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)

Members of our Parish Council are:
Joseph Barbera - Council Member at Large
Susan Davis- Council Member at Large
Carolyn Neiss - President
Marlene Melesko - Vice President
Susan Egan - Treasurer
Dn Timothy Skuby - Secretary

Parish Shared Folder - http://bit.ly/St-Alexis
Parish Members' Directory - https://stalexischurch.sharepoint.com (See Fr Steven for login information)

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.

OCMC is pleased to announce an active search for the position of Missionary Director!

We are seeking a strong, confident, strategic, and ambitious leader with a deep desire to see lives transformed, the Gospel spread, and churches established throughout the world.

It’s preferred that the candidate have:
- A minimum of 3 years’ prior service as an overseas missionary
- A degree in missiology, or a willingness to engage in further study in the field
- An Orthodox Christian theological education

For more information, click the link below and see if this might be a good fit for you!

https://www.ocmc.org/hiring-missionary-director

Confession and Communion

Over the past two years, because of COVID, under the direction of our Metropolitan, canons for confession and communion were relaxed. Now that we have returned to relative normalicy, I would like us to return to the expectations that regular participation in confession and communion are the norm. 

In his first letter to the Corinthians, St Paul writes, "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in and unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the breat and drink of the cup" 1 Cor 11:27,28. St Paul exhorts us to be sure that we partake of the body and blood in a worthy manner, through examining one's self i.e. through confession. Now, do to covid restrictions, and the concern for everyone's health, there are members of this community who have not taken confession for over a year. You are encouraged to make arrangements to partake of this sacrament as soon as possible, particularly if you plan to recieve communion. We have the feast of Ascension and Pentecost coming up, please prepare for these feasts! We also have the Apostle's Fast, in which it would be appropriate to think about offering your confession.

According to the parish ByLaws, to be considered a voting member, you must partake of the sacraments at least once a year. if you have not discussed your current situation as to why you are not participating in the sacraments with Fr Steven by the Feast of Sts Peter and Paul, you will be at risk of losing your voting status. St Paul states that those who partake of the Body and Blood unworthily eat and drink judgement unto themselves 1 Cor 11:29, if you have not entered into confession (or discussed this with Fr Steven) by this same Feast, in order to protect you from this self-judgement, I will be obliged to withold the Chalice from you. Please understand that this is my responsibility as Priest and Pastor. Simply communicating with me will avoid any confusion at the Chalice.

Priest Ceraphim, Deacon Timothy, Evelyn, Katheryn, Anne, Aaron, Veronica, Richard, Nancy, Susanne, Gail, Kelley, Nina, Ellen, Maureen, Elizabeth, Christopher, Joshua, Jennifer, Petra, Olivia, Jessica, Sean, Sarah, Justin, Edward, Dayna and Maria.

Please pray for our catecumen David.

Many Years to: Greg and Christine Jankura on the occasion of their anniversary; and to Sarah Luft on the occasion of her birthday.

Memory Eternal for Joseph Anselmo on the occasion of his repose.

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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, intolerance and pestilence; all those departed this life in the hope of the Resurrection.

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Blind Man. Virgin Martyr Theodosia of Tyre (307-308). Repose of Bl. John of Ustiug, Fool-for-Christ (1494). Virgin Martyr Theodosia, Nun, of Constantinople (726-730).

Prayer for family and friends in the Ukraine and Russia

Hope, Myron, Daniel, Stepan, Galina, Maria, Vladislav, Juliana, Oksana, Novel

If you have specific names of anyone you would like to have included here, please send them to Fr Steven.

Priest: “Blessed is the Kingdom…”
Choir: “Amen.”
Priest: “Christ is risen… “ (2 ½ times)
Choir: “and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!”
(The Divine Liturgy is begun in this manner until the Leavetaking of Pascha.)

Tone 5 Troparion (Resurrection)

Let us, the faithful, praise and worship the Word,
co-eternal with the Father and the Spirit,
born for our salvation from the Virgin;
for He willed to be lifted up on the Cross in the flesh,
to endure death,
and to raise the dead//
by His glorious Resurrection.

Tone 4 Kontakion (Pentecostarion)

I come to You, O Christ, blind from birth in my spiritual eyes,
and call to You in repentance://
“You are the most radiant Light of those in darkness.”

Tone 8 Kontakion (Pascha)

You descended into the tomb, O Immortal,
You destroyed the power of death.
In victory You arose, O Christ God,
proclaiming: “Rejoice!” to the Myrrhbearing Women,//
granting peace to Your Apostles, and bestowing Resurrection on the fallen.

(Instead of “It is truly meet…,” we sing:)

The Angel cried to the Lady, full of grace:
“Rejoice, O pure Virgin! Again, I say: Rejoice,
your Son is risen from His three days in the tomb!
With Himself He has raised all the dead.”
Rejoice, O ye people!

Shine, shine, O new Jerusalem!
The glory of the Lord has shone on you.
Exult now, and be glad, O Zion!
Be radiant, O pure Theotokos,
in the Resurrection of your Son!

Communion Hymn

Receive the Body of Christ; taste the fountain of immortality!
Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the highest! (Ps. 148:1)
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

Priest: “In the fear of God…”
Choir: “Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord… “
Priest: “O God, save Your people… “
Choir: “Christ is risen from the dead… “ (sung once, instead of “We have seen the True Light…)
Priest: “Always, now and ever…”
Choir: “Let our mouths be filled…”

At the Dismissal, the Priest says: “Glory to You, O Christ…” and the choir sings “Christ is risen from the dead…” (thrice).

And unto us He has given eternal life.
Let us worship His Resurrection on the third day!

The Savior rejects the assumption (common in the ancient world) that all troubles and maladies are necessarily the consequence of personal sin or even the sins of one’s parents...

You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, recompensing the sins of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me; 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. Ex 20:5

You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, because I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, repaying the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me. Dt 5:9

“Yet you say, ‘Why does a son not bear the wrongdoing of his father?’ Because the son practiced righteousness, showed mercy, kept all My commandments and did them. Thus he will surely live. 20 But the soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the wrongdoing of his father, nor shall the father bear the wrongdoing of his son. The righteousness of a righteous man shall be upon himself, and the lawlessness of a lawless man shall be upon himself. 21 But if a lawless man turns from all the lawless deeds he commits, keeps all My commandments, does righteousness and shows mercy, he will surely live and not die. Ez 18:19-21

Though suffering can be the direct result of personal sin, this is certainly not always the case. In this instance, the man’s blindness provided the occasion for the works of God to be revealed; it was not related directly to the man’s personal sins.

The "works" that people do consist of:

FAITH: Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” Jn 6:29

GOOD DEADS: “and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. Jn 5:29

REPENTENCE: 
“He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts,
Lest they should see with their eyes,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.” Jn 12:40

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
Man Blind from Birth
4 June 1989

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
We heard today the story of the man born blind. We do not know from experience what physical blindness is, but we can imagine how this man was walled in himself, how all the world around him existed only as a distant sound, something he could not picture, imagine. He was a prisoner within his own body. He could live by imaginations, he could invent a world around himself, he could by touch and by hearing approximate what really was around him; but the total, full reality could only escape him.
We are not physically blind, but how many of us are locked in themselves! Who of us can say that he is so open that he can perceive all the world in its width, but also in its depth? We meet people, and we see them with our eyes; but seldom it happens that beyond the outer shape, features, clothes, - how often does it happen that we see something of the depth of the person? How seldom it is that we look into a person's eyes and go deep in understanding! We are surrounded by people and every person is unique to God, but are people unique to us? Are not people that surround us just ‘people’, who have names, surnames, nicknames, whom we can recognise by their outer looks but whom we do not know at any depth?
This is our condition: we are blind, we are deaf, we are insensitive to the outer world, and yet, we are called to read meanings. When we meet a person, we should approach this person as a mystery, that is as something which we can discover only by a deep communion, by entering into a relationship, perhaps silent, perhaps in words, but so deep that we can know one another not quite as God knows us, but in the light of God that enlightens all and each of us.
And more than this: we can do, each within his own power, within his own gifts, what Christ did: He opened the eyes of this man. What did this man see? The first thing he saw was the face of the Incarnate Son of God, in other words, he saw love incarnate. When his eyes met the eyes of Christ, he met God’s compassion, God’s tenderness, God’s earnest concern and understanding. In the same way could so many people begin to see, if by meeting us they meet people in whose eyes, on whose face they could see the shining of earnest, sober love, of a love that is not sentimental but is seeing, a love that can see and understand. And then, how much could we be to people around us a revelation of all the meanings that this world holds and contains through art, through beauty, through science, through all the means by which beauty is perceived and proclaimed among human beings.
But are we doing this? Is our concern to convey the width, and the depth, the beauty and the meaning of things to every person whom we meet? Are we not rather concerned with receiving than with giving? And yet, Saint Paul who knew what it meant to receive and to give, said, ‘It is a more blessed thing to give than to receive’. And yet how much had he received! He had received the knowledge of God in his own experience; he had received teaching, and knowledge, and experience within the Old Testament, and then Christ revealed Himself to him: what did he not receive! And yet, he exulted more in giving than in receiving, because he did not want to be the owner of all the richness that had come his way; he wanted to share it, to give it, to set aglow and afire other lives than his own.
Let us reflect on how rich, how richly endowed we are, how much it was given us to see, and to hear. And let us realise at the same time how tragically walled we are within ourselves unless we break this wall in order to give, as generously, as richly, as abundantly as we were given. And then indeed, our joy will be fulfilled according to Christ’s promise. And no one, nothing will ever be able to take it away from us. Amen!