Parish Bulletin – May 19, 2013
THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PASCHA
THE MYRRHBEARING WOMEN
TONE 2
Acts 6:1-7
Mark 15:43-16:8
Choir Director: Veronika
Welcome
We welcome you to the Orthodox Church. Please feel at ease and free to participate in the singing. As a visitor you are welcome to come forward at the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy and venerate the Cross offered by the priest. Additionally you may receive the blessed bread (Antidoron) that is offered at that time. If you have questions or would like further information, the priest or one of the members of the parish will be pleased to help.
A word to our visitors on Holy Communion
The Orthodox Church does not practice open Communion. Therefore, only members of Canonical Orthodox Churches exercising jurisdiction in America may approach the Chalice for Holy Communion. The Orthodox do not regard Holy Communion solely as an act of personal piety, but also as an expression of union with the Orthodox Church’s faith, doctrine, and discipline. Orthodox visitors wishing to receive Holy Communion should make their intention known to the priest in advance — ask any member of the parish for help in relaying your intention to the priest. Orthodox Christians should prepare themselves to receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion through recent Confession, prayers of preparation for Holy Communion, and fasting (at minimum, from midnight before receiving).
“Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in a an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.” – I Corinthians 11:27
TROPARIA AND KONTAKIA
Troparion from the Pentecostarion, in Tone II:
The noble Joseph, / when he had taken down Thy most pure Body from the Tree, / wrapped it in fine linen and anointed it with spices, / and placed it in a new tomb. / But Thou didst arise on the third day, O Lord, // granting the world great mercy.
Kontakion from the Pentecostarion, in Tone II
Thou didst command the Myrrhbearers to rejoice, O Christ God. / By Thy Resurrection, Thou didst stop the lamentation of Eve, the first mother. / Thou didst command them to preach to Thine Apostles: // “The Savior is risen from the tomb!”
Opportunities to give:
➢ Food donations to the Ashland Food Project
Announcements:
- Please sign up for coffee fellowship/kitchen cleanup.
- This Wednesday, May 22nd, Fr. Andreas will have a class following Vespers, especially for catechumens and those interested in becoming Orthodox. This class will meet roughly every other week.
- Ss. Peter & Paul Men’s Fellowship on Tuesday, 6.00 PM at church.
- An all-Parish Meeting will take place today, during our fellowship.
- 8.30 am next Sunday is the Akathist to the Mother of God, Nurturer of Children.
- Our parish Patronal Feast will be Saturday, July 13. Vigil will take place the night before (Friday, July 12), with Liturgy on Saturday morning, followed by a barbeque picnic. Mark your calendars now!
Confession are heard this week by appointment!
Pascha of Incorruption
Salvation is healing. Salvation is freedom from corruption. Salvation is a return to the original goodness of incorruption; for man was created in incorruption. Needed was the restoration to health of human nature.
This restoration is given in the incarnation of the Son of God. “We could not have become incorrupt and immortal, had not the Incorrupt and Immortal One not been first made what we are.” The Incorrupt and Immortal One, in His unity of persons, has assumed “the corruption and death of my stolen nature.” The nature of corruption received the inoculation of incorruption, and the process of creation’s renewal, the process of man’s deification, has begun, as has also begun the creation of god-humanity. The sting of death has been blunted. Corruption is conquered, for the antidote for the illness of corruption is given. All those born of earth have inevitably come to those gates of death and hid behind them, trembling with horror. But now, Christ is resurrected!
What does this mean? This means that salvation is truly wrought. For, human nature has joined with Divine nature in the person of Christ, “unmingled, unchanged, undivided, and inseparable.” It is not God Who has passed through the gates of death, and not before God were the “eternal chambers open wide,” not for God’s sake was the stone rolled away from the doors of the tomb, but for the sake of the God-Man.
Together with Christ, our human nature has passed through the mysterious gates of death. Death reigns, but not forever!
Death was terrible to the human race before Christ’s death, but after Christ’s resurrection, man became terrible to death, for One of us has conquered death; He did not remain in the tomb, and did not see corruption. Passover was the freeing of Israel from Egypt. Our Pascha frees us from the slavery of death and corruption. Christ is risen! I now know that my salvation is truly wrought. I know that God truly appeared on earth. There have been great people, conquerors of the elements, conquerors of nature; but death cut them all down and revealed our common nothingness. Who has passed through the doors of death? It can only be God. This means that God was truly incarnate on earth, truly brought the healing cure against the corruption that corrodes and torments me. Incarnation and resurrection are united into one. The incarnation gave meaning to the resurrection, and the resurrection irrefutably convinces us of its truth and reality as something that is not a phantom or a dream.
My sinful illness is curable—the resurrection of Christ convinces me of this. To me is opened the blessedness of paradise. Let no one lament his poverty when entering the Kingdom of all! Joy has come to all, because hope for incorruption, for redemption from sinful corruption, has also come. Christ God has brought us out of death into life.
– Hieromartyr Hilarion
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