St. James Parish News
June 1, 2023
Feast of St. Justin Martyr
And that this may now become evident to you — (firstly ) that whatever we assert in conformity with what has been taught us by Christ, and by the prophets who preceded Him, are alone true, and are older than all the writers who have existed; that we claim to be acknowledged, not because we say the same things as these writers said, but because we say true things: and (secondly) that Jesus Christ is the only proper Son who has been begotten by God, being His Word and first-begotten, and power; and, becoming man according to His will, He taught us these things for the conversion and restoration of the human race. St. Justin Marty, First Apology
Work Day
Our next work day: Saturday, June 3, at 10:00 (after Men’s Group).
Name days, Birthdays and Anniversaries
Christina Hirsch – Birthday: 06-07
May God grant you many years!
Upcoming Feasts / Celebrations
| Saturday June 3 | |
|---|---|
| 9:00 AM | Men’s Group |
| Sunday June 4 | |
| Pentecost | |
| Monday June 12 | |
| 6:30 PM | Men’s Spirituality Group |
| Tuesday June 20 | |
| 6:30 PM | Women’s Group |
Please remember that our full calendar continues to be available at our parish web site. Here is a link:
https://stjfc.org/Pages/Calendar/calendar.php
Prosphora
| June 4 | Peggy Y. |
| June 11 | Nana D. |
| June 18 | Natalia M. |
| June 25 | Shana V. |
| July 2 | Aida T. |
Full schedule:
https://stjfc.org/Pages/Ministries/Prosphora/Docs/prosphora sched 2023 web.pdf
Readers
| June 4 | Nate | *Holy Pentecost | Acts 2:1-11 |
| June 11 | Thomas | *1st after Pentecost; (All Saints) | Heb. 11:33-12:2 |
| June 18 | Ken | 2nd after Pentecost | Rom. 2:10-16 |
| June 25 | James | 3rd after Pentecost | Rom. 5:1-10 |
| July 2 | Isaac/Micah | 4th after Pentecost / Robe of Theotokos | Heb. 9:1-7 |
Full schedule:
https://stjfc.org/Pages/Ministries/Altar/Docs/epistle readers for 2023.pdf
Scripture Readings for this coming Sunday
Epistle: ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 2:1-11
WHEN THE DAY of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. And they were amazed and wondered, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontos and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”
Gospel: JOHN 7:37-52; 8:12
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.'” Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This is really the prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the scripture said that the Christ is descended from David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” So there was a division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. The officers then went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this man!” The Pharisees answered them, “Are you led astray, you also? Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, who do not know the law, are accursed.” Nikodemos, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and you will see that no prophet is to rise from Galilee.” Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
Spiritual Reading
Society and Its Demons
Hieromonk Gabriel
And so when it comes to the question of the causes of our division, there is one answer which all the studies and surveys and opinion pieces in the world will almost certainly never even come close to giving — and yet which may well explain this tragic phenomenon more thoroughly than any other: we no longer believe in demons.
To most people, this answer will almost certainly sound more than a bit bizarre. But if we become willing to step outside the narrow bounds of our modern skepticism, I think it will begin to make more and more sense.
…
How easily do we forget the words of St. Joseph of Optina: “Zeal that desires to uproot all evil is in fact the very worst evil.” How easily do we ignore the words of our Savior: “But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil” (Matt. 5:39). How easily do our hearts cleave rather to the fantasy about which Solzhenitsyn warned us: “If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them.”
How much of the human race now lives as though that fantasy were true!
But although a great man like Solzhenitsyn can expose the horrors that lurk behind our twisted way of thinking and perceiving the world, it is only the saints who can show us the way to overcome it: the way of true Christian love. And so I can think of no better prescription for the malady that ails us than the words of St. Porphyrios in Wounded by Love:
When someone injures us in whatever way, whether with slanders or with insults, we should think of him as our brother who has been taken hold of by the enemy. He has fallen victim to the enemy. Accordingly we need to have compassion for him and entreat God to have mercy both on us and on him, and God will help both. If, however, we are filled with anger against him, then the enemy will jump from him to us and make a mockery of us both. A person who condemns others does not love Christ. Our egotism is at fault. This is where condemnation of others stems from. Let me give you a little example.
Let’s suppose someone is all alone in the desert. Suddenly he hears a voice crying out in distress in the distance. He follows the sound and is confronted by a horrendous sight: a tiger has grabbed hold of a man and is savaging him with its claws. The man is desperately shouting for help. In a few minutes he will be torn to pieces. What can the person do to help? Can he run to his side? How? It’s impossible. Can he shout for help? Who will hear him? There is no one within earshot. Should he perhaps pick up a stone and throw it at the man to finish him off? ‘Certainly not,’ we would say. But that is exactly what can happen if we don’t realize that the other person who is acting badly towards us has been taken hold of by a tiger, the devil. We fail to realize that when we react to such a person without love it is as if we are throwing stones at his wounds and accordingly we are doing him great harm and the ‘tiger’ leaps onto us and we do the same as him and worse. What kind of love do we have then for our neighbor and, even more importantly, for God?
We should feel the malice of the other person as an illness which is tormenting him and which he is unable to shake off. And so we should regard our brethren with sympathy and behave with courtesy towards them, repeating in our hearts with simplicity the prayer ‘Lord Jesus Christ’ [i.e. the Jesus Prayer], so that the grace of God may strengthen our soul and so that we don’t pass judgment on anyone. We should regard all people as saints. We all carry within us the same ‘old self’. Our neighbor, whoever he is, is ‘flesh of our flesh’; he is our brother and, according to Saint Paul, we owe no one anything, except to love one another (Rom. 13:8). We can never pass judgment on others, for no one ever hated his own flesh (Eph. 5:29)….
In the realm of the Spirit of God all things are different. Here one justifies all things in the behavior of others. Everything!… Inquire more deeply into everything and don’t regard things superficially.
May each of us take close heed to the words of this great and holy saint. May each of us take much care to remember that the true Christian has no enemies at all on this earth, but only brothers and sisters suffering from the same afflictions which also torture us. May each of us strive to live always according to the words of our Savior: “By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35). Amen.
Read the entire article:
https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/rememberingsion/2023/05/31/society-and-its-demons/
St. James Orthodox Church
2610 S.E. Frontage Rd.
Fort Collins, CO 80525
970.221.4180