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The American CarpathoThe American CarpathoThe American Carpatho---Russian Orthodox Diocese of the U.S.ARussian Orthodox Diocese of the U.S.ARussian Orthodox Diocese of the U.S.A ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE OF CONSTANTINOPLEECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE OF CONSTANTINOPLEECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE OF CONSTANTINOPLE

Rev. Fr. Jeff L. Zias: 570-429-0670

Joseph T. Yarashus: 570-691-4143

(Parish Council President)

Website: www.stmichaelorthodox.org

+++ Please Remember St. Michael Orthodox Church in your Will Please Remember St. Michael Orthodox Church in your Will Please Remember St. Michael Orthodox Church in your Will +++

Fr. Seraphim told me, “ If you do not find Christ in this

life, you will not find Him in the next.” For a Westerner, this is

an astonishing statement. What does this mean, practically? He

wasn’t talking about mystical experiences or having visions or

something of that nature. Anyone who knows Fr. Seraphim realiz-

es he would have stayed away from that kind of talk.

What he meant by “finding Christ in this life” is this: that one

must first keep one’s focus on Christ all the time, day in and day

out. This is not just to have a routine of prayer, not just to tip

one’s hat to the icons as one goes out the door. Rather, it’s to

bring to mind Christ all day long in every circumstance, in every

opportunity—to raise one’s heart and mind to Him.

Fr. Seraphim used to say to me, quoting from the New Testa-

ment: God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him …. Perfect love casts out fear (1John 4:16, 18). You

see, I was a fearful person, so he would say things like that. And

then he would explain, “Well, we can’t have perfect love for God

or anyone else because we're imperfect. God’s love is perfect. But

if we dwell in love and God is love, then God is dwelling in us.

And that is one of the ways by which we become closer and closer

to Christ in this world.” And this is how we become less fearful of

life and other people, of challenges and difficulties.

—Personal Reminiscences of Fr. Seraphim Rose, by Hieromonk Ambrose

THE ARCHANGELTHE ARCHANGELTHE ARCHANGEL

St. Michael Orthodox Church

St. Clair, Pennsylvania

July 22, 2018 Hieromartyr Pancratius

Epistle: I Corinthians 1:10Epistle: I Corinthians 1:10Epistle: I Corinthians 1:10---181818

The Gospel of St. Matthew 14:14The Gospel of St. Matthew 14:14The Gospel of St. Matthew 14:14---222222

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Indeed, Christ prayed for His disciples “that they may be one,” and the Church prays at every Liturgy “for the un-ion of all.” But these phrases do not mean that the Church prays that someday Christians should be united with mutual compromises in their beliefs. … No, these phrases mean none of these things. The Church does not pray to God that variously opposed elements be united, but that all men should become ONE. In other words, that they should all accept the truth with great contrition and humbly prostrate before the Church and be numbered among her members. That they come to realize the error under which they have lived and hasten to the light and the truth, that is, to the Church. This is what the Church prays for. Exactly what she also prays for in the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great: “Return [O Lord] those in error and unite them to Thy Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.” Only this prayer and desire proceeds from genuine love, because it seeks the healing of the sick and not their delusion. But how will the Westerner be taught that the Orthodox Church is the One and True Church when they see her consorting with the false “churches” as an equal among equals? Will they not think, therefore, that Orthodoxy is also like the others—relative and partial? Or is it rea-sonable for one to hope that those councils of fanatic biretta-wearers and defrocked pastors will ever be able to recognize the truth? They are only flattering the Orthodox in order to draw them over to their side. If they had a genuine nostalgia to know Orthodoxy, they would have non-eed for councils and conferences. They would have gone to drink from her sources, from her Fathers and Saints.

Alexander Kalomiros, AGAINST FALSE UNION

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July 15, SUNDAYJuly 15, SUNDAYJuly 15, SUNDAY

10:00 a.m. The Divine Liturgy of St. John ChrysostomThe Divine Liturgy of St. John ChrysostomThe Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom

PanachidaPanachidaPanachida: : : +Paul Thomas, Sr., offered by Family+Paul Thomas, Sr., offered by Family+Paul Thomas, Sr., offered by Family

July 26, ThursdayJuly 26, ThursdayJuly 26, Thursday +Paul Thomas, Sr. (40th Day)+Paul Thomas, Sr. (40th Day)+Paul Thomas, Sr. (40th Day) 9:00 a.m. Memorial Liturgy, offered by Anna, Lynn & Dr. Paul Thomas9:00 a.m. Memorial Liturgy, offered by Anna, Lynn & Dr. Paul Thomas9:00 a.m. Memorial Liturgy, offered by Anna, Lynn & Dr. Paul Thomas

July 28, SaturdayJuly 28, SaturdayJuly 28, Saturday 6:00 p.m. Vespers, Tone6:00 p.m. Vespers, Tone6:00 p.m. Vespers, Tone———888

July 29, SUNDAYJuly 29, SUNDAYJuly 29, SUNDAY

7:30 a.m. Hours of Prayer 8:00 a.m.8:00 a.m.8:00 a.m. The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (Plain Chant)The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (Plain Chant)The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (Plain Chant)

NOTE: NOTE: NOTE: Fr. Jeff will be away next Sunday afternoon and Monday, as well as Fr. Jeff will be away next Sunday afternoon and Monday, as well as Fr. Jeff will be away next Sunday afternoon and Monday, as well as Friday and Saturday, driving our children to Camp and then picking them up. Friday and Saturday, driving our children to Camp and then picking them up. Friday and Saturday, driving our children to Camp and then picking them up.

The Orthodox Church is the Body of Christ, the pillar and ground of the Truth. The Church is both the means by which God wrote the Scriptures, and the means by which God has preserved the Scriptures. The Orthodox Church understands the Bible as the inspired written and living Tradition which begins with Adam and stretches through time to all its member in the flesh today. That this is true cannot be “proven” in a lab. One must be convinced by the Holy Spirit and experience the life of God in the Church. The question Protestants will ask at this point is, “Who is to say that the Orthodox Tradition is the correct tradition—or that there even is a correct tradition?” First, Protestants need to study Church history—century by century, rather than leaping from Acts to the Protestant Reformation. They will find there is only one Church. The Nicene Creed makes this point clearly: “I believe … one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.” This statement, which almost every Protestant denomination still claims to accept as true, was never interpreted historically to refer to some fuzzy, pluralistic, invisible church that could not agree on anything doctrinally.

—Fr. John Whiteford