Bishop Benjamin Nominated As Ruling Hierarch
At the special diocesan assembly held in Las Vegas January 31st for the purpose of nominating a ruling hierarch of our diocese, the delegates elected His Grace Bishop Benjamin of Berkley on a unanimous ballot.  When it came down to it, no other potential candidate was even nominated, so great and widespread is the respect and love for Bishop Benjamin among the clergy and faithful of our diocese.

With the assembly having made its nomination, Bishop Benjamin’s candidacy will come before the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America when it next meets during Great Lent.  In the meantime, Bishop Benjamin is not known as “bishop-elect,” nor is his name to be commemorated at divine services.  The Holy Synod itself will make that ultimate determination.  If approved, His Grace will be installed as our ruling bishop at Holy Trinity Cathedral in San Francisco during the course of the next diocesan assembly, to be held during the first week of October in neighboring Santa Rosa.  Popadija Elizabeth will accompany Father Barnabas as our parish lay delegate.  Anyone else who wishes to attend may do so as a lay observer.  His Beatitude Metropolitan Herman will likely be in attendance.

The nominating assembly began with a hierarchical Divine Liturgy presided over by His Grace, Bishop Seraphim of Ottawa and Canada, who as secretary of the Holy Synod was appointed to oversee the process.  His Grace Bishop Benjamin directed the choir.  Bishop Seraphim preached about the dangers of apocalypticism and other obsessions that can distract us from our focus on Christ.  He also recalled being on the Octet (a traveling chorale) of St. Vladimir’s Seminary with Bishop Benjamin when they were both students together.  Following a luncheon, we returned to the temple where the nominating session took place.  Bishop Benjamin retired to another room during the proceedings, and when he returned Fr. Joseph Hirsch informed him of his unanimous nomination.  It is Bishop Benjamin’s desire to visit St. Michael’s sometime in August.  May this Lent be a time of spiritual renewal not only for us, but for our entire diocese!

Services This Month
+ Feb. 2: The Presentation of our Lord in the Temple.

Lenten Schedule
+ Feb. 18: Vespers of Forgiveness.  With this service we enter into the Lenten season.  The choral tones become more somber, the colors change to purple and the fast begins.  This transition also involves a spiritual passage as we observe the ritual of forgiveness.  Beginning with the priest, each of the faithful comes forward to ask forgiveness.  The typikon describes the Ceremony of Mutual Forgiveness as follows: “The Priest stands beside the analogion, and the faithful come up one by one and venerate the Icon, after which each makes a prostration before the Priest, saying, “Forgive me, a sinner.”  The Priest, also, makes a prostration before each, saying the same words; and then the other receives his blessing and kisses his hand.  Meanwhile, the Choir sings ‘Open to me the gates of repentance…’ and ‘By the waters of Babylon…’  After receiving the Priest’s blessing, the faithful may also ask forgiveness of one another.”  In parish practice, the prostrations are usually replaced with a communal prostration of priest to people and people to priest.  This marks the beginning of the ceremony.  Everyone who plans to receive communion on Pascha should participate in this ceremony as part of our Lenten discipline and renewal.
+ Feb. 21 & etc.: Presanctified Liturgy.  Our fathers considered it inappropriate on the penitential weekdays of Lent to celebrate the Divine Liturgy with all its Resurrectional joy and exuberance, and so a special Liturgy was developed that would be more fitting for the Lenten season.  The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts differs from the Liturgies of St. John Chrysostom and St. Basil in that it does not have an epiclesis or consecration of the Gifts (the change by the Holy Spirit of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ).  The Eucharistic elements that are distributed at this service have been consecrated at the prior Sunday Liturgy.  In order to prepare for receiving Communion, we should say our usual rule of Pre-Communion prayers and keep a fast from noon that day.  If we must have a lunch for the sustenance of our bodies, it should be a light meal taken before noon.  The Presanctified Liturgy begins at 5:15 pm and a meal will follow, so this should make it easier for us to keep the fast.  The meal following each Liturgy will be a Lenten potluck and an opportunity for midweek fellowship.
+ Feb. 24 & etc.: Memorial Saturday Divine Liturgy.  Saturday is the day the Orthodox Church has set aside for remembering the departed.  This is done in particular on the Saturdays of Great Lent.  Many aspects of the Liturgy on these days are oriented toward remembrance, in particular the Litany for the Departed, and the blessing of the kolivo.  During the Litany for the Departed, the names of all the Orthodox departed this life in our parish are read aloud.   With the help of Helen Mironoff, our parish’s early metrical records are being translated.  Metrical records are ledgers containing all baptisms, weddings and funerals performed within a particular parish.  As our metrical records are organized, the commemorative list of the departed will continue to grow.
+ Feb. 25 & etc.: Pan-Orthodox (Mission) Vespers.  On each Sunday of Great Lent, the clergy and faithful of our Colorado parishes gather at a single church for a Vespers service and fellowship.  As usual, Sunday of Orthodoxy Vespers will be celebrated in Denver at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Assumption, with Metropolitan Isaiah presiding.  Fr. Barnabas will have space in his car for up to two people.  The full schedule for Pan-Orthodox Vespers will be published next month, but know that subsequent Vespers will be held at our churches in Pueblo, Colorado Springs and Calhan.

Theophany House Blessings
Not many house blessings have been celebrated in our parish since Theophany.  It would be optimal if those still desiring house blessings would arrange with Fr. Barnabas to have them done before the beginning of Lent.  You will need a bowl for holy water, an icon or cross (or icon corner) a candle to carry as you lead Fr. through your house.  House blessings are an annual tradition and may be done for both Orthodox and non-Orthodox Christians. 

Icon Procession
On the first Sunday of Great Lent we celebrate the restoration of icons, commemorating the end of two centuries of bloody oppression against those who venerated sacred images in Eastern Christendom.  It is our tradition to carry icons in a procession at the Vespers of Orthodoxy Sunday.  Since most parishioners of St. Michael’s will not attend that Vespers (in Denver), we will perform this procession in our parish at the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy that day.  Everyone should bring an icon to church for the procession, whether an icon of your patron saint or an image that has some significance in your family.  We will begin our procession after the choir has sung “Blessed be the name…” (2x).  We will walk once around the church (processions may be either once or thrice around), and venerate the icon of Orthodoxy Sunday as we re-enter the temple to conclude the Liturgy.

Hall Cleaning
Popadija Elizabeth will coordinate with our ladies to clean and organize our parish hall on Saturday the 10th.  With AA and Alanon now gone from our facilities, we have an opportunity to re-evaluate our use of space, storage of supplies, etc.  In addition to the work that will get done, this will also be an opportunity for the ladies to spend some time together.

Meatfare & Cheesefare
Sunday the 11th is Meatfare, the last day to eat meat until Pascha.  In the week following Meatfare, meat is not longer eaten but we may have dairy products even on Wednesday and Friday.  The following Sunday is Cheesefare, when our fast from meat now includes fasting from dairy products for the duration of Great Lent and Holy Week.  To supplement our Meatfare coffee hour, Popadija Elizabeth will organize the ladies in preparing a meat dish made from the rest of the unused cabbage roll meat.  For Cheesefare, we may all bring a cheesy dish to add to the regular coffee hour.

Kolivo
At the Memorial Saturday Divine Liturgies, as at other times when we commemorate the departed (panihkidas/parastos’, Slavas), the Orthodox Tradition calls for the blessing and distribution of a special dish called kolivo (kolyva, etc.).  Made primarily from boiled wheat (or rice, which Russians call “kutiya”), this dish calls to mind the Apostle Paul’s analogy of death and resurrection to a kernel of grain: “What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.  And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain” (I Cor. 15:37).  Not many parishioners of St. Michael’s know how to make kolivo, so Popadija Elizabeth will lead a class in kolivo preparation at the parish hall on Saturday the 17th.  The ladies (and gentlemen, if interested) will make a batch of kolivo and sample it together.  At that time there will be a sign-up sheet for providing the kolivo for Memorial Saturday Liturgies.

Food Pantry
As many of you know, Fr. Barnabas uses church funds to purchase gift certificates for King Soopers that he can distribute to the many people who come to the rectory door looking for a handout.  In an average week, approximately 4-6 people come for assistance, in addition to the many people who call.  Lately, an increasing proportion of these people have been men, and many of them have been either high, drunk or recently released from jail.  As an example, one man came to the door with glazed-over eyes saying that he just got out of jail and heard he could get a gift card from us.  Another man who comes once a month with a friend came recently without the friend.  When Father asked where his usual companion was, he replied, “He’s in jail for assaulting a police officer and I just know that pig’s gonna win!  They always do!”  Due to safety concerns, Father will no longer be purchasing these gifts cards.  Instead, we will soon establish a modest food pantry so that we can continue to help people who really need it, such as single mothers, rather than convicts and addicts who are not so safe to have around.

Calendars & Magazines
The 2007 Church calendars have arrived and may be found in a box at the rear of the church.  Please take one and leave a couple of dollars’ donation in the collection basket.  There are also several copies of our diocesan magazine, The Orthodox Vision, located on the counter in the narthex.  These magazines are complimentary and you may take them to give out to friends.

Putting Out Candles
A steady amount of sand is ending up on the floor around our candle stands as a result of the beeswax candles being blown out.  This sand gets ground into the floor and is beginning to mar the finish.  When putting out the beeswax candles, please use the snuffer located in the windowsill near the choir area.

Wish List
Father would like to have a small screen, easily portable television to keep in the parish hall and occasionally show videos and DVD’s on.  If anyone has an old color television they no longer need and would like to donate to the church for this purpose, please speak with Fr. Barnabas.

Recommended Reading
This month’s pick is Philip Jenkins’ The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, to which Father referred in the homily on Sanctity of Life Sunday.  Five years after publication, the book’s dire predictions of future Orthodox demographics continue to look probable as Eastern Europe remains in negative population growth through abortion, alcoholism and other forms of suicide.  Pray for the renewal of Orthodoxy in the traditionally Orthodox lands.

Three Grains Of Rice
While preparing a meager meal, a beggar heard a caravan approaching. Quickly he ran, crying "Alms, alms." Realizing that one of the travelers was a prince, he cried even louder.  The prince said to the beggar, "What have you to give me for the alms I might give you?"  The beggar fingered his 25 or 30 grains of rice and offered just three grains to the prince.  

The prince took the three grains of rice and held them for a moment.  Then, taking the beggar's hand, he laid the three grains in the moist palm, and folded the beggar's fingers over them. With that the prince left.   The beggar opened his hand.  Amazingly, instead of three grains of rice there were three brilliant diamonds. The prince gave him three diamonds!  The beggar gasped and then wept, "If only I had given all!  If only I had given all!”

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