KOINOTIS May 2021

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Dear Βrothers and Sisters in Christ, FASTING, CONFESSION & COMMUNION I am so glad that you are in a place spiritually where you desire to challenge yourself to draw closer to our Lord during this Holy Week. In our culture, the true meaning of fasting is slowly fading away. We abstain from meat and call it fasting, where that is just the beginning of fasting. The true orthodox process of fasting is a multi-legged stool. The goal of fasting is to get closer to God (Communion). Because God is infinitely far and infinitely close to us, our getting closer to God does not have to do anything with distance, but it has to do with direction. When we turn our face (heart) away from God we are infinitely far, when we turn our face (heart) towards Him and we keep the eyes of our heart on God then there is only a finite space between us and God. So what do we do to draw closer to God? We make a U-turn by turning away from worldly things, and instead of traveling away from God, we start traveling towards Him. We need to remember that we do not turn away from the world because it is evil, but because we humans can give full attention to only one thing at a time, and in this case, it is either God or the world. We usually start our journey of U-turn by abstaining from food because our life is consumed by the process of eating. Eating we do more than anything else. Eating is the second hardest passion humans wrestle with next to fame and glory. So lessening attention towards food could be the easiest because it is ever-present in our lives and the hardest because it is the inseparable part of our life. We can not do without it yet we need to limit our relationship with it. Fasting is not limited to abstaining from meat and dairy but it is about lessening the amounts of food we consume daily. The reason we lessen the consumption of food is that most of the time, less food is better for us both physically and spiritually. How much food is good enough? Saint John Chrysostom says if we eat and we are desiring to rest and take a nap we have eaten too much. If we desire to spend time praying after we have eaten it means we have not eaten too much. When we are fasting we are supposed to eat less than enough (considering health and other unique life circumstances). So then the next leg of fasting during Great Lent and Holy Week is spending less time with other things that consume our attention and instead spend greater amounts of time in prayer. When we turn away from the world we need to fill the emptiness created by the absence of the world with something else. The best thing to fill the void in our life with is God. The best way to invite God into our life is by prayer. In this case, prayer is an uninterrupted remembrance of God. Like a mother can not take her mind away from a newborn baby, we are supposed to keep our mind with God at all times. This does not happen at once but it is a gradual process and Great Lent and Holy Week is a good time to practice doing this. The best prayer for exercise is the Jesus Prayer. "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy on me a sinner". Sinner in this prayer does not mean that we have done something bad but it means that our mind and our life gravitates away from God. In this prayer, we ask the Lord to bring us to Himself with the help of His abundant mercy. The ultimate form of prayer that Christ teaches us to use is to ask for His Kingdom. After abstaining and redirecting our attention from other things towards God, the next thing we need to do is to give alms. Remember when I said fasting is not only about staying away from meat but cutting the amounts of food and the number of times we eat? So one of the reasons for that is that we can share what we did not eat or spend with those who did not have any. Without almsgiving, our fasting is meaningless because when we give alms we give to the Lord Himself. He is present in this world through everyone who is in need. Giving to the poor and needy is another form of communion with Him. As fasting is done in many ways so is giving. We give not only food and material goods that we have saved by abstaining and spending less but we also give the extra attention that we have cut off from other things. Certainly giving can go beyond what we have saved (by abstaining from food) if we are blessed with much, however, we need to remember that the best gift is the one that we are able to give by sacrificing much. In this modern world, the most needed and hardest thing to give is our undivided attention and it can start with our family members and friends. Now getting back to the second part of the question. What should we do when preparing to receive communion? Like physical food is sustenance for us so that we can work and live our life so 6
is communion for our spiritual life of fasting, praying, and almsgiving. Without communion, it is very hard to have a spiritual life that is why we have more opportunities to receive communion during lent by having Presanctified Liturgies. In order to receive communion, our tradition requires us to have a holy life and in order to be able to live a holy life, we need to receive communion more frequently. This sounds like a chicken and an egg problem but it is not, if we remember another tradition that is fading away: The sacrament of confession. Although it is not practiced as widely anymore, the prerequisite of communion is confession. Confession is the hardest of all sacraments for me at least. This is a time when a person stands in front of Christ in the presence of Confessor and asks for God’s Mercy for the things that become roadblocks in our journey towards Him, or tortures our conscience, or creates a feeling of guilt in our heart. For continued communion with God, we need prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. While we pray, fast, and give alms, we need to constantly check our hearts for things that can separate us from God and clear the way by confession. This is our Spiritual life in a nutshell. Now, because the ultimate goal of our life is Communion with our Lord, please do not allow any of the things that I mentioned above to keep you away from Him. All I have mentioned above is achieved over a period of time during which we need communion with the Lord, so that we can get stronger in our spiritual life. All of what I mentioned is not done one after another in any particular order but all of them at once. When it seems too much we do not cut one or another thing out but we do it all in small portions and take baby steps based on our ability and place in our journey. Please let me know, if I can help by explaining things that I did not say well enough. Αγαπητοί αδελφοί και αδελφές εν Χριστό ΝΗΣΤΕΙΑ, ΕΞΟΜΟΛΟΓΗΣΗ & ΚΟΙΝΩΝΙΑ Είμαι τόσο χαρούμενos που βρίσκεστε σε ένα μέρος πνευματικά όπου θέλετε να προκαλέσετε τον εαυτό σας να πλησιάσετε τον Κύριό μας κατά τη διάρκεια αυτής της Μεγάλης Εβδομάδας. Στον πολιτισμό μας, το πραγματικό νόημα της νηστείας εξαφανίζεται αργά. Απέχουμε από το κρέας και το ονομάζουμε νηστεία όπου αυτό είναι μόνο η αρχή της νηστείας. Η πραγματική ορθόδοξη διαδικασία της νηστείας είναι ένα σκαμνί με πολλά πόδια. Ο στόχος της νηστείας είναι να πλησιάσετε τον Θεό (Κοινωνία). Επειδή ο Θεός είναι απείρως μακριά και απείρως κοντά μας, το να πλησιάζουμε τον Θεό δεν έχει να κάνει τίποτα με απόσταση αλλά έχει σχέση με την κατεύθυνση. Όταν γυρίζουμε το πρόσωπό μας (καρδιά) μακριά από τον Θεό, είμαστε απείρως μακριά, όταν γυρίζουμε το πρόσωπο μας (καρδιά) προς αυτόν και κρατάμε τα μάτια της καρδιάς μας στον Θεό τότε υπάρχει μόνο ένας πεπερασμένος χώρος μεταξύ μας και του Θεού. Τι κάνουμε λοιπόν για να πλησιάσουμε τον Θεό; Κάνουμε μια στροφή στρίβοντας μακριά από τα κοσμικά πράγματα, και αντί να ταξιδεύουμε μακριά από τον Θεό, αρχίζουμε να ταξιδεύουμε προς αυτόν. Πρέπει να θυμόμαστε ότι δεν απομακρυνόμαστε από τον κόσμο επειδή είναι κακός, αλλά επειδή εμείς οι άνθρωποι μπορούμε να δώσουμε πλήρη προσοχή σε ένα μόνο πράγμα κάθε φορά, και σε αυτήν την περίπτωση, είναι είτε ο Θεός είτε ο κόσμος. Συνήθως ξεκινάμε το ταξίδι μας με στροφή 180 μοιρών, αποφεύγοντας το φαγητό γιατί η ζωή μας καταναλώνεται από τη διαδικασία του φαγητού. Τρώμε πιο πολύ από ότι κάνουμε οτιδήποτε άλλο. Το φαγητό είναι το δεύτερο σκληρότερο πάθος που παλεύουν οι άνθρωποι δίπλα στη φήμη και τη δόξα. Έτσι, η μείωση της προσοχής στην τροφή θα μπορούσε να είναι η ευκολότερη επειδή είναι πάντα παρούσα στη ζωή μας και η δυσκολότερη επειδή είναι το αδιαχώριστο μέρος της ζωής μας. Δεν μπορούμε να το κάνουμε χωρίς αυτό, αλλά πρέπει να περιορίσουμε τη σχέση μας με αυτό. Η νηστεία δεν περιορίζεται στην αποχή από κρέας και γαλακτοκομικά προϊόντα, αλλά αφορά τη μείωση των ποσοτήτων τροφίμων που καταναλώνουμε καθημερινά. Ο λόγος που μειώνουμε την κατανάλωση τροφής είναι ότι τις περισσότερες φορές, λιγότερο φαγητό είναι καλύτερο για εμάς τόσο σωματικά όσο και πνευματικά. Πόσο φαγητό είναι αρκετά καλό; Ο Άγιος Ιωάννης Χρυσόστομος λέει ότι αν φάμε και θέλουμε να ξεκουραστούμε και να πάρουμε έναν υπνάκο τότε έχουμε φάει πάρα πολύ. Αν θέλουμε να ξοδεύουμε χρόνο προσευχόμενος αφού έχουμε φάει αυτό σημαίνει 7
Page 1 and 2: ΚΟΙΝΟΤΗΣ COMMUNITY DORMITIO
Page 3 and 4: FATHER’S BLESSINGS AND THOUGHTS .
Page 5: Είναι θλιβερό να ακ
Page 9 and 10: Για συνεχή επικοιν
Page 11 and 12: A quick update on the capital impro
Page 13 and 14: Somerville και λάβετε υπ
Page 15 and 16: ιδιαίτερα, να ευχαρ
Page 17 and 18: 17
Page 19 and 20: Dear Friends, PTO REPORT We thank y
Page 21 and 22: τισμό στα παιδιά τη
Page 23 and 24: 23
Page 25 and 26: 200 Years Celebration of Greek Inde
Page 27 and 28: Summer Day Camp Dormition of the Vi
Page 29 and 30: ● Kirk & Elise Kopley / Schnider
Page 31 and 32: PANAGIA’S DONATIONS ΔΩΡΕΕΣ

KOINOTIS May 2021

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