Today’s Readings:
Epistle: Colossians 3:4-11
Gospel: Matthew 22:35-46
Schedule of Services:
Saturday, February 3rd, Great Vespers at 4pm. Panikhida at 3:40pm.
Sunday, January 4th, Divine Liturgy at 10am. Hours begin at 9:40am.
Friday, February 2nd, Divine Liturgy for the Meeting of the Lord in the Temple at 10am.
Announcements:
-Many years to Jan and Nellie Eyerman as they celebrate their 57th wedding anniversary tomorrow!
Thank you, Nellie, for hosting coffee hour today.
-Our Annual Parish Council Meeting is today. After the dismissal of the Liturgy, please help yourselves to coffee and food downstairs. We will hold the meeting downstairs today, as the children will be attending Church School with Matushka Mary upstairs in the church.
-For the limited time-being, when donating to the food pantry, only bring canned goods (or gift-cards), as we finalize our pest situation. Thank you.
-Again, there will be church school today for the children, upstairs in the church.
-There will be a Panikhida at 3:40pm on Saturday, Feb. 3rd for friends of the Burns’.
-On Friday, February 2nd, we celebrate the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord in the Temple at 10am.
Prayers for:
Departed: Archpriest Moses, Helga (Jan. 10), Michel, Teresa
Living: Januis and Nellie, Michael, Elena, Janis, David, Robert, Karen, Steven, Archpriest Paul, Melissa, Stephen, Michele, Janet, Teresa, Irina, Victor; 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 the suffering victims of the war in Israel and Palestine.
Words for the Day
If you begin to guard wealth it will not be yours. But if you begin to distribute it, you will not lose it.
(St. Basil the Great, Conversations, 7)
Do you think that the man-loving God has given you much so that you could use it only for your own benefit? No, but so that your abundance might supply the lack of others.
(St. John Chrysostom, Conversations on the Book of Genesis, 20)
If you are truly merciful, then when what is yours is unjustly taken, don't be sad inside, and do not tell of your loss to your neighbor. Let a better loss, inflicted by those who insult you, be absorbed by your mercy.
(St. Isaac the Syrian, Homilies, 58)
Next Week’s Readings:
Epistle: Colossians 3:12-16. Brethren, Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Gospel: Matthew 25:14-30. Jesus said this parable, “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants[a] and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents,[b] to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his
master's money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.[c] You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’