From Fr. Angelo
Summer’s Here! A Vacation from Church?
With the completion of the Paschal season and our Greek Festival finished (and very successful) our thoughts now turn to settling in to a nice relaxing summer, whether in our backyards, Greece, Scotland, or some other place of peace and bliss…and a break from the obligation of going to church.
Well…as the Holy Father of our church have many times expressed, Orthodoxy is not a faith of a season but a way of life. In fact, the Early Christians were referred to as followers of The Way(Acts 24:14,22). A follower of Christ exhibits a daily behavior, different from what the secular world views as normal or important, nor is Christian life seen as an obligation or, like our job, something that we look forward to taking a break from.
Rather, Christ passed on to His apostles, and all of us, a calling to a “holy priesthood.” (1Peter 2:5). And this holy priesthood is not an obligation or a job but a “daily behavior,” which reflects a faith lived in accordance with what Christ preached. Throughout the Gospels the Apostles, through Christ’s own words, tell us the pillars of faith…