Our "Lenten Luncheon" was a huge success. Thanks to the hard work of Stella Stringas whose brilliant idea and fabulous ability to make her dreams come true led us all to a grand buffet prepared by the
loving hands of the ladies of the Young at Heart. Everyone tried to help in some way and after the Presanctified Service on March 14, 2007 we all met in the community building for a fabulous feast. I had no idea that so many different and delicious dishes could be created with the Lenten restrictions. All the dishes were wonderful and everyone ate heartily. We even had Lenten cookies and cakes. A very special thank you goes to Katina Kollias and Becky Danielidis for coming early and preparing a wonderful lentel soup. Athena Cone and Mary Savastaikis and
Cal Skumas helped with the set up and served. Click Here to Read more about Father Harakas' talk to the Young at Heart.
 

All of these wonderful Lenten dishes were prepared by the members of Young at Heart

Everyone eats and has
a great time

We all enjoy fellowship and
have a lot of fun doing it.

Everyone takes a turn
reading out loud from the
St. John of the Ladders Message on Pride,
Simplicity and Humility

We have a great turnout!

The highlight of the meeting was our speaker, Father Harakas. Everyone knows Father Harakas for his many years as a great teacher and communicator, and he showed us his skills with his wonderful presentation. Father Harakas handed out a sheet written by St. John of the Ladder's Message on Pride, Simplicity and Humility. He had several people read one paragraph on the sheet. Then he had us look closely at topics which seemed to speak to us, or if we found a truth there that we wanted to discuss. The first topic was pride. Father spoke eloquently to help us understand this very deep topic. He explained that there is good pride like pride in one's heritage but that even that, when pushed beyond a normal degree can be a problem. Humility is knowing exactly who you are, your weaknesses as well as your strengths. Socrates said "Know thy self." It is good to recognize the gifts that God gives you, your talents and blessings, but humility will make you realize what your shortcomings are. So humility will not allow us to focus only on the good things but on the whole person. Humility will make us realize that we have things in our lives we have to improve on. Askesi is "exercise." Spiritual exercise that we seek to cultivate what is good in a way that glorifies God. He gave us the example that he was actually not a good cook. However, he makes great spanikopita. That is good, but he does not go around bragging about it. Also say that he makes lousy baklava, this is something he should recognize. Asking for help to improve his baklava skills would show his humility. When you receive a compliment say "Thanks be to God" and then change the subject so the attention is off yourself. If we are ready to recognize our shortcomings then pride will disappear on its own. Askesis, or exercise, would be to find ways to curb the pride and anger that we experience. Fighting against what is evil and fighting for what is good. Lent is a period for fighting against ourselves and examining ourselves to find out what we do that is not pleasing to God. Stavroula called it spiritual warfare. Father liked it very much. Pride brings us to hypocrisy. In old Greece actors were called "hypocrites" because they wore masks that hid who they were and how they felt. Jesus disliked and spoke against hypocrites. He told us in the Bible "don't let the right hand know what the left hand is doing." Do good works but do it in secret and do not seek compliments for it.

Hatred starts when someone decides they don't like someone else and speak badly about that person. When the hated person hears these stores, he may also speak badly about the other guy. A vicious circle is started with ego, pride, hatred and self-centeredness and this cycle gets worse and worse. If you let that go too far, a fight will start. Jesus teaches us to handle this in a different way, no longer an eye for an eye but now we are to "Turn the other cheek". Jesus tells us to love our enemy. We may even speak well about him and treat him with respect. At first he may become suspicious. But if you keep this up, your enemy will become uncomfortable and wonder if he should make up with you.
Sooner or later the vicious circle will end. You will be returning good for evil and the relationship will be restored. Although we continuously sin against God, he on the other hand continuously forgives us and loves us. Returning love for sin. You cannot do this if you are full of pride, only if you are filled with love.

These are just some of my sketchy notes. I wish you had been there to enjoy the full message from Father Harakas. Maybe you will be there next time!