~ my beloved children in Christ,

!
May April showers bring PASCHA flowers!
one month till... /RESURRECTION!

As the midpoint of Great and Holy Lent we look forward to this Sunday of the
Veneration of the Precious and Life-giving Cross of our Savior (
). And having joyously celebrated the Feast-day of the
"Evangelismos tis Theotkou" ( = Annunciation: or Announcement to the
Theotokos of Christ's coming into the world), we thought to again make good use of the
email and send yet another word of encouragement to all. Our joy will not be
overcome! Yet, indeed the world seems to be encountering many more evils each and
every day. Yet Christ says: HAVE COURAGE! ! (Jn. 16:33) The Church
will never be "prevailed against" even "by the gates of hell" (Matt. 16:18). Take heart!
We are the Church! ! Children of God!
Let us look for a moment at our March 25th Feast-day (Gr: - eort) which is
two-fold - and for good reason! As the hymn itself declares,
("Today is the first chapter of our salvation") - the very day the
Second Person of the Holy Trinity, Christ, was conceived (by the power of the Holy

Spirit) in the womb of the young virgin damsel, Mariam, our Pnagha. You see, for
this reason (and many others) the Church firmly trusts in the grace and protection of
our Savior's mother. And the Church therefore also attributes the strength, fortitude
and decisiveness of the revolutionaries of 1821 Greece to have come with the help of the
Theotokos. Being under the "not-always-nice" Turkish yoke since 1453 - was a long
time of oppression (8 generations!). Both General Theodoros Kolokotronis (his battle
cry; ! "for Faith and Country!") and Patriarch Gregory
the 5th of Constantinople knew in their hearts that by the prayers of the Theotokos all
would go well. The holy Patriarch was martyred [murdered] on April 22, 1821 in the
Massacre of Constantinople and on the orders of the Sultan and his body was hung in
the gates of the Patriarchate (after dragging his holy body throughout the city streets,
some Jews then through this temple of the Holy Spirit into the sea). While the names of
his murderers were never known, the name of Saint Gregory V is inscribed in the Book
of Life and honored particularly by the Church at this time and each year on April 10th
(that year it was Pascha day!). ! Great be his grace! We will strive,
by the power of the Cross, by St Gregory's and the prayers of the Theotokos - and of all
the Saints and of the Angels and Archangels of heaven, to stay the course which they
paved. We Orthodox maintain the very same faith as the Apostles and St. Gregory V
and we still hold this FAITH and believe in our ageless ideals!
____________________________________________________________

THE FOLLOWING IS AN ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PARENTS

TOWARD GOOD EDUCATION FOR THEIR CHILDREN
(Photo: Cave on Patmos where St John the Theologian
wrote the Book of the Apocalypse)

"I am the
Alpha and
the Omega"

With deep gratitude and love let us remind ourselves ("again and again")
of what a great inheritance we own:

We are Greek Orthodox Christians: Just what does this mean?

A. "Greek" All Orthodox own and enjoy this
Hellenic root/inheritance (not merely those
of Hellenic bloodlines); The "Alpha and
the Omega" of John's Book Of Revelations
in every language alway uses these first and
last letters of the Greek alphabet in
referring to Christ - which are the first and
last letters of each of ours responsibility as
Christians:
to
love!

(Agap) means,
"I love." This is why many (most?)
Catholic, Episcopal and Evangelical churches (< "there's four Greek
words for ya!") use these two letters so much! Even Thomas Jefferson
(the learned 3rd President of the United States and author of the
Declaration of Independence) declared, "We are all Hellenes!" He was
steeped in Hellenic learning and desirous that his new nation to have
an ethical, philosophical and historically-connected foundation
(<more Greek words). Furthermore 2,500 years earlier, because of
the spreading of the Hellenic culture by
Alexander the Great - which was spread
throughout the known world then - AND the
revelations of God given through the Old
Testament which were providentially
translated into Greek 251 Before Christ by
Ptolemy II (known primarily by its Latin
name; the Septuagint) - The Translation of the

Seventy ( ).
Few may realize that this Greek Old Testament
was the only one used by the Apostles and
following by the Fathers (see: St Augustine's
urgings to St. Jerome to translate the OT into
Latin from the Greek). Additionally the
foundational and creatively lucid wisdom of
the likes of Socrates and Aristotle, was
providentially born to be the foundational
learning for the likes of Saint Paul whose
method and writing style are indisputably Greek. The writings of the
Greek Fathers of the first thousand years of the Church are imbued
with Hellenic syntax, methodology and spirit. Moreover, because of
God's providence we see that the exactness of the Hellenic tongue was
developed in order that the Truths of God's incarnation might be
precisely written for all posterity. Remember; the Russian lands had
long before adopted Hellenic learning too, as their foundation for
education, theater, art, philosophy and science, which lent ease to
their becoming part of the Greek Church...and not the "Latin church"
so many years later! In 988 A.D. under
the erudite Emperor and now Saint,
Vladimir, Grand Prince of Kiev (who
actually took the name "Vasileios" when
baptized).
B. "Orthodox" (Gr: [orth] = right,
correct, true, sound AND [dksa]=
glory, honor, worship) to distinguish the
Church from the differences (heresy [Gr:
- E r see] which became "error")
that grew away from the original and
foundational Faith of the Apostles. The
truth was initially challenged by Arius at the First Ecumenical Synod
(325 A.D.) and there the Fathers coined the key word for Orthodox
Trinitarian theology in our Symbol of Faith [the Creed]:
= same essence, one nature, indivisible).
C. "Christian" naturally, because the leader and founder of the Church
is Christ Himself. In Greek, - "Christs" = the Anointed One,

our SAVIOR, the Only-begotten Son of the Heavenly Father and the
Second Person of the All-holy Trinity. The Apostle Peter ( Petros, which means rock) declared it, "You are the Christ, the
Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:16). For those lost and away from
the Faith of the Apostles - we, bound for the promise of Christ, for the
kingdom of heaven - the Orthodox, are responsible. And we must "use
all means" (St Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians 9:22) to bring
them to His loving embrace - into the Church.
As the Church (and as American citizens - and indeed as citizens of the free world), no
one has forbidden us to go to church - (yet). Yet, we were forbidden to go to
church during the Ottoman occupation of Greece and the Balkans ([besides political
differences throughout history] primarily: Greece, Serbia, Romania, Albania and
Bulgaria), for over 400 years (as were the Russian faithful and others during

communist rule). That was the very reason for " " ("the hidden
school" - see above famous painting by Ghyzi). The Greek clergy would both
have liturgies in the middle of the night and teach our children the Greek language and
our Holy Orthodox Faith - two sacred things that are inextricably intertwined:
,
...

.

"Open Greek schools in order for the children to

learn ...Learning the Greek language they will uncover all the
mysteries of life and of our Church; which are kept therein."
Many years later Saint Kosmas the Aitolos (+1799) makes a valid point - a point in fact
that parents and educators throughout the western world realize has great
weight! Greek letters (Gr: paideia < pedagogy = education) is - and has always been honored as a foundation to true wisdom and enjoying quality of life! From the lessons
learned for centuries now in myriad countries from the epoch poem of Homer (The
Iliad and the Odyssey), to Plato's Republic, to the New Testament and the
Septuagint (we repeat: the time-honored and God inspired Greek translation of the
Old Testament exclusively used by the Apostles and the Church from the time of Christ)
to the writings of the Church Fathers (Basil, John Chrysostom, the Gregories et
al). Surely we would not want to deprive our progeny of any and every opportunity to
learn and grow in order that they might achieve a higher quality of life - and thus
become the beacons they ought to of Christ's Church. At the risk of sounding like the
persistent father in the "Greek Fat Wedding" films, to those of us who have Greek
blood - and to those who do not, strongly consider giving your children the gift of
learning even just a little of this language that is part of the foundation of our FAITH (AND of our English "alphabet" [ & [alpha & beta] - & , the first two
letters also of the Greek alphabet!). Yes, over 50% of all English words do come
from Greek! (not merely ecclesiastical, mathematical, psychological and medical
terms, but words like: athlete, anonymous, cemetery, diphthong, dynamite,
gymnasium, hero, history, introspective, jealousy, knowledge, monologue, portals,
post, sense, theater, Uranus, xylophone...and on and on...).
The One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church is not is not merely "a church as opposed
to other" Christian groups; She is the foundation. This is a lesson you might want to sit
down and have with your children (Sunday School Catechism class) during this most
sacred and opportune time of the Church Calendar year - Great and Holy Lent.
! May the continuous road be good!
!
May the Sunday of the Veneration of the Precious and
Life-giving Cross of our Savior
BE BLESSED!