Today’s Readings:
Epistle: Acts 2:1-11
Gospel: John 7:37-52, 8:12
Schedule of Services:
Saturday, June 10th, Great Vespers at 4pm.
Sunday, June 11th, PENTECOST Divine Liturgy at 10am. Hours begin at 9:40am.
Announcements:
-Blessed feast of Pentecost! Today the 50 days of the Paschal cycle concludes. Now we celebrate the revelation of the Holy Trinity for three days. Today is the Feast of the Holy Trinity which be began to celebrate at the Kneeling Vespers we just had. Tomorrow is the Day of the Holy Spirit. Tuesday is the 3rd Day of the Feast of the Holy Trinity. We close the book of the Pentecostarion (the book in which we receive all the hymns and prayers we have prayed and sung since Pascha) next Sunday, on the Day of All Saints, and then we briefly open it up one more time when we celebrate the Feast of All Saints of America and Russia. Furthermore, this means that next Monday, June 12th, we enter into the Apostles Fast until June 29th, which is the Feast of the Holy Apostles.
-Thank you Bill Cordasco and Stephanie Vander Vliet for hosting coffee hour today.
-Don’t forget the needy. Shop Rite gift cards or non-perishable foods are greatly appreciated.
-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.
-Today, we said a prayer acknowledging that the Lopes family—Vinni, Caroline, Tyler, and Aubry—are catechumens entering the Orthodox Church. They stood with their sponsors, Bill, Nellie, Subdeacon Vasya, and Stephanie as we prayed for them. The Lopes will be entering the Church in the Fall. May we keep them in our prayers! Glory be to Jesus Christ!
Prayers for:
Living: John, Archpriest George, Steven, Paul, Charles, 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:
Through the Holy Spirit comes our restoration to Paradise, our ascension to the Kingdom of Heaven, our adoption as God’s sons, our freedom to call God our Father, our becoming partakers of the grace of Christ, being called children of light, sharing in eternal glory, and in a word, our inheritance of the fullness of blessing, both in this world and the world to come. Even while we wait for the full enjoyment of the good things in store for us, by the Holy Spirit we are able to rejoice through faith in the promise of the graces to come. If the promise itself is so glorious, what must its fulfillment be like? We are also able to distinguish between the grace that comes from the Spirit and mere baptism in water. John baptized in water for repentance, but our Lord Jesus Christ baptized in the Holy Spirit. John said, “I baptize you with water, for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Mt. 3:11) He calls our examination at the judgment a baptism by fire, as the Apostle says “each men’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire and fire will test what sort of work each has done.” (1 Cor. 3:13) Before our day there were some who fought for the true faith, and died for Christ’s sake, not only symbolically, but in actual fact. They had no need of the outward sign of water to be saved, since they were baptized in their own blood. I mention this not because I wish to belittle baptism by water, but to overthrow the arguments of those who pit themselves against the Spirit, confusing things which are distinct, and comparing things that admit of no comparison.
St. Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit, Chapter 15:36
Next Week’s Readings:
Epistle: Hebrews 11:33-12:2. Brethren, who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Gospel: Matthew 10:32-33, 37-38, 19:27-30. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world,[a] when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.