THE MIRACLE OF THE HOLY FIRE, AND EASTER SUNDAY SERVICES AT HOLY CROSS ORTHODOX CHURCH

Dear friends in Christ,

THE MIRACLE OF THE HOLY FIRE HAS OCCURRED IN JERUSALEM! 

A “MUST SEE” VIDEO OF THE MIRACLE!

The Miracle of the Holy Fire has just occurred in Jerusalem (Jerusalem is in another time zone). This is a wondrous miracle of God that has been happening every year on Orthodox Pascha (Easter) since the first century. This great miracle takes place at the Tomb of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is located in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Israel.

Every year the tomb is sealed and all of the candles and lampadas are extinguished. Before the Patriarch of Jerusalem enters theTomb of Christ for the Paschal Services he is carefully searched so that it can be verified by the faithful that nothing that could start a fire is brought in with him. This has been done year after year for centuries. After a period of prayer, the Holy Fire miraculously descends from God into the Tomb of Christ. This fire is then used to light the candles of the thousands of faithful who gather in the Church to witness the miracle. Often lampadas in various parts of the church also spontaneously light. The Holy Fire is then taken to other Orthodox countries. Today, it is usually flown by jet planes, sometimes by military jets.

The Holy Fire is miraculous. For thirty-three minutes, one minute for every year of our Lord’s life, it is unlike any other fire. The faithful can bathe their hands and faces in the flame without being burnt in any way by it. But after thirty-three minutes it burns like any other flame. This miracle only occurs on Orthodox Easter and only at the Paschal Services of Orthodox Christians. 

I am attaching for you three articles and a short video on the Miracle of the Holy Fire. Please be sure to at least view the video, and then send it on to family and friends.

The first article is a short piece reporting that the Holy Fire has just descended in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. 

After that, you will find a short VIDEO taken of the miracle that has just occurred. Please watch it carefully. You will see how the Holy Fire is passed from candle to candle among the Orthodox faithful; and then YOU WILL SEE how the faithful bathe their hands and necks and faces in the tall flames coming from the candles, but ARE NOT BURNT by the Holy Fire. In fact they are smiling and rejoicing as the flames of the Holy Fire bathes their flesh, but does not burn them. This too is a miracle of God!

The next link will take you to a website dedicated to spreading the word of this annual miracle that has been taking place on Orthodox Easter Sunday since the first century. There you will read a description of the Miracle of the Holy Fire from the Patriarch of Jerusalem himself.

The final link will take you a report on the Miracle of the Holy Fire from Abbot Daniel who was on pilgrimage in the Holy Land from AD 1106 to 1107, almost a thousand years ago.

God is good and is with His people! 

Here are the links: 

Report: HOLY FIRE HAS DESCENDED IN CHURCH OF HOLY SEPULCHRE IN JERUSALEM, 2016:

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/93008.htm

VIDEO - Miracle of the Holy Fire (Holy Light) in Jerusalem 2016:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kci8FbVszXQ&feature=share

Description of the Miracle of Holy Light (Holy Fire) that happens every year in Jerusalem:

http://www.holyfire.org/eng/

HOW THE HOLY LIGHT DESCENDS UPON THE HOLY SEPULCHRE, From The Pilgrimage of the Russian Abbot Daniel in the Holy Land AD 1106-1107 :

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/93006.htm

EASTER SUNDAY SERVICES AT HOLY CROSS ORTHODOX CHURCH

Tomorrow, Sunday, May 1st, is Easter Sunday. A Solemn Paschal Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist will be celebrated at 10:00 AM. A festive Potluck Luncheon will follow in the parish hall. 

Please be sure to invite family and friends. Visitors are always welcome! Visitors are our guests and do not have to bring a thing. There is always plenty of good food and warm fellowship.

HOLY CROSS PARISHIONERS

Members of our church family are asked to bring a main dish, OR a side dish and a desert for our Easter Sunday Potluck Luncheon. Visitors are our guests and do not have to bring a thing.

There will be no Sunday School or Matins on Easter Sunday. A Solemn Paschal Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist will be celebrated at 10:00 AM.

The church will be beautifully decorated for Holy Pascha, with new lampadas on the walls. Beautiful Paschal hymns will be sung, including the Paschal troparion: “Christ is Risen from the Dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!” We will greet one another with the ancient Paschal greeting: “Christ is Risen!” With the response, “He is Risen indeed!” After Holy Mass red Easter Eggs will be distributed to the faithful in remembrance of Christ’s death upon the cross and his  Resurrection from the dead on the third day.

Holy Pascha, Easter Sunday, is the feast of feasts, the most holy day of the Christian year and the most important day in history. God is with us, and has demonstrated that He is with us by once again performing the Miracle of the Holy Fire at the Tomb of Christ in Jerusalem. Every Christian should be in church on Holy Pascha to celebrate and give thanks for the Resurrection of Christ, for in dying he conquered death and in rising he restored our life. Christ is Risen!

Invite your family and friends. It may just change their lives! I’ll be looking forward to seeing you at church in the morning.

May God grant you every grace and blessing,

Father+

Fr. Victor Novak

Rector

HOLY CROSS ORTHODOX CHURCH

7545 Main Street

Ralston, Nebraska 68127

www.holycrossomaha.net

(402) 573-6558 

HOLY WEEK AT HOLY CROSS ORTHODOX CHURCH

Holy Week begins Sunday, April 24th, with Palm Sunday. Holy Pascha, commonly called Easter Sunday, is Sunday, May 1st.

PALM SUNDAY, April 24.

9:15 AM - Matins, followed at 10:00 AM by the Blessing and Distribution of Palms and the Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist, with fellowship and refreshments in the parish hall after the Liturgy. 

There will be no Sunday School on Palm Sunday. Christian Education resumes on Sunday, May 8th. Our monthly Potluck Luncheon has been moved to Easter Sunday, so we can celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ with a joyous agape meal, but we will have fellowship and refreshments after the Liturgy on Palm Sunday as usual. There will be plenty of blessed palms to take home and to share with others so take all you need.

SPY WEDNESDAY, April 27.

11:00 to 11:45 AM - Confessions.

12:10 PM - The Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist. 

Wednesday of Holy Week is the day on which Judas made arrangements with the Temple authorities to betray Christ and thus became a spy within the band of the Apostles. Join us at church as Jesus begins his passion, and pray that we may all live in such a way that we never betray Christ in thought, word or deed.

MAUNDY THURSDAY, April 28.

11:00 AM to Noon - Confessions.

6:30 PM - The Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist, Vespers and the Stripping of the Altar. 

On this evening we commemorate the Last Supper (called the Mystical Supper in the East) and the institution of the Holy Eucharist by Christ, and receive Holy Communion with those in the Upper Room as from Christ’s own hand. Immediately after Holy Mass we  go with Christ into the Garden of Gethsemane and respond to His heartfelt request that we “watch and pray” (St. Matthew 26:40) with him, by praying Vespers. Upon the conclusion of Vespers the altar is stripped bare and the tabernacle left empty in remembrance that our Lord has been betrayed, arrested and taken away.

Maundy Thursday is the traditional English name for the Thursday before Easter. In the Roman Rite it is commonly called Holy Thursday. The word “Maundy” derives from the first antiphon of the ceremony of the washing of feet, “mandatum novum” - “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (St. John 13:34). 

In the English tradition the ancient ceremony of washing the feet of twelve (or more) poor men has been confined to bishops and other great ecclesiastical and secular personages. In modern times the adoption of the Roman Rite practice of the parish priest washing the feet of twelve men has been introduced and is becoming more common in English Use parishes. 

Sheer Thursday is another old name for Maundy Thursday, from “Sheer” (similar to Shrove), meaning “clean” and “free from guilt,” referencing the practice of going to confession and receiving absolution. Confessions are scheduled to be heard on Spy Wednesday from 11:00 at 11:45 AM, Maundy Thursday from 11:00 AM to Noon, Good Friday after The Way of the Cross, and by appointment.

GOOD FRIDAY, April 29.

10:00 AM - Matins and the Liturgy of the Word (Ante-Communion).

12:10 PM - The Way of the Cross.

12:30 PM - Confessions (Immediately after The Way of the Cross).

6:30 PM - Vespers and the Litany.

On Good Friday we commemorate the passion, crucifixion, and burial of Christ. At Matins we remember our Lord’s arrest and trial; and at the Liturgy of the Word, or Ante-Communion, his scourging and crucifixion.

In the Western Rite, Good Friday and Easter Even (or Holy Saturday) are the only days of the year that the Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist cannot be celebrated. In the English tradition the Liturgy of the Word, often called the Ante-Communion, follows Matins, while in the Roman Rite a Liturgy of the Presanctified has become grafted onto it. Some English Use parishes have also adopted this practice.

At 12:10 PM we will follow our Lord Jesus Christ as he carries his cross from prison to Golgotha with a service of prayer and reflection called, The Way of the Cross. Confessions will again be heard after this Service.   

At 6:30 PM we will gather once again for Vespers and the Litany, keeping watch in anticipation of our Lord’s Resurrection. This year we will incorporate a beautiful Eastern Rite tradition into our evening Service. We will have an Epitaphion (“belonging to the burial”). The Epitaphion or Epitaphios is an icon of the burial of Christ that will lay on a bier in the centre of the church, decorated with flowers. Gathered around the tomb of Christ we will sing Vespers and the Litany.

I am sometimes asked why the Orthodox Christian Church observes Holy Week and celebrates Pascha, Easter Sunday, at a time that often is at variance with that of other Christians. The answer is simple. The Council of Nicea (AD 325) that has given us the Nicene Creed also established when Easter was to be celebrated. As Orthodox Christians we continue to recite the Nicene Creed as originally written, without the Filioque clause (that is both un-Scriptural and was added unilaterally and without Catholic consent), and we continue to celebrate Easter as directed by that Oecumenical Council. In an ever changing world the Orthodox Church has an unchanging message. Orthodox Christianity is a fixed star by which men and women can find their way home to our Father’s House.

Please arrange your schedule so you can attend as many Holy Week Services as possible. Try to attend them all as they are all different and through them you will be able to follow our Lord from his betrayal at the hands of a friend (Do we betray him through our sin, indifference and double mindedness?), his arrest, passion, crucifixion, death and burial, and his glorious resurrection on the third day. Holy Week is the holiest week of the year, and it can touch hearts and change lives.

Paschal (Easter) Service information will be posted next week, but for now let us focus our attention on being with our Lord on these last few days of his earthly life. We adore thee O Christ and we bless thee. Because by thy holy Cross thou hast redeemed the world.

Visitors are always welcome at Holy Cross parish. We are a faithful and friendly congregation, and we have a place for you! 

HOLY CROSS ORTHODOX CHURCH

7545 Main Street

Ralston, Nebraska 68127

www.holycrossomaha.net

(402) 573-6558

COMING FULL CIRCLE

At Holy Cross parish we have come full circle. The Gospel of Jesus Christ arrived in the British Isles in AD 37. It was brought there by St. Joseph of Arimathea directly from Jerusalem. The English Church (ecclesia anglicana) remained part of the Orthodox Church for more than 1,000 years. In the year 1054, when the Roman Patriarchate, having unilaterally changed the Nicene Creed by adding the so-called Filioque (“and the Son”) clause without Catholic consent, fell away from the Orthodox Catholic Church, the English Church remained Orthodox. This led to the Norman invasion in 1066. The Norman invasion was a promoted as a papal crusade to bring the English Church under Roman hegemony.

In October of 1066, King Harold, the last Orthodox king of England, died defending Orthodox England from the Norman invasion. With the Norman Conquest all but one of the English bishops were removed and imprisoned. They were replaced by Norman bishops, and the English Church was forced into submission to the papacy.

The English Reformation, which began in 1534, was very different from the Reformation on the Continent of Europe. No new Church was formed, and the reform was carried out by the bishops themselves. The annulment, not divorce, of King Henry VIII was the occasion, not the reason, for the English Reformation. Unfortunately, Henry VIII was a dissolute king who was more interested in the goods of the Church than the good of the Church. His reign is known as the Royal Tyranny. 

Upon the death of Henry VIII, the English Reformation began in earnest. The goal of the English Reformation was the restoration of the Faith and Order of what is commonly called the undivided Church. However, being five hundred years removed from the “undivided” Church, separated from the Orthodox Church in the East by hostile Roman Catholic powers, and being influenced by Continental Protestant thought, the goal of the English Reformation was hard to achieve. The English Reformation, or perhaps more accurately the English Restoration, was advanced by the Caroline Divines of the 17th century, the Oxford Movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and by the St. Louis Church Congress and the continuing Anglican Movement of the later 20th and early 21st centuries.

Today, large numbers of Anglicans have come full circle and returned to the Church from which their Fathers in the Faith were torn away by force of arms in 1066. Anglicans now make up the largest single group of converts to the Orthodox Church, and there are hundreds of former Anglican clergy now serving as Orthodox clergy in America alone. In our own Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) two of our bishops are former Anglicans. Former Anglicans have entered both the Eastern and Western Rites, and the English Usage of the Western Rite is in use in both the Patriarchates of Moscow and Antioch.

When I am asked, “Where have all the orthodox Anglicans gone?” My answer is always the same: “To the Orthodox Church!” When an Anglican enters the Orthodox Church he is not “joining a new Church,” but simply coming full circle and healing the breach that was caused by the Norman Conquest in 1066. There is no longer any legitimate reason for any traditional or continuing Anglican to remain separate from the Orthodox Church. The door is wide open for them. They can even preserve and pass on their English and Celtic cultural, liturgical and spiritual heritage and patrimony within the Orthodox Church just as their forefathers in the Faith did during the first millennium of Christianity.

What many people do not realize is that it seems that the British Royal Family may be coming full circle as well. A Roman Catholic publication in the United Kingdom has published an important article about Prince Charles, heir to the British throne. The article s titled, “Defender of the (Eastern) Faith.” The article reads in part:

“What is less well known and understood is the extent to which the Prince feels a deep spiritual connection to Orthodox Christianity. It is this, more than anything else, that explains why he is leading a passionate campaign to save the eastern faithful.

Such is his closeness to the faith that many Greek Orthodox believers think he has secretly converted. If that were true, it would pose a huge constitutional dilemma.

But it is undoubtedly the case that Orthodoxy looms large in Charles’s life and family history. His great-aunts Alexandra and Elizabeth converted to Orthodoxy and are considered martyrs, murdered by the Bolsheviks along with so many of the Prince’s blood relations in Russia.

Charles’s grandmother was an Orthodox nun. Princess Alice, who endured a number of difficulties in her life, including deafness, schizophrenia and the Nazi occupation of her Greek homeland, is considered a Righteous Among the Nations for her role in saving Jews during the War. A woman of noted holiness, she founded an order of nuns in 1949 after her husband Andrew’s death.

When Alice’s youngest child, Philip, married Princess Elizabeth of England, he was required to join the Church of England. But he has maintained links with the Greek Church and there have often been rumours of his return. His mother was given a small Orthodox chapel that she used until her death in 1969, when her remains were buried at a Russian Orthodox convent in Jerusalem, as she had wished.

Prince Charles has always been drawn to Orthodox Christianity’s rugged spirituality. He likes icons and reading the Greek mystics. There are Byzantine images in The Sanctuary, the simple chapel in the grounds of his home at Highgrove House in Gloucestershire, where he goes to pray and meditate. At his marriage to Camilla, the Creed was recited in Old Church Slavonic.

Charles has also received regular visits at Highgrove from Ephraim, abbot of the ninth-century Vatopedi monastery on Mount Athos. The Prince flew to Athos a few days after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, a period of intense crisis for him, his children and the whole royal family. Alone with Ephraim in the chamber there, Charles is rumoured to have made a “spiritual commitment” to Orthodoxy. After one of his visits to Mount Athos, a monk was quoted in a newspaper saying Charles was ‘Orthodox in his heart’.”

You can read the full article here:

http://m.www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2015/03/26/defender-of-the-eastern-faith/

Recently Prince Charles was in Serbia where he was visiting Orthodox churches and monasteries. On March 23rd an article was published titled, Prince Charles visited Monastery of Holy Archangels in Kovilj, Serbia. You can read it here:

http://www.pravmir.com/prince-charles-visited-monastery-of-holy-archangels-in-kovilj-serbia/

British law currently requires that the British monarch be a member of the Church of England, but the Church of England has lost its way doctrinally, morally and spiritually, and less than a million of its twenty-six million baptized members attend church. The Church of England will undoubtedly soon be disestablished by Parliament as it has little public support, leaving the Crown Prince free to either publicly admit his conversion to Orthodoxy if he has indeed already converted, or to finally come full circle and return to the Orthodox Church. 

The Orthodox Church is the oldest Church in the world. It is the original Church founded by our Lord Jesus Christ himself. This is an indisputable fact of history. The Orthodox Church is the “One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church” of the Nicene Creed. The doors are wide open, the welcome mat is out, and everyone is welcome. Everyone! 

Not only Anglicans, but the forefathers of all Western Christians were Orthodox Christians before the Great Schism of 1054. Part of our mission is to invite all Western Christians - Anglicans, Protestants and Roman Catholics - clergy and laity alike, to reject the tragic divisions which they have inherited, heed the prayer of our Lord that his disciples may all be one (John 17), embrace the Faith of the "undivided" Church, and come full circle and return to the Church of their Fathers. They will be warmly welcomed with open arms, and with love and great joy, just as we have been. 

We'll leave the light on...

LETTER TO AN EASTERN RITE ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN INQUIRING ABOUT WESTERN RITE ORTHODOXY

Dear N._____,

Thank you for your email. It is good to hear from you. I am glad to hear that you found my article on Fr. Novak’s Blog, EVANGELISM EXPLOSION - Orthodox Christianity: Winning the World for Christ! to be a blessing. 

The Western Rite of the Orthodox Church is ancient, and the restoration of it began about a century and a half ago. It is well established today with Western Rite congregations and monastic communities in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and on the Continent of Europe, and our numbers are growing. I have written about it  in an article titled, The Western Rite Within the Orthodox Church. It was posted on February 25, 2016, on my blog, Fr. Novak’s Blog. You can find Fr. Novak’s Blog here: http://frnovak.blogspot.com/. Just scroll down to the February 25th posting to read the article.

Two great supporters of Western Rite Orthodoxy were St. John (Maximovitch) of San Francisco and St. Tikhon of America and Moscow. St. John of San Francisco said, "Never, never, never let anyone tell you that, in order to be Orthodox, you must be Eastern. The West was fully Orthodox for a thousand years."

Today there are Western Rite congregations and monastic communities in the Patriarchate of Antioch  ("Where they were first called Christians")  and in the Russian Orthodox Church (which is the largest autocephalous Orthodox Church and makes up more than half of all Orthodox Christians), as well as in the Romanian and Serbian Patriarchates (in Europe). In the Russian and Antiochian Orthodox Churches there are nine Western Rite monastic communities. 

I have been blessed by Metropolitan Hilarion to be bi-liturgical  — to serve both the Western and Eastern Rites. My parish is a Western Rite congregation. We are an active and thriving parish, and I am the full time rector.

You can learn more about Western Orthodoxy from my parish website:

www.holycrossomaha.net

My blog, Fr. Novak's Blog:

http://frnovak.blogspot.com/

Our parish Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/Holy-Cross-Parish-362370402748/

The Russian Orthodox Western Rite Communities:

http://rocor-wr.org/

These sites will give you a lot of helpful information. The Western Rite isn't an experiment, it is a restoration of Western Orthodoxy that began a century and a half ago, and its restoration has been supported by hierarchs and Saints. It is a demonstration of the Catholicity of the Orthodox Church. The Church is not just Eastern, it is Catholic (Universal).  

Are you in the greater Omaha area? If so, I hope that you will visit our parish and worship with us. If not, I hope that you will take the opportunity to visit a Western Rite Orthodox church if there is one near you. Western Rite communities are thoroughly Orthodox in Faith, completely canonical, and in full visible unity with the 300 million-member Orthodox Church, while preserving their Western cultural, liturgical and spiritual patrimony. Thank you again for writing.

May God grant you every grace and blessing,

Fr. Victor+

Fr. Victor Novak

Rector

HOLY CROSS ORTHODOX CHURCH

A Western Rite Parish of the

Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

7545 Main Street

Ralston, Nebraska 68127

www.holycrossomaha.net

(402) 573-6558

Edited for publication.

LENT AT HOLY CROSS ORTHODOX CHURCH

At Holy Cross Orthodox Church we recently celebrated our third Christmas as an Orthodox parish, and we are now beginning our third Lent (or fourth if you count 2013, when we were in the process of being received into the Orthodox Church and were already under the protection of Bishop Jerome). God has been very good to us!

Shrove Tuesday was a wonderful day at Holy Cross parish. Confessions were heard from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, and in the evening we enjoyed our annual Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper. We had visitors, delicious food, and warm fellowship. Shrove Tuesday is an ancient English tradition and a wonderful preparation for Lent which, in the Western Rite, began the next day on Ash Wednesday.

On Ash Wednesday Confessions were again heard from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, and in the evening we gathered for worship. The sung Litany was followed by the Blessing and Imposition of Ashes, and the Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist.

With Ash Wednesday the Great Fast of Lent has begun, but Lent isn’t a morbid time of suffering in the Orthodox Church - far from it! Holy Lent is a wonderful opportunity for new beginnings in the Christian life; and a time for recommitment, getting our priorities right and focusing on the “the one thing needful.” What is “the one thing needful”? We know from the Gospel that our Lord Jesus Christ visited the home of Martha and Mary in Bethany. While He was there, Mary set aside her normal duties (which were good in themselves) to sit at His feet and listen to His word. Jesus explained that Mary had chosen the one thing needful - listening to the Word of God.

Lent is a time for us to set aside as many of the cares and activities of the world that we can and to focus on “the one thing needful.” Have you purchased a copy of the Orthodox Study Bible? If not, Lent is the perfect time to do so. Take some of the money that you will save on groceries due to the Fast and buy one. You can purchase the Orthodox Study Bible locally at Parable Christian Store, order it from Ancient Faith Publishing, http://store.ancientfaith.com/, or buy it from Amazon. Why the Orthodox Study Bible? Because it is a complete Bible, not a readers digest version with missing books; the Old Testament is the authorized Septuagint version rather than the late Masoretic text; and the study notes are like having a Bible teacher with you in your own home. I encourage everyone to own and use the Orthodox Study Bible.

Already have the Orthodox Study Bible? Then as Blessed Augustine of Hippo was told, “Pick it up and read it.” Make your Lenten resolution be that  you are  going to choose “the one thing needful” - listening to the Word of God. Make time every day to pick up the Holy Bible and read it. 

In addition to the Holy Bible, I encourage you to read at least one good devotional book this Lenten season. I would like to recommend two books that I have read again and again with great profit.

The first is The Way of a Pilgrim and A Pilgrim Continues His Way. This book is a spiritual classic, written by an anonymous 19th century wandering Russian Pilgrim. I first read this book in the 1970s, and I return to it again and again. You can purchase it from Ancient Faith Publishing, from Light and Life Publishing, http://www.light-n-life.com/,  or from Amazon. Do you have a Prayer Rope? The Russians call it a Chotki and the Greeks call it a Comboschini. A Prayer Rope is a string of knots used for praying the Jesus Prayer. While reading The Way of a Pilgrim and A Pilgrim Continues His Way you will learn all about the Jesus Prayer and will find it such a blessing that you will want your own Prayer Rope. You can purchase a Prayer Rope from many sources, including Ancient Faith Publishing, Light and Life Publishing, various monasteries, and Chotki.com, http://www.chotki.com/, which sells Prayer Ropes and has a lot of helpful information on the Jesus Prayer and the Prayer Rope.

The other book that I would like to recommend for you to consider for your Lenten reading is The Confessions of St. Augustine. This book is some sixteen centuries old and is still in print. It is a spiritual classic. The Confessions is not a “tell all” like modern readers may expect, but a very insightful and spiritual autobiography. Through it the reader will see his own past follies, his own wrestling with doubts, mistaken ideas and false choices, and with his own search for Truth. 

The Confessions will help you to see God’s hand on your own life, will encourage you in your daily walk with our Lord and will give you great hope as you too pick up your cross and follow Christ. Fr. Seraphim (Rose) read this important book every Lent and recommended it to others. It is available from many sources, including Amazon, and locally at Gloria Deo Bookstore at 132nd & West Center Road.

The Lenten Fast can seem daunting to some, especially those raising young children, or concerned about working and having little time to plan special meals, or who have special dietary needs - but it doesn’t have to be. The Lenten Fast can be both very simple and spiritually very profitable. Fr. Theodore Liudogovsky, an Orthodox priest in Russia, has written a very helpful article. While written from an Eastern Rite perspective, it will be helpful to Orthodox Christians of whatever rite. The article is called, Simple Fasting, and I hope that you will read it. Here is the link:

http://www.pravmir.com/simple-fasting/

This coming Sunday is the First Sunday in Lent. It is also known as the Sunday of Orthodoxy. On the Sunday of Orthodoxy we do not celebrate the triumph of the Orthodox Church over some other church or religion, but over heresy that had risen up within the Orthodox Church in ancient times - specifically the Iconoclast heresy. The Sunday of Orthodoxy is an annual reminder that Christ Himself built His Church, and that the gates of hell can never prevail against it. This is something that we can take great comfort in and should give us great hope.

Jesus Christ is the Truth Revealed, and Orthodox Christianity is the Truth Lived. Lent is here to help us to begin to live the Orthodox Christian Way of Life in its fullness. It’s our Faith, so let’s live it!

There will be no adult Christian Education class on Sunday, March 20, or Sunday, March 27. Christian Ed will resume on Sunday, April 3rd.

Sunday Matins is at 9:15 AM, followed by the Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist at 10:00 AM, with fellowship and refreshments in our parish hall after the Liturgy. Visitors are always welcome. We are a faithful and friendly parish, and we have a place for you. I hope to see you on Sunday!

SHROVE TUESDAY, ASH WEDNESDAY AND LENT AT HOLY CROSS PARISH

Great Lent is right around the corner. This Sunday, March 13th, is Quinquagesima, the last Sunday of the three week pre-Lenten season according to the Western Rite. Tuesday, March 15th is Shrove Tuesday. Shrove Tuesday comes from the old English word Shriven, which means confessed. The ancient English spiritual discipline is to go to Confession, to be shriven of our sins, before the beginning of Lent. I went to Confession this week, and will be hearing Confessions on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. What a blessing this Sacrament is! You feel unburdened, and spiritually fresh and clean. It’s like taking a spiritual shower.

SHROVE TUESDAY PANCAKE SUPPER

Shrove Tuesday is the last day of the pre-Lenten season, with the Great Fast beginning on Ash Wednesday. Holy Cross parish will hold a traditional Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper on Tuesday, March 15th, at 6:00 PM. This is a beloved English tradition. Eggs, Sausage and Pancakes will be served. The public is invited. This is not a parish fundraiser and there is no cost for the Supper, however a free will offering will be taken. Be sure to invite family and friends to this wonderful annual event. They will have a great time. The Christian life is the Good Life at Holy Cross Orthodox Church!

ASH WEDNESDAY

Ash Wednesday, March 16th, is the beginning of Lent. Ash Wednesday Services will include the sung Litany and the Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist with the Imposition of Ashes. Services begin at 6:30 PM. This is a very important day in our spiritual lives and I hope that everyone will make every effort to be there. Lent is a time for new beginnings. It is an opportunity to begin again in our walk with the Lord. Let us make use of this opportunity to begin again if we need to, or to deepen our commitment to faithful discipleship. 

There will be no mid-day celebration of the Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist on Wednesday, March 16th. Our regular midweek Services will resume on Wednesday, March 23rd, at 12:10 PM. Please join us for Services on Ash Wednesday, March 16th, at 6:30 PM.

CONFESSIONS

Confessions will be heard on Shrove Tuesday and on Ash Wednesday from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, and by appointment.

WHY DO WE FAST DURING LENT?

Why do we fast during Lent? We all have some understanding as to the reasons, but we may not have as yet really grasped it. Archpriest Michael Gillis has written a very helpful, short article titled, “Why Do We Fast In Lent?” I hope that you will read it. Here is the Link:

http://www.pravmir.com/why-do-we-fast-in-lent/

NANCY REAGAN

Former First Lady Nancy Reagan entered eternity this week and her funeral is being held today. The Reagans had an enormous impact on our nation and on the world, and their legacy lives on. I have posted a photograph of President Ronald and First Lady Nancy Reagan visiting an Orthodox monastery on our parish Facebook page. The Reagans are surrounded by Orthodox monks and Mrs. Reagan is holding a bouquet of flowers given her by the brotherhood. The Photograph was taken in 1988, when the Reagans were visiting Moscow. In 1988, Orthodox Christians were celebrating the 1,000th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia.

Do you visit our parish Facebook page regularly? It is updated often. Please go to our Facebook page and assist us in our outreach by “Liking” it, and then follow our postings. Here is the Link:

https://www.facebook.com/Holy-Cross-Parish-362370402748/

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME

Daylight Savings Time begins this Sunday, March 13th, so be sure to change your clocks before going to bed on Saturday night. In order to help us adjust to the time change there will be no Christian Education this Sunday morning. Matins will be as usual at 9:15 AM, followed by the Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist at 10:00 AM. Christian Education will resume on Sunday, March 20th. at 8:45 AM.

SUNDAY SERVICES

Sunday Matins (Morning Prayer) begins at 9:15 AM, followed by the Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist at 10:00 AM, with fellowship and refreshments in the parish hall after the Liturgy. We are a faithful and friendly church, and we have a place for you. Everyone is always welcome. I’ll be looking forward to seeing you there!

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RITE WITHIN THE ORTHODOX CHURCH

The Western Rite Within Orthodoxy

Throughout the first millennium of Christian history the Western rites existed within the Orthodox Church side by side with the Eastern rites. Even after the Great Schism of AD 1054, England remained Orthodox until the Norman Conquest in 1066. The Norman Invasion was seen as a crusade to restore the English Church to Rome. After conquering England, the Normans replaced all but one of the English bishops with Normans and forced the Church into submission to the Roman See.

Western Rite Christians also continued in full communion with the Orthodox Church in Constantinople and other Eastern cities until they were finally absorbed into the Eastern Rite sometime in the thirteenth century. A Benedictine monastery, Amalfion, existed on Mount Athos until 1287, surviving the Great Schism of 1054, the Roman Catholic conquest of Mount Athos in 1204, and the Roman Catholic retreat from Mount Athos in 1261. The monastery finally closed because of its inability to recruit postulants from the West. The ruins of Amalfion can still be seen on the Holy Mountain, with its Western architecture in the midst a sea of Byzantine monastic communities. 

A vast number of Orthodox Saints, including many Holy Fathers of the Church, were spiritually nurtured by the Western rites. The Western Church produced such great spiritual luminaries as Saints Ambrose of Milan, Gregory of Tours, Benedict of Nursia, Leo the Great, Gregory the Great (the Dialogist), Patrick of Ireland, Bede the Venerable, Jerome, and Augustine of Hippo.

With the closing of Amalfion, the Benedictine monastery on Mount Athos in 1287, the use of the Western Rite, which had been celebrated on the Holy Mountain for more than 300 years, and in the Orthodox Church for nearly thirteen centuries, came to a temporary end.

The English Reformation

The English Reformation which began in 1534, was different from the Reformation on the continent of Europe. No new Church was formed. The Reformation in England was conducted by the bishops themselves with the goal of restoring the Faith and Order of what is commonly called the undivided Church. The work of reform and restoration in the English Church was continued by the Caroline Divines of the 17th century, and the Oxford Movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Writing of the 17th century, Dean G. W. O. Addleshaw says, “The Anglicans are thinking and working the whole time in terms of patristic thought, more especially that of the Greek Fathers” (The High Church Tradition).

In the mid-19th century the Russian Orthodox theologian Alexis Khomiakov became very interested in the return of the West to Orthodoxy. He encouraged an Anglican Deacon, William Palmer (1811-1879), who had visited Russia, to start a movement in England toward Orthodoxy. The famous Orthodox bishop, Metropolitan Philaret (Drozdov) of Moscow, said that while Anglicans who embraced Orthodoxy must be in full accord with the rest of Orthodoxy in regard to doctrine, “every rite not implying a direct negation of dogma would be allowed.”

Orthodox Archbishop Kallistos (Ware) wrote, “This [Anglican] appeal to antiquity has led many Anglicans to look with sympathy and interest at the Orthodox Church, and equally it has led many Orthodox to look with interest and sympathy to Anglicanism. As a result of pioneer work by Anglicans such as William Palmer (1811-1879), J. M. Neale (1818-1868), and W. J. Birkbeck (1859-1916), firm bonds of Anglo-Orthodox solidarity were established by the end of the nineteenth century” (The Orthodox Church, by Timothy Ware, Penguin, c. 1993, p. 318).

Western Orthodox Rebirth

With the declaration of Papal Infallibility by the First Vatican Council in 1870, many concerned Roman Catholics began to rethink their Faith and to call themselves Old Catholics, rejecting what they considered to be a new Faith introduced by the Council. Some of these Old Catholics turned their eyes to the East, to the unchanging Orthodox Catholic Church.

In the wake of the First Vatican Council the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church authorized the use of a corrected Roman Rite by Roman Catholics who were returning to the Orthodox Church. 

In the United States, the restoration of the Western Rite began in 1891, when Bishop Vladimir (Sokolovsky), the Russian Orthodox Bishop of Alaska, formally received a parish of Swiss Old Catholics at Dykesville, near Fon du Lac, Wisconsin.

In 1898 a Western Rite Diocese of Moravia and Silesia was organized in Europe by the Russian Orthodox Church.

In 1904, Archbishop Tikhon (Belavin) and Bishop Raphael (Hawaweeny), assisted by Fr. John Kochuroff - all three of whom would later be canonized as Saints - petitioned the Holy Synod of Russia to permit the adaption of the Services of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer for use by Orthodox Christians. In 1907, a Commission of the Holy Synod of Russia reported in favor of an adaption of the Book of Common Prayer for use by Western converts, and set out the criteria for adaption. The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church adopted the report. 

A good beginning was made at restoring the Western Rite, but the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and the brutal persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church made the development of this work very difficult and it progressed very slowly. Yet, despite the difficulties, Western Rite congregations and monastic communities were established in both the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR).

In 1958, the Patriarchate of Antioch adopted the provisions of the Russian Holy Synod and authorized the restoration of the Western Rite. In 1961, the Western Rite Vicariate was erected in the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, with Archpriest Alexander Turner as Vicar General.

Beginning in the late 1970s, a growing number of Catholic Anglicans began to see that due to the doctrinal and moral changes in their Church the dream corporate reunion between the Anglican and Orthodox Churches was becoming impossible. Many Anglicans began to enter the Orthodox Church and there are now English Use Western Rite congregations in both the Russian and the Antiochian Orthodox Churches. 

Western Rite Orthodoxy Today

Today there are Western Rite congregations and monastic communities in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, with smaller works in the Romanian and Serbian Orthodox Churches in Europe. The Western Rite of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia is the largest, most widespread and fastest growing.

There are now more than fifty Western Rite Orthodox congregations and monastic communities in the United States, with more in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, India, and on the continent of Europe, and their numbers are growing. 

In the United States, 23% of all Orthodox Christians are converts, as are 30% of Orthodox clergy and 41% of Orthodox seminarians, with three bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia being converts: one from Roman Catholicism and two from Anglicanism.  

Anglicans make up the largest single group of converts to the Orthodox Church in the United States, and they are found in both the Eastern and Western Rites. They are everywhere. Archpriest Josiah Trenham, a clergyman of the Reformed Episcopal Church before becoming Orthodox wrote, “It is my estimate that there is no heterodox body in America from which more Orthodox clergy have come than the Anglican Communion. The number of Orthodox priests in this country that were previously Episcopal clergy is certainly in the hundreds” (Rock and Sand, An Orthodox Appraisal of the Protestant Reformers and Their Teachings, by Archpriest Josiah Trenham, Newrome Press, c. 2015, p. 193).

It has often been said that the consecrated life is a good indicator of the health of the Church. There are about eighty Orthodox monastic communities in North America, with nine Western Rite monastic communities in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese.

A great spiritual revival and Orthodox resurgence is taking place in Russia and throughout Eastern Europe; and the Orthodox Church is growing rapidly in America and all around the world. The Western Rite has been restored to the Orthodox Catholic Church, the post-Christian West is beginning to be re-evangelized, and the Western Church rebuilt. This is a move of the Holy Spirit and a New Springtime for the Church. St. John (Maximovich) of San Francisco said, “Never, never, never let anyone tell you that, in order to be Orthodox, you must be Eastern. The West was fully Orthodox for a thousand years...”

The Dean of the ROCOR Western Rite Communities is Fr. Mark Rowe, a former Anglican priest and Canon. The Ruling Bishop of the Western Rite Communities is Metropolitan Hilarion, First Hierarch (Primate) of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and an enthusiastic supporter of the Western Rite.

Holy Cross Orthodox Church

Holy Cross Orthodox Church in Omaha, Nebraska has just celebrated its third Christmas as a Western Rite parish of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia after having been received from the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). We  were greeted with open arms, welcomed with love, and are fully integrated into the Orthodox Church. 

Metropolitan Hilarion made an episcopal visit to Holy Cross Orthodox Church in the summer of 2015, fully participated in our Services, administered Holy Communion to the faithful, and ordained a Reader and Subdeacon for service at our parish. His visit was a high point in the life of our church.

We are very happy to be Orthodox Christians and to be a parish of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. We have lost nothing and gained much. The Orthodox Church is the oldest Church in Christendom, it is the original Church, it is the  “One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church” of the Creeds, and the doors are wide open to everyone. When Western Christians enter the Orthodox Church they are not joining a new Church, they are simply returning to the Church of their Fathers and embracing the fullness of the Orthodox Christian Faith “which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3).

Come and see. The Orthodox Church welcomes you!