FEBRUARY PASTORAL MESSAGE
Beloved,
What an exciting month February offers us. We began the month celebrating our parish life with a banquet, honoring my family as I minister to St Luke for 25 blessed years, for the glory of God. A memorable evening sharing memories, exchanging stories, and simply being what we are, a family. I thank our Parish Council President, Andrew Papageorge, for his leadership, and our most gracious Chair, Deme Peters, and her committee for their exemplary organizing of a stellar evening where everything was to the nines. But I ultimately thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to minister to you and your children. May our Lord continue to bless our ministry together in His Vineyard.
February invites the 2nd annual MDF to our region. Having the blessing of chairing it again this year, I am excited to see a thousand people converge in Philly to celebrate our youth. Glory to God for all things!
February also marks the beginning of Lent. On Clean Monday, February 23rd, we will be ushering in Great Lent with the Great Compline Service in the evening. Lent is a time when we exercise ourselves spiritually more than any other time of the year. The exercise we commence we do to bring about tears of repentance, not of sweat; it is an exercise of our diet, not for our bodies but for our souls; we exercise what goes into our mouths so that what comes out may be pure and clean; we exercise our senses so that God’s presence and purpose may become clearer in our lives.
Friends, let us seize the powerful days before us and not let them go to waste. Let us return to Him and become one of His again through fasting, prayer, confession, good deeds, love to our neighbor and a clean heart & mind. May the Grace of our Lord and His strength help guide you through these awesome days of reconciliation and salvation as we turn to Jesus Christ for all that is good and beneficial for our souls and bodies.
With brotherly love and pastoral blessings,
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Rev Father Christ Kontos, Protopresbyter
