“Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ” Peace be with you.”
Dear to Christ the parishioners of St. George,
Christ is Risen.
One of the gifts of the resurrection of Christ is “Peace”. If we are in Christ, if we have truly entered into the mystery of His death and resurrection, peace will be part of our daily lives. We always pray for peace. We start every service by calling each one of us “In peace let us pray to the Lord”, then we say “For the peace from above and for the salvation of our souls”. Peace that we are all hungry for comes from above. The Risen Lord gift to our lives is Peace. Peace is to know that God governs our lives, and that nothing hapens to us without His will. I hope we all can obtain peace during this holy season as we celebrate the joy of Pascha for the next 40 days. We always greet each other during this time with “Christ is Risen”.
I want to thank all those who chanted, served, worked on our live streaming, and those who prepared the church for Pascha.
I will have few zoom meetings with our teens, YAM, and Bible study in the next few weeks.
For those who have families abroad who are in need of refugee sponsorship, I would like to share with you some exciting news. I recently met with representatives from the Office for Refugees at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto (ORAT), who have offered to assist those among our community whose families are in need of refugee resettlement. I have attached a letter from the Director of ORAT, in which he explains how you can register for an on-line Information Session that they will hold. During this Information Session, you will learn about refugee sponsorship, and how you can begin this process with ORAT. Please, register for this event if you have family abroad that you wish to sponsor. I would ask that you do not forward this email to non-parishioners of St. George. Only Members of St. George will be invited to attend the on-line session and to participate in this program.
His Eminence postponed all baptisms and wedding for the time being until after Pentecost.
As we celebrate Thomas Sunday, Jesus said to Thomas, “Have you believed because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” Blessed are we who believe that everything handed to us is the Truth and it is good for our salvation.
Embracing you with the “Peace” of Christ that surpasses every earthly peace, I continue to greet you with Christ is Risen! He is Truly Risen.
In the peace of Christ that shine from the empty tomb I remain in Christ,
Rev. Fr. Dr. George Dahdouh, Priest
St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church
9116 Bayview Ave.,
Richmond Hill, ON L4B 3M9
Office: 905/731-7210, Cell in case of Emergency: 416/937-6301
~Pastor’s Message of April 24, 2020~