{"id":8248,"date":"2020-03-10T12:17:30","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T16:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stpeterorthodoxchurch.com\/?p=8248"},"modified":"2020-03-10T12:17:30","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T16:17:30","slug":"st-peter-newsletter-march-10-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stpeterorthodoxchurch.com\/st-peter-newsletter-march-10-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Peter Newsletter March 10, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

Second Sunday of Great Lent
\nSt. Gregory Palamas<\/h2>\n

Martyr Agapios of Palestine and those with him; Apostle Aristoboulos of the Seventy, first bishop of Britain; New-martyrs Manuel of Crete and Parthenios<\/h4>\n
\n\"St.<\/p>\n

St. Gregory Palamas<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

From “A Man Fully Alive<\/a>” by Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick.<\/p>\n

On the Second Sunday of Great Lent we celebrate St. Gregory Palamas, the archbishop of Thessalonica in Greece for a number of years in the 14th century, right around the same time that Geoffrey Chaucer was born, the man who wrote The Canterbury Tales.<\/p>\n

But before he became an archbishop, Gregory was a monk on the holy mountain of Athos. During his time there and also when he later became an archbishop, Gregory was involved in a controversy that cut straight to the heart of this longing for life that all of us who are sons and daughters of Adam share.<\/p>\n

At that time, there was a certain heretic named Barlaam, who was from the southern part of Italy, which was Greek-speaking at the time. Barlaam made the claim that the highest possible knowledge of God that anyone could have was through the mind, that the philosophers knew God better than the prophets and even the apostles.<\/p>\n

Gregory answered that the human mind, while a great gift from God, was not actually capable of the kind of intimate knowledge and communion that Adam had received from God, that there was something much deeper, that the Christian could actually know God and see Him with the heart, as a light shining in. And indeed, sometimes this heart knowledge of God was so powerful and so pervasive that some people were actually seeing the light of God with their physical eyes.<\/p>\n

Isn’t that why we’re here? Don’t we want to see God? Aren’t we here not just to learn about God with our minds, but truly to know Him with our hearts?<\/p>\n

Read Fr. Damick’s complete essay<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read a brief history of St. Gregory Palamas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Women of St. Peter’s: Women’s Retreat On Saturday, March 14, 2020<\/h2>\n

PLEASE NOTE THE NEW DATE<\/em><\/p>\n

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\n\"Women's<\/a><\/p>\n

Click image to see full schedule<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Women of St. Peter hosts the annual Lenten Retreat at St. Peter’s on Saturday, March 7. Fr. Alexis Kouri of St. Philip’s Orthodox Church in Davie, Florida, is the guest speaker.<\/p>\n

If you can help with the event, please contact Mary Copeland or Nancy Forderhase to volunteer.<\/p>\n

Please plan to attend this one day retreat. We want to support this effort with a strong showing from the Women of St. Peter’s. A $10 contributionwill pay for the food expenses.<\/p>\n

Please sign up on Sundays or RSVP to Mary Copeland at 239-298-1730 or Nancy Forderhase at 859-749-9509.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Schedule for Lenten Suppers Following Presanctified Liturgies on Wednesday<\/h2>\n
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\n\"Lenten\n<\/div>\n