COVID-19 has been a time for all of us to be challenged in our faith and struggle through the hardships that it presents. As I have been striving to persevere through this time, I have seen my kids fight this battle alongside me as well. Boredom, unknowns about the future, disruptions to their typical school routines, and cancellation of many summer events have presented them with an equal amount of challenges that we adults are faced with. 

I know I have been tempted during this time to just focus on my own fears, struggles and anxieties but today I would remind all of us to stop and look at the children and youth in our lives and take a little extra time to support them. I'm sure all of us have children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews, or even neighborhood children that have been surviving COVID. Today I would like to encourage everyone to take time to do something small for the children in each of our lives and let them know that you care about them and understand how hard this time is for them. Maybe it will be a time to open up a discussion about our faith and how we can lean into Christ during times of uncertainty and fear.

Additionally, for those that have Orthodox children and youth in their lives, I would offer a few small options to encourage them them during this hard time and to support their faith:

1. Be the Bee (6th grade and above) - This is an excellent video series put on by the Archdiocese to help middle, high school, and college students engage their faith and face the challenges that our modern society presents to them. There are even some episodes that touch on COVID.
2. Virtual Church School - Rooted in Prayer (K-5) - This is a new virtual camp put out by Ancient Faith Radio that has full lessons plans, videos, songs, craft ideas, and much more.
3. Children's Orthodox Books (K-8) - There is a wealth of Orthodox books for children on both Ancient Faith and the Greek Archdioceses Department of Religious Ed, one even by a local artist :)

As we continue to navigate our path through COVID-19 let's continue to support and pray for those 'little people' around us who may not know how to articulate their feelings during this time but are struggling to find Christ and endure the pandemic with faith and patience.

In Christ,

Dn. Steve

​Dear Ones,

Amidst the tragedies and horrors afflicting our world in these dark days, I would like to share a timely article from one of my professors from seminary, Fr. Luke Veronis.

The article reminds us that our Savior, Jesus Christ, truly has conquered sin, death, and the devil. Through His resurrection He turned all of these on their head, divinely overcoming them through His power and authority over all. During these times it is important to remember that we, through prayer, can connect with those departed with love through Christ and intercede on their behalf.

Click here to read the article.

In Christ,

Dn. Steve

​Dear Ones,

Christ has ascended in glory from us into the heavens and sits at the right hand of God the Father!

I greet you on this blessed Feast with good news regarding the reopening of Holy Resurrection. The Steering Committee has been hard at work over the last week completing the "Parish Readiness" checklists so that we can reopen the church as safely, and as quickly, as possible. We have made great progress thanks to their hard work, and we can today announce the following: Holy Resurrection will reopen on Wednesday, June 3rd, for communal worship and reconnecting with one another, albeit, with certain limitations. The most important of these is the limitation that we can only have 25 people, including clergy, at a service. 

Things will be and will look, different for a while. Your patience and your prayers are needed as we return to normalcy one step at a time. To help you in this time of change we have scheduled an "Open House" for this Sunday, May 31st, at Blanchet, from 12-2 pm. During the "Open House" you will learn about the changes we have made in order to comply with the regulations provided by local, state, and federal agencies, as well as those provided by the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco.

We will test out our reservation system (Eventbrite) and send you a personal invitation to the "Open House". You should expect to see an email Friday afternoon. If you haven't received a call or email by Saturday, please let Deacon Steve know. 

Please keep in mind that what we have done, and what we are asking of you, is done to keep everyone safe and to prevent the transmission of this deadly virus. These are acts of sacrificial love for God and neighbor, and in obedience to our Bishop.

Please review the guidelines and instructions included here. There will be a test =).

fj

Christ is Risen! 

This coming Sunday is yet another beautiful Gospel account of Christ's active ministry of healing and salvation, as we read about the healing the blind man.  As we continue to enjoy the wonderful Sunday themes during the Paschal season it is easy to forget something though. Amidst all these joyful Sundays we can easy gloss over the saints are being celebrated. This coming Sunday we celebrate St. Vincent of Lerins who was a staunch defender of the Orthodox faith in the 5th century. Many of you probably know him for his famous quote about the centrality of continuing in the faith that has been believed 'everywhere, always, and by all'.

St. Vincent clearly highlights the importance of following the Christian faith received from Christ, passed on to His Apostles, and continued down to the present day through the Church. This reality not only safeguards us against straying from the normative Christian path but it reminds us that we are not alone in this pandemic and struggle. We are connected to the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Our Christian faith, rooted in the person of Jesus Christ, allows those past and present Christians to be one in the Body of Christ. In this time of ongoing isolation and anxiety, we can take refuge in knowing that we are connected to millions and millions of Christians throughout the ages and even in our present day.

As evidence that we are not alone, I wanted to share that our own Metropolitan Gerasimos has been sharing videos each week to the faithful within our metropolis. This coming Saturday (5/23) at 12:30pm the Metropolitan will be conducting a service for those who have passed away or are afflicted by COVID-19 and you can submit names to be prayed for at this service. Likewise, Archbishop Elpidophoros has posted many videos to reach out to the faithful across all America. The Archdiocese has also created a COVID-19 relief fund for those that have been impacted financially by the pandemic to receive up to $2,500. These are just a few small examples that we are truly not alone and that the Church is always here for us in whatever situation we face.

I pray that you continue to be uplifted by the reality that the Church is with you and that our good Lord continue to shine His loving face upon you.

In Christ,
Dn. Steve

"As the physician of the sick and the suffering, and as the helper of the faithful who hope in You, O gracious Lord, who wills that all humanity be saved, from Your throne of majesty, look upon us with mercy; hear our voice out of the depths, as we cry to You saying: We all entreat You, free us from the threat of this pandemic, O God most compassionate."

This beautiful hymn is the first troparia in a newly compiled supplication service for us as we continue the battle against the coronavirus. This service was compiled by Metropolitan Cyril of Rhodes and translated by Fr. Seraphim Dedes who founded the AGES initiative which is an excellent source of liturgical music and texts translations into English. This supplication service comes to us in as we plod forward in enduring the coronavirus and its widespread affects.

"Earnestly we pray, O our Savior very merciful: Straight away avert the spread of the disease, for we know no other God and Lord except for You. Holy Trinity, our God, have mercy on us and save us."

Throughout the service, amazing hymns are interspersed with an entreaty that the Holy Trinity, our God, may have mercy on us and save us from this despised illness.

"Fear of the pandemic has gripped the hearts of all of Your servants, O compassionate Lord and God. Quickly come and save us, we earnestly entreat You, invoking Your great mercy, Savior most merciful."

The service recognizes that not only are we afflicted by the direct body threat that COVID inflicts but also that fear is constantly attacking us. The very air and atmosphere of our lives have been polluted by fear from the disease and powerfully gives us petitions to plead to our Savior to deliver us from this constant anxiety, mental anguish, and spiritual leach.

"Having borne the Redeemer of humanity, Virgin most pure, ineffably, entreat Him to inhibit the spread of the pandemic that has plagued the entire world; and with your motherly grace,  give us your calming comfort."

"Haralambos the Martyr is known for combating the plague. O Lord, by his prayers rescue us from it, and we shall sing, glorifying your mighty power, O God."

"Join the Theotokos, all you arrays of angelic powers, honored Forerunner of the Lord, holy Twelve Apostles and all the Saints together, and pray for our salvation, and intercede for us"

Hymns are dedicated to have the entire body of the Church, the Church triumphant prays for us the Church militant in during this dark time. For we are all one the body of Christ, His Church, and we as a spiritual community throughout the ages all support each other through our oneness in our Savior.

"O compassionate Lord and God, as an inexhaustible sea of tender love, please do not allow humanity to languish and perish from contagious disease"

And most of all, we cast ourselves at the feet of our Lord's 'inexhaustible sea of tender love'. The Lord our God, who is fully human like us, who underwent horrid sufferings throughout his life, can relate and knows the pain and sorrow each and everyone one of us feels. Jesus weeps at the suffering we experience and has true empathetic compassion. His compassion isn't theoretical or distant, but it is so close to us because He experienced the human condition of suffering yet without sin. It is through His love, true experienced self sacrificial love, that we can take comfort to rest in Him and find the peace which surpasses all our suffering, hardship, and fear.

Dn. Steve

Today we read in the gospel account that the disciples were hiding behind closed doors after Christ's resurrection. This hiding was due to the external threat of the Jews. We of course in our current situation, can relate to them. We too are hiding behind closed doors due to the external threat of the coronavirus.
We, like the disciples, are hiding despite us experiencing Pascha and are haunted by varying degree of fear, anxiety, and stress. Returning to the Gospel account, Christ appears behind these closed doors and blesses the disciples saying 'peace be with you' while they are in this state of fear and, for Thomas, doubt.
Similarly, Christ has been appearing to us behind closed doors, through our streaming services and our celebration of Pascha in our homes. Obviously, Christ physically being present in His resurrected body to the disciples is not the same as watching the liturgy on a screen. Yet, Christ offers us the same peace amidst all the fear, anxiety, worry, sickness, and stress as He did to His disciples. As we see in the Gospels, many encounters with Christ after His resurrection show Him blessing others with His peace. It seems that Christ’s peace is uniquely connected to His resurrection.

As I’ve been reflecting upon peace in light of the Resurrection this week, I discovered that I frequently ignore the centrality of peace within our faith. As I started to dig into this however, peace is central to our faith, and I found example after example of this being true. The first example we see is when Christ appears to His disciples; He doesn't bless them by saying 'Love be with you' or ‘Power be with you', but He says, 'Peace be with you'. We see in Galatians 5:22-23, peace is one of the primary fruits of the spirit. Amazingly, if you look through the Divine Liturgy, peace is the most commonly mentioned fruit of the spirit, being used 35 times, whereas love 30 times, kindness 19 times, and joy only 5. Countless other examples from both the new and old testaments, our liturgical life, theological writings, and the lives of the Saint's point to the fact that peace is a cornerstone virtue of our Christian life. This then begs the question, what is this peace? What is this peace that Christ gives to His apostles and to us after His resurrection? St. Maximos the Confessor explains it so simply and beautifully "Peace is truly the complete and undisturbed possession of what is desired." Isn't this true? "Peace is truly the complete and undisturbed possession of what we desired." Christ's peace has the ability to finally satisfy all of our deepest desires in a complete and unshakable way. This is underscored when we look to both the Greek and Hebrew words for peace. εἰρήνη in Greek, has the root word εἴρω which means to join; and thus when we acquire Christ’s peace, we are joined to Him. Shalom in Hebrew expresses the idea of wholeness, completeness, and tranquility in the soul that is unaffected by outward circumstances or pressures. This is why the beatitudes say 'blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God' (Matthew 5:9). When we acquire true peace we are jointed to Christ, are fulfilled by His presence and are complete; we truly become children of God; we have reached the end state that we all desire. This is why Christ offers His peace to the disciples when He first comes to them and to Thomas; when Christ offers His peace, He is offering Himself to us. The peace of Christ is communion with Him. When we focus our desire towards Him everything else fades away and we are set as ease. When we accept His sovereignty over all things, both in heaven and earth, everything falls in its proper place and our worrying stops. When we realize our weaknesses and sinfulness simultaneously with His forgiveness and healing we quell our anxieties and simply sit in His presence. And when we experience His love and we respond in love we experience heavenly peace. All of this is summarized by St. Paul in Philippians 'the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7). This is a peace that goes beyond emotional feelings and intellectual certitudes since it surpasses all that this world can offer. It is only Christ’s peace that can guard our hearts and minds against every affliction so that we can finally have lasting contentment, tranquility, and stresslessness. This peace is the actualization of God’s grace within our lives which is why St. Seraphim of Servo says, 'Acquire peace, and thousands around you will be saved.' It is this peace that turns people into saints, and how the good news of resurrection shines in a dark world.

My dear brothers and sisters, it is in this time of pandemic that the peace we receive from our Lord is continually being attacked and we must stay focused on the reality of the resurrection to maintain it. Like Thomas, we can begin to doubt our Lord and His resurrection. We lose the peace He offers to us because we stop desiring our Savior and start desiring to only be freed from the negative symptoms we are experiencing right now. We bind our sight to only earthly things rather than look heavenly and so we cannot see the transcend peace our Savior extends to us. We are stuck only seeking temporary peace from our immediate suffering rather than everlasting peace. I too have been struggling to hold on to Christ’s peace during this time as we are continually assaulted through the news, disruptive social distancing, and our unrelenting thoughts. However, we need to continue to spend time reflecting on the amazing reality that the resurrection opens up to each and everyone one of us. We need to dwell on the reality that Christ, through His resurrection, has overcome all that we face and will face in our lives. Such reflection will help us put all things in their proper perspective and have a vantage point of eternity. We start to understand that the temporary sufferings are but a burst of steam on a cold day that will dissipate quickly in light of eternity. This is why the saints show us that while they were persecuted, martyred, starved, and experiencing all forms of tragedies they never lost their peace. They fixated their entire soul on the reality of who Christ is and what He has done through His resurrection and thus gain an indestructible peace. It is when we internalize Christ’s peace that we internalize the reality of His Resurrection and through it can overcome the hardships of life. This is the reason why we need to spend time in prayer to connect with our resurrected Lord. We internalize His grace through prayer, so we don’t fall into continual fear and worry. This is why we resist distractions that misguide our desires away from communion with the living God. This is why we persevere in our Christian faith and take it seriously, so that we will have the Prince of Peace dwelling in our soul. We do these things so that we are joined to Christ to allow His peace to made manifest within us so we can “be of good cheer. Since He has overcome the world.” (paraphrase John 16:33). So let us today do what the liturgy tells us, to ‘lay aside every earthly care, so that we may receive the King of all’ who grants us eternal peace.
Amen

​Deacon Steve Tussing

Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!

As we come upon the dawning light of the Sun of righteousness during bright week, we continue to be hindered and constrained by the current pandemic. This of course does not diminish the reality of Christ's resurrection and it's potency but, as we have talked about before, it limits our ability to celebrate this awesome reality.

To continue to offer you all encouragement during this time, I came across the practical spiritual wisdom of C. S. Lewis who gave a sermon to a class of students at Oxford during the start of World War II. I found an article that took this C. S. Lewis' sermon and adapted it for our current situation. I found both the adapted article for our pandemic life, as well as Lewis' original sermon helpful as we continue to move forward through these challenging times. I pray they will be as beneficial to you as they were to me.

​C. S. Lewis’ Advice To Students During A Pandemic Will Do All Our Souls Good Right Now

Learning in War-Time by C. S. Lewis - Oxford 1939

This coming Saturday we celebrate Lazarus Saturday, the day when we recount the raising from the dead one of Jesus's closest friends. The Gospel reading for the day, John 11:1-45, and the icon of this blessed day recounts this amazing miracle in word and image powerfully for us. While reading the passage and in looking at this icon, something jumped out to me in light of our current pandemic crisis I'd like to share with you. I hope it will be as encouraging to you as it was to me.

When we look at the icon of Lazarus being raised from the dead, we see that the stone has been rolled away, the tomb has been opened and Lazarus is just starting to emerge; burial clothes and all. The gospel says that 'the dead man came out, his hands and feed bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth'. This scripture combined with seeing Lazarus in the icon gives you a sense that it is a bit of an awkward situation for Lazarus. By the divine power of Jesus, Lazarus has been brought back from death. Immediately after this incredible miracle, we have a very human moment of Lazarus hobbling out of the tomb. The image of awe and wonder from a person being resurrected is mixed with that same person hopping out of the tomb in a clunky and goofy manner must have been a unique sight indeed.
 
With this in mind we return to our present reality. We are just days away from Christ's resurrection, Pascha, the most incredible event in all human history that unlocks the path of salvation to all of us. And yet we are in the midst of a horrible pandemic that requires that we not gather and that we practice unfamiliar behaviors like social distancing. The reality is we WILL experience the resurrection of Christ, and there is no way to diminish or reduce that in any way. However, this will be an awkward Pascha for all of us; we won't get to participate in the Divine Liturgy together in person, receive the Light, break the fast together, or have our traditional Pascha celebrations as a community. My dear brothers and sisters, we are like Lazarus. We have been raised by Christ's resurrection but we will celebrate this joy, figuratively speaking, a bit clumsily, as we are still bound by the bandages of this pandemic. We will celebrate Pascha but through streaming services, we will experience the overwhelming joy of death being conquered but will sing 'Christ is Risen' in our homes, and we will break the fast together but from afar. Just like Lazarus, the tightly wrapped 'bandages' of the pandemic keep us home-bound and makes celebrating the Paschal beauty awkward and different than how we normally do, but it does not diminish the reality of Christ's resurrection. Day by day the bandages of this pandemic will be removed and one day we will be able to move about freely to come to Church, return to our normal lives, and be together with one another, just as Lazarus was reunited with his family and friends who loved him so much. Until then, let us not lose sight of the mystery of the resurrection of our Lord, stay connected best we can, and keep seeking Him through the trial upon us all.

Kalo Pascha my brothers and sister!

Dn. Steve