Update for the week Friday, October 18, through Thursday, October 24, 2013
THIS WEEK
HELP MAKE KIBBEH – Please come to the church on Saturday morning, October 19, starting at 9:00 am to help make kibbeh with the Women's Club. Lots of help will be needed, and it's always lots of fun.
If you placed an order for kibbeh, you can pick it up on Sunday, October 20. Any orders not picked up then will be frozen.
YOUTH MONTH – October is Youth Month throughout the Archdiocese. The teens will be helping out with Liturgical Service each Sunday. Please see Greg or Hannah if you would like to participate.
BIBLE STUDY – The Bible Study at St. Mary, sponsored by the Fellowship of St. John the Divine, meets every other Thursday in the church library. Fr.. Antony will join us at 7:00 pm this Thursday, October 24, for a special discussion of the topic “Ancestral vs. Original Sin,” growing out of our study of the early chapters of Genesis. Resources for this discussion include the article, Ancestral vs. Original Sin by Fr. Antony (https://www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org/orthodoxy/articles/ancestral_versus_original_sin) and the podcast on St. Augustine & St. Jerome (http://orthodoxbiblestudy.info/st-augustine-and-st-jerome/) in the Orthodox Bible Study series. For more information contact Marianna Sayeg (mksayeg@gmail.com) or Fr. Antony (frawhj@gmail.com). New members are always welcome.
NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS
THANK YOU AND CONGRATULATIONS – The American Arabic Benevolent Association (ABBA) wants to thank all those who attended the very successful and fun-filled evening of Dancing with the AABA Stars. St. Mary’s own Amanda Noonan, daughter of Karen Winstanley Noonan, was the winner! If you would like a DVD to relive the evening or if you did not attend and wish to, please send a check for $25 payable to Cheriton Heights, 18 Cheriton Road, West Roxbury, MA 02132.
PARISH COUNCIL ELECTIONS - If you are interested in serving on the Parish Council please speak to Mary Winstanley O’Connor or Fr. Antony. To be eligible to serve you must be a member of St. Mary’s for two years and in good financial standing.
BAZAAR AND FOOD FAIR – Next weekend, October 18-20, St. George Church, West Roxbury will hold its 37th Annual Bazaar & Food Fair - Friday & Saturday 10am-9pm, Sunday 12noon-3pm. Admission is free. Middle Eastern cuisine, country store, craft items, raffles, white elephant table and much more.
SPAGHETTI DINNER – St. Mary's teens invite you to a spaghetti dinner on Sunday, November 10, 2013 following Liturgy.
Menu will include Spaghetti, Meatballs (just before the fast!), Salad, Bread, Dessert and Coffee/Beverage. Your goodwill donation will be much appreciated.
MEMORY ETERNAL - We regret to advise of the falling asleep in the Lord of Samuel Arbeely of Waltham on October 15, 2013. Samuel was the Brother of Charles Arbeely. Funeral services were held at St. Theresa of Avila Church on Thursday October 17. Contributions can be made in Sam’s memory to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 510 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN, 38105
REMINDERS
FALL DELEGATES MEETING – The Fall General Assembly Meeting of delegates from the Fellowship of St. John the Divine, Teen SOYO and Antiochian Women will be held here at St. Mary Church, next Saturday, October 26, 2013. Divine Liturgy is at 9:00am, meetings at 10:30am.
HARVEST COFFEE HOUR - The Church School parents will be hosting the Harvest Coffee Hour next Sunday, October 27. We need parent volunteers to bring in food items (baked goods, cheese/crackers, and fruit). Please see Barbara Shoop to volunteer, or call the Church office.
COME SEE THE MESSIAH! - Join friends from St. Mary’s for the Handel and Haydn Society’s annual performance of Handel’s Messiah, on Sunday afternoon, December 1, at 3:00 pm. Tickets are just $20 – we get their group rate. We will carpool to Symphony Hall after Liturgy and have lunch together before the concert. Those who have done this before have thoroughly enjoyed it - not only do we hear a world-class orchestra and chorus with famous soloists singing glorious words (taken directly from the Bible), but we also have an opportunity to spend time getting to know some fellow parishioners we normally may not encounter. Good seats go fast - please contact Melissa Nassiff at mnassiff@gmail.com by next Sunday, October 27 (note revised deadline), or order your own tickets online at http://www.handelandhaydn.org
ENQUIRERS’ CLASS - The St. Ignatius Catechetical Group (Enquirers’ Class) meets every Sunday at 9:00 am in the library, next door to Fr. Antony’s office. The group is for non-Orthodox adults who are interested in exploring the Christian Faith as it has been – and continues to be – understood, preached, and lived by members of the Holy Orthodox Church, who descend from the early Christian community of Antioch where “the disciples were for the first time called Christians” (Acts 11:26). Bob Kowalik will be teaching the group, using materials developed and piloted by St. Mary catechist emeritus David Vermette. If you would like to participate, please talk to Bob during coffee hour; or get in touch by phone 617-889-3436 or e-mail r.kowalik@comcast.net.
LITURGY WORKSHIP - Mark your calendars: our Church School Fall Liturgy Workshop will be held Monday, November 11, 2013 (Veteran's Day), 9:30 am - 3:00 pm, with the theme: "The Bread of Life." Learn about the various ways we use bread in our liturgical life (e.g. communion, memorial service, etc.) and help us make prosphora (i.e. Holy Bread), coliva/kutya, and sweet bread. Open to all Church School students, teachers, parents, and friends. Donation: $5/child; $10/family. RSVP to Doreen Bargoot (dbargoot@aol.com). Volunteers are needed!
SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS - St. Mary is proud to announce that our own Tatiana Dalton, Theo Smith and Julia Shoop have been awarded 2013 Scholastic Achievement Awards by the Nicholas G. Beram Veterans Association. (Julia Shoop has also been selected by the American Arabic Benevolent Association as a recipient of their 2013 Scholastic Achievement Awards.) The Beram Awards will be presented at the 47th Annual Awards Banquet on Saturday, November 30, at the Holiday Inn, Dedham, 12:00-4:00 pm.
CANNED FOOD DRIVE – The annual FOOD FOR HUNGRY PEOPLE Canned Food Drive will be held October through December, 2013. Bring in your canned goods to the Church and place them in the large, blue plastic containers outside the Church Office – they will be distributed to local food pantries in our area. 42 pounds of food will feed a family of four for 3 days - since 1984 we have collected over 3 million pounds of food!
COFFEE HOUR CHANGES – Before you leave after coffee hour, please put away your own chair and help put away the table. As you know, "many hands make light work!”
From now on, if no one volunteers to provide a coffee hour there will be no coffee hour that Sunday. There are a few empty Sundays still - please get a few friends together and sign up right away! (Signup sheet is on the bulletin board downstairs.)
E-GIVE – Two new donation categories have been added under St. Mary's eGive account:
“Antiochian Solidarity Day for Syrian Relief: Sep 15” - which you can use if you missed the special archdiocese collection on September 15, or if you want to give more; and
“Antiochian Village Fundraiser: October 5” - which you can use to pay for your tickets to the banquet/fundraiser in celebration of Fr. Antony's anniversary, or if you want to contribute more to the fund to help St. Mary kids go to camp at the Village.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR SERVICE
There are a number of ways you can help the Church, your fellow worshippers, and those in need. Consider serving in one of these ways:
BE A GREETER – If you do not sing in the choir, or chant, serve in the Altar or at the Bengarri, and are not a Church School teacher, please consider serving the Church as a Greeter! Greeters arrive 15 minutes before Liturgy, get a Greeter Name Tag from the Bengarri, pin it on and greet visitors/parishioners at the Church Entrance and direct them upstairs to the Church, or to the cloakroom or restrooms. Greeting time ends when Communion starts. Send your name and e-mail address to Buddy Mabardy: buddymabardy@cjmabardy.com or phone him 781-729-6303.
LITURGICAL SERVICE – Each Sunday, members of the congregation are needed to read the Epistle and assist during Communion by holding the Communion Cloths. All Orthodox Christians in the Parish are welcome and encouraged to participate. We usually need one Epistle reader and four people to hold the cloths. If you would like to read the Epistle or assist during Communion, please contact Jeff Wasilko, 781-820-0882, jeffw@smoe.org.
COFFEE HOUR – People are needed every week to provide coffee, juice and cookies, or more if desired, and set it up Sunday morning. To sign up for an available Sunday, please put your name on the new signup sheet on the bulletin board outside the Hall or call Marilyn Robbat in the Parish Office and she will write your name in. If you need any help with figuring out what to bring or do, check the list below the signup sheet (also printed in the monthly Cornerstone), or ask Marilyn at secretary@stmaryorthodoxchurch.org or 617-547-1234.
PRISON MINISTRY – If you would like to find out more about Prison Ministry at St. Mary’s Church, please subscribe to our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/ocpm-concord.
Also - please donate unwanted past issues of Orthodox magazines such as The Word, OCMC or other periodicals to our prison ministry to hand out to inmates. Please remove any personal mailing address for security purposes and give them to Mitrophan Chin.
Our own Deacon Jeff Smith can be heard in a recent interview with Ancient Faith Radio at http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/features/prison_ministry_awareness_sunday1
VIDEO EDITING – Volunteers are wanted to assist with video editing of sermons and lectures. 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 - email live@stmaryorthodoxchurch.org.
PHOTOGRAPHERS AND GRAPHIC DESIGNERS – Are you a photographer or a graphic designer? Would you be willing to share your talents with St. Mary Church and her ministries? We are looking for you 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.
"As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me," says our Lord.
THIS WEEK'S VOLUNTEERS
Greeter: Marc Patacchiola
Coffee Hour: The Shoop Family
Note: Before you leave after coffee hour, please put away your own chair and help put away the table. Thank you!
LITURGICAL SCHEDULE FOR THIS WEEK
Saturday, October 19: Great Vespers 5:00 pm
Sunday, October 20: Orthros 8:45 am, Enquirers' class 9:00 am, Divine Liturgy 10:00 am; Church School lesson 4
SCRIPTURE READINGS for Sunday, October 20:
Epistle: St. Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians 6:16-7:1
Brethren, you are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will live in them and move among them, and I will be their god, and they shall be my people. Therefore come out from them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of God.
Gospel: Luke 8:26-39
At that time, as Jesus arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, there met him a man from the city who had demons; for a long time he had worn no clothes and he lived not in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, and said with a loud voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beseech you, do not torment me." For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him; he was kept under guard, and bound with chains and fetters, but he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the desert.) … Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how he who had been possessed with demons was healed.
LOOKING AHEAD
Saturday, October 26: Great Vespers 5:00 pm
Sunday, October 27: Orthros 8:45 am, Enquirers' class 9:00 am, Divine Liturgy 10:00 am; Church School lesson 5; Harvest Coffee Hour
Saturday, November 2: Great Vespers 5:00 pm
Sunday, November 3: Orthros 8:45 am, Enquirers' class 9:00 am, Divine Liturgy 10:00 am; Church School lesson 6
Saturday, October 9: No Vespers
Saturday, November 11: Church School Retreat: “The Bread of Life”, 9:00am
Wednesday, November 20: Evening Liturgy for the Presentation of the Theotokos in the Temple 6:30 pm
Saturday, October 30: No Vespers
REFLECTIONS
There is nothing hid from God, but even our secrets are nigh unto him. Let us therefore do all things as becomes those who have God dwelling in them, that we may be his temples, and he may be our God, as also he is, and will manifest himself before our faces by those things for which we justly love him.
- St. Ignatius of Antioch
A man ... wrestles with many ... demons; and often the demon, whom many men could not master with iron bands, has been mastered by the man himself with words of prayer which is in him of the Holy Spirit; and the mere breathing of the Exorcist becomes as fire to that unseen foe. A mighty ally and protector, therefore, have we from God; a great Teacher of the Church, a mighty Champion on our behalf. Let us not be afraid of the demons, nor of the devil; for mightier is He who fights for us.
- St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures
Citizens fear enemy invasions so long as they have no help from the king. When the news comes that a military commander has entered their town, they cease to worry in the knowledge that the authorities will take care of them. Even if they hear that the enemy approaches, they are not afraid since they have a protector. In the same way, if we believe in God, we do not fear the demons, for God sends us His help.
- St. Barsanuphius and St. John, from Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart
There are said to be five reasons why God allows us to be assailed by demons. The first is so that, by attacking and counter-attacking, we should learn to discriminate between virtue and vice. The second is so that, having acquired virtue through conflict and toil, we should keep it secure and immutable. The third is so that, when making progress in virtue, we should not become haughty but learn humility. The fourth is so that, having gained some experience of evil, we should 'hate it with a perfect hatred' (cf. Ps. 139:22). The fifth and most important is so that, having achieved dispassion, we should forget neither our own weakness nor the power of Him who has helped us.
- St. Maximos the Confessor, Second Century on Love no. 67