This year was filled with many firsts for me as your priest and I would like to reflect a bit on our blessed year together at Holy Apostles. It was a full year. It was a year of joyously receiving many new members, bringing new life into our growing family of Holy Apostles.

It was a year of challenges and opportunities. It was a year that helped me realize, as Father Maximos in the book The Mountain of Silence said so well, that "There is only one form of education: to know and love God."

I am grateful to all of you who have shown me your zeal and desire to know and love God. Someone once said that, "No amount of thought will ever result in any greater formulation than the three words, 'Love one another,' so long as it is love to the end and without exceptions."

As we desire to know and love God we will change. We will become different people with a thirst for the Holy, for the good, for the excellent.

I am grateful to the women who ventured off to Portland to help quench this thirst to feed their souls by attending Mother Ines' lecture in October. They gleaned some important thoughts from this wise nun to ponder:

"Healing comes only from God."

"If we have a thought that bothers us for more than one hour, we need to confess it."

"We must begin the practice of confession in order to heal. Every Orthodox Christian must find a spiritual mentor, someone with whom we can be obedient to, someone we trust, someone wise."

"Confession is not only about sin....it is about confessing what keeps us from God."

"Secrets come from the devil, there is no freedom in secrets."

" Orthodoxy is not an idea, it is a way of life!"

I am thankful to Fr. John Chryssavgis who reminded us about the power of God's love in his lecture last February. He gently taught us that we are connected to one another through our brokenness and that it is extremely important to have our story told without shame, without judgment, without criticism. Our loving God will always run out to meet us as we make our return back to Him. It is our choice.

I am grateful to Dr. John Gallanis who spoke to us about how prayer, connection with another human being, and love can help in the healing of the body. His stories about God being the true hospital, the true physician, and the real medicine brought back a renewed hope and a fresh perspective to respond to illness.

Deacon Evan Armatas also added to our growth as a parish by blessing us at our parish retreat in May. He showed us that there is balance in the Christian life as we strive to build our community of love. He crafted a beautiful weekend where we came to laugh, play, and pray together sharing fellowship in God's presence

Finally, I am thankful to all those who have helped support our ministry here at Holy Apostles. You have added to my life in many ways during my first year as your priest. We have learned to pray together. We have learned to lift our voices to praise God. We have learned to raise the standard as we strive to become worthy members of God's Holy church.

Fr. Tom