ST. N ICHOLAS WEEKLY BULLETIN Oober 2, 2016 This Week’s News
THE PARISH COUNCIL will hold its regular monthly meeting tomorrow, Monday, October 3rd at 6:30 pm . Parish Council Members, please let George Demake know if you are unable to attend. The Nineteen Sunday after Pentecost THANKS TO THE ST ART ON THE Apostolic Rding: 2 Corinians 11:31-12:9 • Gospel: Luke 6:31-36 STREET CREW! starting with Deb (The Sermon on e Mount — Love of our Enemies) Sedares who headed-up our effort, the Tone 6 • Mans Gospel 4 bakers who worked over these past months, the people who helped set-up, hour area, hallway or going to the CONGRATULATIONS to Dana and transport, and clean-up, and those who kitchen. Will Tsoules on the birth of their son staffed our table. God bless each and Evangelos Michael Tsoules, born on THANKS TO THE FOOD PANTRY everyone of you! Sunday, September 25th, weighing in at VOLUNTEERS for working the Ortho - 5lbs 14 oz. Congratulations also the the RELIGIOUS EDUCATION CLASSES dox Food Center on behalf of our parish proud grandparents Evans and Irene are in session. If you have not registered yesterday. Our regular commitment is Tsoules. MANY YEARS TO ALL ! your child, and would like to do so, you the first Saturday of the month from may complete a registration form here 9am to noon. About 4 people are A 40 -DAY MEMORIAL is observed at Church. If anyone would like more needed. If you can help in this worth - today for the servant of God Craig speak with Valarie Sta - information, while ministry, please speak with Lisa Belba. May the Lord rest is soul among moulis or Preoteasa Maria. Mielnicki or Nicole Apostola. Our next the just! As a reminder, quiet space to hold Saturday commitment is November 5th. Religious Ed classes is limited. It takes TODAY’S COFFEE HOUR is spon - very little to disrupt a class of children OUR NEXT MUSTARD SEED MEAL is sored in memory of Craig Belba by his from lessons their teachers have pre - Friday, October 14. We’ll need help family. pared. We ask for your cooperation cooking and serving. Prep during the time aer communion, and help needed (3 persons), 6pm Dates to Remember during the sermon and coffee-hour. ursday. Prep help needed (2 Sat, Oct 1 Staff Orthodox Food Pantry Please remain in the Church and do not persons), noon Friday. Serving Mon, Oct 3 Parish Council Meeting, 6:30pm disrupt classes by walking in the coffee help needed (5 persons), urs, Oct 6 Holy Trinity Wine/Food Fest Fri, Oct 14 Mustard Seed Meal, 5pm Greete Tm 3: 5:30pm Friday. We are also Evans Tsoules and Tom Fitzpatrick Sat, Nov 5 Staff Orthodox Food Pantry looking for donors to cover Sat, Nov 19 Holiday Bake Sale, Coffee Hour Cln-up Crew A: the cost of the meal—around Luncheon & Marketplace MargariTE Landry , $400.00 for the 200 meals we Sun, Nov 20 Shrewsbury Ecu anksgiving Service ChriinE MaErjohn usually serve. If you’d like to Congregational Church, 7:00pm All Altar Serve Invited help, please talk to Fr. Nick. Sun, Dec 4 Feastday Celebration
34 Gold Street, Shrewsbury, MA 01545-6238 Voice: 508.845.0088 Fax: 508.845.8850 e-mail: [email protected] web: www.StNicholasChurch.org A Parish of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in the Americas A Prayer of Fr. Laurence Namedays LET US PRAy TO THE LORD , October 7 e Holy Martyr Sergius in Syria he demons that abuse us at their Sergis Eleheriou Twhim are beyond counting, O God! ey continue to nag at us, for - October 18 ever trying to trip us up by wearing e Holy Apostle and down our resistance more and more, Evangelist Luke and we must confess that frequently Fr. Luke Veronis they succeed. But we acknowledge October 20 our share of guilt, Lord, and our e Great-martyr Artemius wrongdoing fills us with dismay. of Antioch erefore, come quickly to our aid Artemie Gavala Saint Romanos e Melodist and reinforce our perseverance. Artemis Gouvelis Oober 1st For you are good and full of love for us, O God, and we give you glory, aint Romanos the Melodist was Holy Trini News Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: now born in the fih century in the Syr - S and forever, and unto ages of ages. HOLY TRINITY’S 10 TH ANNIVERSARY ian city of Emesa of Jewish parents. Amen. ANNUAL FOOD AND WINE FEST ON OCTO - Aer moving to Constantinople, he be - bER 6TH , 5:30-8:30pm at St. Spyridon came a church sacristan in the temple of Hagia Sophia. e monk spent his incorporated into the all-night Vigil at Cathedral. Celebratory Champagne and nights alone at prayer in a field or in the his places of residence (In Greek, Sparkling Wine Tasting & Seminar at Blachernae church beyond the city. “oikos”). 5:45pm! Live Music, Raffle Prizes, Great For his zealous service St Romanos St Romanos was not a talented Food! you don’t want to miss it! For was ordained as a deacon and became a reader or singer. Once, on the eve of the tickets call Irene Tsoules at 774-239-9238 Nativity of Christ, he read the kathisma teacher of song. Until his death, which occurred about the year 556, the hi - or Eleanor Sedares at 508-753-3106 verses. He read so poorly that another erodeacon Romanos the Melodist com - ‘Like’ on Facebook, “Annual Food and reader had to take his place. e clergy posed nearly a thousand hymns, many ridiculed Romanos, which devastated Wine Fest.” of which are still used by Christians to him. glorify the Lord. About eighty survive. Holy Trinity Nursing & Rehabilitation On the day of the Nativity, the Center has the following EMPLOY - Mother of God appeared to the grief- MENT OPPORTUNITIES: CNA's, stricken youth in a vision while he was praying before her Kyriotissa icon. She RN's and Dietary Aides. Please contact gave him a scroll and commanded him Michelle Williamson, Dir. of Human to eat it. us was he given the gi of Resources at: 508-852-1000 or e-mail: understanding, composition, and [email protected]. hymnography. at evening at the all-night Vigil St Communi News Romanos sang, in a wondrous voice, his NOTRE DAME ACADEMY is holding an first Kontakion: “Today the Virgin gives open house on ursday, Oct 6th at birth to the Transcendent One...” All the 7:00 pm for prospective students hymns of St Romanos became known as kontakia, in reference to the Virgin’s (young women grades 9-12). For info: scroll. St Romanus was also the first to www.nda-worc.org, or call: 508-757- write in the form of the Oikos, which he 6200 x229. My Power is Made Perfe in Wkness he Epistle lesson this week, the tells you how great they are?) rather, he ing on their own merit, not because of Tnineteenth aer Pentecost, is taken reminds them of how much he has en - who is telling them the story. It is God’s from St. Paul’s Second Letter to the dured for them and for the sake of the truth—the truth of who and what Jesus Corinthians (11:31-12:9). In it St. Paul de - Gospel. He is so disappointed in their the Christ is—that matters. Neverthe - scribes a vision of God that he had at the lack of trust in him that he feels the need less, he says, “ough if I wish to boast, very outset of his Apostleship, and the to swear an oath: “e God and Father I shall not be a fool, for I shall be speak - profound effect it had on him. He also of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed for ing the truth. But I refrain from it, so gives us, using the example of his own ever, knows that I do not lie.” (v. 11:31) that no one may think more of me than life, the great mystical paradox — that And then he begins to tell them a story he sees in me or hears from me.” (v. 6) God’s power is revealed to the world, he has told no one else. en he tells us how God has tem - not through our strengths, but through “At Damascus, the governor under pered his ‘vision’: “And to keep me from our weaknesses. King Aretas guarded the city of Damas - being too elated by the abundance of ese Letters of St. Paul to the cus in order to seize me, but I was let revelations, a thorn was given me in the Corinthians present us with something down in a basket through a window in flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass of a conundrum. As I said when com - the wall, and escaped his hands.” (v. 32- me, to keep me from being too elated. menting on First Corinthians, all we 33) is part they already knew, but then ree times I besought the Lord about have are St. Paul’s responses; we do not he begins to speak of the vision he had. have what the Corinthians might have “I must boast; there is nothing to be this, that it should leave me.” (v. 7-8) been writing back, either individually or gained by it, but I will go on to visions ere are three things in these two collectively. Some passages seem to be - and revelations of the Lord. I know a verses that we should note. First, St. Paul long to a “third” letter that St. Paul refers man in Christ who fourteen years ago makes it clear that the experience de - to in the two texts that we have. In was caught up to the third heaven— scribed above was not the only revela - places in both letters the tone seems to whether in the body or out of the body tion he had. He speaks of “the shi erratically indicating that these sec - I do not know, God knows. And I know abundance of revelations.” Second, God tions might have been “pasted” into that this man was caught up into Para - tempers Paul’s ecstasy with real obsta - what we currently have. Without bela - dise—whether in the body or out of the cles—“a thorn in the flesh.” Some think boring this point, in both First and Sec - body I do not know, God knows—and that this was an actual body aliment; St. ond Corinthians St. Paul feels that the he heard things that cannot be told, John Chrysostom thinks it was his per - authenticity of his Apostleship is being which man may not utter.” (v. 12:1-4) secutors both inside and outside of the attacked. In the passage we read today, Over the centuries there has been Church. Nevertheless, he saw this as the as well as in the verses that precede and some speculation about the kind of ex - way God was continuing to keep him follow it, St. Paul decides to address this perience that St. Paul had. What we can humble. And third, that aer having issue directly in order to defend his say for certain is that no one really prayed multiple times for it to be lied ministry. knows. Even St. Paul couldn’t describe from him, he reconciled himself to the As we begin reading the passage, it; words failed him. He had a vision of deeper spiritual reality. He heard and the first thing that we should notice is God that leaves the person receiving it understood God’s word: “My grace is the change in the personal pronoun. St. entirely speechless. For him it was so sufficient for you, for my power is made much an experience of the “Other” that Paul almost never uses “I” when writing perfect in weakness.” (v. 9) to the Churches. Rather, he uses “we,” in he had no reference points whatsoever. We need to truly mediate on St. order to impress on them that this is not He is telling the Corinthians and us that Paul’s words: “I will all the more gladly a personal understanding of the Gospel, this experience of God is true evidence boast of my weaknesses, that the power but one accepted by all Christian believ - of his Apostleship. e Church, simply of Christ may rest upon me.” (v. 9) So ers. In this section he speaks in the first put, believed him. oen we think that our own resource - person singular. If we sense the shi in Notice how he relates the ecstatic language, certainly the original readers experience in the “third” person. He fulness, our own zeal, our own intellect, of his words did as well. doesn’t want it to appear as though he is will prove God’s truth. e reality is that e second thing that he does is to bragging. He tells them: “On behalf of God’s truth becomes clear to others speak of his weaknesses, of his suffer - this man I will boast, but on my own be - when we don’t stand in the way. ings. He doesn’t point out his accom - half I will not boast, except of my weak - plishments (this is never very effective nesses.” (v. 5) He wants the Corinthians Fr. Nichos Aposto anyway; do you believe a person who and us to believe the words he is speak -
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