The Nativity (Advent) Fast

As we prepare to enter into the Fast of the Nativity of Christ, consider the following words from an Orthodox bishop about the true ascetical discipline of fasting:

"Next time you have a period of fasting, perhaps during this forthcoming fast of the Nativity of Christ, do not think of it just as placing upon yourself some heavy rule about eating. Concentrate on what you are doing with you tongue and eyes, and this will reveal much to you about the condition of your heart, your conscience. Are you undertaking any kind of asceticism with your tongue and your eyes? Are you seriously thinking about how you may have hurt somebody else in the brotherhood and sisterhood, in your own community, by saying something or by the way you looked at them? Are you contemplating how you might heal yourself so you no longer do this? Are you consciously aware that whenever you wound a brother or a sister in the parish you are actually wounding the Body of Christ just as surely as the soldier who pierced His side with a spear? These are most important matters to think about when you start to keep the fast. Always remember that true asceticism is not so much about avoidance as it is about the encounter. Above all, think about how you encounter your brothers and sisters in every way, for an encounter with another human being is always an encounter with Christ Who created them and Who loves and values them." (Archbishop Lazar Puhalo)

Saint John Chrysostom tells us that it does us no good to refrain from eating meat if we consume our brother instead. Christians ought to exemplify love above any other people on the earth. And yet can we say that we actually do this? Is St. Michael's notorious for the bonds of love that bind its members together? Until it is, we will not have begun to fast. It is important to have the right faith. This distinguishes the Orthodox Christians from all others. And yet can we honestly say we have the true faith if this faith is not manifested in our hearts and through our deeds? Let us prepare to fast during this Nativity season not only from certain foods, but even more importantly: from sharp words and unkind looks.

Services This Month

+ Nov. 8: Archangel Michael. God willing, Frs. Joseph, Anthony and perhaps other clergy will join us for the celebration of our Altar Feast. We will also celebrate the Krsna Slava. If anyone is interested in being kum this year, speak with Popadija. The kum prepares the slava kolach and the kolivo, thus serving as honorary host of the feast. The kumovi should also coordinate coffee hour that day, which will be a potluck and involve consuming leftover cabbage rolls.

+ Nov. 21: Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple. Since this is one of the Great Feasts, we will celebrate the Vigil service with litya. Choir members are especially urged to come make our prayers beautiful.

+ Nov. 23-24: Thanksgiving/St. Catherine. We will chant the Akathist "Glory to God for all Things" on the eve and celebrate liturgy on the day of this combined feast.

*Vespers: With the evenings getting darker and colder, getting to Vespers becomes more of a challenge, especially for our elders and those who live at great distances from the church. To ease this challenge, Saturday Vespers will be moved up to 5:30 when we begin the fast. This change will be in effect at least through the remainder of the winter.

Cabbage Roll Dinner

Our annual Dinner will take place Nov. 5th from 12 to 3 pm. Tickets are $10 each for adults, $5 for children ten and under. The most economical form of advertisement is word of mouth, so tell your friends. Before the dinner can happen, a great deal of work needs to take place. The Saturday before the dinner will be a day of preparation in which every able-bodied parishioner should take part. There are signup sheets in the hall containing descriptions of various jobs. Many jobs do not yet have signatures next to them. Perhaps the missing signature is yours. For questions about the Dinner, contact Mary Propes at (719) 564-4201. In addition to the day of preparation, there is also work to be done on the day of the Dinner itself. He who does not work, let him not eat cabbage rolls.

Alaska Trip Message From Fr. Anthony

We have been asked to consider going to Alaska to work on a church this summer. The church is on the Kuskokwim River, in a village called "Chuathbaluk". Like much of the "bush country" native villages of AK, it is in great need of repair. Sealing from the elements, as well as doing some foundation work, are the main agenda for the trip. This would be a "roughing it" trip, as the entire village has a mere 119 people. I cannot say for sure what the cost will be, but it looks like about $1000/per. for 13 days, depending on exact airfare. From my estimates, it will not be more than that. Please respond if you are interested, so I can begin putting together a team, and planning the trip if there is enough initial interest.
Fr. Anthony
Ss. Constantine and Helen / Holy Theophany Orthodox Church

Parishioner Profile: Helen Mironoff

You'd never know it from looking at her, but persuade Helen Mironoff to speak of her past and you will come face to face with a childhood runaway, an enemy of the people, and a schismatic. Helen was born in 1921 in Mstislavl, now part of Belarus. In spite of the chaotic world into which she was born, her childhood was surprisingly happy. When Stalin came to power in the late 20s, however, that all changed. Things became so ugly that in that same year the young Helen decided to run away to America. And so with a day's rations in hand, she and a couple of young co-conspirators stole a boat and began to float down the Dniepr River, certain that once they reached Turkey it would be a short trek to the land of freedom. Much to their frustration this little band of refugees was betrayed on the morning of their second day by a farmer 15 km downriver, who handed them over to the authorities. As they were escorted home, the entire school was assembled to meet them bearing signs saying, "Welcome home, Americans!" For some time afterward, Helen earned the nickname "Amerikanka."

Helen's family relocated to the Donbas region of Ukraine in 1929, just in time for Stalin's artificial famine, one of the largest acts of planned murder in human history. It was here that Helen's father was arrested as a German spy because he refused to embezzle the meat of the farm workers for the benefit of two, fat wives of Party bosses. Helen's father didn't even speak German, nevertheless he subsequently "confessed" and was thrown into a Siberian gulag for five years. Helen's family, branded as enemies of the people, were thrown out into the snow. "This was the turning point in my attitude toward communism," she recalls.

The year 1941 found the family back in Mstislavl, and "when the war broke out I danced." Helen's sister was aghast at her jig. "Enemies attacked your country," she said, to which Helen responded, "My country died a long time ago. Now I'm waiting for those enemies to get me out of here." Though many Americans would find it difficult to understand, millions of Soviet subjects welcomed the Axis invaders as liberators. That's how evil Stalin and his horde were. When Helen first encountered the Germans, she and her sister were bathing in a river. Suddenly, voiced began to shout "Frauleins! Frauleins!" and on the shore she saw a party of German soldiers disrobing themselves. The two women hid in the reeds. When they came out the Germans were gone, but they had left chocolates, cigarettes and tinned meat.

Though the Germans were usually kind and well mannered, it was they who killed Helen's father. He was picking mushrooms in the forest when he was rounded up with over a dozen other civilians and shot in retaliation for the Partizan decapitation of a German motorcycle scout. Helen actually holds the local peasants more responsible than the Germans since not one of them dared to vouch for her father when given the opportunity. Sent to the gulags as a German spy and executed by the Nazis as a partizan: such a tragic fate defies comprehension. How can anyone who did not experience it for themselves have any idea what these people have suffered?

Amidst all of this horror, pain and suffering, Helen met the love of her life. Fighting the Communists alongside the Axis powers were a legion of White Russian soldiers, diehard defenders of their slain Tsar and mostly loyal children of the Church. A group of such exiles was sent east by the Berlin-based Russian Synod Abroad with the specific commission to restore and reopen desecrated churches. One such group came to Mstislavl under a dashing officer named Eugene Mironoff, son of a martyred priest. He was brining the antimension. Helen was up on a ladder scraping the paint off the window of a church that had been turned into a jail (with the toilet in the altar), when this group walked in. She looked down on them, saw Eugene and thought to herself, "Is that my prince?" Under the circumstances there was no time for romance, but over the next couple of years, Eugene and Helen's common labor united them. When the Axis fortunes began to wane, Helen joined Eugene on the westward retreat through Prussia, Latvia and on to Yugoslavia, where they were safe for a while. Helen worked to relocate Russian children to Germany, trying to save as many as possible from the clutches of the "worker's paradise." With Axis lines collapsing all around, the pair fled again to Czechoslovakia. In an Orthodox church in that land, with bombs falling all around, Helen and Eugene were married. For their honeymoon, they walked to Bavaria as the Red tide swept over the Czech Lands.

After the German surrender, the two were picked up by the Allies and taken to a repatriation camp, where all Russian refugees were being collected and handed over to the Soviets, who tried them, shot them and buried them, or just shot them and buried them. (The same betrayal was taking place in Yugoslavia, where Allied soldiers were handing over Chetniks to the murderous Partizans. The British soldiers heard firing squads shooting day and night, but they had their orders: all Slavs to the Communists, and to hell with asylum). With such an ominous fate hanging over their heads, Helen and Eugene found a weak point in the wall of their compound and tunneled out in the night.

After various trials and tribulations, the pair made their way to America, where Springfield, MA became their new home. There they found a nice, Russian church where Gene became choir director. Everything was wonderful at the church until its Patriarch showed up one day with his wife. That was Helen's first exposure to the canonical chaos of American Orthodoxy. In 1973 the two moved to Pueblo for the healthier climate and because Eugene was offered a position as choir director of St. Michael's, complete with a stipend and a house, promises that never materialized. Still, the two refugees found their little piece of paradise here. To have tea with Helen Mironoff is to have an encounter with living, breathing history and a part of the Orthodox experience most of us are only familiar with from books. This is an opportunity more of us should take advantage of.

From Katrina

Katrina (Susanna) Orton invites everyone to attend an open house for her new acupuncture clinic Nov. 4 between 2 and 6 pm. For more information contact Katrina at (719) 569-4228.

Fellowship Breakfast

This month will be our last breakfast of the civil year. Though initially quite popular, with 4-8 parishioners coming together, interest seems to have waned these last few months. If you'd like to see this continue as a formal event, show your support by coming on the morning before the Fast. Suggestions for improvement will be considered.
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