Professional Documents
Culture Documents
November 13, 2011 Tone 5 and Orthros Gospel 11 Liturgy Schedule: Saturday Vespers 4pm Compline Weds 8:30PM
8th Sunday After The Holy Cross Our Father Among the Saints John Chrysostom Sunday Orthros 8:55 am Sunday Divine Liturgy 10:00 am
Liturgy Intentions:
November 13, 2011 James Murray by Henry and Denise Nahal
Parish Notes:
Welcome back Father Jerome Wolfort OFM who serves liturgy today . Great Vespers has returned to 4PM this Saturday now that daylight savings time has ended. The Qurban used in todays liturgy was baked by Anna Clark Next Sunday join us after Divine Liturgy for a buffet luncheon to celebrate Deacon Michaels 25 anniversary of ordination to the diaconate.
THE BISHOPS APPEAL: The annual Bishops Appeal is an important way in which
our parish fulfills its duty to our larger Melkite family throughout the U.S. Our Father and Shepherd, Bishop Nicholas asks every Melkite household in the U.S. to give at least $100$200 each year to support our Eparchy in America. By contributing to the Appeal, each of us responds to Christs call to support our Church and helps fund its vital works, such as: publishing SOPHIA magazine; supporting our seminarians for the Priesthood and Diaconate; providing for our elderly priests; and educating our children and young adults. It is the holy obligation of every member of our parish respond to his call. Please send your gift today.
Hymns:
Resurrectional Troparion Troparion of St, John Chrysostom
The faith that shine forth from your mouth like a torch has enlightened the universe, bestowed treasures of generosity upon the world and shown us the depth of your humility. While you teach us by your words, Father, pray to the Word, Christ our God that He may save our souls.
Troparion of St. Joseph Kontakion for the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin
Prokiemenon
My mouth shall speak wisdom; prudence shall be the utterance of my heart. Stichon: Hear this, all you peoples; hearken, all who dwell in the world.
8: 41-56
At that time, behold, a certain lawyer got up to test Jesus, saying, Master, what must I do to gain eternal life? But He said to him, What is written in the Law? How do you read? He answered and said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength, and with thy whole mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. And He said to him, You have answered rightly; do this and you shall live. But he, wishing to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor? Jesus answered, A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell in with robbers, who after both stripping him and beating him went their way, leaving him half-dead. But, as it happened, a certain priest was going down the same way, and when he saw him, he passed by. And likewise a Levite also, when he was near the place and saw him, passed by. But a certain Sumaritan as he journeyed came upon him, and seeing him, was moved with compassion. And he went up to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. And setting him on his own beast, he brought him to an inn and took care of him. And as he was leaving the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I, on my way back, will repay you. Which of these three, in your opinion, proved himself neighbor to the man who fell among the robber? And he said, The one who took pity on him! And Jesus said to him, Go and do as he did.
help us see through this text Gods constant and allembracing love for us. This parable becomes a wordpicture of the entire mystery of salvation: A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho Adam, by trusting in himself instead of God, descended from Paradise into this world. Jericho, at 825 feet below sea level is the lowest city on earth, as far down as you can get. He fell among robbers Mankind apart from God is beset by the band of demonic powers led by the ruler of this age. They stripped him of his raiment the robe of immortality. They departed, leaving him half dead he was reduced to the half-life of this earth, subject to sin and death. It happened that a priest and a Levite came that way, but passed by on the other side The people of Israel kept to themselves and did not aid mankind. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine Christ, not from this world, who was accused of being a Samaritan (John 8:48), is that compassionate stranger. He doctors mankind by His teachings (the bandages), His anointing with the Holy Spirit (the oil), and the Eucharist (the wine) by which He begins our healing. He set him on his own beast, brought him to an inn and took care of him Christ joined mankind to His own human nature, brought him to the hospital of His Church and continued to minister to him as the divine physician. When he left on the next day he gave the innkeeper two dinars and said, Take care of him After His ascension Christ entrusted mankind to the Apostolic Synod personified by its great apostle to the Gentiles, St Paul, and through Paul to the high priests and teachers and ministers of each church, saying: Take care
Chrysostom on the Good Samaritan Using this method St John Chrysostom was able to
of the Gentiles whom I have given to you in the Church. Since men are sick, wounded by sin, heal them, putting on them a stone plaster, that is, the prophetic sayings and the gospel teachings, making them whole through the admonitions and exhortations of the Old and New Testaments. So according to St. John Chrysostom, Paul is the one who upholds the churches of God and heals all men through spiritual admonitions, distributing the bread of offering to each one... And when I come again I will repay you At my second coming I will reward you.
In his important work, Orthodox Psychotherapy, the contemporary Greek Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos expresses the life of the Church in terms of this imagery. So in the Church we are divided into the sick, those undergoing treatment, and those the saints St John Chrysostom, Eighth Homily against the who have already been healed. The Fathers do not Judaizers 4: 1-3 categorize people as moral and immoral or good and bad on the basis of moral laws. This division is superficial. At depth humanity is differentiated into the sick in soul, those being healed, and those healed. All who are not in a state of illumination are sick in soul... It is not only good will, good resolve, moral practice and devotion to the Orthodox Tradition which make an Orthodox, but also purification, illumination and deification. These stages of healing are the purpose of the Orthodox way of life. In another place St John Chrysostom taught that ministering to the spiritually ill in the hospital of the Church is for us all: Let us not overlook such a tragedy as that. Let us not hurry past so pitiable a sight without taking pity. Even if others do so, you must not. Do not say to yourself: I am no priest or monk; I have a wife and children. This is a work for the priests; this is work for the monks. The Samaritan did not say: Where are the priests now? Where are the Pharisees now? Where are the teachers of the Jews? But the Samaritan is like a man who found some great store of booty and got the profit. Therefore, when you see someone in need of treatment for some ailment of the body or soul, do not say to yourself: Why did so-and-so or so-and-
so not take care of him? You free him from his sickness; do not demand an accounting from others for their negligence. Tell me this. If you find a gold coin lying on the ground, do you say to yourself: Why didnt so-and-so pick it up? Do you not rush to snatch it up before somebody else does? Think the same way about your fallen brothers; consider that tending his wounds is like finding a treasure. If you pour the word of instruction on his wounds like oil, if you bind them up with your mildness, and cure them with your patience, your wounded brother has made you a richer man that any treasure could. Jeremiah said: He who has brought forth the precious from the vile will be as my mouth. What could we compare to that? No fasting, no sleeping on the ground, no watching and praying all night, nor anything else can do as much for you as saving your brother can accomplish.
Flavian of Antioch. St John was a splendid preacher, and his inspired words earned him the name "GoldenSaint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, one of Mouthed" ("Chrysostom"). For twelve years the saint the Three Hierarchs [January 30], was born at Antioch in preached in church, usually twice a week, but sometimes about the year 347 into the family of a military commander. daily, deeply stirring the hearts of his listeners. His father, Secundus, died soon after the birth of his son. His mother, Anthusa, widowed at twenty years of age, did not In his pastoral zeal to provide Christians with a better seek to remarry but rather devoted all her efforts to the raising understanding of Holy Scripture, St John employed of her son in Christian piety. The youth studied under the hermeneutics, an interpretation and analysis of the Word of finest philosophers and rhetoricians. But, scorning the vain God (i.e. exegesis"). Among his exegetical works are disciplines of pagan knowledge, the future hierarch turned commentaries on entire books of the Holy Scripture (Genesis, himself to the profound study of Holy Scripture and prayerful the Psalter, the Gospels of Matthew and John, the Epistles of contemplation. St Meletius, Bishop of Antioch (February 12), the Apostle Paul), and also many homilies on individual texts loved John like a son, guided him in the Faith, and in the year of the Holy Bible, but also instructions on the Feastdays, laudations on the Saints, and also apologetic (i.e. defensive) 367 baptized him. homilies (against Anomoeans, Judaizers and pagans). As a After three years John was tonsured as a Reader. When St priest, St John zealously fulfilled the Lord's command to care Meletius had been sent into exile by the emperor Valens in for the needy. Under St John, the Antiochian Church the year 372, John and Theodore (afterwards Bishop of provided sustenance each day to as many as 3,000 virgins and Mopsuestia) studied under the experienced instructors of widows, not including in this number the shut-ins, wanderers ascetic life, the presbyters Flavian and Diodorus of Tarsus. and the sick. The highly refined Diodorus had particular influence upon the youth. When John's mother died, he embraced St John began his commentary on Genesis at the beginning of monasticism, which he called the "true philosophy." Soon Great Lent in 388, preaching thirty-two homilies during the John and his friend Basil were being considered as candidates forty day period. During Holy Week he spoke of how Christ for the episcopal office, and they decided to withdraw into the was betrayed, and about the Cross. During Bright Week, his wilderness to avoid this. While St John avoided the episcopal pastoral discourse was devoted to the Resurrection. His rank out of humility, he secretly assisted in Basil's exegesis of the Book of Genesis was concluded only at the end of October (388). consecration.
During this period St John wrote his "Six Discourses on the Priesthood," a great work of Orthodox pastoral theology. The saint spent four years struggling in the wilderness, living the ascetic life under the guidance of an experienced spiritual guide. And here he wrote three books entitled, "Against the Opponents of Those Attracted to the Monastic Life", and a collection entitled, "A Comparison of the Monk with the Emperor" (also known as "Comparison of Imperial Power, Wealth and Eminence, with the True and Christian WisdomLoving Monastic Life"), both works which are marked by a profound reflection of the worthiness of the monastic vocation. For two years, the saint lived in a cave in complete silence, but was obliged to return to Antioch to recover his health. St Meletius, the Bishop of Antioch, ordained him deacon in the year 381. The following years were devoted to work on new theological writings: "Concerning Providence" ("To the Ascetic Stagirios"), "Book Concerning Virginity," "To a Young Widow" (2 discourses), and the "Book of St Babylos, and Against Julian and the Pagans."
At Pascha in the following year the saint began his homilies on the Gospel of John, and toward the end of the year 389 he took up the Gospel of Matthew. In the year 391 the Antioch Christians listened to his commentary on the Epistles of the holy Apostle Paul to the Romans and to the Corinthians. In 393 he explained the Epistles to the Galatians, the Ephesians, Timothy, Titus, and the Psalms. In his homily on the Epistle to the Ephesians, St John denounced a schism in Antioch, "I tell you and I witness before you, that to tear asunder the Church means nothing less than to fall into heresy. The Church is the house of the heavenly Father, one Body and one Spirit."
The fame of the holy preacher grew, and in the year 397 with the death of Archbishop Nectarius of Constantinople, successor to St Gregory the Theologian, St John Chrysostom was summoned from Antioch, and elected to the See of Constantinople. At the capital, the holy archpastor was not able to preach as often as he had at Antioch. Many matters awaited the saint's attention, and he began with the most important -- the spiritual perfection of the priesthood. He himself was the best example of this. The financial means In the year 386 St John was ordained presbyter by Bishop apportioned for the archbishop were channeled by the saint
into the upkeep of several hospices for the sick and two hostels punishment for the unjust judgment against the saint. for pilgrims. He fasted strictly and ate very little food, and usually refused invitations to dine because of his delicate In Armenia, the saint strove all the more to encourage his spiritual children. In numerous letters (245 are preserved) to stomach. bishops in Asia, Africa, Europe and particularly to his friends in The saint's zeal in spreading the Christian Faith extended not Constantinople, St John consoled the suffering, guiding and only to the inhabitants of Constantinople, but also to Thrace to giving support to his followers. In the winter of 406 St John was include Slavs and Goths, and to Asia Minor and the Pontine confined to his bed with sickness, but his enemies were not to be region. He established a bishop for the Bosphorus Church in the appeased. From the capital came orders to transfer St John to Crimea. St John sent off zealous missionaries to Phoenicia, to desolate Pityus in Abkhazia on the Black Sea. Worn out by Persia, and to the Scythians, to convert pagans to Christ. He also sickness, the saint began his final journey under military escort, wrote letters to Syria to bring back the Marcionites into the traveling for three months in the rain and frost. He never arrived Church, and he accomplished this. Preserving the unity of the at his place of exile, for his strength failed him at Comana. Church, the saint would not permit a powerful Gothic military commander, who wanted the emperor to reward his bravery in battle, to open an Arian church at Constantinople. The saint exerted much effort in enhancing the splendor of the church services: he compiled a Liturgy, he introduced antiphonal singing for the all-night Vigil, and he wrote several prayers for the rite of anointing the sick with oil. The saintly hierarch denounced the dissolute morals of people in the capital, especially at the imperial court, irrespective of person. When the empress Eudoxia connived to confiscate the last properties of the widow and children of a disgraced dignitary, the saint rose to their defense. The arrogant empress would not relent, and nursed a grudge against the archpastor. Eudoxia's hatred of the saint blazed forth anew when malefactors told her that the saint apparently had her in mind during his sermon on vain women. A court was convened composed of hierarchs who had been justly condemned by Chrysostom: Theophilus of Alexandria, Bishop Severian of Gabala, who had been banished from the capital because of improprieties, and others. This court of judgment declared St John deposed, and that he be executed for his insult to the empress. The emperor decided on exile instead of execution. An angry crowd gathered at the church, resolved to defend their pastor. In order to avoid a riot, St John submitted to the authorities. That very night there was an earthquake at Constantinople. The terrified Eudoxia urgently requested the emperor to bring the saint back, and promptly sent a letter to the banished pastor, beseeching him to return. Once more, in the capital church, the saint praised the Lord in a short talk, "For All His Ways." The slanderers fled to Alexandria. But after only two months a new denunciation provoked the wrath of Eudoxia. In March 404, an unjust council was convened, decreeing the exile of St John. Upon his removal from the capital, a fire reduced the church of Hagia Sophia and also the Senate building to ashes. Devastating barbarian incursions soon followed, and Eudoxia died in October 404. Even pagans regarded these events as God's At the crypt of St Basiliscus (May 22), St John was comforted by a vision of the martyr, who said, "Despair not, brother John! Tomorrow we shall be together." After receiving the Holy Mysteries, the hierarch fell asleep in the Lord on September 14, 407. His last words were, "Glory to God for all things!" The holy relics of St John Chrysostom were solemnly transferred to Constantinople in the year 438. The disciple of St John, the venerable Isidore of Pelusium (February 4), wrote: "The house of David is grown strong, and the house of Saul enfeebled. He is victor over the storms of life, and has entered into heavenly repose." Although he died on September 14, St John's celebration was transferred to this day because of the Feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross. St John Chrysostom is also celebrated on January 27 and January 30.
The Deception of the Devil & the Power of God: Dominion, Domination & Deliverance.
Please join us for a luncheon to celebrate Deacon Michaels 25th anniversary of ordination as a deacon
Sunday November 20th Following Divine Liturgy
Sunday, November 13 Time: 7:30 PM Viewing Location: www.InstituteofCatholi cCulture.org, click on "LEARNING CENTER" and enter the "Live Broadcast Studio"
To honor this event and to extend appreciation to the Deacon for all his service to St. Joseph Church for over 10 years and to the entire Melkite Eparchy, the parish family is hosting a buffet luncheon after the 10am Divine Liturgy on Sunday, November 20, around 11:45am. We will be serving kibbee, grape leaves, rice, green beans, salad & dessert. Pizza will be available for the kids. We are not selling tickets, but we are asking for a free-will donation at the door to defray the cost of the food. Charlie & Joanna Simon will be our chefs. If you know you will be coming, please contact Betsy Zaydon by return email or phone 383-9433 by Friday, November 18, so that we have an approximate count. Walk-ins welcome. We are sure Deacon Michael will be so pleased to have you join him at Liturgy & Lunch.
Welcome
Gabriel Fitzpatrick Son of Sean and Sophie Fitzpatrick 11/6/2011
from Jerusalem to Jericho, and represents him stabbed by robbers, thrown half-dead on the road, passed by the priest, looked sideways at by the Levite, but pitied by the vilified and excommunicated Samaritan. He did not, like those, pass casually, but provided such things as the man in danger required, such as oil, bandages, a beast of burden, money for the inn-keeper, part given now, and part promised. Which of them was neighbor to him that suffered these things? On his answering, He that showed mercy to him (Luke 10:36-37), He replied, Go, therefore, and do likewise, since love buds into well-doing. In both the Commandments, then, He introduces love; but distinguishes it in order. He assigns to God the first part of love, and allots the second to our neighbor. He has pitied us most of all, we who were all but put to death with many wounds, fears, lusts, passions, pains, deceits, and pleasures by the rulers of darkness? Of these wounds the only physician is Jesus, who cuts out the passions thoroughly by the root. He does not do as the Law does, with bare effects, but applies His ax to the roots of wickedness. He it is that poured wine on our wounded souls that brought the oil, which flows from the compassions of the Father, and gave it abundantly. He it is that produced the bindings of health and salvation that cannot be undone, Faith, Hope, Love. He it is that subjected angels, and principalities, and powers to serve us. They also shall be delivered from the vanity of the world through the revelation of the glory of the sons of God. We are therefore to love Him equally with God. And he who loves Christ Jesus does His will and keeps His Commandments. For not everyone that said to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of My Father (Matthew 7:21). And Why call Me Lord, Lord, and not do the things which I say? (Luke 6:46) And blessed are you who see and hear what neither righteous men nor prophets have seen or heard (Matthew 13:16-17), if you do what I say.
The Master accordingly, when asked, Which is the greatest of the Commandments?, said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul, and with all your strength (Matthew 22:36-38). That no commandment is greater than this, He says, with good reason; it commands us regarding the Greatest God Himself. Being loved by Him beforehand, it is impious for us to regard anything else older or more excellent. The second in order, and not any less than this, He says, is, You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:39); that is, God above yourself. When the lawyer inquired, Who is my neighbor? (Luke 10:29), He did not specify the blood relation, the fellow-citizen, the proselyte, him He then is first who loves Christ; and second, he that had been circumcised, or the man who uses the who loves and cares for those who have believed on same Law. But He introduces one on his way down Him. For whatever is done to a disciple, the Lord
accepts as done to Himself, and reckons the whole as His. Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat (Matthew 25:35 etc). And in another place, He that receives you; receives Me; and he that doesnt receive you, rejects Me (Matthew 10:40, Luke 10:16).
healed? If he is half dead, pour in oil and wine, not wine without oil, oil for comforting and wine for the sting of disinfectant. Place him on your beast, give him over to the host, lay out two denarii for his cure, be a neighbor to him. You cannot be a neighbor unless you have compassion on him; for no one can be called a neighbor unless he has healed, not killed, another. If you wish to be called a neighbor, Christ says to you, Go and do Ambrose of Milan applied the imagery of the likewise (Luke 10:37). wounded man, who was helped by the Samaritan, to those who have lapsed (denied the Faith) under Irenaeus likened the dew on the fleece for Gideon persecution and succumbed to the pleasures and to the Holy Spirit diffusing throughout the world. comforts of this life. In this way, he is wounded and We are the ones who had fallen among thieves that half dead, and he needs both the comfort of the oil the Holy Spirit cares for; we receive the two denarii for our care to make us fruitful and bring an and the discipline or disinfectant of the wine. increase to our Master It is a twofold grace that everyone who believes might, in addition, suffer for the Lord Jesus. He Gideon, foreseeing the gracious gift of God, who believes receives His grace, but he receives a changed his request, and prophesied that there second, if his faith is crowned by suffering. Peter would be dryness upon the fleece of wool (a type of received grace before he suffered, but when he the people), on which alone at first there had been suffered he received a second gift. And many who dew (Judges 6:36-40). This indicates that those have not had the grace to suffer for Christ have people should no longer have the Holy Spirit from God, as Isaiah said, I will also command the nevertheless had the grace of believing on Him. clouds, that they rain no rain upon it (Isaiah 5:6). Therefore, everyone that believes in Him should But that the dew, which is the Spirit of God, who not perish (John 3:15-16). Let no one, whatever his descended upon the Lord, should be diffused condition, fear that he will perish, even after a fall. throughout the earth. This is the spirit of wisdom It may come to pass that the Good Samaritan may and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, find someone going down from Jerusalem to the spirit of knowledge and piety, the spirit of the Jericho, that is, falling back from the martyrs fear of God (Isaiah 11:2). This Spirit He conferred conflict to the pleasures of this life and the comforts on the Church, sending the Comforter from heaven of the world. We may be wounded by robbers, that throughout the entire world. The Lord also told us is, by persecutors, and left half dead. That Good that the devil, like lightning, was thrown down Samaritan, Who is the Guardian of our souls -- for from heaven. We need the dew of God, that we the word Samaritan means Guardian -- wont pass might not be consumed by fire, nor rendered him by, but tend and heal him. unfruitful. Where we have an accuser, there we He doesnt pass him by, because He sees in him need an Advocate, the Lord commending to the some signs of life, so that there is hope that he may Holy Spirit His own man, who had fallen among recover. Doesnt it seem to you that he who has thieves. He Himself had compassion, and bound up fallen is half alive if faith sustains any breath of his wounds, giving two royal denarii. We, receiving life? For he is dead who completely casts God out by the Spirit the image and superscription of the of his heart. He who does not completely cast Him Father and the Son, might cause the denarius out, but under pressure from torments has denied entrusted to us to be fruitful, counting out the Him for a time, is half dead. If he is dead, you increase to the Lord. cannot ask him to repent, seeing he cannot be
Prayer Requests
Rev. Father Philip Azoon Rev. Deacon John Karam Rev. Seraphim Michalenko Rev. Basil Samra Rev. Peter Boutros Rev. Deacon Bryan McNiel Rev. Deacon Irenaeus Dionne
Parish Calendar
November 20 Parish celebration in honor of Deacon Michaels 25th Anniversary of Ordination following Divine Liturgy 21 Divine Liturgy for the Feast of the Presentation in the Temple
Marie Abda Marie Abda Marie Barron Joseph Barron Mary Sue Betress Chris Carey Nikki Boudreaux Dr. Frances Colie John Colie Ann Coury
Margaret Dillenburg Mark Dillman Karen Kane Niko Mayashairo Mary McNeilly Marie Patchoski Joanna Simon William Simon Dr. Thomas Zaydon
All those Serving in our Armed Forces The Christian Community in the Middle East