THIS SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2018 Orthros 9:00am Divine Liturgy 10:00am. Forth Sunday of Luke, (Sunday of the Fathers of the 7th Ecumenical Council).
REFLECTION: This is the 50th anniversary of the first time humans escaped the gravity of earth to circle the moon and send back a photo of earth from space. The following is taken from an article by David Von Drehle in the Hartford Courant of October 13, 2018.
"Apollo 8 fifty years ago in 1968 witnessed a colossal Saturn V rocket boosting astronauts into lunar orbit. Prior to this no human had ever left Earth’s orbit. No human had ever traveled through interplanetary space to be captured by the gravity of another world. And certainly no human had ever done all this and returned home like a space-age Odysseus.
Three extraordinary astronauts were Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders. These three men in a tiny craft were a quarter of a million miles from safety. On that Christmas, a long time ago, Apollo 8 sailed off to explore the moon, but along the way the mission rediscovered Earth. For the first time, human eyes ventured far enough away to see our planet for what it truly is: a miracle bordering on the impossible, a delicate bubble of life and meaning spinning through the cold and empty darkness of space.
Of all the millions of people over thousands of years who had looked up and imagined themselves floating among the stars, these three men were the first to experience it. And it opened their eyes to the harsh, dead reality of space. When the Earth came up, blue and white and smiling over the moon’s horizon for the first time, they saw, like the God of Genesis, that it was good.
The astronauts ended their Christmas Eve television transmission by reading from the biblical creation story as their craft sped toward the lunar night. This primitive, elemental account of a living world — carved from darkness, marked out from the silent firmament — was never more persuasive and never more moving.
Apollo 8 taught us again the lesson that we are blessed to be here aboard a living planet in a vast ocean of lifelessness. Lucky to have company in a lonely galaxy. Called to care for one another, and for this unlikely lifeboat that is our mutual home."
Email to Fr. Don: FrDonatAugusta@mail.goarch.org.
Email to St. Basil Church can be sent to: office@stbasil.ct.goarch.org. Your questions or comments can be sent to this email and will be forwarded to the parish priesst or the parish council members for a response.
Visit our St. Basil parish website: www.stbasil.ct.goarch.org. You will find many interesting links. Especially visit the "Orthodox Marketplace" where you will find an excellent selection of icons, books, and gift ideas for birthdays and holidays. Also, you can link to our Parish Facebook page.
On Facebook do a search for: "Saint Basil Greek Orthodox Church." You will find lots of information about parish activities, photos, and updates on the Greek Cultural Fair. Thanks to Arven Saunders for his work on the parish Facebook site and the parish Website.