Today’s Readings:
Epistle: Romans 2:10-16, Hebrews 11:33-12:2
Gospel: Matthew 4:18-23, Matthew 4:25-5:12
Schedule of Services:
Saturday, June 24th, Great Vespers at 4pm.
Sunday, June 25th, Divine Liturgy at 10am. Hours begin at 9:40am.
Announcements:
-Happy Fathers Day! Many years to all fathers, grandfathers, step-fathers, Godfathers, bishops and priests!
-Thank you to Valli for hosting coffee hour today.
-There is a new coffee hour sign up sheet located on the freezer. Please keep in mind that fruit, a baked good, and bagels are all that is needed. Those with food allergies are more than welcome to bring their own refreshment.
-During the rest of the month of June and into July, we will continue to collect monies towards the Choir Director's Workshop taking place the last couple of weeks in July. There will still be a donation basket in the back of the church for contributions. Thank you for your donations and support!
-Don’t forget the needy. Shop Rite gift cards or non-perishable foods are greatly appreciated.
-The baby, Josephina, will be baptized on Saturday, July 15th. We will serve a baptismal liturgy at 10am.
-As in previous years, our parish will be participating in the Glen Gardner Town Wide Yard Sale.The sisterhood will be hosting a pierogi lunch from 11-1 and will be grateful to any volunteers willing to help serve. The sisterhood is also asking for donated baked goods for the bake sale. Please bring brownies, cupcakes, cookies and the like to the church by 9 am. They will be individually wrapped by the sisters. Also, a list of ingredients does not need to be included, but please note food allergens such as nuts.
Prayers for:
Departed: Jim
Living: The newborn child, Josephina, Matushka Mary, Nicholas, Rebecca, 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:
"I love them that love me, and glorify them that glorify me." (Proverbs 8:17, I Kings 2:30,) says the Lord of His saints. The lord gave the Holy Spirit to the saints, and they love us in the Holy Spirit. The saints hear our prayers and have the power from God to help us. The entire Christian race knows this.
(St. Silouan the Athonite, Writings, XII.1,8)
It is one thing to be delivered from bad thoughts, and another to be freed from the passions. Often people are delivered from thoughts, when they do not have before their eyes those things which produce passion. But the passions for them remain hidden in the soul, and when the things appear again the passions are revealed. Therefore it is necessary to guard the mind when these things appear, and to know toward which things you have a passion.
(St. Maximus the Confessor, Chapters on Love, 3:78)
Next Week’s Readings:
Epistle: Romans 5:1-10. herefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance
produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
Gospel: Matthew 6:22-33. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.