+
Nineteenth
Sunday after Pentecost
Tone: 2 + Eothinion:
8
+ In the
Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
“We thank You, O
Christ our God, Physician of souls and bodies, who has borne our infirmities
and by whose stripes we have been healed, who healed the paralytic and forgave the tax collector,
who has taken away the sins of the world and was nailed to the Cross; and we
pray to You: forgive us our sins and trespasses both voluntary and involuntary,
known and unknown, and heal our ailments and sicknesses both physical and
spiritual. For You are the fountain of forgiveness and healing, Christ our
Savior, and to You we give glory, together with Your eternal Father and Your life-giving
Spirit, now and forever. Amen”
Next
Sunday’s
Epistle: St.
Titus (3:8-15) Holy Gospel: St. Luke (8:5-15)
+
The Epistle +
Verse: “The Lord is
my strength and my song,
The
Lord has chastened me sorely”.
The
(Chapter
11:31-12:9)
Brethren, the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not
lying. In
+
The Holy Gospel +
The
At that time, Jesus went to a city
called Nain, and many of His disciples and a great
crowd went with Him. As He drew near to
the gate of the city, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the
only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a large crowd from the city
was with her. And when the Lord saw her,
He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” And He came and touched the bier, and the
bearers stood still. And Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up, and began to speak. And Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all; and they glorified God,
saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited His
people!”
*
Announcements *
v Every Saturday – Great Vespers at
v Every Sunday – Matins at
ü Church Beautification
“Blessed
are those who love the beauty of Thy House, O Lord”
Our Iconographer may
unfortunately be retiring in the near future and we are looking to finish
(while we still can) the empty area over the Choir Loft with a beautiful new
set of icons. Some icons left for selection are:
v The Holy Hymnographers
& Antiochian Saints (For Example: St. Andrew of Crete, St.
Joseph of Damascus, St. Isaac the Syrian, Sts. Peter & Paul holding the
Church of Antioch in their hands, Sts. Sergios & Bachos the Unmercenary
Healers. OR any other Orthodox
Saint you would like to honor and have depicted on the walls of our Cathedral.
If you are interested in donating any icons, please contact
Fr. Ghattas in the office or speak to him after the Divine Liturgy.
ü Fellowship of
Weekly Meeting every Tuesday from
ü Teen SOYO
October is Youth
Month! This month the teens will be reading the epistle and collecting
the trays. Today following the Divine Liturgy the president of Teen SOYO
Patricia El-Chaâr
will present her oratorical. This past June in
ü Harvest Luncheon
Please join us on
ANNUAL
GENERAL MEETING
Immediately
after the Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral Hall.
Fall Delegate Meeting
Reservation:
Best Western Country Squire Resort, Gananoque @ 1800-267-9415
For
more information, please contact the Cathedral’s Office @ 738-2222
ü Antiochian Women
“Let get acquainted”
The Antiochian
Women will hold their first meeting on
The Antiochian
Women have many new and exciting plans and are looking forward to many new
ladies to be among us.
To hear about
our plans and simply to get acquainted with us, please plan to attend this very
informal and enjoyable evening.
ü Second Tray
Today, there will be a second tray collection to help support and
subsidize the education of our seminarians and also to support the institutions
that educate them. Please be generous.
+ + + + + + + + +
Explanation
of the Nicene Creed – Part 17
(Taken from:
Orthodox Faith - Volume 1 - Doctrine)
…Incarnation…
(6)
Iconoclastic
Controversy
In the eighth and ninth centuries the question of the person and nature of
Christ continued in the controversy over the veneration of the holy icons in
the Church. At this time many were found, including emperors and secular
rulers, who claimed that the veneration of icons is wrong because it is the sin
of idolatry. They claimed that as God is invisible and has commanded in the Old
Testament law that men are not to make "graven images," so it is
wrong to depict and to honor images of Christ and the saints.
The defenders of the veneration of the holy icons, led by Saints John Damascene
and Theodore Studion, claimed that the central point of the Christian faith is
that "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" and that "we
have beheld His glory" (Jn 1:14). Referring to the Holy Scriptures
they insisted that belief in the incarnation of the Son of God calls for the
veneration of icons since Jesus Christ is a real man with a real human soul and
body, and as such can be depicted. They said that those who were against the
holy icons reduced the incarnation to a "fantasy" and denied the true
humanity of the Son of God in His coming to man. Thus they made reference to
the words of Jesus Himself in His dialogue with Philip:
Philip said
to Him, "Lord, show us the Father and we shall be satisfied."
Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know
me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us
the Father?'" (Jn 14:8-9).
The
defenders of the propriety of icon veneration also referred to the apostolic
writings of
That which
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon and touched with our hands concerning the Word of
Life -- the Life was made manifest, and we saw it ... (1 Jn 1:1-2).
... the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them
from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness
[in Greek, eikon] of God (2 Cor 4:4).
He is the
image [in Greek, eikon] of the invisible God, the first born of all creation;
for in Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth ... all things were
created through Him and for Him ... for in Him all the fullness of God was
pleased to dwell... (
In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but
in these last days He has spoken to us by a Son, whom He appointed the heir of
all things, through whom also He created the world. He is the reflection of the
glory of God and the express image of His person, upholding the universe by the
word of His power ... (Heb 1:1-3).
The seventh
ecumenical council in Nicea in 787 officially declared that the Christian faith
is to be proclaimed "in words and images." And while making clear the
teaching that holy icons may be made; that they are not to be worshipped -- for
only God Himself is worthy of worship -- but are to be venerated and honored;
the seventh council also made the following statement about Christ in reference
to the veneration of icons:
... we keep
unchanged all the ecclesiastical traditions handed down to us, whether in
writing or verbally, one of which is the making of pictorial representations,
agreeable to the history of the preaching of the Gospel, a tradition useful in
many respects, but especially in this, that so the incarnation of the Word of
God is shone forth in real and not merely in phantasy, for these have mutual
indications and without doubt have also mutual significations.
In later
times the doctrines of the real divinity and real humanity of Jesus Christ was
witnessed and defended by such saints as Simeon the New Theologian (d.
1022) and Gregory Palamas, the Archbishop of Thessalonika (d. 1359) in their
teachings about the real sanctification and deification of man through living
communion with God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit in the Church. In
and through Christ, the Word incarnate, human persons can be filled with the
Spirit of God and can be in genuine communion with God the Father,
participating in the uncreated being, life and light of the Most Blessed
Trinity. If Jesus Christ were not true God and true Man, this would be
impossible. But it is not impossible. It is man's experience of salvation and
redemption in the life of the
(To be continued…)
+ St. Elias Antiochian
Orthodox Cathedral +
(
Cathedral Office:
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1V 6N1
Telephone: (613) 738-2222, Fax: (613) 737-4392
Email:
info@steliascathedral.com,
Website: www.steliascathedral.com
The Rt. Rev. Bishop ALEXANDER
Bishop of
The Very Rev. Father Ghattas Hajal – Dean
The
Very Rev. Father Daniel Matheson – Emeritus
Rev.
Dn. Dimitri Choueiri