Update for the week Friday, June 7, through Thursday, June 13, 2013
THIS WEEK
WHAT WAS MILLENNIALISM? – And why is Revelation the only book of the New Testament not included in the Orthodox lectionary? These are some of the things we will be considering in tonight’s Bible Study. The Bible Study at St. Mary, sponsored by the Fellowship of St. John the Divine, meets every other Thursday and is based on a lecture series originally broadcast on Ancient Faith Radio. Join us at 7:00 pm this evening, Thursday, June 6, in the church library, for a discussion of the Canon of scripture (http://orthodoxbiblestudy.info/the-canon-part-5) and Translations and Versions (http://orthodoxbiblestudy.info/translations-and-versions). For more information contact Marianna Sayeg (mksayeg@gmail.com) or Fr. Antony (frawhj@gmail.com). New members are always welcome!
VESPERS – Great Vespers will be held this Saturday, June 8, at 5:00 pm.
SUNDAY SERVICES – Services at St. Mary begin at 8:45 am (Orthros) and 10:00 am (Divine Liturgy) through Sunday, June 30; during July and August we change to Summer Hours – Orthros: 8:15 am, and Liturgy: 9:30 am.
FR. ANTONY AWAY – Fr. Anthony will be out of town Monday – Thursday, June 10-13. In cases of emergency please call Barbara Shoop on Monday and Fr. Timothy Ferguson at 617-323-0323 for Tuesday –Thursday.
FEAST OF THE ASCENSION – Services for the Ascension will not be held at St Mary Church on the evening of Wednesday, June 12. Area churches holding services include:
St. George West Roxbury: June 12, evening Liturgy 6:30 pm
St. George Norwood: June 12, evening Liturgy 6:00 pm
St. Nicholas Lexington: Thursday June 13, Orthros 8:45 am, Liturgy 9:30 am (note corrected time)
NO FASTING – There is no fasting on Wednesday or Friday, not only during Bright Week, but until the Feast of the Ascension (Thursday, June 13), for the whole forty days. (This is the decision of the Holy Synod of the Church of Antioch.) This cessation of fasting, however, is purely voluntary; you may fast if you wish.
NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS
NO PARKING NEXT WEEKEND – There will be no access to or parking in the church parking lot on Saturday, June 15 or Sunday, June 16, 2013, due to the repaving of the church parking lot. There are parking lots located behind the post office and Seven Eleven. Please plan accordingly.
GREETERS NEEDED – We’re still looking for Summer Greeters – please help out! Volunteers are needed for these Sundays: July 28, August 11, 18, 25, and September 1. As a Greeter, you will welcome people into the Church and help to direct visitors upstairs to the Liturgy, as well as keeping an eye on the Vestibule, Hallways and Entrance ways during Church. Arrive at Church 15 minutes before Liturgy. Greeting time ends when Communion starts. Please contact Buddy Mabardy at 781-729-6303 or e-mail: buddy@cjmabardy.com. Summer Hours are: Orthros: 8:15 am, and Liturgy: 9:30 am. Summer might be a GREAT time for you to start participating in this Ministry!
EXHIBIT OF SYRIAN CHILDREN’S ARTWORK – In cooperation with the Center for Nonviolent Solutions, the First Unitarian Church at 90 Main Street in Worcester is hosting an art exhibit of paintings by Syrian war refugee children to raise awareness about the Syrian civil war and the peaceful democratic activism still taking place despite the violence. The art exhibit is open until July 31. On Tuesday June 11, 2013 from 7:30 - 9:30 pm there will be a fundraiser/reception at the First Unitarian Church and a brief talk about the situation in Syria and the children who created the paintings. There will be music and refreshments. For exhibition hours and more information please call Paul Robb at 508-752-8373 or e-mail propp@clarku.edu.
REMINDERS
CHRIST IS RISEN! – Truly He is risen! To learn how to say the Paschal Greeting in more languages than the ten or so we use at St. Mary's, check out this site which has text and voice recordings for over 250 languages: http://www.srbigham.com/en/langues.html.
HABITAT FOR HUMANITY –Join us next Saturday, June 15 for St. Mary's first team Habitat for Humanity project! The location will be in Roslindale. We won't know the exact type of work until the day before - could range from painting to landscaping to building a wall. Volunteers: Bring a check for $44 made payable to Habitat For Humanity. (Our FSJD is helping to defray the cost.) Meet at St. Mary’s at 8:00 am on Saturday, June 15 and we’ll all drive together. WE URGENTLY NEED 12 VOLUNTEERS! Please contact Phil Straghalis at phil@newtonfireandflood.com to claim your spot on the team, and for further details.
PARISH SECRETARY – Marilyn Robbat will be out of the office during the summer months of June, July and August for knee surgery. Please keep her in your prayers. Barbara Shoop will be filling in for her during this time. If you need any assistance, please do not hesitate to call Barbara in the office at 617-547-1234.
GRECIAN FESTIVAL - Ss. Constantine & Helen Church, Cambridge, will be holding their annual Grecian Festival next Friday thru Sunday, June 14, 15, 16, from 11:00 am to 11:00 pm – featuring live music, Greek cuisine & pastry, crafts, prizes. Drawing June 16. FREE Admission. Proceeds to benefit the Church Building Fund. For more information, call 617-876-3601.
PICNIC/MAHRAJAN – St. John Church Dedham will hold their 2nd Annual Church Picnic/Mahrajan next Saturday, June 15, from 1:00-8:00 pm, with live Arabic music by Fouad Hajjar and Ensemble from 3:00-800 pm – featuring American and Arabic food, dancing raffles, children’s games, face painting, and more. Admission: $10.00/Adult; Children under 12 free. For further information, please contact Alan Cardoos at apcardoos@mac.com, Gail Kurker at gkurker@gmail.com, or Rick Ahto at rickahto@gmail.com.
OCMC MISSION TO ALBANIA – The Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC) is sponsoring a 3-week Missionary trip to assist the Church in Albania, which began Sunday, May 26. The group consists of Fr. Luke Veronis, Fr. Alkiviadis Calivas, our own Jamil Samara, and students from Hellenic College, Holy Cross, St. Vladimir's and St. Tikhon's Seminaries: Andrew Calivas, Andrew Otto, Anthony Jonas, Chris Chininis, Hannah Pappas, Jennifer Cowles, Kevin Mellis, Luke Bullock. Nicholas Mueller. Nikoletta Evangelatos, Olenka Zharsky and Sebastian Mot. Please keep them in your prayers.
PARISH LIFE CONFERENCE – The 2013 Parish Life Conference for our diocese will be held June 27 – 30, 2013, at the Wyndham Hotel in Andover, MA, hosted by St. George Church, Lowell. For Registration, please go to: https://www.antiochianevents.org/event/96, or go to St. George’s site: http://www.saintgeorgelowell.org. Please feel free to e-mail the Chairperson, Soraya or Co-Chair, +Rt. Rev. Fr. Leonard at: LowellPLC2013@gmail.com. Book your hotel rooms at: http://www.wyndham.com/groupevents2013/BOSAM_STGEORGE/main.wnt.
ARCHDIOCESE CONVENTION – The 2013 national convention of the Antiochian Archdiocese will be held July 21-28 in Houston TX, hosted by St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church. For information and registration see http://www.achouston2013.com.
TANGLEWOOD OUTING – Join your music-loving friends from St. Mary’s as we carpool out to Tanglewood after Liturgy on Sunday, July 28. We’ll picnic on the lawn and listen to music by Dvorak (Carnival Overture and New World Symphony) and Prokofiev (Piano Concerto), with pianist Garrick Ohlsson. (For more information see http://www.bso.org/Performance/Detail/48875) The concert starts at 2:30; lawn tickets are $19.00 (pay at the door). Bring lawn chairs if you want them, and picnic food for yourself and to share. For more information and to let us know you're coming, especially if you'll need a ride, contact Melissa Nassiff by email (mnassiff@gmail.com) or phone (508 877-7483).
PRISON MINISTRY: Please donate unwanted past issues of Orthodox magazines such as The Word, OCMC or other periodicals to prison ministry to hand out to inmates. Please remove any personal mailing address for security purposes and give them to Mitrophan Chin.
STREAMING VIDEO – St. Mary’s Church services are broadcast live each week through an internet video stream. If you can't attend a service in person or want to share this ministry with a friend or loved one, the live stream can be viewed at www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org/live during regularly scheduled service times (see the schedule of services below or online). If you have questions or comments about this ministry please contact us at live@stmaryorthodoxchurch.org.
VIDEO EDITING HELP WANTED – We are looking for volunteers to assist with some basic video editing to post the sermons and lectures from St. Mary's online. If you have experience with digital video editing, please let Jamil Samara or Erick Straghalis know you are interested in helping by emailing live@stmaryorthodoxchurch.org.
PHOTOGRAPHERS AND GRAPHIC DESIGNERS WANTED – Are you a photographer or a graphic designer and want to share your talents with St. Mary Church and her ministries? We are looking to get you involved to help photograph the divine services and events and to design promotional material for events and programs at our parish. Please contact Jamil Samara at webmaster@stmaryorthodoxchurch.org with any questions and to let him know that you are interested in getting more involved.
PARKING RESTRICTIONS – Please do not park in the Church parking lot if you need to leave quickly after church. Cars parked there will be staying until the end of coffee hour.
Additionally, do not park beyond the sign that prohibits parking at the corner of Inman Street and Bishop Allen Drive. (An orange cone will be placed in that No Parking area.) It is difficult for large vehicles to turn the corner if cars are parked there. Failure to heed this warning may result in the City preventing parishioners from parking on Inman Street. Your cooperation is appreciated.
And remember, there is no parishioner parking in the church parking lot Monday through Friday until after 6:00 pm.
THIS SUNDAY'S VOLUNTEERS
GREETERS: Martin Scrivener and Meg Butler
COFFEE HOUR: Mitrophan and Michelle Chin and family
LITURGICAL SCHEDULE FOR THIS WEEK
Saturday, June 8: Great Vespers 5:00 pm
Sunday, June 9: Matins 8:45 am; Divine Liturgy 10:00 am
SCRIPTURE READINGS for Sunday, June 9, Sunday of the Blind Man:
Epistle: Acts of the Apostles 16:16-34
… they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the rulers; and when they had brought them to the magistrates they said, "These men are Jews and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs which it is not lawful for us Romans to accept or practice." … they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and every one's fetters were unfastened. … [The jailer] rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out and said, "Men, what must I do to be saved?" And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."
Gospel: John 9:1-38
At that time, as Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him. We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." … They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. The Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, "He put clay on my eyes and I washed, and I see." Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not keep the sabbath." But others said, "How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?" There was a division among them. So they again said to the blind man, "What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?" … He answered, "Whether he is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see." … We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."
LOOKING AHEAD
Thursday, June 13, Feast of the Holy Ascension: No Services at St. Mary (See This Week’s announcements, above, for other local churches holding services)
Saturday, June 15: No Vespers at St. Mary
Sunday, June 16: Matins 8:45 am; Divine Liturgy 10:00 am
Saturday, June 22: Great Vespers 5:00 pm
Sunday, June 23: Holy Pentecost
Thursday - Sunday, June 27- 30: Church and office closed – Parish Life Conference (All Services held at Wyndham Hotel, Andover, MA)
Saturday, July 6: No Vespers at St. Mary
Sunday, July 7: Summer hours begin: Orthros 8:15 AM, Divine Liturgy 9:30 AM
REFLECTION
With all His love and diligence Jesus fulfilled that commission for which His Heavenly Father sent Him, directing everything toward His Father’s glory. He felt pity for all people, especially for the poor and underprivileged, wished well to everyone, and was willing to bear anything in order to ease their suffering. He bore all conceivable affronts and insults from the ungrateful crowd with the greatest meekness, and did not vent His anger on those who slandered Him and plotted intrigues against Him. Some who bore Christ ill-will called Him a sinner and lawbreaker; others called Him a carpenter’s son and a shallow person; still others said He was a friend of drunkards and sinners. On several occasions Christ’s enemies attempted to stone Him or toss Him from a mountaintop. Jewish scribes called His divine teachings deceitful; and when He healed the sick, raised the dead, or exorcised demons, they explained away these miracles as the deeds of an evil spirit. Some even openly called Him possessed. The Lord Jesus, being Almighty God, could have destroyed them all with one word. Instead, He pitied them as spiritually blind and prayed for their welfare and for their salvation.
- St. Innocent of Irkutsk, Indication of the Way Into the Kingdom of Heaven
In the souls of the Pharisees and sectarians, the law and mercy do not stand together, i.e., they are unable to fulfill the regulations of the law and to show mercy, but they argue about which is more important of these two; one they omit, and the other they adhere to. The Pharisees literally observed the letter of the Law, but they completely abandoned mercy and love for men.
- Prolog of Ochrid - reflection for January 31
Those who hold forth about spiritual realities without having tasted and experienced them are like a man traversing an empty and arid plain at high noon on a summer's day: in his great and burning thirst he imagines that there is a cool spring close at hand, full of sweet clear water, and that there is nothing to prevent him from drinking it to his heart's content. Or they are like a man who, without having tasted a drop of honey, tries to explain to others what its sweetness is like. Such indeed are those who try to introduce others to perfection, sanctity and dispassion without having learnt about these things through their own efforts and direct experience. And had God given them even a slight awareness of the things about which they speak, they would at all events see that the truth about them differs greatly from the explanation that they give. Christianity is liable to be misconstrued little by little in this way, and so turned into atheism. But in reality Christianity is like food and drink: the more a man tastes it, the more he longs for it, until his intellect becomes insatiable and uncontrollable. It is as if one were to offer to a thirsty person a sweet drink such that he would want, not simply to slake his thirst, but to go on drinking more and more because of the pleasure it gave him. These things are not to be understood merely in a theoretical way; they must be achieved within the intellect in a mysterious manner through the activity of the Holy Spirit, and only then can they be spoken about.
- St. Symeon Metaphrastis