SAINT JAMES ORTHODOX w CHURCH

Transcription

1 SAINT JAMES ORTHODOX w CHURCH 195 N. Main Street Milpitas, Ca Sundays Matins 8:00 a.m. Sundays Liturgy 10:30 a.m. The Very Reverend Fr. Jiris Hanna (408) Dcn. Joseph Kawar (408) Issue No. 693 Sunday May 21 (5/8), 2017 Sunday of the Blind Man Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian (101) St. Arsenius the Great, of Scetis (448) أحد األعمى تذكار القديس الرسول المجيد يوحنا البشير األنجيلي الثاولوغوس )الالهوتي(. وأبينا البار ارسانيوس الكبير Matins (Eothina VIII): John 20:11 18 Epistle: Acts 16:16 34 Gospel: John 9:1 38 Sunday of the Blind Man May 21 Christ Is Risen! Truly He Is Risen! We stand this Sunday in awe before the healing hands of our Lord Jesus Christ. He, Who fashioned man from the mud in Paradise, today re-fashions His image, which had been deformed by physical blindness. The deity was not wearied or taxed then in the original creation, and such is the case in this healing of the man born blind. A simple mixture of spittle and clay, an anointing with the mixture, word of guidance, and the healing takes place, the man who had never seen, sees. We bow low before Jesus Christ and worship our Fashioner, our Creator, and the Author of our life. The eyes are the most precious things. They are the most sensitive and valuable of the five senses. St. Basil the Great says that the eyes are two bodiless arms through which the soul reaches out and touches from afar that which it loves. This Sunday we witness a physical healing of the eyes, but our Savior heals the eyes spiritually as well, both the eyes of the body and the eye of the soul. The eyes have been fashioned by God to be sacred portals of divine beauty, opening the gates of the person to the light of the world, and leading one in the beholding of beauty to worship of the supreme fashioner and architect of all. Our Lord calls the eyes the lamp of the body. The eyes are passageways to the mind, and through the mind to the heart. What goes into the eyes fills the whole person. What we gaze upon is of the utmost importance in our spiritual lives. Unfortunately, the eyes can also become twisted, distorted, and warped if they are misused. We know about torn retinas, astigmatisms, cataracts, etc. But do we know about their spiritual parallels? The eyes can be abused and become spiritually sick. St. John the Apostle in his first epistle writes thus, Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If any one loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful

2 pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world (1 St. Jn. 2:15-16). The lust of the eyes. There is such a thing as the sin of the eyes. Our Savior taught us this in His teaching about the lust of the eyes. He preached, You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery ; but I say to you, that whoever who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart (St. Matt. 5:27-28). Great sins, violations of the seventh commandment, take place through the eyes. And that is not all. Other diseases of the eye exist besides the lust of the eyes. There is also the judgment of the eyes. Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, Let me remove the speck from your eye, and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother s eye (St. Matt. 7:1-5). Today we may not be physically blind, but that does not mean that we do not desperately need our Savior to heal our eyes, which are terribly diseased, just as he healed those of the man born blind. There are many spiritual diseases of the eyes, but there is one that has become a true plague and epidemic in our society: the disease of pornography. This satanic plague has literally filled our culture, and has infected nearly every human being as any other communicable disease blown into epidemic has. It has left little distinction between young and old, or between Christian or non-christian. This disease has infected and harmed every parish in America, wounding deeply many of our families. We must use our eyes for the reasons they were created and redeemed. When we were baptized into Christ Jesus He came into us and filled our bodies completely. Jesus filled our eyes with Himself, and as He dwells and abides in us we must remember that everything we gaze upon we gaze upon together with our Lord! When we came out of the baptismal font we were chrismated with holy chrism upon the eyes! Our eyes are sanctified by the Holy Spirit! All that we gaze upon should edify our souls and contribute to our salvation. Amen. ٢١ أيار األسبوع السادس للفصح - أحد األعمى - في هذا األحد. الس ادس للفصح. ن عي د لألعجوبة التي صن عها رب نا وإله نا وم خل ص نا يسوع المسيح لألعمى منذ مولد ه. فالسي د أظهر ذاته طبيب ا للنفوس واألجساد. ونور ا فائق البهاء للذين في الظ الم. داعي ا الجميع إلى الس جود له واالعتراف به رب ا وإله ا. شفاء العين رمز إلى شفاء اإلنسان كل ه. ألن العين سراج الجسد. والش فاء فبرحمتك التي ال حد لها. أي ها المسيح إله نا ارحمنا. آمين. بالماء يرم ز إلى االستنارة المقد سة. أي المعمودي ة Saints This Week Saturday 5/21 (5/8) Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian Who shall declare your greatness, O Virgin disciple? For as a fountain of healing you flow with miracles, Interceding for our souls as Theologian and friend of Christ! عظائمك ايها البتول م ن يصفها. ألنك تفيض عجائب. وتنبع اشفية. وتتشفع من اجل نفوسنا. بما انك متكلم بالالهوت وصفي المسيح.

3 May 2017 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat pm Choir meeting & practice 6 10am St. George the Wonderworker 7 Sunday of the Paralytic 3 rd & 9 th Day Trisagion Jabra Asfour Apostle & Evangelist Mark Mid-Pentaccost 11 7:30pm Board Meeting am Apostle James, the brother of St. John the Theologian 14 Sunday of the Samaritan Woman pm Choir practice 20 St. George Special Lunch & Celebration Mother s Day 21 Sunday of the Blind Man Apostle & Evangelist John the Theologian am Ascension of Our Lord Sunday of the Holy Fathers Notes:

4 Choir Meeting & Practice ALL CHOIR MEMBERS Please attend Choir Practices every other Friday starting at 7pm sharp. We should be done by 8:30pm. Next Practice Friday May 19 If any parishioner is interested in joining St. James choir please attend these practices. Young adults and Youth are highly encouraged to attend if you have the interest in chanting. Scrip Scrip Scrip For Grads Graduations are just around the corner. Please consider buying Scrip gift cards for your graduates. Big variety of restaurants and department stores. Complete list of retailers at Fr. Giris Calendar If you need to schedule a baptism, engagement, or wedding appointments with Fr. Giris, please DO NOT CALL Fr. Giris directly. Hanan Aboujudom is managing Fr. Giris calendar. Calling Fr. Giris directly for appointments may cause a conflict with other appointments as Fr. Giris may not have his calendar with him all the time. Hanan Aboujudom can be reached at her cell phone (408) Sunday School Summer Break Sunday June 11 is the last day Please allow one week for delivery. See or call Lilian (408) to place your order early. Making Home-Made Candles This Saturday May 20 Sunday School classes will be on break June September Attention Parents and Friends of 2017 Graduates! *** 4 Weeks Until Deadline *** We plan to make more home-made candles for our church. We will meet at the church hall this Saturday starting at 10am. Please feel free to come and give a hand! Absolutely no experience is necessary. Anyone can do it we just need many hands so we can make as many candles as possible. Come and spend few hours of blessed time with other St. James family members with this blessed work of making church candles. It also saves the church a lot of money. sjoc@earthlink.net for your bulletin personal announcements, comments, or feedback. You can post a FREE personal congratulation message to your graduates in the bulletin. Just your greetings to sjoc@earthlink.net Graduates: Please your graduation picture or regular pictures to sjoc@earthlink.net to be posted in the bulletin. Graduates pictures and greetings will be posted during the week of June 12.

5 St. Athanasius the Great, archbishop of Alexandria Monday 5/15 (5/2) Saint Athanasius the Great, Archbishop of Alexandria, was a great Father of the Church and a pillar of Orthodoxy. He was born around the year 297 in the city of Alexandria into a family of pious Christians. He received a fine secular education, but he acquired more knowledge by diligent study of the Holy Scripture. In his childhood, the future hierarch Athanasius became known to St Alexander the Patriarch of Alexandria. A group of children, which included Athanasius, was playing at the seashore. The Christian children decided to baptize their pagan playmates. The young Athanasius, whom the children designated as "bishop", performed the Baptism, precisely repeating the words he heard in church during this sacrament. Patriarch Alexander observed all this from a window. He then commanded that the children and their parents be brought to him. He conversed with them for a long while, and determined that the Baptism performed by the children was done according to the Church order. He acknowledged the Baptism as real and sealed it with the sacrament of Chrismation. From this moment, the Patriarch looked after the spiritual upbringing of Athanasius and in time brought him into the clergy, at first as a reader, and then he ordained him as a deacon. It was as a deacon that St Athanasius accompanied Patriarch Alexander to the First Ecumenical Council at Nicea in the year 325. At the Council, St Athanasius refuted of the heresy of Arius. His speech met with the approval of the Orthodox Fathers of the Council, but the Arians, those openly and those secretly so, came to hate Athanasius and persecuted him for the rest of his life. After the death of holy Patriarch Alexander, St Athanasius was unanimously chosen as his successor in the See of Alexandria. He refused, accounting himself unworthy, but at the insistence of all the Orthodox populace that it was in agreement, he was consecrated bishop when he was twenty-eight, and installed as the archpastor of the Alexandrian Church. St Athanasius guided the Church for forty-seven years, and during this time he endured persecution and grief from his antagonists. Several times he was expelled from Alexandria and hid himself from the Arians in desolate places, since they repeatedly tried to kill him. St Athanasius spent more than twenty years in exile, returned to his flock, and then was banished again. There was a time when he remained as the only Orthodox bishop in the area, a moment when all the other bishops had fallen into heresy. At the false councils of Arian bishops he was deposed as bishop. Despite being persecuted for many years, the saint continued to defend the purity of the Orthodox Faith, and he wrote countless letters and tracts against the Arian heresy. When Julian the Apostate ( ) began a persecution against Christians, his wrath first fell upon St Athanasius, whom he considered a great pillar of Orthodoxy. Julian intended to kill the saint in order to strike Christianity a grievous blow, but he soon perished himself. Mortally wounded by an arrow during a battle, he cried out with despair: "You have conquered, O Galilean." After Julian's death, St Athanasius guided the Alexandrian Church for seven years and died in 373, at the age of seventy-six. Numerous works of St Athanasius have been preserved; four Orations against the Arian heresy; also an Epistle to Epictetus, bishop of the Church of Corinth, on the divine and human natures in Jesus Christ; four Epistles to Serapion, Bishop of Thmuis, about the Holy Spirit and His Equality with the Father and the Son, directed against the heresy of Macedonius. Other apologetic works in defense of Orthodoxy have been preserved, among which is the Letter to the emperor Constantius. St Athanasius wrote commentaries on Holy Scripture, and books of a moral and didactic character, as well as a biography of St Anthony the Great, with whom St Athanasius was very close. St John Chrysostom advised every Orthodox Christian to read this Life. The memory of St Athanasius is celebrated also on January 18 with St Cyril of Alexandria.

6 Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian Sunday 5/21 (5/8) The Holy, Glorious All-laudable Apostle and Evangelist, Virgin, and Beloved Friend of Christ, John the Theologian was the son of Zebedee and Salome, a daughter of St Joseph the Betrothed. He was called by our Lord Jesus Christ to be one of His Apostles at the same time as his elder brother James. This took place at Lake Gennesareth (i.e. the Sea of Galilee). Leaving behind their father, both brothers followed the Lord. The Apostle John was especially loved by the Savior for his sacrificial love and his virginal purity. After his calling, the Apostle John did not part from the Lord, and he was one of the three apostles who were particularly close to Him. St John the Theologian was present when the Lord restored the daughter of Jairus to life, and he was a witness to the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor. During the Last Supper, he reclined next to the Lord. He also asked the name of the Savior's betrayer. The Apostle John followed after the Lord when they led Him bound from the Garden of Gethsemane to the court of the iniquitous High Priests Annas and Caiphas. He was there in the courtyard of the High Priest during the interrogations of his Teacher and he resolutely followed after him on the way to Golgotha, grieving with all his heart. At the foot of the Cross he stood with the Mother of God and heard the words of the Crucified Lord addressed to Her from the Cross: "Woman, behold Thy son." Then the Lord said to him, "Behold thy Mother" (John 19:26-27). From that moment the Apostle John, like a loving son, concerned himself over the Most Holy Virgin Mary, and he served Her until Her Dormition. After the Dormition of the Mother of God the Apostle John went to Ephesus and other cities of Asia Minor to preach the Gospel, taking with him his own disciple Prochorus. They boarded a ship, which floundered during a terrible tempest. All the travellers were cast up upon dry ground, and only the Apostle John remained in the depths of the sea. Prochorus wept bitterly, bereft of his spiritual father and guide, and he went on towards Ephesus alone. On the fourteenth day of his journey he stood at the shore of the sea and saw that the waves had cast a man ashore. Going up to him, he recognized the Apostle John, whom the Lord had preserved alive for fourteen days in the sea. Teacher and disciple went to Ephesus, where the Apostle John preached incessantly to the pagans about Christ. His preaching was accompanied by such numerous and great miracles, that the number of believers increased with each day. During this time there had begun a persecution of Christians under the emperor Nero (56-68). They took the Apostle John for trial at Rome. St John was sentenced to death for his confession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but the Lord preserved His chosen one. The apostle drank a cup of deadly poison, but he remained alive. Later, he emerged unharmed from a cauldron of boiling oil into which he had been thrown on orders from the torturer. After this, they sent the Apostle John off to imprisonment to the island of Patmos, where he spent many years. Proceeding along on his way to the place of exile, St John worked many miracles. On the island of Patmos, his preaching and miracles attracted to him all the inhabitants of the island, and he enlightened them with the light of the Gospel. He cast out many devils from the pagan temples, and he healed a great multitude of the sick. The Apostle John withdrew with his disciple Prochorus to a desolate height, where he imposed upon himself a three-day fast. As St John prayed the earth quaked and thunder rumbled. Prochorus fell to the ground in fright. The Apostle John lifted him up and told him to write down what he was about to say. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord, Who is and Who was and Who is to come, the Almighty" (Rev 1:8), proclaimed the Spirit of God through the Apostle John. Thus in about the year 67 the Book of Revelation was written, known also as the "Apocalypse," of the holy Apostle John the Theologian. In this Book were predictions of the tribulations of the Church and of the end of the world. After his prolonged exile, the Apostle John received his freedom and returned to Ephesus, where he continued with his activity, instructing Christians to guard against false teachers and their erroneous teachings. In the year 95, the Apostle John wrote his Gospel

7 at Ephesus. He called for all Christians to love the Lord and one another, and by this to fulfill the commands of Christ. The Church calls St John the "Apostle of Love", since he constantly taught that without love man cannot come near to God. In his three Epistles, St John speaks of the significance of love for God and for neighbor. Already in his old age, he learned of a youth who had strayed from the true path to follow the leader of a band of robbers, so St John went out into the wilderness to seek him. Seeing the holy Elder, the guilty one tried to hide himself, but the Apostle John ran after him and besought him to stop. He promised to take the sins of the youth upon himself, if only he would repent and not bring ruin upon his soul. Shaken by the intense love of the holy Elder, the youth actually did repent and turn his life around. St John was more than a hundred years old. He far outlived the other eyewitnesses of the Lord, and for a long time he remained the only remaining eyewitness of the earthly life of the Savior. When it was time for the departure of the Apostle John, he went out beyond the city limits of Ephesus with the families of his disciples. He bade them prepare for him a cross-shaped grave, in which he lay, telling his disciples that they should cover him over with the soil. The disciples tearfully kissed their beloved teacher, but not wanting to be disobedient, they fulfilled his bidding. They covered the face of the saint with a cloth and filled in the grave. Learning of this, other disciples of St John came to the place of his burial. When they opened the grave, they found it empty. Each year from the grave of the holy Apostle John on May 21 (5/8) came forth a fine dust, which believers gathered up and were healed of sicknesses by it. Therefore, the Church also celebrates the memory of the holy Apostle John the Theologian on May 21 (5/8). The Lord bestowed on His beloved disciple John and John's brother James the name "Sons of Thunder" as an awesome messenger in its cleansing power of the heavenly fire. And precisely by this the Savior pointed out the flaming, fiery, sacrificial character of Christian love, the preacher of which was the Apostle John the Theologian. The eagle, symbol of the lofty heights of his theological thought, is the iconographic symbol of the Evangelist John the Theologian. The appellation "Theologian" is bestowed by Holy Church only to St John among the immediate disciples and Apostles of Christ, as being the seer of the mysterious Judgments of God. من المزامير الروحية للقديس افرام السوري المزمور رقم 15 الله صار انسانا اآلب هتف: "هذا هو ابني الحبيب الذي به سررت فله اسمعوا. هكذا تكلم على اإلبن الذي هو غير منفصل عن مجد األلوهة. ألن لآلب واإلبن سوية مع الروح القدس طبيعة واحدة قوة واحدة جوهرا واحدا وملكوتا واحدا. ومريم دعيت أم الله بابنها في الجسد الذي كان غير منفصل عن مجد ألوهيته. ألن الله واحد الذي ظهر للعالم في الجسد. مجده أعلن طبيعته االلهية التي هي من اآلب وجسده أعلن طبيعته البشرية التي كانت من مريم كلتا طبيعتيه اجتمعت واتحدت في أقنوم وحيد. كان هو المولود الوحيد من اآلب وأيضا المولود الوحيد من مريم. ان الذي يقسم االقنوم فيه سيفصل أيضا عن ملكوته والذي يمزج طبيعتيه سيحرم من الحياة التي منه. إن الذي يجحد والدة مريم لله لن يرى مجد ألوهيته والذي يجحد التحافه بجسد بدون خطيئة لن ينال الخالص وال الحياة التي منحت بفضل جسده. أعماله بالذات تشهد وقوته االلهية تعلم المزدرين انه الله الحق وآالمه تبرهن أنه انسان حق.

8 CORRECTION Whoever has a wicked heart need not despair, for with the help of God, a person can correct his heart. He must only watch over himself carefully and not pass up any opportunity to help his neighbor, reveal his thoughts to his elder often, and give alms as much as possible. This, of course, cannot all be done at once, but the Lord is Long-suffering. - St. Ambrose Mark Your Calendar Saturday July 15 St. James Annual Picnic Room For Rent Nice room is available for rent. It is part of a house located in South San Jose. Free WiFi. $600/month. If interested, please contact Nabil Khashan at (623) George Nijmeh 5/16 Akram Wahhab 5/16 Nadim Khoury 5/18 Faten Wahhab 5/18 Khalil Ganim 5/19 Spiros Koutsorinakis 5/19 Elias Dahdah 5/20 Reem Ganim 5/20 عقبال المئة سنة!!! Mark Your Calendar St. James 12 th Annual Food Festival September 15, 16, 17 Mazin & Ola Kfeety 5/20 For Many Years!

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