This Saturday, we had a 2-hour Lenten Retreat for our parish youth. The first discussion we had was: "Why were you created?" The following six excerpts, culled from various websites, describe the answers to this question given by a number of religions and philosophies. Can you identify each one? To what extent is each consistent with Orthodox Christianity?

1. We are not here for any purpose and the pursuit of this question is futile. We are a very lucky chance effect. We are the product of a set of potentially infinite sequence of events that enabled us to become. Ultimately, without our intervention, we will be destroyed.
2. God is in the world and the world is in God. Man is the highest product of evolution. He must discover for himself his place in the world and the true meaning of life. Life is in a constant state of change, it is transient. Even our personality is not constant. “You” are nothing more than the sum of your feelings and experiences. The goal of man should be to escape from this continual state of flux. 
3.  The God who had charge of the earth put the other gods to work…. Tired of their condition and at the instigation of one of the gods they went on strike. After a fierce disagreement, a mediator proposed a compromise. They would create man to bear the burden to that the gods would be free.
4. God created man to worship Him. He made this life to test our faith in Him along with our charity toward each other. Should we pass both tests we are granted entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. Should we fail… well, you know what happens then. … By nature man is spiritually weak. However there is a seed inside all of us that could blossom into greatness were we to follow the tenets of the religion.
5. God did not need to create man, but He did create him for a reason. Man is created for God's glory: by our existence and the fulfillment of His will, we passively reflect His glory. … From the very beginning, although he did not need us, God created us with a goal, one that involves us (making our every action important) and is guaranteed by his unstoppable, insatiable desire to see himself glorified.
6. God did not need to create man. He was complete and entirely blessed by Himself. Even before creation, he lived the blessed life of love. The Father, and Son and the Holy Spirit lived in mutual love one for another. But to love means to share, and God created man because of love. By voluntary choice God created the world in ecstatic love, so that there might be besides himself other beings to participate in the life and the love that are His.

It is possible for all to pray with a congregation;

for many it is more suitable to pray with a single kindred spirit;

solitary prayer is for the very few.

(from the Ladder of Divine Ascent by St. John Climacus, Step 19:5)

Is St. John saying here that we should not pray by ourselves? Certainly not, for this would contradict the entire consensus of the Fathers of the Church regarding prayer, and even the words of Holy Scripture, which enjoin us to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess 5:17)!

St. John himself, in another place, calls prayer "the queen of the virtues," who "cries with a loud voice and says to us: Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Step 28:2).

No, St. John wishes to emphasize how difficult it is to pray alone, and how much easier it is to pray together. The context makes this clear, since Step 19 as a whole is about corporate prayer, with others.

St. John says that prayer is "the converse and union of man with God" (Step 28:1). So this is not just a matter of repeating the prayers in the prayer book. Prayer is a conversation with God, a lifting up of our mind and heart to Him. And how difficult this is!

How hard it is to say our prayers morning and evening, alone in front of our icons - and yet we feel that our prayer at home, feeble as it is, is sufficient. How much stronger our prayer is when two or three of us are gathered together, and Christ in our midst (Matt 18:20).

We are not saved as individuals, for it is our selfishness in pursuing our own individual agendas that separates us from God. We are saved by being united to His Body, by entering once again into union and communion with Him — and at the same time with each other. And the essence of this union is prayer. When we pray together, our prayers are stronger, supported by our mutual effort and by God's grace.

And so it is possible for all to pray when we gather together in Church, for our union with one another in the labor of prayer facilitates our union with God. So let us gather in Church and pray, as often as we are able!

In addition to this, it is suitable to pray with our loved ones — our spouse, our children — at home. It has been truly said that "the family that prays together stays together." Prayer is the tie that binds us to each other and to God. And this prayer is also easier than that solitary prayer.

So while continuing to labor in our personal prayers, let us not neglect to come together in prayer as often as possible both in church and with our families at home. As St. John assures us, this time spent in prayer together will be more fruitful (for all but the very few) than the time spent laboring in prayer alone.

The following is a report from Dcn Matthew Williams after a week in Haiti.

http://eviljuan.blogspot.com/2010/01/report-from-earhtquake-ravaged-haiti.html

Diocese of Chicago & Mid-America
Russian Orthodox Church Abroad
Tel: (847) 298-5383
Fax: (847) 298-5380
P.O Box 1367
Des Plaines, IL 60017

4/17 January, 2010
Synaxis of the 70 Apostles

Rectors of the Diocese:

Christ is amongst us!

 As all are no doubt aware, on January 12, 2010 a devastating earthquake struck Haiti – the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. With the blessing of His Grace Bishop Peter, Deacon Matthew Williams, a cleric of St. John Chrysostom Church in House Springs, MO, has traveled to the Dominican Republic with a medical relief team and will soon be entering Haiti. Fr. Matthew is reporting his progress to His Grace daily, and we hope that very soon he will be able to provide a full report on the status of our clergymen, faithful, and properties in Haiti. As of today we are aware that two of our priests there, Fr. Gregoire and Fr. Jean, have survived. We know nothing about the other clergymen, their families, the faithful, or our properties.

In recent disasters much of the aid money sent was wasted or lost to local corruption. Bishop Peter intends that the funds collected in our diocese as a response to this disaster will not be lost to such a fate. Rather, once Fr. Matthew’s reports have been assessed a detailed plan for dispersement of funds collected in our parishes will be sent to the Rectors so that the faithful may be appropriately urged to give from their abundance to those suffering in Haiti. We hope to be able to help our Mission there directly, either by supporting the family of one of the clergymen if need be, or perhaps helping them to erect a new temple, again if need be.

In the mean time, Rectors are hereby informed to take up collections on all Sundays until further notice for the Diocesan Fund for those in Need of Assistance. These funds will be used directly for support of the Orthodox Christians in Haiti once we have been made aware of their needs by Fr. Matthew. Funds gathered at these weekly collections are to be sent to Andrei Urtiew, Diocesan Treasurer, at the address above.

With Love in our Lord Jesus Christ,

Rev. Fr. Gregory Joyce
Secretary of the Diocesan Council

Brothers and sisters, what a blessing it is to pray to the Lord together! This past Saturday evening, we had a “reader’s vigil” – that is, a vigil service without a priest, since Father Seraphim was still out of town.

Often, reader’s services can seem to be lacking in some way, since there are no vestments, no litanies, no censing… But this time it was not that way. We had a fairly large group of people for a Saturday Vigil, most of whom stayed to the end and participated in the singing and reading, and there was a palpable sense that we were, as a group, praying together.

Brothers and sisters, the life of the Church is prayer. Individual prayer, to be sure, but also corporate prayer, prayer with one another and for one another. This is why the services are such an essential part of the life of the Church. Here we put aside our own individual feelings and come together as the Body of Christ. In the midst of our own joy, we acknowledge and pray for the sorrows of our brothers. In the midst of our own sorrows, we give thanks for our brothers’ joys.

The services teach us how to pray and they give us the opportunity to practice, to learn. They teach us thanksgiving, glorification of God, repentance for our sins, and prayer for salvation – our own individual salvation and that of all of our brothers in Christ.

I think it is very significant that nearly every other Christian confession has lost the cycle of Church services with the exception of a single service on Sunday morning. Truly, the Sunday Liturgy is the most important of the services. It is where we come together in one Body by partaking of the Holy Mysteries together. And truly, the Sunday Liturgy is sometimes all we can manage to fit in. But it cannot be the limit to our prayer together. Prayer is not a once-a-week thing. Prayer is our life, individually and corporately.