Ambo ST. THEODOSIUS ORTHODOX CATHEDRAL Mailing: 733 Starkweather Avenue AUGUST 17, 2014 Cleveland, Ohio 44113 MARTYR MYRON T 216. 741. 1310 BL. THEODORETUS, F 216. 623. 1092 ENLIGHTENER OF LAPPS www.sttheodosius.org - Archpriest John Zdinak, Dean HIEROMARTYR IRENAEUS [email protected] Cell: 216. 554. 7282 - Dn. Daniel Boerio - Subdeacon Theodore Lentz, Sacristan - Reader Julius Kovach, Ecclesiarch & Choirmaster - Casandra Vasu, Office Administrator Office Hours, M-F 9:00 AM-3:00 PM Divine Services Eve Sundays & Feast Days 5:00 PM Confessions 6:00 PM Great Vespers Sundays and Feast Days 8:40 AM 3rd and 6th Hour 9:00 AM Divine Liturgy * AMBO: Articles for publi- cation should be submitted to: [email protected] by Wednesday of each week before noon. * CALENDAR: Event dates must be submitted by the 15th of each month. AUGUST 23 St. Theodosius Orthodox Cathedral Ambo - Page 1 The Hieromartyr Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, was born in the year 130 in the city of Smyrna (Asia Minor). He received there the finest education, studying poetics, philosophy, rhetoric, and the rest of the classical sciences considered necessary for a young man of the world. His guide in the truths of the Christian Faith was a disciple of the Apostle John the Theologian, St Polycarp of Smyrna (February 23). St Polycarp baptized the youth, and afterwards ordained him presbyter and sent him to a city in Gaul then named Lugdunum [the present day Lyons in France] to the dying bishop Pothinus. A commission was soon entrusted to St Irenaeus. He was to deliver a letter from the confessors of Lugdunum to the holy Bishop Eleutherius of Rome (177-190). While he was away, all the known Christians were thrown into prison. After the martyric death of Bishop Pothinus, St Irenaeus was chosen a year later (in 178) as Bishop of Lugdunum. “During this time,” St Gregory of Tours (November 17) writes concerning him, “by his preaching he transformed all Lugdunum into a Christian city!” When the persecution against Christians quieted down, the saint expounded upon the Orthodox teachings of faith in one of his fundamental works under the title: Detection and Refutation of the Pretended but False Gnosis. It is usually called Five Books against Heresy (Adversus Haereses). At that time there appeared a series of religious-philosophical gnostic teachings. The Gnostics [from the Greek word “gnosis” meaning “knowledge”] taught that God cannot be incarnate [i.e. born in human flesh], since mat- ter is imperfect and manifests itself as the bearer of evil. They taught also that the Son of God is only an outflow- ing (“emanation”) of Divinity. Together with Him from the Divinity issues forth a hierarchical series of powers (“aeons”), the unity of which comprise the “Pleroma”, i.e. “Fullness.” The world is not made by God Himself, but by the aeons or the “Demiourgos,” which is below the “Pleroma.” In refuting the heresy of Valentinus, St Irenaeus presents the Orthodox teaching of salvation. “The Word of God, Jesus Christ, through His inexplicable blessedness caused it to be, that we also, should be made that which He is ... ,” taught St Irenaeus. “Jesus Christ the Son of God, through exceedingly great love for His creation, conde- scended to be born of a Virgin, having united mankind with God in His own Self.” Through the Incarnation of God, creation becomes co-imaged and co-bodied to the Son of God. Salvation consists in the “Sonship” and “Theosis” (“Divinization”) of mankind. In the refutation of another heretic, Marcian, who denied the divine origin of the Old Testament, the saint affirms the same divine inspiration of the Old and the New Testaments: “It is one and the same Spirit of God Who pro- claimed through the prophets the precise manner of the Lord’s coming,” wrote the saint. “Through the apostles, He preached that the fulness of time of the filiation had arrived, and that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand.” The successors of the Apostles have received from God the certain gift of truth, which St Irenaeus links to the succession of the episcopate (Adv. Haer. 4, 26, 2). “Anyone who desires to know the truth ought to turn to the Church, since through Her alone did the apostles expound the Divine Truth. She is the door to life.” St Irenaeus also exerted a beneficial influence in a dispute about the celebration of Pascha. In the Church of Asia Minor, there was an old tradition of celebrating Holy Pascha on the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan, regard- less of what day of the week it happened to be. The Roman bishop Victor (190-202) forcefully demanded St. Theodosius Orthodox Cathedral Ambo - Page 2 uniformity, and his harsh demands fomented a schism. In the name of the Christians of Gaul, St Irenaeus wrote to Bishop Victor and others, urging them to make peace. After this incident, St Irenaeus drops out of sight, and we do not even know the exact year of his death. St Greg- ory of Tours, in his Historia Francorum, suggests that St Irenaeus was beheaded by the sword for his confession of faith in the year 202, during the reign of Severus. The Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, St Polycarp of Smyrna, and St Irenaeus of Lyons are three links in an unbroken chain of the grace of succession, which goes back to the Original Pastor, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In his old age, St Irenaeus wrote to his old friend the priest Florinus: “When I was still a boy, I knew you... in Polycarp’s house.... I remember what happened in those days more clearly than what happens now.... I can de- scribe for you the place where blessed Polycarp usually sat and conversed, the character of his life, the appear- ance of his body, and the discourses which he spoke to the people, how he spoke of the conversations which he had with John and others who had seen the Lord, how he remembered their words, and what he heard from them about the Lord ... I listened eagerly to these things, by the mercy of God, and wrote them, not on paper, but in my heart” (Eusebius, Hist. Eccles.). BIBLE READINGS FOR THE WEEK OF AUGUST 17 Aug. 17 1 Cor. 4:9-16 Aug. 19 2 Cor. 2:14-3:3 Aug. 22 2 Cor. 4:13-18 Matt. 18:23-35 Matt. 23:23-28 Matt. 24:27-33;42-51 Aug. 18 2 Cor. 2:4-15 Aug. 20 2 Cor. 3:4-11 Aug. 23 1 Cor. 1:3-9 Matt. 23:13-22 Matt. 23:29-39 Matt. 19:3-12 Aug. 21 2 Cor. 4:1-6 Matt. 24:13-28 Russian Translator needed. Brunch at Ridge Manor Please contact the parish TODAY office at 216-741-1310 or Sunday, August 17th, 2014 [email protected] if you are able to offer your 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM services. St. Theodosius Orthodox Cathedral Ambo - Page 3 FOCA Picnic We need to replace August 21st, 2014 @ one of the large A/C 6:00 PM units in the church and Metroparks Pavilion our costs are in excess (off of Memphis Rd.) of $10,000. We’ve Will supply burgers already raised a large & buns part of the total, but Please bring a side additional donations are greatly needed as dish & drink well as appreciated. Please contact Thank you! Darrell Felon at 440-666-7601 to RSVP Annual Parish Picnic Sunday, August 24th, 2014 2:00 PM @ Ridge Manor Bring a side dish or dessert to share. Tickets: $12.50 an adult, max of $25 per family. Regular attending children 18 and under are free. For tickets and info, see Subdeacon Ted Lentz, Deacon Daniel Boerio or Mat. Jenn Boerio. St. Theodosius Orthodox Cathedral Ambo - Page 4 PRAYER REQUESTS Departed: Ill Afflicted & Julia Grabowski Special Intentions: Roger Haupt (Lisa Theodore’s Cindy Powkowski Cousin) Marshall Prock Deacon Basil Frenchek Sandee Holod Joseph Rusynyk Hieromonk Joseph Matthew Hungley (Brother-in-law of Julia Sankovic (Child) Mat. Vera Proctor Phyllis Gindlesperger) Mary Ann Silberhorn Mat. May Ozone Donna Jacak Elaine Sudnick (Joy Pfeiffer’s Mat. Catherine Jula Victor Jacak Mother) Mother Anna Joy Jahans (friend of Paul Pangrace) George Tabeling (Michael Sr. Anastasia Stephen Jahans (friend of Paul Tabeling’s Father) Michael Pangrace) Frank Tkacz Betty Balasz Diane Kearsey Janice Tkacz Judy Baughman (Janice Tkacz’s Sister) Donald Tipka Carol Bohurjak John Kovalski (Friend of Paul Armand Trasoline (Fr. John’s Thomas Bohurjak, Jr. Pangrace) Cousin) Frank Byndas Dorothy Laskovich Elizabeth Ulan (Judi Byndas' Sister) Navada Coneley Paul Laskovich Elisabeth Wright (Friend of Paul Elsie Conrad Elise Manella Pangrace) John Conrad Marguerite Mihal John Yavornitzki Robert Cornelius (friend of Dan Anna Mysiw (Friend and Neighbor Erin Zawolowycz Morris) of Helen Antonik) Elaine Zdinak Anne Crichton (sister-in-law of Karen Ohlin (Tatiana Boyczewski’s Elizabeth Zdinak Joseph Crichton) Daughter-in-law’s Mother) Christine Crichton Maude Palumbo (Michelle Rajisch’s Matt & Lauren Eppele & Laina Dachtyl Mother) Unborn Child Horia Dascalescu Debra Parhamovich (Karen Felon’s (Lavinia’s Brother) Sister) Richard & Natalie (Evans) Cindy Durkalski Grace Parhamovich Thombs & Unborn Child Peter Fickinger (friend of Joseph (Karen Felon’s Mother) Crichton) Donna Pelton Congratulations Vladimir Fowler John A. Petkac (Gartman) Frank Fox (Son of Carol Peter and Gina Petkac (Judy Melanie & Chris Hunter & Machaskee) Gartman’s Brother & Sister-in-law) Newborn Maddox Kathy Garlesky Alaine Pimsner (Judy Schwind’s niece) Please contact the Parish Office at 216-741-1310 when names need to be removed from the prayer list. Thank you. St. Theodosius Orthodox Cathedral Ambo - Page 5 Welcome Visitors Our parish welcomes you and thanks you for joining us at today’s Divine Liturgy.