Jesus Christ taught us to love and serve all people, regardless of their ethnicity or nationality. To understand that, we need to look no further than to the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Every time we celebrate the Divine Liturgy, it is offered "on behalf of all, and for all." As Orthodox Christians we stand against racism and bigotry. All human beings share one common identity as children of God. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatian 3:28)

Members of our Parish Council are:
Greg Jankura - Vice President
Susan Davis- President
Sharon Hanson - Member at Large
Luba Martins - Member at Large
Susan Egan - Treasurer
Dn Timothy Skuby - Secretary

Pastoral Care - General Information

Emergency Sick Calls can be made at any time. Please call Fr Steven at (860) 322-2906, when a family member is admitted to the hospital.
Anointing in Sickness: The Sacrament of Unction is available in Church, the hospital, or your home, for anyone who is sick and suffering, however severe. 
Marriages and Baptisms require early planning, scheduling and selections of sponsors (crown bearers or godparents). See Father before booking dates and reception halls!
Funerals are celebrated for practicing Orthodox Christians. Please see Father for details. The Church opposes cremation; we cannot celebrate funerals for cremations.

Prayer Requests

Please keep the PenkoffLedbeck family in your prayers. Glenn's father, Paul, has been placed into hospice, and Glenn will be flying out to Arizona tomorrow to be with his family.

Please keep Susan Davis in your prayers. She had a fall yesterday and has fractured her femur in three places. She is at Middlesex Hospital now and is schedule to have surgery later today.

The Outreach Committee would like to thank all those who donated school supplies and gift cards for the students of Clinton.  We were able to donate to Clinton Family Services 3 grocery bags of school items as well as 9 gift cards to Staples totaling $65.  Thank you all for your generosity.

Annual FORCC Banquet

Fellow brothers, Christ is in Our Midst,

I greet you all this evening to announce if you have not received word of the Annual FORCC Banquet. This year it will be on October 6th at Saint Dimitri's in Easton. Our very own Bishop Benedict will be the guest speaker this year. I have attached the ad form for your convenience. Please send ads to me if you not have not sent one before, otherwise return the form to me stating that you would like to use a past year's ad. This is an opportunity to show unity and support in our state and as heirs to the missionaries in Alaska it is our duty to do this to the best of our God given abilities and talents. A blessed remainder of the fast to all. Any questions, contact me.

In Christ,

Dn. Peter R.

Upcoming...

DIOCESE OF NEW ENGLAND
61st DIOCESAN ASSEMBLY
Cumberland, RI
OCTOBER 25-26, 2024

Many Years! To Samuel Jankura on the occasion of his birthday and Name's Day, and to Kyle Holis and Susan Egan on the ocassion of their birthdays.

Memory Eternal! to Robert Pavlik on the anniversary of his repose in the Lord.

Pray for: All those confined to hospitals, nursing homes, and their own homes due to illness; for all those who serve in the armed forces; widows, orphans, prisoners, victims of violence, and refugees;

• All those suffering chronic illness, financial hardship, loneliness, addictions, abuse, abandonment and despair; those who are homeless, those who are institutionalize, those who have no one to pray for them;
• All Orthodox seminarians & families; all Orthodox monks and nuns, and all those considering monastic life; all Orthodox missionaries and their families.
• All those who have perished due to hatred, intolerance and pestilence; all those departed this life in the hope of the Resurrection.

Please let Fr. Steven know via email if you have more names for which to pray.

• Departed: Dennis, Galina, Olga, Mat Lillian, Dorothy
• Clergy and their families: Fr Sergei, Fr Ceriphim
• ​Catechumen: Robert, Abbie, Matthew, Joseph, Mary, and Kevin
• Individuals and Families: Luba, Suzanne, Gail Galina, Evelyn, Rosemary, John, Daniel & Dayna, Kristen, Charles, Victor
• Birthdays and Name’s Days this Month: Michael Kuziak, Susan Davis, Douglas Kuziak, Stasia PenkoffLedbeck, Samuel Jankura, Kyle Holis, Susan Egan, Anastasia Littlefield, Irene Kaiser
• Anniversaries this Month: Valery and Jason Danilack-Federer, Fr Steven and Anne Hosking, Dn Timothy and Maureen Skuby
• ​Expecting and Newborn: Lynn, David and their unborn child, 
• ​Traveling: Michael, Jason, Demetra, Dn Timothy
• ​Sick and those in distress: Thomas, Sheri, Joanna, Joshua, Remy, Stormy, Scott, Anne

8th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST — Tone 7. Afterfeast of the Dormition. Martyrs Florus and Laurus of Illyria (2nd c.). Martyrs Hermes, Serapion and Polyænus, of Rome (2nd c.). Hieromartyr Emilian and with him Martyrs Hilarion, Dionysius, and Hermippus (4th c.). Ss. John (674) and George (683), Patriarchs of Constantinople. Ven. Macarius, Monk. Repose of Ven. John, Abbot of Rila (946). Ven. Sophronius of St. Anne’s Skete (Mt. Athos). Ven. Arsenios of Paros (1877)., Claudius, and his wife Praepedigna and their sons Alexander and Cutias (295-296). St. Nḗphon, Patriarch of Constantinople (Mt. Athos—1515).

• Again we pray for those who have lost their lives because of the wars in Ukraine and in the Middle East: that the Lord our God may look upon them with mercy, and give them rest where there is neither sickness, or sorrow, but life everlasting.
• Again we pray for mercy, life, peace, health, salvation, for those who are suffering, wounded, grieving, or displaced because of the wars in Ukraine and in the Middle East.
• Again we pray for a cessation of the hostilities against Ukraine and the Middle East, and that reconciliation and peace will flourish there, we pray thee, hearken and have mercy.

Tone 7 Troparion (Resurrection)

By Your Cross You destroyed death.
To the thief You opened Paradise.
For the Myrrhbearers You changed weeping into joy.
And You commanded Your disciples, O Christ God,
to proclaim that You are risen,//
granting the world great mercy.

Tone 1 Troparion (Feast)

In giving birth you preserved your virginity.
In falling asleep you did not forsake the world, O Theotokos.
You were translated to life O Mother of Life,//
and by your prayers you deliver our souls from death.

Tone 4 Troparion (St. Alexis)

O righteous Father Alexis, our heavenly intercessor and teacher, 
divine adornment of the Church of Christ! 
Entreat the Master of All to strengthen the Orthodox Faith in America, 
to grant peace to the world and to our souls great mercy.

Tone 4 Troparion (Martyrs)

Let us praise as is meet, O faithful,
the most comely, radiant and divinely wise martyrs:
Most blessed Florus and all-venerable Laurus,
who proclaimed to all the uncreated Trinity.
Suffering unto bloodshed,
they were adorned with brilliant crowns.//
Entreat Christ our God to save our souls!

Tone 7 Kontakion (Resurrection)

The dominion of death can no longer hold men captive,
for Christ descended, shattering and destroying its powers.
Hell is bound, while the Prophets rejoice and cry:
“The Savior has come to those in faith;//
enter, you faithful, into the Resurrection!”

Tone 5 Kontakion (St. Alexis)

Let us, the faithful praise the Priest Alexis,
a bright beacon of Orthodoxy in America, a model of patience and humility,
a worthy shepherd of the Flock of Christ.
He called back the sheep who had been led astray
and brought them by his preaching to the Heavenly Kingdom.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit

Tone 8 Kontakion (Martyrs)

Today all the world honors in glory the divinely wise Florus and Laurus as pious martyrs who suffered for Christ.
Through their prayers may we receive grace and mercy//
and be delivered from calamity and temptation, and from wrath and sorrow on the Day of Judgment!

now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Tone 2 Kontakion (Feast)

Neither the tomb, nor death, could hold the Theotokos,
who is constant in prayer and our firm hope in her intercessions.
For being the Mother of Life,//
she was translated to life by the One Who dwelt in her virginal womb.

HYMN TO THE THEOTOKOS
(Instead of “It is truly meet…,” we sing:)

The Angels, as they looked upon the Dormition of the Virgin,
were struck with wonder,
seeing how the Virgin went up from earth to heaven.

The limits of nature are overcome in you, O Pure Virgin:
for birthgiving remains virginal, and life is united to death;
a virgin after childbearing and alive after death,
you ever save your inheritance, O Theotokos.

 COMMUNION HYMN

Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the highest! 
I will receive the cup of salvation and call on the Name of the Lord. Alleluia (3X)

Jesus sits in a boat on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, in the region where
He had grown up. From the boat, which symbolizes the Church, the Lord teaches the
multitude through parables. We read many such parables in the four Holy Gospel Books
(according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). The people in Jesus’ town synagogue in
Nazareth then reject Him, and His cousin, Saint John the Baptist, is arrested.
After the Martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist at the hands of Herod the King,
Jesus departs from the region around Nazareth by boat to a deserted place by Himself.
The Lord often spends time alone in prayer because He wants to provide us with an ex-
ample of how to pray to the Father and how to pray alone, and He restores humanity by
His prayers, as the Divine Son who takes on human nature. The recent events also sadden
Him. But instead of allowing that to become a root of bitterness against people, it be-
comes how He shows His love and mercy to all.
When the people hear that He has gone to a deserted place, they follow Him on
foot from the cities. When Jesus goes out, He sees a great multitude, and He is moved
with compassion for them and heals those who are sick. As we read in the Scriptures, the
Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abiding in love. His kindness is
shown to all people, bringing them to Himself and fulfilling their needs.
The Lord begins by healing the sick, and He does this all day, for many people are
coming to Him. He sends no one away. At the end of the day, when the sun begins to set,
His disciples come to Him and ask Him to let the people go to the villages to buy some
food, since they had not eaten all day.
The disciples had compassion for the people, realizing that all those families, with
women and children, had not eaten all day, and if they did not go back to their villages
quickly, they would not be able to buy any food. However, the disciples’ compassion
stopped short of realizing that their practical solution did not consider that the Son of
God Himself was with them, and His compassion is as limitless as His power and grace.
Jesus told the disciples to give them something to eat. The Lord’s statement here
shows us two lessons. Firstly, they did not need to go anywhere other than the Lord’s pres-
ence, which is true for all of us. When there are difficulties in life, what is most important is
that we do not turn away from Christ and focus only on other possible solutions. Instead,
we are called to turn to Christ first.
Of course, the Lord teaches us to be wise yet simple so that we may use the good
resources of this world to help us find solutions, as these resources are gifts from God.
However, we transcend human effort with our focus on the Lord, Who is the primary
source of peace, love, grace, and Divine Power to help us in our need. We pray with Him,
opening ourselves to His grace since He loves us unconditionally.
Secondly, the Lord challenges the disciples to do what seems impossible: give the
multitude food. This story refers to Jesus’ miracle of multiplying the bread to feed the
people. Still, the Lord Himself emphasizes not His own miracle but the disciples’ faith and
willingness to serve others. Christ gives us a brilliant example of compassion and love.
Before the disciples could fully understand what He was about to do, He challenged their
faith to love the multitude as He loves them.
Despite the disciples’ objections to sending the people away, the Lord calls for
them. The disciples are perplexed because they do not know what the Lord is about
to do. They have only five loaves and two fish, and there are about five thousand men,
plus women and children. However, what appears impossible becomes an opportunity
for God to show His love and mercy. Nothing is impossible with God’s love. Saint John
Chrysostom says, “In this miracle, Jesus was teaching them humility, temperance, and
charity to be of like mind toward one another and to share all things in common.”
In the New Testament, we read of two events about the feeding of the multitudes.
They are not the same event. They take place in different places and with other people.
Here, there are five loaves and five thousand people, and the numbers represent the rev-
elation of God to His people in the five books of Moses in the Old Testament.
What Moses came to prepare, Jesus comes to fulfill. As the Lord feeds the people
of Israel with manna in the desert of Sinai in the Old Testament, now Christ, the Son of
God Himself, is also in a deserted place, inaugurating the New Testament, and feeding
five thousand people with five loaves. The Lord tells His disciples later that they would be
fishers of men. The two fish are also symbols of the people of God gathering to Christ,
from both the Judean and Gentile people.
The Lord directs the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and
the two fish, he looks up to Heaven. He blesses and breaks the bread and gives the loaves
to the crowds. This language is key because, in the New Testament and the liturgical tra-
dition of the Church, the bread is taken, blessed, broken, and given to us. This points to
the Holy Eucharist, which Jesus foreshadows in feeding the five thousand.
The Lord knows about our worldly needs for food, clothing, and shelter, but He
also provides us with the Bread of Immortality, which feeds our souls unto eternal life.
Above all else, it is in the Holy Eucharist that we encounter Christ, are mystically united to
Him, and are renewed.
All the people eat and are satisfied. They take up twelve baskets full of the broken
pieces left over. The number twelve symbolizes discipleship (the twelve Apostles) and
feeding people with twelve baskets is how the Holy Gospel shows us that the Lord feeds
all of his disciples, both physically and spiritually.
We are called to have compassion for those who are hungry and those in need. We
are also called to come to Him, who is the Bread of Life, and receive His Body and Blood
at the chalice unto eternal life. When we allow ourselves to be strengthened by the Bread
of Life, Jesus Christ, we can go out and similarly strengthen others by the grace of God.