Saint Paul the Apostle Orthodox Church - ACROD
Publish Date: 2025-08-10
Bulletin Contents
Announcements
Bulletin Inserts
Hymns of the Day
Gospel and Epistle Readings
Wisdom of the Fathers
Saints and Feasts

Organization Icon
Saint Paul the Apostle Orthodox Church - ACROD

General Information

  • Phone:
  • (732) 254-7155
  • Street Address:

  • 24 Burke Road

  • Freehold, NJ 07728

Contact Information

Parish Administration His Eminence Metropolitan Gregory of Nyssa
Diocesan Bishop


Rev. Father Thomas K. Kovalak
Parish Priest - Administrator


Very. Rev. Protopresbyter Father Stephen Loposky
Dean - Emergency Contact


Services Schedule

Sunday 

Hours:              9:00 AM

Divine Liturgy:  9:30 AM

 

Confessions Prior to all Divine Liturgies

Past Bulletins


Announcements

Welcome to St. Paul the Apostle Orthodox Church - Freehold, NJ

 Mission Parish of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of North America

Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople

  

Glory to Jesus Christ!  Glory Forever!
   

 

Ninth Sunday of Matthew

Upcoming Church Schedule:

Sunday August 10, 2025 

The Hours - 9:00AM

Divine Liturgy - 9:30AM

                                                       Sermon - 9th Sunday of Matthew - St. Andrew's Greek Orthodox Cathedral

                                            

SPECIAL INTENTIONS:

Please pray for peace in the middle east and throughout the world.

Please keep in your minds and hearts our parishioners, family, and friends in need of our prayers.  May God grant them peace, health and happiness for many blessed years! 

Please pray for Catechumens and inquirers, for those preparing for Marriage, for Expecting Mothers, Seminarians, and for those serving in the Armed Forces and Civil Authorities. 

Please pray for the health, healing and speedy recovery of Suzie.

Parish News:

  • At your convenience, please complete the 2025 parish stewardship and census form.
  • We are thankful to God that clean out of the dilapidated rectory and parish refresh has begun!  Please excuse the mess while work is completed.
  • If anyone has any personal belongings on the church property, please remove them on Sunday after Divine Liturgy.    Personal belongings should not be left in the church building or property. 
  • Parish Barbeque  August 31, 2025
  • Saint Paul Community Outreach Event
  • Our Church is issuing a fiancial appeal for the Parish Refresh Project.  Please consider donating to this vital cause.  The funds will go towards repairs and improvements of the church property and removal of the dilapidated rectory building.
  • We are having a book drive to donate to the Diocesean Seminary.  Please bring any books that you would like to donate and they will be delivered to the Seminary.
  • The Dormition Fast is a two-week period of fasting observed by Orthodox Christians from August 1 to August 14, leading up to the Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God on August 15. During this fast, participants abstain from meat, dairy, fish, oil, and wine, with some exceptions on weekends and specific feast days.

Date September 28, 2025 for a special Community Outreach Parish Event.  We invite all of our parishioners to join us as we participate in a WALK FOR LIFE which will benefit ZOE FOR LIFE, a Christian Orthodox Program serving mothers in crisis pregnancies who CHOOSE LIFE for their pre-born children.

Stay tuned for more information about this event!

ZOE for Life!® | A Christian Ministry

FOR FURTHER THOUGHT:

Zoe for Life is a Christian Orthodox Community Outreach program that serves local mothers who need assistance and want to choose life for their unborn babies. 

Zoe for Life depends fully on donations and help from the public. This program is sucessfully helping mothers everyday by providing supplies, emotional support, doctor and medical care, and shelter for young mothers who need help as they choose LIFE for thier babies.

Pray for the unborn! 

O Holy Theotokos, pray for us!

The Feast of the Dormition

The Holy Scriptures tell us that when our Lord was dying on the Cross, He saw His mother and His disciple John and said to the Virgin Mary, "Woman, behold your son!" and to John, "Behold your mother!" (John 19:25-27). From that hour, the Apostle took care of the Theotokos in his own home.

Along with the biblical reference in Acts 1:14 that confirms that the Virgin Mary was with the Holy Apostles on the day of Pentecost, the tradition of the Church holds that she remained in the home of the Apostle John in Jerusalem, continuing a ministry in word and deed.

At the time of her death, the disciples of our Lord who were preaching throughout the world returned to Jerusalem to see the Theotokos. Except for the Apostle Thomas, all of them including the Apostle Paul were gathered together at her bedside. At the moment of her death, Jesus Christ himself descended and carried her soul into heaven.

Following her repose, the body of the Theotokos was taken in procession and laid in a tomb near the Garden of Gethsemane. When the Apostle Thomas arrived three days after her repose and desired to see her body, the tomb was found to be empty. The bodily assumption of the Theotokos was confirmed by the message of an angel and by her appearance to the Apostles.  continue reading:  https://www.goarch.org/dormition

 

Good News!

This September, The American Carpatho - Rusyn Orthodox Diocese Seminary is welcoming 8 new seminarians for the Fall Semester! Let us pray for these men as they embark on a journey to fulfill the Divine Call! 

Please support our diocesan seminary bookstore:  

If you have any religious items to purchase such as icons, jewlery, books, and various Orthodox decor, please visit: www.orthodoxgoods.com

Also, please continue to pray for vocations:

O Lord, the High Priest of God's people, You have shown us that it is Your will that men be called to the service of Your Holy Church. From the ranks of fishermen, You called Andrew and Peter and James and John, and made them and their successors in every age to be the "fishers of men." We, your people in this age, call upon Your great love to inspire for our churches, young men to be Your future priests. Touch their lives with Your Holy Spirit; give them the courage to answer Your call and the strength to work all the days of their life for Your service. Continue to shower upon our Diocesan Seminary Your choicest blessings and make us aware of her needs so that it may continue to be a place where the souls of those called to Your service may be trained and prepared to teach and preach, to pray and labor, to forgive and heal - to care in every way as priests of Your fold, O Good Shepherd. You told us with Your precious lips, "Without me, you can do nothing." As we call upon Your Name for more vocations, O Great High Priest, hear us and have mercy.

BACK TO TOP

Bulletin Inserts

BACK TO TOP

Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the Eighth Tone

You came to earth from heaven O Gracious One.* You allowed Yourself to be in the grave for three days,* that we might be freed from our passions.* O Lord, our life and our resurrection glory to You!

Reading is under copyright and is used with permission, all rights reserved by: American Carpatho-Russian Diocese


Apolytikion for Afterfeast of the Transfiguration in the Seventh Tone

You were transfigured on the mountain, O Christ our God, * revealing as much of Your glory to Your disciples as they could bear. * Through the prayers of the Birthgiver of God, * let Your everlasting light also shine upon us sinners, * O Giver of Light * glory be to You.

Reading is under copyright and is used with permission, all rights reserved by: American Carpatho-Russian Diocese


Seasonal Kontakion in the Seventh Tone

You were transfigured on the mountain, O Christ our God, * and Your disciples beheld as much as they could of Your glory, * so that when they would see You crucified * they would understand that You suffered willingly, * and would proclaim to the world * that you are truly the brightness of the Father.

Reading is under copyright and is used with permission, all rights reserved by: American Carpatho-Russian Diocese


BACK TO TOP

Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. Eighth Tone. Psalm 75.11,1.
Make your vows to the Lord our God and perform them.
Verse: God is known in Judah; his name is great in Israel.

The reading is from St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 3:9-17.

Brethren, we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it. For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw - each man's work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If any one destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and that temple you are.

Gospel Reading

9th Sunday of Matthew
The Reading is from Matthew 14:22-34

At that time, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was many furlongs distant from the land, beaten by the waves; for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out for fear. But immediately he spoke to them, saying "Take heart, it is I; have no fear."

And Peter answered him, "Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water." He said, "Come." So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus; but when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, "Lord, save me." Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, "O man of little faith, why did you doubt?" And when they entered the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God." And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret.

BACK TO TOP

Wisdom of the Fathers

The principle and source of the virtues is a good disposition of the will, that is to say, an aspiration for goodness and beauty. God is the source and ground of all supernal goodness. Thus the principle of goodness and beauty is faith or, rather, it is Christ, the rock of faith, who is principle and foundation of all virtues. On this rock we stand and on this foundation we build every good thing (cf. I Cor. 3:11).
St. Gregory of Sinai
On Commandments and Doctrines no. 83, Philokalia Vol. 3 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and Faber pg. 228, 14th century

Christ did not command the winds to cease at that time, but Himself stretched forth His hand and took hold of Peter, because here faith was required of him. When we do not do our part, divine (grace) slows and stands still.. . . it was not the wind that did Peter harm; his lack of faith sank him. Where faith is fruitfu, firm and strong, none of the evils that may befall us can do us any harm.
St. John Chrysostom
The Gospel Commentary edited by Hieromonk German Ciuba, 2002, 4th Century

BACK TO TOP

Saints and Feasts

August 10

9th Sunday of Matthew

August 10

Laurence the Holy Martyr & Archdeacon of Rome

This Saint, who was born in Spain, was the Archdeacon of the Church of Rome, caring for the sacred vessels of the Church and distributing money to the needy. About the year 257, a harsh persecution was raised up against the Christians by Valerian. Pope Sixtus, who was from Athens, was commanded to worship the idols, and refused; before his martyrdom by beheading, he committed to Laurence all the sacred vessels of the Church. When Laurence was arrested and brought before the Prefect, he was questioned concerning the treasures of the Church; he asked for three days' time to prepare them. He then proceeded to gather all the poor and needy, and presented them to the Prefect and said, "Behold the treasures of the Church." The Prefect became enraged at this and gave command that Laurence be racked, then scourged with scorpions (a whip furnished with sharp iron points - compare II Chron. 10:11), then stretched out on a red-hot iron grill. But the courageous athlete of Christ endured without groaning. After he had been burned on one side, he said, "My body is done on one side; turn me over on the other." And when this had taken place, the Martyr said to the tyrants, "My flesh is now well done, you may taste of it." And when he had said this, and had prayed for his slayers in imitation of Christ, he gave up his spirit on August 10, 258.

August 10

Hippolytus the Martyr of Rome

BACK TO TOP