Welcome

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:

Carolyn Neiss- President Greg Jankura - Vice President
Boris Doph - Treasurer Dierdre Cottergarfield - Secretary
Sharon Hanson - Member at Large
Luba Martins - Member at Large
Brett Malcolm - Member at Large

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.

Announcements

At the end of service, there will be a brief financial report from our parish treasurer.

Baptism

We will hold a baptism service for the family of Fr Sergei Bouteneff, Saturday the 20th. While this will be for family, We certainly could use a few singers if you are avaialble.

Fencing

Thank you to those who have pledged and donated toward replacing of the fence. Thus far, we are still short the necessary amount to purchase the materials.

New Filesharing

As mentioned previously, there is a new filesharing site for you to obtain information shared with the parish. Please use the following site URL.

https://sites.google.com/stalexischurch.net/parish/home

If you are asked to enter a username and password, please contact Fr Steven via email.

Prayers, Intercessions and Commemorations

Many Years! to the Melissa Josefiak and Carolyn Neiss on the occasion of her birthday; to Luba Martins, Sophia Brubaker and Nadia PenkoffLedbeck on the occasion of their Names' Days.

Please hold Boris Dolf in your prayers as he undergoes surgery this week.

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 and dispossesed, 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, predjudice; pestilence and natural disaster; 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: Annette, Peter, Helen, Fr Paul, Alan, Edmund, Dorthy
Clergy and their families: Fr Sergei B, Fr Vladimir, Matushka Anne, Matushka Sharon Anne, Fr Vladimir, Fr John, Fr Steven
Catechumen: Paige, Jordan, Diedre
Individuals and Families: Luba, Suzanne, Rosemary, Daniel & Dayna, Kristen, Victor, Susan, Gregory, Nancy, Boris
Birthdays and Name’s Days this Month: Joe Boruch (Tonsuring 9/10),Katie Jankura (B 9/12), Carolyn Neiss and Meissa Josefiak (B 9/16), Fr Steven (Ordination 9/18)
Anniversaries this Month:
Expecting and Newborn: Christine and her unborn child
Traveling:
Sick and those in distress: Thomas, Sheri, Joanna, Joshua, Julia, Stormy, Anne, Noah, Sophia, Gregory, Tomas, Nicholas, Carol, Matthew, Mark, Hermon, Sandra, Alan, Richard, Peter, Loretta, James, Christian, Mitchel, Stephanie, Sharon, Susan, Amelia, Katherine

Today’s commemorated feasts and saints

14th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST — Tone 5. The Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Lifegiving Cross. Repose of St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople (407). Monastic Martyr Macarius of Dionysiou (Mt. Athos—1507). Monastic Martyr Joseph of Dionysiou (Mt. Athos—1819).

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.

Parish Calendar

St Alexis Parish

September 14 to September 22, 2025

Sunday, September 14

The Elevation of the Venerable and Life-Giving Cross

9:30AM Divine Liturgy

Monday, September 15

Nikitas the Great Martyr

Tuesday, September 16

Melissa Josefiak

Euphemia the Great Martyr

Carolyn Neiss

8:30AM Matins

Wednesday, September 17

Sophia & her three daughters: Faith, Hope, and Love

Thursday, September 18

Eumenius the Wonderworker, Bishop of Gortynia

8:30AM Matins

Friday, September 19

Trophimus, Sabbatius, & Dorymedon the Martyrs

Saturday, September 20

Saturday after Holy Cross

5:30PM Great Vespers

Sunday, September 21

Sunday after Holy Cross

9:30AM Divine Liturgy

Monday, September 22

Phocas the Martyr, Bishop of Sinope

Saints and Feasts

September 14

The Elevation of the Venerable and Life-Giving Cross

Saint Helen, the mother of Saint Constantine the Great, when she was already advanced in years, undertook, in her great piety, the hardships of a journey to Jerusalem in search of the cross, about the year 325. A temple to Aphrodite had been raised up by the Emperor Hadrian upon Golgotha, to defile and cover with oblivion the place where the saving Passion had been suffered. The venerable Helen had the statue of Aphrodite destroyed, and the earth removed, revealing the Tomb of our Lord, and three crosses. Of these, it was believed that one must be that of our Lord, the other two of the thieves crucified with Him; but Saint Helen was at a loss which one might be the Wood of our salvation. At the inspiration of Saint Macarius, Archbishop of Jerusalem, a lady of Jerusalem, who was already at the point of death from a certain disease, was brought to touch the crosses, and as soon as she came near to the Cross of our Lord, she was made perfectly whole. Consequently, the precious Cross was lifted on high by Archbishop Macarius of Jerusalem; as he stood on the ambo, and when the people beheld it, they cried out, "Lord have mercy." It should be noted that after its discovery, a portion of the venerable Cross was taken to Constantinople as a blessing. The rest was left in Jerusalem in the magnificent church built by Saint Helen, until the year 614. At that time, the Persians plundered Palestine and took the Cross to their own country (see Jan. 22, Saint Anastasius the Persian). Late, in the year 628, Emperor Heraclius set out on a military campaign, retrieved the Cross, and after bringing it to Constantinople, himself escorted it back to Jerusalem, where he restored it to its place.

Rest from labour. A Fast is observed today, whatever day of the week it may be.

September 15

Nikitas the Great Martyr

This Saint was of high birth among the Goths beyond the Danube River. He was taken by Athanaric, pagan ruler of the Goths, and after being tortured, was burned to death for his confession of Christ. According to some, this took place during the reign of Saint Constantine the Great; according to others, under the Emperor Gratian.

September 16

Euphemia the Great Martyr

Saint Euphemia was from Chalcedon and lived in virginity. According to some, she suffered martyrdom during the reign of Diocletian, in 303; according to others, in 307. Her sacred relics are preserved in the Patriarchate in Constantinople.

September 16

Ninian the Enlightener of Scotland

Saint Ninian was born in Cumberland in Britain around the year 360, about a half century after the Emperor Constantius Chlorus died in the British city of York, and his son Constantine, who was with him when he died, was proclaimed Emperor. Ninian was born of Christian parents of noble lineage, at a time when paganism was still strong in his native land. As a young man he went to Rome, where he spent many years in study and ascetical struggles. At Rome, Saint Ninian was consecrated some time after the death of Pope Damasus in 384, and was sent back to his native island about the end of the fourth century. On his return journey, it is likely that he passed through Tours and met Saint Martin; what is certain is that many churches and cells associated with Saint Ninian, including his own cathedral in Whithorn, were named in honour of Saint Martin. When Saint Ninian returned to Cumberland, he established monasteries that fostered both the life of prayer and missionary labours. By his preaching, his godly life, and his miracles, he ministered to his own countrymen, the Britons, and also converted many of the pagan Picts, who inhabited the northern regions (in today's Scotland). He reposed in peace at his see of Whithorn in Galloway in 432.

September 17

Sophia & her three daughters: Faith, Hope, and Love

These Saints were from Italy and contested for the Faith about the year 126, during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Faith was twelve years old, Hope, ten, and Love, nine; each was tormented and then beheaded, from the eldest to the youngest. Their mother Sophia mourned at their grave for three days, where she also fell asleep in peace; because of her courageous endurance in the face of her daughters' sufferings, she is also counted a martyr. The name Sophia means "wisdom" in Greek; as for her daughters' names, Faith, Hope, and Love (Charity), they are Pistis, Elpis, and Agape in Greek, and Vera, Nadezhda, and Lyubov in Russian.

Hymns of the Day

The First Antiphon

God, my God, attend to me! Why have You forsaken me?
Refrain: Through the prayers of the Theotokos, O Savior, save us!
Why are You so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
Refrain: Through the prayers of the Theotokos, O Savior, save us!
O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer; and by night, but find no rest.
Refrain: Through the prayers of the Theotokos, O Savior, save us!
You dwell in the sanctuary, the praise of Israel.
Refrain: Through the prayers of the Theotokos, O Savior, save us!
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
Refrain: Through the prayers of the Theotokos, O Savior, save us!

The Second Antiphon

O God, why do You cast us off forever?
Refrain: O Son of God, crucified in the flesh, save us who sing to You: Alleluia!
Remember Your congregation, which You have gotten of old!
Refrain: O Son of God, crucified in the flesh, save us who sing to You: Alleluia!
Remember Mount Zion, where You have dwelt!
Refrain: O Son of God, crucified in the flesh, save us who sing to You: Alleluia!
God is our King before the ages; He has worked salvation in the midst of the earth. Refrain: O Son of God, crucified in the flesh, save us who sing to You: Alleluia!
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. (“Only-begotten Son and immortal Word of God… “)

The Third Antiphon

Reader: The Lord reigns, let the people tremble!

Choir: Tone 1 Troparion of the Feast

O Lord, save Your people,
and bless Your inheritance!
Grant victories to the Orthodox Christians
over their adversaries;
and by virtue of Your Cross,//
preserve Your habitation!

Reader: The Lord reigns, let the people tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
Choir: Tone 1 Troparion of the Feast

Reader: The Lord is great in Zion; He is exalted over all the people.
Choir: Tone 1 Troparion of the Feast

Reader: Bow down in worship to the Lord in His holy court!
Choir: Tone 1 Troparion of the Feast

Deacon: Wisdom! Stand Upright! Extol the Lord our God: worship at His footstool for He is holy!

Choir: Tone 1 Troparion
O Lord, save Your people,
and bless Your inheritance!
Grant victories to the Orthodox Christians
over their adversaries;
and by virtue of Your Cross,//
preserve Your habitation!

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen

Tone 4 Kontakion
As You were voluntarily raised upon the Cross for our sake,
grant mercy to those who are called by Your Name, O Christ God;
make all Orthodox Christians glad by Your power,
granting them victories over their adversaries//
by bestowing on them the invincible trophy, Your weapon of peace!

Instead of Holy God… sing

Choir: Before your Cross, we bow down and worship, O Master,
and Your holy Resurrection we glorify.

(Instead of “It is truly meet…,” we sing:)

Tone 8
Magnify, O my soul, the most precious Cross of the Lord!

You are a mystical Paradise, O Theotokos,
who, though untilled, have brought forth Christ;
through Him the life-bearing wood of the Cross was planted on earth.
Now at its Exaltation,
as we bow in worship before it, we magnify you.

COMMUNION HYMN

The light of Your countenance has been signed upon us, O Lord.
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia

Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. 7th Tone. Psalm 98.9,1.
Exalt the Lord our God.
Verse: The Lord reigns; let the people tremble.

The reading is from St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 1:18-24.

Brethren, the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will thwart." Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Gospel Reading

The Elevation of the Venerable and Life-Giving Cross
The Reading is from John 19:6-11, 13-20, 25-28, 30

At that time, when the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, "Crucify him, crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no crime in him." The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because he has made himself the Son of God."

When Pilate heard these words, he was the more afraid; he entered the praetorium again and said to Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus gave no answer. Pilate therefore said to him, "You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?" Jesus answered him, "You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore he who delivered me to you has the greater sin." When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the Pavement, and in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, "Behold your King!" They cried out, "Away with him, away with him, crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar." Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote a title and put it on the cross; it read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." Many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek.

But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. Then when Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished"; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Wisdom of the Fathers

A MARVELOUS thing is longsuffering; it places the soul as in a quiet harbor, fleeing it from tossings and evil spirits. And this everywhere Christ hath taught us, but especially now, when He is judged, and dragged, and led about ....

St. John Chrysostom

Homily 84 on John 18 and Homily 85 on John 19, 4th Century

But why was it that Pilate made the enquiry not in their presence, but apart, having gone into the judgment hall? He suspected something great respecting Him.

St. John Chrysostom

Homily 84 on John 18 and Homily 85 on John 19, 4th Century

Beyond the Sermon

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
Exaltation of the Cross
September 28, 1986

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
We have been keeping these days the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. There is a passage in the Gospel in which the Lord says to us, «No one has greater love than he who gives his life for his neighbour». And these words resolve the antinomy between the horror of the Cross and the glory of it, between death and the Resurrection. There is nothing more glorious, more awe-inspiring and wonderful than to love and to be loved. And to be loved by God with all the life, with all the death of the Only-Begotten Son, and to love one another at the cost of all our life and, if necessary, of our death is both tragedy and mainly victory. In the Canon of the Liturgy we say, «Holy, most Holy art Thou and Thine Only-Begotten Son and Thine Holy Spirit! Holy and most Holy art Thou because Thou hast so loved Thy world that Thou hast given Thine Only-Begotten Son that those who will believe in Him do not perish but have life eternal, Who hath come and hath fulfilled all that was appointed for our sakes, and in the night when He was betrayed - no! - when He gave Himself up, He took bread, and brake it and gave it to His disciples ...»
This is the divine love. At times one can give one's own life more easily than offer unto death the person whom one loves beyond all - and this is what God, our Father has done. But it does not make less the sacrifice of Him who is sent unto death for the salvation of one person or of the whole world.
And so when we think of the Cross we must think of this strangely inter-twined mystery of tragedy and victory. The Cross, an instrument of infamous death, of punitive death to which criminals were doomed, because Christ's death was that of an innocent, and because this death was a gift of self in an act of love - the Cross becomes victory.
This is why Saint Paul could say, «It is no longer I, it is Christ Who lives in me ...» Divine love filled him to the brim and therefore there was no room for any other thought or feeling, any other approach to anyone apart from love, a love that gave itself unreservedly, love sacrificial, love crucified, but love exulting in the joy of life.
And when we are told in today's Gospel, «Turn away from yourself, take up your Cross, Follow Me» (St Mark VIII: 34) - we are not called to something dark and frightening; we are told by God: Open yourself to love! Do not remain a prisoner of your own self-centredness. Do not be, in the words of Theophane the Recluse, like a shaving of wood which is rolled around its own emptiness. Open yourself up! Look - there is so much to love, there are so many to love! There is such an infinity of ways in which love can be experienced, and fulfilled and accomplished... Open yourself and love - because this is the way of the Cross! Not the way which the two criminals trod together with Christ to be punished for their crimes; but the wonderful way in which giving oneself unreservedly, turning away from self, existing only for the other, loving with all one's being so that one exists only for the sake of the other - this is the Cross and the glory of the Cross.
So, when we venerate the Cross, when we think of Christ's crucifixion, when we hear the call of Christ to deny ourselves - and these words simply mean: turn away from yourself! take up your cross! - we are called to open ourselves to the flood of Love Divine, that is both death to ourselves and openness to God, and to each, and to all.
In the beginning of the Gospel of Saint John we are told, «And the Word was with God». The Greek version says «Godwards». The Word, the Son had no other love, no other thought, no other movement but towards the Beloved One, giving Himself to Him Who gave Himself perfectly to Him. Let us learn the glory of crucified Love, of this Love sacrificial which is in the words of the Old Testament, stronger than death, stronger than hell, stronger than all things because it is Divine Life conquering us and poured through us onto all those who need to be loved in order to come to Life, to believe in Love and themselves to become children of Love, children of Light, inherit the Life eternal. Amen.

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