CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST
HE IS AND EVER SHALL BE!
CHRISTOS POSREDI NAS
YESTI BUDET!
Moscow Patriarchate
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Saints Peter and Paul Russian Orthodox Cathedral 200 Third Street, Passaic, N.J. 07055 sspproc@verizon.net Moscow Patriarchate |
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Great Vespers are now scheduled for every Saturday at 5 p.m. Please check the weekly church bulletin for any further schedule change.
PARISH MEMBERSHIP INTERESTED IN BECOMING A MEMBER? QUESTIONS ABOUT THE ORTHODOX CHURCH? PLEASE CONTACT FATHER STEPHEN KAZNICA Rectory: (973) 772-4501; Cell:(201) 398-5059
THEOPHANY The Feast of Theophany commemorates the Baptism of our Lord in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. The Great Blessing of Water takes place and homes are blessed at this time. The blessed water is also taken home to be used for blessings, as part of our prayer life or in case of illness. Christ's baptism is a personal reminder of our own. It is custom for some regions where our ancestors came from to pray on this day for the priest who baptised us. As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ; Alleluia! Jelicy vo Christa krestitesja, vo Christa oblekostesja; Alliluja!
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Our Annual Parish Meeting will be held on Sunday, February 28, 2010 at 11:30 A.M. in the Center Lounge. All dues paying members are urged to attend.
BLESSING OF HOMES
To schedule an appointment for Father to bless your home, please contact the Church Office at (973) 778-0826 or utilize the sign-up sheet at the Candle Stand.
GREAT LENT - VEL'IKY POST ON FASTING - ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM Fasting is a medicine. But medicine, as beneficial as it is, becomes useless because of the inexperience of the user. He has to know the appropriate time that the medicine should be taken and the right amount of medicine and the condition of the body which is to take it, the weather conditions and the season of the year and the appropriate diet of the sick and many other things. If any of these things are overlooked, the medicine will do more harm than good. So, if one who is going to heal the body needs so much accuracy, when we care for the soul and are concerned about healing it from bad thoughts, it is necessary to examine and observe everything with every possible detail Fasting is the change of every part of our life, because the sacrifice of the fast is not the abstinence but the distancing from sins. Therefore, whoever limits the fast to the deprivation of food, he is the one who, in reality, abhors and ridicules the fast. Are you fasting? Show me your fast with your works. Which works? If you see someone who is poor, show him mercy. If you see an enemy, reconcile with him. If you see a friend who is becoming successful, do not be jealous of him! In other words, not only should the mouth fast, but the eyes and the legs and the arms and all the other parts of the body should fast as well. Let the hands fast, remaining clean from stealing and greediness. Let the legs fast, avoiding roads which lead to sinful sights. Let the eyes fast by not fixing themselves on beautiful faces and by not observing the beauty of others. You are not eating meat, are you? You should not eat dabauchery with your eyes as well. Let your hearing also fast. The fast of hearing is not to accept bad talk against others and sly defamations. You did not thrust your teeth into the flesh (of your neighbor) but you thrusted bad talk in his soul; you wounded it by spreading disfame, causing unestimatable damage both to youself, to him, and to many others. Let the mouth fast from disgraceful and abusive words, because, what gain is there when, on the one hand we avoid eating chicken and fish and, on the other, we chew-up and consume our brothers? He who condemns and blasphemes is as if he has eaten brotherly meat, as if he has bitten into the flesh of his fellow man. It is because of this that Paul frightened us, saying: "If you chew up and consume one another be careful that you do not annihilate yourselves." If you cannot go without eating all day because of an ailment of the body, beloved one, no logical man will be able to criticize you for that. Besides, we have a Lord who is meek and loving (philanthropic) and who does not ask for anything beyond our power. Because he neither requires the abstinence from foods, neither that the fast take place for the simple sake of fasting, neither is its aim that we remain with empty stomachs, but that we fast to offer our entire selves to the dedication of spiritual things, having distanced ourselves from secular things. If we regulated our life with a sober mind and directed all of our interest toward spiritual things, and if we ate as much as we needed to satisfy our necessary needs and offered our entire lives to good works, we would not have any need of the help rendered by the fast. But because human nature is indifferent and gives itself over mostly to comforts and gratifications, for this reason the philanthropic Lord, like a loving and caring father, devised the therapy of the fast for us, so that our gratifications would be completely stopped and that our worldly cares be transferred to spiritual works. So, if there are some who have gathered here and who are hindered by somatic ailments and cannot remain without food, I advise them to nullify the somatic ailment and not to deprive themselves from this spiritual teaching, but to care for it even more. For there exist, there really exist, ways which are even more important than abstinence from food which can open the gates which lead to God with boldness. He, therefore, who eats and cannot fast, let him display richer almsgiving, let him pray more, let him have a more intense desire to hear divine words. In this, our somatic illness is not a hindrance. Let him become reconciled with his enemies, let him distance from his soul every resentment. If he wants to accomplish these things, then he has done the true fast, which is what the Lord asks of us more than anything else. It is for this reason that he asks us to abstain from food, in order to place the flesh in subjection to the fulfillment of his commandments, whereby curbing its impetuousness. But if we are not about to offer to ourselves the help rendered by the fast because of bodily illness and at the same time display greater indifference, we will see ourselves in an unusual exaggerated way. For if the fast does not help us when all the aforementioned accomplishments are missing so much is the case when we display greater indifference because we cannot even use the medicine of fasting. Since you have learned these things from us, I pardon you, those who can, fast and you yourselves increase your acuteness and praiseworthy desire as much as possible. To the brothers, though, who cannot fast because of bodily illness, encourage them not to abandon this spiritual word, teaching them and passing on to them all the things we say here, showing them that he who eats and drinks with moderation is not unworthy to hear these things but he who is indifferent and slack. You should tell them the bold and daring saying that "he who eats for the glory of the Lord eats and he who does not eat for the glory of the Lord does not eat and pleases God." For he who fasts pleases God because he has the strength to endure the fatigue of the fast and he that eats also pleases God because nothing of this sort can harm the salvation of his soul, as long as he does not want it to. Because our philanthropic God showed us so many ways by which we can, if we desire, take part in God's power that it is impossible to mention them all. We have said enough about those who are missing, being that we want to eliminate them from the excuse of shame. For they should not be ashamed because food does not bring on shame but the act of some wrongdoing. Sin is a great shame. If we commit it not only should we feel ashamed but we should cover ourselves exactly the same way those who are wounded do. Even then we should not forsake ourselves but rush to confession and thanksgiving. We have such a Lord who asks nothing of us but to confess our sins, after the commitment of a sin which was due to our indifference, and to stop at that point and not to fall into the same one again. If we eat with moderation we should never be ashamed, because the Creator gave us such a body which cannot be supported in any other way except by receiving food. Let us only stop excessive food because that attributes a great deal to the health and well-being of the body. Let us therefore in every way cast off every destructive madness so that we may gain the goods which have been promised to us in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Father Joseph A. Havriliak Corner Monroe/Third Street Sign Blessing Sunday, November 8, 2009
To view artistically taken photographs of memorial services for Father Joseph A. Havriliak courtesy of Elaine Mary Nichols, please click below:
Blessed be the Name of the Lord, herenceforth and forever! Budi imja Hospondne, blahoslovenno ot nyni i do vika!
LITURGY OF THE PRESANCTIFIED GIFTSOn weekdays during the Great Fast (Vel’ky Post), the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is served. The service has a long history within the Church. As mentioned in the canons “On all days of the holy fast of Lent, except on the Sabbath, the Lord's Day, and the holy day of the Annunciation, the Liturgy of the Presanctified is to be served (Canon 52, Quinisext, 692). This graceful service combines Vespers with the distribution of Holy Communion. Holy Communion is offered from the gifts which were sanctified at the Divine Liturgy the previous Sunday. Served on Wednesdays and Fridays, it affords the participant a very prayerful and valuable means to observe the Lenten period. The gifts are prepared for communion during the psalms. In synopsis, after the evening hymn, Genesis and Proverbs are read. After the readings, the evening Psalm (141) is sung once and upon completion of the litanies, the presanctified gifts are brought to the altar. After another litany and prayers, the Our Father is sung. It is at this point in the service when Holy Communion is received. This service preserves the character of Great Lent due to unique melodies that comprise musical orchestration within various compositions such as “Having suffered the Passion for us,” a particularly mournful, yet inspiring, melody especially when sung in Carpathian Chant. The entire service delicately weaves together the atmosphere of Great Fast with the coming anticipation of the Glorious Resurrection (Pascha).
HAVING SUFFERED, THE PASSION FOR US, JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD, HAVE MERCY ON US! PRETERPL'IVYJ ZA NAS STRASTI, ISUSE CHRISTE, SYNE BOZIJ, POMILUJ NAS!
ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2010 OUR PASTOR, FATHER STEPHEN KAZNICA, ATTENDED SERVICES VENERATING THE KURSK-ROOT ICON OF THE THEOTOKOS.
Page was last updated on 2.5.2010
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