Saint Andrew's Orthodox Church

IN THE SUMMER in the city of Constantinople, sickness abounded, and the bishops would take the True Cross of Christ in a procession to pray for healing. We continue this practice in our present day, on the feast of the Procession of the Cross (Aug. 1) by taking up the cross in a procession and blessing our own means of spiritual (and, if God wills, physical) healing: Holy Water, and the season’s new honey.

At the conclusion of Liturgy on Sunday, Father John led us in the blessing of water and honey, and we made a procession around the church to bless our hives, and the faithful who assembled, with the Holy Water. Honey from the hives was distributed to all, and we enjoyed some melomakarona, spiced Greek honey cookies. Some photos are below:

Celebrating the Entrance of our Lord into Jerusalem on the way to His Passion 🌿 “Liturgical celebration is a re-entrance of the Church into the event, and this means not merely its “idea,” but its joy or sadness, its living and concrete reality. It is one thing to know that by crying, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me,” the crucified Christ was manifesting His “kenosis” and His humility. It is quite a different thing to celebrate it every year on that unique Friday on which – without rationalizing it – we know with total certitude that these words, having proffered once, remain eternally real… so that no victory, no glory, no “synthesis” can ever erase them… From the Gospel, we know about it. But it is in the Church’s celebration today that an historical fact becomes an event for us… for me… a power in my life, a memory, a joy.”

–Fr. Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent

Continue reading Palm Sunday 2021

A SHORT TIME AGO we celebrated Christmas, God becoming Man; in other words the Incarnation. This divine gift is central to our Christian faith because no longer is there a separation from God. As the hymnology reminds us: GOD IS WITH US; the divisions keeping us apart from Him are no more. He brings us this gift of peace by reconciling heaven and earth, the holy with the mundane.

So, now what? The gift has been and is being given. How do we use this gift of peace? It seems our task is to integrate this reality into our lives. No longer is it good and right to maintain compartments where one thing is spiritual and another is secular; there is a need for reconciliation within ourselves and among each other to confirm this peace that has been so freely given. Our labor, our routine activities, and even our celebrations should now include the dimension of holiness. The work that can foster this spirit has been shown to us by Christ Himself: humility, forgiveness, compassion, patience, understanding, and a joyful gratitude for this gift from on High.

With Great Lent soon on the horizon, the opportunity for reflection on these gifts and prayers for their fulfillment is presented. Peace through reconciliation.

– Ginger Jerosh

With sadness but with hope in the Resurrection, we announce that our brother +Gregory Andruk has fallen asleep in our Lord, on the Feast of the Meeting of Our Lord, February 2, 2021. He was ill with cancer for several years, and in recent months it returned and afflicted him greatly.

Continue reading Memory eternal: Gregory Andruk