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 22, 2018 / Eighth Sunday After Pentecost Epistle: 1 Corinthians 1:10-18; Gospel: Matthew 14:14-22; Tone 7 Commemorations: St. Mary Magdalene (+A.D. 55); St. Cyril I, Patriarch of Antioch (+298); St. Wandregisilus (+668); St. Marcella of Chios (+1350); St. Cornelius of Pereyaslavl (+1693). Friday, July 27th 9:00 AM Divine Liturgy (Panteleimon) Saturday, July 28th 5:30 PM Vespers Cars: It s time to bless cars! See Fr. Andrew if you d like any kind of vehicle blessed. Parking Lot: Our parking lot looks new again! Thanks for the contribution. But there are still a few more important projects to go to keep our place spruced up. Goodies: Pieroghi are still for sale in the kitchen! Parish Finances: Last week s contributions were $994 and expenses were $2065. Weekly Specials: Anniversaries= Russell and Valerie Howard (22nd). Prayers: Health for Kathleen, Martha, Eugenia, Gregory, Elizabeth, Anthony, Mary, Chris, Mary, Anna, Lydia, Anne, Frank, Paul, Maria, Danielle, Adriana, Mary and Dana. Rubrics for the 8th Sunday of Pentecost 1. RESURRECTION TROPAR: (Tone 7) You have destroyed death by Your Cross. * You opened Paradise to the thief. * You changed the weeping of the myrrh-bearers to joy. * You commanded Your Apostles to proclaim, * Christ our God has risen, * granting great mercy to the world. 2. RESURRECTION KONDAK: (Tone 7) Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. No longer can the might of death rule over men, * for Christ has come destroying and shattering its power. * Death is bound in chains; * the prophets with joy unite their voices, saying, * The Savior has come to those who believe! * Enter, faithful, into the Resurrection! 3. BIRTHGIVER HYMN: (Tone 7) Now and ever and forever. Amen. O woman worthy of all praise, * since you are the treasury of our resurrection, * raise from the pit of their transgressions * those who trust in you. * By giving birth to Salvation, * you saved those who bear the consequence of sin. * O you, a Virgin before birth-giving, * a Virgin during it and a Virgin after it! 4. PROKEIMENON: (Tone 7) The Lord will give strength to His people and the Lord will bless His people with peace. v. Ascribe to the Lord, O you sons of God, ascribe to the Lord glory & strength. (Psalm 29:1)

2 5. THE EPISTLE LESSON: (1 Corinthians 1:10-18) The Reading is from the holy Apostle Paul to the Corinthians. Brethren: I beg you, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to agree in what you say. Let there be no factions. Rather, be united in mind and judgment. I have been informed, my brethren, by certain members of Chloe s household that you are quarreling among yourselves. This is what I mean: One of you will say, I belong to Paul, and other, I belong to Apollos, still another, Cephas has my allegiance, and the fourth, I belong to Christ. Has Christ, then, been divided into parts? Was it Paul who was crucified for you? Was it in Paul s name that you were baptized? Thank God, I baptized none of you except Crispus & Gaius, so there are none who can say that you were baptized in my name. Oh, and I baptized the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I am not aware of having baptized anyone else. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the Gospel, not with wordy wisdom, however, lest the Cross of Christ be rendered void of its meaning! For the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 6. ALLELUIA: Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! (Repeat after each verse.) v. It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to Your Name, O Most High. (Ps. 92:1) v. To declare Your steadfast love in the morning & Your faithfulness by night. (Psalm 92:1) 7. THE GOSPEL LESSON: (Matthew 14:14-22) Let Us All Be Attentive: At that time, when Jesus saw a large crowd, out of compassion for them he cured their sick. Now when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place and the hour is already late. Send the crowds away, so that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food. But Jesus said to them, They do not need to go away. You yourselves give them some food. They answered him, We have here only 5 loaves & 2 fishes. He said to them, Bring them here to me. And when he had ordered the crowd to sit down on the grass, he took the 5 loaves & the 2 fishes, and looking up to heaven, blessed & broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowd. And all ate and were satisfied. And they gathered up what was left over, twelve baskets full of fragments. Now the number of those who had eaten was 5000 men, not counting women and children. And immediately afterwards he made his disciples get into the boat and cross ahead of him, while he dismissed the crowd. St. Mary Magdalene, Holy Myrrh-Bearer, Equal to the Apostles A woman whose name has entered forever into the Gospel account was born and grew up in Magdala. Tradition informs us that Mary of Magdala was young and pretty, and led a sinful life. It says in the Gospels that the Lord expelled seven devils from Mary (Luke 8:2). From the moment of her healing Mary led a new life, and became a true disciple of the Savior. The Gospel relates that Mary followed the Lord as He went with the Apostles through Israel preaching God s Kingdom. With the pious women Joanna, wife of Choza (Herod s steward), Susanna and others, she served Him from her own possessions (Luke 8:1-3) & shared with the Apostles the evangelic tasks with the other women. The Evangelist Luke says at the Procession of Christ to Golgotha, after the Scourging & taking the heavy Cross, collapsing under its weight, the women followed Him weeping, but He consoled them. The Gospel says Mary Magdalene was present at the Lord s Crucifixion. While all the disciples of the Savior ran away, she and the other women remained fearlessly at the Cross with the Mother of God and the Apostle John. The Evangelists list the women at the Cross, but all mention Mary Magdalene first. Saint John, in addition to the Mother of God, names only her and Mary Cleopas. This indicates how much she stood out from all the women who gathered around the Lord. She was faithful to Him in the days of His Glory, also at the moment of His extreme humiliation and insult. As the Evangelist Matthew relates, she was present at the Burial of the Lord. Before

3 her eyes Joseph and Nicodemus went out to the tomb with His lifeless Body. She watched as they covered over the entrance to the cave with a large stone, entombing the Source of Life. Faithful to the Law in which she was raised, Mary together with the other women spent the following day at rest because it was the great day of the Sabbath, coinciding with the Feast of Passover. But all the rest of the peaceful day the women gathered spices to go to the Grave of the Lord at dawn on Sunday and anoint His Body according to the custom of the Jews. The Evangelist Matthew writes that the women went to the grave at dawn. The Evangelist John says that Mary came to the grave so early that it was still dark. Obviously, she waited impatiently for the end of night and ran to the place where the Lord s Body lay. Mary went to the tomb alone. Seeing the stone away from the cave, she ran to tell the close Apostles of Christ, Peter & John. Hearing the strange message that the Lord was gone from the tomb, both Apostles ran to the tomb and, seeing the shroud & winding cloths, were amazed. The Apostles said nothing to anyone, but Mary stood at the entrance to the tomb and wept. Wanting proof that the tomb was empty, she went to it and saw two angels in white garments, one sitting at the head, the other at the foot, where the Body of Jesus was placed. They asked, Woman, why weepest thou? She answered, They have taken my Lord & I do not know where they have laid Him. She turned & saw the Risen Jesus but did not recognize Him. He asked Mary, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom dost thou seek? She answered thinking he was the gardener, Sir, if thou hast taken him, tell where thou hast put Him & I will take Him away. Then she recognized the Lord s voice. He spoke her name & gave a joyful shout, Rabbi (Teacher). She could say no more & threw herself at the feet of her Teacher to wash them with tears of joy. But the Lord said to her: Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren & tell them: I ascend to My Father, and your Father; to My God and to your God. She ran to the Apostles to do the will of Him sending her to preach. She ran into the house, where the Apostles still remained in dismay and proclaimed to them the joyous message, I have seen the Lord! This was the first preaching in the world about the Resurrection. The Apostles proclaimed the Glad Tidings to the world, but she proclaimed it to the Apostles. She must have stayed with them after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ because Saint Luke in Acts writes of women being with the Apostles at the time in the Book of Acts. Holy Tradition testifies that when the Apostles left Jerusalem to preach to all the ends of the earth, Mary Magdalene went beyond her native land & preached in Rome. Everywhere she proclaimed Christ & His teaching. She repeated to them what she said to the Apostles on the morning of the Resurrection: I have seen the Lord! With this message she went all over Italy. Tradition relates that Mary Magdalene proclaimed Christ s Resurrection to Emperor Tiberias (A.D.14-37). She gave him a red egg as a symbol of the Resurrection, of new life with the words: Christ is Risen! Then she told the emperor that in Judea the unjustly-condemned Jesus the Galilean, a holy man, miracle-worker, powerful before God & mankind, was executed at the instigation of the Jewish High Priests, confirmed by Pontius Pilate. Mary said we are redeemed from the vanity of life not with perishable silver or gold, but by the precious Blood of Christ. Mary Magdalene continued preaching in Italy & Rome. The Apostle Paul in Romans 16:6 cites Mary (Mariam), who has bestowed much labor on us. Evidently, she extensively served the Church in its subsistence & difficulties, being exposed to dangers & the labors of preaching. In Church Tradition, she stayed in Rome until the arrival of the Apostle Paul, and for two more years after his departure from Rome. Saint Mary Magdalene then went to Ephesus where the holy Apostle John unceasingly labored. There the saint finished her earthly life and was buried. Formerly immersed in sin and was healed, she sincerely and irrevocably began a new life and never wavered from that path. Mary loved the Lord Who called her to a new life. She was faithful to Him when He was surrounded by enthusiastic crowds as a miracle-worker and when all the disciples deserted Him in fear and He, humiliated and crucified, hung in torment on the Cross. This is why the Lord, knowing her faithfulness, appeared to her first, and esteemed her worthy to be first to proclaim His Resurrection.

4 St. Gregory of Nyssa Orthodox Church 1100 Hicksville Rd. Seaford, NY, Rev. Fr. Andrew Gromm (516) / stgregoryseaford@gmail.com Website: Weekly Bible Message July 22, 2018 At the seminary, we heard stories of the olden days when parishioners fought with each other. In some cases, the parishioners treated their priests almost like an enemy! This didn t happen in most churches, but there were times and places where it did happen. St. Paul was bothered by divisions in Corinth. What they did was to claim allegiance to a certain Apostle. Some were of Paul; some were of Apollos; some were of Peter. These factions sound a lot like today s divisions, with some people of Luther or of Calvin or of the pope. This was not acceptable to St. Paul by the Holy Spirit. And it should not be acceptable to us today. When people in a church tend to fight, even if they can still sit together for fellowship hour, it undermines prayer and worship to some extent. Going to church shouldn t be treated like a potential time for arguing over something. Our minds need to be repentant and forgiving. When there are love, unity and focus, prayer becomes effective, especially when we pray together in unity. God will listen to our prayers when we are listening to Him properly. But this takes time and effort; and it begins with worshipping together in church with no distractions. So even in churches where people don t argue, their minds need to be clear from thinking negative things about others, especially others in the pews. Jesus Christ once said that we should first resolve our differences and then go to worship. We should be like those gathered around Jesus, listening to His every word. With such unity, He fed over 5000 people with 2 loaves & 5 fishes. This is about the Eucharist, where the Bread and Wine are a miracle of Christ s Body & Blood. It is what unites us in one loaf & one cup. May we hear every word of the Liturgy, forgetting all earthly cares, so as to be truly united.

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