SACRAMENTS ST ANDREW FAMILY NEWS
Fr. John Theodosion

The Sacraments of the Orthodox Church
Brothers and Sisters we have developed a special reference edition of the Saint Andrew Family News. The other edition focused on the topics of stewardship and rules and procedures regarding sacraments. If you would like to have an extra copy of this or any other edition of our Family Newsletter please let us know.

In this edition we are writing about the sacraments again, but this time from a different perspective. Our focus is on the spiritual meaning behind the sacraments, and an explanation of why we have these very beautiful services.

It is our prayer that you will take the time to read about these beautiful services and to grow in your knowledge of our Orthodox Faith and its practices. I can say that we certainly did as we were preparing the articles for this edition.

As I conclude this introduction I would like to leave you with this thought. That when we were baptized the priest read many prayers for us. One of them includes a sentence which says, “…we pray Lord that you will make this child to be a reason endowed sheep of your holy flock.” The Lord never asked us to be blind followers of Him, rather He wants us to be “reason endowed sheep.” He wants us to understand what we are doing and why we are doing it. He gives each baptized Christian a responsibility to grow in grace and knowledge through our involvement in the sacramental life of the church, through reading the Bible, through our personal prayers, and by reading books and articles which help us grow in our knowledge of the faith. By doing each of these things we will grow in body, mind, and soul.

I hope that this special edition “The Sacraments of the Orthodox Church” of the Saint Andrew Family News will help you, as Saint Paul says, to “…grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). Finally, we encourage you save this edition and keep it as a reference for your entire family.
God Bless you.
Fr. John Theodosion