Today’s Readings:
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Gospel: Matthew 19:16-26
Schedule of Services:
-Wednesday, September 7th, Vesperal Liturgy at 6pm. The Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos.
-Saturday, September 10th, Great Vespers at 5pm.
-Sunday, September 11th, Divine Liturgy at 10am. Hours begin at 9:40am.
-Tuesday, September 13th, Vesperal Liturgy at 6pm. The Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. (With a pot-luck following the Service).
Announcements:
-Please notice the correction in the Vesperal Liturgy time from Tuesday to Wednesday.
-Many years and blessings to Reader Christopher who is taking up the baton as our new choir director.
-We will sing a panikhida for Helen Morris after Divine Liturgy on Sunday, September 11th. That day is exactly the day of her 40 days since her repose in the Lord.
-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
-Please continue to donate Shop Rite gift cards and/or food items for the food pantry. Thank you all for your continued generosity!
-This week, Fr. Tristan will begin teaching some classes to Orthodox youth at St. Philip’s Antiochian Orthodox Church in Souderton, PA. Please note that his class times will be Mondays and Wednesdays from 8am to noon.
-On Tuesday, September 13th, 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.
Prayers for:
Living: Melissa, Helen, John, Darlette, Steven, Janet, Teresa, Irina, Alla,
Ira, Victor, Reader Christopher, Erin and Elise; the suffering people of Ukraine, Yemen, Syria, Palestine, and Ethiopia.
Departed: Helen, Raymode, Matushka Anne, +Kallistos,
Words for the Day:
How mistaken are those people who seek happiness outside of themselves, in foreign lands and journeys, in riches and glory, in great possessions and pleasures, in diversions and vain things, which have a bitter end! In the same thing to construct the tower of happiness outside of ourselves as it is to build a house in a place that is consistently shaken by earthquakes. Happiness is found within ourselves, and blessed is the man who has understood this. Happiness is a pure heart, for such a heart becomes the throne of God. Thus says Christ of those who have pure hearts: "I will visit them, and will walk in them, and I will be a God to them, and they will be my people." (II Cor. 6:16) What can be lacking to them? Nothing, nothing at all! For they have the greatest good in their hearts: God Himself!
(St. Nektarios of Aegina, Path to Happiness, 1)
The soul that loves God has its rest in God and in God alone. In all the paths that men walk in in the world, they do not attain peace until they draw nigh to hope in God.
(St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 56, 89)
Next Week’s Readings:
Epistle:1 Corinthians 16:13-24. Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. Now I urge you, brothers—you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints—be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer. I
rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence, for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people. The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord. All the brothers send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Gospel: Matthew 21:33-42. “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?