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Dear Young Adults of the Metropolis,
It is my pleasure to write to you all in this new format!
Last month, we unveiled the first of our monthly newsletters. In them we will have our Metropolis clergy offer reflections on the parables of Scripture. These are intended to be a little longer whereby you can settle in and enjoy something spiritually nourishing. We will also occasionally have guest contributors writing for you. Last month, Fr. Mark Sietsema wrote on the parable of the talents entitled, No Pain No Gain—The Parable of the Talents (read here).
To stay connected and up-to-date, we will also advertise the larger events for the coming months ahead! Whether they are in Detroit, New York, or down south, we want you all to know us better and discover what the Metropolis has to offer. For instance, on February 7th and 8th there will be a chanting workshop in New York with the Archdiocese School of Byzantine Music where two professional chanters in Fr. Romanos Karanos and Georgios Theodoridis will go to Annunciation Church, Rochester for a weekend of learning and practice! Or in Detroit, on February 22nd we will have Forgiveness Vespers with a cheesy pizza dinner as it is the final day before Lent begins.
Additionally, these newsletters have an, “Ask a Clergyman” section in which you can submit questions anonymously and various priests from the Metropolis will answer. We will feature a few of them in subsequent letters.
We ask that you sign up through the Metropolis website to receive updates on the events in our corner of the Church. In doing so, you will be most up to date and connected with the community. Everything will also be on Substack so please go and check that out as well!
Finally, I leave you with a few words of my own as this newsletter will arrive at the beginning of the Triodion period, marked by the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee:
The Church, in her wisdom, is now easing us into entering the feast of feasts – Pascha. Though it is just over two months away as I write this, the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee is a passage that invites us to reflect on the mindset that we must have as we embark on the road to Great Lent; that it must not be done in vanity, rather with humility.
Two men go up to the temple. And through these figures, each one represents two hearts: One that is open to God and one that is self – righteous. The Pharisee, an ancient Jewish sect known for their strict adherence to the Law, are written everywhere in Scripture. And more often than not, Christ is exposing their hypocrisy.
A man who is so well versed in the Scriptures and does “everything right” by scrupulously doing holding to the letter of the Law was so proud of himself that when he went up to the temple to meet God all he found was himself…The Temple of Solomon is a physical one and yet the temple of God or the Kingdom of Heaven in a broader sense is not of this world. The nature of prayer is that our hearts are lifted up to God, and yet the Pharisee couldn’t enter his own heart and meet God there because of the barrier that was built around him – pride! So he stood and “prayed” to himself.
Conversely, a man “standing far off” – a sinner by the way – the Publican had a different disposition. Considered impious and a traitor to his own people due to claims of collaborating with the Romans, he stood and waited. He persevered in prayer, waited on the Lord continually ‘smiting his breast’ and considered himself unworthy of Heaven. Yes, he went up to the Temple with the Pharisee but see the difference in heart! The Publican considered himself worst of all and poured his whole self out for the Lord to see. In seeing only dirt, darkness, and muck, what can he utter but, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” This man reached the heights of heaven though both stood, geographically that is, in the Temple.
We ought to remember that a broken and contrite heart God will not despise. When we enter this period of the ecclesiastical year, and when we physically make our way to Church and our prayer corners, this Gospel serves as a beautiful reminder that God does not want spoiled children in His Kingdom. In fact, it is incongruent with the Holy Spirit. So soft and gentle, only with the heights of humility can we join our spirits to His. Come to yourself and examine your hearts.
Is there pride? That is ok. Offer it to the Lord! “Lord, you see that I want to be with you but there is this pride in me. Take it from so as not to depart from me.”
Is there judgement? That is ok. Offer it to the Lord! “Lord, I see that I compare myself to others, and think I am better, but I don’t mean to. It is automatic. Please bless them with good health and salvation.”
Is there anger? That too is ok. Offer it to the Lord! “Lord, I have so much anger. Take it and transfigure it that I may take the Kingdom of Heaven by force! Bless all that is in me, the sinner I am.”
You see? The Lord wants this from us. He wants our hearts to be cleansed like the Publican so that we may enter into the joy of His Kingdom this Lent. Whatever is dirty in us we can offer, and whatever we don’t have we can ask. And we can ask Him to send the Holy Spirit to bless us! The Publican turned his life into a daily living Liturgy where he communed with the Lord in himself by simply offering himself and calling on Christ to dispense His great mercy and love for him, while simultaneously recognizing the poverty of his soul. Yet in this way, we follow the way of the Lord; Descending before ascending in our own resurrection.
In Christ,
Nick Kokkales
Y2AM Director – Metropolis of Detroit
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