Sunday, February 5^th, 2012 * The Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee

2 Timothy 3:10-15 * Luke 18:10-14

8:15 AM General Confession

9:00 AM - Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom

FOR THE BLESSED REPOSE OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD :

Patriarch Sergei, Patriarch Alexei I, Patriarch Pimen, Patriarch Alexei II, Priest Elias Klopotovsky, Priest Joseph Stephanko, Priest Michael Sotak, Mitered Archpriest Joseph A. Havriliak, Mitered Archpriest Dennis M. Havriliak, Archpriest John Havriliak, Archpriest Eugene Carroll, Archpriest Gregory Onisko, Archpriest Alexander Krenicki, Reader Joseph Hruse, Psaltis Demetro Havriliak Sr.

Anna Ritchie

Michael, Mary & Michael Allen Kerpcsar

Doris Kudlacik

Mary Krenicki-Holowach (B’Day) by loving son Greg

Lorraine Ann, Mary & Frank Rusinko & Alfred Antoniotti by loving family

Olga Cebula by loving husband Edward Cebula

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SERVICES FOR THIS WEEK

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11th 5:00 PM GREAT VESPERS

Commemorations for next Sunday, February 12^th: Anna & Frank Kandravy, Olga Cebula, Mary, Frank, Lorraine Ann Rusinko, Alfred Antoniotti

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Our virtue therefore must not be contaminated with fault, but must be single-minded and blameless, and free from all that can bring reproach. For what profit is there in fasting twice in the week, if your so doing serve only as a pretext for ignorance and vanity, and make you supercilious and haughty, and selfish? - St. Cyril of Alexandria, Homily on the Publican and Pharisee

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

There Is No Fasting This Week. The Church’s approach to our spiritual life is a very balanced one, so this week as we recall the hypocrisy of the Pharisee and the humility of the Publican which we read about in today’s Gospel, we’re reminded that our salvation is not contingent upon our fasting. On the other hand, it is also true that fasting for Christ's sake will help us draw closer to salvation .

A Historic Orthodoxy Sunday Vespers Service will take place in our Cathedral on March 4, 2012 at 4 pm. Archbishop Justinian will be the main celebrant, along with concelebrating hierarchs and clergy from the OCA and ROCOR, as well as clergy from our own Diocese. A combined choir of singers from these jurisdictions will chant the responses. A Lenten meal will follow in the Center, provided by the NJ District FOCA. Please don’t miss this very important event in the life of the Church in America!

Candle Price Change – Our $3 candles are now $4.

The House Blessing Sign-Up Sheet is available at the candle stand.

The Annual Parish Meeting is scheduled for Sunday, February 19^th, 2012 after Divine Liturgy. All dues paying members are urged to attend.

The NJ District FOCA Junior Department is sponsoring a Theme and Logo Design Contest open to all Orthodox youth. The contest deadline is February 29, 2012 . Please see Fr. Stephen for entry guidelines and more information.

A Beefsteak Dinner sponsored by St. Michael’s Holy Name Society will be held this Saturday, February 11^th at St. Michael’s Social Center, 415 Lackawanna Ave in Woodland Park. Tickets are $40 for adults and $20 for children under 12. For tickets please contact Tom Duch at 201-794-7234 or John Vilchock at 201-935-3281. .

Gift Cards for Shop-Rite, Pathmark and A&P/Food Basics are available for purchase after Divine Liturgy on Sundays, or in the church office during the week. For every $1000 of gift cards we sell, the church makes $50. Use them yourself or give them as gifts; it’s a great fundraiser for the church. Just a Reminder!! Profits from the gift cards will be used to purchase a new refrigerator and freezer for our kitchen. Please help support this fundraiser. Thank You!!

Coffee Hour – 1/29/12 – $55.00. Donations – Elena Croker - peanut butter, 2 jars of jelly. Pat Kievitt – 2 boxes of tea bags, 18 rolls of paper towels, 1 lb. of butter.

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How short, and how well known today's parable, and yet, how intense its message, how challenging...Intense it is in its very words: two men come into the church of God, into a sacred realm which in a world that is lost to Him, belongs to Him unreservedly: into His Divine Realm. And one of the men walks boldly into it, takes a stand before God; the other one comes, and doesn't even dare cross the threshold: he is a sinner, and the Realm is holy, like the space around the Burning Bush in the desert which Moses could not enter without having unshod his feet, otherwise than in adoration and the fear of God.

And how different the words spoken! Apparently the Pharisee praises God, he gives Him glory - but for what? Because He has made a man like him, a man so holy, so worthy of Him, of God; a man who not only keeps all the commandments of the Law, but goes beyond of what God Himself has commanded, and can expect of man. Indeed, he stands before God praising Him that he, the Pharisee, is so wonderful that he is God's own glory, the shining, the revelation of God’s holiness...The Publican does not dare enter into the holy Realm of God.

And the parable is clear: the man who came and stood brokenhearted, ashamed of himself, knowing that he is unworthy of entering this sacred space goes back home forgiven, loved, indeed: accompanied by God Himself Who came into the world to save sinners and Who stands by everyone who needs Him, who recognizes his need, or not, unto salvation.

The Pharisee goes home, but he goes home less forgiven; his relationship with God is not the same; he is at the center, God is unimportant to him; he is at the heart of things, God is subservient to him. It does not mean that what he did was worthless; it simply means that as far as he is concerned, it has born no fruit of holiness in himself. The deeds were good, but they were spoiled, poisoned by pride, by self-assertion; the beauty of what he did was totally marred because it was addressed neither to God nor to his neighbor; it was turned in on himself. And we are told that this pride has despoiled this man, has taken away from him the fruits of his good works, the fruit of his outward faithfulness to the law of God, that only humility could have given him and his action full meaning, that only humility could have made his actions into life, into the waters of life gushing into eternity.

But then, the question stands before us: how can we learn anything about humility if that is the absolute condition to be not like the barren fig tree, but fruitful, to be rich harvest and from whom people can be fed.

Let each of us reflect and ask himself: in what way can he or she be so grateful in such a way that God could rejoice that He has not given in vain, been in vain, lived and died in vain, that we have received the message. And if we grow in true depth of gratitude, at the depth of gratitude we will knock down, adore the Lord, and learn what humility is - not abasement, but adoration, the awareness that He is all we possess, all that we are, and that we are open to Him like the earth, the rich earth is open to the plough, to the sowing, to the seed, to the sunshine, to the rain, to everything in order to bring fruit.  -  Excerpted from Met. Anthony of Sourozh