304 Third Avenue North, Saskatoon
Friday, April 25 @ 7pm
All ages – Everyone welcome!
$5/person or $20/family
St. Vincent’s ‘Old-Time String Band’ with guest caller: JJ Guy
Square dancing (easy to learn)
Pop Classics & Cultural Favourites
Dress fancy & bring a snack to share!
Easter Sunday, April 20 4:30 – 8:30 PM
We painted icons of Christ during the autumn and winter. Everyone did a great job!
Speaker: Fr. Matthew Francis
Fr. Matthew is the Parish Priest of Holy Apostles Orthodox Church in Chilliwack, BC, and is currently working on a book on the relationship between the Book of Revelation and the Divine Liturgy.
Friday, March 14
6:00 PM, Akathist
7:00 PM, Session 1: A Door Opened into Heaven, “Reading” the Apocalypse with the Liturgy”.
Saturday, March 15
9:30 AM, Session 2: What is an Apocalypse?, The Revelation of Jesus Christ
10:45 AM, Session 3: Becoming Eyewitnesses, Seeing Christ in Scripture and Liturgy
12:00 PM Lunch (please RSVP to stobbesara (at) gmail.com )
1:15 PM Session 4: What Happens in Liturgy?, The Enthronement of the Lamb
6:30 PM Vespers
7:30 PM Youth Q&A with Fr. Matthew
May 16 – 19
If you are a young person between grades 7-12 and are looking to connect with your peers across Western Canada, then the Pan Orthodox Youth Retreat is the event for you! The youth retreat promises to be an transformative experience that combines the joy of deepening our knowledge and love of the Orthodox faith together with being surrounded and supported by other Orthodox youth from across the western provinces in the beauty of God’s creation.
The Location will be The Salvation Army Beaver Creek Camp, Dundurn, SK, outside Saskatoon. Register here
This is a retreat for young adults, held near Calgary from the 9th-11th of May. Scan the QR code to get contact info.
St. Vincent’s is having a variety night on Friday, February 28th at 7pm.
At that time, as Jesus drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging; and hearing a multitude going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” And he cried, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent; but he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped, and commanded him to be brought to him; and when he came near, he asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me receive my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he received his sight and followed him, glorifying God; and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
Luke 18:35-43
In today’s gospel a “multitude” of people are following Jesus through the streets. Being a part of a large movement must have been intoxicating. This whole group of people all agree that Jesus is the one they have been waiting for. Each person might have been thinking, “I get to be a part of the ones who get it!” There must have been a feeling of us, us-ness permeating the group. “We happy few.” Except they were not few. They were gathering steam.
When someone interrupts that moment of joy and wants to do something else, it is really annoying and distracting. It’s like if a young couple are on a date, and really enjoying each other’s company, and then a teacher from their school comes by their table at the restaurant and wants to strike up a conversation. “Oh my gosh! Are you two dating? That’s so cute. What’s good on the menu? What are you having? Brent – make sure to pay. I don’t care what anyone says, it’s always romantic if the guy pays. So what are you doing after dinner? Any plans? My husband and I are celebrating our twentieth wedding anniversary. I remember when I was your age, and we had just met. That seems like yesterday.”
This is a nightmare scenario! The young couple both want to go back to the flow of their conversation. The vibes. Today’s crowd was experiencing something kind of similar. They were in the moment.
Along comes this blind man. That’s not all he was. He was also a beggar, which meant he probably had dirty clothes, probably smelled. He was probably one of those beggars who hassles you every time you walk by. Every time it’s like he thinks you are a bad person when you don’t give him money. It doesn’t matter if you gave him money yesterday. You have probably seen films when a rich person from a more afluent country goes to a poorer country. And all the kids on the street swarm around them asking for money. I know what it is like to be harassed by beggars. It really tears at your heart. We say to ourselves, “I really do care! I promise I do care. But I can’t give you money every day.”
That is the kind of man who wants to talk to Jesus today. This is the guy who doesn’t know or doesn’t care what the vibe is. He is not part of the movement. They assume he doesn’t even care about the movement. He just wants his healing.
Here’s the irony: the very reason there was a crowd surrounding Jesus was that he healed people such as blind beggars. That is what made Jesus famous and beloved. Jesus cared. Jesus had the solution. That is why the crowd was there to begin with. That very crowd, by the way, abandoned Jesus when he was arrested and killed.
Jesus is willing to allow the feeling of us-ness to subside for a moment. Jesus is the one who goes after the lost sheep.
Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me receive my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight;
And then Jesus adds something that no one was thinking about; maybe even the blind man himself was not thinking about this. Jesus says, “your faith has made you well.”
Faith? Who said anything about faith? What did religion have to do with this? Was this pushy begger a man of great spirituality? Maybe someone in the crowd rolled their eyes and thought themselves, “Jesus, I know you want to think the best of people, but let’s move on now so the blind man go back to his lofty contemplation.”
Was Jesus primary mission to cure blind people and leppers? Can you sum up Jesus’ ministry correctly by saying he was a miracle worker? Can you sum up Jesus’ ministry by saying he preached a gospel of compassion for poor people and outcasts? Jesus was empathetic, but is that an adequate and full description of Jesus?
Absolutely not! Jesus Christ is our Lord and God and Saviour! Jesus is the one who created the heavens and the earth so that he could dwell among men. He became man so we could become divine. He who clothes himself with light as with a garment clothed himself with us. He transformed our very nature. He came to give us eternal life and participation in the energies and uncreated light of God’s holiness!
The crowd in today’s gospel is like a group of people who have come to the palace of a king and are sitting around talking and laughing in the lobby. Meanwhile the blind man is being invited into the throne room to meet with the King of Kings.
They resent him from coming into their lobby. They don’t care if they happen to hurt his feelings or offend him. What if he never goes in to the throne room? Do they themselves even realize there isa throne room? They don’t mind if he is left out. It’s better than ruining the vibe they have out in the lobby of the palace of the king.
How dare we ever reduce Jesus to being empathetic; our pal! How dare we ever reduce the true faith to a membership card we keep in the back of our wallet. How dare we ever reduce Jesus to being the one who never makes anyone feel uncomfortable. How dare we ever become so bewitched by the feeling of us-ness that we lose any sense of urgency for sinners into become saints! What are we doing?
Church is where people find the one who created them. In Church, people are freed from the pain, the sins and the passions that would destroy them for all eternity. Church is the place where someone who is stuck in the hopeless and dark night of sin, breaks out of the spiral that leads them into death and hell. This is serious! That is what Church is about. That is what the Christian community is about. It is about the lost sheep not being devoured by the noetic wolf. It’s about life or death!
It amazes me that Christians can pontificate so fervently against the degradation and rot of society around us. We say, “We don’t believe in that. We don’t accept what they would teach our children.”
That is not wrong and yet some of those same people lack a single-minded dedication to the mission of rescuing people from that degraded society!
The disciples were part of the crowd who wanted Jesus to just walk past the blind man. The disciple actually did that several times; shooing away people who they felt had no business bothering Jesus. But those men, the disciples, became the great apostles and pillars of the church. The disciples who were annoyed with our blind man eventually gave their lives for the sake of finding the lost sheep; for proclaiming that message that is the only hope people can ever have. The disciples spent decades in poverty and persecution. They left behind families and friends. They gave up everything for the joy of seeing even one person changed and transformed by uniting their life to Christ.
Nothing can ever be more important than facilitating the journey of a person from spiritual death into the arms of their heavenly Father. Nothing. If you do not know the joy of watching someone grow into the stature of Jesus Christ you have missed out on the joy for which God created the world. You have missed out on a fundamental aspect of what God created you for. Think about the joy of Pascha. The hymns that say, “Shine, shine, oh new Jerusalem, for the glory of the Lord has shone upon thee. Dance and be glad, and rejoice o thou pure virgin at the rising of thy son.” He has trampled down death by death!
You are a Christian when nothing matters more in your life than the lost sheep being saved from the wolf. You are a Christian when that is what makes you tick. May Jesus give you a sense of crisis and desperation that motivates you and pushes you forcefully to go pull the stinky pushy blind man to Jesus as if your life depended on it because it does! May you be the one who finds the sinful woman that you find disgusting and off-putting; the sinful woman you don’t think will ever change. May you be the one who runs over to her, takes her by her hand and leads her to Jesus so that she can find that saving moment of washing his feet with her tears.
Are you that person? Become that person because then you will not just be in the group of Jesus’ followers; you will be a partner with Jesus as he saves the world.
The gospel reading end with this:
And immediately he received his sight and followed him, glorifying God; and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
Tuesday December 10th at 7 pm
At that time, a man said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”
Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.
When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone son of peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.
When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town … Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”
(Luke 9:57–10:24)
What event was so great that the prophets and kings longed to see it? In Jesus’ day, Jews remembered the glorious ancient Israelite kingdom that existed between about 1050 to 600 BC. In Jesus’ time, people might have said, “If only our nation could be as prosperous as back then! If only our nation still had prophets who heard the voice of God and guided us! If only we had God’s presence in our temple and lived in unity and peace!”
Jesus disagreed. He essentially said, “Back then, they also longed for the same peace and unity you long for. That is because it was something not even they had. What they longed for is happening here and now! They longed for what you see me doing. I am what they longed for. What I am doing now is the real kingdom. The ancient prophets spoke the words of the Holy Spirit. I am the Son of God. You hear the voice of the Holy Spirit more clearly than ever when you hear me teach!”
The ancient kings and prophets were not the “good old days,” according to Jesus. But what was happening in Jesus’ day that was so glorious? Jesus said, “I am essentially homeless. I wander around from village to village, teaching, healing; at the mercy of others’ hospitality.”
People began to say they wanted to follow Jesus. They, too, wanted to be utterly dependent on God because they saw something divine and holy in Jesus that they could not explain.
Some who followed Jesus lost heart and quit, but some continued. Jesus sent seventy faithful followers out to wander around from village to village. Like Jesus, they were to teach and heal. They did what they had seen Jesus do.
Off they went. They taught and healed people with divine power. Like Jesus, they paid a price for it. Just like in the case of Jesus, some people reject the message of the seventy and run them out of town. These disciples made that sacrifice. They answered that call. They trusted God so completely that they put themselves in a position of dependence on God to provide for them in unusual ways.
Suddenly, strangers would welcome them into their homes. God would miraculously orchestrate events such that the disciples received everything they needed. The disciples would tell people, “The Kingdom of God has come near this place.” The Kingdom of God that they were referring to was their own faith in God. The Kingdom of God is their way of living for God. What people hope and long for, peace, hope and salvation, can be found when you leave everything behind to serve God’s people. That is what the kings and prophets longed for. They longed to see people living fully – by giving fully.”
When they disciples met up with Jesus again, he said, “Satan has fallen.” That is to say, the one who entices us into sin, the one who brings death and sickness and hatred, has no power over you now. Jesus’ new way of living, this new path of trusting God, is the salvation of humanity. Sin is being defeated.
Jesus says, “Nothing can hurt you. Not even snakes and scorpions can hurt you because you have my life and follow my way.”
And then!
“At that time, Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Jesus says that the full truth of God is only accessible to humans when they do what these disciples did, which is what Jesus had done first. Because earlier, when he was going to send them out, he said, “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
If people reject Jesus when he says, “You must leave everything for the service of God,” they have rejected God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. If they reject the teaching of Jesus to “love your enemies,” they have rejected God himself. If they reject Jesus when he says, “You must have greater righteousness than the most religious people (the Pharisees),” then they have rejected the God who appointed the ancient kings and spoke through the ancient prophets.
The apostles’ preaching is the voice of God. We live in the Kingdom of Heaven when we do what they teach. They teach us to become one with Jesus by leaving everything else behind.
