1. RESURRECTION TROPAR:

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1 St. Gregory of Nyssa Orthodox Church 1100 Hicksville Rd. Seaford, NY, Rev. Fr. Andrew Gromm (516) / stgregoryseaford@gmail.com Website: Sunday Mornings: Hours- 9:15, Liturgy- 9:30, Church School- 10:40 Bible Study Sundays, 5:00 PM July 8, 2018 / Sixth Sunday After Pentecost Epistle: Romans 12:6-14; Gospel: Matthew 9:1-8; Tone 5 Commemorations: St. Procopius & Companions (+303); St. Sunniva & Companions of Selje Island (+950); St. Theophilus Myrrh-Gusher (+1548); St. Anastasius of Constantinople (+1743). Saturday, July 14th 5:30 PM Vespers Panakida: In memory of Vasile, requested by Dana Meyers. Youth: Fr. Andrew has a youth night tonight at 6 PM. Supper will be supplied. Picture: Please check the Archon Newsletter on the back table. There s a familiar face on p. 36! Goodies: Pieroghi are still for sale in the kitchen! Parish Finances: Last week s contributions were $1070 and expenses were $1686. Weekly Specials: Birthdays= Maria Sauer (9th), Quentin Riedman & Caesar Cantone (14th). Anniversaries= Robert and Daniela Bush (10th). Prayers: Health for Kathleen, Martha, Eugenia, Gregory, Elizabeth, Anthony, Mary, Chris, Mary, Anna, Lydia, Anne, Frank, Paul, Maria, Danielle, Adriana, Mary and Dana. He can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his Mother. St. Cyprian of Carthage (+258) Rubrics for the 6th Sunday of Pentecost 1. RESURRECTION TROPAR: (Tone 5) We the faithful proclaim and worship the Word, * eternal with the Father and the Spirit. * He was born of the Virgin for our salvation. * He willingly ascended the cross in the flesh and suffered death. * He raised the dead by His glorious resurrection. 2. RESURRECTION KONDAK: (Tone 5) Glory to the Father and to the Son * and to the Holy Spirit. O my Savior, You descended into the realm of death. * You crushed its power, for You are the Almighty. * As Creator, You raised the dead with Yourself. * Adam, who had been condemned, was redeemed. * O Lover of mankind, we call to You, saying: O Lord, save us! 3. BOHORODICA: (Tone 5) Now and ever and forever. Amen. Hail! Gate of the Lord no one can enter! * Hail! Defense and protection of those who come to you! * Hail! Peaceful haven who has never known man, * and yet has given birth to your Maker and God! * Never cease to intercede for those who sing the praise * of the One born of you, of those who worship Him.

2 4. PROKIMENON: (Tone 5) O Lord, protect us and guard us from this generation forever and ever, forever, from this generation forever. (Psalm 12:7) v. Help Lord; for there is no longer any that is godly, for the faithful have vanished from among the sons of men. (Psalm 12:1) (Repeat the above.) 5. THE EPISTLE LESSON: (Romans 12:6-14) The Reading is from the holy Apostle Paul to the Romans. Brethren: We have gifts that differ according to the favor bestowed on each of us. One s gift may be prophecy; its use should be in proportion to his faith. It may be the gift of ministry; it should be used for service. One who is a teacher should use his gift for teaching, one with the power of exhortation should exhort. He who gives alms should do so generously. He who rules should exercise his authority with care. He who performs works of mercy should do so cheerfully. Your love must be sincere. Detest what is evil, cling to what is good. Love one another with the affection of brothers. Anticipate each other in showing respect. Do not grow slack but be fervent in spirit. He whom you serve is the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient under trial, persevere in prayer. Look on the needs of the saints as your own. Be generous in offering hospitality. Bless your persecutors, bless and do not curse them. 6. ALLELUIA: (Psalm 89:1-2) Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! (Repeat after each verse.) v. I will sing of Your steadfast love, O Lord, forever. With my mouth I will proclaim Your faithfulness to all generations. v. For Your steadfast love was established forever, Your faithfulness is firm as the heavens. 7. THE GOSPEL LESSON: (Matthew 9:1-8) Let Us All Be Attentive: At that time, getting into a boat, Jesus crossed over and came to his own town. And behold, they brought to him a paralytic lying on a pallet. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven you. And behold, some of the Scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemes. And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why do you harbor evil thoughts in your hearts? For which is easier to say, Your sins are forgiven you, or to say, Arise and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins then he said to the paralytic Arise, take up your pallet and go to your house. And he arose and went away to his house. But when the crowds saw it, they were struck with fear and glorified God who had given such power to men. The Day I Became a Psychic and Denounced It By John Sanidopoulos from his Orthodox Mystagogy Resource Center When I was in high school I would often spend my lunch and free time in the library reading. My goal was to acquire the knowledge one could not receive in the classroom. Among the books that caught my eye was a twelve-volume encyclopedia of the occult and strange practices throughout the world. Fascinated, I ended up reading all twelve volumes. One evening around this time, when I was about 17 years old, I was sitting alone on my couch watching television. Specifically, I was watching one of my favorite shows at the time, the game show. For those who don't know, Jeopardy features trivia on a wide variety of topics, and for every answer one of the three contestants get correctly, they win a certain amount of money, and the one who has accumulated the most money by the end of the game, wins what they have earned. My knowledge of the topics was nowhere near where it is now, but the quiz show was a fun way to test the level of your knowledge on a wide variety of subjects. The show at the time aired every weekday evening at 7:30 PM, and on this particular evening I was doing rather horrible. As I recall, by the time it came to the final Jeopardy question, I believe I had only answered three of the questions correctly. This was a disappointment to me. Now the hardest question in Jeopardy and the one that could be worth the most money is the last one, and I was hoping to get it correct after my poor performance. But before this final

3 question, my local channel at the time would air the daily lottery drawing at 7:55 PM. One of the things I liked to do was try and guess the four numbers of the lottery drawing, and I never guessed correctly. Upset by my Jeopardy performance, I was really hoping to guess the right numbers to make me feel better. My usual method was to simply call out four random numbers, and that's it. This time however, I closed my eyes, concentrated real hard, and pictured four numbers. This was a technique of trusting one's intuition to harness one's psychic abilities that I learned in the occult encyclopedia. I wasn't very serious about it. In fact, I was only joking around. I can't remember the numbers I called out that day, but in the order I pictured those numbers in my mind, in the same order were they drawn. I was speechless, yet amazed and excited at the same time. "If only I had played the lottery!" I thought. Reinvigorated, I sat up from my slumbered position on the couch & awaited the final Jeopardy question. The topic was announced to be the name of a person. The host asked the question, and though I cannot remember the question except that it asked for the name of a very obscure person, one thing I knew was that I had no idea what the answer was nor could I understand the question. I didn't even bother guessing, because how can you guess the name of an obscure person? But then I remembered my technique I used to guess correctly the numbers of the lottery. So I closed my eyes and concentrated on a very obscure foreign name that I had never heard of nor even knew existed. As I did this a name came out of me, that sounded more like a made up name than anything else. I knew it was wrong, but I said it anyway. This name was so obscure, long and hard to spell, that I cannot even recall what it sounded like. The host asked the three contestants for their answer. As they showed the answer they had written, one by one got the answer wrong, causing two contestants to lose all their money, and the winner had only one dollar left. Then the host told them the answer. Till this day I shudder when I say this, but my random "fake" name was in fact the correct answer. Whereas before when I guessed the lottery numbers I was amazed and excited, this time my jaw dropped and I became a bit troubled after a few seconds of astonishment. Over the next minute or two I wondered what to do with this strange ability to predict things correctly. If I harnessed this power, maybe I could become rich and powerful. But things did not feel right. Opposite my couch were a few holy icons. When I looked at them I knew deep down inside that something was wrong, so I decided to make the sign of the cross, kiss the holy icon of the Virgin Mary, and I vowed I would never play around with predictions like that again. All it did was bring about temptations, and it felt like those predictions didn't even come from me. When I said this, I felt a great burden come off of me. Over the years I have studied many psychics and mediums, and though a great majority of them are charlatans, I have also come to believe there is an authenticity to some of them. Many of the legitimate ones start out with experiences similar to mine, and they go on to read books on the subject and practice techniques to harness their ability. For the most part, the authentic psychics are not bad people, but whether or not they say they use their powers for good, they are deluded by evil spirits. As St. John Climacus similarly writes about people who believe their dreams can predict the future: "The demons of vainglory prophesy in dreams. Being unscrupulous, they guess the future and foretell it to us. When these visions come true, we are amazed; and we are indeed elated with the thought that we are already near to the gift of foreknowledge. A demon is often a prophet to those who believe him, but he is always a liar to those who despise him. Being a spirit he sees what is happening in the lower air, and noticing that someone is dying, he foretells it to the more credulous types of people through dreams. But the demons know nothing about the future from foreknowledge. For if they did, then the sorcerers would also have been able to foretell our death."

4 FIRST DEANERY MISSION TEAM Our first service mission for our Deanery s Orthodox Youth Mission Team is already at work. A mission team of 12 members from NY & NJ departed yesterday morning for Salem Va. There, they met up with 45 other Orthodox youth from CT, MD, GA & MS to form a work team for the Appalachian Service Project. The Team is attending Liturgy this morning at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Roanoke VA and from there, heading to Tennessee where they will provide hands on labor to help those in one of the most rural & economically challenged area of our country with construction & repair projects to help make homes; Warmer, Safer & Drier. During the week, the youth will be helping in all phases of construction projects as 8 teams are sent out each morning. In addition to the labor they will be providing, they will also be a witness to Jesus Christ as they love their neighbor as themselves and by their presence, make known the Orthodox Christian Church. This is the first annual Missions Project that our Deanery intends to send out each year. During the fall and winter, the Missions Office will review the needs of various missions & select one that is within our budget and skill level. In the spring we will begin staffing our Team, then during the summer we will send the Team out. You can participate in our Deanery s Mission Program by keeping our Team in your prayers, by volunteering your time and skills and by helping to finance missions work. You can send your donation to: Orthodox Youth Missions Team, 145 Broad Street, Perth Amboy, NJ, Checks should be made payable to OYMT Team Members: Anastasia Benc, Genevieve Duguid, Alexander Ioukliaevskikh, Dmitri Lee, Vladimir Lee, Sophia Lizanets, Christina Scizak, Fr. Andrew Fetchina, M. Charity Fetchina, Ernie Delcher, Mary Ann Delcher and Christina Ioukliaevskikh. St. Theophilus the Myrrh-Gusher Saint Theophilus was from Ziki in Macedonia, and lived during the sixteenth century. He had a very good education, but more importantly he dedicated himself to God, purifying himself from every soul-destroying passion, and acquiring every virtue which filled him with the grace of the All-Holy Spirit. He travelled to Alexandria, at the request of Patriarch Niphon of Constantinople, in order to determine whether the stories about Patriarch Joachim being able to move mountains and to drink poison with no ill effects were true or not. After looking into the matter, he was able to verify that these stories were true. After completing this work, Saint Theophilus went to struggle on the Holy Mountain, living first at Vatopedi, then at Iveron before settling at Saint Basil s cell near Karyes. Although he did not seek the praise of men, the fame of the holy ascetic became known on Mount Athos, and in other places as well. His holy life and spiritual gifts could not be hidden, but were revealed by the Lord. When the Archbishop of Thessalonica reposed, Saint Theophilus was nominated for this office. Out of humility, however, he declined to accept the position. In 1548, as he felt the approach of death, Saint Theophilus told his disciple Isaac not to give him an honorable burial, but to tie a cord around his feet and drag him out of the monastery, and then to throw his body into a nearby stream. When the saint fell asleep in the Lord on July 8, 1548, Isaac carried out the instructions of his Elder. Although he was reluctant to do this, he obeyed the saint just as he had always done when Saint Theophilus was alive. By God s will, the holy relics of Saint Theophilus were later found and brought to his cell. Then a fragrant myrrh began to flow from the saint s incorrupt body, which was later enshrined at the Pantokrator Monastery.

5 St. Gregory of Nyssa Orthodox Church 1100 Hicksville Rd. Seaford, NY, Rev. Fr. Andrew Gromm (516) / stgregoryseaford@gmail.com Website: Weekly Bible Message July 8, 2018 Some people try to say that the Lord Jesus never said that He is God. And no matter how specifically Jesus says He is God, it s never specific enough for these people. But there was a miracle where Jesus went out of His way to demonstrate His divinity. This occurred when He came to Capernaum. A paralyzed man was carried by his friends to Jesus for healing. Jesus saw their faith and told the man that his sins are forgiven. This is something only God can do, which the good Jewish scribes were thinking in their minds. As far as they were concerned, Christ was calling Himself God. But Jesus could read their minds, which is something only God can do. He asked them why they were thinking this way. So to prove that He has power to forgive sins, He told the man to get up and walk. So the man did this. The people were amazed and glorified God. All this is another sign that Christ is God. He has the power to forgive sins; He can read minds; He can heal by His word alone, which only God can do. But there are saints who have the gift of clairvoyance, to read people s minds. This only occurs by the Holy Spirit for the sake of helping our salvation. Other people read minds but they are not saints, only frauds or friends of demons. They concentrate on spiritual techniques & they are fed information. But even demons can t read our minds, so the information is faulty or limited to facts that aren t difficult to find if you can fly in the air! So don t be fooled by psychics who hear things from skillful demons guessing our thoughts. Only prayerful, right-believing people are given such gifts because people aren t created with such powers. God watches over our thoughts and knows our hearts for the sake of our salvation. This is why we trust only Him.