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. 696 Sunday June 11 (5/29), st Sunday after Pentecost Sunday of All Saints Virgin-martyr Theodosia of Tyre (308) احد جميع القديسين األحد األول بعد العنصرة تذكار القديسة الشهيدة ثاودوسيا Matins (Eothina I): Matthew 28:16 20 Epistle: Hebrews 11:33 12:2 Gospel: Matthew 10:32 33; 37 38; 19:27 30 Services This Week Wednesday 6/7 at 10am Third Finding of the Precious Head of St. John the Baptist Special Service to Receive the Holy Light from Jerusalem Friday 6/9 at 7pm The Holy Light which was lit on Holy Saturday this year from the Church of Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem is traveling to certain parts of the USA. It already arrived in San Francisco few days ago, and at St. Anthony's Monastery in Arizona on Thursday, and at Life-Giving Spring Monastery in Dunlap on Friday. With God s Grace, we will have the Holy Light arriving at St. James Orthodox Church in Milpitas this Friday June 9. We will have a special Vespers service starting at 7pm during which we will receive the Holy Light. Please bring safe containers so you can lit your candles and take them home with you to light your candles at home.

2 Sunday of All Saints Sunday June 11 Fixed in the liturgical calendar is this first Sunday after the Holy Feast of Pentecost known as All Saints. The icon of All Saints is overwhelming as it contains saints from every walk of life all encircling Jesus Christ our Lord. This feast always follows upon the celebration of Holy Pentecost as a witness to the work of the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the saving reality of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit has come to make people holy. He has come to indwell the Church and make Her a saint-making factory. Saint production is what this age is for. It is the purpose of this life. What is a Saint? A saint is a consistent Christian. In this sense there is nothing beyond what one would expect from someone following the teachings of Jesus. What is unique about a saint is that he or she keeps the Lord Jesus teachings consistently. In this sense we are all called to be saints. A saint is someone who remains what they became at Holy Baptism and/or Chrismation. All of us became saints in this life at our baptisms. When we came forth from the holy font we were without sin, clothed in a garment of righteousness and glory. Saints are those who keep their garments pure and unspotted after baptism. Some saints actually did sully their baptismal garments with grievous sins, but then whitened them with the ultimate cleansing bleach, which is the tears of repentance, and so regained their glory. A saint is an occupant of heaven. By glorifying or canonizing an individual as a saint the Church is affirming that that person has lived a God-pleasing life and has attained to the Kingdom of God. That is what a saint is: someone who is in heaven. The very act of glorifying saints is an act of proclaiming with certitude that these individuals are Christ s friends and are in the kingdom now. The saint, the consistent Christian, is the one who loves Jesus Christ above every other love. Jesus said He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. This calling from Christ is one of the greatest proofs of His divinity. No prophet of God ever called men and women to adore him, and to love him like this. Only Christ Jesus can ask this of us, because He is not just a Prophet. He is our God, our Maker, our Fashioner, and our Redeemer. The saints are those who love Christ like this, as we are all called to love Him. St. Peter says to the Lord, Behold we have forsaken all and followed Thee; what shall we have? Note that by Peter s own confession he and the Apostles had already fulfilled the first calling of love. They had indeed already put the love of Jesus above every other human love. Few things can profit the soul of a Christian more than reading the Lives of the Twelve Holy Apostles. Most of the Apostles were married men. They had families. When they heard from our Savior that they must love Him above their wives they knew what that means. They and their wives and their children agreed to put Christ s interests first above those of their marriages and families, and thank God they did or we would all be in the darkness of ignorance today. Having posed his question Peter then heard from the Lord a promise that all would receive 100 times as much as they had given up and would inherit eternal life. We must patiently maintain our love of Christ first in our life during the days of our earthly sojourns. How much we must learn to patiently maintain our love for Jesus. Patience means to suffer and to endure, to wait on the Lord through every tribulation, and to do so with faith, hope and courage. Love for Christ above every other love today is not enough. We must have this love tomorrow, and the next day, and until our last breath, and this type of love only comes through patience. How many there are who will love Christ for a few days, but then lose patience. They expect everything in the spiritual life at once, with little striving or spiritual effort. They are not willing to live out their lives of struggle in the Church with constant striving and mutual endurance of ourselves and each other and everything that life brings. Such quick- fix expectations do not produce saints.

3 None of us have this patience in the capacity of our own wills. Such virtue as patience comes from God, from the Holy Spirit, from the Feast of Holy Pentecost. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, etc. (Gal. 5:22ff). Patience, the power to stay on the Cross, comes from the Holy Spirit in our lives. Seek from Him and you shall find. Ask of Him and you shall receive. Knock on the door of patience and the Holy Spirit will open it for you. May the acquisition of Christian love and patience make us worthy of Christ, and the name saint. Amen. أحد جميع القديسين - ١١ حزيران في هذا األحد األول بعد العنصرة ن عي د لجميع القديسين. الكنيسة واحدة جامعة مقد سة رسولية. القداسة في الكنيسة الحقيقي ة. هي غاية التجس د والفداء والخالص والقيامة. القداسة هي الفصح. به اإلنسان يعبر بقوة نعمة الروح القدس مع المسيح من الموت إلى الحياة والقيامة والملكوت. ولهذا وضعت الكنيسة هنا ذكرى جميع القديسين بعد أحد العنصرة وحلول الروح القدس. ألن القديسين تقد سوا بفعل الروح القدس وأضح وا ثمار ا للمسيح يانعة يتغذ ى بها المؤمون وبهجة للكنيسة ينيرونها بأشع ة مواهبهم وشذى فضائلهم وقو ة شفاعتهم.هذا األحد هو ختام الدور الخمسيني. فبشفاعة والدتك وجميع قديسيك. أي ها المسيح إله نا ارحمنا. آمين. No Fasting This Week This week 6/5 6/11 is Fast-Free Week! No Fasting on Wednesday 6/7 or Friday 6/9. Attention Parents and Friends of 2017 Graduates! تمنع الكنيسة الصوم خالل هذا االسبوع الذي يتبع احد العنصرة Starts Next Week June 12 July 11 بدء صوم الرسل االسبوع القادم General ing Rules Fish, Wine, and Oil allowed on all Saturdays and Sundays Wine and Oil allowed on all Tuesdays and Thursdays Strict Fast (No Oil or Wine Allowed) on all Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Exceptions to fasting rules will be announced as they occur Have a Blessed Fast! Sunday School Summer Break NEXT Sunday June 11 is the last day *** Final Week *** Please Don t Miss Sharing Your Good News With Us Any College or School Level Graduates: Please your graduation or regular pictures to sjoc@earthlink.net to be posted in the bulletin. All graduates pictures and greetings will be posted NEXT WEEK. Choir 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 June 16 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. Sunday School classes will be on break June September sjoc@earthlink.net for your bulletin personal announcements, comments, or feedback.

4 June 2017 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 7:00pm Choir Practice 3 9:30am Sts. Constantine & Helen Saturday of the sols 4 Pentecost Sunday & Kneeling Service am 3 rd Finding of the Head of St. John the Baptist 8 7:00pm Festival Committee Meeting 8pm Board Meeting 9 7pm Special Verspers Service Lasty Day of Sunday School :00pm Festival Committee Meeting :00pm Choir Practice :00pm Festival Committee Meeting am Apostles Barthalomew & Barnabas :00pm Festival Committee Meeting :00pm Choir Practice Notes:

5 Wednesday June 7 (5/25) Third Finding of the Precious Head of St. John the Baptist The Third Discovery of the Venerable Head of the Holy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John occurred in about the year 850. The head of St John the Forerunner was found in the city of Emesia during a time of unrest at Constantinople connected with the exile of St John Chrysostom. It was transferred to Komana during the Saracen raids (about ) and it was hidden in the ground during a period of iconoclastic persecution. When the veneration of icons was restored, Patriarch Ignatius ( ) saw in a vision the place where the head of St John the Forerunner was hidden. The patriarch communicated this to the emperor, who sent a delegation to Komana. There the head was found a third time arond the year 850. Afterwards the head was again transferred to Constantinople, and here on May 25 it was placed in a church at the court. Part of the head is on Mt. Athos. By giving your venerable head to a sinful woman, Herod broke the law of God. But we behold it and cry out for joy, And say to you, O forerunner: Pray to the Lord that He may grant mercy to us all! ان العمود االلهي الساطع الضياء في العالم والمصباح السابق الشمس العقلية. قد اظهر هامته االلهية المتشحة بالنور. فيتقدس بها الذين في اقطار االرض ساجدين لها. وهاتفين بايمان: يا صابغ المسيح الحكيم ابتهل ألجل خالصنا جميعا. TRIALS The weather is severe, rain, wind and cold, so that even with a fur coat you have to run for more fuel for the fire. But fresh air and clear weather are also not always beneficial: worms and other insects appear in the plants, damaging the good fruit. This happens in our spiritual formation as well. If the presence of grace, peace, quiet, and freedom from the attacks of the passions is prolonged and remains with us continuously, it is dangerous because we can develop high-mindedness and be deprived of protection. We will then not be skilled in battling the passions and will depart from the path of sorrow. Therefore, God tries us with unpleasant things, so that we can see our infirmities, for our patience and humility. - St. Macarius Scrip Scrip Scrip For Dads & Grads Father s Day and Graduations are just around the corner. Please consider buying Scrip gift cards for dads and your graduates. Big variety of restaurants and department stores. Complete list of retailers at Please allow one week for delivery. See or call Lilian (408) to place your order early. Lubna Khadder 6/6 Amalia Fisher 6/6 Isaac Halasa 6/7 Adrian Nassar 6/7 عقبال المئة سنة!!!

6 Virgin-martyr Theodosia of Tyre Sunday June 11 (5/29) Saint Theodosia of Tyre lived during the third and fourth centuries. Once, during a persecution against Christians, which had already lasted for five years, the seventeen-year-old Theodosia went up to condemned Christian prisoners in the Praetorium in Caesarea, Palestine. It was the day of Holy Pascha, and the martyrs spoke about the Kingdom of God. St Theodosia asked them to remember her before the Lord, when they should come to stand before Him. Soldiers saw that the maiden bowed to the prisoners, and they seized her and led her before the governor, Urban. The governor advised the maiden to offer sacrifice to the idols but she refused, confessing her faith in Christ. Then they subjected the saint to cruel tortures, raking her body with iron claws until her bones were exposed. The martyr was silent and endured the sufferings with a happy face, and to a second suggestion by the governor to offer sacrifice to the idols she answered, You fool, I have been granted to join the martyrs! They threw the maiden with a stone about her neck into the sea, but angels drew her out from the depths. Then they threw the martyr to the wild beasts to be eaten by them. Seeing that the beasts would not touch her, they cut off her head. By night St Theodosia appeared to her parents, who had tried to talk their daughter into not going to the sufferings. She was in bright garb with a crown upon her head and a luminous gold cross in her hand, and she said, Behold the great glory of which you wanted to deprive me! The Holy Martyr Theodosia of Tyre suffered for Christ in the year 307 or 308. On May 29 we commemorate the transfer of her relics to Constantinople and Venice. She is also commemorated on April 3 Through your striving, O venerable Theodosia, You inherited a life of peace. By shedding your blood, you vanquished the enemy of the Church of Christ. As you rejoice now in His presence, ever pray to Him for us all! انك بأوجاعك ورثت الحياة التي ال وجع فيها و بدمائك خنقت الون عدو كنيسة المسيح يا كلية المديح. واآلن فبما ان ت ماثلة لدى المسيح مسرورة ال تنفكي مبتهلة من اجلنا. Lunch This Sunday June 11 Mark Your Calendar St. James 12 th Annual Food Festival September 15, 16, 17 will be provided by Akram Hanna Constantine Menezes Thank you and God bless you. Festival Committee Meeting This Thursday June 8 at 7pm

7 On the Sin of Anger By Father George Calciu 1 The Savior warns us in severe terms concerning anger that gives birth to verbal conflicts and the use of abusive words. I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire (Matthew 5:22). See, therefore, that Jesus sanctions neither anger expressed outwardly nor anger in one's thought. No one thinks evil without corrupting the heart in which God should dwell. Whoever is angered in thought against his brother tears apart a sacred tie between him and the other. And this tie is difficult to reestablish, because the demon of anger, once it has penetrated the heart, fabricates numerous arguments in your defense that stop you from reconciling. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, the holy Apostle Paul gives a series of counsels to the inhabitants of the city of Ephesus and emphasizes the sin of anger in a special way. Knowing that man gets angry for many reasons and that this anger has the tendency to remain in the heart of man and to transform it into hatred (or at least to dig a gulf between us), the Apostle counsels us not to allow the sun to go down upon our anger. Through this counsel, the power of anger--which often hurts and eventually becomes a deep-rooted sin--is swept away and its power dissolved. I am concerned about the sin of anger as an everyday sin committed against those who are close to us: against our family, friends, colleagues, and anonymous strangers who happen to cross our path. In an instant, anger expressed through fiery words against our wife or husband wounds the sensitive bond between the married couple. In the mystery of marriage, the Bridegroom is the symbol of Jesus, and the Bride is the Church. The holy Apostle Paul, in the Epistle to the Ephesians--the Epistle that is read at the crowning service [the marriage ceremony]--in this sense speaks about the family as a family church in which the bridegroom loves the bride with the love with which Jesus loves the Church, and the bride loves the bridegroom with the love which the Church loves Christ. If the husband and wife would ponder on their marriage as the relationship between Christ and Church, the sun would never set upon their wrath, and they would never separate. Neither would the children be delivered over to state or private institutions, like some worn-out objects no longer needed by these two, separated through the sin of anger, which was not extinguished at the setting of the sun. The love of their family becomes a hollow word, which no longer matters before the demon who took complete mastery. A word said in anger wounds just as seriously as a physical blow. If he who wounds does not rectify the spiritual damage, little by little, a gulf is dug between the two, a deadly coldness kills the sentiment of love and respect appropriate between husband and wife; time deepens and enlarges the gulf. Later it is very difficult for them to be able to throw a bridge across it--only with great effort and suffering. I have seen spouses--who had maintained a good marriage for many years--divorce after many years, causing pain for their children, who were, perhaps, already married. I have also seen happy spouses divorce after a short time, all caused by anger over time, leaving small children to grow up in frustration and confusion, not understanding who is father or mother. Later, following the example of their parents, they no longer consider marriage to be a sacred bond, like that between Christ and the Church. I have seen brothers who loved each other in Romania, but after arriving in America became estranged due to the pressures of being in a foreign land and the difficulties of adapting. They remained enemies until 1 Father George Calciu, Interviews, Homilies and Talks, pp , published by St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, translated from Romanian.

8 death, because their anger burst out fiercely into strong words and because they allowed the sun to go down upon their anger. An Arabic proverb says that when you become upset, count to ten, and if you are roused to anger, to count to one hundred. I do not know how effective this solution is, because it does not contain a mystical element; it merely appeals to the reason to moderate the outward expression of anger. I counsel my penitents that before they express their anger, be it in speech or gestures, be it only mentally, to utter three or five times, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. And if they say the prayer quickly and inattentively under the oppression of anger, then they should concentrate with humility upon the word "sinner," and their anger will abate. Many of them have succeeded in making their life, their family relationships, their relations with other people, and even their interior life change for the better. All the conflicts in the world have their origin in unabated anger. One is angry and wounds the other, who then responds with greater violence and strength. Once this chain is begun, it cannot be stopped except through the appeal of prayer--genuine prayer. Change the conditions of this equation and substitute groups of people for individuals and you will realize the immense dimension of the disaster spawned by anger. Try to put an unshakable obstacle before the demon of anger. Put a guard on your mouth (Psalm 140:3) and change the evil thoughts originating from the impulse of anger, and your interior life will be transformed. The blessing of the Lord will work in your heart, your tongue will no longer be so sharp, and the Jesus Prayer, uttered at the necessary times, will convince you of your sinful state, thus stopping you from either exteriorizing anger or keeping it in your mind and heart. The name of Jesus is sweet to utter. It casts out the demons and brings the angels back into the heart, into the mind, and you will bear yourself in meekness before others. من المزامير الروحية للقديس افرام السوري المزمور رقم 18 رغم خطاياي اصغ الي اقص العدو وقوني نحو الصالح أيها االله الصالح والمسبح أيها االله الكائن قبل االزل: اصغ الى هذا االنسان الى هذا الخاطىء في هذه الساعة! استمع الي يا الله استمع الي في حصنك ال تذكر عقوق عدم استحقاقي الدائم. استجب لصالتي بنار كما فعلت مرة بنبيك. يا اله القوات المقدسة! يا خالق عادمي االجساد انت يا من نطقت: اسألوا ت عطوا! ال تتثبط بي انا النجس الذي نجست شفتي وانا مغطى بالخطايا. استمع الي يا من وعدت أن تسمع الذين يدعونك في الحق ووجه خطوات عبدك الى طريق السالم. اني أصرخ اليك من كل قلبي: يا الله يا الله استمع الي يا رجاء جميع أقاصي االرض والذين يرحلون بعيدا. اطرد كل االرواح النجسة كي تفر من وجه عبدك. تقلد اسلحتك وترسك وانهض لمعونتي. استل سيفك واسحق الذين يضطهدونني. يا رب اخبر نفسي: أنا خالصك. لينسحب من نفسي روح الخوف روح القنوط وروح الكبرياء وكل طرق الخبث. لتنطفىء فيها كل طرق االثارة التي انتجتها أعمال الشرير. لتستنر روحي ونفسي وجسدي بنور معرفتك. فالبلغ انا انسانا كامال مخلوقا بحسب مقياس قامة ملء المسيح مع المالئكة وكل الذين أرضوك طوال العصور وسأمجد اسمك الكلي االحترام والوقار أيها أآلب

9 St. James Orthodox Church Invites you to our Annual Picnic in the Park! CARDOZA PARK Area A Kennedy Drive off North Park Victoria Drive, Milpitas, CA Saturday, July 15 th B-B-Q Starts at 1pm Two Full Size Playgrounds for all ages! Great Raffle Prizes! B B Q Chicken, Arayis, Burgers, Hot dogs & Much More! Adults $15 Donation Kids 12& Under $5

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