WEBVTT

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There's really hardly anything left now that

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needs to be said because we've now entered the

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ship on the great sea of the fast, the ship that

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Father Nicholas mentioned last night in his homily

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and the ship that the hymns spoke about today.

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We're going somewhere. We're not fasting and

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praying and keeping vigil. and asking forgiveness

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just because. You don't go to the gym just to

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lift some weights. You go for a reason. And so

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this reason here is because we're on a journey

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to Pascha, to the kingdom, to the judgment day,

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to our own resurrection and restoration. It's

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important we remember when we're struggling that

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this day is also called not only Forgiveness

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Sunday, but the commemoration, the remembrance

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of the casting out of Adam and Eve from paradise.

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That sounds so distant and so kind of lovely

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and, you know, I don't know, far. But it's pretty

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easy to tell. We don't live in paradise. But

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God has given us signs and tokens and gifts so

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that we can restore with his grace paradise in

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ourself. We've been fed today. We share the Master's

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hospitality at the Divine Liturgy. This is a

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gift from paradise. And we prepare ourselves

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to enter into paradise every time we walk into

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the church. We receive forgiveness and absolution

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at confession. This is a gift of paradise. The

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whole life of the church. What did Jesus say?

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Take, eat. Drink of this, all of you, for the

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remission of sins, for forgiveness. So as Christians

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who carry Christ within ourselves as temples,

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the best thing, the most holy thing, the divine

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thing that we can do is to continually offer

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our love. And in this broken world, the sign

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of love, really, the sign of love is forgiveness.

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So I ask now, your forgiveness as your pastor

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for all my failings, for forgetting and neglecting

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to thank all of you, to honor all of you, to

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pray for all of you more frequently than I do,

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to tell you all that I love you, that I know

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God has brought us together. And so often...

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You know, because of my selfishness and egotism,

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I let that become a burden. But it's not a burden.

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It's a gift. It's a blessing. And I'm sorry to

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each one of you. I say I'm sorry for those failures.

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And I ask for your prayers so that we can be

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together and struggling together throughout this

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Lent with one mind, one faith, one body, worshiping

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the one Lord. Brothers and sisters, what we'll

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do, Father Nicholas will come up, we'll ask forgiveness

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of one another, say God forgives, he'll say God

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forgives, and we move on. I will ask you to try,

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I know it's hard in this congregation, I'll ask

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you to try to be quiet when you do this. It's

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a joyful thing, but it's not a time for laughing.

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Let's be sober, and let's be focused. in how

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we do this so that we retain the grace and the

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contrition and the compunction that God will

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grant to us each through one another.