Today’s Readings:
Epistle: 1 Timothy 1:15-17
Gospel: Luke 18:35-43
Schedule of Services:
-Saturday, January 28th, Hierarchical Divine Liturgy: Greeting the Bishop at 9:30am.
-Sunday, January 29th, Divine Liturgy at 10am. Hours begin at 9:40am.
-Thursday, February 2nd, Divine Liturgy for the Meeting of Our Lord in the Temple at 10am.
Announcements:
-Enjoy a cup of coffee and donations of bagels and cake after Liturgy today.
-A coffee hour sign-up sheet for 2023 has been posted on the freezer. Please consider being a host at one of the open Sundays.
-On Jan. 28th at 10 a.m, Corrado will be ordained to the Holy Diaconate. Luncheon to follow at the Glen Gardner Inn.
-Don’t forget the needy. Shop Rite gift cards or non-perishable foods are needed and greatly appreciated.
-Please note that there will be no Great Vespers held the evening of Corrado’s ordination. Also, there will be no Great Vespers held the evening of February 4th, since His Eminence’s 50th year of ordination to the priesthood celebration will be taking place that day.
-On Thursday, February 2nd, we will celebrate Divine Liturgy for the Meeting of Our Lord in the Temple.
-Stephen Lelo is home and doing well after his surgery on his arm. Please keep Steve and Michele in your prayers.
-Finally, a reminder that January has been designated by our Diocese as a month to hold a special collection for relief to the Alaskan Diocese, which desperately needs financial assistance. If donating by check, please make check out to the church, but dedicate it to Alaskan Diocese Relief.
-Next Sunday School for children: Sunday, February 19th.
-For Divine Liturgy to start on time for Corrado's ordination, we will be greeting the Archbishop at 9:30am on Saturday, the 28th.
Prayers for:
Living: Paul, Melissa, Helen, John, Stephen, Michele, Janet, Teresa, Irina, Alla, Ira, Victor, the Reader Christopher; the child of God, Gideon; the servant of God, Brendan; 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 Palestine.
Departed: Fr. Sergius (Kuharsky)
Words for the Day:
No matter how much we may study, it is not possible to come to know God unless we live according to His commandments, for God is not known by science, but by the Holy Spirit. Many philosophers and learned men came to the belief that God exists, but they did not know God. It is one thing to belief that God exists and another to know Him. If someone has come to know God by the Holy Spirit, his soul will burn with love for God day and night, and his soul cannot be bound to any earthly thing.
(St. Silouan the Athonite, Writings, VIII.3)
A man in this world must solve a problem: to be with Christ, or to be against Him. And every man decides this, whether he wants to or not. He will either be a lover of Christ or a fighter of Christ. There is no third option.
(St. Justing Popovich, Explanation of I John, 4.3)
Cleanse your mind from anger, remembrance of evil, and shameful thoughts, and then you will find out how Christ dwells in you.
(St. Maximus the Confessor, Chapters on Love, 4.76)
Next Week’s Readings:
Epistle: 1 Timothy 4:9-15. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your
youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.
Gospel: Luke 19:1-10. He entered Jericho and was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”