yet only announced and promised, and he accepts it by faith. He is like one of the men of the Old Testament who lived by their faith in a promise whose fulfillment they did not see. This is the theme of the first Sunday. After having mentioned the righteous men of the Old Testament, the Epistle (Heb. 11:24-26; 32-40; 12-2) concludes:...and these all, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised since God has foreseen something better for us. What is it? The answer is given in the Gospel lesson of the first Sunday (John 1:43-51):...you shall see greater things than these... truly, truly I say unto you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. This means: you catechumens, you who believe in Christ, you who want to be baptized, who are preparing yourselves for Pascha-- you shall see the inauguration of the new age, the fulfillment of all promises, the manifestation of the Kingdom. But you shall see it only if you believe and repent, if you change your mind, if you have the desire, if you accept the effort. Of this we are reminded in the lesson of the second Sunday (Heb. 1:10-2:3):...therefore, we must pay close attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it... How shall we escape if we neglect such salvation? In the Gospel lesson of the second Sunday (Mark 2:1-12) the image of this effort and desire is the paralytic who was brought to Christ through the roof:...and when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic: 'My son, your sins are forgive..'
On the third Sunday-- "Sunday of the Cross"-- the theme of the Cross makes its appearance, and we are told (Mark 8:34-9:1): For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? From this Sunday on, the lessons from the Epistle to the Hebrews begin to reveal to us the meaning of Christ's sacrifice by which we are given access "into the inner shrine behind the curtain," i.e., into the holy of holies of God's Kingdom (cf. Third Sunday, Heb. 4:14-5:6; Fourth Sunday, Heb. 6:13-20; and Fifth Sunday, Heb. 9:11-14), while the lessons from the Gospel of St. Mark announce the voluntary Passion of Christ:...the Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill Him...(Mark 9:17-31)-- Fourth Sunday and His Resurrection:...and the third day He shall rise again. (Mark 10:32-45)-- Fifth Sunday The catechesis, the preparation for the great mystery, is drawing to its end, the decisive hour of man's entrance into Christ's Death and Resurrection is approaching. Today Lent is no longer the preparation of the catechumen for Baptism, but although baptized and confirmed, are we not in a sense still "catechumens"? Or rather, are we not to return to this state every year? Do we not fall away again and again from the great mystery of which we have been made participants? Do we not need in our life-- which is one permanent alienation from Christ and His Kingdom-- this annual journey back to the very roots of our Christian faith? An excerpt from Great Lent, by Fr. Alexander Schmemann From Chapter 4: The Lenten Journey ΠΡΟΓΡΑΜΜΑ ΜΕΓΑΛΗΣ ΤΕΣΣΑΡΑΚΟΣΤΗΣ 2015 Κυριακή 22 Φεβρουαρίου: Καθαρά-Δευτέρα 23 Φεβρουαρίου: 6:00 μ.μ. Εσπερινός της Συγγνώμης 6:00 μ.μ.. Μέγα Απόδειπνον μετά του Μεγάλου Κανόνος
Καθαρά -Τρίτη 24 Φεβρουαρίου: 6:00 μ.μ.. Μέγα Απόδειπνον μετά του Μεγάλου Κανόνος Καθαρά -Τετάρτη 25 Φεβρουαρίου: 6:00 μ.μ. Εσπερινός & Προηγιασμένη Θεία Λειτουργία Καθαρά -Πέμπτη 26 Φεβρουαρίου: 6:00 μ.μ. Μέγα Απόδειπνον μετά του Μεγάλου Κανόνος Καθαρά -Παρασκευή 27 Φεβρουαρίου: 6:00 μ.μ. Εσπερινός διά το θαύμα του Αγ. Θεοδώρου 7:00 μ.μ. Α Χαιρετισμοί προς την Υπεραγία Θεοτόκο Σάββατο 28 Φεβρουαρίου: 8:30 π.μ.- Όρθρος & Θ. Λειτουργία (θαύμα Αγίου Θεοδώρου) Δευτέρα 2 Μαρτίου: Τετάρτη 4 Μαρτίου: Παρασκευή 6 Μαρτίου: Δευτέρα 9 Μαρτίου: Τετάρτη 11 Μαρτίου: Παρασκευή 13 Μαρτίου: Δευτέρα 16 Μαρτίου: Τετάρτη 18 Μαρτίου: Παρασκευή 20 Μαρτίου: Δευτέρα 23 Μαρτίου: Τρίτη 24 Μαρτίου: Τετάρτη 25 Μαρτίου: Πέμπτη 26 Μαρτίου: Παρασκευή 27 Μαρτίου: Δευτέρα 30 Μαρτίου: Τετάρτη 1 Απριλίου: Παρασκευή 3 Απριλίου: 6:00 μ.μ. Μέγα Απόδειπνον 6:00 μ.μ. Εσπερινός & Προηγιασμένη Θεία Λειτουργία 7:00 μ.μ. Β Χαιρετισμοί προς την Υπεραγία Θεοτόκο 6:00 μ.μ. Μέγα Απόδειπνον 6:00 μ.μ. Εσπερινός & Προηγιασμένη Θεία Λειτουργία 7:00 μ.μ. Γ Χαιρετισμοί προς την Υπεραγία Θεοτόκο 6:00 μ.μ. Μέγα Απόδειπνον 6:00 μ.μ. Εσπερινός & Προηγιασμένη Θεία Λειτουργία 7:00 μ.μ. Δ Χαιρετισμοί προς την Υπεραγία Θεοτόκο 6:00 μ.μ. Μέγα Απόδειπνον 5:00 μ.μ. Εσπερινός διά την Εορτήν του Ευαγγελισμού 8:30 π.μ. Όρθρος & Θεία Λειτουργία Ευαγγελισμού 6:00 μ.μ. Προηγιασμένη Θ. Λειτουργία 7:00 μ.μ. Ο Ακάθιστος Ύμνος προς την Υπεραγία Θεοτόκο 6:00 μ.μ. Μέγα Απόδειπνον 6:00 μ.μ. Εσπερινός & Προηγιασμένη Θεία Λειτουργία 6:00 μ.μ. Εσπερινός & Προηγιασμένη Θεία Λειτουργία (Αγ. Λαζάρου). 238 West Rocks Road, Norwalk, CT, 06851 * Tel.: (203) 849-0611, Fax: (203) 750-0138 Web: www.stgeorgect.org E-mail: sgorthodoxchurch@snet.net PROGRAM OF GREAT LENT 2015 Sunday, February 22 nd : 6:00 p.m. Forgiveness Vespers
Clean-Monday, February 23 rd : Clean-Tuesday, February 24 th : Clean-Wednesday, February 25 th : Clean-Thursday, February 26 th : Clean-Friday, February 27 th : Saturday, February 28 th : Monday, March 2 nd : Wednesday, March 4 th : Friday, March 6 th : Monday, March 9 th : Wednesday, March 11 st : Friday, March 13 st : Monday, March 16 th : Wednesday, March 18 th : Friday, March 20 th : Monday, March 23 rd : Tuesday, March 24 th : Wednesday, March 25th: Thursday, March 26 th : Friday, March 27 th : Monday, March 30 th : Wednesday, April 1 st : Friday, April 3 rd : 6:00 p.m. Great Compline & the Canon of St. Andrew of Crete 6:00 p.m. Great Compline & the Canon of St. Andrew of Crete 6:00 p.m. Presanctified Divine Liturgy 6:00 p.m. Great Compline & the Canon of St. Andrew of Crete 6:00 p.m. - Vespers for the Miracle of Saint Theodor. 7:00 p.m. I Salutations to the Most Holy Theotokos 8:30 a.m. - Orthros & D. Liturgy for the Miracle of Saint Theodore 6:00 p.m. Great Compline 6:00 p.m. Presanctified Divine Liturgy 7:00 p.m. II Salutations to the Most Holy Theotokos 6:00 p.m. Great Compline 6:00 p.m. Presanctified Divine Liturgy 7:00 p.m. III Salutations to the Most Holy Theotokos 6:00 p.m. Great Compline 6:00 p.m. Presanctified Divine Liturgy 7:00 p.m. IV Salutations to the Most Holy Theotokos 6:00 p.m. Great Compline 5:00 p.m. Vespers for the Feast of the Annunciation 8:30 a.m. - Orthros & D. Liturgy for the Feast of the Annunciation 6:00 p.m. Presanctified Divine Liturgy (Great Canon) 6:00 p.m. The Akathist Hymn to the Most Holy Theotokos 6:00 p.m. Great Compline 6:00 p.m. Presanctified Divine Liturgy 6:00 p.m. Presanctified Liturgy (St. Lazarus) 238 West Rocks Road, Norwalk, CT, 06851 * Tel.: (203) 849-0611, Fax: (203) 750-0138 Web: www.stgeorgect.org E-mail: sgorthodoxchurch@snet.net 'A Day Without Yesterday': Georges Lemaitre & the Big Bang
In January 1933, the Belgian mathematician and Catholic priest Georges Lemaitre traveled with Albert Einstein to California for a series of seminars. After the Belgian detailed his Big Bang theory, Einstein stood up applauded, and said, This is the most beautiful and satisfactory explanation of creation to which I have ever listened. In the winter of 1998, two separate teams of astronomers in Berkeley, California, made a similar, startling discovery. They were both observing supernovae exploding stars visible over great distances to see how fast the universe is expanding. In accordance with prevailing scientific wisdom, the astronomers expected to find the rate of expansion to be decreasing, Instead they found it to be increasing a discovery which has since shaken astronomy to its core (Astronomy, October 1999). This discovery would have come as no surprise to Georges Lemaïtre (1894-1966), a Belgian mathematician and Catholic priest who developed the theory of the Big Bang. Lemaitre described the beginning of the universe as a burst of fireworks, comparing galaxies to the burning embers spreading out in a growing sphere from the center of the burst. He believed this burst of fireworks was the beginning of time, taking place on a day without yesterday. After decades of struggle, other scientists came to accept the Big Bang as fact. But while most scientists including the mathematician Stephen Hawking predicted that gravity would eventually slow down the expansion of the universe and make the universe fall back toward its center, Lemaitre believed that the universe would keep expanding. He argued that the Big Bang was a unique event, while other scientists believed that the universe would shrink to the point of another Big Bang, and so on. The observations made in Berkeley supported Lemaitre s contention that the Big Bang was in fact a day without yesterday.
When Georges Lemaitre was born in Charleroi, Belgium, most scientists thought that the universe was infinite in age and constant in its general appearance. The work of Isaac Newton and James C. Maxwell suggested an eternal universe. When Albert Einstein first published his theory of relativity in 1916, it seemed to confirm that the universe had gone on forever, stable and unchanging. Lemaitre began his own scientific career at the College of Engineering in Louvain in 1913. He was forced to leave after a year, however, to serve in the Belgian artillery during World War I. When the war was over, he entered Maison Saint Rombaut, a seminary of the Archdiocese of Malines, where, in his leisure time, he read mathematics and science. After his ordination in 1923, Lemaitre studied math and science at Cambridge University, where one of his professors, Arthur Eddington, was the director of the observatory, For his research at Cambridge, Lemaitre reviewed the general theory of relativity. As with Einstein s calculations ten years earlier, Lemaitre s calculations showed that the universe had to be either shrinking or expanding. But while Einstein imagined an unknown force a cosmological constant which kept the world stable, Lemaitre decided that the universe was expanding. He came to this conclusion after observing the reddish glow, known as a red shift, surrounding objects outside of our galaxy. If interpreted as a Doppler effect, this shift in color meant that the galaxies were moving away from us. Lemaitre published his calculations and his reasoning in Annales de la Societe scientifique de Bruxelles in 1927. Few people took notice. That same year he talked with Einstein in Brussels, but the latter, unimpressed, said, Your calculations are correct, but your grasp of physics is abominable. It was Einstein s own grasp of physics, however, that soon came under fire. In 1929 Edwin Hubble s systematic observations of other galaxies confirmed the red shift. In England the Royal Astronomical Society gathered to consider this seeming contradiction between visual observation and the theory of relativity. Sir Arthur Eddington volunteered to work out a solution. When Lemaitre read of these proceedings, he sent Eddington a copy of his 1927 paper. The British astronomer realized that Lemaitre had bridged the gap between observation and theory. At Eddington s suggestion, the Royal Astronomical Society published an English translation of Lemaitre s paper in its Monthly Notices of March 1931. Most scientists who read Lemaitre s paper accepted that the universe was expanding, at least in the present era, but they resisted the implication that the universe had a beginning. They were used to the idea that time had gone on forever. It seemed illogical that infinite millions of years had passed before the universe came into existence. Eddington himself wrote in the English journal Nature that the notion of a beginning of the world was repugnant.
The Belgian priest responded to Eddington with a letter published in Nature on May 9, 1931. Lemaitre suggested that the world had a definite beginning in which all its matter and energy were concentrated at one point: If the world has begun with a single quantum, the notions of space and time would altogether fail to have any meaning at the beginning; they would only begin to have a sensible meaning when the original quantum had been divided into a sufficient number of quanta. If this suggestion is correct, the beginning of the world happened a little before the beginning of space and time. In January 1933, both Lemaitre and Einstein traveled to California for a series of seminars. After the Belgian detailed his theory, Einstein stood up, applauded, and said, This is the most beautiful and satisfactory explanation of creation to which I have ever listened. Duncan Aikman covered these seminars for the New York Times Magazine. An article about Lemaitre appeared on February 19, 1933, and featured a large photo of Einstein and Lemaitre standing side by side. The caption read, They have a profound respect and admiration for each other. For his work, Lemaitre was inducted as a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium. An international commission awarded him the Francqui Prize. The archbishop of Malines, Cardinal Josef Van Roey, made Lemaitre a canon of the cathedral in 1935. The next year Pope Pius XI inducted Lemaitre into the Pontifical Academy of Science. Despite this high praise, there were some problems with Lemaitre s theory. For one, Lemaitre s calculated rate of expansion did not work out. If the universe was expanding at a steady rate, the time it had taken to cover its radius was too short to allow for the formation of the stars and planets. Lemaitre solved this problem by expropriating Einstein s cosmological constant. Where Einstein had used it in an attempt to keep the universe at a steady size, Lemaitre used it to speed up the expansion of the universe over time. Einstein did not take kindly to Lemaitre s use of the cosmological constant. He regarded the constant as the worst mistake of his career, and he was upset by Lemaitre s use of his supergalactic fudge factor. After Arthur Eddington died in 1944, Cambridge University became a center of opposition to Lemaitre s theory of the Big Bang. In fact, it was Fred Hoyle, an astronomer at Cambridge, who sarcastically coined the term Big Bang. Hoyle and others favored an approach to the history of the universe known as the Steady State in which hydrogen atoms were continuously created and gradually coalesced into gas clouds, which then formed stars. But in 1964 there was a significant breakthrough that confirmed some of Lemaitre s theories. Workers at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey were tinkering with a radio telescope when they discovered a frustrating kind of microwave interference. It was equally strong whether they pointed their telescope at the center of the galaxy or in the opposite direction. What was more, it
always had the same wavelength and it always conveyed the same source temperature. This accidental discovery required the passage of several months for its importance to sink in. Eventually, it won Arno Penzias the Nobel Prize in physics. This microwave interference came to be recognized as cosmic background radiation, a remnant of the Big Bang. Lemaitre received the good news while recovering from a heart attack in the Hospital Saint Pierre at the University of Louvain. He died in Louvain in 1966, at the age of seventy-one. After his death, a consensus built in favor of Lemaitre s burst of fireworks. But doubts did persist: Did this event really happen on a day without yesterday? Perhaps gravity could provide an alternative explanation. Some theorized that gravity would slow down the expansion of the universe and make it fall back toward its center, where there would be a Big Crunch and another Big Bang. The Big Bang, therefore, was not a unique event which marked the beginning of time but only part of an infinite sequence of Big Bangs and Big Crunches. When word of the 1998 Berkeley discovery that the universe is expanding at an increasing rate first reached Stephen Hawking, he said it was too preliminary to be taken seriously. Later, he changed his mind. I have now had more time to consider the observations, and they look quite good, he told Astronomy magazine (October 1999). This led me to reconsider my theoretical prejudices. Hawking was actually being modest. In the face of the scientific turmoil caused by the supernovae results, he has adapted very quickly. But the phrase theoretical prejudices makes one think of the attitudes that hampered scientists seventy years ago. It took a mathematician who also happened to be a Catholic priest to look at the evidence with an open mind and create a model that worked. Is there a paradox in this situation? Lemaitre did not think so. Duncan Aikman of the New York Times spotlighted Lemaitre s view in 1933: There is no conflict between religion and science, Lemaïtre has been telling audiences over and over again in this country. His view is interesting and important not because he is a Catholic priest, not because he is one of the leading mathematical physicists of our time, but because he is both. Acknowledgement Midbon, Mark. A Day Without Yesterday': Georges Lemaitre & the Big Bang. Commonweal Magazine Vol. 127 No. 6 (March 24, 2000) 18-19.
Repentance by Bishop Kallistos Ware An Orthodox child receives communion from infancy. Once he is old enough to know the difference between right and wrong and to understand what sin is probably when he is six or seven he may be taken to receive another sacrament: Repentance, Penitence, or Confession (in Greek, metanoia or exomologisis). Through this sacrament sins committed after Baptism are forgiven and the sinner is reconciled to the Church: hence it is often called a Second Baptism. The sacrament acts at the same time as a cure for the healing of the soul, since the priest gives not only absolution but spiritual advice. Since all sin is sin not only against God but against our neighbor, against the community, confession and penitential discipline in the early Church were a public affair; but for many centuries alike in eastern and western Christendom confession has taken the form of a private conference between priest and penitent alone. The priest is strictly forbidden to reveal to any third party what he has learnt in confession. In Orthodoxy confessions are heard, not in a closed confessional with a grille separating confessor and penitent, but in any convenient part of the church, usually in the open immediately in front of the iconostasis; sometimes priest and penitent stand behind a screen, or there may be a special room in the church set apart for confessions. Whereas in the west the priest sits and the penitent kneels, in the Orthodox Church they both stand (or sometimes they both sit). This outward arrangement emphasizes, more clearly than does the western system, that in confession it is not the priest but God who is the judge, while the priest is only a witness and God s minister. the priest questions the penitent about his sins and gives him advice. When the penitent has confessed everything, he kneels or bows his head, and the priest, placing his stole (epitrachilion) on the penitent s head and then laying his hand upon the stole, says the prayer of absolution. The Greek formula runs: Whatever you have said to my humble person, and whatever you have failed to say, whether through ignorance or forgetfulness, whatever it may be, may God forgive you in this world and the next... Have no further anxiety; go in peace. The priest may, if he thinks it advisable, impose a penance (epitimion), but this is not an essential part of the sacrament and is very often omitted. Many Orthodox have a special spiritual father, not necessarily their parish priest, to whom they go regularly for confession and spiritual advice. There is in Orthodoxy no strict rule laying down how often one should go to confession. Where infrequent communion prevails for example, four or five times a year the faithful may be expected to go to confession before each communion; but in circles where frequent communion has been reestablished, the priest does not necessarily expect a confession to be made before every communion. An excerpt from The Orthodox Church by (Metropolitan Kallistos) Timothy Ware. Chapter 14: The Sacraments.