Parish Bulletin – October 21, 201

20TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

TONE 3

VENERABLE HILARION THE GREAT

Galatians 1:11-19
Luke 16:19-31

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 – Tone VIII

With the streams of thy tears thou didst irrigate the barren desert, and with sighs from the depths of thy soul thou didst render thy labors fruitful an hundredfold, and becamest a beacon for the whole world, resplendent with miracles. O Hilarion our father, entreat Christ God, that our souls be saved.

Kontakion – Tone III

Assembling today, in hymns we praise thee as a never-waning luminary of the noetic Sun; for thou hast shone forth upon those in the darkness of ignorance, guiding all up to the divine heights, O Hilarion. Wherefore, we cry out: Rejoice, O father, thou foundation of all fasters!

Opportunities to give:

➢ Food donations to the Ashland Food Project

Announcements:

• Please sign up for coffee fellowship/kitchen cleanup.
• Parish Council Meeting following Liturgy today.
• Adult Education Class following Vespers on Wednesday.
• Confession before Vespers on Wednesday (5.00-5.50 PM)
• Choir practice on Saturday, 4.30 pm.
• Akathist to the Mother of God Nurturer of Children before Liturgy next Sunday.
• Annual Parish Meeting will take place on November 11^th, with a pre-fasting “Thanksgiving meal.” (Nativity Fast starting November 14^th) Please sign up for making dishes!

Service Schedule this Week:

Wednesday – 6.00 pm, Vespers

Thursday – 6.40 am, Hours, Divine Liturgy

Saturday – 6.00 pm, Great Vespers

Sunday – 8.30 am, Akathist, Hours, Divine Liturgy

Confession after Vespers or by appointment!

Other Activities Next Week:

• Wednesday, following Vespers – Adult Education Class
• Saturday, 4.30 PM – Choir practice

Bulletin Insert (OCA Department of Education):

On October 24th and 25th we read Colossians 1:18-29. In these verses Saint Paul is speaking to Christians in Colossae, a city in Asia Minor, who are tempted to seek hidden, exclusive knowledge that others don’t have.

At the time when this letter was written, false teachers were busily preaching and teaching in places where Paul had preached and taught the truth. Many of these false teachers were Gnostics, who advocated, and encouraged others to adhere to, ideas that were far from the teachings of the apostles.

First, the Gnostics claimed that Jesus Christ was only one of several “savior angels” and that He was not superior to the angels. Christians believe that He is above every created being, including angels, and that He is the only Savior. Christ is, with His Father and the Holy Spirit, the Creator of all things. This is why Paul writes (v.16) about Jesus Christ that “by Him all things were created that are in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.”

Another idea promoted by the Gnostics was that matter is evil, so evil that they said the world was created not by God but by the devil, because God would never have anything to do with mere matter. For Gnostics, the only significant thing in human life was the spirit, not the body. To counter this, Paul emphasizes “the body of His flesh” as the means by which He, Jesus Christ, can “present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before Him.” Paul in fact makes a point of talking about his own body and about the Church as Christ’s body. He writes, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, that is, the church…”

One of the most basic teachings of Gnosticism was that the only way to become a spiritual human being—the most desirable possible human achievement–was to gain secret knowledge not accessible to every person, but only certain ones. This idea was very threatening to the Church, because the Gnostics looked down on Christianity as a primitive faith, and prized secret rituals over the sacraments of the Christian Church.

Opposing this idea, Paul writes that he became a minister “according to the divine office which was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, they mystery hidden for ages and generations but now made manifest to His saints.” In other words, God sent Paul as a divinely-appointed minister to His people so that Paul could reveal to them the “knowledge of God’s mystery, of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2: 2-3).

Christians have no reason to seek hidden, exclusive knowledge. The great mysteries are all in God and Jesus Christ, the creators of all things, and our loving God and His Son reveal them to us.