COVID-19 CATECHESIS

GREAT & HOLY WEDNESDAY

An   ALMSGIVING   Opportunity
to help those impacted by Covid-19

Reflections and Daily Inspiration
The Danger of Individualism

If you work just for yourself, like the rich fool in the Gospel, forgetting other people, then your days will end suddenly. Your day turns to night. And you hear the voice: “This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose shall they be?” (Lk 12:20).

God is not unjust, however. Success in the struggle of spiritual life does not divide people, it unites them. The success of one person (real success, not imaginary) is everyone’s success. Success is a consolation, a source of life and hope not just for that person but also for those who have failed, those who have no connection with him and are strangers.

Man finds comfort, not when he is con­scripted into a certain group to march against oth­ers, but when he is joined with everyone on behalf of everyone. When one is enlisted with Him who was crucified in order to save His friends, then everyone becomes His friend, even those who crucify Him.

- Elder Vasileios  
TODAY'S RECOMMENDATION
THE FURNACE OF AFFLICTION

God does not grant a great gift without a great trial
- St. Isaac the Syrian
FROM THE NEWS
SAINT OF THE DAY
The Holy Apostles Aristarchus, Pudens and Trophimus, of the Seventy (ca. 67)

They were numbered among the Seventy Apostles. Aristarchus was Bishop of Apamea in Syria. The Apostle Paul mentions him several times (Acts 19:29, Colossians 4:10, Philemon v. 24). Aristarchus was arrested in Ephesus, together with Gaius, by a multitude of people who had risen up against Paul. The Apostle Paul writes to the Colossians: Aristarchus my fellow prisoner saluteth you (Colossians 4:10). In the Epistle to Philemon, Paul calls Aristarchus my fellow laborer, together with Mark, Demas, and Luke. Pudens was a distinguished citizen of Rome. The Apostle Paul mentions him once (II Timothy 4:21). At first, the home of Pudens was a haven for the chief apostles and later it was converted into a place of worship, called the Shepherd’s Church. Trophimus was from Asia (Acts 20:4), and he accompanied the Apostle on his travels. In one place the Apostle Paul writes: Trophimus have I left at Miletumsick (II Timothy 4:20). During Nero’s persecution, when the Apostle Paul was beheaded, all three of these glorious apostles were also beheaded.