Sunday, July 9, 2023

Tone 4

5th Sunday after Pentecost

Hieromartyr Pancratius, Bishop of Taormina in Sicily

III. The Course of Human Life

Sanctify our souls and bodies, and grant that we may worship you in holiness all the days of our lives

§17 In our time, as has never before been the case, children are exposed throughout their waking hours to a host of electronic devices and mass media, dedicated in large part to the promotion of unremitting material acquisition. As His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew stated in his 2016 Proclamation of Christmas: “A child’s soul is altered by the influential consumption of electronic media, especially television and the internet, and by the radical transformation of communication. Unbridled economics transforms them, from a young age, into consumers, while the pursuit of pleasure rapidly causes their innocence to vanish.” The Church and parents must remember always that desires are shaped in childhood, and with them character. It is a gross dereliction to allow children to become so absorbed in a world of fleeting materialist fascinations and trivial material appetites as to leave their deeper capacities for love, selflessness, reverence, generosity, joy in simple things, and indifference to personal possessions undeveloped. Christ called his followers to imitate the guilelessness of children, but much of late modern capitalist culture seeks to rob children of precisely this precious virtue, and to convert them instead into engines of sheer covetous longing. To protect children against this profound perversion of their created natures is one of the most urgent responsibilities incumbent upon adult Christians in the age of mass communication. St. John Chrysostom advises parents that they serve as “gatekeepers of the senses” for their children.[13] A gatekeeper is not a tyrant, as Chrysostom makes clear; but, in controlling a child’s access to the world, the gatekeeper endows him or her with the ability to govern his or her own appetites in later life. And this role of gatekeeping may be more important today than ever before, given how completely our senses can be overwhelmed by the incessant din and spectacle of modern mass media.

§18 In most pre-modern societies, the period of childhood was succeeded directly by adulthood, and with it in most cases a life of labor. In our time, increasingly, we have come to think of the transition between childhood and adulthood as an intermediate period, and not necessarily a brief one. Many young adults, for instance, wait some time before detaching themselves from their childhood households and setting out upon independent paths to discern their vocation, and in many cases wait even longer before marrying, having children, and establishing households of their own. As with all large social changes, this reality comes with both privileges and perils. The principal benefit of allowing the young a longer interval in which to discern what their own peculiar gifts and vocations might be is that it liberates them from too great a sense of fated careers. The principal danger is that, in some, this period of decision will become a habit of indecision, even procrastination, and therefore an unnaturally prolonged condition of dependency, immaturity, and uncertainty. Here the Church must be ready to offer counsel and encouragement to young adults: to urge them to advance into life with faith, but also to do so prudently and prayerfully, seriously seeking to discover the particular gifts God has given them for the work of transfiguring a fallen world and serving God’s justice and mercy among others. The Church must be acutely conscious that it is at this stage of human life that sexuality and the shape of sexual longing become special concerns, and in many cases a cause of consternation and even confusion. In itself, this is nothing new in the human condition, but ours is an age in which sexuality has become yet another area of life colonized by the logic of consumerism and the dynamics of the market. Sexuality has today, in fact, become as much a consumer strategy or consumer product—tantalizing in its fluidity and pervasiveness—as an innate dimension of human personality. The Church and the community of the faithful must offer young adults a vision of sexual relations as life-giving and transfiguring: an intimate union of body, mind, and spirit, sanctified by holy matrimony. The body is “a temple of the Holy Spirit within you” (1 Corinthians 6:19), and even in its sexual nature is called to exhibit the sanctity of God’s dwelling place.

From: For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Happy Anniversary to Fr Christopher, Mtka Tia and family! They joined Ss Cyril & Methodius last July and have been a blessing to all of us!

I'll be gone Wednesday through Saturday. Fr Christopher will serve Vespers Saturday afternoon (7/8).

There will NOT be catechumen class will meet again this Saturday. Please consider encouraging your friends who might be curious about the Orthodox Church to attend either in person or online. We meet, Saturday afternoons at 3:30 PM and are reading Essential Orthodox Christian Beliefs: A Manual for Adult Instruction. You can download our text here and live stream the class here.

Finally, a young Ukrainian couple (Ivan and Daria) here in Madison are looking to buy a car. If you have one that you can offer them or know of someone who has a car for sale, please contact Ivan. His phone number is 608.354.2994.

In Christ,

Fr Gregory

Click the image below for the June issue of Ukrainian Orthodox Word.

This Week at Ss Cyril & Methodius

Tuesday, July 4 (Independence Day)

Wednesday, July 5

• 11:00-3:00 PM: Office Hours/Confessions

Thursday, July 6

• 11:00 AM-3:00 PM: Office Hours/Confessions (canceled)

Saturday, July 8 

• 3:30 PM: Catechumen Class [canceled]
• 4:30 PM: Confessions
• 5:00 PM: Great Vespers 
• 6:00 PM: Confessions

Sunday, July 9

• 9:00 AM: Hours/Pre-Communion Prayers
• 9:30 AM: Divine Liturgy

Looking Ahead

Wednesday, July 12

• 11:00-3:00 PM: Office Hours/Confessions

Thursday, July 13

• 1:00-5:00 PM: Office Hours/Confessions 
• 5:30 PM: Akathist to the Queen of All

Saturday, July 14 

• 3:30 PM: Catechumen Class (live stream)
• 4:30 PM: Confessions
• 5:00 PM: Great Vespers 
• 6:00 PM: Confessions

Sunday, July 15

• 9:00 AM: Hours/Pre-Communion Prayers
• 9:30 AM: Divine Liturgy

Hymns After the Small Entrance

Tone 4 Troparion (Resurrection)

When the women disciples of the Lord learned from the angel the joyous message of Thy Resurrection, they cast away the ancestral curse and elatedly told the apostles: “Death is overthrown! Christ God is risen,//granting the world great mercy!”

Tone 4 Troparion (Ss. Cyril & Methodius)

Divinely-wise Cyril and Methodius, / equals-to-the-apostles and teachers of the Slavs, / entreat the Master of all / to strengthen all nations in Orthodoxy and unity of mind, / to grant peace to the world and to save our souls.

Tone 4 Troparion (St. Pancratius)

By sharing in the ways of the Apostles,thou didst become a successor to their throne. Through the practice of virtue, thou didst find the way to divine contemplation, O inspired one of God; by teaching the word of truth without error, thou didst defend the Faith, even to the shedding of thy blood.//O Hieromartyr Pancratius, entreat Christ God to save our souls!

Tone 4 Kontakion (Resurrection)

My Savior and Redeemer as God rose from the tomb and delivered the earth-born from their chains. He has shattered the gates of hell, and as Master,//He has risen on the third day!

Tone 3 Kontakion (Ss. Cyril & Methodius)

Let us honor the sacred pair, who translated divine scripture / pouring forth a fountain of divine knowledge from which we still draw today. / Now as you stand before the throne of the Most-high / we call you blessed, Cyril and Methodius, / as you fervently pray for our souls.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,

Tone 4 Kontakion (St. Pancratius)

O Pancratius, thou wast revealed as a brilliant star for the people of Taormina. Thou wast also shown to be a sufferer for Christ.//Since now thou standest before Him, O blessed one, pray for those who honor thee.

now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Tone 6 Theotokion

O protection of Christians that cannot be put to shame, mediation unto the Creator most constant, O despise not the suppliant voices of those who have sinned; but be thou quick, O good one, to come unto our aid, who in faith cry unto thee: Hasten to intercession, and speed thou to make supplication, thou who dost ever protect, O Theotokos, them that honor thee.

Epistle: Romans 10:1-10

Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.” But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, “ ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Gospel: Matthew 8:28-9:1

When He had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. And suddenly they cried out, saying, “What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?”

Now a good way off from them there was a herd of many swine feeding. So the demons begged Him, saying, “If You cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine.”

And He said to them, “Go.” So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine. And suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and perished in the water.

Then those who kept them fled; and they went away into the city and told everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their region.

So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city.

Communion Hymn

Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the highest!

Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

By the age of 25, about 60% of those baptized as infants will no longer consider themselves members of the Orthodox Church. A parish on a university campus is an important witness not only to the surrounding community but also to high school age and younger parishioner. Establishing a parish on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison helps remind young people that graduating high school doesn't mean "graduating" from the Church. Please consider joining those who have committed their time, treasure and talent in establishing an Orthodox community on the Isthmus. Help us reach your children and grandchildren with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.