St. Luke Church
Publish Date: 2024-07-14
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St. Luke Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • (413) 525-4551
  • Fax:
  • (413) 525-4552
  • Street Address:

  • 400 Prospect Street

  • East Longmeadow, MA 01028
  • Mailing Address:

  • 400 Prospect Street

  • East Longmeadow, MA 01028


Past Bulletins


Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the Second Mode

When You descended to death, O Immortal Life, then, the light of Your divinity destroyed Hades. When You raised the dead from the depths of darkness, all the heavenly powers cried out, "Glory to You our Christ, the Giver of Life."

Apolytikion for Sun. of the Holy Fathers in the Plagal Fourth Mode

You are greatly glorified, O Christ our God, who established our Fathers as luminaries upon the earth, and through them led us all to the true Faith. O Most compassionate, glory to You.

Dismissal Hymns for Saint Luke and Saint Nicholas in the First Mode

Third Tone

O Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke, intercede with our merciful God, that He may grant our souls forgiveness of sins.

Fourth Tone

A model of faith and the image of gentleness, the example of your life has shown you forth to your sheep-fold to be a master of temperance. You obtained thus through being lowly, gifts from on high, and riches through poverty. Nicholas, our father and priest of priests, intercede with Christ our God that He may save our souls.

Seasonal Kontakion in the Second Mode

The protection of Christians unshameable, intercessor to our Holy Maker, unwavering, do not turn from the prayerful cries of those who are in sin; instead, come to us, for you are good; your loving help bring unto us, who are crying in faith to you: Hasten to intercession and speed now to supplication as a protection for all time, Theotokos, for those who honor you.
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Gospel and Epistle Readings

Matins Gospel Reading

Third Orthros Gospel
The Reading is from Mark 16:9-20

When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons. She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.

After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. After this He appeared to the eleven themselves as they sat at table and He upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw Him after He had risen. And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover."

So then the Lord Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it. Amen.


Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. Plagal Second Mode. Psalm 31.11,1.
Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous.
Verse: Blessed are they whose transgressions have been forgiven.

The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to Titus 3:8-15.

Titus, my son, the saying is sure. I desire you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to apply themselves to good deeds; these are excellent and profitable to men. But avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels over the law, for they are unprofitable and futile. As for a man who is factious, after admonishing him once or twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is perverted and sinful; he is self-condemned.

When I send Artemas or Tychicos to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there. Do your best to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way; see that they lack nothing. And let our people learn to apply themselves to good deeds, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not to be unfruitful.

All who are with me send greeting to you. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Amen.


Gospel Reading

Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the 4th Ecumenical Council
The Reading is from Matthew 5:14-19

The Lord said to his disciples, "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."


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Memorial and Trisagion Prayers

Memorial and Trisagion Prayers

07/07/2024

There will not be any Memorial or Trisagion prayers today.


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Parish News

Parish News

07/14/2024

1. SUNDAY OF THE HOLY FATHERS

2. Saturday, July 20 -- The Prophet Elias; Divine Liturgy @ 9 am.

3. Taste of Greece Workshops

Bread Workshops

Thursday, July 18 @ 10:30 am -- assembly, bake, and package.  Lunch will be provided.

Friday, July 19 @ 10 am -- package

4.  Knitting will take place on Wednesday, July 17 @ 10: 30 am.

5.  Bible Study will resume in September.

6.  Please do not neglect to pick up a copy of the Strategic Planning document and review it.  Your assistance is most helpful!

7. Philoptochos News 

Summer Campaigns

In July and August, Philoptochos dedicates its attention to meeting the needs of children. We do this by running two campaigns that target the most vulnerable, the needs of infants and elementary school-age children.

The first campaign is called the “I am Loved” onesie campaign. Designed to collect infant clothing apparel and accept monetary donations used to purchase and produce the one-of-a-kind “I am Loved” onesies”. The infant apparel with the supply of the produced “I am Loved” onesies are distributed to the NICU and Continuing Care Units of Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. These donations go directly to support newborns entering the Foster Care System.

The second campaign is the Backpack Giftaway. This campaign allows underprivileged elementary school-age children to arrive at the start of the new school year with all the necessary school supplies packed inside a new backpack. Boland Elementary School in Springfield will be receiving these generously supplied backpacks. 

Whether you support both campaigns or just one, please know that your kindness is very much appreciated, especially to those members of our society most vulnerable, our children.

Donations can be made in several ways; in-person at the church during regular operating hours, mailed to the church with a check payable to St. Luke Philoptochos Society. Please note the campaign you support in your check memo area. 
 
Additionally, Philoptochos is introducing a NEW method of receiving online credit card payments through our dedicated St. Luke Philoptochos Square.


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Words from the Saints and our Fathers

Words from the Saints

07/14/2024

When the mind is freed of any hope in this world, that's when sin dies within you.  If it remains free of wordly matters, then the gap that exists between us and God is closed.  Then it finds itself in a new life and thin ks new things, which are divine and everlasting.

Saint Isaiah the Anchorite


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Saints and Feasts

July 14

Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the 4th Ecumenical Council

On the Sunday that falls from the 13th to the 19th of the present month, we chant the Service to the 630 Holy and God-bearing Fathers who came together for the 4th Ecumenical Council who assembled in Chalcedon in 451, to condemn Eutyches, who taught that there was only one nature, the divine, in Christ after the Incarnation, and Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria, who illegally received Eutyches back into communion and deposed Saint Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople, who had excommunicated Eutyches.

In the Slavic tradition, on this Sunday, the Fathers of the first six Ecumenical Councils are all commemorated.


July 14

Aquila the Apostle among the 70

Saint Aquila, who was from Pontus of Asia Minor, was a Jew by race and a tent-maker by trade. In the year 52 he and his wife Priscilla were in Corinth when Saint Paul first came there. They gave him hospitality, and the Apostle remained with them for many days, himself working at the same trade as they (Acts 18:2-3). And having believed in Christ through Paul, they followed him from that time on, working together with him and suffering perils with him for the sake of the preaching of the Gospel, as he himself testifies concerning them in his Epistle to the Romans, saying: "Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus: who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the nations" (Rom. 16:3-4). When and where they reposed is unknown.


July 14

Our Holy Father Joseph the Confessor, Archbishop of Thessalonica

Saint Joseph was the brother of Saint Theodore the Studite (see Nov. 11). He also is called Studite, especially when he is mentioned together with his brother. According to Codinus, both of them composed the canons of the Triodion during the reign of Leo the Armenian, while in the Church of Saint Romanus (see Nov. 18); he is not to be confused with Saint Joseph the Hymnographer (Apr. 3). When Saint Joseph became Archbishop of Thessalonica, he was exiled thrice because of his godly zeal for the holy icons, suffering many hardships, imprisonments in dark dungeons, hunger, thirst, and every tribulation, in the midst of which he departed unto eternal life in 833.


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Wisdom of the Fathers

The Lord says to His disciples, 'Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven' (Matt. 5:16). He does not say this to urge them to show off, but to urge them to organize their lives as is pleasing to God. Just as light effortlessly attracts people's gaze, so a way of life pleasing to God draws their minds along with their eyes. We do not praise the air which shares in the brilliance of the sunlight, but the sun which is the source of this brilliance and bestows it on us. Even if we do praise the air for its brightness, we praise the sun much more. So it is when someone makes the brilliance of the Sun of righteousness (Mal. 4:2) visible through his virtuous deeds. As soon as anyone looks at him, they are immediately led towards the glory of the Father in heaven of Christ, the Sun of righteousness.
St. Gregory Palamas
Homilies Vol. 1, Homily Ten para. 14; Saint Tikhon's Seminary Press pgs. 110-111, 14th century

Every work which does not have love as its beginning and root is nothing.
St. John Chrysostom
Unknown, 4th century

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