St. Elias Melkite Catholic Church Serving San Jose Valley & Bay Area, CA
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St. Elias Melkite Catholic Church Serving San Jose Valley & Bay Area, CA th Church Information Sunday, July 24 2016 14263 Mulberry Dr. 10th Sunday After Pentecost – Healing of the Epileptic Boy Los Gatos, CA 95032 st (408) 785-1212 Troparion of the Resurrection (1 Tone) [email protected] After the stone was sealed by the Jews, and the while the soldiers were watching Your spotless steliasmelkite.org body, You rose, O Savior, on the third day, bestowing life to the world. Wherefore, the heavenly Mailing Address powers cried out to you, O Giver of life: “Glory to Your resurrection, O Christ! Glory to Your P.O. Box 26274 kingdom! Glory to Your economy, O You who alone are the lover of mankind!” San Jose, CA 95159 Epistle 1 Cor 4:9-16 Pastor BRETHREN, I think God has set forth us the apostles last of all, as men doomed to death, so that Rev. Sebastian Carnazzo we would become a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ, Phone: (831) 229-8350 [email protected] but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, but we are without honor! To this very hour, we hunger and thirst, and we are naked and buffeted and have __________________________ no fixed home. And we labor, working with our own hands. We are reviled and we bless, we are Sunday Service Time persecuted and we bear with it, we are maligned and we console; we have become as the refuse Divine Liturgy: 11:00 am of this world, the scum of all until this present time. I write these things, not to put you to (Confession beforehand) shame, but to admonish you as my dearest children. For although you have ten thousand tutors Wednesday, July 27th in Christ, you have not many fathers. Therefore, I beg you, be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. Online Bible Study @ 8:00pm Gospel Matthew 5:14-19 __________________________ At that time a man approached Jesus, and threw himself on his knees before him, saying, “Lord, have pity on my son, for he is a lunatic, and suffers severely; for often he falls into the fire, and Coffee Socials and Qurban often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.” Jesus This Sunday, July 24th answered and said, “O unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How Qurban: Natalia/Agatha Carnazzo long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus rebuked him; and the devil went out Coffee Social: Holly Handal of him, and from that moment the boy was cured. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and E Next Sunday, July 31st asked, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith; for amen I Qurban: Holly Handal say to you, if you have faith like a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here,’ Coffee Social: St. Elias Picnic and it will move. And nothing will be impossible to you. But this kind can only be cast out by prayer __________________________ and fasting.” Now while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill him: and on the third day he will Please pray for: The Orthodox Servants of God rise again.” Fr. Brian Austin FROM THE DIOCESE: THE TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST – “IMMOLATED FOR LOVE OF CHRIST” Natalia & Agatha Carnazzo The Handal Family A MONG THE MANY MARTYR S commemorated in the Byzantine Churches, some are given the added Sandra Carnazzo designation Great (or Megalo-) Martyr. What makes one martyr “great” in contrast to the others? The Hynes Family In general, the term “Great Martyr” refers to the leading martyrs who suffered during the Age of The Kalil Family The Shea Family Roman Persecutions, before the Edict of Milan (313) officially ended the persecution of Christians The Taurke Family Kamal & Eugenie Neimat in the Roman Empire. They were widely revered for their courageous witness in the face of severe torments and were widely venerated in Churches throughout the empire. Among these Great The Orthodox Servants Asleep in the Lord Martyrs are the soldier-saints George (April 2), Dimitrios (October 26), Theodore the Commander Sheila Carnazzo (February 8), Theodore the Recruit (February 17), Phanourios of Rhodes (August 27) and Fouad & Renee Kalil Procopios of Scythopolis (July 7). As agents of the Roman Empire, soldiers were subjected to Ernest & Marion Young Robert & Alice Robertson particularly brutal tortures when they refused to honor the Roman gods. There are a number of Sebastiano & Alfina Carnazzo women martyrs who have been given this title as well. In societies where women were expected __________________________ If you have names you would to obey men without question, those women who preferred to follow Christ rather than their like added to the list of husband, father, or ruler were singled out for torture with particular zeal, often by members of commemorations, please send to [email protected] their own families. Saints Catherine of Alexandria, Barbara, Euphemia, Irene, and Paraskevi, as well as St Christina of Tyre, are among the women from this era revered as Great Martyr in the Byzantine Churches. Where Is Tyre? A leading maritime and mercantile center since Phoenician times, Tyre was also known for developing a particularly precious dye, Tyrian purple, which was often reserved for the use of the aristocracy. Under Rome since 64 BC, Tyre was a semi-independent federated city, a sign of its prominence in the region. There have been Christians in Tyre since the time of Christ Himself who healed the daughter of a woman whom Mark calls “a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth” (Mk 7:24). St Paul passed through the city on his way back to Jerusalem and, “Finding disciples, we stayed there seven days” (Acts 21:4). The principal religious center of the city in Roman days, however, was the temple of Heracles, the son of Zeus, identified as “Tyrian Heracles.” Scholars today consider this god to be a hellenized version of the even older Phoenician deity, Melkart, the Ba’al Sur, (Lord of Tyre), worshipped there for a thousand years before Rome ruled the area. A Lebanese city of some 125,000 today, Tyre is the proto-throne of the Melkite patriarchate. Its archbishop is second in rank to the Patriarch of Antioch. St. Christina of Tyre We do not know precisely when St Christina was born, only that she lived and died in the middle of the third century. Neither do we know her given name – the name “Christina” (little Christ or anointed one) was given by believers who witnessed her martyrdom. She was the daughter of a high ranking pagan official – some say he was the “urban prefect” or governor of the city. Others mistakenly identify him with Urbanus, the governor of the Palestine and Phoenicia who was a fierce persecutor of Christians at the beginning of the fourth century. According to the traditional Life of this saint, the child blossomed into a beautiful young woman who had many men seeking her hand. Her father kept her secluded with several maidservant-companions because he had other plans for her: he wanted her to serve as a priestess, presumably in the temple of Tyrian Heracles. In Greek mythology Herakles had intercourse in a single night with the fifty daughters of Thestios, except for one who refused to have him. Herakles, thinking that he had been insulted, condemned her to remain a virgin all her life, serving him as his priest. Thus the priestess in the temple of Heracles was always a life-long virgin. Despite her father’s plans, Christina learned about the Christian faith in the one true God. Some versions of her life say that she was taught by an angel, others by the Holy Spirit Himself. All agree that her journey to faith began through her meditations on the beauty of creation. Her father had placed idols of Roman gods in her quarters. Christina came to believe that no idol could have created the universe since they themselves were the work of human hands. She destroyed the idols and prayed that the true God might reveal Himself to her.When her father learned that she was not offering sacrifices to the Roman gods he tried to persuade her to do so, lest she anger them and bring down their wrath on the family. When his words failed to change Christina’s mind her father resorted to beating her into submission. When that did not succeed either, he had her imprisoned and tortured further, but Christina would not relent. Christina’s mother pleaded with her to obey her father for the family’s sake but the girl was adamant. As we pray in the service of this feast, “You spurned your impious father; and loving the Jerusalem on high as your mother, you rejected your mother's overweening love…” Christina remained in prison during the rule of two successive prefects, Zienus and Julian. Finally she died from a volley of arrows shot by the governor’s troops. St Christina’s Relics St Christina’s remains were buried by an uncle. Devotion to her spread beyond Tyre and at an unknown date her relics were brought from Tyre to Constantinople and enshrined in a church dedicated to her near the imperial palace. This church’s throne feast was kept on July 24, the date observed in honor of this saint both in Eastern and Western Churches.