간행 된 날짜 19 . 4 . 16 오전 10 : 08 
 에 의하 여 Steven Christoforou 
 간행 된 날짜 19 . 4 . 5 오후 1 : 22 
 에 의하 여 Stephanie Orfanakos 
 간행 된 날짜 19 . 3 . 29 오전 9 : 00 
 에 의하 여 Spyridoula Fotinis 
 PALM SUNDAY -- MAKE THEM WANT TO COME BACK ! 
 간행 된 날짜 19 . 3 . 26 오후 1 : 11 
 Palm Sunday is fast approaching . Our churches will once again be filled with the faithful we love , but don ’ t see as often as we would like . Our first inclination may be to scold or at least lay on the guilt . But maybe laying on a load of “ you shoulds ” is not the most effective way to get people to come back on Sundays throughout the year . 
 It ’ s good to remember why people come to church in the first place . Research has shown that people are generally seeking three things from their church : Transcendence - experiencing the presence of God , Significance - service to our fellow human beings and Community - connecting though meaningful relationships ( Source : Lost in America by Clegg & Bird ) . So , on this Palm Sunday , when we see many of our less regular attendees , maybe we can do our best to provide a prayerful , undistracted divine liturgy , offer an update on parish charitable activities and create an opportunity for fellowship of our faithful . 
 Some of the criticisms we often hear from those that have fallen away from church are : “ It ’ s all about the money , ” “ It ’ s too long ” and “ I don ’ t understand the worship service . ” Maybe we don ’ t need to pass extra trays just because we see the church filled to capacity . Maybe we could pick up the tempo of the Liturgy , showing people that liturgy doesn ’ t have to be so long . And maybe we could use more English in order to better connect with our American - born parishioners and the non - Orthodox family members . 
 One priest makes it a practice to come out at the end of Palm Sunday liturgy , welcome the people , thank them for coming and then address these usual criticisms of church , saying , “ Thank you for being with us today . I know many people don ’ t come to church because it ’ s too long , or it ’ s too Greek , or it ’ s all about the money . ” But today we completed the liturgy in an hour and 20 minutes , we did the liturgy mostly in English and we passed only ONE tray . So , please come back ! ” 
 Some resources provided by our Department that help in your outreach efforts this time of year are : 
 A Worshiper ' s Guide to the Divine Liturgy 
 Engaging our faithful and inquirers in the life of the Church requires a deeper understanding of the Divine Liturgy . This 26 - page booklet provides an engaging summary that may be read cover to cover or consulted as questions arise . Suggested for the pew rack , literature table and parish bookstore . 
 Resurrection Service Pamphlet 
 에 의하 여 Stewardship & Outreach 
 holy week stewardship ministries outreach and evangelism palm sunday outreach christmas and easter 
 간행 된 날짜 19 . 3 . 18 오후 12 : 35 
 Note : Steve delivered this talk on March 11 , 2019 ( Clean Monday ) at Archangel Michael Orthodox Church in Port Washington , NY . 
 Is it possible for any of us to change ? 
 Stubbornness and Loneliness 
 This stubbornness and loneliness may be easiest to see online , where most of our social interactions tend to happen . Despite being connected to virtually every bit of knowledge ever assembled , and virtually every person currently alive , loneliness is becoming an epidemic ( at least here in the United States , and perhaps in the Western world as a whole ) . 
 The health insurer Cigna recently conducted a survey that began to measure just how serious this problem is . Among their findings , they discovered that : 
 46 % of Americans report sometimes or always feeling alone . 
 43 % of Americans say they sometimes or always feel that their relationships are not meaningful and that they are isolated from others . 
 20 % report that they rarely or never feel close to people . 
 Only 18 % say they feel like they have people in their lives they can talk to . 
 You may say that , despite being incredibly connected with the outside world , we feel increasingly trapped within ourselves . 
 And that ’ s why I think loneliness is connected to stubborness . Not just because stubborn people are less fun to be around ( and best avoided ) , but because stubbornness is a different way of being trapped within ourselves . 
 Of being resistant to outside influence . 
 Of being resistant to change . 
 Why Things Are Worse Online 
 This definitely manifests in the way we interact online . There , interactions are not dialogues or conversations or even mutual exchanges of information : they are shouting matches , the trading of insults and accusations . 
 No one changes their mind on the internet . If anything , these overly combative exchanges simply serve to confirm how right we are . .. and how wrong everyone else is . And when we retreat from these online battles , we enter into echo chambers that further reinforce the rightness of our preferred point of view . 
 On the flip side , our call - out culture takes delight in bringing up mistakes that other people have made ( no matter how long ago ) . The purpose of digging through a person ’ s old tweets or interviews isn ’ t to spur some kind of change or repentance , but to embarrass . To demean . 
 Which puts us on the defensive . And makes us all the more stubborn and isolated as we fend off attack . 
 It ’ s a vicious cycle that leads us further inward , feeling trapped within ourselves . 
 So is it possible for any of us to change ? We tend to act like the answer to that question is “ no . ” Possibly because , in our pride , we don ’ t need to change . 
 Yet on Clean Monday , at the beginning of Great Lent , the Church offers something radically different . The Church offers us the possibility to change . The Church offers us the possibility to repent . 
 In fact , Great Lent is designed to inspire some level of repentance in us as a means of preparing us to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior , Jesus Christ . 
 Yet there ’ s something else that the Church also calls us to experience , particularly now during Great Lent . Something the Church calls compunction . 
 And I ’ m excited to share that with you . 
 But first , some quick definitions . Just to make sure we ’ re all on the same page . 
 Repentance is a term we ’ ve all probably heard before . It comes from the Greek word μετάνοια and it means a change of mind . 
 Repentance is , of course , incredibly important . Yet ( and this might be a little challenging for us to fully appreciate ) it ’ s not the whole story . 
 St Athanasios the Great was a very young deacon in the Patriarchate of Alexandria when he wrote his classic work On the Incarnation . It ’ s an explanation of why exactly the Son of God took on flesh and became human . 
 After all , why did the Son of God take on flesh ? Why is the Incarnation part of our salvation ? 
 Shouldn ’ t repentance be enough to save us from sin ? Shouldn ’ t a new direction in our lives ( away from sin and back towards God ) be enough to save us ? 
 St Athanasios answers that question in the negative : no , it isn ’ t enough . 
 ( Saint Athanasios , On the Incarnation , § 7 ) 
 That was a lot , so let ’ s break this down to make sure we all get it . 
 Why Did the Son of God Take on Flesh ? 
 St Athanasios begins by stating that , of course , humanity had fallen into sin . And God , who wanted the salvation of the world , * could have * simply asked people to repent of their sin . Just like sin led us into death and corruption , repentance could have led us out of death and back into life . 
 But , as St Athanasios says , that ’ s precisely why repentance isn ’ t enough by itself . Our problem , as people , isn ’ t simply sin . It is death . It is the corruption of our nature . 
 ( Or at least it was , until the saving work of Jesus Christ : His birth , crucifixion , resurrection , ascension , etc . ) 
 Ethics , in other words , isn ’ t enough to save us . The fundamental problem of our existence can ’ t simply be fixed by acting differently . 
 As St Athanasios says : “ no , repentance could not meet the case . ” 
 ( As a brief aside , this should challenge all of us who work in ministry , especially ministry with young people . Whether we ’ re parents or youth workers , do we sometimes assume that our primary job is to keep kids from doing drugs or having sex ? Do we view our job as ministry leaders as nothing more than managing behavior and keeping kids out of trouble ? Because St Athanasios tells us very clearly that ethics , by itself , isn ’ t enough . ) 
 And of course , as you can guess from the title of the work , the solution this great saint points to is the incarnation : the solution was the Son of God taking on our flesh and becoming one of us . 
 It was healing our broken and corrupted human nature from the inside , so to speak . It was joining us in death so we could join Him in life . 
 Not just survival but real life . True life . Life without end . 
 And compunction is the way we begin to sink into this mystery . Or rather how we begin to allow this mystery to sink into us and change us from within . 
 What is Compunction ? 
 So what exactly is compunction ? I ’ ll begin with the words of St Porphyrios the Athonite , who describes the word very simply : 
 The root of the word κατάνυξις , ‘ compunction , ’ is the verb νύττω , ‘ to puncture or pierce , ’ κατανύττω , ‘ to stab or wound repeatedly . ’ 
 ( Saint Porphyrios , Wounded by Love , p . 120 ) 
 So compunction is , you might say , an attack : a repeated stabbing or wounding . 
 But why do we need compunction ? What does this attack have to do with our stubbornness and isolation , the great problems of our modern age ? And what does it have to do with our salvation , the great problem of human existence ? 
 Why do we need compunction ? 
 Well , because our hearts have grown hard . 
 These examples can help us get a sense of the first type of compunction : a powerful human experience that can open our hearts to change . 
 Compunction in " Crime and Punishment " 
 In the novel Crime and Punishment , Fyodor Dostoevsky presents us with Raskolnikov , an intelligent and passionate young man who is swept away by the currents of sophisticated , modern thought . He writes a paper , titled “ On Crime , ” where he paints himself as a Napoleon : someone who is above the constraints of conventional morality and capable of greatness . 
 Yet he ’ s also a former student who lives in poverty , unable to support himself . So he decides to rob and kill an elderly pawn - broker , and use the money he steals to build a new life and live up to his greatness . 
 But the murder doesn ’ t go as planned . .. 
 He descends into an ever deeper isolation and anguish . 
 Raskolnikov , an isolated and bitter loner , falls even deeper into isolation and bitterness . His heart , which was already hard , hardens even more . 
 Just like us , he sinks into further stubbornness and further isolation . 
 And what finally pulls him out of this darkness and despair ? What finally brings him back to himself ? 
 At the end of the novel , Raskolnikov encounters the tragic character of Sonya . At the beginning of the book , Sonya decided to become a prostitute in order to support her impoverished family . She is a figure of great sadness and suffering . 
 When Raskolnikov looks upon her at the end of the novel , he sees her despair . Her piercing look stabs his heart , and he makes a full confession . 
 He is a murderer , and he is ready to accept his punishment . He no longer sees himself as an ubermensch , someone above conventional morality . He is a broken man , and he is finally open to healing . 
 Consider this powerful exchange , after Raskolnikov has confessed to the murder : 
 “ Go now , this minute , stand in the crossroads , bow down , and first kiss the earth you ’ ve defiled , then bow to the whole world , on all four sides , and say aloud to everyone : ‘ I have killed ! ’ Then God will send you life again . Will you go ? Will you go ? ” she kept asking him , all trembling as if in a fit , seizing both his hands , squeezing them tightly in her own , and looking at him with fiery eyes . 
 Raskolnikov , who begins this exchange a stubborn and isolated man , descending deeper into spiritual self - destruction and darkness , emerges both connected to Sonya and ready to begin the process of change . 
 That moment , the moment that opened the door to this , the way Sonya ’ s look pierced Raskolnikov ’ s heart , gives us a sense of what this first type of compunction is : a powerful experience that can open the door to change . 
 Compunction in " Harry Potter " 
 In her Harry Potter series , JK Rowling introduces us to the character of Lord Voldemort , a dark wizard who threatens the world with terror and darkness . Voldemort , as we learn in the series , is such a terrifying figure because of his self - inflicted spiritual wounds . 
 He is terrified of death , and he insures himself against the possibility by magically creating what are known as “ horcruxes ” : little pieces of his soul that he contains within assorted objects . That way , even if one piece of his soul is destroyed , the other piece will survive . Some fragment of him will continue to exist . 
 As you might expect , horcruxes are terrible bits of dark magic . They shatter the soul , in the most literal sense of the word , and grant their makers a perverse parody of life : many years in a fractured , less - than - fully - human state . 
 As the great Albus Dumbledore uncovers Voldemort ’ s plan , he realizes ( to his horror ) that the Dark Lord hasn ’ t just created one horcrux . No , he ’ s done the unthinkable , what people didn ’ t even realize was possible : he ’ s created six horcruxes . Meaning that he ’ s split his soul into seven fragments . 
 How can anyone return from such a place of spiritual destruction ? 
 Yet Rowling herself , in an interview , said that “ if he had repented , [ Voldemort ] could have been healed more deeply than anyone would have supposed . ” The Dark Lord ’ s redemption was , in fact possible . 
 Harry , Ron , and Hermione stumble onto this possibility in the seventh and final book of the series , The Deathly Hallows : 
 Hermione , tragically , is correct . In their final encounter , Harry gives Voldemort one last chance to show a bit of remorse . But he is shocked by this request . As we read : 
 Voldemort guarded his hardened heart . He refused the connection that Harry offered , and the opportunity to return from his fractured spiritual state . He refused to step back from the brokenness into which he had so thoroughly sunk . He attacked Harry , trying to kill him , and ended up dead himself . 
 Towards an Even Deeper Compunction 
 One opened himself to this piercing , and took his first step towards redemption . The other didn ’ t . 
 These literary examples give us a sense of the first type of compunction : a powerful experience that can crack open our hardened hearts and open us to the possibility of change . It tends to be something visceral , something deep and powerful : Sonya ’ s dramatic look of despair , or the deeply felt remorse one would need to recover from a horcrux . 
 Because yes , emotions and remorseful experiences with other people can certainly pierce our hearts , shatter our stubbornness , and reconnect us with others . It can open to us the door of repentance , and put us back on the path towards God . 
 But compunction , in the deepest and most mystical sense of the word , doesn ’ t come at the beginning of our repentance . It comes at the end . It is more than something that leads us back to God : it is something that God does to us when we have found Him . 
 Compunction and Communion 
 If we keep our eyes and ears open , we ’ ll find references to compunction all over the Church . For example , as you probably know , there ’ s a short service of preparation for Holy Community . We can read it as part of Compline the evening before Liturgy . 
 Here ’ s the instruction that we find at the beginning of the service : 
 When preparing to receive the Immaculate Mysteries , first read the service of Small compline to the end of the creed , and then say the following Canon with compunction . 
 ( Canon of Preparation for Holy Communion ) 
 So , before we receive Holy Communion , we should prepare with compunction : with this piercing of our hardened hearts that will open us to the presence of Christ . 
 But this piercing , in the deepest sense of the word , is not something we do . It is something that is done to us . Which is why it ’ s so instructive that this word , compunction , is tied here with Holy Communion . 
 Think about what normally happens with the things we consume . When I eat or drink something , my body acts on it . My body transforms it . My teeth and stomach physically break the food down , my body metabolizes what I consume and then uses what I consume . My body turns it into energy , so I can move and think and act in the world . 
 Or my body turns it into more of me : new hair that ’ s always growing on my head , new skin cells to repair a scratch , new blood cells or muscle cells or whatever . 
 Normally , when I eat something or drink something , I turn that thing into me . 
 But that ’ s not at all what happens when we receive Holy Communion . 
 Consider what St Nicholas Cabasilas says about what happens when we receive : 
 While natural food is changed into him who feeds on it , and fish and bread and any other kind of food become human blood , here it is entirely opposite . The Bread of Life Himselfchanges him who feeds on Him and transforms and assimilates him to Himself . 
 ( St Nicholas Cabasilas , The Life in Christ , Book 4 § 8 ) 
 In other words , when I receive the Body of Christ , I don ’ t turn that into my body . Instead , I am turned into a part of the Body of Christ . Normally I act upon my food , and transform my food . But in the case of this eternal food , this heavenly food : I am acted upon . I am transformed . 
 When I am acted upon in this way , there is no stubbornness . There is union with the will of God . Thy will be done , o Lord , on earth as it is in heaven . 
 When I am acted upon in this way , there is no isolation . I am not acted upon as an individual Christian : the Lord acts upon me as a member of His Body , united as I am with Him and all in Him . 
 This is deeper than the act of my repentance . This is deeper than the effort of my change . This is God Himself acting in and through me . 
 More Than Our Effort 
 Of course , this isn ’ t to discount our effort . Our effort is important . St John Climacus , for example , wrote an entire book about our efforts . In fact , the Church dedicates the fourth Sunday of Great Lent to St John and this incredible book : The Ladder of Divine Ascent . 
 Yet even St John , who spends so much time talking about the importance of our spiritual effort , makes sure to keep that effort in its proper place . When he writes about the ways we work to inspire remorse and compunction in ourselves , he is honest : it is not as great as the compunction which results when God Himself pierces our hearts . 
 Consider these two sentences in The Ladder of Divine Ascent . They are from Step 7 , which deals with repentance . First , St John stresses the importance of our work and our effort : 
 ( St John Climacus , The Ladder of Divine Ascent , Step 7 , 9 ) 
 And then , just a few sentences later , he says that this effort ( as important as it is ) is nowhere near as great as the compunction that is given to us as a gift by God : 
 Great is the power of this compunction — greater than that which comes as a result of our effort and meditation . 
 ( St John Climacus , The Ladder of Divine Ascent , Step 7 , 25 ) 
 Go Forth With Humility 
 Yet it ’ s important to do this work with humility . We don ’ t simply commit ourselves to being better , to trying harder , to do more . A few Sundays ago we read about the Publican , who prayed more than us and tithed more than us and did more spiritual things than us . 
 Yet he congratulated himself for all this spiritual work , and had no room for God in his heart . His heart was incredibly religious , yet also incredible hard : stubborn , proud , and isolated . 
 No , we commit ourselves to allowing God to act in and through us . 
 We work , in a sense , so that God will work in us . 
 At the begin of every Liturgy , the deacon prays a very short and simple prayer . He says “ it is time for the Lord to act . ” 
 As Christians , we know that it is always time for the Lord to act . 
 May the Holy Spirit pierce our hearts and fill our hearts . May the Holy Spirit act in us and through us , for the glory of God alone . 
 y 2 am the ladder repentance youth ministry young adult ministry compunction 
 페이지 1 의 86 
 Showing 1 - 5 of 427 results . 
 날짜 : 19 . 3 . 26