|
Sts.
Peter
&
Paul Greek Orthodox Church
5640 Jay Road Boulder, CO 80301 Church Phone 303-581-1434 Orthros Sunday, 9:00 am Divine Liturgy Sunday, 10:00 am Vespers & Confessions Saturday, 5:00 pm WHAT'S NEW? |
Welcome
to our Parish!
The mission of Sts. Peter and Paul
is to be a
beacon of Orthodox Christian spirituality in the greater Boulder
area. Our diverse church family encompasses many
converts to the Faith, as well as Greek, Arab,
Romanian, Serbian and Russian Orthodox members. We strive
together to live our
Orthodox Christian Faith by having a devoted prayer life, through
fasting and almsgiving, and by participating regularly in the services
and Sacraments of the Holy Orthodox Church.
We welcome everyone to visit our parish to experience the ancient forms of worship that existed in the early centuries of the Christian Church - which we continue to practice unchanged today. Please take a moment to look through this website to learn more about our parish and our Faith, and if you have any questions, feel free to call Fr. George at 303-581-1434.  Lenten message from Fr. George “The days will come,
when the Bridegroom is taken
away from them, and then they will fast.” ~ Matthew 9:15 ~  “Why do we fast? I am asked this question very often, and not only by outsiders, but by our own Orthodox people. There are many reasons why we engage ourselves in this spiritual exercise – far too many to discuss all of them here – so we will concern ourselves with just a few of them. First, let’s consider the words of Christ quoted above, where He says rather emphatically, “They will fast.” And just a little while earlier He also said, “When you fast” (Matthew 6:16). Notice, He did not say, if you fast, but, when you fast, indicating that it is one of His holy and life-giving commandments to do so. So just from these words of Christ we know it is His divine will. But, like most things for modern man, just hearing that something is God’s will and a commandment is not enough for us; we need to know why. And if we know why, then we find it worthy of our obedience, if we agree with God’s reasoning. So, in addition to simply being a commandment, let’s explore some of the other reasons why God has given us this divine work. If we turn to the very beginning of history, while Adam and Eve still lived in Paradise, we will see that the commandment to fast was given to them. God said to Adam: “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Genesis 2:16-17). Well, we know what happens next. Eve eats, and then Adam eats, and they are banished from Paradise for disobeying God’s commandment to abstain from the fruit of that one tree. In short, they broke the fast, and all mankind fell because of it. Herein lies one of the main reasons why we today fast. By fasting, we are showing our obedience to the divine will, as opposed to the disobedience of our first parents. They inherited death through disobedience, but we will inherit life through our obedience. This is why the Holy Church has prescribed certain days and seasons for fasting: so we can exercise our free will unto the glory of God. Food, of course, is not in and of itself anything evil or bad, but the misuse of our freedom is. And the Church provides us an opportunity, through fasting, to do what Adam could not: to fast out of obedience and out of love for God. At the beginning of the Great Fast the Church teaches us through Her hymns exactly what we have been talking about: “Adam was banished from Paradise through disobedience and cast out from delight, beguiled by the words of a woman. Naked he sat outside the garden, lamenting ‘Woe is me!’ Therefore let us all make haste to accept the season of the Fast and hearken to the teachings of the Gospel, that we may gain Christ’s mercy and receive once more a dwelling-place in Paradise.” And again She instructs us: “Adam was cast out from the delight of Paradise: bitter was his eating, when in uncontrollable desire he broke the commandment of the Master, and he was condemned to work the earth from which he had himself been taken, and to eat his bread in toil and sweat. Therefore let us love abstinence, that we may not weep as he did outside Paradise, but may enter through the gate,” the gate of fasting. And remember also, dear brothers and sisters, that our sweetest Jesus Christ Himself, the new Adam, out of complete obedience to His heavenly Father often fasted, especially for those forty days in the desert. What a blessing it is to be able to emulate our Lord by embracing the Great Fast of Holy Lent. Through fasting we show ourselves to be united to Jesus the second Adam and inheritors of His blessings, and no longer a part of the first Adam’s condemnation. Let us strive to please God even in this small act of obedience to Him and to His Holy Church. The spiritual fruits and blessings of fasting and obedience are indeed great, I assure you, and we will experience them to the degree that we listen to the teachings of Christ, joining our fasting from food to our fasting from sin. Wishing you a blessed Great Lent as we strive to obey our Lord and Master Jesus Christ in everything. +Fr. George |