+ A Parish of +

The Orthodox Church in America www.oca.org

Most Rev. Archbishop Benjamin, Diocese of San Francisco and the West

www.dowoca.org

Very Rev. Fr. Archpriest John Armstrong frjohnarm@hotmail.com

+ Worship Services +

Saturdays, 6:00 pm Great Vespers & Confession

(3rd & 6th Hour Prayers, 9:10 am) Sundays, 9:30 am

Divine Liturgy

Feast Days (See Monthly Calendar)

+ Parish Prayer List +

Please pray for and ask the Lord to have mercy on:

Hieroschemamonk Ambrose (Young) Mother Theodelphi Archpriest Michael Oleksa; Archpriest Lawrence The Clergy & Parishioners of our Mission Parishes Priest Jacob & the Parishioners of St. Mark’s Matushki: Sophia, Lauren, Priscilla, Alice, Teresa & Mary Graham; “Mary”; LeAnne; Shirley Kathy; Peter & Katherine Andrew; Benjamin; Justus & Kalena Karin, Yancey & children; Brian Kathryn Birmingham; Dale Brinkman Tom & Jane; Megan George Eckert; Joyce Mikita Jeanie (Mary) Cooper; Agnes Craig; Kafa Dalal Lee Anthony; Adam Goodman Aaron; Olga; Natalia; Kira; Alice Maria Gorsevski; Lauren Hansen Laura Lemco; Esther Schafer Ronald & Rhonda; Joshua & Shannon Charles; Patrick; Jonathan Oleg; James; Joshua Barbara Murray; John; Michael Glenda & family John & Sophia; Irina & Genevieve; Vitaly Sona, Mardig & Seta Barbara Payne; John Russell John Salmon; Joel Snyder Christopher Sprecher; Barbara Stokilo; Mary Streech Jack Whitaker; Natalia Zolotoochin

Missionaries & Ministries: OCMC: Michael, Lisa & Liam Colburn; James Hargrave & family. OCPM: Fr. Steven Powley. “Dipes & Wipes”: Mary, Herman, Ida & friends

Catechumens: Ron (Isidore of Pelusium) & Lisa (Dymphna) Abbot; Melanie (Ruth) Gardner; Erin (Mary Magdalene) Hollingsworth; Marie (Sophia of Thrace)

Inquirers: Aaron; Michelle & her children; Damian; Danielle & Dalton; Mark; Winslow

Newly Departed: Roberta (“Betty”) (7/18)

Memorial: Paul Horoshak (8/8); Joel Perry (Aug./Sep.)

Saint Herman

Orthodox Church

991 West Prentice Avenue Littleton Colorado 80120 303-798-7306 www.sthermanoca.org

+ Pastoral Ministries +

Please contact Fr. John anytime for any of

the following: Confession; Hospital Visits /

Holy Unction; Memorial Services; Slavas;

Moliebens; or, just to talk… You can call or

txt me at: 720-971-5931; and/or email me at:

frjohnarm@hotmail.com

Saint Herman Orthodox Church

August 4, 2019

7th Sunday after Pentecost, Tone 6 Holy 7 Holy Youths (“Sleepers”) of Ephesus (250 AD)

Scriptures: Romans 15:1-7; St. Matthew 9:27-35

http://www.oca.org/http://www.ocadow.org/http://www.ocadow.org/

Handmaidens Schedule for August

Today, August 4, Juliana & Katherine Gaines August 11, Nika & Sophia Bergbauer August 18, Sophie & Abigail Reynolds August 25, Katherine Pyle & Kyriana Kratter

Greeters Schedule for August

Today, August 4, Olga Thomas August 11, Christine &/or Garry Baker August 18, Angelica Zolotoochin August 25, Jeny Hardin

+ Looking Ahead +

August 1—14: The Dormition Fast

Paraklesis: August 12, 6:30 pm

August 14/15: Feast of the Dormition

August 29: Beheading of St. John (Liturgy)

+ This Week +

Monday, August 5, 6:00 pm, Vigil for Feast of Transfiguration (at Transfig. Cathedral)

Tuesday, August 6, 9:30 am, Festal Divine Liturgy for the Feast (at St. Herman; F, W, O)

Wednesday, August 7, 6:30 pm, Paraklesis

Thursday, August 8, 6:30 pm, Great Vespers for St. Herman & Reception w/Archbishop

Friday, August 9, 9:30 am, Divine Liturgy for St. Herman & Lunch w/Abp. Benjamin

Saturday, August 10, 6 pm, Great Vespers w/ Paraklesis (Small Canon) & Confession

+ Today + August 4, 2019

Welcome to St. Herman Orthodox Church! We’re glad you came to worship with us!

Patron Saints: St. Herman of Alaska (8/9)

Anniversaries:

“Preserve them, O Lord, for many years!”

Coffee Hour

Theological Meaning of the Transfiguration of Christ by Metropolitan Hierotheos (Vlachos) of Nafpaktos

The theology of the Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ always moved me, together with the theology of Pascha and Pentecost. Even by reading the hymns of the Feast of the Transfiguration, it feels like those who wrote them had the experience of the uncreated Light of divinity, which emanates from the Body of Christ.

The Holy Fathers of the Church, especially St. Gregory Palamas...not only saw the uncreated Light of divinity, but also developed this great event theologically and then identified the difference between contemplative theology and hesychastic theology. Contemplative ‘theology’ is associated with metaphysics, while hesychastic theology is associated with the purification of the heart and illumination of the nous. Herein lies the difference between Western and Orthodox theology, and, of course, the difference between the ‘contemplatives’ – metaphysicians (philosophers) and the Orthodox hesychast Fathers.

The vision of the uncreated Light, according to the teaching of the Church, is participating in the Kingdom of God, and certainly we know that there is the Kingdom of God which is the entire creation, and the Kingdom of God which is the uncreated Grace and Energy of God, which is enhypostatic, since "the agent of energy is the hypostasis which uses the Energy" (St. John of Damascus). The sharing in the Kingdom of God is at varying degrees according to our participation and communion with the Grace of God, which we taste of, not as a so-called ‘mystic’, but as the actual Body of Christ.

When man partakes of the uncreated Glory of God, then he is glorified, according to the words of St. Paul: "If one member is glorified, all rejoice together" (1 Cor. 12:16), because the glorification of a member of the Church has consequences for all the people. For example, the Prophet Moses was glorified, he entered the divine Cloud, and then guided the people with the laws [the Law, Torah], advice, and his entire conversion.

The theology of the Transfiguration is integrally connected with the method we must use to experience this great Light, and the Orthodox Faith is connected with Orthodox hesychasm, because when one is disconnected from the other, then we arrive either at metaphysics or external ethics, which do not cure, save, or deify man...

"O Christ our God... Let Thine everlasting Light shine upon us sinners, through the prayers of the Theotokos… have mercy on us!"

+ Synaxarion +

The Seven Holy Sleepers [Youths] of Ephesus. There was a great persecution of Christians under the Emperor Decius. The Emperor himself went to Ephesus, and there prepared a riotous festival in honor of dead idols and also a vicious slaughter of Christians. Seven youths, all of them soldiers, held themselves apart from the foul offering of sacrifice, and wholeheartedly begged the one God to save the Christian people. They were the sons of the most eminent administrator in Ephesus, and their names were: Maximilian, Iamblichus, Martinian, John, Dionysius, Exacustodianus and Antoninus. When they were accused before the Emperor, they hid on a hill called Ochlon outside Ephesus, concealing themselves in a cave. When the Emperor discovered this, he commanded that the cave be walled-in. God then, in His far-seeing providence, let a miraculous and long-lasting sleep fall on the young men. The imperial courtiers Theodore and Rufinus, secret Christians, caused a copper catafalque with leaden plaques to be made, on which were written the names of these young men and their death by martyrdom under the Emperor Decius. More than 200 years then passed. In the time of the Emperor Theodosius the Younger (408-450), there arose a great dispute about the resurrection of the dead, for there were some who doubted the resurrection. Emperor Theodosius was greatly grieved at this dispute among the faithful, and prayed God that He would in some way reveal the truth to the people. At that time of altercation in the Church, some shepherds of a certain Adolius, who owned Ochlon, began building pens for their sheep and took stone after stone from this cave. Then the youths awoke from their sleep, young and in full health as they had fallen asleep. This marvel was noised abroad on all sides, and Theodosius himself came with a great retinue and spoke apart with the young men. After a week, they again entered into sleep, the sleep of death, to await the General Resurrection. The Emperor wanted to place their bodies in golden coffins, but they appeared to him in a dream and told him to leave them in the earth, as they had been.

The Hieromartyr Cosmas, an Equal-of-the-Apostles. Born in Aitolia, in the village of Megadendron (Great Tree), he went off to the Holy Mountain as a young man and there, in the monastery of Philotheou, was tonsured as a monk. But, urged by a constant desire to preach the Gospel to the people, he went to Constantinople, where he asked the blessing of Patriarch Seraphim for this. He visited all the Danube area, preaching the Gospel, working especially in Albania, where he suffered at the hands of a certain Kurt Pasha, who was stirred up by the Jews against Cosmas. Cosmas was strangled by the Turks and then cast into a river, in 1779. His wonderworking relics are preserved in the village of Kalikontasi, in the church of the All-holy Mother of God, not far from the town of Berati. He suffered for his Lord at the age of 65.

The Transfiguration of Our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ (Aug. 6). In the 3rd year of His ministry, the Lord Jesus spoke more frequently to His disciples of His coming Passion, but linked it always with His glory after His suffering on the Cross. That His coming suffering should not utterly shatter His disciples, so that they fall away from Him, He, the all-Wise, decided to show them, before His Passion, something of His divine Glory. He therefore, taking with Him Peter, James and John, went by night onto Mount Tabor and was there transfigured before them. “His Face shone as the sun, and His raiment became white as snow,” and there appeared beside Him Moses and Elias, the great Prophets of the Old Covenant. And the disciples saw and were amazed, and Peter said: “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if Thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles: one for Thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias.” While Peter was still speaking, Moses and Elias disappeared and a bright Cloud came and overshadowed the Lord and the disciples, and a Voice came out of the Cloud: “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” Hearing this Voice, the disciples fell prostrate on the ground as though dead, and remained thus lying in fear until the Lord came to them and said: “Arise, and be not afraid” (Matt. 17). Why did the Lord take only 3 disciples with Him onto Tabor, and not all of them? Because Judas was not worthy to behold the divine Glory of the Master Whom he was to betray, and the Lord did not want to leave him alone at the foot of the mountain, that the betrayer should not thus work his betrayal. Why was He transfigured on the mountain and not in the valley? That He might teach us two virtues: 1) love of toil, and 2) pondering on God. To climb to the heights involves toil, and the heights represent the heights of our thoughts: pondering on God. Why was He transfigured at night? Because the night is more fitted to prayer and meditation than the day, and because the night covers all earthly beauty with darkness and reveals the beauty of the starry heavens. Why did Moses and Elias appear? To shatter the Jewish fallacy that Christ was one of the Prophets — Elias, Jeremiah, or one of the others. This was why He revealed Himself as King over the Prophets, and why Moses and Elias appeared as His servants. Up to this moment, the Lord had many times shown His divine power to His disciples, but on Tabor He showed them His uncreated divine Glory. This vision of His divinity and the hearing of the heavenly witness to Him as the Son of God must have been of support to the disciples in the days of the Lord's suffering, for the strengthening of a steadfast faith in Him and His final victory over death, sin, and the devil.