The Orthodox Mission

Chronicle of the Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Mission
Diocesan Bishop - His Grace Bishop Dr. MITROPHAN
Aministrator - Fr. Rodney Torbic
408 Morgantown Avenue
Fairmont, West Virginia 26544

January 1/January 14, 2006
Circumcision of Our Lord - St. Basil the Great
No. 104
Phone 724-966-7428
Phone 304-534-5321
Phone 304-622-3681
Fax 724-966-7780

Mark 1:8

I indeed have baptized you with water: but He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

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· Six people attended Divine Liturgy on the Feast of St. Stephen the Protomartyr and Archdeacon, the Third Day of the Nativity.

· It was good to have Protonica Romana Prodanovich accompany Vesna P. Meinert to the Divine Liturgy this past week. Proto Slobodan Prodanovich did much to build the attendance at St. George Church in Carmichaels.

· The next Divine Liturgy for the Mission is tentatively scheduled for January 21, 2006. God-willing, after the Divine Liturgy, we will go the river to bless the river as it will be the time of Theophany-Epiphany.

· Continue to pray for the families of the Sago miners and their respective communities. Healing the hurt will take a long time.

· Let us remember the men and women serving in the military and their families.

· Let us remember the sick, the suffering, the imprisoned, those in care homes and rehab centers, their families and the staff members serving in the facilities.

· Let us remember the men and women working in dangerous occupations...miners, police, correctional officers, parole agents.

· Remember the suffering Serbian People in Kosovo.

· Live each day as an Orthodox Christian.

· Read your Bible for the benefit of your soul.

· Thank God for the blessings at Holy Trinity Mission.

· Tom Hunter continues to maintain the Mission website.

· David Spray continues to maintain an interest in the Mission.

From the Desert Fathers

Abba Xanthias said, 'The thief was on the cross and he was justified by a single word; and Judas who was counted in the number of the apostles lost all his labour in a single night and descended from heaven to hell. Therefore, let no-one boast of his good works, for all those who trust in themselves fall.'

Notes on Marriage II

His Grace Bishop Dr. MITROPHAN.
The Teaching of Saint Apostle Paul on the Church.
Translated by Protopresbyter Stefan Zaremba. Sremski Karlovac 2001, p. 68.

Unity in Christ and in the Church also brings in and of itself moral unity. When Christ dwells in our hearts by faith(Eph.3:17), then love for Him, for the Church and for one's neighbor also abides. This meaning that the beginning of perfection is faith, and its end is love (Col.3:14; I Cor.13:1-13; Rom. 13:8).

St. Bishop NIKOLAI Velimirovich.
."The Salvation of the Soul."
The Struggle for Faith and other writings of Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich and Archimandrite Justin Popovich. Translated by Rt. Rev. Archimandrite Todor Mika and Very Rev. Dr. Stevan Scott. The Free Serbian Orthodox Diocese of the United States and Canada, Grayslake, Illinois, 1989, pp. 66-67.

But let every Christian man and woman ceaselessly take thought for their souls, for that unique treasure, which can save them from death and destruction. Whoever takes thought for his soul, listens to Christ's words and carries out His holy commandments---the meek Christ helps such a man and helps him without ceasing. He watches over him as a mother over a child in a cradle. And He nourishes him and waters him day and night with His Holy Spirit. And He gives him a guardian angel to protect him in all the paths of life and to take away his soul at the hour of death and lead it into the Heavenly Kingdom.

Father Sebastian Dabovich.
The Holy Orthodox Church.
Reprinted 1993 by St. Nectarios Church, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, p. 61.

Those who partake of the sacrament of matrimony are given the common cup to drain from out of the hands of the priest. The meaning of this is plain. After this the happiness of one is to be the happiness of the other; the sorrow of one is to be the sorrow of the other; the interest of the one is to be the interest of the other. Moreover, a married couple is obliged to study the character of one another, and this-for the purpose of learning how and in what one may be of service to the other. When not the immediate result of your will and energy, or that of another person, good fortune and misfortune must be taken as coming from the hands of Almighty God.

Proto Stavrofor Radovan Milkovich.
Sermons and Speeches.
Prepared for publication by Zivota Stevovich. Raska Skola, Belgrade, 1999, p. 16.

In conclusion we can say that the religious and national education of the children will be successful only if the parents take full participation by coming to church regularly with their children and in the home see that they take full interest in their children's education. In short, they must practice their religion, customs, language with words, deeds and thoughts. They will consider the priest as their assistant in the education of their children and not as their replacement, as the Serbian saying: "Brigo moja predji na drugoga" (Let my worry be somebody else's).

Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Mission, Fairmont, West Virginia
January 1/January 14, 2006

Fr. Rodney Torbic

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