+

A Blessed Ecclesiastical New Year

“Jesus, returning to Nazareth, enters the synagogue. He is asked to read the portion of Scripture appropriate to that Sabbath. He opens the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah and reads: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed;  to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.’ Jesus folds up the scroll, sits down and says: ‘Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’ Jesus addresses this same solemn declaration to us at the start of each year. I am poor — perhaps materially, but certainly spiritually. I am captive — captive of my egoism and of my sin. I am blind — for my eyes do not know how to perceive the divine light. I am wounded — perhaps by the eternal circumstances of my life — but much more so by my repeated spiritual failures. And all the time, Jesus is there in front of me, and offers me deliverance. He, Himself, is the embodiment of all deliverance and of all forgiveness. If at this moment I accept His word, His salvation, everything can become new for me. Today: on the first day of the year this offer is made to me.…The gospel says, ‘And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.’ Would that on this first day of the year my eyes might turn away from the defilements in which they take pleasure and fasten themselves on Christ — and remain fixed on Him. For, if I have the courage to keep my eyes on Jesus alone, if I do not turn them aside, I shall no longer fall. Lord Jesus, I will look at You.” – Fr. Lev Gillet 

Church Announcements

Church Facebook Page

Remember to sign up for text and email alerts at https://thecocc.org/emails-texts/

Thank you, God Bless