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PO
Box 1025, Bonners
V. Rev. Fr. Gregory Horton – Pastor Home:208-267-0897;
Church:208-267-3693 Dear Beloved Ones in Christ, Well, it has been QUITE a summer here in North Idaho…especially for the Orthodox Christians of Holy Myrrhbearers in Bonners Ferry. I want to personally thank everyone that prayed for my son, Sebastian, as he underwent a serious trial in June and came out of that with a verdict of not guilty. This ordeal took its toll on all of us but through the prayers of the saints and all of our beloved ones everywhere, God blessed us with a peaceful resolution. In addition, the little temple on the hill just outside of town is coming along nicely. Please check our wish list for any items that particularly interest you. There is still much to be done as we prepare for the consecration of our church and cemetery. We are most grateful to our loving and giving friends from everywhere that have helped us to this point. This will be the final push and it is all laid out in that list. Specifically, the ceiling and the gravel parking lot have been completed. We have also completed painting the outside of the building. We had several Eastern European families and church this past Sunday and they all commented on how much it looks like a little village church back home. We are currently having the Cross for the top of the church fashioned. The cost will be over $4000.00 plus whatever it costs to have it powder coated gold and mounted by our builder. PLEASE consider helping us with this last outside job before the winter hits. Once this is completed, we can turn our attention to laying a floor inside the temple. The altar area will be tiled and the rest of the church will have a hardwood floor. Again, we will need some additional funding before this can take place…perhaps another $10,000. Only then will we be able to consider a permanent iconostasis and Altar Table…we leave it in God’s hands as we turn to our benefactors who always seem to come through and assist when needed. We reflect on our blessings as we enter this new ecclesiastical year and pray that you and your families are healthy and peaceful…enough to glorify God Who gives us all things. Please contact me either by phone- 208-267-0897 (Home) or 208-304-3673 (Cell) or by email at abounagregory@mybluelight.com if there are ever any questions or suggestions. I thank God for all of you…may your lives be richly blessed! All of My Love in Christ, +Fr. Gregory September 2010
Tutoring and Small Group Classes available upon request* WISH LIST: (In chronological order of when projects are anticipated to be completed) *Prices can be researched for you*
We have a donor that wishes to donate a new Epitaphion (For Tomb of Christ)…we are researching the price, etc. The Chanter Stand has been put on hold for the time being…thank you to the donor who has graciously granted a blessing to use the donation towards our immediate wish list We are pleased to announce that our parish is ready to begin selling wooden coffins (pine or a wood of your choice) for $500 each (pine). They come in two different styles…the traditional “shaped” style and the simple large rectangular style. We will begin offering them far and wide as production increases. This price is the lowest that we have found…all proceeds (after material costs) will be used for the development of the parish cemetery. Please contact Fr. Gregory at 208-304-3673 (cell) or abounagregory@mybluelight.com for details and/or to order. SPECIAL DATES: (Please contact us if any are missing…please submit your feast days and anniversary dates and also the children’s’ birthdays…if you don’t know your feast day, please call Fr. Gregory for assistance with this important matter): August 9-Namesday of Cindy Matthews (St. Herman of Alaska) 12-Birthday of Matthew Alexianu 19-Anniversary of Paul & Shelli Hutchison (Morris) 26-Namesday of Natalia Horton (Martyr Natalia) 31-Anniversary of Stu & Trina Harris 31-Namesday of Wally Goodsen (St. Cyprian of Carthage) 23-Namesday of Jed Bartlett (Greatmartyr George) 25-Repose of Theophilus John Tsalaky 27-Birthday of Andrew Feltham September 2-Anniversary of Jed & Tatiana Bartlett 5-Birthday of Zachariah Gallatin 5-Namesday of Khouria Cindy, Elizabeth Matthews & Elizabeth Alexianu (Zacharias & Elizabeth) 6-Repose of Laurie Joanna Ivins & Zachariah (Al) Parsons 9-Namesday of Anne Van Fossen (St. Anna, Mother of the Theotokos) 14-Namesday of John Mattmiller (St. John Chrysostom) 17-Namesday of Kaci Gallatin (Martyr Vera) 18-Birthday of Sebastian Horton 22-Birthday of Karla Horton 24-Namesday of Karla Horton (Protomartyr Thecla) 26-Namesday of John Schrom & Subdeacon John Van Fossen (John the Theologian) 27-Birthday of John Stephen Van Fossen 28-Repose of Lindle Hancock (Father of Alice Gallatin) October 9-Birthday of Elizabeth Alexianu 13-Namesday of Benjamin Horton (St. Benjamin the Deacon) 24-Birthday of Pauline Harris 26-Birthday of Martha Lysnewycz Metropolitan Anthony Sourozh How can I deal with my sinful condition? 12 August 1984 In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. So often we ask ourselves and one another a very tormenting question: How can I deal with my sinful condition? What can I do? I cannot avoid committing sins, Christ alone is sinless. I cannot, for lack of determination, or courage, or ability truly repent when I do commit a sin, or in general, of my sinful condition. What is left to me? I am tormented, I fight like one drowning, and I see no solution. And there is a word which was spoken once by a Russian staretz, one of the last elders of Optina. He said to a visitor of his: "No one can live without sin, few know how to repent in such a way that their sins are washed as white as fleece. But there is one thing which we all can do: when we can neither avoid sin, nor repent truly, we can then bear the burden of sin, bear it patiently, bear it with pain, bear it without doing anything to avoid the pain and the agony of it, bear it as one would bear a cross, not Christ's cross, not the cross of true discipleship, but the cross of the thief who was crucified next to Him. Didn't the thief say to his companion who was blaspheming the Lord: We are enduring because we have committed crimes; He endures sinlessly... And it is to him, because he had accepted the punishment, the pain, the agony, the consequences indeed of evil he had committed, of being the man he was, that Christ said, '˜Thou shalt be with Me today in Paradise...'" I remember the life of one of the divines, the story of one who had come to him and have said that he had led all his life a life that was evil, impure, unworthy both of God and of himself; and then he had repented, he has rejected all evil he had done; and yet, he was in the power of the same evil. And the divine said to him: There was a time when you lapped up all this filth with delight; now you perceive it as filth and you feel that you are drowning in it with horror, with disgust. Take this to be your reward for your past, and endure... This is something which all of us can do: to endure the consequences, to endure the enslavement which is our patiently, humbly, with a broken heart; not with indifference, not with a sense that as we are abandoned to it by God, then, why not sin? But taking it as a healing perception of what sin is, of what it does to us, of the horror of it. And if we patiently endure, a day will come when our inner rejection of sin will bear fruit, and when freedom will be given us. So, if we can, in all the ways we can, let us avoid sin in all its forms, even those sins which seem to be so unimportant, because the slightest crack in a dam sooner or later leads to its bursting. If we can ”let us truly repent, that is turn away from our past in a heroic, determined act; but if we can do neither of them” let us carry humbly and patiently all the pain and all the consequences. And this will also be accounted one day by the Lord Who in a folkloric life of Moses, in response to His angels saying, "How long shall you endure their sins” the sins of the Jews in the wilderness, answered: ˜I will reject them when the measure of their sins will exceed the measure of their suffering." Let us therefore accept the pain as a redeeming pain, even if we cannot offer it as pain pure of stain. Amen |