A Holistic Blessing: To Be Both Recipient & Benefactor
After the Nativity season, it is common for us to reflect on the past month, and recognize the blessings associated with it. With a minimum level of maturity, we suddenly realize that giving is much more enjoyable than receiving, and the reminiscing of Christmas offerings turn to “what we gave others,” rather than “what we received from others.” This epiphanal realization is not only a sign of maturity, but a reflection of spiritual growth, as the act of giving is much more Godly, than the act of receiving. What do you remember more clearly - what you received from others in life or what you gave to others?
2009 was a historic year for this beloved community of Saint Basil’s, which we are all extremely blessed to be a part of! In February 2009, a relic of our Patron Saint was received, officially gifted by His Eminence in July, and enshrined within the church and community. To have been a recipient of such a profound and historic blessing is an epic event in the life of this community.
2010 provides us with an opportunity to truly honor and expand upon the blessing of having been recipients of this great gift and blessing, as we now will be benefactors of the same blessing, to a sister-parish in Northern California! His Eminence Metropolitan Gerasimos, will remove a piece of the relic of Saint Basil, and it will be officially gifted to the Saint Basil Greek Orthodox Church, in San Jose, California, on the feast of the Three Hierarchs, Saturday, January 30.
Our Saint Basil community now completes a cycle of generosity and Christian love, as we revolve around the blessing of the relic of Saint Basil, both as recipi- ent and benefactor. Humbled to be blessed with the opportunity to experience the same blissful openhandedness as our benefactor, the pious priest-monk on the island of Cyprus. What a blessing to ‘walk in his shoes,’ if even only in this single act of generosity and love!
Once again, Saint Basil’s relic blesses us by allowing us to be benefactors of a historic, priceless connection with one of Christ’s holy saints, to a sister commu- nity of faithful Orthodox Christians.
May the holy relic of our patron, Saint Basil the Heaven-Revealer, bless the faithful of San Jose, and may it continue to extend powerful blessings to the faithful of Stockton!
Rejoice, O Basil, great and holy hierarch, universal lamp of Orthodoxy! (from the Akathist Service to Saint Basil the Great)