St Mark Orthodox Church Yorkton

The Sermon of St. John Chrysostom

5/2/2021

The Sermon of St. John Chrysostom
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If anyone is devout and loves God,
   let him enjoy this beautiful and radiant feast.
If anyone is a grateful servant,
   let him enter rejoicing into the joy of his Lord.
If anyone has wearied themselves in fasting,
   let them now receive their fair reward.
If anyone has laboured from the first hour,
   let him today receive his just compensation.
If anyone has come at the third hour,
   let him with thanksgiving keep the feast.
If anyone has arrived at the sixth hour,
   let them have no misgivings; for they shall not be deprived.
If anyone has delayed until the ninth hour,
   let them draw near without hesitation.
If anyone has arrived even at the eleventh hour,
   let them not fear on account of their tardiness.
For the Master is gracious and receives the last even as the first;
   He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour,
   just as to him who has laboured from the first.
He has mercy upon the last and cares for the first;
   to the one He gives, and to the other He is gracious.
He both honours the work and praises the intention.
Enter all of you, therefore, into the joy of your Lord, and,
   whether first or last, receive your reward.
O rich and poor, together, dance for joy!
   O you sober and you negligent, celebrate the day!
You who have fasted
   and you who have disregarded the fast, rejoice today!
The table is rich-laden: feast royally, all of you!
   The calf is fatted: let no one go away hungry!
Let all partake of the feast of faith.
   Let all receive the riches of His goodness.
Let no one lament their poverty,
   for the universal kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one mourn their transgressions,
   for pardon has shone forth from the grave.
Let no one fear death,
   for the Saviour's death has set us free.
He that was taken prisoner by death has destroyed it!
He descended into Hades and took Hades captive!
He embittered it when it tasted His flesh!
And foretelling this, Isaiah exclaimed:
   "Hades was filled with bitterness when it encountered You in the lower regions".
It was filled with bitterness, for it was abolished!
It was filled with bitterness, for it was mocked!
It was filled with bitterness, for it was purged!
It was filled with bitterness, for it was plundered!
It was filled with bitterness, for it was bound in chains!
It took a body and met God face to face!
It took earth and encountered Heaven!
It took what was seen, but fell upon what was unseen!
   O death, where is your sting?
   O Hades, where is your victory?
   Christ is risen, and you are overthrown!
   Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen!
   Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice!
   Christ is risen, and life reigns!
       Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave!
For Christ, being raised from the dead,
       has become the first-fruits of them that have fallen asleep.
To Him be glory and might unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Meditations to help prepare for Lent.

2/5/2021

I came across this list again recently from Fr. Thomas Hopko and thought it would be a good way to prepare for lent and Pascha. Take one maxim or more and mediate upon it each day. This will be posted in the news section on our webpage for future reference.

55 Maxims of the Christian Life

Below is a series of short phrases, or maxims, that I have found to be very practical and helpful. We can often at times think that the spiritual life is very complicated and hard to live. Fr. Thomas was asked to come up with a simple and concise list of the essence of our Life in Christ as we struggle on the path towards salvation. He came up with these 55 maxims.
1. Be always with Christ and trust God in everything.
2. Pray as you can, not as you think you must.
3. Have a keepable rule of prayer done by discipline.
4. Say the Lord's Prayer several times each day.
5. Repeat a short prayer when your mind is not occupied.
6. Make some prostrations when you pray.
7. Eat good foods in moderation and fast on fasting days.
8. Practice silence, inner and outer.
9. Sit in silence 20 to 30 minutes each day.
10. Do acts of mercy in secret.
11. Go to liturgical services regularly.
12. Go to confession and holy communion regularly.
13. Do not engage intrusive thoughts and feelings.
14. Reveal all your thoughts and feelings to a trusted person regularly.
15. Read the scriptures regularly.
16. Read good books, a little at a time.
17. Cultivate communion with the saints.
18. Be an ordinary person, one of the human race.
19. Be polite with everyone, first of all family members.
20. Maintain cleanliness and order in your home.
21. Have a healthy, wholesome hobby.
22. Exercise regularly.
23. Live a day, even a part of a day, at a time.
24. Be totally honest, first of all with yourself.
25. Be faithful in little things.
26. Do your work, then forget it.
27. Do the most difficult and painful things first.
28. Face reality.
29. Be grateful.
30. Be cheerful.
31. Be simple, hidden, quiet and small.
32. Never bring attention to yourself.
33. Listen when people talk to you.
34. Be awake and attentive, fully present where you are.
35. Think and talk about things no more than necessary.
36. Speak simply, clearly, firmly, directly.
37. Flee imagination, fantasy, analysis, figuring things out.
38. Flee carnal, sexual things at their first appearance.
39. Don't complain, grumble, murmur or whine.
40. Don't seek or expect pity or praise.
41. Don't compare yourself with anyone.
42. Don't judge anyone for anything.
43. Don't try to convince anyone of anything.
44. Don't defend or justify yourself.
45. Be defined and bound by God, not people.
46. Accept criticism gracefully and test it carefully.
47. Give advice only when asked or when it is your duty.
48. Do nothing for people that they can and should do for themselves.
49. Have a daily schedule of activities, avoiding whim and caprice.
50. Be merciful with yourself and others.
51. Have no expectations except to be fiercely tempted to your last breath.
52. Focus exclusively on God and light, and never on darkness, temptation and sin.
53. Endure the trial of yourself and your faults serenely, under God's mercy.
54. When you fall, get up immediately and start over.
55. Get help when you need it, without fear or shame.

“We Rejoice even in Tribulation” - An Encyclical of Hope

1/1/2021

Our Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America has issued this excellent Encyclical on Hope in a time of tribulation..
Please read it and share it with others.
It can be found here: An Encyclical of Hope https://www.oca.org/holy-synod/encyclicals/encyclical-hope

A lake, a sunny day, and baptisms.

10/5/2020

With all the negatives and changes that came with the covid-19 pandemic, we need to rejoice for the blessings that are occurring. One is those who are seeking and find the true faith in this troubled time. St. Mark is blessed to have encountered such a couple. The newly illumined Paisios and Mary realized that their new age and eastern spiritual beliefs were lacking. This was heightened by the Covid-19 pandemic. In their search, Christianity came to the forefront. But which branch would be the one to follow? In the Orthodox church they saw the opportunity to be able to live a deep and fulfilling faith. As Paisios mentioned, “we would be able to have a personal and loving relationship with God”. Due to the Covid-19 shutdown, contact was made by email. When the restrictions eased, in person contact was made. This lead to catechism classes. The end result was a glorious autumn day at the lake. The only downside, was the wind gusts and that the lake was at a 50 year low level, meaning a good hike to find deeper water. Paisios and Mary were baptized and chrismated, Glory to God!
May God grant many years to the newly illumined servants.

Thanksgiving

9/26/2020

Thanksgiving in the Orthodox Church
In the month of October, we celebrate Thanksgiving. It is a day that families join and give thanks to God for everything that they have. It is a day filled with good food, sports and a time to relax and have fun. Of course, this day is not on our Orthodox Calendar. We don’t need one special day to give thanks for everything we have. We, as Christians, do that every Sunday morning and any other time we pray and take Holy Communion. Nevertheless, Thanksgiving is still a great time to reflect on what we should be thankful. As Orthodox Christians, we should be thankful for our Lord coming down to earth, taking the form of a servant and giving Life to us through His Cross and Resurrection. We should be thankful that He brought us from death to life with the plan of salvation. We should be thankful for our parents, our brothers and sisters, our grandparents, our aunts, uncles and cousins. We should be thankful for our friends, our teachers and our classmates. We should be thankful for everything that we have.
Now, someone might say, “Doesn’t God know that we are thankful for these things?” Well, yes. God knows everything. He wants us to have a relationship with Him. He wants us to embrace Him and make Him the Lord of our lives and our best friend. Therefore, when we thank God, we show Him that we want a personal relationship with Him. We show Him that we want to talk with Him, to laugh and cry with Him, to become one with Him. When we don’t bother to talk with Him, it is as if we don’t want Him in our lives. When we do talk to God, we should not only ask God for things; we should first thank Him for everything we have. We should thank Him every day because He gives us these things every day. We should then ask forgiveness for what we have done and then we should ask for the things that will make us closer to Him. Our action – of giving thanks to God for His Body and Blood – is not complete until we go forth and do good works, imitating Christ. Thus at the end of the Liturgy we are called to “depart in peace” “in the Name of the Lord.” When we do these things, we truly would have prayed and given thanks for His grace and mercy on us. This Thanksgiving season, let’s not forget to give thanks from the moment we rise to the moment we go back to sleep at night and our Heavenly Father will be there saying, “You are welcome, my child.” Let us not forget to be thankful for God’s real and active presence in our lives. Maybe we can institute a special prayer of thanksgiving, maybe we can take some time away from TV, away from Football, away from the food, and offer a prayer of thanksgiving to the One who has provided all the things that we can even be thankful for. Courtesy of St. Paul's newsletter.

Reopening for Services

6/7/2020

We are moving forward on reopening services as per Provincial and Archdiocese Guidelines. Due to the limited space, attendance will be limited. Please call before attending to ensure that we have room for the services.
We will continue to steam online via YouTube.
Click Here

May 14th, 2020

5/14/2020

We will be doing live online videos on YouTube for services during the Covid-19 shutdown. Live streaming will begin about 10 minutes before services start. Click on the link below to check to see if we started the service. Currently that is a typika service on Sunday morning.

Please click the link below to find us on YouTube(only good for Online Services):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiXXafVSj-sA9Gxoqg65D1w

The Liturgical Structure of Lent

11/18/2017

To understand the various liturgical particularities of the Lenten period, we must remember that they express and convey to us the spiritual meaning of Lent and are related to the central idea of Lent, to its function in the liturgical life of the Church. It is the idea of repentance. In the teaching of the Orthodox Church however, repentance means much more than a mere enumeration of sins and transgressions to the priest. Confession and absolution are but the result, the fruit, the "climax" of true repentance. And, before this result can be reached, become truly valid and meaningful, one must make a spiritual effort, go through a long period of preparation and purification. Repentance, in the Orthodox acceptance of this word, means a deep, radical reevaluation of our whole life, of all our ideas, judgments, worries, mutual relations, etc. It applies not only to some "bad actions," but to the whole of life, and is a Christian judgment passed on it, on its basic presuppositions. At every moment of our life, but especially during Lent, the Church invites us to concentrate our attention on the ultimate values and goals, to measure ourselves by the criteria of Christian teaching, to contemplate our existence in its relation to God. This is repentance and it consists therefore, before everything else, in the acquisition of the Spirit of repentance, i.e., of a special state of mind, a special disposition of our conscience and spiritual vision.
The Lenten worship is thus a school of repentance. It teaches us what is repentance and how to acquire the spirit of repentance. It prepares us for and leads us to the spiritual regeneration, without which "absolution" remains meaningless. It is, in short, both teaching about repentance and the way of repentance. And, since there can be no real Christian life without repentance, without this constant "reevaluation" of life, the Lenten worship is an essential part of the liturgical tradition of the Church. The neglect of it, its reduction to a few purely formal obligations and customs, the deformation of its basic rules constitute one of the major deficiencies of our Church life today.

Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann

St. Mark's 30th Anniversary celebration photos

9/9/2017

Wow are we really 30 years old? Was it only 30 years ago that Archmandrite Alexander Pihach celebrated the first liturgy.
Have we reached that coming of age? But we have so much left to do.
Well let's start off with a celebration liturgy giving thanks to God for all that He has done for us.
Of course you can't celebrate without your father there, so we joined in with Vladyka Irenee.
Also con-celebrating was:
Father Rodion Luciuk, rector, Father Cosmin Vint (Romanian Archdiocese),
Protodeacon Jesse Issac, and Deacon Ken Gaber (Romanian Archdiocese).