Today’s Readings:
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 4:9-16
Gospel: Matthew 17:14-23
Schedule of Services:
Saturday, August 19th, Great Vespers at 4pm.
Sunday, August 20th, Divine Liturgy at 10am. Hours begin at 9:40am.
For the Feast of the Dormition:
Tuesday, August 15th, Divine Liturgy at 10am.
Announcements:
-Thank you, Pam, for hosting coffee hour today!
-There will be a church council meeting today.
-Please consider donating to the Building Preservation/Rectory Fund. Sign up is located on the bulletin board. All donations are appreciated.
-Don’t forget the needy. Shop Rite gift cards or non-perishable foods are greatly appreciated.
-Please remember that this Tuesday is the Feast of the Dormition—the falling asleep of the Theotokos. We will have Divine Liturgy at 10am. If you would like to bring flowers, this feast is the day that we bless flowers.
-Please text Robert Fisher at (609) 306-4714 if you would like to visit or are able to bring him to church. He is at Country Arch Care Center, 114 Pittstown Rd., Pittstown, NJ.
Prayers for:
Departed:
Living: Nicholas, Nicholas, Karen, Alexandra,Steven, Paul, Archpriest Paul, Melissa, Helen, John, Stephen, Michele, Janet, Teresa, Irina, Alla, Ira, Victor; Vinni, Caroline, Tyler, and Aubrey, Metropolitan Onuphry and the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church; the suffering people and innocent victims of the Ukrainian/Russian war and those being persecuted; the suffering people of Yemen, Syria and Turkey, and Palestine.
Words for the Day:
As God illumines all people equally with the light of the sun, so do those who desire to imitate God let shine an equal ray of love on all people. For wherever love disappears, hatred immediately appears in its place. And if God is love, then hatred is the devil. Therefore as one who has love has God within himself, so he who has hatred within himself nurtures the devil within himself.
(St. Basil the Great, Homily on Asceticism, 3)
"Love covers a multitude of sins," (I Pet. 4:8). That is, for love towards one's neighbor, God forgives the sins of the one who loves.
(St. Theophan the Recluse, Letters, VI.949)
Who is far from love is a bad state, and to be pitied. He passes his days in a delirious dream, far from God, deprived of light, and he lives in darkness ... Whoever does not have the love of Christ is an enemy of Christ. He walks in darkness and is easily lead into any sin.
(St. Ephraim the Syrian, Homily on Virtues and Vices)
Next Week’s Readings:
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 9:2-12. Brethren, If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. This is my defense to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk? Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same? For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.
Gospel: Matthew 18:23-35. “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers,[e] until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”