SAINT JAMES ORTHODOX CHURCH

Transcription

1 SAINT JAMES ORTHODOX CHURCH 195 N. Main Street Milpitas, Ca Matins 8:00 a.m. Liturgy 10:30 a.m. The Very Reverend Fr. Jiris Hanna (408) Fr. Dcn. Joseph Kawar (408) Sunday May 25 (5/12), 2014 Sunday of the Blind Man St. Epiphanius, bishop of Cyprus, and St. Germanus Patriarch of Constantinople أحد األعمى ابوينا الجليلين في القديسين ابيفانيوس اسقف قبرص وجرمانوس رئيس اساقفة القسطنطينية Matins (Eothina VIII): John 20:11-18 Epistle: Acts 16:16 34 Gospel: John 9:1 38 Services This Week Wednesday 5/21 at 10am Holy Apostle and Evangelist John The Theologian Fish is Allowed on this Day تذكار Healing of the Blind Sunday of the Blind Man May 25 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.

2 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 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. ٥٢ ايار 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. فبرحمتك التي ال حد لها. أي ها المسيح إله نا ارحمنا. آمين. والش فاء بالماء يرم ز إلى االستنارة المقد سة. أي المعمودي ة Saints This Week Wednesday 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 Friday 5/23 (5/10) Holy Apostle Simon the Zealot With praise let us all bless Simon, the herald of God, who established the doctrines of wisdom securely in the souls of the pious. Now he stands before the throne of glory, and rejoicing with the angels, he unceasingly prays for us all. لنغبط كلنا بالتسابيح سمعان الالهج باهلل الذي غرس عقائد الحكمة في نفوس المؤمنين متأصلة ثابتة. فأنه ماثل اآلن لدى عرش المجد يبتهج مع المالئكة ويتشفع بال فتور من اجلنا جميعا Congratulations Akram & Hanadi Kildani For presenting their new-born baby-boy Jonathan Kildani To the Holy Altar on Sunday May 18 Congratulations May our Lord grant Jonathan and family with His blessings and grace for a holy life and good health. Attention Parents and Friends of 2014 Graduates! *** 5 Weeks Left *** To Elias and Maha Shehadeh for the birth of their baby-boy, the child of God Zaid Shehadeh Born on Wednesday May 14, May our Lord showers Zaid and family with His blessings and grace. 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 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 23. 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 Please allow one week for delivery. See or call Lilian (408) to place your order early.

4 THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN It will be enough if you take care to instruct your children in the fear of God, instill them with an Orthodox understanding, and by teaching them to be faithful, you protect them from reasoning that is foreign to the teachings of the Orthodox Church. The good that you sow in the hearts of your children while they are young will blossom forth in their hearts when they come to full maturity, after enduring the bitter trials of school and contemporary life, which often break off the branches of good Christian upbringing in the home. - St. Ambrose Sunday School Summer Break A Blessed Presence Sunday June 8 is the last day of Sunday School Sunday School classes will be on break June September PARENTS: During the summer break please keep your young children under your direct supervision throughout Sunday liturgy services and after services. Please remember Children having Snacks/Food/Drink inside the church during the services is NOT an acceptable Orthodox tradition. Having icons of Jesus, the Theotokos, and other saints, especially the patrons of family members, hung on the walls at home creates a spiritual atmosphere and encourages holiness at home. They are a source of grace and blessings. Handyman or Skilled Contractor Needed Thank you for your understanding and help! Happy Birthdays Khalil Ganim 5/19 Spiros Koutsorinakis 5/19 Elias Dahdah 5/20 Peter Isaid 5/22 Jindry Hina 5/23 Amanda Raie 5/24 Samuel Toma 5/25 Demiana Perry 5/25 عقبال المئة سنة!!! sjoc@earthlink.net or call (408) for your bulletin personal announcements, comments, or feedback. We plan to replace the carpet with tiles in the church office to make it ready to be our bookstore. If you, or someone you know have the skills for this job please contact Dcn. Joseph (408) Lunch This Sunday May 25 will be provided by Francis & Rima Nijmeh & family Thank you and God bless you.

5 Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian Wednesday 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

6 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 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. Volunteers Urgently Needed for Church Construction in Kenya! Two teams will be serving in the Turkana region of northern Kenya to help build the Church of St. Nicholas in the remote village of Lokichar. The first team will serve from June 17 th to July 1 st and the second from June 24 th to July 11 th. At least two more volunteers are urgently needed for each team. Apply online at You can also contact Andrew Lekos or Pres. Renee Ritsi by at teams@ocmc.org or by phone at ext. 141 if you are able to help build a church for our newly illumined Turkana brothers and sisters in Christ.

7 Holy Apostle Simon the Zealot Friday 5/23 (5/10) Saint Simon was from Cana in Galilee, and was known to the Lord and His Mother. Tradition says that he was the bridegroom at the wedding where the Savior performed His first miracle. After witnessing the miracle of the water which had been turned into wine, he became a zealous follower of Christ. For this reason, he is known as St Simon the Zealot. St Simon was one of the twelve Apostles, and received the Holy Spirit with the others on Pentecost. He traveled to many places from Britain to the Black Sea, proclaiming the Gospel of Christ. After winning many pagans to the Lord, St Simon suffered martyrdom by crucifixion. وحده لوقا في إنجيله كن اه ب "الغيور" )6: 51(. سفر أعمال الرسل أيضا ذكره بهذه الصفة )5: 51(. قيل أنه كان من قانا وأنه هو إياه العريس الذي حضر يسوع عرسه برفقة والدته وتالميذه. وقد ترك بيته وذويه وعروسه وتبع المعل م بعدما عرف بما جرى بشأن تحويل يسوع الماء خمرا. قيل أنه كان من قبيلة زبولون أو نفتالي. وقد ع رف سمعان بهذه الغيرة بعدما عرف الرب يسوع وغار له غيرة مباركة. أما عما جرى لسمعان بعد العنصرة فإن هناك من يد عي أنه بش ر في مصر أو في موريتانيا وليبيا وأجزاء من إفريقية. وثم ة من يجعل نطاق بشارته بالد ما بين النهرين أو فارس أو حتى بالد اإلنكليز. عن موته قال بعضهم أن كهنة وثنيين شق وه شق ا وآخرون أنهم صلبوه, والتقليد يجعل مكان استشهاده في "صوفيان" غربي الرها.فبشفاعاته أيها الرب يسوع المسيح إلهنا ارحمنا وخل صنا. آمين A man adorns simple clothing and ornate clothing adorns a man. Simple clothing calls attention to the man, but ornate clothing calls attention to itself. The passion for ornate clothing simply drains and withers the soul of man. This is the real reason why the Church from time immemorial stood against opulence in dress and recommended the simple and plain. Among the countless Christian saints there is no mention of one for whom ornate clothing helped to attain sanctity. Many great and wise kings, not only Christians but also heathens, loved simplicity in dress. Thus, it is said that the Emperor Augustus Octavius, during whose reign the Lord Christ was born wore only simple clothing which was woven for him by his wife, sister or daughter. Of King Charles V, it is said, that he wore such simple clothing that even ordinary citizens, his subjects, were better dressed than he. A man once invited the glorious Greek military general Philopomenes to dinner in whose home he had never previously entered. Philopomenes arrived at the home of his host a little early. The host had not yet arrived and, the hostess not knowing Philopomenes personally and seeing him attired in simple clothing, thought that he was a servant of Philopomenes who was sent in advance to inform her husband of the coming of the military general. Because of this, she ordered him to chop wood. Philopomenes willing acceded to her command and began to chop wood. When the host came and saw what this honored guest was doing, he was horrified and asked him: "Who dared to give this type of work to Philopomenes?" Quietly, the military general answered: "My clothing."

8 St. James Orthodox Church Family Tree Tree of Life Faith without action is a dead faith. (James 2:17) Silver Leaf= $1000 Gold Leaf= $3000 Foundation Stone= $5000 Please help your church by making a donation for a Silver Leaf, Gold Leaf, or Foundation Stone! You can dedicate your leaf or stone to your family or to the eternal memory of a loved one. Lord I love the house where you dwell, the place where your glory resides. These words from Psalm 26 and the Easter Hymn, should always echo in our hearts as we worship in our beautiful Church. All proceeds will go directly towards paying off our church mortgage loan. *Payment plans are available! QUESTIONS: Please Contact: Yousef Hanna Bassam Khoury

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