the Orthodox Church 146 Third Avenue, Rankin, PA 15104 Pastor: Very Reverend Nicholas Ferencz, PhD Cantor: Professor Jerry Jumba Parish President : Carole Bushak

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever! Slava Isusu Christu! Slava vo v’iki!

Rectory Phone: 412 271-2725. E-mail: [email protected] Hall Phone: 412-294-7952 WEB: www.stmichaelsrankin.org

OCTOBER 4, 2020 SUNDAY AFTER THE FEAST OF THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY AND LIFE-GIVING CROSS Sun., Oct. 4 17th Sunday after Pentecost. Sunday after and the last day of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross 9:00 AM Divine Liturgy Mon., Oct. 5 Prophet . Martyred Bishop Phocas of Sinope 6:30 PM Parish Council Regular Monthly Meeting Note the time change! Sun., Oct. 11 18th Sunday after Pentecost. 1st Sunday of Luke. Monk Chariton the Confessor. Martyr Wenceslaus, Prince of Moravia 9:00 AM Divine Liturgy Panachida: October Perpetuals: 10/7 Theodore and Mary Zubaly. 10/8 Ralph Crouse. 10/10 Anna Stovar. 10/12 Nicholas Mesko. 10/17 John & Mary Dobrich. 10/21 Michael and Mary Fitz. 10/30 Norma Gianutsos. Wed., Oct. 14 Feast of the Protection of Holy Mary 8:30 AM Divine Liturgy Holy Mystery of Confession: I will be available for Confessions after the Divine Liturgy, when the church is more private. Or, you can make an appointment and we will arrange an appropriate time. Please just contact me. PEOPLE STUFF Prayer List: Deceased: George Nedelkov. Living: Father George Livanos. Father Patrick. Mother Christophora and the nuns of Holy Transfiguration Monastery. Dana Andrade. Gloria Andrade. Gregory Michael Aurilio. Georgia B. Chastity and Jeff Bache. Brandon. Walter Bolbat. Donald Bodnar. Jaime Budesa. Barbara Chappie. Barbara and Steve Bournius. Nicholas Burkhart. Rebecca, & Bradley Cozad. Mary Ann Crouse. Martha Danchak. Nicholas Duranko. George & Margaret Dorogy. Breanne Glass. Dorothy Glass. Eddie Gombos. Jennifer Hartrick. Hlavac. George Hrabchak. Raymond Hrabchak. Shirley Hrubic. Zhensan Huang. Kevin and Karen Ianni. Gary Ingelido. Andrea Kerkentzes. Glenn Lesko. Jeanne Lesko. Bobby Malackany. Marina. Joan Martell. Sharon Mascilak. Bill and Barbara McCauley. Ed McCreanor. Jake McLaughlin. Zoe Mehalik. Helen Mihalik. Teresa Onuska. Frank Palmieri. Diane Phillips. Millie Phillips. Robert Petro. Anna Senich. Bernice Siudak. Terry Slezak. Milton and Thelma Supak. Diana Terezis. Bobby and Dee Triffanoff. Josh Walendziewicz. Paul & Valerie Yednak. Edward Yoon. Jim Zajac. Prosphora Bakers: Trudy Trifanoff. Delores Cubakovic and their intentions. Also: Chase Vlad, Gianna Vlad, Laura, Sharita, all First-Responders, and all who are working in the Health and Medical Fields during this time of crisis.

Page 1 of 4 May God bless all those born in October! 10/1 Millie Phillips. 10/15 Andrea Kerkentzes. 10/19 Matt Fry (Jr). Our Gifts to God and our Church 10/22 Martha Danchak. 10/24 Mary Ann Hlavac & Ashley September 27, 2020 Cole. 10/31 Peggy Trifanoff. Na mnohaja i blahaja l’ita! Attendance 27 Communions 12 May God bless all those who were married in October! Collections 10/11 Matt and Kimberly Fry. 10/20 Christine & Ken Sutton. Monthly 10/26 George and Margaret Dorogy. Many, blessed years! Na Sunday 595.00 mnohaja i blahaja l’ita! All Votive Candles 155.00 F(E)ASTING Building Major Repairs 100.00 Feast of the Protection of Holy Mary Theotokos is Diocesan Membership 20.00 Wednesday, October 14. Divine Liturgy at 8:30 AM. Sandwiches for Homeless 45.00 Total Offerings: 915.00 PARISH STUFF Due Today! Hoagie Sale! We are holding a “Not Bazaar” Update: Building and Repairs Donations Hoagie Sale! Famous Triangle Bar Hoagies! All Individually which are available for upcoming repairs to Wrapped! 2 Different 8" hoagies to choose from: Italian or date are $4512! God bless your generosity! Turkey. Can be ordered with or without onions! • $7.00 Each! Italian or Turkey • Orders and money in by Sunday, October 4! • PICKUP on Thursday, October 8, 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm in church hall. • Pre-order by contacting Jeanne Zajac: 412-877-0310 or [email protected]. • Questions? Ask Carole! Carole Bushak 412-351-1521. • Order forms are available in the church hall! Final Orders due Today! New! Parish Council meets for its regular monthly meeting tomorrow, October 5. Please remember we have changed the time to 6:30PM! Reminder! Sandwiches For the Homeless: A number of people have expressed interest in continuing to participate in this valuable program sponsored by the Pittsburgh Orthodox Clergy Brotherhood. Our next date to provide 240 lunches for those in dire need is Saturday, November 14! Since we are not having a meal for the Parish Feast Day dinner on November 15 because of Covid, we thought it would be meaningful to provide a meal for those who really need it. Each lunch consists of 2 Sandwiches, a fruit serving, cookies or chips, and water. So, we are looking for help in two ways: (1) You may want to donate something toward the lunches. We already have bread, cheese and the fruit cup donated. We need donations toward the sandwich meat, chips/cookies and the water. If you would like to donate, you can use one of the generic envelopes in the vestibule and just write “Sandwiches” on it, or give your donation to Carole Bushak. (2) We are looking for volunteers to help make the lunches on Friday evening, Nov. 13. We could use about 10 people to make the lunches. Also, we need one or two people to drive the lunches up to the distribution place (Neighborhood Resilience Program in the lower Hill District). If you would like to participate in any of this, please let Carole know so that she can begin to organize our time on Friday and Saturday. Thanks in advance for your participation in this valuable cause! Update! Fall Lottery Gift Basket! Letters with a sample number of tickets are now being mailed out. If you run out, please contact Carole Bushak at 412-351-1521. Remember! • Drawing Sunday, November 15, after the Divine Liturgy

Page 2 of 4 • $5.00 per chance • Guaranteed prize of at least $400 lottery tickets. Building and Repairs Donations which are available for upcoming repairs to date are $4512! PROTECTION OF HOLY MARY THEOTOKOS October 1/14. From The Menologion [Editor’s note: I know that I am jumping the gun here, since the Feast is not until next week, but given the state of the world today, I cannot think of a better time to reflect on the protection, help and hope that we receive from our holy Mother Mary Theotokos. Perhaps this is a good time to remember that she ALWAYS is with us!] The Protection (Pokrov) of the Most Holy Mother of God: "The today stands forth within the Church, and with the choirs of the invisibly for us prays to God: angels with hierarchs make reverence, and apostles with prophets sing forth: for us the Birthgiver of God prays to the Pre-eternal God" – this miraculous appearance of the Mother of God occurred in the mid– 10th Century at Constantinople, in the Blakhernae church where there was preserved the Robe of the Mother of God, Her Head-Veil (mathoria) and part of the Belt-Sash, transferred from Palestine in the 5th Century. On Sunday, 1 October, during the time of the all-night vigil, when the church was overflowing with those at prayer, the Fool-for-Christ Saint Andrew (Comm. 2 October) at the fourth hour of the night lifted up his eyes towards the heavens, and beheld coming through the air our Most Holy Lady Mother of God resplendent with an Heavenly light and surrounded by an assembly of the Saints. The holy Baptist of the Lord John and the holy Apostle John the Theologian accompanied the Queen of Heaven. On bended knee the Most Holy Virgin began with tears to pray for Christians and for a long time was at prayer. Then, coming near the Throne of God, She continued Her prayer. Having completed it, She then took from Her head the veil and spread it over the people praying in church, protecting them from enemies both visible and invisible. The Most Holy Lady Mother of God was resplendent with Heavenly glory, and the protecting veil in Her hands gleamed "more than the rays of the sun". Saint Andrew gazed with trembling at the miraculous vision and he asked his Blessed Epiphanios standing alongside him: "Do you see, brother, the Queen and Lady, praying for all the world?" Epiphanios answered: "I do see, holy father, and I am in awe". The Ever-Blessed Mother of God implored the Lord Jesus Christ to accept the prayers of all the people, calling on His Most Holy Name and asking fervently for His help: "O Heavenly King,” said in prayer the Immaculate Queen standing spiritually amidst the Angels, “accept every person, that prays to You and calls on My Name for help. Let them not go empty away unheard from before My Face."

Page 3 of 4 Saints Andrew and Epiphanios, allowed to behold the Mother of God at prayer, for a long time gazed at the protecting veil spread over the people and the lightning like flashes in glory to the Lord; as long as the Most Holy Mother of God was there, so likewise was the protecting veil visible; but with Her departure it likewise became invisible, and though having taken it with Her, She left behind the grace of having been there. At the Blakhernae church was preserved the memory of the miraculous appearance of the Mother of God. In the 14th Century, the Russian pilgrim and clerk Aleksandr saw within the church an of the Most Holy Mother of God praying for the world, and written (painted), which included a depiction of Saint Andrew in contemplation of Her. But the Greek Church does not know this feast. [Translator’s note: The Greek Church does not historically celebrate this feast. Our Russian source is here reticent concerning the historical circumstances occasioning the necessary protective intercession of the Mother of God. It reflects a great irony, that for the Russians rather than for the Greeks this should be an important feast, since it celebrates the Divine destruction by a storm of a large pagan-Russian fleet under Askold and Dir which threatened Constan-tinople itself, sometime in the years 864-867. The exact date is disputed; the Russian historian Vasiliev says that it occurred on 18 June 860. The Russian Primary Chronicle of Saint Nestor notes this miraculous deliverance following the all-night vigil and the dipping of the garment of the Mother of God into the waters of the sea at the Blakhernae church, but without mention of Saints Andrew and Epiphanios and their vision of the Mother of God at prayer. These latter elements, and the beginnings of the celebrating of the feast of Pokrov, seem to postdate Saint Nestor and the Chronicle. A further historical complication might be noted under the 2 October entry for Saint Andrew -- that of his demise in the year 936. Either this year of death might not be quite reliable, or that he survived into quite extreme old age after the vision of his youth, or that his vision involved some historically later pagan-Russian raid which met with the same fate. The below suggestion likewise that the Saint Andrew of the vision was a Slav (or a Skyth per other sources, such as S. V. Bulgakov) is a nice touch, but not necessarily chauvinism: the extent of historical South Slavic penetration and re-population into Greece is the stuff of scholarly disputes]. In the Prologue, a Russian book of the 12th Century, is contained a description about the establishing of the special Feastday in honour of this event: "For lo, when we heard, we realised, how wondrous and merciful was the vision and moreover an expectation and intercession on our behalf, without celebration. . .and it transpired, that your holy Pokrov-Protection should not remain without festal-celebration, O Ever-Blessed One!". So, in the festal celebration of the Divine-services to the Pokrov-Protection of the Mother of God, the Slavic Church intones: "With the choirs of the Angels, O Sovereign Lady, with and glorious prophets, with the First-Ranked Apostles and with the Priest–Martyrs and Sainted-hierarchs pray for us sinners, glorifying the feast of your Protection in the Russian Land". And moreover, it would seem that Saint Andrew, contemplating the miraculous vision, was a Slav, taken captive and at Constantinople given over into slavery to the local inhabitant named Theognost. Churches in honour of the Pokrov-Protection of the Mother of God appeared in Russia and other Slavic countries in the 12th Century. Widely known for its architectural merit is the temple of the Pokrov at Nerla, which was built in the year 1165 by holy Prince Andrei Bogoliubsky. Through the efforts of this holy prince was also established in the Russian Church the feast itself, the Pokrov-Protection of the Mother of God, in about the year 1164. At Novgorod in the 12th Century there existed a monastery of the Pokrov of the Most Holy Mother of God (the so-called Zverinsk monastery); at Moscow also under tsar Ivan the Terrible was built the cathedral of the Pokrov of the Mother of God at the church of the Holy Trinity (known as the church of Saint Basil the Great). On the feast of the Pokrov-Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God we implore the defense and assist of the Queen of Heaven: "Remember us in your prayers, O Lady Virgin Mother of God, that we perish not by the increase of our sins. Protect us from every evil and from grievous woes; for on You we hope, and venerating the feast of your Pokrov, You do we magnify".

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