May 15, 2016 GREAT AND HOLY PENTECOST

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1 our lady OF THE CEDARS CHURCH A MELKITE CATHOLIC COMMUNITY 140 MITCHELL STREET, MANCHESTER, NH TEL # (603) FAX # (603) oloc.church@comcast.net Website: REV. THOMAS P. STEINMETZ, Pastor RT. REV. ANDRE ST. GERMAIN (retired) REV. ROGER BOUCHER - Weekend Ministry REV. THEOPHAN LEONARCZYK, Eparchial Chancellor "Enter the Church and repent... for here is the physician, not the judge. Here one is not investigated, one receives remission of sins." (St. John Chrysostom) May 15, 2016 GREAT AND HOLY PENTECOST Parish Advisory& Finance Council: KEN MONTY (PRESIDENT), RICHARD ASHOOH, ROBERT ANDERSON, ROBIN ANDERSON, MARY CULLEN, MARTHA DAGHER, MARYLOU LAZOS, TERRI LEONARCZYK, MATTHEW LOMANNO, PAUL MANSUR, NAJWA MOUSSOBA, PAUL ST. GERMAIN, AND CHRISTELLE SLAYBE Parish Secretary: ROBIN ANDERSON Sunday School Coordinator: MARTHA DAGHER Cedars Society President: MARYLOU LAZOS N.A.M.Y. Advisor: ROBIN ANDERSON HOLY MYSTERY OF CONFESSION: Before or after any service, or by appointment; HOLY MYSTERY OF CHRISTIAN ILLUMINATION: Please contact the clergy in advance to arrange for the required baptismal instructions; HOLY MYSTERY OF CROWNING: At least six months prior to the proposed wedding, please contact the clergy to arrange for the required interview and instructions; HOLY MYSTERY OF THE ANOINTING OF THE SICK: Please contact the pastor at any time when this sacrament is needed; HOLY COMMUNION FOR THE SICK: Anyone too infirm to attend our services may receive Communion in the home. Please advise the clergy whenever this sacrament is needed.

2 THE ORDER OF TODAY S LITURGY Response to the Second Antiphon and the Entrance Hymn: O Holy Counselor, save us who sing to You! Alleluia The Troparion of Pentecost (8 th Tone- 3X-See insert) Blessed are You, O Christ our God, who have filled the fisherman with wisdom by sending down the Holy Spirit upon them, and who through them have caught in Your net the whole world, O Lover of Mankind, glory to You! The Kondakion of the Pentecost (8 th Tone-See insert): When the Most High came down and confused the tongues, He divided the nations, but when He distributed the tongues of fire, He called all men to unity. Wherefore, we glorify the Holy Spirit with one accord. THE PROKIMENON: THROUGH ALL THE EARTH THEIR VOICE RESOUNDS, AND TO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD THEIR MESSAGE! The heavens declare God s glory, and the firmament proclaims the work of His hands. Today s Readings: Acts 2: 1-11 and John 7: and 8:12 The Hirmos of Pentecost (7 th Tone-see insert)) You conceived in virginity, lending a body to the Word, the Creator of all. O Virgin Mother, O Theotokos, receptacle of the uncontainable God, abode of your Limitless Maker, we magnify you! LITURGY INTENTIONS Saturday 4:30 PM: For the repose of Zowdy Zeady (42 nd ), Joseph Maroon (43 rd ), Fred Coriarty (66 th ), Lamia Solomon (31 st ), John Jadda (58 th ) and Joseph Nasser (2 nd ) Sunday, 11:00 AM: For the repose of Heath Wilkins (One Year Anniversary), by the Sherburne Family Next Saturday (May 21), 4:30 PM: For the repose of Freda George (25 th ), Peter Abood (36 th ), Roland Archambault (17 th ) and Gertrude Beadle (3 rd ) Next Sunday (May 22), 11:00 AM: For the repose of our former pastor, Rev. Joseph Dagher (19 th Anniversary) For the repose of our former pastor, Rev. Dominic Ledbetter (20 th Anniversary

3 THE FEAST OF PENTECOST On this day, the eighth Sunday from Pascha, we celebrate the Holy Pentecost. This feast we also took from the Hebrew Bible; for just as they celebrate Pentecost, honoring the number seven, and that when they had passed through fifty days from Pascha they received the Law, so we too as we celebrate for fifty days after Pascha receive the all-holy Spirit, who gives laws and guides into all truth and lays down what is pleasing to God. (From the Synaxarion of the Feast) In the Church's annual liturgical cycle, Pentecost is "the last and great day." It is the celebration by the Church of the coming of the Holy Spirit as the end - the achievement and fulfillment - of the entire history of salvation. For the same reason, however, it is also the celebration of the beginning: it is the "birthday" of the Church as the presence among us of the Holy Spirit, of the new life in Christ, of grace, knowledge, adoption to God and holiness. With the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Christ's disciples, the time of salvation, the Divine work of redemption has been completed, the fullness revealed, all gifts bestowed: it belongs to us now to "appropriate" these gifts, to be that which we have become in Christ: participants in the plan of salvation and citizens of His Kingdom. The church is decorated in greenery in celebration of the Feast of Pentecost to remind us of the new and eternal life given to us through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Hot dogs, fries, and root beer floats are being served up by our youth group following the Sunday Divine Liturgy. Thank you for supporting their efforts! Mahrajan 2016: We re really cooking now! On Tuesday, May 17, we are making: Kibbee - and we really need your help! - 6:00 PM - church hall - Hope to see you there! Attendance - Last Saturday 4:30 PM: 30 Sunday 11:00 AM: 117 Last Weekend s Collection: $ 1, The average Sunday envelope donation: $ The balance remaining on our mortgage is: $ 84, SERVICES FOR THE WEEK Sun., May 15 7:00 PM Kneeling Vespers of Pentecost Sunday Evening Wed., May 18 7:00 PM Divine Liturgy: Wednesday of the Holy Spirit Fri., May 20 7:00 PM Great Vespers with Artoclasia for the Feast of Sts. Constantine and Helen Sat., May 21 4:30 PM Divine Liturgy: The Sunday of All Saints Sun., May 22 10:15 AM Sunday Orthros Sun., May 22 11:00 AM Divine Liturgy: The Sunday of All Saints

4 Mahrajan 2016 News! It is time to begin food preparation for Mahrajan 2016! We need help in the kitchen for food preparation on the evenings that follow, 6:00 PM start time for each evening. May 17 Kibbee June 14 Ghrybe & Nut Maamoul May 24 Beef Kabobs July 12 Grape Leaves May 31 Lamb Kabobs (Tentative) August 15 Meat & Spinach Pies (Tentative) June 7 Chicken Kabobs August 16 Meat & Spinach Pies (Tentative) If you grow grape leaves, please help us keep our costs down by donating them to the Mahrajan. Grape leaves will be needed for the July 12 food prep session, so please wash and pack them in your freezer as they become available. We need about 3,000 so keep us in mind as the season approaches. The Melkite Convention is coming to Boston this year! The celebration of the Melkite Convention this year is a special one. It is the 50 th Melkite Convention, the 50 th Anniversary of the first Melkite Bishop in America, and the 50 th Anniversary of the Annunciation Cathedral. It will be held close by, in Boston at the Boston Quincy Marriott, on June 30-July 3. You may make hotel reservations at a group discount rate by calling , and reserving under 50 th National Melkite Convention. Fr. Philip Raczka, the host of this year s convention, wants our parish to know that those who are interested in day trips to attend only the Divine Services and the Spiritual Workshops may do so and need only pay the minimal convention registration fee! The Fathers Speak: On Great and Holy Pentecost And my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. My friends, consider the greatness of this solemn feast that commemorates God's coming as a guest into our hearts! If some rich and influential friend were to come to your home, you would promptly put it all in order for fear something there might offend your friend's eyes when he came in. Let all of us then who are preparing our inner homes for God cleanse them of anything our wrongdoing has brought into them. -The homily of St. Gregory the Great on Pentecost And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:3-4). They partook of fire, not of burning but of saving fire; of fire which consumes the thorns of sins, but gives luster to the soul. This is now coming upon you also, and that to strip away and consume your sins which are like thorns, and to brighten yet more that precious possession of your souls, and to give you grace; for He gave it then to the Apostles. And He sat upon them in the form of fiery tongues, that they might crown themselves with new and spiritual diadems by fiery tongues upon their heads. A fiery sword barred of old the gates of Paradise; a fiery tongue which brought salvation restored the gift. -St. Cyril of Jerusalem (Catechetical Lectures: Lecture 17 no. 15)

5 May 21: The Feast of Sts. Constantine and Helen, Equal to the Apostles Constantine, the great and renowned sovereign of the Christians was the son of Constantius Chlorus (the ruler of the westernmost parts of the Roman empire), and of the blessed Helen. He was born in 272, and in 306, when his father died, he was proclaimed successor to his throne. In 312, on learning that Maxentius and Maximinus had joined forces against him, he marched into Italy, where, while at the head of his troops, he saw in the sky after midday, beneath the sun, a radiant pillar in the form of a cross with the words: "By this you shall conquer." The following night, our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him in a dream and declared to him the power of the Cross and its significance. When he arose in the morning, he immediately ordered that a labarum be made (which is a banner or standard of victory over the enemy) in the form of a cross, and he inscribed on it the Name of Jesus Christ. On October 28 he attacked and mightily conquered Maxentius, who drowned in the Tiber River while fleeing. The following day, Constantine entered Rome in triumph and was proclaimed Emperor of the West by the Senate, while Licinius, his brother-in-law, ruled in the East. But out of malice, Licinius later persecuted the Christians. Constantine fought him once and again, and utterly destroyed him in 324, and in this manner he became monarch over the West and the East. Under him and because of him all the persecutions against the Church ceased. Christianity triumphed and idolatry was overthrown. In 325 he gathered the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, which he himself personally addressed. In the ancient city of Byzantium, he laid the foundations of the new capital of his realm, and solemnly inaugurated it on May 11, 330, naming it after himself, Constantinople. Since the throne of the imperial rule was transferred to Constantinople from Rome, it was named New Rome, the inhabitants of its domain were called Romans, and it was considered the continuation of the Roman Empire. Falling ill near Nicomedia, he requested to receive divine Baptism, and after receiving the Holy Mysteries, he reposed in 337, on May 21, the day of Pentecost, having lived sixty-five years, and ruled as emperor for thirty-one years. His remains were transferred to Constantinople and were deposed in the Church of the Holy Apostles, which had been built by him, in a crypt that he had prepared for himself. As for his holy mother Helen, after her son had made the Faith of Christ triumphant throughout the Roman Empire, she undertook a journey to Jerusalem and found the Holy Cross on which our Lord was crucified. After this, Saint Helen, in her zeal to glorify Christ, erected churches in Jerusalem at the sites of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, in Bethlehem at the cave where our Savior was born, another on the Mount of Olives whence He ascended into Heaven, and many others throughout the Holy Land, Cyprus, and elsewhere. She was proclaimed Augusta, her image was stamped upon golden coins, and two cities were named Helenopolis after her in Bithynia and in Palestine. Having been thus glorified for her piety, she departed to the Lord being about eighty years of age, according to some in the year 330, according to others, in Edited from an article at

6 Sanctifying the Universe THE GOSPEL OF JOHN Jesus is depicted as offering this prayer for His disciples shortly before His arrest. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are... Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth (Jn 17:11, 17-19). What does it mean to sanctify oneself and others? To Sanctify in the Scriptures The word sanctify literally means to make holy. In the Scriptures holiness is the characteristic quality of God. He is unique, set apart from any other creature. He is, as we regularly say at the end of Vespers and Orthros, the Existing One, the only One who truly and definitively is. To sanctify someone or something means to set them apart for the Lord, to consecrate them for His use. In the Torah priests were thus set apart for the service of God. The priest is holy to his God. Therefore you shall consecrate him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I the LORD, who sanctify you, am holy (Lev 21:7, 8). Not only priests but everything used in worship was sanctified, first of all by being set apart. Vestments, for example, were designed to be different from ordinary clothing: for glory and for beauty (Ex 28:2). When the priest wore them he was thereby set apart for the service of God. In the Old Testament many other things were sanctified as well. Days and seasons, too, were set apart from time to for the service of God time as feasts and fasts. Particularly at these times the very people of God would be set apart as well. I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy (Lev 11:44). Christ s Prayer Answered Christ s prayer that the Father sanctify His disciples was answered when the Holy Spirit came down upon His followers on the feast of Pentecost. They were anointed not with any material ointment but by being filled within by the Holy Spirit. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:2-4). And so the union for which Christ prayed takes place at Pentecost: an interior union of the disciples with God. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, we are told: the presence of the Spirit within them united them organically with God. The first Christians were thus sanctified, becoming partakers of the divine nature (2 Pt 1:4). The Greek Fathers would later describe this process of coming into union with God as theosis or deification. It begins with God bestowing His Holy Spirit on man. But because human

7 nature includes the capacity to grow, deification is not a one-time or static gift. Rather, as St Paul said, it is a process of transformation to God-likeness. We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor 3:18). The Apostles went forth as Christ had commanded and, in turn, sanctified others by uniting them to Christ in baptism through the Holy Spirit. Again Christ s prayer is answered as believers become one with Christ in the mystery of His death and resurrection (baptism) and filled with the Holy Spirit in the mystery of Pentecost (chrismation). Baptism is not simply a rite of admittance to the Church; it makes the believer holy by uniting him or her to the Holy Trinity. As St Paul would tell the Colossians, God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col 1:27) and would remind the Corinthians that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God (1 Cor 6:19). Consequences of Our Sanctification You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:11). These words are repeated almost verbatim at the climax of our Byzantine rite of Christian initiation to this day. If we have been baptized and chrismated then we too have been sanctified, set apart, and this has results for our lives. First of all it means that we have a purpose. St Peter defined that purpose for us when he wrote, [you are] a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pt 2:9). Our purpose is to be successors to the priests of the Old Testament, set apart for worship, to glorify the mystery of God s plan for us, making present every day the salvation which was accomplished once and for all by Christ. One way in which we exercise this priesthood is by sanctifying time, setting it apart and offering it back to God in our divine services and prayers throughout the day as well as in the specific observances (feasts and fasts) of the church year. We sanctify time not only by prayer or worship, but also by the godly manner in which we live our lives. He who says he abides in [Christ] ought himself also to walk just as He walked (1 Jn 2:6). The Fruit of Sanctification Secondly, when we continually sanctify our lives through these spiritual sacrifices, it bears fruit. We come to reflect what St Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit (see Gal 5:22): the love, joy and peace which comes from living in light of the union with God which we have been granted. Metropolitan Anthony Bloom once recounted the following story, showing how even the most trying circumstances cannot prevent us from sanctifying whatever corner of the world we have been given. I met a few years ago in Russia an elderly priest who had spent 36 years in prisons and concentration camps. He sat opposite me with eyes shining with joy and gratitude and he said, Do you realize, can you imagine, how infinitely good God had been to me? The Soviet authorities did not allow a priest either into prisons or into camps; and He chooses me, a young, inexperienced priest and sends me first to prison and then to camp to look after his lost sheep. There was nothing in him but gratitude and joy. And that joy, that kind of gratitude against the history of his life was truly an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

8 Please remember to pray for the health and protection of Genevieve Allen, Olivia Aragon, Elizabeth Ashooh, Elsie Ashooh, Al Auclair, Alice Auclair, Erin Baroody, Michael Baroody, Anthony Blando, Helena Burkush, Fr. Michael Carl, Danielle Caron, Michael Cavanaugh, Meghan Connors, Sarah Cullen, Theresa Cullen, Jamileh Dagher, Sher Farrow, Declan Finn, Janet Drake, Julie Fregeau, Mary Fregeau, Peter Fregeau, Christine Freitas, John Gallagher, Loretto Gauvin, Bonnie Gomez, Nick Haddad, Jean Hannoush, Lucille Harper, Laura Jorba, Virginia Kearney, Shirley Lanoue, Susan Latvis, Roger Lawrence, Peggy Leclear, Sadie Grace McCallum, Miriam McCallum, Susan Merrill, Margaret Mitchell, Alfred Nasr, Afef Nasr, Blaise Notter, Steven O Leary, Denis O Keefe, Ellen Osgood, Josephine Paquette, Russell Pond, Sheila Quinn, Deborah Roberts, Adam Rubin, Fr. Andre St. Germain, Deniese Sherburne, Salwa Sleiman, Tarrant Smith, Mary Stephen, Catherine Waldron, Laura Weingast, and Iris Angelina Velasquez. If you are visiting our church, our parish family is delighted to welcome you here! Please give us the chance to get to know you by joining us for some coffee, pastry, and conversation in the church hall following the Divine Liturgy. If you would like to know more about the Melkite Catholic Church, check out the brochure entitled Welcome to this Holy House, located on the table in the back of the church. NORTH HILLS REALTY GROUP, LLC Residential Real Estate Brokers Abraham Dagher, Realtor 814 Elm St., Suite # 302 Manchester, NH (603) Your Ad Here $300 per Year Check out the Mahrajan Website: Your Ad Here: $300/year!! Check out -new educational material is posted regularly!