Parish Bulletin – May 26, 2013
FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PASCHA
SUNDAY OF THE PARALYTIC
TONE 3
Acts 9:32-42
John 5:1-15
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 for the Resurrection, in Tone III:
Let the heavens rejoice; / let the earth be glad; / for the Lord has shown strength with His arm. / He has trampled down death by death; / He has become the first-born of the dead. / He has delivered us from the depths of Hell/ and has granted the world // great mercy.
Kontakion from the Pentecostarion, in Tone III
By Thy Divine authority, O Lord, raise up my soul, / which hath been grievously paralyzed / by all manner of sins and unseemly deeds, / as of old Thou didst raise up the paralytic, / that saved, I may cry: // O compassionate Christ, glory to Thy dominion.
Opportunities to give:
➢ Food donations to the Ashland Food Project
Announcements:
- Please sign up for coffee fellowship/kitchen cleanup.
- 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!
Service Schedule this Week:
Wednesday – 6.00 pm, Vespers
Thursday – 6.40 am, Hours, Divine Liturgy
Saturday – 6.00 pm, Great Vespers
Sunday – 8.40 am, Hours, Divine Liturgy
Confession after Vespers or by appointment!
Other Activities Next Week:
- Saturday, 4.30 PM – Choir practice
“See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”
Blessed is the man who uses his sufferings, knowing that all suffering in this brief life is loosed on men by God in His love for mankind, for the benefit and assistance of men. In His mercy, God looses suffering on men because of their sins – by His mercy and not His justice. For, if it were by His justice, every sin would inevitably bring death, as the Apostle says” “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (James 1:15). In place of death, God gives healing through suffering. Suffering is God’s way of healing the soul of its sinful leprosy and its death.
Only the foolish think that suffering is evil. A sensible man knows that suffering is not evil but only the manifestation of evil and healing from evil. Only sin in a man is a real evil, and there is no evil outside sin. Everything else that men generally call evil is not, but is a better medicine to heal from evil. The sicker the man, the more bitter the medicine that the doctor prescribes for him. At times, even, it seems to a sick man that the medicine is worse and more bitter than the sickness itself! And so it seems at times to the sinner: the suffering is harder and more bitter than the sin committed. But this is only an illusion – a very strong self-delusion. There is no suffering in the world that could be anywhere near as hard and destructive as sin is.
All the suffering borne by men and nations is none other than the abundant healing that eternal mercy offers to men and nations to save them from eternal death. Every sin, however small, would inevitably bring death if mercy were not to allow suffering in order to sober men up from the inebriation of sin; for the healing that comes through suffering is brought about by the grace-filled power of the Holy and Life-giving Spirit.
It is, therefore, clear that suffering must be born with patience and hope in God, with thanksgiving to God and with joy. “O what great troubles and adversities hast Thou shewed me”, King David says to God, “and yet didst Thou turn and refresh me; yea, and broughtest me from the deep of the earth again… Unto Thee will I sing upon the harp, O Thou holy One of Israel (Ps. 71: 20). The Apostle Peter even counsels the faithful: “Rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings” (I Pet. 4:13). “of Christ’s” – that means consciously and with understanding, meekly and with patience, for the cleansing from our sins, for new life, for the nurturing of the living Christ in us and around us. When great Chrysostom was dying in exile, tormented and despised by men, his last words were: “Glory to God for everything!”
– St. Nikolai of Zhicha
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