1 APRIL 2017 HOLY TRINITY SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH 1910 Serbian Drive St. Louis, MO 63104 314-776-3262 E-mail [email protected]Parish Priest Rev. Father Ljubomir Krstic Father’s Phone 815-543-6170 Board President– Dragan Acamovic Kolo President– Ljubica Acamovic Youth Ministry Leader- Nemanja Pandzic Choir President– Risto Kekich Sunday School Director– Snezana Grubisic Stewardship Committee Chair- Kris Chkautovich Cemetery Manager– Ljubomir Lausevich Church Hall Manager– Zoran Kortuma The News of the Holy Trini- ty is sent out monthly. Please contact Father Ljubo- mir or the Church office with any suggestions for future articles. All ideas are certainly welcome www.serbianchurchstlouis.org Пут Крста - Вести Цркве Свете Тројице The Way of the Cross– Holy Trinity News Pastoral Letter by Fr. Ljubomir Krstic We are already in the month of April and this year it means the celebration of the greatest Holy Day of all – Resurrection of our God Jesus Christ from the dead or Pascha. Many of us can say that this is nothing special, it is going to be like last year or the years before that. Same like we hear a complaint that every Sunday Divine Liturgy is always the same, thus it is boring. Not true! And I’m not saying this just because I’m a priest but because I’m fellow Orthodox who is trying his best to stay Orthodox and to prepare myself so I am worthy of the celebration. And how does one prepare for such a great Feast day like Pascha? Again, some of us can say, “Yes we know we need to fast, pray, take confession, blah, blah…boring! From the perspective of those people that sounds right. You know what else is true? True, is the passage from the Psalms: The fool says in his heart, "There is no God.” ( Ps. 14) You may wonder, why are the people who fast, pray, confess etc. and feel boring referred to as a "fool" in the Psalm? Maybe the "fool" is too harsh but truly we are fooled by the values of this world. Take technology for instance, every advertisement about modern technology claims their product is faster, bigger, and does more. The modern world knows only way up, the way to success. Your boss is pushing for more and more. The room for the error becomes narrower and narrower every day. Make a mistake and we become disposable. The race for success is faster than ever. Looking from this perspective, fasting, prayer, Divine Liturgy and celebration of Feast Days are old, obsolete and boring. Simply put, we are pressured to move fast forgetting not just others but ourselves too. I was once told that the road to Heaven is long, narrow, curvy but not too steep so every- one can take it. Now, close your eyes and imagine yourself running up this road or if you are out of shape like me walking up this road. You are by yourself and your thoughts. You walk and you think. You think about your life, your missed opportunities, how you could’ve done better in so many instances. Suddenly, there are few stray dogs barking at you and you lose your peace. You pick up some rocks and throw it at the dogs and you chase them away. You keep walking and you finally get your peace back and you get back to the Confession (that's what Confession is – thinking about above mentioned things). Continued on page 2
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Miraculously, Orthodox Christianity has preserved the essence of "the faith once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). By the sheer grace of God, it has maintained the apostolic faith in the face of extraordinary pressures, from persecu-tion and martyrdom to Western secularism and pluralism. Without that grace, Orthodoxy would have disappeared be-fore the end of the first millennium. And with it would have disappeared "true belief and "true worship." Because of its God-given survival and God-inspired expansion throughout what is called "the diaspora," Orthodoxy continues to preserve, proclaim, and celebrate the truth about God and about ourselves. More than any other expression of Christian faith, it enables us to know God, to celebrate His saving work, and to participate in His very life. To bor-row the expression of St Innocent Veniaminov, Orthodoxy does nothing less than indicate to us and guide us along the Way that leads to the kingdom of heaven. That way, nevertheless, includes an aspect that is particularly difficult to preserve and cultivate in modern American society: an aspect expressed most eloquently in the Entrance Hymn of the Divine Liturgy of Holy Saturday, borrowed from the Liturgy of St James. On that day, we sing with solemn anticipation words that express awe—"fear and trem-bling"—before the ineffable mystery of the death and coming resurrection of God's eternal Son. Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and in fear and trembling stand, rendering nothing earthly-minded. For the King of kings, and the Lord of lords, comes to be slain, to give Himself as food to the faithful! In the usual celebrations of the Divine Liturgy, we exhort ourselves and one another to "lay aside all earthly cares," in order to receive "the King of all." On Holy Saturday, as we commemorate Christ's repose in the tomb and His descent into the realm of the dead, we recall the price paid for our own liberation from death and corruption. We declare that He, the preexistent divine Son of the Father, came into our world and into our life for one purpose: to die, that through His death we might have life, lived in eternal communion with the Holy Trinity. There is nothing in human experience, nor even in the human imagination, that could offer greater promise and greater
joy than this central message of the Christian gospel. Yet for most of us, the most familiar and painful aspect of our len-
ten journey is likely to be our inability to relate to that message—to that extraordinary promise—in a way that actually
changes our life. Distraction, dispersion, and chaos, whether from outside or from deep within our own psyche, exercise
their demonic influence in every phase of our daily life, while we are at work, with our friends or family, or in a liturgi-
cal service. And so we live our lives on the surface, feeling little and caring little for what is in fact the one thing in this
world that really matters, the one thing that is truly needful.
Holy Saturday calls us back to what is essential. In the Entrance Hymn especially, it reminds us that our life is a battle
ground, where a constant struggle pits us against the Enemy, against the worst inclinations of our fallen nature. Appro-
priately, it calls us to engage in that struggle with fear, with trembling, and in silence.
One of the great teachers of Orthodox tradition, the fifth-century mystic, Diodochos of Photiki, captured the vital link
between inner silence and spiritual warfare with these words:
Spiritual knowledge comes through prayer, deep stillness and complete detachment. . . When the soul's incensive power
[thymikon, spiritual wrath] is aroused against the passions, we should know it is time for silence, since the hour of bat-
tle is at hand.
At the close of Holy Week, as we journey with our Lord toward His resurrection, we hear once again in the words of
the Great Saturday Hymn of Entrance an invitation to enter into that silence: silence which is essential if we are to as-
sume with real faithfulness the ascetic struggle that characterizes our entire "life in Christ."
In that silence we stand in holy awe before the King of kings and Lord of lords. For a few moments we move beyond
the superficiality of our social and cultural existence: the noise, the distraction, and the pointlessness of our daily rou-
tine. By the grace of God we discover at least a minimum of "prayer, deep stillness, and detachment." In that stillness—
in the silence granted to our mortal flesh— we contemplate the unfathomable depths of Jesus' sacrificial love, for our-
selves and for all mankind. And "with fear and trembling" we receive Him as eucharistic food, the Bread of heaven,
which nourishes us to eternal life.
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March Church Attendance
3/5/2017—70 03/12/17—90
03/19/17—93 03/26/17—79
Avg. - 83
Parish Announcements
Thank you to Bo Prstojevich for the "sneeze guard" needed on the steam table that
Bo purchased for the church!
Thanks to Predrag Vukadinovich for smoking meat for Serbfest & Catering!!
Thanks too to Dorothy Milich for donating communion wine.
Thank you to our church for stocking the Food Pantry for Focus at
St. Michaels with meats, vegetables, soup & much more! Also to
Helen Shormas, Sharon Shormas Wade & Nicholas Wade family
for purchasing hygiene supplies for the homeless including deo-
dorant, shampoo, toothbrush/paste, razors with shaving cream,
etc. as all of these items are needed constantly.
And a big thank you to the following people for purchasing 3 sets
of vestments for our church.... Olga Krag (Golubovich), Calvin &
Chrissy Whitacre (Michal Funeral Home) in memory of Nada
Watkins, Miroslav Petrovich and Stana Jandrasevic and also a
parishioner who would like to remain anonymous! HVALA TO ALL
10.00 a.m. Divine Liturgy – Palm Sunday Света Литургија- Цвети
Wednesday 12
6.00 p.m. Presanticified Liturgy - Литургија Пређеосвећених Дарова 7.00 p.m. Catechism for Adults – Веронаука за одрасле
Thursday 13
10.a.m. Divine Liturgy – Great and Holy Thursday Света Литургија- Велики Четвртак 7. p.m. Reading of the 12 Passion Gospels Читање 12 Јеванђеља
Friday 14
10.00 a.m. Reading of the Royal Hours Читање Царских Часова 7.30 p.m. Great and Holy Friday - Presentation of the Holy Shroud Велики Петак – Изношење Плаштанице
Saturday 15
8.30 a.m. Funeral of our Lord and Jesus Christ Сахрана Господа Исуса Христа 10.00 a.m. Divine Liturgy Света Литургија
Sunday 16
12.01 a.m. Paschal Matins Васкрсна Јутрења 10.00 am Resurrection of Our Lord and Jesus Christ – Pascha – Divine Liturgy Васкрсење Господа Нашег Исуса Христа – Света Литургија 12.00 Banquet – Васкрсни Ручак
Monday 17
10.00 a.m. Divine Liturgy Света Литургија
Tuesday 18
10.00 a.m. Divine Liturgy Света Литургија
Sunday 23
9:00 a.m. Divine Liturgy – Liturgy Served on Mount Hope Cemetery Света Литургија – Литургија на Гробљу