Afterfeast of the Dormition of the Mother of God August 22nd, 2010Afterfeast of the 13th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST Tone 4. Afterfeast of the Dormition. Martyr Agathonicus of Nicomedia and his companions: Martyrs Zoticus, Theoprepius, Acindynus, Severian, Zeno, and others who suffered under Maximian (4th c.). Hieromartyr Athanasius, Bishop of Tarsus in Cilicia, Ven. Anthusa Nun, and her servants, Martyrs Charesimus and Neophytus (3rd c.). Virgin Martyr Eulalia of Barcelona (ca. 303). Tone 4 Troparion (Martyr Lupus) Your holy martyr Lupus, O Lord, Through his suffering has received an incorruptible crown from You, our God. For having Your strength, he laid low his adversaries, and shattered the powerless boldness of demons.// Through his intercessions, save our souls! Tone 4 Kontakion (Resurrection) My Savior and Redeemer as God rose from the tomb and delivered the earthborn from their chains. He has shattered the gates of hell, and as Master,// He has risen on the third day! Tone 4 Troparion (Resurrection) When the women Disciples of the Lord learned from the Angel the joyous message of the Resurrection, they cast away the ancestral curse and elatedly told the Apostles: Death is overthrown! Christ God is risen,// granting the world great mercy! Tone 1 Troparion (Dormition) In giving birth you preserved your virginity. In falling asleep you did not forsake the world, O Theotokos. You were translated to life O Mother of Life,// and by your prayers you deliver our souls from death. Tone 2 Kontakion (Martyr Lupus) As a steadfast warrior of the Lord, you vanquished the enemy array, O Lupus. Strengthened by divine love, with strength surpassing that of man your prevailed in your contest.// Now you unceasingly intercede with Christ our God for us all. Tone 2 Kontakion (Dormition) Neither the tomb, nor death, could hold the Theotokos, who is constant in prayer and our firm hope in her intercessions. For being the Mother of Life,// she was translated to life by the One Who dwelt in her virginal womb.
1 Corinthians 1:3-9 (Epistle) 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, 5 that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, 6 even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, 7 so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Matthew 19:3-12 (Gospel) 3 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?" 4 And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' 5 and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate. 7 They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?" 8 He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery. 10 His disciples said to Him, "If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry." 11 But He said to them, "All cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given: 12 For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He who is able to accept it, let him accept it.
Bread and Wine in the Church At a recent parish council meeting (August 9) some concerns were raised about the practice of distributing bread and wine in the church at the time of Holy Communion. It seems that at the time of Communion many are taking it upon themselves to distribute blessed bread to others in the church. Additionally, people are being asked whether they are going to Communion or not. This can give the impression that you are being watched as to whether or not you are going to Communion. The concerns raised were that it is very disorderly, crumbs are being spread everywhere, and that there is a lot of inquiring as to whether one is going to Communion or not. This was raised by one person on the council, and echoed by others, and all at the meeting agreed that this is a problem. I must confess to having been completely unaware of all this (I am after all, rather occupied at that time with giving the Holy Body and Blood of Christ to people). Brothers and sisters, this is not good! First of all, I must state in spite of perhaps good intentions, nobody should be watching their neighbor at the Divine Liturgy. And by no means should anyone be inquiring of anyone else as to whether or not they are planning on taking Holy Communion. This is the holiest of events and casual conversation about it is entirely inappropriate. Also, we are there to worship God, and our focus should be on God, and paying attention to the service, not on our neighbor. Nobody wants to feel like they are being watched at church. Even if it is well-intentioned, it is misguided. Of course there are exceptions, if you notice your neighbor having a problem while in church you should certainly help him. But if your focus is not on God, or the service you will notice many things about your neighbor that you shouldn t be noticing! In order to clear up confusion, let me point out that the practice of distributing blessed bread and wine at the time of Communion is a uniquely Russian Orthodox practice (the Greeks, Serbians, Antiochians, Romanians, etc. do not usually have this practice.) This is called in Russian zapivka, and ironically is not at all intended for those not going to Communion. In fact, in the Russian practice it is only for those who take Communion, and just for the purpose of washing down the Holy Body and Blood of Christ. This practice harkens back to the days when taking Communion was rare and the handful of people who were partaking would go over to a side table and drink a cup of wine and eat some blessed bread after taking Communion. Nowadays, thank God, more people are taking Communion (as they should!), but confusion seems to reign with regard to the zapivka! In fact, it is a real question whether we need this practice at all. At the OCA Northeast Ohio deanery meeting on August 12, I discussed this practice with all the clergy present (there were about ten priests there). Some of them have discontinued the zapivka in their parishes, finding it to not be a beneficial practice. At any rate, it is confused with the bread distributed at the end of Divine Liturgy (called antidoron ). Perhaps a little discussion on the origin and meaning of these practices is in order. Before the liturgy begins, the priest is busy preparing the Holy gifts for the liturgy in a special service called the liturgy of preparation or the proskomedia. The cube of bread which will be consecrated as the Body of Christ is cut out and particles are cut out in remembrance of the Blessed Virgin Mary, all the saints, and the living and departed whom the priest is praying for. This results in leftover bread that has been used to prepare the gifts for the liturgy. This is not Holy Communion, but it is blessed. Therefore, it became the practice from the early days of the Church to distribute this bread at the end of the liturgy to the people. Frankly, it was nothing more than the distribution of leftovers! In the early days of the Church, such was the devotion that many people would rather die than miss church on Sunday. Many did die. In the days of the hostile Roman Empire many Christians would be caught by the authorities going to church on Sunday morning and would be tortured and killed for it! Yet, the Christians kept going to church all the same. To them it was a chance every weekend to partake of life, to (really) eat of the tree of life. It was a chance to participate in the worship going on in Heaven, a chance for fellowship with their Lord, a chance to give back to him by honoring Him by being present at the service in honor of the Most Holy Trinity, a chance to eat and drink at the Lord s Table an honor greater than any other on earth. They loved God more than all else, and would not even think of missing church or Holy Communion. Brothers and sisters let us be inspired by the martyrs! Let us follow their example. We skip church all too often, often for trivial reasons. We miss Communion with a very light attitude. Yet we do so to the peril of our souls! We ought to have more care for
Announcements: A huge thank you to Jeff and Cindy Fedorko for opening their home for our Parish Feast Day Picnic!! Their hospitality and efforts allowed everyone to have a wonderful time. It was an afternoon of much laughter, horseshoes, swimming, volleyball, cornhole and some pretty fantastic diving!!! The fellowship and conversation was terrific. Thank you Jeff and Cindy for hosting the Holy Assumption family! Fr Stacey will be out of town from Monday August 23 through Wednesday August 25 of this week. He will be attending the Diocesan Clergy Convocation in Chicago. In case of a pastoral emergency please call Fr. Basil Shaheen at (330) 497-9677 Darlene Smith is looking for help finding an apartment in the Canton area. If you know of one please let her know. Holy Assumption Orthodox Church Schedule: Wednesday No Vespers this week.daily Vespers 6:30 PM Friday Fr Stacey office hours: 10:30 AM - 1:30 pm Saturday Great Vespers Confessions Sunday Hours Divine Liturgy 5 pm following vespers 9:10 AM 9:30 AM Join us for Coffee Hour after Divine Liturgy CONFESSIONS Fr. Stacey can hear Confessions after all Saturday Vespers. He is also available by appointment, or during his regular office hours. August 19 Michal Richter 19 Michelle Ball 22 Angela Gates 23 Len Sedon 24 Ben Rinehart 24 Darlene Smith 28 Sarah Emmert 29 Barb Moginot 30 Hayden Coombs August 22 Krajci, Hoffman, Byrnes August 29 Kisha-Wise, Frishkorn, Gates, Mathewson Reader and Servers Schedule Listen online to our Divine Liturgy and other Orthodox Christian Teachings INBN.net
our salvation. No matter what our problems, if we truly realized that we need God more than all else, that we need Him more than even the air we breathe, that He is the ultimate answer to life itself, and to all our problems that in Him alone is Life we would never even think of skipping Holy Communion! No matter how tired you are, how much you need the sleep, no matter how much you have to do before going back to work on Monday, you need God more! And He has promised to bless those who prioritize Him! Brothers and sisters, we need to look at it in reverse. We need to ask ourselves Can I really afford to miss church and Holy Communion? I determined years ago that I need God s blessing in my life above all else. Without his blessing all of my problems are worse or multiplied. And without his blessing all my happiness is shallow and meaningless. Without his blessing nothing works out in my life! True Joy is found only in God. How many of us struggle with financial problems, health problems, marital problems, or stress problems. Or if we don t have many problems, then we should go to church and thank God! The devotion of the early Christians unfortunately did not last. Times changed. By the end of the 4 th century after Christ the Roman Empire had become Christian and Christianity was enforced by law. Every good citizen was absolutely expected to be in church on Sunday. Many were there for reasons other than love for God. Many were not very devout Christians but went to church because it was the law. People started the practice of attending church but not taking Communion. Part of this was a legitimate shying away from the holy things. Holy Communion is most holy and if I was living in sin but required to be at church I wouldn t take Holy Communion lest I eat and drink damnation to myself (1 Corinthians 11:29). The bread distributed at the end of the liturgy began to be called antidoron meaning instead of the gifts! It became quite acceptable to not take Communion and take antidoron instead. Although this became a normal practice, it is not a good one! The Church Fathers and the Saints constantly condemned this practice. They argued that the blessed bread (antidoron) was not in any way meant to be a substitute for Holy Communion. Holy Communion was the bread of eternal life and the cup of everlasting salvation whoever partakes of this his sins are forgiven, he will abide in Christ, and live eternally! Not at all so with the blessed bread! They are not to be compared! Not only so, but the Fathers and Saints said that instead of staying away from Holy Communion because of our sins, we should repent, go to the sacrament of Confession, and amend our lives and take Holy Communion for the forgiveness of those sins and life everlasting! Holy Communion is the remedy, the medicine for sin. Absenting oneself from Communion for any length of time is, according to the Fathers, to place one s salvation in peril. To add to the confusion, in addition to the distribution of blessed bread (antidoron) at the end of the liturgy, centuries later the Russian Orthodox Church added the practice of those who went to Communion to take blessed bread and wine at the time of Communion (zapivka). This practice is not usual in other Orthodox Churches. Frankly, at Holy Assumption from what I have been told, it sounds like both the zapivka and antidoron have been hopelessly confused with each other. While your concern for your neighbor is good, it is misguided. We simply should not be taking blessed bread to others at the time of Holy Communion. As your pastor, and with the urging and agreement of the parish council, I ask you to please stop this practice. Even at the end of the liturgy, with the antidoron, people are encouraged to come up and venerate the cross and take some for themselves. If you are there with a friend who is uncomfortable to come up then it is good to take some to him, or to take some home for a sick friend, someone in a nursing home, etc. You should only be taking blessed bread to those people whom you are responsible for, like your guests or your children. The church greeters will worry about bringing blessed bread to visitors. At any rate the better approach is to invite the person to come up with you to venerate the cross and take some blessed bread for himself. Brothers and sisters, let all things be done decently and in order. (1 Corinthians 14:40) The bread is blessed and with the current practice even children are grabbing handfuls and crumbs are being spread all over the church. Blessed bread is supposed to be treated with respect and care. It is better to take one piece, shake off the crumbs, and then eat it being careful not to drop crumbs because the bread is blessed. It is right to treat holy things with care, and to behave respectfully in the Church. May our Lord send us His help, that as a Church we may strive to be ever the more pleasing to Him. Glory to his name, to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. Fr Stacey