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+ p^fkqp=mbqbR=^ka=m^ri=lRqelalu=`erR`e= A Parish of the Orthodox in America 305 Main Road, Herkimer, New York, 13350 • 315-866-3272 Archpriest John Udics, Rector • e-mail: [email protected] Demetrios Richards • e-mail: [email protected] Parish Web Page: www.cnyorthodoxchurch.org

Before Thy Cross, we bow down in worship, O Master

September 20, 2015 16th Sunday after 9:30 am September 26 Saturday Great Vespers 4:00 pm September 27 17th Sunday after Pentecost Divine Liturgy 9:30 am

This week’s Bulletin is donated for the health of Aaron Buttino at the request of Sonia Buttino. Saints of the Day: Great-martyr Eustathius (Eustace) Placidas, his wife Martyr Theopistes, and their children Martyrs Agapius and Theopistus, of Rome (118). Holy Martyr and Confessor Michael and his councilor Theodore, Wonderworkers of Chernigov (1245). New Hieromartyr Anatole (Kamensky), Archbishop of Irkutsk (1925). New Hieromartyrs Proests Theoktist and Alexander (1937). Venerable Oleg, Prince of Briansk (1285). Synaxis of All Saints of Briansk. Martyr John the Confessor of Egypt, beheaded in Palestine, and with him 40 Martyrs (310). New Martyr Hilarion of Crete (Mount Athos) (1804). Venerable Theodore and Euprepius and two named Anastasius, Confessors and Disciples of Saint (7 c.). Martyrs Artemidorus and Thalos. Saint Meletius of Crete. Ven, Kyr John of Crete. Saint Eustathius, Abp of Thessalonica (1194)

Please remember in your prayers: Suffering Christians of Egypt, Syria, the Middle East and Ukraine. Bishop BOULOS and Bishop YOHANNA, of Aleppo. Archimandrites Athanasy, Nectarios, Luke, Pachomy. Archpriests Alvian, Eugene, Leonid, John, Jason, John, Vincent. Priests Jacobus, Leonid, Andrew. Mark, Demetrios, Philip. Mother Victoria. Mothers Raphaela, Michaela, Katherine, Anna. Sabira. Monk Victor, Matushka Joanna, Mary, Valentina, Dimitri, Nina, Daniel, Helen, Catherine, Anna, Peter, Helen, Michael, Stephanie, Zara, Nolan, Emelie, Michael, Ed, Nettie, Anita, Maria, Michael, John, Linda, James, Nancy, Susan, Daniel, Aaron, Nicole, Ashley, Mark, Jennifer, Nina, Nadine, Michael, Anna, , Marianna, Isaiah, Jamie, Albert, Kevin, Robert, Robert, Andrew, Betty, David, Warren.

God Grant Many Years! Prayers for the health of Alex Chlus were offered at Liturgy and Moleben at the request of his family. God Grant Many Years! Prayers for the health of Thomas McCloghry were offered at Liturgy and Moleben at the request of Father John Udics. . Prayers for the repose of Olga Prawlocki were offered today at Liturgy and Litiya at the request of Steve and Joanne Keblish. Memory Eternal. Prayers for the repose of John and Ann Garbera were offered today at Liturgy and Litiya at the request of Dan Garbera Family. Memory Eternal. Prayers for the repose of Nicholas and Vera Keblish were offered today at Liturgy and Litiya at the request of Nicholas and Margaret Keblish. Memory Eternal. Prayers for the repose of Archbishop DIMITRI (Royster) were offered today at Liturgy and Litiya at the request of Father John Udics. Memory Eternal. Prayers for the repose of Michael and Elizabeth Spytko were offered today at Liturgy and Litiya at the request of Natalie Spytko. Memory Eternal. Prayers for the repose of John and Ethel Gala, David Sterzin and Steve Bius were offered today at Liturgy and Litiya at the request of the "Memory Eternal Requiem Service Fund."

Before Thy Cross, we bow down in worship! By Father S. Kostoff “Then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven….“ [Matthew 24:30]. Contemporary scholars debate the meaning of the word “sign” in the words of Christ found in the above passage that describes, in highly symbolic terms, His parousia or return in glory. This sign, whatever it may be, will be impossible to miss or misinterpret. It will overwhelm those who are present to observe it and stand in its shadow, so to speak. Yet, for many of the – including Saint - the word “sign” in this passage refers to the cross of the Savior. Commenting on this passage as found in the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, Saint John writes, “The cross will be brighter than the sun. The sun will be darkened and hide itself. The sun will appear at times when it would not normally appear…. For having the cross as the greatest plea, the Son of man thus comes to that judgment seat, showing not only His wounds but also the reproach of His death” [The Gospel of Matthew, Homily 76.3]. The Church Fathers were in direct continuity with the New Testament in their emphasis on the cross in the divine . There was no conceivable way to legitimately underemphasize or somehow “get around” the centrality of the cross. If Jesus was Lord, then His lordship had been fully revealed following His death on the cross. As we read in Acts 2:36, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Saint Paul knew that the cross of the Lord was a “stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles.” It was no different in the centuries to follow, including the great Patristic Age when the Church Fathers offered their great commentaries on the Scriptures. And it is no different today: there will always remain a deep sense of incomprehension before the mystery of the cross. How can suffering and death be the path to glorification and life with God? Saint Paul, however, did not flinch from what God had revealed, and he drew his own hard conclusion: “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” [1 Corinthians 1:18]. Even more emphatically for the great apostle, the cross and Christ are so closely bound together, that both are considered to be “the wisdom of God” [1 Corinthians 20-25]. The Cross may be “foolish,” “low” and “despised” [1 Corinthians 1:27,28], but it is Christ Jesus, the Crucified One, “Whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption” [1 Corinthians 1:30]. In a beautiful image from Saint John Chrysostom, we hear him say that “I call Him King because I see Him crucified.” The cross does not stand alone, but is always linked to the Resurrection of Christ, the event that reveals the inner meaning of the cross and its fulfillment. Without the Resurrection of Christ, the cross would indeed remain an instrument of suffering and death, having the “last word” in a fallen and irredeemable world. We express this liturgically, through the powerful hymn we sing on the Great Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross: “Before Thy Cross, we bow down in worship, O Master, and Thy holy resurrection, we glorify!” This organic and inextricable union of the cross and Resurrection is beautifully expressed in every celebration of the Liturgy, when immediately after the reception of the Eucharist we chant, “Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ, let us worship the holy Lord Jesus, the only Sinless One. We venerate Thy cross, O Christ, and we praise and glorify Thy holy Resurrection, for Thou are our God, and we know no other than Thee; we call on Thy name. Come all you faithful, let us venerate Christ’s holy Resurrection! For, behold, through the cross joy has come into all the world. Let us ever bless the Lord, praising His Resurrection, for by enduring the cross for us, He has destroyed death by death.” Christians live under and by the sign of the cross. Many Christians – certainly Orthodox Christians—even “make” this sign over their bodies when they “cross themselves.” This can, of course, be nothing but an empty gesture, or a vestige of a cultural tradition that has long lost any power or significance in our lives. The sign of the cross can even be manipulated in a manner dangerously approaching superstition—as if the cross were a sort of charm or talisman that protects one more-or-less magically. However, let us assume that we are no longer subject to such crass temptations. Let us further assume that our intentions are to treat the sign of the cross with respect and reverence. At this point there may be additional and more subtle temptations that we must contend with. If we compartmentalize our lives in such a way that “religion” – or even God – is consciously or unconsciously only a part of our lives, or apart from our daily lives, then we can find ourselves living under or by a different “sign” than that of the cross. As we celebrate the Great Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, let us once again recommit ourselves to taking up the cross of Christ and to embracing the joy and blessing that come from following Him.

Moscow (AFP) - Russia on Friday announced a proposal to finally bury the remains of Tsar Nicholas II's son and heir Alexei and daughter Maria alongside their family in Saint Petersburg next month. But a government spokeswoman cautioned the plan had not been given final approval, amid objections from the Russian . A high-level government task force put forward a proposal for the burial to take place in Russia's former imperial capital on October 18. The task force "will propose to the government the holding of a burial ceremony of the remains of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria on October 18," it said after meeting on Friday. But Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's spokeswoman, Natalia Timakova, later told RIA Novosti state news agency "there has not been a final decision on the date." She said that further consultations would be held, including with the . The task force proposed that the burial take place in the former imperial capital's Peter and Paul Cathedral, where Nicholas II, his wife and their three other children were buried in 1998. "The Saint Petersburg authorities have drawn up the ceremony for all the events linked to the burial," Saint Petersburg's deputy governor Vladimir Kirillov told Interfax news agency. But the Orthodox Church, which has long delayed the funerals over doubts about the victims' identity, called for additional testing of the remains. The Church says it still has concerns about the remains based on historical records and will not recognise them if there is any doubt. It does not acknowledge the remains of any of the tsar's family. "It is very important that all possible new tests are carried out," Church spokesman Vsevolod Chaplin told Russian news agencies, saying "believers have many questions." The Orthodox Church has canonised all the Romanov family, who were executed by the Bolsheviks, as martyrs. It has so far refused to acknowledge the results of DNA identity tests by Russian criminal investigators. The task force said that on the Church's request it asked investigators, forensic experts and geneticists to submit proposals for additional testing "if it were necessary to resolve any historical problems." The remains suspected to be Alexei and Maria were found in 2007, 70 kilometres (43 miles) from those of their parents and sisters. Alexei, who suffered from haemophilia, was 13 when he was murdered, while Maria was 19. The remains have been stored in a repository, the State Archives, since their discovery. "I believe it has been absolutely firmly, definitely, scientifically and reliably proven that these remains are those of Alexei and Maria," the head of the State Archives, Sergei Mironenko, who is a member of the government task force, said in televised comments. A descendant, Prince Dmitry Romanov, called the plan to finally bury the last tsar's children a "huge relief." "Finally the heir and the tsar's daughter Maria can be buried together with their sisters and parents," he said in comments to TASS state news agency. The tsar's family and their servants were shot and thrown into a mineshaft in 1918 before being burnt and hastily buried. The remains of Nicholas II, his wife and their daughters, 22-year-old Olga, 21-year-old Tatiana and 17-year-old Anastasia were found in 1991. Russia set up a task force in July in a fresh drive to resolve the dispute over the remains, led by the head of the government's administration, Sergei Prikhodko.