Weekly Bulletin

His Eminence Metropolitan Nicholas

120 W. Seneca St. Ithaca, NY 14850 http://www.stcatherine.ny.goarch.org

TEL. 607-273-2767 e-mail: stcatherinegoc@gmail.com

Fr. Zenoviy Zharsky /607/ 245-9988

 

Sunday, July 6, 2025

 

Welcome all visitors, please come again.

 

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"By changing ourselves in Christ, we are able to change the world around us"

 

Please let Father know who is in need of visiting and prayers. 

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Daily reading of the holy scripture, Saints for the day, liturgical schedule, news from the parish life, announcements and more, please read the Sunday Bulletin on the parish websitewww.stcatherine.ny.goarch.org 

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Scripture Reading:

Matins: Gospel Reading: Luke 24-1:12. Divine Liturgy Epistle: Romans 6:18-23. Gospel: Mathew 8:5-13.

When you write your will, won't you please remember St. Catherine's Church? Such a gift will live forever as our church minister to our spiritual needs and others It's an investment in the Gospel of our Lord and life eternal 

Announcement: If you didn't give names and date of your birthdays and your families birthdays please provide them. So we will pray and greet them. Also please give the names and dates of your family members who fell asleep in the Lord. We will remember them during the Liturgy. The list of the names located near the Sundays Bulletins. Thank you.  

Our prayers and condolences with Ann Bantuvanis, her brother Stergeos Bantuvanis, passed away July 1^st. May his soul rest in peace. 

Is anyone in the church driving to Washington DC. area July 5, Saturday and/or coming from there to Ithaca - July 7, Monday? Pleas, contact John Bezirganian at 607-227-2256 text only please. He's willing to cover car expenses, pay the driver or donate that pay to the church. Thank you! 

We pray for those who celebrate their birthday. Happy Birthday! July  2-Giselle Sayegh, 5-Adrian Puscaso, 5-Savvas Stephanou, 11- James Nagel. 

 

Liturgical Schedule:  Daily 3:00 PM. Let's pray Jesus Prayer for 10 minutes straight saying,"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner." 

Monday, July 7 - 3:00 PM. Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner" 

Tuesday, July 8 - 3:00 PM. JesusPrayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner" 

Wednesday, July 9 - 3:00 PM. Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner" Day of Fasting.  Every Wednesday we remember when Judas betrayed Christ. 6:00 PM. Prayers near Miraculous Icon Mother of God "The Tender Heart" St. George's Orthodox Church in Taylor, PA. 

Thursday, July 10 - 3:00 PM. Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner" 

Friday, July 11 - 3:00 PM. Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner." Every Friday we commemorate Christ's Crucifixion. Day of Fasting. 

Saturday, July 12 - 3:00 PM. Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner" 6:00 PM. Great Vespers/Confession. Reading the life of the Saints.Catechism classes following the Vespers. 

Sunday, July 13 - 8:45 AM Orthros/Confession.10:00 AM Divine Liturgy  Every Sunday we commemorate Christ's resurrection.

 

 Wisdom of the Saints.  

"He began to understand, based on his own experience, that being a Christian meant waging a constant and merciless battle against evil and death in one's own heart, a battle with no front lines or cease-fires, in which the enemy neither sleeps nor tires."

"Do not seek higher posts and higher titles: the lower the position of service you have, the freer you are. Be satisfied with the living conditions you now have."

"Remember that by your own power you will gain nothing. Always call upon the Lord Jesus Christ for help in all temptations. Then your praiseworthy attitude will be aided by God's might, which curtails all sin, all wiles of the demons."

"For if someone does not watch his mind attentively, he will find that, after he has cut down the passions, the images of past fantasies begin to emerge again like young shoots. If he constantly allows these images to force their way into his intellect and does not bar their entry, the passions will once more establish themselves within him; despite his previous victory, he will have to struggle against them again."

"You've done something wrong? God gives you a slap. You say, "I have sinned." He then stops and gives you blessings. In other words, the unruly child comes to his senses and is tormented by his conscience. Then the Father caresses His child with love and comforts it." /Venerable Nilus the Faster of Sinai/

"How can there be peace, when people are not reconciled with God? Only when man is reconciled with God can inward and outward peace come. But for us to be reconciled with God, we must first attain awareness, we must repent, we must live in accordance with God`s commandments, and then the Grace and peace of God will enter into us, enabling us to also help create peace around us."

"The greatest beast within a person is egotism and pride. There is nothing worse than to ask, Why? How? and What? When you are obedient, you will take wing. Today, obedience and humility have disappeared. They are absent in parents and in children. We see thousands of divorces because obedience has been lost in married couples." /Saint Paisios of Mount Athos/

We often hear in the Divine LIturgy and other Holy Services of the Church prayers and supplications before God that are related to "mercy," such as: "Have mercy on us,O God, according to your great mercy..."; "For you, O God, are merciful and love mankind " "By the mercy and compassion and love for man of Your Only-begotten Son..." These and many other similar expressions are heard repeatedly in our common worship, appealing to the merciful God. This truth of God's mercy is revealed in the Bible, where it is frequently heard that "God is rich in mercy" (Ephesians 2:4); the Lord is compassionate and merciful (Psalm 102[103]:8). And as the Apostle Peter writes, "The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope...for an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you" (1 Peter 1:3-4). So we remember the mercy and compassion that God has shown us in our lives, and we boldly trust in Him, bringing before Him all of our problems and needs as one Church. The Lord receives this, and responds according to His Supreme Wisdom and Love. But the Lord also wants us to become like Him, and so let us show mercy to others, becoming merciful. That is why, in the Beatitudes, Jesus says: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy" (Matthew 5:7). And the Holy Apostle Paul exhorts us: "As the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness,humility, meekness, long suffering" (Colossians 3:12). We must have heartfelt love for other people, and a genuine compassion, like the one Jesus showed to the hungry crowds who fasted to hear Him: "And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way" (Matthew 15:32) as he said to His disciples, and the result of His love was the great miracle of the loaves, feeding thousands of people. The Holy Evangelists often write of this mercy of Jesus: "When Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick" (Matthew 14:14). When the Lord saw a widow who was burying her child, He was merciful and said to her "do not weep." He then resurrected her child (Luke 7:13-15). Of course, we do not have the power of the God-man Jesus to do miracles in order to be compassionate, but that does not mean we have nothing to offer. What is important is the quality of our charity, in that we lovingly give with our whole hearts. Let us remember the poor widow praised by the Lord, when she offered the two mites to the Temple in Jerusalem (see Mark 12:42). Here is another example: There was a beggar on the side of the road in winter time, his hand outstretched for alms. A passerby sees him, and because he had no money to give him, his soul ached. The man spontaneously grabbed the beggar's frozen hand with both hands, squeezing it and said: My dear man, I have nothing to give you at the moment, but I will pray for you that God will help you. The beggar replied: Thank you, because your hand warmed my heart! When there is compassion in our hearts, it manifests itself in the simplest ways, and blessings come. Dear brothers and sisters, when we keep "mercy and kindness" (Colossians 3:12) in our hearts, as the Holy Apostle urges us, we act in the best way to receive the mercy and rich blessings that God offers us, looking to Him as much as we humanly can. St. John Chrysostom, commenting on the words of the Angel to the Centurion Cornelius of Caesarea. "Cornelius, your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God"(Acts 10:4) he says, and with this let us end: "Almsgiving is the wing of prayer. If you do not make prayer a wing, it does not fly. When your soul flies, it ascends to heaven" 

Οι ωραιότερες ώρες της ζωής του Ορθόδοξου Χριστιανού στη γη είναι εκείνες που, ενωμένος με τους ομοδόξους αδελφούς του, μετέχει στη θεία Λειτουργία. Εκείνη την ώρα, η στρατευόμενη Εκκλησία ενωμένη με την θριαμβεύουσα Εκκλησία φανερώνεται ως ένα Σώμα για να ενωθεί με την κεφαλή της τον Χριστό με τη θεία Κοινωνία του Αγίου Σώματος και του Τιμίου Αίματός Του. Πλησιάζοντας ο πιστός το Άγιο Ποτήριο με τα Τίμια Δώρα, που κρατά ο Λειτουργός, εκφράζει τη λαχτάρα του γι' αυτή την κοινωνία, την ένωση με τον Νυμφίο της ψυχής του και του λέγει με την σχετική ευχή: "Ἔθελξας πόθῳ με Χριστὲ και ἠλλοίωσας τῷ θείῳ σου ἔρωτι". Κύριε, είναι η λαχτάρα μου μεγάλη να ενωθώ μαζί Σου· έλυωσα από τη θερμή αγάπη, από τον θεϊκό έρωτά σου, από τον ιερό πόθο να έλθεις να ενθρονιστείς στην καρδιά μου.

Αυτός είναι ο κύριος σκοπός, για τον οποίο τελείται το Μυστήριο της θείας Ευχαριστίας, όπως το παρέδωσε ο Κύριος κατά τον Μυστκό Δείπνο, κατά την διάρκεια της θείας Λειτουργίας: Προσφέρουμε τον Άρτο και τον Οίνο· κατά την πιο ιερή στιγμή, της θείας Λειτουργίας, με την επίκληση του Λειτουργού, ο Θεός Πατέρας στέλνει το Άγιο Πνεύμα και τα μεταβάλλει σε Σώμα και Αίμα Χριστού· αφού μετά κοινωνήσει ο Λειτουργός, μεταδίδει τα Τίμια Δώρα στους κατάλληλα προετοιμασμένους πιστούς να κοινωνήσουν και να ενωθούν μαζί Του! Η τέλεση του ιερού αυτού Μυστηρίου της θείας Ευχαριστίας, από την εποχή των Αγίων Αποστόλων έως και σήμερα, πλαισιώνεται με Αναγνώσματα από την Αγία Γραφή και το θείο Κήρυγμα· με επίκαιρους ύμνους, δεήσεις και ευχές, με τις οποίες δοξολογούμε, ευχαριστούμε, δεόμεθα στο Θεό για όλες τις υλικές και πνευματικές ανάγκες όλων μας, αλλά και όλου του κόσμου. Έτσι η θεία Λειτουργία αποτελεί την πλέον ολοκληρωμένη προσευχή του Σώματος της Εκκλησίας. Από αυτή την κοινή προσευχή αντλούν δύναμη οι κατ' ιδίαν προσευχές των πιστών "ἐν παντί καιρῷ καί πάσῃ ὥρᾳ", που απευθύνουν όταν βρίσκονται στο σπίτι τους ή όπου αλλού. Δηλαδή η Θεία Λειτουργία εξακολουθεί και μετά να εμπνέει και να αγιάζει τη ζωή των πιστών. Γίνεται, δηλαδή, αυτό που τόσο εύστοχα έχει λεχθεί: «Η λειτουργία μετά την Λειτουργία». Εάν μελετήσουμε προσεκτικά τη θεία Λειτουργία θα διαπιστώσουμε ότι ολόκληρη διαπνέεται από την Αγία Γραφή, Παλαιά και Καινή Διαθήκη. Ωρισμένα τμήματα, το Αποστολικό και Ευαγγελικό Ανάγνωσμα της ημέρας, διαβάζονται αυτούσια, όπως είναι, σε συνέχειες. Όμως οι Ψαλμοί των Αντιφώνων, τα Προκείμενα και τα Κοινωνικά, που είναι επιλεγμένοι στίχοι από την Παλαιά Διαθήκη, ψάλλονται. Αλλά και οι Ευχές και οι Δεήσεις των Λειτουργών είναι διαποτισμένες από το πνεύμα της Αγίας Γραφής. Έτσι η Εκκλησία, κατά τη θεία Λειτουργία, όχι μόνον ενώνει τα παιδιά της διά της προσευχής και της θείας Μεταλήψεως των Τιμίων Δώρων με τον Χριστό, και ολόκληρη την Αγία και Ομοούσια Τριάδα αλλά και τα διαπαιδαγωγεί, διδάσκει και εμπνέει με τα θεόπνευστα λόγια της Αγίας Γραφής.

 

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Methods of Giving:

Cash and checks can be brought to the church and put in the donation baskets.

 

Checks made out to Saint Catherine Greek Orthodox Church can also be mailed to:

St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church

120 W. Seneca St Ithaca, NY 14850

 

When you write your will, won't you please remember St. Catherine's Church? Such a gift will live forever as our church minister to our spiritual needs and others. It's an investment in the Gospel of our Lord and life eternal.

 

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