Today’s Readings:
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 16:13-24
Gospel: Matthew 21:33-42
Schedule of Services:
Friday, September 8th, Divine Liturgy at 10am for the Nativity of the Theotokos.
Saturday, September 9th, Great Vespers at 4pm.
Sunday, September 10th, Divine Liturgy at 10am. Hours begin at 9:40am.
The Upcoming Feasts:
Thursday, September 14th, Divine Liturgy at 10am for the Exaltation of the Cross.
Announcements:
-Thank you Mila for hosting coffee hour today.
-Friday, September 8th, Divine Liturgy at 10am for the Nativity of the Theotokos.
-There is a new coffee hour sign up sheet located on the freezer for the months of September and October.
-Please text Robert Fisher at (609) 306-4714 if you would like to visit or are able to bring him to church. He is at Country Arch Care Center, 114 Pittstown Rd., Pittstown, NJ.
-Please consider donating to the Building Preservation/Rectory Fund. Sign up is located on the bulletin board. All donations are appreciated.
-Don’t forget the needy. Shop Rite gift cards or non-perishable foods are greatly appreciated.
-Our Parish Picnic will be held at the Cordasco’s on Saturday, September 30th at 2pm. We will hold Vespers at the Cordasco home on that day.
-The Lopes family will be received into the Orthodox Church on Sunday, October 1st—the Feast of the Protection of the Theotokos.
-A Parish Council meeting will take place after Liturgy on Sunday, September 10th—next Sunday.
-Starting this Wednesday, Fr. Tristan will return again to his Monday and Wednesday, morning through lunchtime, teaching schedule.
Prayers for:
Departed:
Living: Nicholas, Nicholas, Karen, Steven, Paul, Archpriest Paul, Melissa, Stephen, Michele, Janet, Teresa, Irina, 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:
Whoever prays for those who hurt him lays the demons low; but he who opposes his affronter is bound to the demons.
(St. Mark the Ascetic, Homilies, 1.45)
Whoever does not fight the one who despises him, neither in word not in thought, has received true knowledge and demonstrates a firm trust in God.
(St. Mark the Ascetic, Homilies, 2.119)
A soul that is nurtured by hatred toward man can not be at peace with God, Who has said: If you forgive not men their sins, neither shall your Father forgive your sins (Matt. 6:15). If a man does not want to be reconciled, you must at least guard yourself from hating, praying with a pure heart for him, and speaking no evil of him.
(St. Maximus the Confessor, Chapters on Love, 4.35)
Next Week’s Readings:
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 1:21-2:4. Brethren, 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. 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, 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.”