Welcome

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:
Greg Jankura - Vice President
Susan Davis- Council Member at Large
Carolyn Neiss - President
Marlene Melesko - Council Member at Large
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.

Announcements

Parish Clean-up

Thank you to everyone who came to help cleanup the parish.

Water Situation

Please be advised that while we do have cold water in the bathroom and the outside spigot, there is no water in the kitchen at all.

Annual Diocesan Assembly

The Assembly this year will be held in New Haven on Oct 27th and 28th. The meeting on Friday will be the Assembly itself. Our delegate is Sophia Brubaker. On Saturday, the 28th, there will be a special Assembly for the possible election of the diocesan hierarch. I have appointed Dn Timothy as delegate to this assembly. Sophia is interested in only attending the Friday Assembly, so it makes since to have Deacon attend the second assembly as he would be in attendence already.

If you would like to be an observer of one or both of the sessions, please see me (Fr Steven) as soon as possible as there are special forms to be completed.

Stewardship Form

Located on the candle desk (as well as attached to the ebulletin) you will find the 2024 Stewardship form (part 1). Please complete this form and return it to Fr Steven before out Annual Meeting in November.

Prayer at the receiving of Pledges
We give thanks, O Lord, for all the bounties you have provided us, the faithful of St Innocent Orthodox Church, and that, having yourself endowed us with the gift of the Holy Spirit, a share in the communion of the saints and the promise of the inheritance of the Kingdom to come, you also have led your people to pledge offerings to your Church from what you yourself have abundantly given to us. We pray that you would bless those who have offered these pledges of support, granting them mercy, life, peace, health, and furtherance in everything good for their salvation. Bless now these pledges of support that we offer before your holy altar, your own of your own offered to you again. Multiply them as your Son our Savior Jesus Christ multiplied the five loaves and two fish to feed the five-thousand. Accept them as a pledge of our cooperation in the saving work of your Church throughout the world, so that the Church may never be put to confusion but would ever trust in your provision and faithfulness. For you are a merciful God who loves mankind, and to you we send up glory, Father without beginning, with your only-begotten Son, and your most- holy, good and living-giving Spirit, now and ever, and to ages of ages. Amen.

On September 23rd at 4pm in Southbury, CT at Christ the Savior Parish Fr. Mark Roosien will be giving a talk for our youth highlighting the life of St. Maria of Paris. After the talk we will have a time for questions and then at 6pm we will begin Vespers.
Please help get the word out to the youth ( and their parents) of your parishes and our diocese. God bless you all, and may we all live in the joy of this beautiful feast!
Please email or call me with any questions, and share this email!
Thank you!

In Christ,
Fr. Moses Locke
Rector, Christ the Savior, Southbury, CT
NE/OCA Youth Director -- 603-832-6791

Fundraiser for an AED. We have currently raised just over $700 toward the purchase of an AED. Thank you. Each device costs $850, having two would ensure that we have one for each floor of parish.

https://inaheartbeat.networkforgood.com/projects/197916-st-alexis-orthodox-church-aed-campaign

Prayers, Intercessions and Commemorations

Many Years to Sophia Brubaker, Luba Marins and Nadia PenkoffLedbeck on the occasion of their Name's Day.

Please pray for Evelyn Leake, Melissa Josefiak and Victor Hoehnebart who are in need of God's mercy and healing; and for Kelley Hosking-Billings.

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.

Please let Fr. Steven know via email if you have more names for which to pray.

Departed: Bishop Tikhon, Monica, Gena, Gregory

Clergy and their families: Mat. Clara, Mat. Evelyn, Mat. Ann, Mat. Amanda

Catechumen: Robert, Abbie, Matthew, Joseph, Mary

Individuals and Families: Susan, Peter, Luba, Daniel, Danya, Suzanne, Gail Galina Evelyn, Rosemary, John, Kelley, Lucille, Kenneth, Karen, Oleg, Lucia, Victor, Melissa, Christine, Sebastian, Olga,

Birthdays and Name’s Days this Month: Kathryn Jankura, Melissa Josefiak, Phyllis Sturtevant, Carolyn Neiss

Anniversaries this Month: Susan and Llyod Davis, Fr Steven (Ordination)

Expecting and Newborn:Stella

Traveling:Fr Steven and Cindy Voytovich

Sick and those in distress:Barbara

Afterfeast of the Elevation of the Cross. Sunday after Elevation. Martyr Sophia, and her three daughters: Faith (Vera), Hope (Nadézhda), and Love (Liubóv’, Charity), at Rome (ca. 137). Martyrs Theodota at Nicæa (ca. 230). Martyr Agathocleia (ca. 230). 156 Martyrs of Palestine, including Bishops Peleus and Nilus, the Presbyter Zeno, the Noblemen Patermuthius and Elias, and others (ca. 310).

Parish Calendar

Schedule of Services and Events

September 17 to September 25, 2023

Sunday, September 17

Sunday after Holy Cross

9:30AM Divine Liturgy

Monday, September 18

Eumenius the Wonderworker, Bishop of Gortynia

Tuesday, September 19

Trophimus, Sabbatius, & Dorymedon the Martyrs

8:30AM Daily Matins

6:00PM Council Meeting

Wednesday, September 20

🍇 Eustathius the Great Martyr, his wife and two children

4:30PM Open Doors

Thursday, September 21

Apodosis of the Elevation of the Venerable and Life-Giving Cross

8:30AM Daily Matins

Friday, September 22

☦️ Phocas the Martyr, Bishop of Sinope

Saturday, September 23

The Conception of St. John the Baptist

5:30PM Great Vespers

Sunday, September 24

1st Sunday of Luke

New Martyrs of Alaska, Hieromonk Juvenaly & Peter the Aleut

9:30AM Divine Liturgy

Monday, September 25

Euphrosyne of Alexandria

Saints and Feasts

September 17

Sunday after Holy Cross

September 17

Sophia & her three daughters: Faith, Hope, and Love

These Saints were from Italy and contested for the Faith about the year 126, during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Faith was twelve years old, Hope, ten, and Love, nine; each was tormented and then beheaded, from the eldest to the youngest. Their mother Sophia mourned at their grave for three days, where she also fell asleep in peace; because of her courageous endurance in the face of her daughters' sufferings, she is also counted a martyr. The name Sophia means "wisdom" in Greek; as for her daughters' names, Faith, Hope, and Love (Charity), they are Pistis, Elpis, and Agape in Greek, and Vera, Nadezhda, and Lyubov in Russian.

September 18

Eumenius the Wonderworker, Bishop of Gortynia

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.

September 19

Trophimos, Sabbatios, & Dorymedon the Martyrs

In 278, during the reign of Probus, Saints Trophimus and Sabbatius came to Antioch, and seeing the city celebrating the festival of Apollo at Daphne lamented the blindness of the people, and presented themselves as Christians to Atticus the Governor. Saint Trophimus was stripped of his clothing, and was stretched out and beaten until the earth was red with his blood. Then he was hung up, scraped on his sides, and imprisoned in torments. Saint Sabbatius was tortured so savagely that he gave up his spirit in his sufferings. Trophimus was sent to Synnada, wearing iron shoes fitted with sharp iron nails within; he was further tormented without mercy, then cast into prison. Dorymedon, a counsellor, and a pagan, came to the prison and cared for Trophimus. When a certain feast came, Dorymedon was asked why he did not sacrifice to the idols; he proclaimed himself a Christian, for which he was imprisoned, pierced with heated spits, frightfully punished, and finally beheaded with Saint Trophimus.

September 20

Eustathios the Great Martyr, his wife and two children

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.

September 21

Quadratus the Apostle

Saint Quadratus was a disciple of the Apostles, and became Bishop of Athens. According to the Synaxaristes, he contested for the Faith in the year 117, in the reign of Hadrian (117-138), but according to others, in the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161-180).

September 21

Jonah the Prophet

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."

September 23

The Conception of St. John the Baptist

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).

Hymns of the Day

Tone 6 Troparion (Resurrection)

The Angelic Powers were at Your tomb;
the guards became as dead men.
Mary stood by Your grave,
seeking Your most pure body.
You captured hell, not being tempted by it.
You came to the Virgin, granting life.
O Lord, Who rose from the dead,//
glory to You.

Tone 1 Troparion (Cross)

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 5 Troparion (Martyrs)

You blossomed in the courts of the Lord
as a fruitful olive tree,
O holy martyr Sophia;
in your contest you offered to Christ the sweet fruit of your womb,
your daughters Faith, Hope, and Love.//
Together with them intercede for us all!

Tone 6 Kontakion (Resurrection)

When Christ God, the Giver of Life,
raised all of the dead from the valleys of misery with His mighty hand,
He bestowed resurrection on the human race.//
He is the Savior of all, the Resurrection, the Life, and the God of all.

Tone 1 Kontakion (Martyrs)

The holy branches of noble Sophia,
Faith, Hope, and ^Love,
confounded Greek sophistry through Grace.
They struggled and won the victory//
and have been granted an incorruptible crown by Christ the Master of all.

Tone 4 Kontakion (Cross)

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!

Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. 6th Tone. Psalm 27.9,1.
O Lord, save your people and bless your inheritance.
Verse: To you, O Lord, I have cried, O my God.

The reading is from St. Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians 4:6-15.

Brethren, it is the God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Since we have the same spirit of faith as he had who wrote, "I believed, and so I spoke," we too believe, and so we speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

Gospel Reading

The Reading is from Matthew 22:35-46

At that time, a lawyer came up to Jesus and asked him a question, to test him. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."

Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, "What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David." He said to them, "How is it then that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I put your enemies under your feet'? If David thus calls him Lord, how is he his son?" And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Wisdom of the Fathers

The key to knowledge is the humility of Christ. The door of the Kingdom of Heaven is open, not to those who only know in their learned minds the mysteries of faith and the commandments of their Creator, but to those who have progressed far enough to live by them.

St. Bede the Venerable

Unknown, 8th century

To deny oneself means to give up one's bad habits; to root out of the heart all that ties us to the world; not to cherish bad thoughts and desires; to suppress every evil thought; to avoid occasions of sin; not to desire or to do anything out of self-love, but to do everything out of love for God. To deny oneself, according to St. Paul means "to be dead to sin. . . but alive to God."

St. Innocent of Alaska

The Lenten Spring, SVS Press, p. 147, 19th Century

Beyond the Sermon

Metropolitan Anthony Sourozh
PRAYER TODAY
1967, September the 2d

Life and prayer are completely inseparable. A life without prayer is a life which is unaware of an essential dimension of existence. It is a flat life, without depth, a two-dimensional life in space and time. It is a life that is satisfied with the visible, with our neighbour, but with our physical neighbour, in whom we fail to discover the immensity and eternity of his destiny. The value of prayer consists in discovering, affirming and living in accordance with the fact that everything has a dimension of eternity and of boundlessness.
The world in which we live is not a profane world; it is a world which we know only too well how to profane, but in itself it comes from the hands of God, it is loved by God. The value which God attaches to it is the life and death of his Son, and prayer manifests our recognition of this fact, our discovery of the fact that in the eyes of God every person around us, every thing around us has a sacred value and, being loved by God, becomes precious to us. Not to pray is to leave God out of our existence, — not only God, but all that He signifies for the world He created, the world in which we live.
Now we often think that it is difficult to coordinate life and prayer. This is a complete mistake, resulting from a false idea of life as well as of prayer. We think that life consists of being on the move and that prayer consists in going off somewhere into retirement and forgetting all about our neighbour and our human situation. This is untrue! It is a slander against life and a slander against prayer itself.
In order to understand prayer one must first get into solidarity with the whole reality of man, with his destiny and that of the whole world: assume it totally. And that is the essential act which God accomplished in the Incarnation. This is the total aspect of what we call intercession. Ordinarily when we think of intercession we think that it consists of politely reminding God of what he has forgotten to do. Intercession consists of taking a step which brings us to the heart of tragic situations, — a step which has the same quality as the one taken by Christ, who became man once for all. It means stepping into the heart of situations from which we can never find our way out again; a Christian, Christ-like solidarity which is simultaneously oriented towards two opposite poles. Christ incarnate, true man and true God, has total solidarity with man in his sin when he turns towards God, and total solidarity with God when he turned towards man. It is this double solidarity which makes us in a sense a stranger to both sides and at the same time united with both sides. This is fundamentally our Christian situation.
You ask, «What shall we do?» Prayer arises from two sources: either from our wonder at God and the things of God — our neighbour and the world around us, in spite of its shadows; or else from the sense of tragedy, our own, and especially other people's. Berdyaev said: «When I am hungry it is a physical fact; if my neighbour is hungry it is a moral fact.» That is the tragedy as it appears to us at every moment. My neighbour is always hungry: he is not always hungry for bread, he is sometimes hungry for a human gesture, a glance of affection. And this is where prayer begins, in this sensitization to the wonders and the tragedy. As long as this lasts, everything is easy: in wonder we pray easily, just as we pray easily when we are in the grip of a sense of tragedy.
But otherwise? At other times life and prayer must be made one. For instance, get up in the morning, stand before God and say: «Lord, bless me, and bless this day that is beginning», and then treat the whole day as a gift of God and consider yourself as God's envoy in this unknown which is the new day. This simply means something very difficult: that nothing which happens today will be alien to the will of God: everything without exception is a situation in which God will have placed you in order that you should be His presence, his love, his compassion, his creative intelligence, his courage... And on the other hand, every time you encounter a situation, you will be the one whom God has put there to perform the office of a Christian, to be a particle of the body of Christ and an action of God.
If you do that, you will easily see that at every moment you will have to turn to God and say: «Lord, clarify my intelligence, strengthen and direct my will, give me a heart of fire, help me.» At other moments you may say: «Thank you, Lord!» And if you are wise and know how to be thankful, you will avoid the folly that is called vanity or pride, which consists of imagining that one has done something that one could have left undone. It is God who has done it. It is God who has given us this marvelous gift of having that to do.
And when in the evening you present yourself again before God and make a quick examination of the day, you will be able to sing his praises, glorify Him, thank Him, weep over others and weep over yourself. If you begin to connect your prayer to life in this way, the two will never again be separated, and life will be like a fuel which at every moment is feeding a fire that becomes richer and richer, more and more burning, and which little by little will transform you yourself into that burning bush that is told about in Scripture.