Father Matthew's Page Glory be to Jesus Christ! Glory be Forever! Dear Holy Ghost Family and Friends, I take this time to welcome you to our brand new parish website. This is a very exciting time for our parish, and we hope that having access to this will be a big help to those who frequent the internet. Use this website to keep updated on services, events being planned and other Church news, as well as an outlet to your faith online. Please check back often, as we are still in the developing stages, and many new things will be added as we progress. For those who are unfamiliar with the Orthodox faith, or our parish, we hope this will give you a small taste of what we are about as an Orthodox parish family. Of course, the best way to find out is for you to, as Philip said to Bartholomew, "Come and see" (John 1:46). All are welcome to visit our Church and worhship the Risen Lord with us. If I can be of any assistance to anyone or answer any of your questions, don't hesitate to give me a call. My door is always open. In Christ, Fr. Matthew _______________________________________________________________ KIDS KORNER The Gospel Readings for Children 9th Sunday after Pentecost St. Matthew 14:22-34 What kinds of things are you afraid of? Some people are afraid of the dark. Some are afraid of really bad storms, where there are bright flashes of lightning and loud rumbles of thunder. What are some other things that make you feel scared? What can we do when we are scared? There's a good answer to this in today's Gospel. The disciples were scared because they were on a boat and it was very windy. The boat must have been rocking back and forth a lot. Then, they saw Jesus walking on the water. St. Peter went into the water and for a little while, he was actually walking on the water too! But then, he started looking around at the rough waves and listening to the howling wind. He got scared again and he started to sink. What did Peter do when he got scared? He called out to Jesus: "Lord, save me!" Jesus reached out his hand and helped Peter. Peter was fine as long as he kept his focus on Jesus. When he started looking around at everything else that was going on, that's when he got scared and started to sink. When you are scared, whatever the reason may be, try to keep your focus on Jesus. He is always with us, and He will always help us get through things, just like He helped Peter. How can we keep our focus on Him? We can call out to Him in prayer, just like Peter did. We can say, "Lord, have mercy on me" or the Jesus Prayer: "Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner." Or, we can just close our eyes and think of Him. If we have a small icon, we can keep it in our pocket and look at it when we are scared. Or, we can get a prayer rope to wear around our wrist. When we are scared, we can hold the rope and pray. The more often we can think of Jesus during the day, the better it will be, especially when we are afraid! KIDS KORNER The Gospel Readings for Children 10th Sunday after Pentecost St. Matthew 17:14-23 In last Sunday's Gospel, we learned how praying and thinking about Jesus can help us when we are afraid. What else praying help us do? In today's Gospel, a man brings his son to Jesus. His son is very sick, and he tells Jesus that he asked His disciples to heal his son, but they could not do it. Jesus heals the son for the father. The disciples wonder why they were not able to heal the boy, and Jesus tells them because they didn't have enough faith. He says the son could only have been healed by prayer and fasting. The disciples needed to pray and have more faith. It really came down to the fact that they probably didn't really think they would be able to heal the man's son. Sometimes, there are things we have to do that we don't think we can. It could be a hard test at school, or the first time we have to dive off the diving board when we take swimming lessons, or trying to hit a baseball. These may seem like small things compared to healing someone who is sick, but that doesn't mean we can't pray when we don't think we can do something. As you get older, you'll be so used to praying when you need help, that you'll start to automatically do it! So, next time you have to do something and you're scared, or not sure that you can do it, ask God for help! KIDS KORNER The Gospel Readings for Children 8th Sunday after Pentecost St. Matthew 14:14-22 The story of Jesus feeding the five thousand is one we all probably know well. Jesus only had five loaves and a couple of fish and He multiplied them so that there was enough for everyone with plenty left over. Before Jesus distributed the food, St. Matthew writes that He "took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed…them" (Matthew 14:19). Jesus looked up to heaven as a way of giving thanks. He is teaching us the importance of thanking God for the food we have to eat. In St. John's account of this same miracle, he writes it even more clearly: "And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed them…" (John 6:11). We should follow Christ's example and remember to pray before every meal. Even when we are at school, we can make the sign of the Cross and thank God. When we are at home with our families, there are prayers that we can say, not just before the meal, but afterwards as well: Prayers Before Meals Christ, our God, we ask your blessing upon the food and drink of these, Your servants; Upon the hands of those who prepared them, and upon all those who will partake of them For You are holy, always now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. Prayer After Meals We give thanks to You O Christ our God, for having filled us with Your earthly bounty. Do not deprive us of Your heavenly Kingdom, But as You appeared in the midst of Your disciples, granting them peace Come also to us and save us. Amen. KIDS KORNER The Gospel Readings for Children 6th Sunday after Pentecost St. Matthew 9:1-8 "When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic 'Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.'" (Mt. 9:2b) This morning's Gospel is a well-known story. It is also recorded in St. Mark's and St. Luke's Gospels. Jesus was preaching one day and a paralyzed man was being carried towards Him by his friends. As always, there a lot of people around Jesus trying to see and hear Him. There were so many people that the paralyzed man's friends could not get close enough for Jesus to see them. Many people might have been discouraged, but these people knew that Jesus could help their friend, so they went to the roof, opened the top and lowered their friend in front of Jesus. Jesus was impressed by the faith the man's friends had, so He forgave the paralyzed man's sins and later healed him. Many times, when Jesus heals someone, He mentions that their faith made them well. IN this case, it is the faith of the paralyzed man's friends that leads to him being healed. This teaches us that our faith can help others. If we know people who are sick or are even just going through a hard time, we should pray to God for them. Our prayers and our faith can help others. So, when you are saying your prayers every night, try to think of people who might need God's help and pray for them! KIDS KORNER The Gospel Readings for Children 5th Sunday after Pentecost St. Matthew 8:28-9:1 "And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their region." (Mt. 8:34) In this morning's Gospel, Jesus casts demons out of two men. After they are cast out, they go into a herd of swine that was nearby, and the swine rush into the water and drown. As you can see from the quote above, the people who saw this miracle actually asked Jesus to leave! Can you think of a reason why they would ask Jesus to leave, even after He had performed this great miracle? One reason has to do with the swine themselves. It's likely that the swine were a source of making money for the people in that area. When they realized they might be losing money, they didn't care about Jesus' miracle. Instead of having compassion and being happy for the two men who had been healed, they were instead blinded by their own greed. We are always being told in our society that there are things you just HAVE to have. We have to always remember that God comes first. We can't let money and the things that we have or the things that we want be more important to us than God. KIDS KORNER The Gospel Readings for Children Thomas Sunday-St. John 20:19-31 "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29) In this morning's Gospel, we heard how Jesus went to see the Apostles. One of them, Thomas, was not there and he did not believe the others that Jesus had risen from the dead. This is why he has come to be known as Doubting Thomas! Once Thomas sees Christ, and sees the marks from the nails in His hands and feet, he believes. Jesus tells him that those who have not seen and believe are blessed. That is what we are called to do. We do not have Jesus physically standing in front of us to show us that He rose from the dead, but we still believe. And yet, aren't there things we do see that help us believe? In Orthodox Churches, we have many colorful pictures all over the walls. These pictures are called icons. They show Jesus, His mother, Mary, the saints and also different scenes from feasts and Bible stories. These icons can teach us so much about our Orthodox faith. They show us things that we believe in and help us to understand all the things that happened to these great saints in the Church. So, even though we don't see Jesus or Mary or the Saints walking among us, we believe they are present in the Church when we pray, and we express this in the icons of the Church. Next time you're in Church, look around at all the icons. Do you know all the saints? Do you know the stories about them, and the Feasts that are shown in the icons? Don't be afraid to ask your parents, your Sunday school teachers or especially your priest if there is someone or something you don't know or understand in one of these icons. That's how you learn, and that's how it will be easier for you to understand and believe! The Gospel Readings for Children Pascha-St. John 1:1-17 If you haven't already, someday in school you will learn about poems. There are many different types of poetry. Most people think poems have to always rhyme. That isn't always true. The Gospel according to St. John can sometimes seem like it's a poem. The Gospel that we heard this morning is one part that sounds almost like a poem. Just like many poems, some of what you heard today may be hard to understand. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." What's important to know is that Jesus is God. He always was. "He was in the world and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him." Jesus came into the world and a lot of people in the world didn't recognize who He was. That's why they wanted to put Him to death. They didn't understand that He was God. "And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it." Jesus is light. It can be scary to be alone in the dark. When it's dark and you are afraid, you probably like to turn on a light. You can think of Jesus in the same way. Darkness is when people do bad things or try to hurt other people, but Jesus is the light that makes the darkness go away. The darkness was on Good Friday, when Jesus died on the Cross because He loves all of us. The light shines today, as we celebrate that Jesus rose from the dead. That's why the Church is brightly lit and the priest wears bright white vestments. KIDS KORNER The Gospel Readings for Children Palm Sunday-St. John 12:1-18 This morning, we heard to story of Palm Sunday. Jesus had been traveling around doing all sorts of amazing things. He was healing people and performing miracles. The more people heard about Him, the more excited they became. Then, he even raised His friend, Lazarus from the dead! After doing this, He made His way to Jerusalem. The people were so excited that He was coming Him that they greeted Him as He entered the city. Jesus entered the city riding on a donkey, and some of the people laid their clothes on the ground as the donkey walked by. Others cut the branches of palm trees and waved them in the air. This is something they would do for people they thought were special. They shouted the word "Hosanna." We hear this word every Sunday during Liturgy. It means "save now." Whenever we see the icon of Palm Sunday, we always see children cutting the palm trees and holding the palms in the air. That's why we imitate that every Palm Sunday by holding crosses made of palms, or pussy willows. Think about how you feel when you are really looking forward to something special. Maybe it's Christmas morning, or a special trip or vacation. Do you get excited? Can you hardly wait for the day to arrive? That's how the children felt on Palm Sunday as they waited for Jesus. That's how we should feel when we think of Jesus too. We should be excited that we have a God who loves us so much that He sent His Son Jesus. Unfortunately, some of the same people who were so happy to see Jesus on Palm Sunday changed their minds later in the week. They became the same people who wanted to see Him arrested. For some reason, they forgot all of the wonderful things Jesus had done for them. It's hard for us to understand why these people felt this way. We just want to be sure we never change our minds about Jesus. We want to love Him and always be excited to know how much He loves us! If you get a palm cross or pussy willow in Church today, put it in your room at home so that every time you see it, you can be reminded of Jesus and everything He does for us. KIDS KORNER The Gospel Readings for Children The Fifth Sunday of Lent-St. Mark 10:32-45 In this morning's Gospel reading, Jesus tells His disciples that He "did not come to be served, but to serve." This may sound strange to us, because we know that Jesus is God. This is the example that Jesus gives to us. On the night of the Last Supper, Jesus washed His disciples feet to show them that the greatest thing we can do is to serve others. This is not always what we see on TV and in the world. People want to be famous, and have lots of money and have lots of power. Sometimes when that happens, people forget the simplest things. For us as Orthodox Christians, we should follow Jesus' example by looking for opportunities to serve others. It could be as simple as helping mom and dad around the house; helping a younger brother or sister with homework or something they don't understand; being a good friend to someone at school who is being picked on. These are the types of things that may seem small to us, but in the eyes of God, they are the most important things. Sometimes, we try to serve others as a parish family. We may take collections for people in need, or collect canned goods for places that give out food to those who need it. Talk to your mom and dad or your priest about ways you can help serve the community as a family or as a Church. There are lots of things KIDS KORNER The Gospel Readings for Children The Third Sunday of Lent-St. Mark 8:34-9:1 Whenever you hear a story in the Bible about Jesus healing someone, Jesus almost always talks about the person's faith. That tells us that Jesus will take care of us, especially in hard times, as long as we have faith in Him. In the Gospel for the second Sunday of Lent, Jesus heals someone who is paralyzed (that means, he can't walk because his legs don't work). When Jesus heals him, he doesn't talk about his faith. He talks about the faith that his friends have. Jesus was in a house and lots of people were there. The paralyzed man was lying on a cot and four of his friends were carrying him to see Jesus, but there was no room for them to get in. So, they carried their friend to the roof and lowered him in front of Jesus! Imagine how surprised everyone must have been. This story shows that these four friends must have had a lot of faith in Jesus. It also shows that they loved their friend who was paralyzed very, very much. These four friends can be examples for us. If we have faith in Jesus like they did, then we won't let anything stop us from being close to Him. Sometimes, that can mean we have to choose to give things up that may be important to us. For example, I know someone who had to choose between going to Church on Holy Friday, or going to his high school prom! Now, his prom was important to him, because he was a senior, but his faith was important to him too. He knew that Holy Friday was the holiest day in the Church year, because it's the day that Jesus died for us on the Cross. As much as he wanted to go to the prom, his faith was strong enough that he went to Church instead. Nothing, not even his prom, was going to stop him from being close to Christ. KIDS KORNER The Gospel Readings for Children Sunday of Orthodoxy-The Gospel of St. John 1:43-51 Look around you the next time you are in Church. You will see lots of picture of Jesus and the saints and the feasts of the Church. We call these pictures, icons. Icons are sometimes called "windows into heaven" because when we see them, it's like looking through a window and seeing heaven on the other side, because all of these saints are in heaven because of the way they lived their lives. We call this Sunday the Sunday of Orthodoxy because of icons. Can you believe that a long time ago, there were people who thought there shouldn't be icons in Churches? For many years, icons were taken out and the Churches were bare! Imagine what your Church would look like without its icons! Thankfully, there were many great saints who stood up for what was right. They weren't afraid to say that having icons helped us remember the saints and learn about the feasts of the Church. Eventually, the icons were returned. So, today, we celebrate the return of the icons and also proclaim that we believe Orthodoxy to be the true faith. We proclaim that the Orthodox Church is the Church that Christ established. In today's Gospel, St. John tells a story about how Philip and Nathaniel became 2 of Christ's Apostles. Jesus first called Philip. Philip was so excited about meeting Jesus that he ran to tell his friend, Nathaniel. Nathaniel had some doubts. All Philip did to convince him was to say three simple words: "Come and see." Sometimes, people who don't know much about Orthodoxy may ask questions about it. You don't have to be afraid to stand up for your faith, just like the saints of the Church stood up for icons. You can tell your friends that you are happy to be Orthodox, and that you believe and follow what your Church tells you. The best way to explain Orthodoxy, though, is to use the words of St. Philip: "come and see." You can invite a friend to come and see for themselves what Orthodoxy is all about! KIDS KORNER The Gospel Readings for Children Forgiveness Sunday-The Gospel of St. Matthew 6:14-21 Do you try and give something up for Lent every year? A lot of people do this. They may not eat or drink something that they really like. They do this so that, in a very small way, they can remember the sacrifice that Jesus makes for them and all of us on the Cross. There are lots of things we can do for Lent besides giving up chocolate, or soda. Take a few minutes to read the Gospel we heard today. Pay close attention to the first two verses. In those first two verses, Jesus talks about how we have to forgive people. He even says that God cannot forgive us if we do not forgive other people. That's because forgiveness is a two-way street! When we go to confession, we are asking God to forgive us for the things we have done wrong. But, how can we ask for forgiveness unless we are willing to forgive other people? This is the same with other people in our lives. We may do things sometimes that make other people mad, or hurt their feelings, or just plain aren't nice. It could be our brothers or sisters, our friends at school, or even our mom and dad. When those things happen, we want them to forgive us. So, when people like our brothers or sisters or our friends do things that upset us, when they say they are sorry, we have to be able to forgive them, the same way we would want them to forgive us. So, with Lent starting, take some time and see if you can think of any people that you've been angry with, and try to forgive them. Also, if you can think of anything that you've done that might have upset someone, and you haven't said that you were sorry, make an effort to do that as well. That will get your lent off to a great start! KIDS KORNER- The Gospel Readings for Children Sunday of the Last Judgment The Gospel of St. Matthew 25:31-46 You've probably all seen judges in courts on TV shows in their black robes. It's their job to decide whether or not someone committed a crime and what their punishment should be. In today's Gospel, Jesus talks about Himself being a judge. Now, we don't picture Jesus wearing a black robe and banging a gavel like judges in courtrooms do, but Jesus can tell whether someone has done right or wrong. The good thing is that Jesus tells us exactly what He expects us to do to get a good judgment: we have to do good for other people. Jesus talks about giving food to the hungry, clothes to those who need them, and visiting sick people. Those aren't the only ways we can do good things for people. Can you name some other things we can do to help others? Our parents? Our friends? At school? Jesus says when we do good for others, it is like we are doing those good things to Jesus! KIDS KORNER The Gospel Readings for Children Sunday of the Prodigal Son-The Gospel of St. Luke 15:11-32 Think about your favorite "sweet treat". Maybe it's a cupcake, or a candy bar, or a lollipop. Imagine if someone gave you whatever your favorite was, and you noticed it had a string wrapped around it. Then imagine your about to take a bite of your most favorite treat in the world, and the person who gave it to you yanks on the string, and pulls it our of your hand! You'd be pretty upset, right? Have you ever heard anyone say "no strings attached"? That just means that they are giving you something and you can do whatever you want with it. They aren't going to try to take it back later, or they aren't going to say, "I'll only give you this if you do something for me." Today, we heard Jesus tell a story about a young man who asks his father for his inheritance so he can start life on his own. The young man wastes all of his money on things he doesn't need and soon has nowhere to live and nowhere to go. He realizes he was wrong in doing what he did and he decides to go home, not to live as his father's son, but as a servant. When he gets there, his father isn't angry with him. In fact, he runs to meet him, hugs him, and throws a celebration for him! The father has a "no strings attached" love for his son. Even though his son had done bad things, the father never stopped loving him. Can you think of who the father in the story might represent? If you said "God" you are right. God loves us with "no strings attached." God isn't going to take His love from us without warning like the cupcake or candy bar we talked about earlier. That doesn't mean we should do whatever we want. We should try to do the best we can to do the things God would want us to do, BECAUSE He loves us so much. But, we should be happy to know that God will love and forgive us, as long as we say we are sorry and realize when we make mistakes. Some of you may have already started going to confession, and some of you may be soon. Confession is just like the story Jesus told today. Just like the young man, when we go to confession, we are saying that we understand we did some things wrong. Just like the Father, God is happy to see us there. Did you notice the father in the story never talks about the things his son had done wrong? It's the same with God. He celebrates when we come to confession. It's like there's a party in heaven!