Christ is in our midst! Христос међу нама! Cristo esta entra nosotros!

The Two Greatest Commandments

Fr. Anthony Hughes

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

There are two great commandments. Love God and love your neighbor. But we shouldn’t see them as two separate commands. To fulfill one is to fulfill the other. Not to fulfill one is not to fulfill the other. They are one and the same for us who follow Jesus Christ.

St. John in his first epistle says as much over and over again. To say we love God and not practice love for one another makes us liars. Those who excuse themselves from loving another human being for any reason and yet to say they love God are liars and do not have God in them.

There are too many examples to name of Christians who have do not follow these commandments. I do not want to darken this Liturgy by recounting a list of them. All you need to do is watch television, go on the internet, or read the papers to see them. Fear is behind them all, fear, hatred, and anger. What could be further from Christ-like compassion, from the two Greatest Commandments? What do these evils win for us? The kingdom of heaven? A “well-done” from the Father on the Last Day? No. Only love obtains the blessings of God. In the heat of debate is not the time to give ourselves over to fear, anger, and hatred. It is the perfect time to place our them all at the foot of the Cross and kneel before our adversaries and wash their feet.

Allow me to relate to you a story from the days of the Ottoman Empire to illustrate the attitude of authentic, Christ-like Orthodox Christianity. We are in dire need of such examplse as we are threatened with being absorbed into something much different and unholy. This story comes to us from the Turkish scholar Abdulbaki Golpinarli who published it in 1953 from an event he himself witnessed somewhere between 1915 and 1920.

One Thursday evening after the Sufi evening ritual the author and an older Sufi sat having coffee together. These two men were what are known today as Whirling Dervishes. The elder said, “Today is a feast day of the Orthodox Church. “Let’s take our friend, Hakki Dede, (another Dervish) and go to the church in Baliki (which was in Constantinople).” When the three arrived wearing their Sufi clothing the service was in progress. Each walked up to the icon of Christ crucified and gave reverence in the Sufi fashion and the priests sent out an assistant to bring them to a place close to them, probably on the solea, for the duration of the service. They listened to the chanting in silence and pious reverence. Then overcome with love and devotion, Hakki Dede began to whirl there on the solea. The faithful Orthodox were not offended or horrified at all!  They made an area for him to whirl in peace and continued their worship. The other two Sufis joined him and began to whirl in honor of and reverence to God in the midst of the Divine service. So overcome with the beauty and solemnity of the chanting they could not stop themselves from expressing devotion in the way they were accustomed. And the Orthodox faithful, so respectful of their guests, did not stop them. The author says that what he remembers most was the joyful tears of the people around them. Afterward they joined the crowd in reverencing the Gospel book and were treated to refreshments along with the clergy to end their mutual celebration. That is the kind of love for our neighbors and for God Jesus meant.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the love of God knows no boundaries. The boundaries to love are born in the darkness of our own hearts. They are erected by us in our weakness and fear. If Jesus had followed the advice of his disciples He would not have been crucified, but he did not. He followed the commandment of a much higher and transcendent order and went to the Cross, dying for those who loved Him and those who did not, those who agreed with him and those who did not, those who would follow him and those would not.

So must we walk according to the same high standard. We must not align ourselves with those who follow a different and lesser path. 

Commemorating Holy Prophet and God-seer Moses, Hieromartyr Peter Metropolitan of Serbia, Hieromartyr Peter Metropolitan of Dabro-Bosnia, Martyr Gorazd of Prague, Bohemia and Moravo-Cilezsk, Hieromartyr Babylas Bishop of Antioch and those with him, Uncovering of the relics of St Joasaph Bishop of Belgorod, Martyr Hermione daughter of St Philip the Deacon, Martyr Babylas of Nicomedia and 84 children with him, Martyrs Theodore, Mianus, Julian, Kion and Centurionus of Nicomedia, Second finding of the relics of St Metrophanes Bishop of Voronezh, Venerable Parthenius Igumen of Kiziltachsk, Venerable Simeon the Wonderworker

RESURRECTIONAL TROPARION—TONE 6

The angelic powers were at Your tomb; the guards became as dead men. Mary stood by Your grave, seeking Your most pure body. You took captive hell, not being tempted by it. You came to the Virgin, granting life. O Lord, Who rose from the dead, glory to You.

HOLY FATHER NICHOLAS TROPARION—TONE 4

Truly you were revealed to your flock as a rule of faith; in icon of humility and a teacher of abstinence. Your humility exalted you; your poverty enriched you. O Father and Hierarch Nicholas, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

HIEROMARTYR BABYLAS TROPARION—TONE 4

As thou didst share in the ways of the apostles and didst occupy their throne, thou didst find thine activity to be a passage to divine vision, O divinely inspired one. Wherefore, ordering the word of truth, thou didst suffer for the Faith even unto the shedding of thy blood. O hieromartyr Babylas, entreat Christ God, that our souls be saved.

HOLY PROPHET & GOD-SEER MOSES TROPARION—TONE 2

You ascended to the heights of the virtues, Prophet Moses; therefore, you were deemed worthy to see the glory of God. Having received the grace-filled tablets of the Law, and bearing the grace of the writing within yourself, you were the honorable praise of prophets, and a great mystery of piety.

RESURRECTIONAL KONTAKION—TONE 6

When Christ God the Giver of Life, raised all of the dead from the valleys of misery with His mighty hand, He bestowed resurrection on the human race. He is the Savior of all, the Resurrection, the Life, and the God of all.

THEOTOKOS KONTAKION—TONE 6

Steadfast Protectress of Christians, constant Advocate before the Creator, do not despise the cry of us sinners, but in your goodness come speedily to help us who call on you in faith! Hasten to hear our petition and to intercede for us, O Theotokos, for you always protect those who honor you!

READERS:

This Week: Matins: Milan Radanovic Epistle: Dasha Gencturk

Next Week: Matins: Lenny Tepsich Epistle: Natasha Gligorevic

EPISTLE: 2 Corinthians 4: 6-15

DEACON:      Let us pay attention. 

PRIEST:        Peace be unto all!

READER:      And with your spirit!

DEACON:      Wisdom.

READER:       The Prokeimenon in the Sixth Tone: O Lord, save Your people and bless Your inheritance!

CHOIR:          O Lord, save Your people and bless Your inheritance!

READER:       v: To You, O Lord, will I call. O my God, be not silent to me!

CHOIR: O Lord, save Your people and bless Your inheritance!

READER: O Lord, save Your people...

CHOIR: ...and bless Your inheritance!

DEACON: Wisdom!

READER: The Reading is from the second Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Corinthians.

DEACON: Let us attend!

READER: Brethren, it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you. And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

PRIEST: Peace be unto you, reader!

READER: And with your spirit! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

CHOIR: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

READER: He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the heavenly God.

CHOIR: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

READER: He will say to the Lord: “My Protector and my Refuge; my God, in Whom I trust.”

CHOIR: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

АПОСТОЛ: 2 Коринћанима  4: 6-15

Ђакон:          Пазимо

Свештеник: Мир свима!

Читач:           I Духу Твоме!

Ђакон:          Премудрост

Читач : ПРОКИМЕН- глас 6 Спаси, Господе, народ Свој и благослови наследство Своје.

Хор:                Спаси, Господе, народ Свој и благослови наследство Своје.

Читач: Теби, Господе Боже мој, вапим: немој ме оставити без одговора.

Хор: Спаси, Господе, народ Свој и благослови наследство Своје.

Читач: Спаси, Господе, народ Свој

Хор: и благослови наследство Своје.

Ђакон: Премудрост

Читач: Читање је од посланице Светог апостола Павла до Галатима

Ђакон: Пазимо

Читач:

Браћо, Бог који рече да из таме засија свјетлост, Он засија у срцима нашим ради просвјетљења знања славе Божије у лицу Исуса Христа. А ово благо имамо у земљаним судовима, да преизобиље силе буде од Бога, а не од нас. Свачим смо угњетавани, али не потиштени; збуњивани. али не очајни; прогоњени, али нисмо остављени; оборени, али не погубљени; свагда носећи на тијелу умирање Господа Исуса, да се и живот Исусов на тијелу нашему покаже. Јер ми живи стално се предајемо на смрт за Исуса, да се и живот Исусов јави у смртноме тијелу нашем. Тако да смрт дјејствује у нама, а живот у вама. Имајући пак исти дух вјере као што је написано: Вјеровах, зато говорих: и ми вјерујемо, зато и говоримо. Знајући да ће Онај који васкрсе Господа Исуса, и нас васкрснути кроз Исуса, и преда се поставити с вама. Јер је све вас ради, да благодат умножена кроз многе преизобилује благодарењем на славу Божију.

Свештеник: Мир свима Читачу!

Читач: I Духом Твоме! Алилуиа, Алилуиа, Алилуиа

Хор: Алилуиа, Алилуиа, Алилуиа

Читач: Који живи у закону Вишњега, у сјени Свемогућега почива.

Хор: Алилуиа, Алилуиа, Алилуиа

Читач: Говори Господу: Ти си уточиште моје и бранич мој, Бог мој, у кога се уздам.

Хор: Алилуиа, Алилуиа, Алилуиа

Please continue to pray for all of those currently being persecuted for Christ's sake in Kosovo, Metohija, Montenegro, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the Sudan, China, North Korea, for all of our brothers and sisters in Christ suffering throughout the world, especially in Ukraine and Russia, that they might be comforted with the Joy of our Lord, and for those who are unjustly persecuted that they may be strengthened by the love of Christ which knows no race.  

LET US PRAY TO THE LORD!

Stewardship Offering Information

Date 9/10/2023

Collection: $5,176.00

Date 9/3/2023

Collection: $2,517.00

Date 8/27/2023

Collection: $2,865.00

September Birthdays

Elliott Klipa (Sep 2), Andjela Lojpur (Sep 3), Graham Bazdar (Sep 3), Dominik Bowser (Sep 3), Aleksandar Milanovich (Sep 4), Aleksandar Gerhart (Sep 4), Peter Barber (Sep 5), Lincoln Govelovich (Sep 6), Mike York (Sep 6), Radomir Raic (Sep 7), Misha Bowser (Sep 8), Stacey Mummert (Sep 9), Tina Tepsich (Sep 10), Bennett Spangler (Sep 12), Nemanja Jovic (Sep 13), Kat Gruich (Sep 14), Ben Shaffer (Sep 18), Zeljko Raic (Sep 18), Marija Miljkovic (Sep 20), Angie Vorkapich (Sep 21), Terry Govelovich (Sep 22), Dean Stefan (Sep 22), Milijan Lukic (Sep 22), Ljilja Lazarevic (Sep 24), Clara & Thea Goodling (Sep 25), Fran Radosevich (Sep 29)

September Anniversaries

Frank & Marie Brescia (Sep 2), Mark & Yovanka Hoover (Sep 9), Dori & Steve Barry (Sep 9), Alan & Marina Radanovic (Sep 9), Luke & Waad Jacobs (Sep 13), Val & Fran Radosevich (Sep 16), Tim & Kaitlyn Hook (Sep 19), Brian & Catherine Lewis (Sep 19), Tina & Lenny Tepsich (Sep 20), Jon & Mara Bebeau (Sep 25), John & Cindy Semic (Sep 26)

FEAST OF THE NATIVITY OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

We will begin the celebration of the Feast with Festal Vespers at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, September 20, followed by Liturgy at 9 am on Thursday September 21.

SYNAXIS OF SAINTS JOACHIM & ANNA

The Feast will be celebrated Friday, September 22 at 9 am. All are welcome.

PASTORAL EMERGENCY CALLS

As Father Christopher is still recovering from surgery, Proto Ilija Balach will be assisting with emergency calls. In case of pastoral emergency, please call or text Proto Ilija at 425.736.3016.

ADULT EDUCATION CLASS—The Lives of the Holy Apostles

As we begin the new Liturgical year, we also begin our Adult Education classes after Vespers on Wednesday evenings (starting in October). At your suggestion, this year, Fr. Chris will review the lives of the Holy Apostles, beginning with the twelve. Come to learn more about these Fishers of men, through whom Christ gathered the world into His net.

CHURCH SCHOOL REGISTRATION

It is that time again, getting ready for a new academic year. Please follow this link to register your children for our Church School program. All children, ages 3—18 are expected to attend classes each Sunday to grow in the Faith and in fellowship.

https://forms.gle/SGWWhv3iBLWqJfHd7

ANNUAL KSS PULLED PORK & PALACINKE SALE

The Kolo Srpskih Sestara/Circle of the Serbian Sisters will hold their annual fundraiser on Sunday, October 22. All sales are PRE-ORDER by Oct 15. The menu will include pulled pork sandwiches for $6, cheese palacinke for $2, strawberry and applebutter palacinkes for $1.50. Pick up will be from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm on October 22. Forms are available on the tutors stand, or call Linda Yandric at 717-939-5309 or Daria Milletics at 717-939-3872

SAVE THE DATE—OCTOBER 7, 2023

Chris & Jevgenija Radanovic invite everyone to the baptism of their granddaughter Avery Catherine on October 7 at 11 am with a lunch to follow in the hall. All are welcome!!

SAVE THE DATE—OCTOBER 28-29, 2023

SSS Josif Marinkovich 90th Anniversary Weekend! Concert, Banquet, Dance, etc. More information will follow!

CHURCH OFFICE HOURS

Office hours are Monday thru Friday from 9 am until noon. You may call the office during these hours at (717) 939-3872 or come by the office in person. Office hours will be adjusted when services are occurring during those hours.

BULLETIN DEADLINE

Bulletin Deadline is Wednesday at 11 am. Please send all requests to the church office at office@stnicholassteelton.org

You may also call (717) 939-3872

WITH THE BLESSING OF HIS GRACE, BISHOP IRINEJ,

from Father Goran Mićić:

"Dear all, we are addressing you in the hour of our greatest pain. We are consumed by suffering for the child, whom we love more than our own lives. We beg you to share with us the pain and misery, which no one who has not gone through this "Path of Suffering" can even imagine. Namely, our 12-year-old son Petar fell ill with a severe form of soft tissue sarcoma (alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma). Three years ago, treatment began in Kragujevac, continued in Belgrade, and currently, the child is in Stuttgart. Since metastases appeared despite the therapy, Dr. K. Blatman, who is treating him, referred him to further treatment in the USA with sarcoma expert Dr. Peter Anderson to the Cleveland Clinic. We ask you to financially support Peter's journey in faith and hope that our beloved son will overcome this wicked disease. We are full of love for our sick child, but we are powerless before the clinic's request to pay a large sum of money. We send this request to you as a painful cry for the continuation of our son's life. "Give as much as you can" so that Petar could feel the joy of life and childhood that a serious illness took away from him. Parents, priest Goran Mićić and wife Kristina Mićić, from Kragujevac." 

GoFundMe Campaign: https://www.gofundme.com/f/pomoc-malom-petru?utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet&utm_content=undefined&utm_medium=social&utm_source=whatsApp&utm_term=undefined

September Charity

St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary

575 Scarsdale Road, Yonkers, NY 10707

(914) 961-8313

http://www.svots.edu/

The mission of St. Vladimir’s Seminary is to “serve Christ, His Church, and the world through Orthodox Christian theological education, research, and scholarship, and the promotion of inter-Orthodox cooperation”. 

The Seminary offers educational programs for clergy, those preparing for clerical ministries, lay leaders and religious scholars so they “may build up Orthodox communities, foster Church growth through mission and evangelism, teach the Orthodox faith, and care for those in need”. The Seminary has a diverse student body and a strong faculty committed to teaching, learning, and serving the Church to the glory of God. Academic programs include Master level degrees in divinity, theology, and religious studies for lay leaders. A stimulating array of special academic programs is also available. We encourage you to visit the St. Vladimir’s Seminary website listed above to learn more about the exciting and challenging learning opportunities, programs and resources.

The Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God

By Fr. Alexander Schmemann

The Church’s veneration of Mary has always been rooted in her obedience to God, her willing choice to accept a humanly impossible calling. The Orthodox Church has always emphasized Mary’s connection to humanity and delighted in her as the best, purest, most sublime fruition of human history and of man’s quest for God, for ultimate meaning, for ultimate content of human life.

If in Western Christianity veneration of Mary was centered upon her perpetual virginity, the heart of Orthodox Christian East’s devotion, contemplation, and joyful delight has always been her Motherhood, her flesh and blood connection to Jesus Christ. The East rejoices that the human role in the divine plan is pivotal. The Son of God comes to earth, appears in order to redeem the world, He becomes human to incorporate man into His divine vocation, but humanity takes part in this. If it is understood that Christ’s “co-nature” with us is as a human being and not some phantom or bodiless apparition, that He is one of us and forever united to us through His humanity, then devotion to Mary also becomes understandable, for she is the one who gave Him His human nature, His flesh and blood. She is the one through whom Christ can always call Himself “The Son of Man.”

Son of God, Son of Man…God descending and becoming man so that man could become divine, could become partaker of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), or as the teachers of Church expressed it, “deified.” Precisely here, in this extraordinary revelation of man’s authentic nature and calling, is the source that gratitude and tenderness which cherishes Mary as our link to Christ and, in Him, to God. And nowhere is this reflected more clearly that in the Nativity of the Mother of God.

Nothing about this event is mentioned anywhere in the Holy Scriptures. But why should there be? Is there anything remarkable, anything especially unique about the normal birth of a child, a birth like any other? The Church began to commemorate the event with a special feast…because, on the contrary, the very fact that it is routine discloses something fresh and radiant about everything we call routine and ordinary, it gives new depth to the unremarkable details of human life…And with each birth the world is itself in some sense created anew and given as a gift to this new human being to be his life, his path, his creation.

This feast therefore is first a general celebration of Man’s birth, and we no longer remember the anguish, as the Gospel says, “for joy that a human being is born into the world” (Jn. 16:21). Secondly, we now know whose particular birth, whose coming we celebrate: Mary’s. We know the uniqueness, the beauty, the grace of precisely this child, her destiny, her meaning for us and for the whole world. And thirdly, we celebrate all who prepared the way for Mary, who contributed to her inheritance of grace and beauty…And therefore the Feast of her Nativity is also a celebration of human history, a celebration of faith in man, a celebration of man.

Sadly, the inheritance of evil is far more visible and better known. There is so much evil around us that this faith in man, in his freedom, in the possibility of handing down a radiant inheritance of goodness has almost evaporated and been replaced by cynicism and suspicion. This hostile cynicism and discouraging suspicion are precisely what seduce us to distance ourselves from the Church when it celebrates with such joy and faith this birth of a little girl in whom are concentrated all the goodness, spiritual beauty, harmony and perfection that are elements of genuine human nature. Thus, in celebrating Mary’s birth we find ourselves already on the road to Bethlehem, moving toward the joyful mystery of Mary as the Mother to God.