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, Aug 27Sept 3-5

Sun, Sept 18urs, Oct 6

Pita Baking, 9am-noonMarlborough Greek FestivalstART on the Street FestivalHoly Trinity Wine/Food Fest

Dates to RememberGreete Tm 2:

Arc Gava and Călin Galeriu

No Coffee Hour This Week

All Altar Serve Invited

ST. NICHOLAS

WEEKLY BULLETINAugust 21, 2016

This Week’s NewsPITA BAKINg is scheduled for Satur-day, August 27th, 9:00am to noon.Any questions, contact Chris Toda at:thetodas@msn.com, or 508-832-6271.All help appreciated. No experiencenecessary — there’s a job for everyone.

ThANKS TO ThE MuSTARd SEEdVOLuNTEERS! ose who cooked andthose who served the meal this past Fri-day! e Mustard Seed is a CatholicWorker home providing dinner to about150 people in need each day.We are alsolooking for donors to cover the cost ofthe meal—around $400.00 for the 200meals we usually serve. Our nextscheduled meal is October 21st. Con-tact Fr. Nick if you’d like to help preparethe meals or underwrite the costs.

ORThOdOX FOOd CENTER NEEdSBAgS, both plastic and paper. We allhave hundreds of these filling ourpantries. is is your chance to save theFood Center some cash and do evenmore good by recycling. Please collectgood, usable paper and plastic bags andbring them either to the Pantry on Sat-urday morning between 10 a.m. and 12noon (St. Spyridon Cathedral, side en-trance), or to our parish and we’ll havesomeone from here deliver them. tion Center is an Orthodox

Charity and relies on your do-nations to continue their mis-sion of providing the best carepossible.

Communi NewsSS. ANARgYROI PARISh INMARLBOROugh will be

holding its annual Greek Festival,

Labor Day weekend (Saturday through

Monday). For more information check

their website: www.stsanargyoi.org.

ST. MIChAEL IN SOuThBRIdgE will be

holding its 9th Annual Romanian Golf

Open on Saturday, September 10th.

For more information and/or to register,

call Luke Yanka at 508-958-4144 or e-

mail: lsyanka@yahoo.com.

WE CELEBRATE A ONE-YEAR ME-MORIAL today for the servant of God,George Soter.May his memory be eter-nal!

Holy Trini NewsHOLY TRINITY is selling the WASH-BURN HOUSE Residence. Grey GhostAuctions of Webster will be conductingan ESTATE SALE at the Washburn Res-ident, 1183 Main St., Worcester, MA onSunday, August 28, 2016 at 2:00pm. Apublic walk through to view the itemsfor sale will begin at 1:00pm.

Holy Trinity Nursing and Rehabilita-

The Nin Sunday after PentecostApostolic Rding: 1 Corinians 3:9-17 • Gospel: Mahew 14:22-34

(Jesus Wal on e S and Calms e Storm)Tone 8 • Mans Gospel 9

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

Blessed are you, Lord Godof tenderness and mercy,

for the gi of this new day and forbringing to us the fulness of gracein the person of your only Son,our Lord Jesus Christ. ese daysfill us with special joy and confi-dence because of the eotokos,whose dormition we celebrate. Aswe set out, once again, to workout our salvation with the help ofyour Christ, give us all we need toserve you in our brothers and sis-ters, not only during this comingday, but throughout our lives.And let the holy virgin’s prayersfor us be a pledge of our eternalsalvation.

For you deserve all glory, honor,and worship, Father, Son, andHoly Spirit: now and forever, andunto ages of ages. Amen.

August 15e Falling Asleep of the Most holy eotokos

Maria BlanchardMary CocaineMaria DumitriuMonika Maria DurmillariMaria KalpidouMaria PrelipceanNancy Maria TsongalisMary TsoulesMarietta Zaruha

August 26e holy Martyrs Adrian and Natalia at Nicomedia

Natalia Dimitra KaradimitriouNatasha Zhaka

August 29St. eodora of essalonika

Gina eodora TrakadasAugust 30

St. Alexander, Patriarch of Constantinople

Alexander CharalambidesEmilia Alexandra GaleriuDr. Alexander GouvelisAlexandra MazanitisAlexandru NaceConner Alexander PolymerosAlexanna SoterAlexander James Trakadas

Namedays

PITA & PASTRY CONCESSION AT“START ON ThE STREET:” Sunday,September 18th. (Rain Date – Sun-day, September 25th). St. Nicholas isreturning to this community art fes-tival, held on Park Avenue inWorcester between Pleasant andHighland Streets, which draws over20,000 attendees each year. OurChurch will again be one of the ven-dors in the Food Court selling pitaand pastry. is is a HUGE under-taking for us, and requires your“sweat stewardship” to realize thefundraising potential of $5,000. Please watch the announcementsand the Stewardship Bulletin Boardin the Church Hall for additional in-formation on how you can help withthis event. Preparations for the eventwill be on Friday, September 16. Andhelp will be needed as well through-out the day on Sunday. Pita and pas-try baking is also currentlyunderway and help is needed withthat part of the effort as well. evenue is established and presents agreat opportunity to showcase ourgoods to the larger community. eonly variable is YOu! St. Nicholasneeds your commitment of time andtalent to make this a success! evolunteering schedule needs will beposted on the Bulletin Board soon. For more info, speak with DebSedares, Chris Toda or Betty Anderson.

stARTon the Street

You Are God’s Temple Paul is saying three things here:First, as Apostle and founder of thecommunity—the master builder—heprovided them with the spiritual foun-dation on which to build. Second, thisfoundation not only provides supportfor the building to be built upon it, butalso determines its shape and parame-ters. And three, the foundation for theChurch is Christ Himself; one must becareful if something or someone else isbeing preached. He continues, “Now if anyonebuilds on the foundation with gold, sil-ver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—the work of each builder will becomevisible, for the Day will disclose it, be-cause it will be revealed with fire, andthe fire will test what sort of work eachhas done.” (v. 12-13) ere are two pos-sible interpretations as to whom St. Paulis referring. e “anyone” in verse 12could refer to other preachers or minis-ters; people responsible for building upthe community through teaching andexample. Or, he could be referring to us,the members of the Church. St. JohnChrysostom leans toward the secondunderstanding. St. John Chrysostom says thatclearly Paul is not speaking of a physicalbuilding, because people do not usegold, silver and precious stones for thispurpose. Rather these “building materi-als” represent the quality of our actions.e ways in which we internalize andthen incorporate the Gospel reflectedthrough our deeds and habits becomelike spiritual gold or wood or straw. Ourworks will become visible on the Day,that is, the Day of the Lord, when Hecomes in judgment. Everything will berevealed—tested—by fire. Fire has this quality: it can eitherconsume or it can purify. Materials suchas wood, hay and straw are consumed,leaving only blackened ash. Gold andsilver, on the other hand, are purifiedand made more brilliant. And so, “If what has been built on

the foundation survives, the builder willreceive a reward. If the work is burnedup, the builder will suffer loss; thebuilder will be saved, but only asthrough fire.” (v. 14-15) For the personwhose works are like precious metalsand stones, the fire on the Day of Judg-ment is a refining fire. For the personwhose works cannot withstand the firesof judgment, they will escape with theirlives, but with nothing to show for it.Like someone standing on the streetwatching all of their life’s work andmemories being reduced to smolderingash, so will it be for us if we are not will-ing and ready to put into practice theGood News that we’ve heard. “Do you not know that you areGod’s temple and that God’s Spiritdwells in you? If anyone destroys God’stemple, God will destroy that person.For God’s temple is holy, and you arethat temple.” (v. 16-17) is is the heartof St. Paul’s argument. We are the“building” with which he is concerned.We are God’s dwelling place. St. Paulechoes the Lord’s words when he said:“ose who love me will keep my word,and my Father will love them, and wewill come to them and make our homewith them.” (John 14:23) By the way we live we either buildup or destroy God’s temple. Even in thissecular age people are still outragedwhen a holy place—church, synagogue,or mosque—is desecrated. To theCorinthians these words were evenmore powerful. Whether you were apagan or a Jew the desecration of a tem-ple invited God’s wrath. is is St. Paul’sadmonishment for us: to remember thatwe are responsible for God’s dwellingplace, our very selves.

Fr. Nichos Aposto

This is the ninth Sunday aer Pente-cost, and we continue reading from

St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians.is week the selection is 3:9-17. St. Paulis dealing with reports of scandal anddivision (including some immoral be-havior) within the Corinthian Church.In last week’s reading we listened to himdirectly address the attitudes that werefostering factionalism. In the verses thatfollowed (v. 1:18-3:5) he severely repri-mands them for their childish behavior.He knows that they see themselves as“spiritually mature” because some in thecommunity have been graced with thecharismatic gis of the Spirit, yet he seesthem as spiritually immature, even aschildren. He says, “I could not speak to youas spiritual people, but rather as peopleof the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fedyou with milk, not solid food, for youwere not ready for solid food. Even nowyou are still not ready, for you are still ofthe flesh. For as long as there is jealousyand quarreling among you, are you notof the flesh, and behaving according tohuman inclinations?” (v. 3:1-3) He usestwo metaphors to help them understandthe path to spiritual growth. e first isan agricultural image: Paul plants, Apol-los waters, and God gives the growth (cf.3:6). e second is the image of con-structing a building. is is wheretoday’s reading begins, as St. Paul movesfrom the first metaphor to the second. In order to soen the edge of his re-buke, St. Paul invites the Corinthians tosee the spiritual project of the Church asa building on which we all work collab-oratively, as God’s servants, according toour talents and the grace given us. Hesays: “According to the grace of Godgiven to me, like a skilled master builderI laid a foundation, and someone else isbuilding on it. Each builder mustchoose with care how to build on it. Forno one can lay any foundation otherthan the one that has been laid; thatfoundation is Jesus Christ.” (v. 3:10-11)

Vacation Church School2016