From the 2007 November Newsletter

Daring to Approach

Being a Christian requires both daring and vigilance: daring to approach the divine Eucharistic Chalice each Sunday, and vigilance over our heart, lest we approach unworthily. The ancient norm is weekly Communion. St. Basil the Great writes, “Daily Communion and participation in the holy Body and Blood of Christ is a good, helpful practice…For myself, I communicate four times a week: on the Lord’s Day, on Wednesday, on Friday and Saturday, and on the other days if there is a commemoration of a martyr.” It is by receiving Holy Communion that we remain part of Christ’s Body, and that is why, at St. Herman’s, it is the custom of the faithful to receive the saving Mysteries each time they are offered, Sunday by Sunday.
The days we live in, however, are very dark and dangerous. The secularism soaking our society makes it too easy to skip our prayers, to ignore the disciplines of fasting, to drift away from consecration to God. We face the danger of approaching the Chalice too casually, without sufficient preparation, and of losing our sense of awe of the sacramental Presence offered us on Sunday morning.
The answer lies not in receiving less frequently, for that would involve making our laxity normal; rather, we must eliminate the laxity from our week, not the Holy Communion.

Three things are required of those who come for Holy Communion (as the Church’s Liturgy commands us to do):

1. Spend Saturday night in spiritual preparation. If you cannot attend Great Vespers, at least do not attend parties. Keep your heart as still as you can.
2. Fast from midnight, taking no water and no food. (Medical conditions, including pregnancy and nursing, may call for some mitigation of this.) That means no coffee in the morning and (if you are a smoker), no cigarettes. (No one said fasting would be easy!)
3. Pray the appointed pre-Communion prayers, offering yourself in renewed dedication to Christ, reaching for His forgiveness and forgiving any who may have sinned against you.

Ultimately it is the state of the heart that matters, not bare externals. But faith cannot be present without works, and if we approach the Chalice with humble faith, we will do these works as well. It is a dangerous and wonderful thing to approach the living God. Our weekly discipleship to Him requires determination and daring: determination to obey Him and prepare our hearts, and daring to approach the saving Chalice of spiritual Fire.
Yours in the Lord,
Fr. Lawrence

Sat. Nov. 3
Set your clock back one hour before bed!

November Special Events


Sat. Nov. 3 – FALL BACK!!! set clocks before retiring for return to Standard time

Sun. Nov. 11 - Remembrance Day prayers at liturgy

Thurs. Nov. 15 – Nativity Fast begins

Wed. Nov. 21 – 7.00 pm Vesperal Liturgy for the Entrance of the Theotokos. Fast from noon for communion; bring food to share (fish permitted)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


FASTING RULES FOR THE NATIVITY FAST

Throughout this fast, we abstain from meat, fish, dairy, wine and oil, with these exceptions:

Tuesdays and Thursdays wine and oil are permitted.

Fish, wine and oil are also permitted on the following days:

Saturdays and Sundays EXCEPT from Dec. 20 to Christmas

Nov. 16 St. Matthew
Nov. 21 Feast of the Entrance
Nov 30 St. Andrew
Dec. 5 St. Sava
Dec. 6 St. Nicholas
Dec. 13 St. Herman

From December 20 until Christmas, there are NO exceptions
===============================================

DIAKONIA

Already we have collected a great many supplies for distribution to the homeless this cold season!

Please make your contribution to the bin in the narthex. For details of items needed, please see the DIAKONIA bulletin board.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOLY CONFESSION: OUR ENCOUNTER WITH CHRIST

It is our custom at St. Herman’s for the faithful to confess at least four times a year, at the four fasting seasons of the church year. (This of course does not mean one cannot confess more often, and at other times also.) The approaching Nativity Fast (beginning Nov. 15) means that the time for receiving the sacrament of Confession is drawing near. The best time for Confession is Saturday evening after Great Vespers, for then it becomes a part of one’s weekly approach to the Chalice. If this is impossible, confessions may be heard at other times also; see Fr. Lawrence to schedule a time.

HELP WANTED: Sermon Trimming and Cataloguing

As many of you know, most of Fr. Lawrence's recent sermons have been recorded - they just haven't been edited, catalogued, or uploaded to St. Herman's website. While none of these steps take a great deal of time (or even technical know-how), they have remained mostly undone until now because they have so often taken just a little more time than I have had.

But of course we all want to see Fr. Lawrence's sermons made available, so I have finally skipped the first two steps and uploaded them "raw and unedited" to the homilies directory on the St. Herman's website. The few homilies I was able to edit, catalogue, and upload while I was at St. Herman's are available here, and the unedited (or, more accurately, "untrimmed", since all that really needs to be done is to trim the rough beginning and ending bits off) and uncatalogued homilies are now available in a subdirectory here. I am hoping that their availability will inspire some tech-savvy denizen or friend of St. Herman's to trim and catalogue them properly as a service to all who love to listen to Fr. Lawrence "hold forth".

If you're willing to step forward, please let me know at frjustin{at}stjohnofshanghai.org (replace "{at}" with "@", as usual!) - or, if you want to get started right away, just download Father's sermons, install MP3 Direct Cut on your computer, pull out your old church calendar (to figure out which sermon he preached when), and e-mail me the finished product to re-upload!