Sundays in the fall, winter & spring:
Matins: 9 a.m. & Divine Liturgy 10a.m. except during the summer
Summer hours for Sundays in July and August:
Matins: 8:30a.m. & Divine Liturgy 9:30a.m.
September 1, 2019 Beginning of the Ecclesiastical Year
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Orthros: 8:30A.M. Epistle: I Timothy: 2:1-7 (pg. 1350) |
Divine Liturgy: 9:30A.M. Gospel: Luke 4:16-22 (pg.1206) |
Acolytes: Paul Dobrow, Nick Seretis, Emmanuel Pittas, Nico Peppes,
Ushers: Angelo Lefer, Nick Tselepis, Narthex: Paul Savidis, Liz Koykas |
Reader & Greeter: GOYA
Prosforon: |
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“If we do not find prayer difficult perhaps it is because we have not truly started to pray.” - Abba Agathon
Saint Symeon the Stylite
Our venerable and God-bearing Father Symeon the Stylite or Simeon, also called "the Great" (c. 390-459) was a monk living in Syria. Stylite means one who lives on a pillar (style in Greek). He is celebrated by the Orthodox Church today, September 1st
Memorial: A 1 year memorial for Alexandra Bakas, beloved wife of the late Costas. Devoted motherof Catherine Drakakis and Effie Halperin. Loving grandmother of Alexandra and Jonathan and predeceased by her grandson Edward Halperin. Adored mother-in-law of Constantine Drakakis. Beloved aunt to many dear family members.
Kali Parea (Senior Fellowship): Kali Parea will hold its first meeting and picnic for the season this Tuesday, September 3 at the James A. McFaul Environmental Center on Crescent Avenue, in Wyckoff.
The park and walking trails are available to us from 12 Noon to 3 PM. Please bring your lunch and dessert will be served. All our parishioners are invited to join us at the center.
Pastor’s Wish List: We are in need of basil for our September 14th services. If you have any, kindly drop it off on Friday during our normal business hours 9:00am -5:00pm.
Fr Bill seeks donations of $1500 for 15 new acolyte robes for November 3 celebration.
Church Service: This Saturday, September 14th we will hold worship services for the Elevation of the Holy Cross with Orthros starting at 9:00am and Divine Liturgy at 10:00a.m. (Strict fast day)
Holy Cross Celebration: Metropolitan Evangelos invites us all to celebrate Holy Cross Day on Sunday, September 15th at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park. We will send our GOYA divers to retrieve the Cross! All parishioners are invited to support /attend this celebration and free picnic. The churches in New Jersey will not celebrate Divine Liturgy on September 15th. Saint Nicholas will be closed.
Regular Schedule: Our fall/winter/spring schedule of worship services begins Sunday, September 29th. Orthros begins at 9:00am and Divine Liturgy begins at 10:00am.
Religious education: Orientation & Celebration will be on Sunday, September 29th after Holy Communion. Classes Begin on Sunday, October 6
The Orthodox Christian Network: For inspiration on the internet, start your day at MYOCN.NET
Summer Schedule Continues: Orthros at 8:30am and Divine Liturgy at 9:30am. NOTE: Weekday worship hours, including Saturdays, remain at regular start times- Orthros at 9am and Divine Liturgy at 10a.m.
Saint Nicholas is on Social Media! Like us on Facebook @stnicholasnj and follow us on Instagram @stnicholasgoc. To share your ministry’s events and activities email socialmedia@stnicholasnj.org.
The Orthodox Ladies Prayer Group: All ladies are welcome to join our prayer meetings held on the 2nd and 4th Thursday evening of each month at 7:30pm in our Theotokos chapel. We spend a dedicated time of informal prayer for our nation, church community, families and friends. Not only are we seeing countless answers to prayers, but this intimate time of fellowship together is encouraging and deepening our own faith. You are welcome to join us anytime. All prayer requests are kept confidential. Call the parish office or Irene Ayvas 201-803-2307, with any prayer requests you want added to our list or submitted to the “Email Prayer Chain”. “Email Prayer Chain”: It’s simple and powerful. If you are interested in being a part of this ministry, email Irene Ayvas at iayvas@yahoo.com with your email contact info or call 201-803-2307.
Saint Nicholas Greek Festival: Our Saint Nicholas Greek Festival is set for September 20-22. Let’s all step up and volunteer to make this a successful event for our community. Expect lots of food, dancing and fun! To be a “VIP” ( volunteer in parish) or for information, contact: Nick Pirsos pirsos@verizon.net or Angelo Lefer angelo5763@msn.com
Greek School: Parents! This is a friendly reminder to complete your Saint Nicholas Greek School 2019-2020 registration online. Seats are limited! Information and registration can be found at https://sngswyckoff.corsizio.com. Additional questions to Angela Bachardy at angelarokkos@hotmail.com or Demetra Pittas at demetra.pittas@gmail.com.
Save the Date: Parish 50th Anniversary Celebration: Sunday November 3, 2019
If you would like to buy an AD for the 50th Anniversary Journal, contact Melissa Gasparis at melissa@peercg.com or 201-788-0403. In addition, ads will be for sale after church during fellowship hour.
Photo Collection for the 50th Anniversary Gala: Do you have any photos of St. Nicholas and its events throughout the years? Please share them with us to use in a commemorative video for the 50th Anniversary Gala! Please send your digital photos to saintnicholasgala@gmail.com or give hard copies of the photos to Diana Manoussakis or Toni Gasparis. Hard copies will be returned. Thank you for your help!
Giving Tree/Mortgage Burning Campaign: bygod’s graceour parish plans to be mortgage free by 2020- you can help to make it happen! Various giving levels are available: you can leaf your donation, or show your love - donate a dove… be the first on your block to donate a rock…be a hunk and give a tree trunk! You can memorialize your loved one by donating to the Giving Tree and including a scriptural message. Contact Fr. Bill at 201 652 4774 ext. 12 or frbill@stnicholasnj.org
The translations of hymns are under copyright and used by permission. All rights reserved. These works may not be further reproduced, in print or on other websites or in any other form, without the prior written authorization of the copyright holder:
Eleventh Orthros Gospel
The Reading is from John 21:14-25
At that time, Jesus revealed himself to his disciples after he was raised from the dead, and he said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs." A second time he said to him, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep." He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go." (This he said to show by what death he was to glorify God.) And after this he said to him, "Follow me."
Peter turned and saw following them the disciple whom Jesus loved, who had lain close to his breast at the supper and had said, "Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?" When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, "Lord, what about this man?" Jesus said to him, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!" So, the word went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die; but Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?" This is the disciple who is bearing witness to these things, and who has written these things; and we know that his testimony is true. But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.
Prokeimenon. Fourth Mode. Psalm 146.5;134.3.
Great is our Lord, and great is his power.
Verse: Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good.
The reading is from St. Paul's First Letter to Timothy 2:1-7.
Timothy, my son, first of all, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way. This is good, and it is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony to which was borne at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
Ecclesiastical New Year
The Reading is from Luke 4:16-22
At that time, Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day. And he stood up to read; and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." And all spoke well of him, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.
For the maintenance of their armed forces, the Roman emperors decreed that their subjects in every district should be taxed every year. This same decree was reissued every fifteen years, since the Roman soldiers were obliged to serve for fifteen years. At the end of each fifteen-year period, an assessment was made of what economic changes had taken place, and a new tax was decreed, which was to be paid over the span of the fifteen years. This imperial decree, which was issued before the season of winter, was named Indictio, that is, Definiton, or Order. This name was adopted by the emperors in Constantinople also. At other times, the latter also used the term Epinemisis, that is, Distribution (Dianome). It is commonly held that Saint Constantine the Great introduced the Indiction decrees in A.D. 312, after he beheld the sign of the Cross in heaven and vanquished Maxentius and was proclaimed Emperor in the West. Some, however (and this seems more likely), ascribe the institution of the Indiction to Augustus Caesar, three years before the birth of Christ. Those who hold this view offer as proof the papal bull issued in A.D. 781 which is dated thus: Anno IV, Indictionis LIII -that is, the fourth year of the fifty-third Indiction. From this, we can deduce the aforementioned year (3 B.C.) by multiplying the fifty-two complete Indictions by the number of years in each (15), and adding the three years of the fifty-third Indiction. There are three types of Indictions: 1) That which was introduced in the West, and which is called Imperial, or Caesarean, or Constantinian, and which begins on the 24th of September; 2) The so-called Papal Indiction, which begins on the 1st of January; and 3) The Constantinopolitan, which was adopted by the Patriarchs of that city after the fall of the Eastern Empire in 1453. This Indiction is indicated in their own hand on the decrees they issue, without the numeration of the fifteen years. This Indiction begins on the 1st of September and is observed with special ceremony in the Church. Since the completion of each year takes place, as it were, with the harvest and gathering of the crops into storehouses, and we begin anew from henceforth the sowing of seed in the earth for the production of future crops, September is considered the beginning of the New Year. The Church also keeps festival this day, beseeching God for fair weather, seasonable rains, and an abundance of the fruits of the earth. The Holy Scriptures (Lev. 23:24-5 and Num. 29:1-2) also testify that the people of Israel celebrated the feast of the Blowing of the Trumpets on this day, offering hymns of thanksgiving. In addition to all the aforesaid, on this feast we also commemorate our Saviour's entry into the synagogue in Nazareth, where He was given the book of the Prophet Esaias to read, and He opened it and found the place where it is written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, for which cause He hath anointed Me..." (Luke 4:16-30).
It should be noted that to the present day, the Church has always celebrated the beginning of the New Year on September 1. This was the custom in Constantinople until its fall in 1453 and in Russia until the reign of Peter I. September 1 is still festively celebrated as the New Year at the Patriarchate of Constantinople; among the Jews also the New Year, although reckoned according to a moveable calendar, usually falls in September. The service of the Menaion for January 1 is for our Lord's Circumcision and for the memorial of Saint Basil the Great, without any mention of its being the beginning of a new year.
Jesus (Joshua) of Navi was born of the tribe of Ephraim in Egypt, in the seventeenth century before Christ. When he was eighty-five years of age, he became Moses' successor. He restrained the River Jordan's flow and allowed the Israelites to cross on foot. He caused the sun to stop in its course when he was waging war against the Amorites. He divided the Promised Land among the Twelve Tribes of Israel and governed them for twenty-five years. He wrote the Old Testament book that bears his name, and having lived 110 years in all, he reposed in the sixteenth century before Christ. His name means "God saves."
Our righteous Father Symeon was born about the year 390 in a certain village named Sis, in the mountain region of Cilicia and Syria. Having first been a shepherd, he entered the monastic discipline at a young age. After trying various kinds of ascetical practices, both in the monastery and then in the wilderness, he began standing on pillars of progressively greater height, and heroically persevered in this for more than forty years; the greater part of this time he spent standing upright, even when one of his feet became gangrenous, and other parts of his body gave way under the strain. He did not adopt this strange way of life out of vainglory, a charge that some of his contemporaries made against him at the first: because he was already famous for his asceticism and holiness before ascending his first pillar (in Greek, style, whence he is called "Stylite"), many pious people came to him wishing to touch his garments, either for healing or for a blessing; to escape the continual vexation they caused, he made a pillar about ten feet high, and then higher and higher, until the fourth and last was about fifty feet high. The Church historian Theodoret of Cyrrhus, an eyewitness of his exploits who wrote of him while Symeon was yet alive, called him "the great wonder of the world." God gave him the grace to persevere in such an astonishing form of asceticism that multitudes came to see him from Persia, Armenia, South Arabia, Georgia, Thrace, Spain, Italy, Gaul, and the British Isles. Theodoret says that he became so famous in Rome that the Nomadic Arabs by the thousands believed in Christ and were baptized because of him; the King of Persia sent envoys to inquire into his way of life, and the Queen asked to be sent oil that he had blessed. He also was a great defender of sound doctrine, and confirmed the Orthodoxy of the Holy Council of Chalcedon for many who had been beguiled by the teachings of the Monophysites, including the Empress Eudocia, widow of Theodosius the Younger. After a life of unheard-of achievements and struggles, he reposed in peace at the age of sixty-nine, in the year 459.
Saint Mammas was from Gangra of Paphlagonia. He was born in prison, where his parents were suffering for Christ's sake and ended their lives. He was named Mammas because, after he had long remained without speaking, he addressed his foster mother Ammia as "mamma." He contested for Christ about the year 275.