Today’s Readings:

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 16:13-24

Gospel: Matthew 21:33-42

 

Schedule of Services: 

-Tuesday, September 13th, Vesperal Liturgy at 6pm.  The Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. (With a pot-luck following the Service).

-Saturday, September 17th, Great Vespers at 5pm.

-Sunday, September 18th, Divine Liturgy at 10am.  Hours begin at 9:40am.

 

Announcements:

-Memory eternal to Helen Morris who reposed in the Lord 40 days ago.

-Memory eternal to all those who perished on September 11, 2001.

-Our Parish Picnic will be held at Bill Cordasco’s house on Saturday, September 24th at 2pm.  We will celebrate Vespers at his home at 4pm.  Bill’s address: 503 Stamets Road. Milford, NJ 08848.

-In regards to our Parish Picnic at the Cordasco’s, there is a sign-up sheet on the freezer to indicate any dishes you want to bring.  Also, please indicate how many people are coming with you to the Picnic, so we can have an approximate head-count for the picnic.  All are welcome to come along!

-Please continue to donate Shop Rite gift cards and/or food items for the food pantry.  Thank you all for your continued generosity!

-A friendly reminder that Fr. Tristan’s class times at St. Philip’s Antiochian Orthodox Church are Mondays and Wednesdays from 8am to noon.  

-On Tuesday, September 13th (this Tuesday), after the 6pm Vesperal Liturgy for the Exaltation of the Cross, we invite attendees to a pot-luck meal to celebrate the Feast.  Since Holy Communion will be offered that evening, many of us may be pretty hungry after the service.  It would be nice to break the fast together in celebration of the Feast.  Please note, if you would like to bring a dish, it should be a fasting dish, since it will be a fast day that day.  All are welcome.  A sign-up sheet is posted on the freezer.

-Also, on the freezer is a sign-up sheet for those who would like to sponsor a coffee hour after Sunday’s Liturgies.

-A parish council meeting is scheduled for next Sunday following Divine Liturgy.

 

Prayers for: 

Living: Melissa, Helen, John, Darlette, Steven, Janet, Teresa, Irina, Alla,                                   

Ira, Victor, Reader Christopher; the suffering people of Ukraine, Yemen, Syria, Palestine, and Ethiopia.  

Departed: Helen, Raymode, Matushka Anne, +Kallistos, +Herman

 

Words for the Day:

One should not seek among others the truth that can be easily gotten from the Church. For in her, as in a rich treasury, the apostles have placed all that pertains to truth, so that everyone can drink this beverage of life. She is the door of life.
(St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, III.4)

 

The Church is holy, although there are sinners within her. Those who sin, but who cleanse themselves with true repentance, do not keep the Church from being holy. But unrepentant sinners are cut off, whether visibly by Church authority, or invisible by the judgement of God, from the body of the Church. And so in this regard the Church remains holy.
(St. Philaret of Moscow, Catechesis)

 

When are we living in Christ? When we live according to His Gospel and His Church. For He Himself, and not only His Gospel, is in the Church with all of His perfections and virtues. The Church is the eternally living Body of the God-man Christ. In her we find the medium of the holy mysteries. In her we find the means of holy good deeds. Our Lord Jesus Christ abides inseparable from the Church in this world. He abides with each member of the Church throughout all ages. He has His entire self for us in the Church, and continually gives Himself to us entirely, so that we might be enabled to live in this world as He lived.
(St. Justin Popovich, Explanation of I John, 4:9, 17)

 

 

 

Next Week’s Readings:

Epistle: 2 Corinthians 1:21-2:4. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. But I call God to witness against me—it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith. For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all. For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.

Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14. And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, 3 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”