Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church

February-March 2020

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Assumption Greek Orthodox ChurchP.O. Box 4567 (518 N. 5th Avenue)Assumption Greek Orthodox ChurchP.O. Box 4567 (518 N. 5th Avenue)

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Clergy: Rev. Fr. Stephen Ziton - Proistamenospaterstephen@yahoo.com

Rev. Fr. Peter Leventis –Pastor Emeritus

Holy Trinity Parish Council

Mr. Demetrios Bouzis, President

Dr. Adrian Fluture, Vice-President

Dr. Louis Roussalis, Treasurer

Mr. Nick Azar, Member and Stewardship Chair

Mr. John Bouzis, Member

Mr. Eli Dicklich, Member

Mr. Mike McCord, Member

Dr. John E. Roussalis II, Member

Mr. Joseph Vlastos, Member

Mr. Nick Zaharas, Member

Parish Council meets second Thursday of the month at 6:00 PM.

Philoptochos Board

Dr. Laura Driscoll, President

Mrs. Patricia Kofakis, Vice-President

Mrs. Angie McCord, Secretary

Mrs. Cathy Roussalis, Treasurer

Mrs. Adriana Fluture, Asst. Treasurer

Mrs. Maggie Azar, Board Member

Mrs. Mitzi Bruno, Board Member

Mrs. Rhonda Watters, Board Member

Philoptochos Society meets first Saturday of the month at 10:30 AM

in the Church Hall. All are invited to attend.

Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church1350 C Street P.O. Box 1465Casper, Wyoming 82602-1465 Office of the Parish Priest

Dearest Brethren in the Lord,

Christ is in our midst! He is now and ever shall be!

Last year I turned 60 years old. While that may not seem like a lot to some of you, we can still agree that it is a benchmark of sorts. In my lifetime, there have been many changes in society, most noteworthy has to be the advent of the internet. But one of the unintended consequences of being online is the upsurge of mean-spiritedness. Anonymity and distance have made common courtesy a distant memory.

When I was a boy in elementary school, there was a campaign developed for us called “Officer Friendly.” It introduced young citizens to the police force. If we were ever lost or in trouble, Officer Friendly was a resource we could call upon without hesitation. But today, law enforcement casualties have sky-rocketed to new heights.

We should be able to disagree with one another without being hurtful. A free exchange of ideas ought never give way to name-calling and condemnation, let alone physical violence.

All of this is by way of saying that, given this calibre of callousness, the message of the gospel has never been more important, or more in danger of being watered down. We’ve become content with not losing our temper vs. actually praying for our enemies. Tolerance of sin has usurped hungering and thirsting after righteousness; life coaches have become the new Father Confessors. In other words, secular alternatives are replacing Christian standards.

Thank God for Great and Holy Lent! Our muddled priorities are given clarity, and our perspective is refreshed. We are reminded of the

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sacrifices of our Lord and His saints. Comparing our efforts with theirs, we can be inspired to draw closer to God by emulating them. Lent is all about disrespecting the status quo. Rededicating ourselves through prayer and fasting to a mode of life that refreshes the soul. As Maximus the Confessor reminds us, “Theology without action is the theology of demons.” May this upcoming Great and Holy Lent be blessed for our salvation!

May He Who didst deign to endure the spitting, scourging, buffetings, the Cross, death in the flesh and voluntary burial for our salvation, even Christ our true God, have mercy upon us and save us! Amen!

In all loving-kindness,

Fr. StephenProistamenos

~ ~ ~ ~ ~Talking to my grandkids about prayer, I said:

"Imagine it is recess and you need to tell the teacher something important. But he is sitting and talking to the other teachers, and not

paying attention to you."But then he begins to pay attention. He turns to you and looks at you,

his eyes are focused on you, his whole face is turned your way. He starts listening carefully and taking in everything you say."

I said, "How does that feel, inside your body? Don't you feel a 'click' in your chest, or your heart? Doesn't it feel like everything inside you is

getting lined up and working the way it should?"And doesn't it also feel comforting, reassuring, and deeply satisfying?

Doesn't your body relax?"Then you fall right into ready communication with him, and you say

everything that you need to say. And he keeps on listening to you, taking it in, looking at you steadily the whole time."

Prayer isn't always like that, for me, but at least I know what it can be like, and what I should be aiming for.

Presvytera Frederica Mathewes-Green

Elder Paisios was asked the following regarding demons (called “tagalakia” by some Greeks) and the power of the

Cross:

- Elder, my thoughts tell me that the devil, especially nowadays, has a lot of power.

- The devil has evil and hatred, not power. The love of God is all-powerful. Satan tries to appear all-powerful, but he does not succeed. He seems strong, but he is completely weak. Many of his destructive plans are spoiled before they even

begin to be manifested. Would a very good father allow some punks to hit his children?

- Elder, I’m afraid of tagalakia.

- What is there to fear? Tagalakia have no power. Christ is all-powerful. Temptation is rotten to the core. Don’t you wear a Cross? The devil’s weapons are weak. Christ has

armed us with His Cross. Only when we discard our spiritual weapons, then the enemy has power. An Orthodox priest

showed a small Cross to a magician, which made the demon he invoked through his magic tremble.

- Why is he so afraid of the Cross?

- Because when Christ accepted the beatings, the slaps and the blows, the kingdom and power of the devil was crushed. By which way did Christ conquer? “With the rod the rule of the devil was crushed,” says a Saint. That is, with the last

blow of the rod to His head, then the power of the devil was crushed. Patience is the spiritual defense and humility is the

greatest weapon against the devil. The greatest balm of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross is that the devil was crushed.

After the Crucifixion of Christ, he is like a snake with its poison removed or a dog with its teeth removed. The poison

of the devil has been removed, the teeth of the dogs, the demons, have been removed, and now that they are

disarmed, we are armed with the Cross. The demons can do nothing, nothing, to those who have been formed by God when we do not give them the right. They only cause a

commotion because they have no power.

One time I was in the Cell of the Honorable Cross, and I had a very beautiful vigil. During the night many demons had collected on the ceiling. At first, they were beating heavy

and making noise, as if they were dragging large tree trunks. I made the sign of the Cross towards the ceiling and

chanted: “We venerate Your Cross Master….” When I finished, the dragging of the logs continued. “Now,” I said, “we will form two choirs. In one you will do the dragging above and I will do the other below.” When I began, they

stopped. First, I chanted “We venerate Your Cross…”, then “Lord, Your Cross you gave to us as a weapon against the

devil….” I had the most pleasant night chanting and, when I stopped for a bit, they continued the entertainment! Every

time they present a different work.

- When you chanted the first time, they didn’t leave?

- No. Once I was done, they began. Yes, both choirs had to complete the vigil! It was a beautiful vigil! I chanted with

longing! I had good days!

- Elder, what does the devil look like?

- You know how “beautiful” he is? Something else! If only you could see him! And how the love of God does not allow people to see the devil! O, the majority would die from their

fear! Imagine if they saw him act, if they saw the “sweetness” of his form! Again, some would be greatly

entertained. You know what kind of entertainment? How do they call it? Cinema? For anyone to see such work, they

would have to pay a lot of money, but even then they would not be able to see him.

- Does he have a horn, a tail?

- Yes, all the accessories.

- Elder, did the demons become so ugly when they fell and the angels became demons?

- Well, of course! Even now it’s as if lightning struck them. If lightning strikes a tree, will not the tree immediately

become a black stump? They are the same way, as if they’ve been struck by lightning. At one time I told the tagalakia:

“Come so I can see you, that I may not fall into your hands. Now that I am looking at you, your appearance shows how

evil you are. If I fall into your hands, what evil I will suffer!”

Events in the Life of our Church

Cooking at the Homeless Shelter

Laura Fluture playing Christmas carols.

Catechism Class

Christmas Pageant

“Sorry I’m late. I had great nurses.”

“It’s a tricky theological point.You say you covet your neighbor’s humility?”

"When you come to knowing God, the initiative lies on His side. If He does not show Himself, nothing you can do will enable you to find Him. And, in fact, He shows much

more of Himself to some people than to others—not because He has favorites, but because it is impossible for

Him to show Himself to a man whose whole mind and character are in the wrong condition. Just as sunlight,

though it has no favorites, cannot be reflected in a dusty mirror as clearly as in a clean one.

You can put this another way by saying that while in other sciences the instruments you use are things external to yourself (things like microscopes and telescopes), the

instrument through which you see God is your whole self. And if a man’s self is not kept clean and bright, his glimpse of God will be blurred—like the Moon seen

through a dirty telescope. That is why horrible nations have horrible religions: they have been looking at God

through a dirty lens."

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Why Did Jesus Have to Die? by C. S. Lewis

We are told that Christ was killed for us, that His death has washed out

our sins, and that by dying He disabled death itself. That is the

formula. That is Christianity. That is what has to be believed. Any

theories we build up as to how Christ’s death did all this are, in my

view, quite secondary: mere plans or diagrams to be left alone if they

do not help us, and, even if they do help us, not to be confused with

the thing itself. All the same, some of these theories are worth looking

at.

The one most people have heard is the one about our being let off

because Christ volunteered to bear a punishment instead of us. Now on

the face of it that is a very silly theory. If God was prepared to let us

off, why on earth did He not do so? And what possible point could

there be in punishing an innocent person instead? None at all that I can

see, if you are thinking of punishment in the police-court sense. On the

other hand, if you think of a debt, there is plenty of point in a person

who has some assets paying it on behalf of someone who has not. Or if

you take “paying the penalty,” not in the sense of being punished, but

in the more general sense of “footing the bill,” then, of course, it is a

matter of common experience that, when one person has got himself

into a hole, the trouble of getting him out usually falls on a kind friend.

Now what was the sort of “hole” man had gotten himself into? He had

tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself. In

other words, fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs

improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down

your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realizing that you have

been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from

the ground floor – that is the only way out of a “hole.” This process of

surrender – this movement full speed astern – is what Christians call

repentance. Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much

harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-

conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for

thousands of years. It means undergoing a kind of death. In fact, it

needs a good man to repent. And here’s the catch. Only a bad person

needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly. The worse

you are the more you need it and the less you can do it. The only

person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person – and he

would not need it.

Remember, this repentance, this willing submission to humiliation and

a kind of death, is not something God demands of you before He will

take you back and which He could let you off of if He chose: it is

simply a description of what going back to Him is like. If you ask God

to take you back without it, you are really asking Him to let you go

back without going back. It cannot happen. Very well, then, we must

go through with it. But the same badness which makes us need it,

makes us unable to do it. Can we do it if God helps us? Yes, but what

do we mean when we talk of God helping us? We mean God putting

into us a bit of Himself, so to speak. He lends us a little of His

reasoning powers and that is how we think: He puts a little of His love

into us and that is how we love one another. When you teach a child

writing, you hold its hand while it forms the letters: that is, it forms the

letters because you are forming them. We love and reason because

God loves and reasons and holds our hand while we do it. Now if we

had not fallen, that would all be plain sailing. But unfortunately we

now need God’s help in order to do something which God, in His own

nature, never does at all – to surrender, to suffer, to submit, to die.

Nothing in God’s nature corresponds to this process at all. So that the

one road for which we now need God’s leadership most of all is a road

God, in His own nature, has never walked. God can share only what

He has: this thing, in His own nature, He has not.

But supposing God became a man – suppose our human nature which

can suffer and die was amalgamated with God’s nature in one person –

then that person could help us. He could surrender His will, and suffer

and die, because He was man; and He could do it perfectly because He

was God. You and I can go through this process only if God does it in

us; but God can do it only if He becomes man. Our attempts at this

dying will succeed only if we men share in God’s dying, just as our

thinking can succeed only because it is a drop out of the ocean of His

intelligence: but we cannot share God’s dying unless God dies; and he

cannot die except by being a man. That is the sense in which He pays

our debt, and suffers for us what He Himself need not suffer at all.

“It’s Never Too Late”: A Nun’s Story about How our Parents Come to God Sometimes

by Nun Maria (Yegereva

)This story happened to my father, Eugene Ivanovich, in July 2014. My

dad is 82. He grew up in a village and he is fond of nature and long

walks in the woods. In spite of his age, he can easily find his way in

the woods and he never got lost. Well, he would sometimes lose his

way but then find it again and get back home. However, there was no

other accident in his life like the one that happened to him on the eve

of Holy Apostles Peter and Paul’s day. My father goes to church and

takes communion but otherwise he isn’t very churchy. He is

sometimes skeptical and even critical of the Orthodox Church – due to

his lack of understanding, of course. That was what happened on the

eve of July 12, when I suggested that he go to the holiday service. He

just waved me off and added a couple of disrespectful words about

St Peter and St Paul. I replied, “Dad, why are you saying that? It’s a

sin!” but he didn’t listen to me.

So, he set out to gather berries in the forest on the eve of the holiday. It

was near Asipovičy. The area is swampy but rich in berries.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t find anything because he lost his way and

spent a long time roaming the woods. When dad called me in the

middle of the day and said that he couldn’t find the way out, I wasn’t

nervous because it often happened that he couldn’t find the way but

then he found it and it turned out to be very close to his destination.

This time, everything was different. When he called me again late at

night and said that he hadn’t found the way out of the forest yet, I was

very anxious and called the rescue service. I stayed awake all night

praying for the Lord to help my dad to find his way. Other sisters of

our Convent and Father Andrew also prayed with me. The following

morning, the rescuers found my father. He changed his mind radically.

He said that it was the most holy Mother of God and the saints who

rescued him.

“It was growing dark when I found a glade, which started from a

ditch,” my dad told me later. “Soon, the glade was blocked by water

and I realized that I couldn’t go any further. I turned aside and saw a

white female silhouette and a brick-red boy’s silhouette at a distance.

The more I chased them, the quicker they moved away. The female

silhouette was several times taller than an average human while the

boy’s silhouette was very short. I followed them because they were my

only hope. However, they moved too fast and I saw that I couldn’t

follow them, so I shouted, “Ma’am, please help me!” They stopped

and I got closer to them. I recognized the Mother of God and Baby

Jesus in the two silhouettes. Later, two huge male silhouettes, followed

by another couple of male silhouettes, appeared. They were covered

with reeds, I mean, I could only see them from the waist up. I couldn’t

recognize the male silhouettes but I believe they were saints.”

My father isn’t a superstitious man so I don’t think it could have been

a hallucination, much less a fantasy. He had never been scared in

situations like this. I spent a sleepless night here in the Convent

because I was anxiously praying for him. It was a chilly night and he

wore light clothes. I was afraid he could catch a cold. Later, my dad

told me that he had fallen into the swamp and his feet were wet.

Nevertheless, he didn’t feel the cold even though it was raining that

night. My dad is certain that it was the Mother of God and the saints

who warmed him up and led him out of the forest. He added that when

he saw those silhouettes in the woods, he asked them to forgive his

words about St Peter and St Paul. He regretted having said those words

on the eve of their holiday.

“I spent all night roaming the forest,” my father continues. “The road

was near but I couldn’t find it. I followed the silhouettes and came

straight to the rescuers who were looking for me.”

In the wake of this accident, my dad immediately went to church and

ordered a thanksgiving moleben (prayer service for the living.) He

made a donation to our Convent, too. Most importantly, his worldview

and his attitude towards the Church has changed drastically. I have

never heard him say anything bad about the Church since that time,

and I don’t think I’ll ever hear any criticism again. Thanks to the

prayers of the sisters of our Convent, the Lord corrected him by

revealing to him God’s power and mercy. By doing so, God has

strengthened my father’s faith and set him free from doubts forever, I

dare hope. My father does not only believe in God: he knows now that

God really exists.