34 Gold Street, Shrewsbury, MA 01545-6238 Voice: 508.845.0088 Fax: 508.845.8850 e-mail: FrNick@StNicholasChurch.org web: www.StNicholasChurch.org

A Parish of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in the Americas

Sat, Oct 1Mon, Oct 3

urs, Oct 6Fri, Oct 14Sat, Nov 5

Sat, Nov 19

Sun, Nov 20

Sun, Dec 4

Staff Orthodox Food PantryParish Council Meeting, 6:30pmHoly Trinity Wine/Food FestMustard Seed Meal, 5pmStaff Orthodox Food PantryHoliday Bake Sale,

Luncheon & MarketplaceShrewsbury Ecu anksgiving Service

Congregational Church, 7:00pmFeastday Celebration

Dates to Remember

Greete Tm 3:Evans Tsoules and Tom Fitzpatrick

Coffee Hour Cln-up Crew A:MargariTE Landry,

ChriinE MaErjohn

All Altar Serve Invited

ST. NICHOLAS

WEEKLY BULLETINOober 2, 2016

This Week’s NewsTHE PARISH COUNCIL will hold itsregular monthly meeting tomorrow,Monday, October 3rd at 6:30 pm.Parish Council Members, please letGeorge Demake know if you are unableto attend.

THANKS TO THE START ON THESTREET CREW! starting with DebSedares who headed-up our effort, thebakers who worked over these pastmonths, the people who helped set-up,transport, and clean-up, and those whostaffed our table. God bless each andeveryone of you!

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION CLASSESare in session. If you have not registeredyour child, and would like to do so, youmay complete a registration form hereat Church. If anyone would like moreinformation, speak with Valarie Sta-moulis or Preoteasa Maria. As a reminder, quiet space to holdReligious Ed classes is limited. It takesvery little to disrupt a class of childrenfrom lessons their teachers have pre-pared. 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 coffee

CONGRATULATIONS to Dana andWill Tsoules on the birth of their sonEvangelos Michael Tsoules, born onSunday, September 25th, weighing in at5lbs 14 oz. Congratulations also the theproud grandparents Evans and IreneTsoules. MANY YEARS TO ALL!

A 40-DAY MEMORIAL is observedtoday for the servant of God CraigBelba. May the Lord rest is soul amongthe just!

TODAY’S COFFEE HOUR is spon-sored in memory of Craig Belba by hisfamily.

cooking and serving. Prephelp needed (3 persons), 6pmursday. Prep help needed (2persons), noon Friday. Servinghelp needed (5 persons),5:30pm Friday. We are alsolooking for donors to coverthe cost of the meal—around$400.00 for the 200 meals weusually serve. If you’d like tohelp, please talk to Fr. Nick.

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

(The Sermon on e Mount — Love of our Enemies)Tone 6 • Mans Gospel 4

hour area, hallway or going to thekitchen.

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 commitment is November 5th.

OUR NEXT MUSTARD SEED MEAL isFriday, October 14. We’ll need help

Holy Trini NewsHOLY TRINITY’S 10TH ANNIVERSARY

ANNUAL FOOD AND WINE FEST ON OCTO-bER 6TH, 5:30-8:30pm at St. SpyridonCathedral. Celebratory Champagne andSparkling Wine Tasting & Seminar at5:45pm! Live Music, Raffle Prizes, GreatFood! you don’t want to miss it! Fortickets call Irene Tsoules at 774-239-9238or Eleanor Sedares at 508-753-3106‘Like’ on Facebook, “Annual Food andWine Fest.”

Holy Trinity Nursing & RehabilitationCenter has the following EMPLOY-MENT OPPORTUNITIES: CNA's,RN's and Dietary Aides. Please contactMichelle Williamson, Dir. of HumanResources at: 508-852-1000 or e-mail:mwilliamson@htnr.net.

Communi NewsNOTRE DAME ACADEMY is holding anopen house on ursday, Oct 6th at7:00 pm for prospective students(young women grades 9-12). For info:www.nda-worc.org, or call: 508-757-6200 x229.

A Prayer of Fr. LaurenceLET US PRAy TO THE LORD,

The demons that abuse us at theirwhim are beyond counting, O

God! ey continue to nag at us, for-ever trying to trip us up by wearingdown our resistance more and more,and we must confess that frequentlythey succeed. But we acknowledgeour share of guilt, Lord, and ourwrongdoing fills us with dismay.erefore, come quickly to our aidand reinforce our perseverance.

For you are good and full of love forus, O God, and we give you glory,Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: nowand forever, and unto ages of ages.Amen.

October 7e Holy Martyr Sergius in Syria

Sergis Eleheriou

October 18e Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke

Fr. Luke Veronis

October 20e Great-martyr Artemiusof AntiochArtemie GavalaArtemis Gouvelis

Namedays

Saint Romanos the Melodist wasborn in the fih century in the Syr-

ian city of Emesa of Jewish parents.Aer moving to Constantinople, he be-came a church sacristan in the temple ofHagia Sophia. e monk spent hisnights alone at prayer in a field or in theBlachernae church beyond the city. St Romanos was not a talentedreader or singer. Once, on the eve of theNativity of Christ, he read the kathismaverses. He read so poorly that anotherreader had to take his place. e clergyridiculed Romanos, which devastatedhim. On the day of the Nativity, theMother of God appeared to the grief-stricken youth in a vision while he waspraying before her Kyriotissa icon. Shegave him a scroll and commanded himto eat it. us was he given the gi ofunderstanding, composition, andhymnography. at evening at the all-night Vigil StRomanos sang, in a wondrous voice, hisfirst Kontakion: “Today the Virgin givesbirth to the Transcendent One...” All thehymns of St Romanos became known askontakia, in reference to the Virgin’sscroll. St Romanus was also the first towrite in the form of the Oikos, which he

incorporated into the all-night Vigil athis places of residence (In Greek,“oikos”). For his zealous service St Romanoswas ordained as a deacon and became ateacher of song. Until his death, whichoccurred about the year 556, the hi-erodeacon Romanos the Melodist com-posed nearly a thousand hymns, manyof which are still used by Christians toglorify the Lord. About eighty survive.

Saint Romanos e MelodistOober 1st

My Power is Made Perfe in Wknesstells you how great they are?) rather, hereminds them of how much he has en-dured for them and for the sake of theGospel. He is so disappointed in theirlack of trust in him that he feels the needto swear an oath: “e God and Fatherof the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I do not lie.” (v. 11:31)And then he begins to tell them a storyhe has told no one else. “At Damascus, the governor underKing Aretas guarded the city of Damas-cus in order to seize me, but I was letdown in a basket through a window inthe wall, and escaped his hands.” (v. 32-33) is part they already knew, but thenhe begins to speak of the vision he had.“I must boast; there is nothing to begained by it, but I will go on to visionsand revelations of the Lord. I know aman in Christ who fourteen years agowas caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the bodyI do not know, God knows. And I knowthat this man was caught up into Para-dise—whether in the body or out of thebody I do not know, God knows—andhe heard things that cannot be told,which man may not utter.” (v. 12:1-4) Over the centuries there has beensome speculation about the kind of ex-perience that St. Paul had. What we cansay for certain is that no one reallyknows. Even St. Paul couldn’t describeit; words failed him. He had a vision ofGod that leaves the person receiving itentirely speechless. For him it was somuch an experience of the “Other” thathe had no reference points whatsoever.He is telling the Corinthians and us thatthis experience of God is true evidenceof his Apostleship. e Church, simplyput, believed him. Notice how he relates the ecstaticexperience in the “third” person. Hedoesn’t want it to appear as though he isbragging. He tells them: “On behalf ofthis man I will boast, but on my own be-half I will not boast, except of my weak-nesses.” (v. 5) He wants the Corinthiansand us to believe the words he is speak-

ing on their own merit, not because ofwho is telling them the story. It is God’struth—the truth of who and what Jesusthe Christ is—that matters. Neverthe-less, he says, “ough if I wish to boast,I shall not be a fool, for I shall be speak-ing the truth. But I refrain from it, sothat no one may think more of me thanhe sees in me or hears from me.” (v. 6) en he tells us how God has tem-pered his ‘vision’: “And to keep me frombeing too elated by the abundance ofrevelations, a thorn was given me in theflesh, a messenger of Satan, to harassme, to keep me from being too elated.ree times I besought the Lord aboutthis, that it should leave me.” (v. 7-8)ere are three things in these twoverses that we should note. First, St. Paulmakes it clear that the experience de-scribed above was not the only revela-tion he had. He speaks of “theabundance of revelations.” Second, Godtempers Paul’s ecstasy with real obsta-cles—“a thorn in the flesh.” Some thinkthat this was an actual body aliment; St.John Chrysostom thinks it was his per-secutors both inside and outside of theChurch. Nevertheless, he saw this as theway God was continuing to keep himhumble. And third, that aer havingprayed multiple times for it to be liedfrom him, he reconciled himself to thedeeper spiritual reality. He heard andunderstood God’s word: “My grace issufficient for you, for my power is madeperfect in weakness.” (v. 9) We need to truly mediate on St.Paul’s words: “I will all the more gladlyboast of my weaknesses, that the powerof Christ may rest upon me.” (v. 9) Sooen we think that our own resource-fulness, our own zeal, our own intellect,will prove God’s truth. e reality is thatGod’s truth becomes clear to otherswhen we don’t stand in the way.

Fr. Nichos Aposto

The Epistle lesson this week, thenineteenth aer Pentecost, is taken

from St. Paul’s Second Letter to theCorinthians (11:31-12:9). In it St. Paul de-scribes a vision of God that he had at thevery outset of his Apostleship, and theprofound effect it had on him. He alsogives us, using the example of his ownlife, the great mystical paradox — thatGod’s power is revealed to the world,not through our strengths, but throughour weaknesses. ese Letters of St. Paul to theCorinthians present us with somethingof a conundrum. As I said when com-menting on First Corinthians, all wehave are St. Paul’s responses; we do nothave what the Corinthians might havebeen writing back, either individually orcollectively. Some passages seem to be-long to a “third” letter that St. Paul refersto in the two texts that we have. Inplaces in both letters the tone seems toshi erratically indicating that these sec-tions might have been “pasted” intowhat we currently have. Without bela-boring this point, in both First and Sec-ond Corinthians St. Paul feels that theauthenticity of his Apostleship is beingattacked. In the passage we read today,as well as in the verses that precede andfollow it, St. Paul decides to address thisissue directly in order to defend hisministry. As we begin reading the passage,the first thing that we should notice isthe change in the personal pronoun. St.Paul almost never uses “I” when writingto the Churches. Rather, he uses “we,” inorder to impress on them that this is nota personal understanding of the Gospel,but one accepted by all Christian believ-ers. In this section he speaks in the firstperson singular. If we sense the shi inlanguage, certainly the original readersof his words did as well. e second thing that he does is tospeak of his weaknesses, of his suffer-ings. He doesn’t point out his accom-plishments (this is never very effectiveanyway; do you believe a person who

HOLY TRINITY NURSING & REHABILITATION CENTERHOLY TRINITY NURSING & REHABILITATION CENTERHOLY TRINITY NURSING & REHABILITATION CENTERHOLY TRINITY NURSING & REHABILITATION CENTER

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• Basil & Spice

• Café Espresso Trattoria

• Ciao Bella

• Creedon Catering

• Culpepper’s Bakery & Café

• Ed Hyder’s Mediterranean Mkt.

• Edible Arrangements

• George’s Bakery

• George’s Coney Island

• Holy Trinity

• 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

• Boston’s Best Coffee & more!

Champagne Champagne Champagne Champagne &&&&

Sparkling Wine Tasting SeminarSparkling Wine Tasting SeminarSparkling Wine Tasting SeminarSparkling Wine Tasting Seminar

5:45pm5:45pm5:45pm5:45pm