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Text Box: THE BASILIAN FATHERS (The Society of Clerks Secular of Saint Basil) WHEN YOU MAKE DONATIONS TO THE SOCIETY OF CLERKS SECULAR or to The Orthodox Catholic Church of the Americas When you make donations to The Society of Clerks Secular of Saint Basil, or The Orthodox Catholic Church of the Americas, please make the check payable to Holy Innocents Orthodox Church and put the notation “for SSB” or “for OCCA” in the memo section. It wil be properly ledgered. The bank accounts for Holy Innocents are used for The S.S.B. and for The OCCA and making checks payable to The S.S.B. or to The OCCA means we have difficulties negotiating those instruments. + RETURNING THE LOST SHEEP TO THE FOLD Exactly HOW does one get, assist, convince, entice the lost sheep to return to the fold? The image of Jesus the Good Shepherd carrying the lost sheep on His shoulder is beautiful. But physically carrying a person to someplace obviously is not what the image seeks to convey for returning to the fold of the true faith is not measured by physical movement. Not to mention the fact that were one to attempt to physically force an unwilling individual to a particular place, well the legal term is kidnapping, the penalties are rather severe, and the kidnapped person may react rather violently. There also is the matter of free will. While it is neither dogma nor an universal truth, it is fairly accurate to state that no one is ever convinced by argument or debate. The one sought to be convinced simply conceives of new reasons for maintaining old positions

Text Box: and becomes defensive. Any change must come from within and argument or debate rarely illuminate a concept which will lead one to change their position. That leaves us with prayer, fasting, alms giving (which is much more than giving money), and personal example. The lost sheep deems prayer to be wasted effort, fasting only of use if one need loose weight, alms giving either a social duty or a corruption of those who are already lazy or both, and personal example of the faithful to be acts of delusion. The fact that those who practice or attempt to practice the true faith are more at peace even knowing their own deficiencies often is not lost on the lost sheep. But perceiving no rationale acceptable within their system of lack of belief it is at best considered an aberration of some unknown order. Are we to simply accept that some seed falls on sterile ground, some sprouts but for lack of nourishment withers, some is choked by weeds, and some is nourished and bears fruit? Since God explained faith in this manner we’ed best accept it. But even accepting it, we may never cease attempting to retrieve the lost sheep. Christ suffered and died for them just as much as He did for the faithful. The lost sheep reject the benefit of Christ’s passion but He continues to make it available to each of them until their soul separates from their body. So continue with prayer, fasting, alms giving, and personal example, and every now and then, when you simply can not resist, a little well mannered argument or debate - maybe. +

Text Box: EXORCISM RITUALS We have completed the book on exorcisms, entitled Exorcism Orthodox and Roman Rituals, edition date 29 April 2009 A.D. The contents are: Introduction; Exorcism of the Possessed - Preliminary Instructions; Cautions and Additional Suggestions to The Exorcist; the Western Rite of Exorcism (For a Particular Person) (A Single Individual); Exorcism Against Satan and the Fallen Angels (For a Particular Geographic Place); ORTHODOX EXORCISM RITUALS - Prayer of Exorcism: for Those Impassioned or Imprisoned by Demons, and Every Manner of Demonic Illness or Control, from St. Basil the Great; Exorcisms or Prayers of Deliverance for General Use, from St. John Chrysostom This is the same material we currently are running as a series of articles in REUNION. We have them available on our web site at: http://www.reu.org/public/liturgys/litidx.htm as follows: EXORCISM.PDF - Type style Bookman Old Style, black type, set up for printing 4 pages on one 8 1/2 " x 11 " page. EXORCISM_S.PDF - consecutive pages (for viewing on computer). These files are also

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