St. Alexis of Wilkes-Barre Orthodox Church
Publish Date: 2020-10-25
Bulletin Contents
Allsaint
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St. Alexis of Wilkes-Barre Orthodox Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • 860-664-9434
  • Street Address:

  • PO Box 134, 108 E Main St

  • Clinton, CT 06413-0134


Contact Information




Services Schedule

Please see our online calendar for dates and times of Feast Day services.


Past Bulletins


Welcome

Gospel1

Jesus Christ taught us to love and serve all people, regardless of their ethnicity or nationality. To understand that, we need to look no further than to the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Every time we celebrate the Divine Liturgy, it is offered "on behalf of all, and for all." As Orthodox Christians we stand against racism and bigotry. All human beings share one common identity as children of God. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatian 3:28)

Weekly Services
During this COVID era, services dates and times are subject to change. Please read the schedule provided withing the bulletin itself for the dates and times of services, and whether they will be held "in person" or streamed via Zoom.

Members of our Parish Council are:
Joseph Barbera - Council Member at Large
Dori Kuziak - Council Secretary
Natalie Kucharski - Council Treasurer
Glenn PenkoffLidbeck - Council President
Kyle Hollis - Member at Large
Roderick Seurattan - Council Vice President

Pastoral Care - General Information
Emergency Sick Calls can be made at any time. Please call Fr Steven at (860) 866-5802, when a family member is admitted to the hospital.
Anointing in Sickness: The Sacrament of Unction is available in Church, the hospital, or your home, for anyone who is sick and suffering, however severe. 
Marriages and Baptisms require early planning, scheduling and selections of sponsors (crown bearers or godparents). See Father before booking dates and reception halls!
Funerals are celebrated for practicing Orthodox Christians. Please see Father for details. The Church opposes cremation; we cannot celebrate funerals for cremations.

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Announcements

Lectionary Wall Calendars

The 2021 wall calendars from St Tikhon's Monastery are now available. If you come to Liturgy on Sundays, you may pick up one up at the candle desk. If you do not yet come to Liturgy, I will make arrangements to drop one off to you or to put it in the mail for you.

 

Once again: the parish shared folder can be accessed by going to the following link: http://bit.ly/St-Alexis. 

Daylight Savings Time ends Sunday, November 1st.

 

Annual Parish Meeting

Our Annual Meeting this year will be held on Sunday, November 22nd. This will be entirely on Zoom and will begin at 12:00p, so that those who wish to attend Liturgy may do so, and then return home before the meeting starts. More information will be posted in the upcoming weeks. If anyone has a report or a resolution they wish to present, they should submit it to me no later than Sunday, Nov 15th.

We still in need volunteers to be nominated for Parish Council, Diocean Assembly Deligate and All American Council Deligate.

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Prayers, Intercessions and Commemorations

Christ_forgiveness

Metropolitan Theodosius, Archpriest Michael, Archpriest Dennis, Deacon Timothy, Evelyn, Katheryn, Anne, Veronica, Richard, Nancy, Susann, Carol, Luke, Aaron, Alexander, Gail, Vincent, Nina, Ellen, Maureen Elizabeth, Christopher, Joshua, Jennifer Petra, Olivia, Jessica , Sean, Sarah, Justin, Arnold, Michael, Kirk, Carol-Anne, Anthony, Natasha, Janice, Gene, John

 

Many Years! to Demetra Tolis on the occasion of her Name's Day

Memory Eternal! for His Beatitude, Metropolitan Theodosious

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  • Pray for: All those confined to hospitals, nursing homes, and their own homes due to illness; for all those who serve in the armed forces; widows, orphans, prisoners, victims of violence, and refugees;
  • All those suffering chronic illness, financial hardship, loneliness, addictions, abuse, abandonment and despair; those who are homeless, those who are institutionalize, those who have no one to pray for them;
  • All Orthodox seminarians & families; all Orthodox monks and nuns, and all those considering monastic life; all Orthodox missionaries and their families.
  • All those who have perished due to hatred and intolerance and all those departed this life in the hope of the Resurrection.

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Today we commemorate:

Martyrs Marcian and Martyrius the Notaries, of Constantinople (ca. 355). Ven. Martyrii (Martyrius) the Deacon, Recluse of the Kiev Caves (Far Caves—13th-14th c.). Martyr Athanasius the Fuller, at Salona in Dalmatia (3rd c.). St. Tabitha, the widow raised from the dead by the Apostle Peter (1st c.).

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Parish Calendar

  • Services and Events

    October 25 to November 2, 2020

    Sunday, October 25

    5th Sunday of Luke

    Victor & Gail Kuziak - A

    9:30AM Divine Liturgy

    Monday, October 26

    The Holy Great Martyr Demetrius the Myrrh-streamer

    Tuesday, October 27

    Commemoration of the Flood

    Kyriakos, Patriarch of Constantinople

    8:30AM Daily Matins

    Wednesday, October 28

    The Holy Protection of the Theotokos

    Nicholas Melesko - B

    6:30PM Evening Prayers

    Thursday, October 29

    Anastasia the Martyr of Rome

    8:30AM Daily Matins

    Friday, October 30

    Cleopas and Artemas of the 70 Apostles

    Saturday, October 31

    Amplias, Apelles, Stachys, Urban, Aristobulus & Narcissus of the 70

    Martyrdom of St. John Kochurov

    5:30PM Great Vespers

    Sunday, November 1

    Joan Navaro

    6th Sunday of Luke

    9:30AM Divine Liturgy

    Monday, November 2

    The Holy Martyrs Acindynos, Pegasios, Aphthonios, Elpidophoros, and Anempodistos

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Saints and Feasts

Allsaint
October 25

The Holy Martyrs Marcian and Martyrius the Notaries

These Martyrs were disciples of Saint Paul the Confessor (see Nov. 6). Martyrius was a subdeacon, Marcian a chanter and reader. They were beheaded by the Arians in the year 346. Miracles were wrought at their tomb, and demons were cast out; Saint John Chrysostom began the building of the church in their honour in Constantinople, and it was completed by patriarch Sisinius.


Tabitha
October 25

Tabitha, who was raised from the dead by Peter the Apostle


Demetrio
October 26

The Holy Great Martyr Demetrius the Myrrh-streamer

Saint Demetrius was a Thessalonian, a most pious son of pious and noble parents, and a teacher of the Faith of Christ. When Maximian first came to Thessalonica in 290, he raised the Saint to the rank of Duke of Thessaly. But when it was discovered that the Saint was a Christian, he was arrested and kept bound in a bath-house. While the games were under way in the city, Maximian was a spectator there. A certain friend of his, a barbarian who was a notable wrestler, Lyaeus by name, waxing haughty because of the height and strength of his body, boasted in the stadium and challenged the citizens to a contest with him. All that fought with him were defeated. Seeing this, a certain youth named Nestor, aquaintance of Demetrius', came to the Saint in the bath-house and asked his blessing to fight Lyaeus single-handed. Receiving this blessing and sealing himself with the sign of the precious Cross, he presented himself in the stadium, and said, "O God of Demetrius, help me!" and straightway he engaged Lyaeus in combat and smote him with a mortal blow to the heart, leaving the former boaster lifeless upon the earth. Maximian was sorely grieved over this, and when he learned who was the cause of this defeat, he commanded straightway and Demetrius was pierced with lances while he was yet in the bath-house, As for Nestor, Maximian commanded that he be slain with his own sword.


Allsaint
October 29

Anastasia the Martyr of Rome

Saint Anastasia, who was young in age and lived in a convent, was seized by the impious. Confessing Christ openly and with boldness and enduring manifold torments, she was beheaded in the year 256, during the reign of Valerian.


Zenobia
October 30

The Holy Martyrs Zenobius and His Sister Zenobia

These Saints were from Aegae in Cilicia, brought up in piety by their parents. Zenobius was a physician, and healed many freely by the power of God; because of his virtue he was consecrated Bishop of Aegae. With his sister he was taken by Lysias the Governor, and after many tortures they were beheaded, about the year 290, during the reign of Diocletian.


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Hymns of the Day

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Tone 3 Troparion (Resurrection)

Let the heavens rejoice!
Let the earth be glad!
For the Lord has shown strength with His arm.
He has trampled down death by death.
He has become the first born of the dead.
He has delivered us from the depths of hell,
and has granted to the world//
great mercy.

Tone 3 Troparion (Martyrs Marcian and Martyrius)

In holy zeal you dispelled the error of Arius
and proclaimed the Trinity, one in essence.
Holy martyrs Marcian and Martyrius,
unshaken bulwarks of Orthodoxy,
entreat Christ our God to grant us His great mercy!

Tone 3 Kontakion (Resurrection)

On this day You rose from the tomb, O Merciful One,
leading us from the gates of death.
On this day Adam exults as Eve rejoices;
with the Prophets and Patriarchs//
they unceasingly praise the divine majesty of Your power.

Tone 4 Kontakion (Martyrs Marcian and Martyrius)

From your youth you were good athletes, wise Marcian and Martyrius,
vanquishing the Arian heretics;
you kept the faith perfect by following in the footsteps of
your bishop and teacher Paul,
therefore, you are worthy to be with him in eternal life, //
as respected defenders of the Holy Trinity.

 

Communion Hymn

Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the highest! (Ps. 148:1)
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

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Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. 3rd Tone. Psalm 46.6,1.
Sing praises to our God, sing praises.
Verse: Clap your hands, all you nations.

The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians 1:11-19.

Brethren, I would have you know that the gospel which was preached by me is not man's gospel. For I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it; and I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia; and again I returned to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother.


Gospel Reading

The Reading is from Luke 16:19-31

The Lord said, "There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazaros, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazaros in his bosom. And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazaros to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.' But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazaros in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.' And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.' But Abraham said, 'They have Moses, and the prophets; let them hear them.' And he said, 'No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to them, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.'"


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Wisdom of the Fathers

Pride is utter poverty of soul disguised as riches, imaginary light where in fact there is darkness. This abominable vice not only stops our progress but even tosses us down from the heights we have reached.
St. John Climacus
Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 23:On Pride; Paulist Press pgs. 209-210, 6th century

Whenever those who possess in themselves the divine riches of the Spirit take part in spiritual discussions, they draw as it were on their inner treasure-house and share their wealth with their hearers. Those, however, who do not have stored in the sanctuary of their heart the treasure from which springs forth the bounty of divine thoughts, mysteries and inspired words, but who cull what they say from the Scriptures, speak merely from the tip of the tongue; or if they have listened to spiritual men, they preen themselves with what others have said, putting it forward as though it were their own and claiming interest on someone else's capital. Their listeners can enjoy what they say without great effort, but they themselves, when they have finished speaking, prove to be like paupers. For they have simply repeated what they have taken from others, without acquiring treasures of their own from which they could first derive pleasure themselves and which they could then communicate profitably to others.
St. Makarios the Great
Homilies, V: Love no. 88, Philokalia Vol. 3 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and Faber pgs. 323-324, 4th century

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Beyond the Sermon

Burnbush

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, October 18, 2009
Luke 10:16-21 (Apostle Luke the Evangelist)

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ!

We seem to think that the disciples understood what the Lord taught them without a problem. We think we can too. The truth is, although the words are simple, the meaning is far deeper than the words and demand a complete reorientation before they can be understood. Take today's Gospel as a good example.

Today the disciples rejoice at the miracles they were able to perform in the Name of Jesus. Put yourself in their place. If all of a sudden demons ran at the sound of your voice, the great temptation would be to don a super hero costume and angle for a movie contract. We get down right giddy when we get a little power. Jesus, this time, gently corrects them. "Yeah, I gave you this ability, but don't let it go to your head. The important thing is that 'your names are written in heaven.'"

We need to keep our eyes on the prize. The Psalmist puts it like this, "set your face like flint towards Jerusalem." In other words, whatever happens, don't let it become a distraction. Keep moving in the right direction. Head down, eyes center. Keep to the middle of the road and keep going no matter what!

Here's an example of instructions given by a spiritual master for us when we meditate and pray. It is the same message. St. Gregory of Sinai says that when we are sitting silently before God we must not let thoughts, either good or bad, distract us. Even if they are good thoughts, they are still distractions! The evil one can appear as an angel of light or a dark angel, so a good distraction from prayer has the same overall effect as a bad distraction. We need to keep our eyes on the prize.

What is the prize? There is only one. Union with God. Deification. Theosis. Call it what you will. We are to become like hot coals infused with the Divine Fire so much so that no one can tell the difference between the coal and fire, between the person and God. "Human beings are creatures who have been given the vocation to become God," writes the Great St. Basil. That is the only prize, the great target of life toward which we should be aiming. Since the definition of sin literally from the Greek means to "miss the mark" like an archer missing his target, then everything that distracts us from union with God is, in the largest sense, "sinful." That means anything, good or bad. That can also mean religious stuff. In fact, religious stuff can be the worst offender of all.

St. Paul tells us in today's epistle that we must make "the most of the time." Although he is speaking specifically of how we should approach those outside the Church with the message of the Gospel, his words are just as meaningful in any and every kind of encounter we have with others. "Conduct yourselves wisely," he says. "Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt," that means, speech that is lovely attractive, delicious! We want our lives, our words, and our actions to mirror the love of the Compassionate Savior so that when we part people will be left with an image of what it really means to be a Christian. People should say, "What a nice, gracious, lovely, sane, holy, compassionate, loving, kind, extraordinary person that was!" And whether we speak directly about the Gospel or not, doesn't matter. The Gospel lived supersedes the Gospel preached.

Remember this amazing quote from Thomas Merton: "The saints are what they are, not because their sanctity makes them admirable to others, but because the gift of sainthood makes it possible for them to admire everybody else." The saints often speak of how their hearts would burn with the almost unbearable fire of compassion, some spoke as if their hearts would explode from the burden of love they felt, others of how they wept through the night for the whole of creation. In Orthodox literature that is most undeniably a sign of great holiness.

How sad are those whose hearts are burdened with anger and hatred! Whose hearts explode with enmity and strife! They erect for themselves a terrible eternity with a multitude of terrible hate filled present moments. By their own hands. Not by God's. But the beautiful thing is that we have a choice. And this is the point of the Gospel. We have a choice. We can turn from the dark path to the bright path, but we must leave behind anything that distracts us from God. We can live in heaven here and now or we can live in hell. You would think people could easily tell the difference, but unfortunately, for many, as obvious as it seems now, it is not se easy. We must pray hard that everyone come to a knowledge of the truth.

If you truly love as Jesus loves, then it will show in your sincere admiration for everyone you meet. And that, my friends, will be the greatest sermon you could ever preach. "The Lord said, 'He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.'" We want everyone who comes to us to "hear" Jesus in our words and "see" him in our actions even if we do not say his Name. If we are accepted, then it will be because of love, If we are rejected, then let it be also because of love. But whether accepted or rejected let us respond as Jesus did by giving his life so that others might live.

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