ST. N ICHOLAS WEEKLY BULLETIN O ober 4, 2015 This Week’s Newsstnicholaschurch.org/Images/News/15-10-04.pdf · O ober 4, 2015 This Week’s News Greete T m 3: Evans Tsoules and Tom

ST. NICHOLAS

WEEKLY BULLETINOober 4, 2015

This Week’s News

Greete Tm 3: Evans Tsoules and Tom Fitzpatrick

Coffee Hour Cln-up Crew D:IlIana & SEan FahEy, DImITrI SaFFron,

ChrISToS & SpIro Spyrou

All Altar Serve Invited

34 Gold Street, Shrewsbury, MA 01545-6238 Voice: 508.845.0088 Fax: 508.845.8850 e-mail: [email protected] web: www.StNicholasChurch.org

A Parish of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in the Americas

Mon, Sept 28urs, Oct 1

Sat, Oct 3

Mon, Oct 5Tues, Oct 6Fri, Oct 16

Church Cleaning, 10:30 amPita Baking, 9:00 amOrthodox Food Pantry, 9am-12pmWest Boylston Fall FestivalDetention Pond ProjectParish Council Meeting, 6:30 pmHoly Trinity General Assembly, 7pmMustard Seed Meal, 5pm

Dates to Remember

THANKS TO THOSE WHOWORKED THE WEST BOYLSTONFALL FESTIVAL. A lot of peopleworked hard in a lot of ways, both yes-terday and the days before. God blesseveryone who helped for your faithful-ness!

DETENTION POND WORK COM-MENCED THIS WEEKEND. DimitriChristo and his team worked, SATUR-DAY, October 3rd and will continueSUNDAY, October 4th from 12 noonuntil 4:00pm. If you would like to help,please come ready to work.

THE PARISH COUNCIL will hold itsregular monthly meeting on Monday,October 5th at 6:30 pm. Parish CouncilMembers, please let Deb Sedares knowif you are unable to attend.

THANKS TO THE FOOD PANTRYVOLUNTEERS for working the Ortho-dox Food Center on behalf of our parishyesterday. Our regular commitment isthe first Saturday of the month from9am to noon. About 4 people areneeded. If you can help in this worth-while ministry, please speak with LisaMielnicki or Nicole Apostola. Our nextSaturday is October 7th.

THE FALL SEMESTER of Religioustory. Everyone’s help is wel-come. Additional sessions arescheduled for Saturday, Octo-ber 31 and Saturday, Novem-ber 14. Assistance is neededwith setting the hall, the pitamaking and baking, cleaningthe hall and kitchen and thenresetting the hall for church onSunday. Plenty to do for bak-ers and non-bakers, alike, and

all to support our church. It is very im-portant that we know we will have thesupport necessary to continue this effortso please see or contact Chris Toda andlet her know if you will be able to par-ticipate. No experience necessary!

THANKS TO THE CHURCH CLEAN-ERS, led by Christine Masterjohn, whoworked Monday to get into the nooksand crannies of our facility. We're goingto be setting a few more dates in thenear future. If you'd like to help, pleasetalk with or e-mail her. So much dirt …So little time.

OUR NEXT MUSTARD SEED MEAL isFriday, October 16th. We’ll need helpcooking and serving. Prep help needed

The Nineteen Sunday after PentecostApostolic Rding: 2 Corinians 11:31-12:9 • Gospel: Luke 6:31-36

(Sermon on e Mount — Love for Enemies)Tone 1 • Mans Gospel 7

Education Classes for children hasbegun. As a reminder, quiet space tohold Religious Ed classes is limited. Ittakes very little to disrupt a class of chil-dren from lessons their teachers haveprepared. We ask for your cooperationduring the time aer communion, andduring the sermon and coffee-hour.Please remain in the Church and do notdisrupt classes by walking in the coffeehour area, hallway or going to thekitchen. If you have questions aboutSunday School classes or enrollingyour child please see either Val Sta-moulis or Alysia Valoris.

PITA BAKING, Saturday, October 17at 9:00 am. We need to build the inven-

FINANCIAL FACT“Burning the Mortgage”

Our monthly mortgage payment is$4,719.99,39% goes towards the principal,Theremaining 61% is interest paid to the bank!

noon ursday (3 persons); Prep helpneeded noon Friday (2 persons); Serv-ing help needed 5:30pm Friday (5 per-sons). If you’d like to help or havequestions, contact Fr. Nick.

TODAY’S COFFEE HOUR is spon-sored by Carolina and Remus Ionete.

Holy Trini NewsHOLY TRINITY is holding its annualGeneral Assembly meeting on Tues-day, October 6th at 7:00 pm. We needdelegates from our parish. Interested?Speak with Deb Sedares or Fr. Nick.

HOLY TRINITY’S 9TH FOOD AND

WINE FEST is ursday, October 15,2015. Tickets may be purchased fromIrene Tsoules. Please support this im-portant fundraiser for holy Trinity!!

Holy Trinity Nursing & RehabilitationCenter & Holy Trinity Hospice are Or-thodox Charities and rely on your do-nations to continue the mission ofproviding the best care possible.

UpcomingCALLING ALL VENDORS!!! A HOLI-DAY MARKET PLACE will once againbe a part of our annual anksgivingBake Sale and Luncheon on Saturday,November 21st. We are seeking Ven-dors to rent table space at a cost of $25per table. If you or a vendor you knowis interested in participating, please con-tact Tim Rucho. We would like to in-clude a variety of vendors and ensurethere is no duplication of products orservices.

NamedaysOctober 18

e Holy Apostle and EvangelistLuke

Fr. Luke VeronisOctober 20

e Great-martyr Artemius of Anti-och

Artemie GavalaArtemis Gouvelis

October 26e Holy Great-martyr Dimitrios ofessalonika

Dimitri Soterios ApostolaDhimitra BelicaDimitri Daniel ChristoJames L. ChristoJames DemakeDhimitri DishoDimitraq LoloDimitraqi LoloRev. Fr. Dimitri MoraitisDimitri Michael SaffronJames SeferiJames Evan StamoulisJames TrakadasJames Vlamis

A Prayer of Fr. LaurenceLET US PRAY TO ThE LORD,

Otriune God, one diviniin ree peons: how

magnificent are your majesty andglory! Our humanity, limited andfrail as it is, knows the truth of thissimply by looking at the grandeur ofourselves, not to mention of yourother creations. Teach us how tocontemplate your glory while we livein this world amid all the beautyyour hands fashioned. Let us learn,too, from the ugliness by which wehave marred your creation in somany ways, and help us to changethat insofar as we are able. For you deserve all glory, honor,and worship, and we give you glory,Father, Son and holy Spirit: now andforever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Resurrection showed us the power it hasto transform everything. e holy menand women who down through the cen-turies took Jesus’ words seriously andlived by them show us that it is possiblefor us to do the same. We can see thatthe world becomes a different placewhen we live the Gospel. People aroundus can sense this, and come to treat eachother with respect. It isn’t just monksand nuns who are asked to followChrist. e truth is that the most im-portant “missionaries” of Jesus’ wordsare the good and faithful people of ourparish communities who bring the lifeand light of the Gospel to the society inwhich we live every day and in everyplace. e Lord’s words are not piouswishes. he lived by them. Christians formillennia have lived by them. Our Faith is not a moral code. It isa relationship with the living God. eLord tells us to not simply do good, butrather to be perfect (cf. Matthew 5:48).is means that we are called first to alife of holiness and sanctification. Doinggood springs from the desire to be likeGod, to be holy. People say that theydon’t need faith to be a good person —perhaps. But, how would we know todistinguish between good and evil ex-cept that our conscience convict us? Inmaking us in his image (Genesis 1:26),God made us good, to do good. Whenwe distance ourselves from God, ourhearts (conscience) darkens and weloose our way. Without God in our liveswe try to make our own way — a waywithout grounding and direction, nomap and no GPS. So, take the Lord’s words seriously.Live them. “Love your enemies, dogood, lend, expecting nothing in return.Your reward will be great, and you willbe children of the Most high.” (v. 35)

Fr. Nichos Aposto

love your Enemies, Do Gd, Expe noingThere comes a point in our growth

as children when we begin to un-derstand that words are not just writtenand spoken ideas, but are meant to takeform as an object or an action. Since thetime I was old enough to appreciate theimportance of what Jesus’ was saying tous in his words and his deeds, I havestruggled to put what he was telling usinto practice. is is what it means to bea Christian. Today’s Gospel lesson (Luke 6:31-36) is a portion of St. Luke’s account ofthe Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. ereading begins with what’s commonlycalled the Golden Rule: “Do to others asyou would have them do to you” (v. 31),and ends with the injunction: “Be mer-ciful, just as your Father is merciful” (v.36). In between those two familiarphrases he offers us the possibility of liv-ing in an entirely a new way. he wantsus to become a different kind of person. e center of Jesus’ message is love.he speaks about it powerfully. Mostpeople are instinctively drawn to it. But,to love even to those who would do meharm? how do you do this? his way of speaking about both theLaw of Moses as well as the sayings ofthe Prophets seemed to wipe away acloud from the eyes of many of thosewho heard him. e Scripture they hadread and learned now took on a newmeaning. ey said, he spoke with “au-thority” (Luke 4:32). he changed thefocus of “religion,” as they had knownand practiced it. God’s law was not sim-ply following rules, but meant listeningto our conscience and following ourhearts, the place where our conscienceresides. he said the Law is more thansimple justice; it requires self-sacrificiallove. “If you love those who love you,what credit is that to you? For even sin-ners love those who love them” (v. 32).e standard is no longer simple parity:

what is done to me, I will do to you.Rather, he asks us to change our think-ing from the inside out: how I wouldlike to be treated is how I should treatothers. If I am going to follow Christ,then I need to deal with friend orstranger by thinking of them first, put-ting myself in their shoes, and then act-ing accordingly. Clearly, this is not easy. Oen we tryto find ways to avoid taking what theLord said too seriously. We tell ourselvesthat these are simply pious wishes, notreally meant to be put fully into practice.We see them as so difficult to achievethat we tell ourselves that it is unrealisticto imagine anyone could actually ac-complish what is asked. Or, we think that the Lord was sim-ply teaching a moral code of life, possi-bly a higher (more “spiritual” in today’slanguage) way of life, but a code thatdoesn’t carry the weight of being God’scommand; something good to do, butnot really required. however, we have the witness ofwhat Jesus actually did. e Lord’s lifeand the way he lived it is testimony tothe truth of what he said. his Death and

For tickets & more information

CALL 508 425-7650 or

[email protected]

• Basil & Spice

• Caravan Coffee

• Castle Restaurant

• Ciao Bella

• Creedon Catering

• Crown Bakery

• Culpepper’s Bakery & Café

• Eller’s Restaurant

• El Patron

• Flying Rhino

• George’s Bakery

• George’s Coney Island

• Holy Trinity Nursing & Rehab

• Kalamos Greek & Med. Market

• Livia’s Dish

• Manor & Draught House

• Meze Greek Tapas Bar & Grille

• Park Grill & Spirits

• Polar Beverages

• Sonoma of Princeton

• The Auburn Town Pizza

• The Twisted Fork

• Zorba’s Taverna

Thursday

October 15, 2015

5:30pm - 8:30pm

St. Spyridon Cathedral 102 Russell St., Worcester, MA

Ample Free Parking!

LIVE MUSIC by ED Hyder’s Park Avenue Band

$35/pp; $65/for 2; $40 at door

WINE & BEER Participants arranged by

O’HARA’s WINES & LIQUORS by The famous Jim Vasiliadis

GREAT RESTAURANTS & BAKERIES

SPECIAL WINES & MICRO BREWS

Holy Trinity Nursing & Rehab Center and Holy Trinity Hospice

This year’s participants:

DOOR PRIZE & RAFFLE PRIZES!

BOURBON & TEQUILA

Tasting!

FOOD DEMONSTRATIONS by Vendors