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UPCOMING EVENTS ❖ Parish Council meeting Wednesday the 2nd at 6 PM.
❖ General Memorial on Saturday May 26th at 5 PM. ❖ General Confession on Saturday ❖Coffee Hour talk on Eastern & May 19th at 5 PM. Oriental Orthodox churches by ❖ Children’s Singing Workshop on Seminarian Stefan Johanssan Saturday June 2nd from 10 AM to ❖ Feast of the Ascension: Liturgy 12 PM. Free and Open to all. Thursday May 17th at 10 AM and ❖ Liturgy for the Feast of Saints Vespers May 16th at 6 PM. Peter & Paul will be held at St. ❖ Holy Apostles Day: Vespers at 6 John’s in Passaic on June 29th at 9 PM on Friday June 29th and Liturgy AM ❖ Pentecost: Sunday May 27th at 9 AM on Sat. June 30th.
THE MOSAIC A Monthly Newsletter of Holy Apostles Orthodox Church
Buy Grocery Cards and Support Your Church
May & June 2018
In addition to Shop Rite and Stop & Shop cards we are now selling cards for Wholefoods and Fairway. Stop by the candle desk on your way out of church or contact Sandra Stefanik to order by mail: sands105@gmail.com
Mary Zizik Fell Asleep in the Lord With great sadness our community lost one of its most venerable members, Mary Zizik. She was a mother of the parish and one is hard pressed to find any part of the life of the church that does not have on it her finger prints. She was a woman of God who served a role model for many. The last few years she had struggled with health problems and the last several months she spent in hospice. She was not able to get to church as often as she would have liked, but that didn’t stop members of the church from visiting her after Christmas to sing hymns and carols for her reception of Holy Communion. She was waked for two days in the temple followed by an evening funeral service and a morning liturgy after which she was buried at George Washington Cemetery. Her last words before her repose where “Christos Voskres” All of us were blessed by her.
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REFLECTIONS BY SISTER VASSA
SOPHIA
DEALING WITH REJECTION A Reflection from the Gospel of John
Obedience To obey is better than sacrifice. ~ 1 Samuel
Without a doubt obedience is the least favorite of all the virtues. It is so because it costs us the most. Whereas fasting demands of us our food, prayer our thoughts, almsgiving our money, patience our time, courage our safety, temperance our desires, obedience requires the entirety of ourselves. By it we give to God our will. That is, we hand over the direction and course of our life to another. And this offering is more precious to God than all others. For “God is more pleased to behold the lowest degree of obedience, for His sake, than all other good works which you can possibly offer to Him” (Saint John of the Cross). And this is why we are told that “to obey is better than sacrifices.” True obedience is a movement of the heart, not mere external obligations. Furthermore, it is the giving of the whole self, not a select portion. On this St. Gregory the Great writes: “Obedience, is rightly placed before all other sacrifices, for in offering a victim as sacrifice, one offers a life that is not one’s own; but when one obeys one is immolating one’s own will.” We often retreat from obedience because we fear losing our freedom. But the Apostle Paul reminds us that we must be obedient to something, either God, or our desires. We are in a sense always a slave of someone or something else. We have already handed our obedience over, often to our thoughts and desires, but even to the ideas, beliefs, and affections of others. Saint Paul writes, “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Romans 6:16). In obeying God we are gaining freedom from our addictions, obsessive thoughts, and bad habits. We are free from the slavery of others’ opinions and approval, free from fear, and ultimately in the resurrection free from death. "Obedience, fasting, and prayer are laughed at, yet only through them lies the way to real true freedom. I cut off my superfluous and unnecessary desires, I subdue my proud and wanton will and chastise it with obedience, and with God's help I attain freedom of spirit and with it spiritual joy." (Fyodor Dostoyevsky). We think that by not obeying God we are free but the obedience which God calls us to is the medicine which delivers us from our fallen human condition. We are sick, and if we obey God the way we would our doctor we will find healing and joy. His com
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (Jn 15: 18-19)
mandments our prescriptions, prayer our consultations, almsgiving our premiums, and fasting our surgery. By applying commandments to our lives we will gain the virtues which are the marks of a healthy soul. The fruits of a healthy soul is true happiness. “This, then, is true liberty: the joy that comes in doing what is right. At the same time, it is also devoted service in obedience to righteous precept.” (St Augustine of Hippo).
Sometimes we might make the mistake of wanting to “belong” to those or to that which is not, actually, “ours,” and we don’t realize we’ve made this mistake until we suffer rejection. And this hurts.
Yet we resist divine help. We reject the divine physician and his guidance. Saint Anthony the Great teaches us, “It is absurd to be grateful to doctors who give us bitter and unpleasant medicines to cure our bodies, and yet to be ungrateful to God for what appears to us to be harsh, not grasping that all we encounter is for our benefit and in accordance with His providence. For knowledge of God and faith in Him is the salvation and completion of the soul. … The truly intelligent man pursues one sole objective: to obey and conform to the God of all. With this single aim in view, he disciplines his soul, and whatever he may encounter in the course of his life, he gives thanks to God for the compass and depth of His providential ordering of all things.”
But this kind of pain, if we receive it in God’s light, is a great “teachable moment,” revealing more to us about our “vocation” as “ekklesia” (from “ekkaleo,” meaning “to call out”) to follow Christ. We are “His own,” and nobody else’s, as long as we are willing to be, – and this means we will be recognized as imposters in many places and by many individuals and groups of people in this world. Let me be teachable and grateful today, in a Christ-focused manner, as I re-connect with Him on this sunny morning. Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner.
God requests our obedience for our own benefit, the way a mother does for her children. Nothing she asks of them is for their harm, and in her wisdom she knows what will bring them the greatest happiness and success in life. She works to instill in them character and love. Christian obedience is, as the Apostle John says, the manifestation of this love: “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love” (2 John 1:6). To obey God’s will is an act of love. For God to call us to obedience is an act of love. And the very thing which God wills for us is to love all things as he himself loved the world and gave himself up for it. Though we resist being obedient, underneath all the commands and teachings is the virtue of love. Every form of good character, every other virtue are merely forms and expressions of love.
Tune in every Saturday mornings at 9:30 AM to Sister Vassa’s Youtube Chanel to view the live show.
PARISH NEWS March and April were fully occupied with Lenten services and Holy Week. We participated in the joint pre-sanctified services as has been the custom for many years. However this year the Wednesday our parish was to host was met with a snow storm that forced us to cancel the service. The choir practiced hard and did a wonderful job singing during Holy Week and Pascha. One of our parishioners Sandra Stefanik donated her time and money to make vestments for the handmaids, which came out beautifully. One of our dear parishioners Mary Zizik fell asleep in the Lord about a week after Pascha. Her funeral liturgy was the most well attended service in many years with over 100 people in church. Archbishop Michael visited the parish for Myrrbearers Sunday. He awarded Fr Matthew with the Kamilavka and presented a gramota to George and Mary Ann Vislocky. He also gave the church a new antimins for the altar.
“[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.” (C.S. Lewis). Obedience is about trust. We are not asked obey someone we do not trust nor love. We are asked to trust him who is most good, most wise, and all love. And how did God show his love for us, by being obedient even unto the point of death, death on a cross. He does not ask of us what he has not already himself done. 2
Orthodox World News
From the Deacon’s Desk
Deacon John Holoduek
Edited by Sub-Deacon Peter Eagler
A FEW LESSONS FROM LAZARUS
Holy Fire Jerusalem 2018 Thousands of Orthodox Christians pilgrims and locals gathered in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem on Holy Saturday morning April 7, 2018 waiting for the Holy Light or Holy Fire. The official ceremony started at 3 pm Israel time. The Armenian and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchs lead the ceremony, however, it is only the Greek Orthodox who goes alone in the chapel and receives the Holy Light.
When Jesus heard that, he said: This sickness is not unto who would be separated from God, eternally. death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God Lazarus’ story is interesting, but what does it might be glorified thereby (John 11:4). bring to us in our own journeys in the Spiritual Christ Is Risen! Life? One of the solemnities of the Orthodox Church is Lazarus Saturday, when we celebrate, not only Lazarus’ Being Raised from his Four Days in the Tomb but…Christ’s Divinity and Power over Death: I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. John 11:25-26
The Holy Fire is the most renowned miracle in the world of Eastern Orthodoxy. It has taken place at the same time, in the same manner, in the same place every single year for centuries. No other miracle is known to occur so regularly and so steadily over time. It happens in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the holiest place on earth, where Christ was crucified, entombed, and where He finally rose from the dead.
First, Christ is God: and, He has the Power to Save Us! He is the God of Second (and More) Chances, if we believe in Him. Lazarus’ name is a form of Eleazar, which means God is My Help. God does not abandon us, and, no matter how far we feel we have fallen, God will help us “rise again,” if we turn to Him and believe.
It is a real miracle as it occurs every Holy Saturday, although the date varies each and every year. A blue light emanates within Jesus Christ’s Tomb. It is said that the light rises from the marble slab covering the stone bed believed to be that upon which Jesus’ body was placed for burial.
Second, God is Faithful! He reaches-out to us as This seems to be a regular Liturgy on a Saturday our Father; we (Apples) must try not to fall too in Great Lent, since there are no extraordinary far from the Tree (of the Cross) and reflect back rituals associated with it. It is significant, as it is a the Divine Faithfulness in our lives. Others will precursor to our next day’s celebration of Palm see this and, from that witness, may come to beSunday: Jews from the area went to mourn Laza- lieve. rus and many of those and others, who heard of Third, sometimes, God’s Plan for us is quite difLazarus’ resurrection, came to see Jesus. ferent than what we imagine and plan. With a The following are from Orthodox tradition. After sure hope, we must Let Go and Let God Be God! Jesus’ Ascension, Lazarus feared the Jews, so he Lazarus could not have ever imagined that his life relocated to the Island of Cyprus. Lazarus was would be as it ended-up. ordained a Bishop by Saints Paul and Barnabas, Will we ever smile, again? I am pretty sure we and he became the First Bishop of Cyprus. He will…. Will we find challenges, ahead? I am rahad a special devotion to the Theotokos; and, he ther certain that we can’t avoid them all…. arranged for Mary and John, the Beloved AposBut, we have many blessings…and the tle, to take a ship to Cyprus, but the ship was met greatest of these is our Faith! In the Resurrection, with stormy seas and ended-up in Ephesus. we find our Hope and our Joy. Take this Faith Another tradition is that, after Christ’s Ascension, and Grow with All the Blessings and the ChalLazarus only smiled once in the remaining thirty lenges we have been given! And, Know This: years from his own resurrection. Why? It is said God is Your Help! that, after he had seen the condition of the souls in Hades, he could not smile because of those
The historian Eusebius writes in his Vita Constantini, which dates from around 328 A.D., about an interesting occurrence in Jerusalem of Easter in the year 162 A.D. When the church wardens were about to fill the lamps to make them ready to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, they suddenly noticed that there was no more oil left to pour in the lamps. Upon this, Bishop Narcissus of Jerusalem ordered the candles to be filled with water. He then told the wardens to ignite them. In front of the eyes of all present every single lamp burned as if filled with pure oil. Christian Orthodox tradition holds that this miracle, which predates the construction of the Holy Sepulcher in the fourth century, is related to the Miracle of the Holy Fire. They admit that the two differ, as the former was a one-time occurrence while the Miracle of the Holy Fire occurs every year. However, they have in common the premise that God has produced fire where there, logically speaking, should have been none. The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem goes alone in the Holy Sepulcher, the small chapel. He wears a plain white robe and holds two candles. The clergy has previously secured that he has no lighter, matches or anything else with which he could light the 33 candles he holds. “The Patriarch is inside the chapel kneeling in front of the stone, there is darkness but far from silence outside. One hears a rather loud mumbling, and the atmosphere is very tense. When the miracle happens the Patriarch lights the candles, exits the small room and distributes the Holy Light to the clergy and the pilgrims. “When the Patriarch comes out with the two candles lit and shining brightly in the darkness, a roar of jubilation resounds in the Church.”
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The Holy Light is then transported by plane in small lit lanterns to many Orthodox Countries for distribution to the faithful
M AY 2018 Sun
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Council 6 PM Vespers 5 PM 6
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12 3 4 Divine Liturgy 10 AM Church School & Bible Study 12 PM Coffee Hour
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10 11 Divine Liturgy 10 AM Church School & Bible Study 12 PM Coffee Hour
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24 25 Divine Liturgy 10 AM Church School & Bible Study 12 PM Coffee Hour
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Vespers 6 PM 21
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Divine Liturgy 10 AM Church School & Bible Study 12 PM Coffee Hour Memorial & Vespers 5 PM 27
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HOLY Liturgy 9 AM APOSTLES St John’s Passaic Liturgy 9 AM PETER & PAUL
Vespers 6 PM
Liturgy & Kneeling Vespers 10 AM Coffee Hour
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2 Children’s Singing Workshop Vespers 5 PM
Divine Liturgy 10 AM Church School 12 PM Coffee Hour Talk by Seminarian Stefan
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Vespers & General Confession 5 PM