Newsletter april & may 2017

THE MOSAIC

This Issue PAGE 2 Spotlight & News

A Monthly Newsletter of Holy Apostles Orthodox Church

PAGE 3 Calendar PAGE 4 World News & Practicing the Faith

PAGE 5 Liturgics 101 & Sophia PAGE 6 Great Lent & Comic Strip

April & May 2017 Baking Has Begun!

Every Lent parishioners under the direction of Peter Eagler bake nut rolls, cookies, and other baked goods for the annual Eater Bake sale. It is a tradition at Holy Apostles that goes back decades. Some clean, some buy supplies, and others do the baking, but everyone enjoys each others company and works hard.

Many long hours and late nights are put in to make the bake sale a success. Even the kids help out! The Easter Bake sale and the Christmas Bake sale raise thousands of dollars for the parish every year. If you have never volunteered at a baking night come on by, everyone is welcome. But at the very least, do not forget to place your order before Palm Sunday. You an call your order in, mail it to the church, or turn it in to Peter himself. Thanks to everyone’s patronage and hard work.

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PARISH NEWS

SPOTLIGHT:

In February a new Pan-Orthodox bible study began involving parishioners from Holy Apostles and several other neighboring parishes. The bible studies are held at St. Athanasios Greek Orthodox Church in Paramus. Also in February, a seminarian from Saint Vladimir's Seminary gave a coffee hour presentation on the many traditional liturgical rites within Christianity. The Annual Meeting was held in early March at which the revised by-laws of the parish were adopted. The Altar Server’s retreat was also in early March and was again held at St. Basil’s Academy. Boys from our parish attended and had a blast. At the beginning of Lent Archbishop Michael joined the parish on Clean Thursday for the Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete, and as is the tradition of this parish presanctified liturgies were held together with our sister parishes: St John’s, Holy Assumption, and Christ the Saviour. The feast of annunciation was celebrated by the parish with many in attendance and the 1 year anniversary of Mary Grasso’s repose was remembered with a memorial after the liturgy. Baking has begun for the Easter Bake sale which will be held on Palm Sunday. And lastly, Pascha (Easter) will be return to its traditional time as it was in the earlier days of the parish: midnight.

Tamburitzans Year after year, generation after generation, the Tamburitzans dazzle audiences across the country with elaborate costumes and incredibly versatile musicians, singers nad dancers.

The talented young performers are full-time students who have chosen to continue the Tamburitzans’ legacy by brining international cultures to the modern stage. Producing the longest-running live stage show in the country, the Tamburitzans is a significant cultural and historical entity in Pittsburgh.

UPCOMING EVENTS ❖ PASCHA (Easter) will start at

This amazing song and dance folk troupe, which hasn’t visited northern New Jersey in years, is being sponsored by Holy Apostles this fall. It will be an excellent opportunity for the church to make itself known in the community and to share the rich Eastern European heritage of its Orthodox Faith.

11:30 PM on Saturday April 15th.

A feast will follow the service in the parish hall. ❖ Blessing of Graves: East Ridgelawn, 1 PM on Saturday April 22nd & George Washington, after coffee hour on Sunday April 23rd. ❖ Feast of Ascension will be held at Holy Assumption in Clifton. Ves pers at 6:30 PM on Wednesday the 24th and Liturgy at 9 AM on Thursday the 25th of May. ❖ Archbishop MICHAEL will make a parish visit to Holy Apostles on Sunday May 14th!

The concert will be held Saturday, September 23rd at 4 PM at the Clifton High School Auditorium (333 Colfax Avenue, Clifton, NJ 07013). Tickets go no sale soon and may be purchased online at http://talentshadows.events/ Tickets are $40 at the door and $35 is purchased in advance. All proceeds will go to support the Tamburitzans and the ministries of Holy Apostles. For questions about the concet call Daria Miskiv at 201-796-2050 or email at eventsholyapostles@gmail.com Spread the word and save the date!

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❖ Pan-Orthodox Bible Study will continue to be held at St. Athanasios in Paramus at 7 PM on Mondays till the end of May. ❖ Lazarus Saturday Liturgy at 9 AM on the 8th of April. ❖ Bright Week Deanery Vespers at Christ the Saviour in Paramus at 7 PM on Wednesday the 19th. ❖ Bake Sale Sunday the 9th of April 11 AM to 1 PM.

M AY 2017

A PRIL 2017 Sun

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Bible Study 7 PM St Athanasios 2 Church School 9:15AM Divine Liturgy 10 AM Coffee Hour

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23 Church School 9:15AM Divine Liturgy 10 AM Coffee Hour ___________________ 30 Church School 9:15AM Divine Liturgy 10 AM Coffee Hour

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LAZARUS SATURDAY

Liturgy 9 AM Presanctified 6:30 PM Holy Apostles 11

Bridegroom Matins 6:30 PM 17

PASCHA

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Bible Study 7 PM St Athanasios

Lenten Vespers 5 PM Holy Spirit, Wantage 9 Church School 9:15AM Divine Liturgy 10 AM Coffee Hour Bake Sale 11AM –1PM

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Retirement Party For Len Davis After Bible Study

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25 26 ASCNESION Liturgy 9 AM Holy Assumption in Clifton, NJ

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NO VESPERS

Orthodox World News

PRACTICING THE FAITH: SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES & SACRAMENTS

Edited by Sub-Deacon Peter Eagler

Tomb of Jesus Reopens to Public After $4 Million Restoration

Silence and Solitude Being alone is more difficult than we think. This is why solitude and silence are called disciplines; they take work. Whether it is embarking on a retreat for the weekend or locking yourself away in a room for an hour, solitude, and the silence that comes with it, is a powerful tool in the spiritual life. By removing all our distractions (TV, computers, phones, radio, conversations, the noise of the city) we are able to pray more deeply, and maybe even hear God more clearly. If we are unaccustomed to silence it can be anxiety producing. It should be no surprise that all our busyness and distractions are an “All human evil comes from a single cause: unconscious attempt to avoid ourselves; to avoid examining ourselves and our lives; to avoid listening to man’s inability to sit still in a room.” our heart, our conscious, and the inner voice of the Blaise Pascal Divine. Something happens to the body and the soul when we are still, quiet, and alone. We become aware—aware of the spiritual realm and aware of our own spiritual condition. In an extreme measure the Desert Fathers and Mothers sought out solitude and found it in the deserts of Egypt and Palestine. They devoted their whole lives to living as hermits.

By this way of life they heard the voice of God, saw clearly their own sins, performed miracles, and learned the great depths of the love and wonder of the Triune God. We do not have to devote our entire lives to living in the desert to also reap some of the benefits of solitude. Every day we can carve out 10 minutes, or a half an hour to be alone with God in a quiet space. The Jesus Prayer—Lord, Jesus Christ, Have Mercy on Me—and the use of a prayer rope is an excellent aid in achieving inner solitude.

The mind often wanders when still. The Jesus Prayer can help keep us focused. We ought also consider making a spiritual retreat once a year, for a day, a weekend, or even a whole week. We can do this at a monastery, a camp, or a retreat center. This Lent make seek out solitude and silence. To fight against the business and anxiety of life with this spiritual discipline you will need to do some subtraction. Put off

Christian churches in Jerusalem are starting to improve their cooperation with one another, as reflected by the recent successful restoration of the Edicule around Jesus' tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. After nine months of restoration efforts, rival Christian communities gathered together recently for the rededication of the Edicule around Jesus' tomb. The ancient structure had been unchanged for around 200 years due to the denominations' assertions of their rights to the site, but the project was finally finished ahead of Easter Sunday April 16, 2017 Speaking to Vatican Radio's Philippa Hitchen during a visit with the Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem last week, Belgian Father Frans Bowen talked about the complicated relationships of the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Armenian Christians in the holy city. Bowen, a Missionary of Africa who has spent the last five decades in Jerusalem, said the three congregations are the main groups in charge of the main Christian sites in the area. In addition, Father Bowen explained that there are also smaller Christian communities that exist in Jerusalem. These include the Oriental Orthodox Churches, Syrians, Ethiopians, Copts, and Maronite, among many others According to Father Bowen, the 12 main churches in Jerusalem that have episcopal structures now hold regular meetings. These communities have reportedly improved their cooperation over the last few decades.

"The atmosphere here started changing with the visit of Pope Paul VI," in 1964 said Father Bowen. "Because for the first time the Greek Patriarchate felt recognized." The first meeting and embrace between the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras took place in the building of the Apostolic Delegation on 5 January, 1964 Peter and Andrew came together after centuries of division. The Pope and the Patriarch recited the “Our Father” along with the various delegations, in two languages, Latin and Greek. Athenagoras expressed the hope that that meeting would” mark the dawn of a “blessed, shining day on which it will be possible to communicate with the same cup of the precious Blood and the holy Body of the Lord.” Montini gave Athenagoras a gold chalice.

Religious leaders opened the ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built at the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified and buried. They stood in front of the 19th-century edicule surrounding the tomb as hymns were sung on March 22, 2017 . Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem, in his address to the ceremony, called the restoration “not only a gift to our Holy Land but to the whole world.” “For the first time in over two centuries, this sacred edicule has been restored,” he said, referring to the shrine built in 1810 surrounding the tomb.

HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE Bridegroom Matins: Tuesday the 11th at 6:30 PM Holy Unction: Wednesday the 12th at 3 PM Presanctified: Wednesday the 12th at 6:30 PM Liturgy of the Last Supper: Thursday the 13th at 10 AM Passion Gospels: Thursday the 13th at 6:30 PM Laying of the Shroud: Friday the 14th at 3 PM Jerusalem Matins: Friday the 14th at 7 PM Holy Saturday Liturgy: The 15th at 3 PM Pascha (Easter): Saturday the 15th at 11:30 PM Agape Vespers: Sunday the 16th at 3 PM 4

The shrine is a key part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City. The church is located in Israeli-occupied east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians see as the capital of their future state, and the shrine was briefly closed by Israeli authorities in 2015 over security fears. The nearly $4 million renovation project was carried led by the church's denominations, whose disputes have held up restoration for more than 200 years.

Work was finally began last year after the church was found unsafe by Israeli authorities, who have controlled East Jerusalem since its capture in the 1967 Middle East war. Antonia Moropoulou, a professor at the National Technical University of Athens, said the structure needed reinforcement and conservation, including work on drainage network for rainwater and sewage. Religious worshippers have been amazed by the newly restored red marble of the structure surrounding the burial place, known as the edicule "Before this the monument was black," he told AFP at the holy site. "This is the actual color of the monument, the color of hope."

Liturgics 101

Sophia

By Sub-deacon Ben Kalemba Blessing of the Paschal Foods One of the most beloved traditions of the Easter Season is the Blessing of the Paschal Foods. This was not an universal tradition but very localized. Traditionally, the Greeks bless Red Eggs. The Russians bless Kulich, Sirnaya Paska, and Eggs. The Ukrainians, Carpatho-Rusyns, and Poles bless Pascha, Hrudka, Eggs, Cheese, Butter, Salt, Horseradish (Chrin), Ham, Bacon, and Kolbasi. This custom has become so popular that even cultural groups in this country that had no tradition of blessing food have adopted it. It is even embraced by American converts! The Service of the Blessing of the Paschal Foods takes place either after the Paschal Matins or Divine Liturgy.

The priest beings with the usual opening doxology.

Priest: Blessed is our God always, now and ever and unto ages of ages.

People: Amen. Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling death by death and to those in the tombs be-

stowing life.

Then the Paschal Stichera, during which the priest will cense the people and the Paschal Foods: V. Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered, and let those who hate him flee from before his face! (Ps. 67:2)

Christ is risen from the dead...

V. As smoke vanishes, so let them vanish, as wax melts before a fire. (Ps. 67:3)

Christ is risen from the dead...

V. So let the wicked perish at the presence of God, but let the righteous ones rejoice. (Ps. 67:4)

Christ is risen from the dead...

V. This is the day the Lord had made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Ps. 117:24)

Christ is risen from the dead...

V. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever. Amen.

Christ is risen from the dead...

The priest will now say the Prayer to Bless the Fleshmeats: Let us pray to the Lord.. Lord have mercy.

Look down, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, on this fleshmeat and sanctify it, as You sanctified the ram which faithful Abraham brought to You, and the lamb which Abel offered to You as a whole-offering. Likewise the fatted calf which You commanded to be slain for Your Prodigal Son when he had returned again to You; that as he was granted to enjoy Your grace, so too may we enjoy these things sanctified and blessed by You, for the nourishment of us all. For You are the True Nourishment and the Bestower of good things, and to You we ascribe glory, together with Your Father Who is without beginning, and Your Most-holy, Good, and Life-creating Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages.

Amen Followed by the Prayer to Bless Cheese and Eggs: Let us pray to the Lord.. Lord have mercy.

O Master, Lord our God, the Creator and Maker of all things: Bless this curdled milk, and with it these eggs, and preserve us in Your goodness, that partaking of these, we may be filled with Your gifts, which You bestow on us ungrudgingly, together with Your unspeakable goodness. For Yours is the dominion , and Yours is the Kingdom and the power, and the glory: of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, nown and ever and unto ages of ages.

Amen.

The priest now sprinkles the food with Holy Water while the people sing:

Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling death by death and to those in the tombs bestowing life.

The service ends as follows: Priest: Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling death by death…

People: And to those in the tombs bestowing life.

Priest: May Christ, who is risen from the dead, trampling death by death and to those in the tombs bestowing life, our true God, through the prayers of His most-pure Mother, and of all the saints, have mercy on us and save us, for He is good and loves mankind.

People: Amen. And unto us He has given eternal life; let us worship His Resurrection on the third day.

Usually around this time of the year, one will see published on the internet or printed in church bulletins, a small pamphlet called “How to Put Together a Traditional Easter Basket”. This pamphlet was put together years ago by a dear friend of mine, Father Basil Kraynak. It is a shame that he is rarely given the credit for putting this pamphlet together.

One of Fr. Basil’s life-long dreams was to celebrate Holy Week and Easter in his ancestral village in the Carpathian Mountains.

He fulfilled this dream Pascha of 2002. On the flight back from Slovakia, Fr. Basil suffered a major heart attack on the plane and died - the Carpatho-Rusyn Prostopinije Melody for Christos Voskrese fresh in his memory.

5 May his memory be eternal! Christ is Risen!

Practical Wisdom for Everyday Life

Temperance and Enjoyment If you feel the itch of intemperance, nourish yourself with the Flesh and Blood of Christ, Who practiced heroic self-control during His earthly life; and you will become temperate. ~ St. Cyril of Alexandria “Never go to excess, but let moderation be your guide” (Cicero).

Do you remember when you first got that new car you wanted?

Or that new CD that you loved? Or maybe that crush you had in high school? And do you remember what happened a few months later? That initial high subsided, what was extraordinary soon became common place, and maybe you lost interest all together. In our culture the answer to such experiences is often MORE. We become numb to those new thrills and seek ever larger ones. We grow board, anxious, depressed, restless and the answer seems to be more. More of everything.

worse than a wife, and the cares of marriage. The unmarried declares there is nothing so wretched as being unmarried, and wanting the repose of a home. The merchant thinks the husbandman happy in his security. The husbandman thinks the merchant so in his wealth. In short, all mankind are somehow hard to please, and discontented and impatient."

some, more perilous, than warfare; that it would he better to live on bread and water than endure such hardships. He that is in power thinks there can be no greater burden than to attend to the necessities of others. He that is subject to that power, thinks nothing more servile than living at the beck of others. The married man considers nothing

“Happiness is not a goal...it's a by-product of a life well lived” (Eleanor Roosevelt). If our goal is God and our life lived for others then happiness and contentment will be the byproduct of our life. How rich we will then be.

This quote of Saint John shows how little people change over the centuries. Now as back then we all think we have it the worst and only see things from our own perspective. This egocentric way of looking at the world around us will sabotage In stark contrast, the life with Christ offers less. It says less of contentment every time. Why are we men and women so hard everything, not more. Or rather everything in its right propor- to please? Why do we seem to always sabotage our own wellbetion. The Christian life offers to us something greatly missing ing? It is part of the human condition. It is this and other dein most of our lives: Balance. The virtue of Temperance doesn’t structive dispositions that Christ comes to save us from. And get much attention but it has been upheld as a virtue of prime this is why we must intentionally invest in our spiritual life and importance across cultures, religions, and philosophies. It was work to cultivate the virtues that Christ taught. They will not one of Plato’s core virtues, is advocated in the Ten Command- come on their own, and without them our life will not be fulments, and is one of St. Paul’s Fruits of the Spirit. Temperfilling. ance, also known as moderation, is the avoidance of excess by means of self-restraint. It therefore has many expressions: "I was unhappy and so is every soul unhappy which is tied to its love modesty, abstinence, chastity, forgiveness, prudence, and many for mortal things; when it loses them, it is torn in pieces, and it is then that it comes to realize the unhappiness which was there even before it more. Its absence is also seen in many unrestrained impulses: vanity, pride, anger, sloth, gluttony, drunkenness, and sensual lost them." This quote from Saint Augustine teaches us another critical element to achieving contentment. We have to set our addiction. heart’s desires on things that last and things that truly fulfill us.

The Taoist philosopher Lao-Tzu writing on moderation teach- The temporary things of this life and the external things of life es: “He who becomes excessive with wealth and sex . . . sows ought to have a lesser priority than the spiritual things of life: the seeds of his own misfortune.” This is because our own deour relationships, our character, our attitudes, mindset, prayer, sires can easily because a wild beast that when fed with control and other spiritual activities. Augustine points out that when and wisdom devours us, usually in the form of addictions and we lose the temporal things of life we realize we were unhappy self-destructive behavior. Furthermore, our desires if unreall along but did not realize it, “the happiness which was there even strained and fulfilled to excess have a damaging effect on othbefore it was lost”. He urges us therefore to invest in things that ers. And if we are wise we will see that hurting another is hurt- will not leave us heartbroken when we are parted from them. ing oneself because all life is connected and made one in Christ.

"Life is a misery, death an uncertainty. Suppose it steals suddenly upGreater stimulation will only serve to increase our desire and on me, in what state shall I leave this world? … Why then do I delay? not necessarily our pleasure. Though it might seem counter Why do I not abandon my hopes of this world and devote myself enintuitive, moderation actually serves to increase our enjoyment tirely to the search for God and for the happy life?" (Augustine). The of things. Even the philosophy of Epicureanism taught modera- happy life, the contented life lies in God. We must rest in him, tion, because it knew that it was the key to greater for in him we find our contentment, not in our jobs, reputation, ...nothing worse than having a plain wife, because it is constantly dis- abilities, possession, or temporary pleasures. This is why we are discontent. We set our hearts and our lives upon the things agreeable. The private man thinks nothing more mean, more useless, which will inevitably make us unhappy. than his mode of life. The soldier declares that nothing is more toil-

The True Nature of Fasting Mother Mary and Bishop Kallistos Ware 'We waited, and at last our expectations were fulfilled', writes the Serbian Bishop Nikolai of Ochrid, describing the Easter service at Jerusalem. 'When the Patriarch sang "Christ is risen", a heavy burden fell from our souls. We felt as if we also had been raised from the dead. All at once, from all around, the same cry resounded like the noise of many waters. "Christ is risen" sang the Greeks, the Russians, the Arabs, the Serbs, the Copts, the Armenians, the Ethiopians one after another, each in his own tongue, in his own melody. . . . Coming out from the service at dawn, we began to regard everything in the light of the glory of Christ's Resurrection, and all appeared different from what it had yesterday; everything seemed better, more expressive, more glorious. Only in the light of the Resurrection does life receive meaning.' [1] This sense of resurrection joy, so vividly described by Bishop Nikolai, forms the foundation of all the worship of the Orthodox Church; it is the one and only basis for our Christian life and hope. Yet, in order for us to experience the full power of this Paschal rejoicing, each of us needs to pass through a time of preparation. 'We waited,' says Bishop Nikolai, 'and at last our expectations were fulfilled.'

Without this waiting, without this expectant preparation, the deeper meaning of the Easter celebration will be lost.

So it is that before the festival of Easter there has developed a long preparatory season of repentance and fasting, extending in present Orthodox usage over ten weeks. First come twenty-two days (four successive Sundays) of preliminary observance; then the six weeks or forty days of the Great Fast of Lent; and finally Holy Week, Balancing the seven weeks of Lent and Holy Week, there follows after Easter a corresponding season of fifty days of thanksgiving, concluding with Pentecost.

Each of these seasons has its own liturgical book. For the time of preparation there is the Lenten Triodion or 'Book of Three Odes', the most important parts of which are here presented in English translation. For the time of thanksgiving there is the Pentekostarion, also known in Slav usage as the Festal Triodion. [2] The point of division between the two books is midnight on the evening of Holy Saturday, with Matins for Easter Sunday as the first service in the Pentekostarion. This division into two distinct volumes, made for reasons of practical convenience, should not cause us to overlook the essential unity between the Lord's Crucifixion and His Resurrection, which together form a single, indivisible action. And just as the Crucifixion and the Resurrection are one action, so also the 'three holy days' (triduum sanctum) - Great Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday constitute a single liturgical observance. Indeed, the division of the Lenten Triodion and the Pentekostarion into two books did not become standard until after the eleventh century; in early manuscripts they are both contained in the same codex.

What do we find, then, in this book of preparation that we term the Lenten Triodion? It can most briefly be described as the book of the fast. Just as the children of Israel ate the 'bread of affliction' (Deut. 16: 3) in preparation for the Passover, so Christians prepare themselves for the celebration of the New Passover by observing a fast. But what is meant by this word 'fast' (nisteia)?

To read the rest of this article go to http://lent.goarch.org/articles/nature_of_fasting.asp

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