Our Creator loves His creation!

What was used to bring death to a condemned criminal is now used to bring life for us wayward sinners. The piece of wood that held the dead body of our Lord could not consume the Alpha, no, encompassed by the loving embrace of our Designer, the Holy Cross is our beginning of life without end. Our Creator loves His creation!

 

We celebrate the season of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross at the beginning of the church year and at the beginning of another school year! The Church reminds us that only through humility can we embrace salvation. “For God did not send forth His Son into the world in order that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” [Jn. 3:17] The Lamb was slain not to pay our debt but to rescue us from our fallen condition and offer us sinners a healing relationship with God. How hard it is for this mortal man to understand the kind of love that is perfect and not flawed by our human woundedness and selfishness. Our Creator loves His creation!

 

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that everyone who believeth in Him should not perish, but may have everlasting life.” [Jn. 3:16] Although I have tasted the sweetness of salvation and felt the warm embrace of God, my habitual frame of mind tends to return me to my sinfulness like a dog seeking his vomit, finding deathful rest in the comfortable surroundings of my past frequent worldly choices. And then I fall down at the cross confessing my sinfulness and lack of trust in anyone other than myself, regaining my path to eternity, and my Father welcomes me home. “O taste and see that the Lord is good.”( Psalm 34:8) Our Creator loves His creation!

 

“Come to Me, all ye who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take up My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls. For My yoke is good and My burden is light.” [Mt. 11:28-30] Perhaps you too are feeling overwhelmed by the dark shadows of this world. It is time for a change! You are not alone! You are a member of this family, His family! You and I are Blood-kin! Our Creator loves His creation!

 
Glory to God who has shown us the Light!

Fr.G
9/24/17rm

Published by

Father Gabriel Weller

Father Gabriel Weller was ordained by Bishop George Schaefer with the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion Kapral. Father Gabriel was born here in the Shenandoah Valley Virginia. He spent many of his early years in Va. Beach but returned to the Valley in 1979. After many failures in life, He gave his life to the Lord and became very active in the protestant church. He had been a church leader in the United Church of Christ and the Methodist Church since his late twenties, serving in many capacities including Deacon, Elder, Church President, Youth Pastor and also served as Certified Lay Speaker, Choir Member and Youth Leader. He attended Seminary at Eastern Mennonite University with the encouragement of his pastor, but before completing his studies became frustrated with a growing perception of liberalism and other issues in the Protestant Churches he had known. He encountered Orthodox Christianity through his wife and her brother, Archpriest John Moses. He came to realize he could not go back to Protestantism because of the lack of True worship. He has served in the Altar continuously since his baptism, and was the Warden of All Saints of North America for two years. He was ordained to the Diaconate by Bishop Gabriel in 2007, and he was ordained to the Priesthood in 2009. He was the first regular pastor of the Holy Myrrhbearers 'Mission' in 2012 and on October 12, 2013, he was appointed Rector of the parish. His wife is Matushka Tatiana.