Download the Mathews Family Newsletter!!

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Dear Family and Friends,

Please find here a digital copy of our family newsletter.

Please take a few minutes to read it, print it out and share it with others. Its easy to forward an email on to friends who might also be interested in what our preparation for ministry at St. Vladimir's Seminary.

There are pictures of the kids, reflections from Jodi and I and much more in the newsletter! Check it out!

God bless!
Justin Mathews

PS - Please allow a minute for download and forward this post on with the email link at the bottom of this post to all your friends, your church and anyone you think might be interested! Thank you!

Asher's Birthday Party

It does seem as if I measure my own days in my children's growth and experiences. "It was a good day. Asher, ate a great breakfast and had a long nap."OR "Today was crazy. Elias and Asher wouldn't obey and they picked on each other all afternoon."

I guess when you become a Mother those lines between "mine" and everyone else's blur. No, they don't blur; they erode. And now, my little monkey, Asher, is two years old! What have I been doing the past two years? Hard to say. But I can tell you in detail the happenings of this little love of mine. He speaks in full sentences now. The first person he asks about when he crawls in bed with Justin and I around 5:45am is his big brother,Elias. Elias is his best friend. When he sees Elias for the first time in the morning or meets him coming in the door, he yells, "Hey, Lilee!" and hugs him fiercly. He loves to dip his food in anything, ketchup, butter, dressing, salsa. We call him the "dipper." He loves Bob the Builder and monkeys. In fact, I have caught him dropping food on the floor at dinner time and when I ask him why he is doing that he replies, "Monkey will eat it!" Some mornings when he is laying in bed with Justin and I he will play a game with himself where he hides under the blankets to get away from the "monkeys." He and Elias are the only monkeys in this house though! And the boys are now in swimming lessons. Asher loves the water and especially gets a thrill from jumping from the side of the pool into his Daddy's arms.

As you can see, our little two-year-old truly enriches our lives. I will go on measuring my own days in light of the joys and trials presented to me by the "men" in my life.

I hope you enjoy some snapshots of Asher's birthday party last Saturday. It was the first warm, sunny day in months so about the whole seminary showed up to eat some cake and fellowship under the sun! We had a blast and the kids enjoyed the party. I made a monkey cake and the kiddos wore Curious George birthday hats. The playground was full of monkeys that day. What a joyous day!!

We love you all!

Jodi

Thoughts after reading a NY Times book review > "Young Adult Fiction: Wild Things"

"These books look cute. They come in matched paperback sets with catchy titles, and stay for weeks on the children's books best-seller list. They carry no rating or recommended age range on the cover, but their intended audience — teenage girls — can't be in doubt. They feature sleek, conventionally beautiful girls lounging, getting in or out of limos, laughing and striking poses. Any parent — including me — might put them in the Barnes & Noble basket without a second glance. Yet if that parent opened one, he or she might be in for a surprise." ... "The "Clique" novels are all about status. But sex saturates the "Gossip Girl" books, by Cecily von Ziegesar, which are about 17- and 18-year-old private school girls in Manhattan. This is not the frank sexual exploration found in a Judy Blume novel, but teenage sexuality via Juicy Couture, blas and entirely commodified...."

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This is an exerpt from a review by Naomi Wolf in the NY Times today on a new and very popular trend in young adult fictional works on the best seller lists. Check out the semi-critical, but not fully aware (in my opinion), review in full HERE. I was so shocked by what is passing for literature and culture these days in our "great" society that I thought I would share the link and a few thoughts.

These books are selling literally millions of copies and passed off as "young-adult fiction" for girls. Complete with oral sex and other very explicit scenes featuring young teens, this is the "literature" that is shaping millions in the next generation of American women.

What are your thoughts? Are your children or your friends children reading these books? What role does this sort of "literature" play in influencing the values of the next generation? What happened to the venerated "classics" - are they no longer relevant to our kids.

Should a classic book be discarded if it becomes "irrelevant" to us or should we endeavor to become relevant to virtuous works - such as those by Homer, the Fathers of the Church, Jane Austen, Fyodor Dostoevsky; who could discount modern writers like Madeline L'Engle or CS Lewis?

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." -- Philippians 4:8

Is the notion of calling our children, ourselves, to the heights of Truth, culture and virtue no longer a priority? Are we simply to be "tolerant" of the mass consumerization of such base humanity targeting our children in the name of freedom, or worse, art?

Or will we dare to judge and be prejudice when required, scrutinize and criticize, teach discernment and even shelter our children if need be?

I pray we will, so that in forming their minds by what is higher and most noble, their souls too may be shaped into the likeness of the image of the One who created us all.

Justin

You are all invited!

Thank you for yor prayers and support!
(Click on the ivitation below to inlarge it.)

Blessings,
Justin and Jodi

Forgive me a sinner. God Forgives us both.

Last night's forgiveness vespers is one of the most beautiful and important of the whole year.

There is something so very vulnerable and jarringly innocent about going around the entire church one person at a time giving the kiss of peace and saying "Forgive me a sinner" and responding "God forgives," while the choir sings paschal (Easter) hymns in anticipation of the feast.

There is something so whole and utterly real about the way the church prompts us to live and lift up our lives to God in thanksgiving. There is not one moment of our existence left without meaning. I truly believe if this medicine were applied more liberally its soothing balm would heal many wounds in our world. God forgive us all.

The kids were so cute... Elias turned to me and said "dad, why are you kissing so many people? Stop it!" and I smiled. What a lesson, from the earliest age - reconciliation, forgiveness and love. Lived out liturgically right before their eyes - no simple mental ascent but real action and modeling.

I wish you were all there... Have a Joyful Lent.

Forgive me a sinner. God Forgives us both.

Justin

the Great Fast begins

Commemorated on:
March 5
(source: www.OCA.org for more info)
Troparion & Kontakion

As we begin the Great Fast, the Church reminds us of Adam's expulsion from Paradise. God commanded Adam to fast (Gen. 2:16), but he did not obey. Because of their disobedience, Adam and Eve were cast out of Eden and lost the life of blessedness, knowledge of God, and communion with Him, for which they were created. Both they and their descendents became heirs of death and corruption.

Let us consider the benefits of fasting, the consequences of disobedience, and recall our fallen state. Today we are invited to cleanse ourselves of evil through fasting and obedience to God. Our fasting should not be a negative thing, a mere abstention from certain foods. It is an opportunity to free ourselves from the sinful desires and urges of our fallen nature, and to nourish our souls with prayer, repentance, to participate in church services, and partake of the life-giving Mysteries of Christ.

At Forgiveness Vespers we sing: "Let us begin the time of fasting in light, preparing ourselves for spiritual efforts. Let us purify our soul, let us purify our body. As we abstain from food, let us abstain from all passion and enjoy the virtues of the spirit…."

Asher and I...

Asher and I wanted to say hello...

Hope you are all well!

A quote for the day...

Abba Antonios, pondering the ways of God, once asked: “Lord, how does it
happen that many live very few years and yet others reach a ripe old age? And how
is it that some live in poverty while others are rich? And how is it that the unjust
continue to grow richer and the just are poor?” Then he heard a voice say to him:
“Antonios, watch yourself, for those things which you ask about belong to the
inscrutable ways of God’s wisdom and it is not to your benefit to learn of them.”

"Man’s conscience is like a spring,” the Fathers say, “which, the deeper you hollow
it out, the more greatly you cleanse it. If, however, you cover it with soil, in little
time it will be lost.”

Sayings of the Desert Fathers