Welcome to Saint Herman's, Hudson, Ohio

This blog is a partial compilation of the messages, texts, readings, and prayers from our small community. We pray that it will be used by our own people, to their edification. And if you happen by and are inclined to read, give the glory to God!

The blog title, "Will He Find Faith on the Earth?" is from Luke 18:8, the "Parable of the Persistent Widow." It overlays the icon of the Last Judgment, an historical event detailed in Matthew Chapter 25, for which we wait as we pray in the Nicean Creed.

We serve the Holy Orthodox cycle of services in contemporary English. Under the omophorion of His Eminence Metropolitan Joseph of the Bulgarian Patriarchal Diocese of the USA, Canada and Australia, we worship at 5107 Darrow Road in Hudson, Ohio (44236). If you are in the area, please join us for worship!

Regular services include:
Sunday Divine Liturgy 10AM (Sept 1 - May 31)
930AM (June 1 - Aug 31)
Vespers each Saturday 6PM

We pray that you might join us for as many of these services as possible! We are open, and we welcome inside the Church all visitors. See our Parish web page:

Tuesday, October 12, 2021

Tuesday, 17th Week 2021

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.  For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles—if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power. (Eph 2:19-3:7)

See how the Apostle already groups his target readers (those in Ephesus) by tieing them firmly to the "saints and members of the household of God."  This is no accident.  St. Paul is preaching salvation already at work, and that those who choose to be followers of Christ are already living in the Kingdom while awaiting their translation from this life to the next.  In short, heaven is all around us, and it is ours for the taking if we are faithful to follow His commandments and live lives as He instructed us to do.

The imagery related to the temple is not limited to this passage from Ephesians.  He gives the same imagery to those in Corinth when he teaches:

You are God's building.  According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. (1Cor 3:10)

But the Saint seals his teaching with the words that end this same portion of scripture:

Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?  If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.  (1Cor 3:16-17)

We are temples made of flesh.  And He of Whom we partake in the Holy Eucharist "builds" within that flesh that which is His.  If we partake in faith, the temple grows and is beautified.  If we partake in vain, the temple is weakened and incurs loss.

So we dare not lose sight of St. Paul's words, that "the temple of God is holy", and that WE are that temple.  The 'behavior' we would have within a church, which we all see as "God's House" must be how we conduct ourselves when we recognize that His Temple, His "house" never departs from where we are.

His 'house' IS heaven.  And if we live as described, then truly heaven IS all around us!

Glory to Jesus Christ!

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