Please see our online calendar for dates and times of Feast Day services.
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
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.
Monday through Friday for the upcoming Week
I will be visiting Aaron, in NC this week. Morning services and the Council Meeting will still be held via Zoom. There will be no Open Doors this week. Should an emergency occur requiring the presence of a priest, please contact Dn Timothy.
Parish Gathering
The Kuziak's have graciously offered to host our "annual" parish gathering, Saturday, Oct 1st. More details will be forthcoming but I wanted to get the date out to everyone. Vespers will be held outside, at the Kuziak's (weather permitting) at 5:30p.
Please pray for our catecumen David.
Afterfeast of the Elevation of the Cross. Sunday after Elevation. St. Eumenes, Bishop of Gortyna (6th c.). Martyr Ariadne of Phrygia (2nd c.). Martyrs Sophia, Irene, and Castor of Egypt (3rd c.). Greatmartyr Prince Bidzini and Martyrs Princes Elizabar and Shalvi, of Georgia (1660).
Sunday after Holy Cross
9:30AM Divine Liturgy
Trophimus, Sabbatius, & Dorymedon the Martyrs
Church Cleaning: Greg Jankura
Eustathius the Great Martyr, his wife and two children
8:30AM Daily Matins
6:00PM Parish Council Meeting
Apodosis of the Elevation of the Venerable and Life-Giving Cross
Luft - A
Phocas the Martyr, Bishop of Sinope
8:30AM Daily Matins
The Conception of St. John the Baptist
Ayrton Seurattan - B
The Commemoration of the Miracle of the Theotokos Myrtidiotissis in Kythyra
New Martyrs of Alaska, Hieromonk Juvenaly & Peter the Aleut
5:30PM Great Vespers
1st Sunday of Luke
9:30AM Divine Liturgy
The Falling Asleep of St. John the Evangelist and Theologian
This Saint took up the monastic life from his youth, and later became Bishop of Gortynia in Crete. He travelled to Rome, and to Thebes in Upper Egypt, where through his prayers he ended a drought; there also, after working many miracles, he reposed in deep old age. His holy relics were returned to Gortynia and buried at the place called Raxos.
The holy Martyr Eustathius before his baptism was an illustrious Roman general named Placidas in the days of the Emperor Trajan. While hunting in the country one day, he was converted to the Faith of Christ through the apparition of an uncommonly majestic stag, between whose antlers he saw the Cross of Christ, and through which the Lord spoke to him with a human voice. Upon returning home, he learned that his wife Tatiana had also had a vision in which she was instructed to become a Christian. They sought out the Bishop of the Christians and were baptized, Placidas receiving the name Eustathius, and Tatiana the name Theopiste; their two sons were baptized Agapius and Theopistus. The family was then subjected to such trials as Job endured. Their servants died, all their goods were stolen, and on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem they were scattered abroad, each not even knowing if the others were still alive. By the providence of God, they were united again after many years, and returned to Rome in glory. Nevertheless, when they refused to sacrifice to the idols-a public sacrifice from which no Roman general could be absent-the Emperor Hadrian, who had succeeded Trajan, had them put into a large bronze device in the shape of a bull, which was heated with fire until they died. When their holy bodies were removed, they were found to be without harm. They suffered martyrdom about the year 126.
The Prophet Jonah, the son of Amathi, of the town of Geth-hopher (IV Kings 14:25), was of the tribe of Zabulon; he prophesied during the years 838-810 before Christ. God commanded him to go to Nineveh, the great city of the Assyrians, and to proclaim that its destruction was nigh at hand because of the sins of its people. But he, as a Prophet who knew the great compassion of God, feared that at his preaching the Ninevites would repent; that God, accepting their repentance in His love for man, would not fulfill Jonah' threats; and that he would be branded a false prophet. So he disobeyed the divine command, and boarded a ship and departed elsewhere. Yet, the sudden and fearful sea-storm and the revelation of Jonah' disbedience caused the sailors to cast him into the sea. A great sea-monster appeared straightway by divine providence, and swallowed him up. For three days and nights he was found in its belly and he prayed, saying the words, "I cried aloud in my affliction unto the Lord my God..." (Jonah 2:3, the Sixth ode of the Holy Psalter). The sea-monster then vomited him up on dry land and he again heard God's command. Wherefore, he went and preached, saying, "In three days, Nineveh shall be destroyed." The people became terrified and all repented. The great, the small, babes at the breast, and even the irrational beasts themselves fasted, and thus, having found mercy from God, they were spared His wrath. Jonah' book of prophecy is divided into four chapters, and is placed fifth in order among the twelve minor Prophets. His three-day sojourn in the sea-monster's belly is an image of our Saviour's three-day burial and His life-bringing Resurrection (Matt. 12:39-40). His name means "dove."
This came to pass fifteen months before the birth of Christ, after the vision of the Angel that Zacharias, the father of the Forerunner, saw in the Temple while he executed the priest's office in the order of his course during the feast of the Tabernacles, as tradition bears witness. In this vision, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Zacharias and said to him, "Thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John" (Luke 1:13). Knowing that Elizabeth was barren, and that both he and she were elderly, Zacharias did not believe what the Angel told him, although he had before him the example of Abraham and Sarah, of Hannah, mother of the Prophet Samuel, and of other barren women in Israel who gave birth by the power of God. Hence, he was condemned by the Archangel to remain speechless until the fulfilment of these words in their season, which also came to pass (Luke 1:7-24).
This saint was from the city of Iconium. When she was eighteen years of age, she was instructed in the Faith of Christ and the hope of the resurrection by the Apostle Paul, whom also she followed, forsaking her betrothed and espousing a life of virginity for the sake of the Heavenly Bridegroom. Having preached Christ in various cities and suffered many things, she reposed in Seleucia of Cilicia at the age of 90.
On the anniversary of the arrival of the Russian missionaries in Alaska (1794), we remember the New Martyrs Saint Peter the Aleut, Protomartyr of America, and Saint Juvenal.
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 1 Troparion (Feast)
O Lord, save Your people,
and bless Your inheritance!
Grant victories to the Orthodox Christians
over their adversaries;
and by virtue of Your Cross,//
preserve Your habitation!
Tone 4 Troparion (St. Eumenes)
We have you as a friend and helper,
gracious advocate Eumenes:
for compassion flowed from you
and you pour forth healings on the Church.//
Protect those who honor you.
Tone 5 Kontakion (Resurrection)
You descended into hell, O my Savior,
shattering its gates as Almighty,
resurrecting the dead as Creator,
and destroying the sting of death.
You have delivered Adam from the curse, O Lover of man,//
and we cry to You: “O Lord, save us!”
Tone 2 Kontakion (St. Eumenes)
Radiant with divine light, O blessed one,
illumine us who lovingly praise your precious and glorious passing;
O Hierarch Father Eumenes,//
unceasingly intercede for us all.
Tone 4 Kontakion (Feast)
As You were voluntarily raised upon the Cross for our sake,
grant mercy to those who are called by Your Name, O Christ God;
make all Orthodox Christians glad by Your power,
granting them victories over their adversaries//
by bestowing on them the invincible trophy, Your weapon of peace!
(Instead of “It is truly meet…,” we sing:)
Tone 8
Magnify, O my soul, the most precious Cross of the Lord!
You are a mystical Paradise, O Theotokos,
who, though untilled, have brought forth Christ;
through Him the life-bearing wood of the Cross was planted on earth.
Now at its Exaltation,
as we bow in worship before it, we magnify you.
Communion Hymn
Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the highest! (Ps. 148:1)
The light of Your countenance has been signed upon us, O Lord. (Ps. 4:7)
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
Communing with God in Prayer
the goal of the Christian's life on earth is salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ and, at the same time, communion with God. The means for this communion is prayer, and through his prayer the Christian is joined in one spirit with the Lord (I Cor. 6:17). Prayer is the focal point and foundation of spiritual life and the source of salvation. Without prayer, as St. John Chrysostom says, there is no life in the spirit. Without prayer man is deprived of communion with God and can be compared to a dry and barren tree, which is cut down and thrown into the fire (Matt. 7:19).
In prayer, the Christian concentrates together all his spiritual acts. Prayer draws down to him the grace of God and is an invaluable instrument of spiritual defense in the Christian's struggles against the sinful passions and vices. By prayer our thoughts, desires and deeds are sanctified, for he who prays receives the blessing of the Lord on his deeds, for, as Holy Scripture tells us, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain (Ps. 127:1). Nothing so helps us to grow in virtue as our pure and pious prayers to God. Thus it was the shared opinion of all the Holy Fathers that prayer is the mother of virtues. By repeated and fervent prayer, man is made more worthy of God's mercy and more capable of receiving the gifts of grace which God, by reason of His infinite goodness, is already to bestow on us out of His immeasurable bounties.
In prayer, the Christian prays not only for himself, but for all men, for we all are the children of God. We must pray for the salvation of our neighbor just as we pray for our own salvation, and the best means of correcting our neighbor is to pray for him, because prayer for our neighbor has far greater effect than denunciation of his sins. In addition, we pray not only for the living, but also for the departed, that God may forgive them their sins and grant them repose in the heavenly mansions of the righteous.
As with any spiritual endeavor, however, the Christian must learn how to pray properly. As St. Tikhon of Zadonsk cautions us: Of no value is that prayer in which the tongue prays but the mind is empty; the tongue speaks, but the mind lies silent; the tongue calls God, but the mind wanders amongst created things. We must, therefore, pray in fear and trembling and try in every way to ensure that our minds are with our words, or, as St. John of the Ladder tells us, to enclose our mind in the words of our prayer, [so that] the heart may respond to the words of the prayers.
The reading of prayers and prostrations are essential, of course, but these only express the state of prayer, while the prayer itself should come from the heart. And it is only such prayer, from the bottom of the heart and of the soul, that is the life of the spirit. True prayer, however, is a gift of God, and this gift is not granted to us without diligence and struggle. Therefore it is necessary for us to pray that the Lord should deem us worthy of this gift and grant us the grace to offer up to Him our sincere, pure and heartfelt prayer, for we are only able to pray when strengthened by the Holy Spirit. Therefore we must be mindful that the Holy Spirit is drawn to a soul cleansed of the stain of sin and worldly passions, and only in such a soul will He abide.
Our prayers will gradually grow more perfect as we improve the manner of our lives and cleanse our hearts of sinful passion. This banishment of sinful ways from our lives brings as its reward our success in prayer. At the same time, we must say that prayer cannot achieve perfection in isolation, but must be accompanied by all the virtues, for as we grow in virtue, so does our prayer grow ever more perfect.
Therefore we say that a Christian does not achieve true prayer at once, but only gradually, through various exertions and labor. All of life's deeds require toil and patience, but nowhere more than in the striving after the supreme virtue prayer.
14th Sunday After Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on the Parable of the Wedding Feast
The new Church year began September 1 and on this day we remember with thanksgiving the many ways that God made Himself present to us in the past year even as we look to grow in our Faith in the new ecclesiastical year that’s just begun. With the advent of the new Church year and the first Feast of the new year on Tuesday—the Nativity of the Theotokos—we’re presented by God’s grace with an opportunity for a new beginning, for spiritual progress and renewal.
The passing of time causes us to think about how we’ve used the past year that God’s given us and entrusted to us, and we ponder what this year will bring. We know that everything temporal in our lives, those material things that consume so much of our time and focus, begin and come to an end, as do the cycles of the year, our human calendars, etc.
But everything born of God grows in perpetuity to eternal life. At Vespers we sing the beautiful verses of Psalm 104, “The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God. The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens. The sun ariseth, and man goeth forth unto his work and to his labor until the evening.” That sun knows its setting, but the Sun of righteousness, born of the Virgin in means past human comprehension, knows no evening, and has, according to the Apostle James, “no variableness neither shadow of turning (Js. 1:17).
Of this Light we proclaim each Vespers as the highlight of the service, singing the Phos Hilaron, (Lumina Lina), “Gladsome Light,” which is the oldest hymn of the Church outside the Scriptures and which already in St. Basil’s day in the 4th century was considered by him a “cherished tradition of the Church”:
O Gladsome Light of the holy glory of the Immortal Father, heavenly, holy, blessed Jesus Christ. Now we have come to the setting of the sun and behold the light of evening. We praise God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For it is right at all times to worship Thee with voices of praise, O Son of God and Giver of Life, therefore all the world glorifies Thee.
Christ God, the Light of the world, alone dispels the darkness and fills our souls with this light which is the eternal truth of His being. It is to Him we look with anticipation for the opportunities to draw closer in our communion with God, in participation of the Life that God is.
Many people I meet these days make it clear when it comes to faith in God, that whatever they believe or do, doesn’t matter; God will accept them anyway. There is no need for communion or relationship to or with God, according to these people’s thinking, but rather an expectation that God has no right to judge them based on the criteria that He’s established. And if He doesn’t grant them life with Him, well, that’s God’s fault. He must be capricious or just plain wrong.
Those of us who do have faith are often ridiculed or even rejected in today’s society. The attitude is similar to those in today’s Gospel who reject the invitation to attend the wedding of the King’s Son:
The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.
The response to the invitation to come to the wedding, to participate in the culmination of all that the King has hoped for His Son, is, of course, an apt analogy that Christ gives us to understand the mystical relationship between Christ and His ‘Bride,’ the Church.
In much the same way that those in Christ’s parable make light of the King’s offering to participate, so do many in today’s society. Elsewhere in the world the servants of God are beaten, beheaded, terribly persecuted, just like the servants of the King in Christ’s parable:
But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them.
The King in Christ’s parable did not stand for this, but instead destroyed those who would do such evil against His own servants who were innocent of any wrong, but simply were inviting the King’s guests to the wedding banquet.
But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. ’Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.
Not only is there a parallel in this parable with the Jews, who rejected the prophets, beat, and killed others, but also with those in the Church, who take Christ and His holy Church for granted, who see themselves as “in the club” of Orthodox Christianity, but reject the call to repentance, healing, and growth in communion with God.
Christ God gives the Church the command to “make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you…” (Matt. 28:19-20).
In other words, people from every tribe and nation are called into life and communion with God through the new birth of “water and the spirit” (John 3). But not all those who come and experience the truth of Christ and His holy Orthodox Church, remain; not all those ‘born into the Faith,’ act upon and choose to own that Faith. All are called, but not all choose to live their lives for Christ and His Bride, the Church.
For this reason, the end of the parable is sobering to our ears:
But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.
As Christians we affirm that “Christ is coming again to judge the living and the dead.” The calling, the invitation to life, to participation in the life of the Holy Trinity is real and so are the consequences of those who reject this life. Why? Because God is not only the Author of Life, but the Sustainer of all life. In Him and in Him alone is eternal life.
God in His great love and mercy for us offers us paradise; He offers us communion and relationship with Him, but love can never be forced. We are invited to the wedding banquet of the Lamb, the culmination of all that God has prepared for mankind. Will we accept His gracious offer? Will we avail ourselves of life with Him? Will we now prepare to participate in that Great Feast of the Wedding of Christ with His Church at the end of the age?
Christ is coming again to judge the living and the dead. Christ invites us to live with Him and all the Saints in the glory of His near presence, in the new heaven and the new earth, in the Eden that will once again be open to all.
As in the first three days of Holy Week, we call out now in repentance with that judgment day and our last days in mind:
Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching; and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given up to death and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom. But rouse yourself crying: Holy, holy, holy, art Thou, O our God. Through the Theotokos, have mercy on us.
As we begin this year’s journey with Christ in His Church and approach the Great Feast of the Nativity this Tuesday, let us beseech her to intercede for us before the King of Kings that we may say yes to God and to the life that is in Him and no to sin and all that is unworthy of so great a gift as eternal life with God.
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Fr. Robert Miclean
6 September 2015
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Troparion to St Alexis
O righteous Father Alexis, / our heavenly intercessor and teacher, / divine adornment of the Church of Christ! / Entreat the Master of All / to strengthen the Orthodox Faith in America, / to grant peace to the world / and to our souls, great mercy!