Sunday English bulletin 21. February 2016

UPCOMING EVENTS,
ANNOUNCEMENTS
SERBIAN ORTHODOX UNITY AND SPIRITUAL GROWTH
IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM
Blessings are Gifts
FROM God.
Stewardship is our Gift
TO God. WE
CANNOT OUT-GIVE
GOD!
Stewardship is a legacy
of personal support to
maintain a church for
today and tomorrow.
TROPARION OF THE RESURRECTION - Tone 5:
Let us, O faithful, praise and worship the Word Who is co-unoriginate with the Father and the Spirit, and Who was born of the
Virgin for our salvation; for he was pleased to ascend the Cross
in the flesh and to endure death, and to raise the dead by HiS
glorious Resurrection.
STEWARDSHIP FORMS
TROPARION TO THE FEAST - Tone 1:
FOR 2016 ARE AVAILABLE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos, full of grace, for from thee hath
shone forth Christ our God, the Sun of righteousness, Who bringeth
Stewardship Reflection
The Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee
light to those in darkness. Be glad, thou also, O righteous elder
who receives in thine arms the Deliverer of our souls, Who
Today, the Gospel reading about the Publican
and the Pharisee focuses on humility. In regranteth us resurrection.
flecting on these verses, we are asked to conGLORY… Kontakion of Triodion - Tone 6:
sider which person do we typically act like?
Are we humble in our actions with family, at
Let us flee from the pride of the Pharisee and learn humility from
work, with fellow parishioners?
In Father Alexander Schmemann's book enti- the Publican’s tears. Let us cry to our Savior: Having mercy on us,
tled Great Lent-Journey to Pascha - he says
"Humility - be it individual or corporate, ethnic O only-merciful One.
or national - is viewed as a sign of weakness,
BOTH NOW… Kontakion of the Feast - Tone 1:
as something unbecoming of real man. Even
O Thou Who didst hallow the Virgin’s womb by Thy birth and didst
our Churches - are they not imbued with the
same spirit of the Pharisee? Do we not want
bless the hands of Symeon as was meet, by anticipation Thou hast
our every contribution. every good deed, all
that we do for the Church to be acknowledged, now served us also, O Christ God. But in the midst of battle grant
praised and publicized?"
peace to Thy community, and strengthen the hierarchs whom Thou
God asks us to consider our Stewardship
hast loved, O Thou Who alone lovest mankind.
through prayer and focus on how we will be
judged as stewards of what He provides. This
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
should be done with humility, between the
Steward and God. (Matthew 6:1-4 1 "Be careTHE PRAYER OF ST. EPHRAIM THE SYRIAN
ful not to practice your righteousness in front
of others to be seen by them. If you do, you
will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 "So when you give to the needy, do not
announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do
in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you
give to the needy, do not let your left hand
know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that
your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
O Lord and Master of my life! Take from me the spirit of sloth,
despair, lust of power and idle talk.
But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love
to Thy servant.
Yea, O Lord and King! Grant me to see my own transgressions
and not to judge my brother, for blessed art Thou, unto ages of ages.
Amen.
St. Basil of Ostrog Serbian Orthodox Church
27450 N. Bradley Rd . Mettawa – Lake Forest , Illinois 60045 –5104
Email: ([email protected]) www.stbasilchurch.org
Parish Priest: V. Rev. Stavrophor Djuro Krosnjar - [email protected] (847) 477-1531 cell
Trustee Chairman (President): Michael Kosanovich
Circle of Serbian Sisters: Richelle Ar andjelovic
Choir Director: Nada Savatic
Coordinators: Church School: Vasilija Vojcanin; Folklore: Slobodanka Vr anjes
St. Varnava Men’s Club: Vladimir Rokvic; Bookstore: Diana Potkonjak and Paul Saniuk
Facilities Contact: Matija Peyakovic and Nikola Gabr ic; Weekly Email: Zor an Mihajlovic
Serbian School: Jelena Visnjevac, Svjetlana Masic and Dunja Vla
St. Basil of Ostrog
Serbian Orthodox Church
27450 N. Bradley Rd, Mettawa - Lake Forest, IL. 60045-5104
V. Rev. Stavrophor Djuro Krosnjar - Home (847) 680-1117 Cell (847) 477-1531 H. Fax (847) 680-1127
[email protected] - Church Phone (847) 247-0077 - Church FX (847) 247-0088
Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee
Holy Great-martyr Theodore Stratelates;
St. Sava II, Archbishop of Serbia
Tone 5:
Epistle:
2 Tim. (3, 10–15)
Gospel:
Lk. (18, 10-14)
Pre-Feast Day and Saturday
Vespers at 5:00 PM
~Next Sunday~
Divine Liturgy at 10:00 AM
Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee
EYE ON SCRIPTURE
But you have carefully followed
my doctrine, manner of life,
purpose, faith, longsuffering,
love, perseverance, persections, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured. And out of
them all the Lord delivered me.
Yes, and all who desire to live
godly in Christ Jesus will suffer
persecution. But evil men and
impostors will grow worse and
worse, deceiving and being
deceived. Bu you must continue in the things which you have
learned and been assured of….
Orthodox Study Bible
St. Paul’s life exhibits what the
Lord taught. In this world, godliness elicits persecution and
we learn that: 1) while union
with Christ brings love, joy and
peace, it also brings the world’s
hatred and persecution; 2) the
citizens of the world who hate
Christians do so because they
do not know the Father; 3) a
person cannot say he loves God
but not God’s Son, for those
who hate Christ also hate God
the Father; and 4) hatred for
Jesus Christ is without legitimate cause, for He brings
God’s love and truth to the
world. Having exhorted Timothy with the example of his
own steadfastness Paul now
issues a reminder of
the depth of Timothy’s training, which
As a way of easing us into the Great Paschal Fast (Lent), this week is a Compact Week,
combined both oral
which means that on Wednesday and Friday, FASTING is ABSOLED.
and written instruction…
w
w
w
.
serbiancathedral.org
ST. BASIL OF OSTROG SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
The Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee begins the Lenten Triodion, the
liturgical book used in the services of Great Lent. It is the Sunday after
the Sunday of Zacchaeus and Sunday before of the Prodigal Son. This is
the pre-Lenten start of the Pascha cycle of worship in the Orthodox
Church.
The focus this Sunday is on the Gospel of Luke 18:10-14, in which two
men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and externally decent and righteous man of religion, and the other was a Publican, a sinful
tax-collector who was cheating the people.
Though the Pharisee was genuinely righteous under the Law, he boasted before God and was
condemned. The Publican, although he was truly sinful, begged for mercy, received it, and was
justified by God.
On this Sunday in the preparation for Great Lent, Orthodox Christians are to see that they
have not the religious piety of the Pharisee, but the repentance of the Publican. They are called
to think about themselves, in the light of Christ's teaching, as they really are and to beg for mercy. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will
be exalted (Luke 18:14).
Kontakion (Tone 4) Let us flee from the pride of the Pharisee! And learn humility from the
Publican's tears! Let us cry to our Savior, Have mercy on us, Only merciful One!
ST. BASIL OF OSTROG SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
The Publican and
the Pharisee
tor. Not to mention, that what
the tax collectors would do,
was that if it was their authority
(Luke 18: 9-14)
to collect fifty dollars for the
As often happens in our socie- Roman authorities, they would
ty, people who bignote them- collect seventy from you and
selves are often the ones who pocket the other twenty! So, not
suffer the greatest humiliation. only did they collect for the
There's a very simple correla- enemy, not only did they collect from the people that option between how far up you
pressed your people, but they
put yourself and how far
down you come - simply as a also stole from you as well!
Now, this tax collector goes
result of being human; simply
up and prays; and he doesn't
as a result of being a human
stand at all close to the altar, He
being in a fallen world,
stands far away. (You see, this
Today's Gospel reading
man has self-esteem, but we'll
teaches us many things. It
talk about that later). Then he
teaches us about attitude to
beats his breast and he wouldn't
prayer - on how we should
pray. It teaches us about self- even look toward the heavens.
He doesn't have to convince
righteousness, and not to be
himself of anything because he
self-righteous. But let's look
knows who he is; and so he
at something else...
talks to God. And he asks God,
Two men went up to pray,
One was a Pharisee, a respect- out of the sincerity of his heart,
a simple request that is intied member of his religious
mately related to how he sees
community; one who did all
himself. He says, "Lord God,
the right things - externally.
have mercy. I do these things.
And yet, when he stands beThis is what I am. I'm fallen.
fore God, he stands before a
I'm sinful. This is what I am."
mirror. Because, if you noYet the Pharisee looks at the
ticed, the Gospel says to us
tax collector and says, "Lord
"and he prayed to himself
thus". So he wasn't praying to God, thank you that I'm not like
all these other people: adulterGod - he was justifying himers, murderers, etc." As if this
self. He was justifying his
own existence. He was trying is not bad enough, he doesn't
leave it at that general level, but
to make himself look good,
he has to personally attack the
He was trying to convince
person praying behind him.
himself that he was superior
"And thank you, Lord, that I'm
to others, and why did he do
not like that man over there that?
that tax collector."
Simply out of pride. Often
There's a two-edged sword
we act like that because of
in
this story.
low self-esteem. Often we try
People walk away and say,
to convince ourselves that we
"See why I don't go to Church?
are something beyond what
The Pharisee is like the people
we are, not only because of
in Church. They fast, they pray,
pride, but often because we
etc." But, Jesus doesn't say not
don't have what is good and
to come to Church. He doesn't
fruitful self-esteem.
The other man in the parable say don't pray. He doesn't say
don't fast. He orders those
is a tax collector. Now, a tax
things. Jesus is talking about
collector in first century Palthe attitude with which we do
estine collected taxes for the
all these things. The other side
occupying power - the Roman oppressors, Being a Jew of this, of course, is the people
himself, you can imagine how who don't come to Church and
this man was treated. He was are doing the same kind of
things as the people who are.
an outcast, The Jewish community considered him a trai- The attitude is the issue. "I
don't need to go to Church, I
don't lie, I don't steal, I don't
do anything to anyone, I say
my prayers" (I'd love to listen
to them!), You see, hypocrisy
is within and without the community. Within the group that
always goes to Church, and
within the group that never
goes to Church. Thus, nobody
is justified.
Now, people like the Pharisee may say things like: "I'm
not like this tax collector", or
"I'm not like the people that
go to Church" or "I'm not like
the people that don't go to
Church",
One may wish to ask the
Pharisee, what's the difference
between you and the tax collector? Have you got three legs
instead of two? He's got two
hands, you've got two hands,
He's got two legs, you've got
two legs. He's got a brain,
you've got a brain. He's got
emotions, you've got emotions.
He's got hardships, you've got
hardships. Your life's a mess,
his life's a mess.
But, do you know what the
Pharisee's real problem was?
Beyond the fact that he is talking to himself; beyond the fact
that he is trying to convince
himself what a great Jew he is;
even beyond the fact he's judging another human being - there's something deeper. There's
a raging subconscious river
here. "I'm superhuman," he
thinks. He's trying to convince
himself that he's something
beyond the human. He's trying
to convince himself that he has
self-esteem.
What is self-esteem? Selfesteem is to know what you
are. Self-esteem is to be at
peace with what you are,
knowing that through prayer,
through the grace of God, it is
being transformed, it is being
developed, it is being saved,
and being made into something beautiful - and knowing
that it is the grace of God that
is performing this miracle in
your life.
Thus, the tax collector has
self-esteem - he knows what he
is. He doesn't pretend he's anyone else. The Pharisee is the
one with low self-esteem. Because, not only does he have to
prove himself against everyone
else, but he's standing before
God talking to himself, trying
to prove something to himself.
So, why does the tax collector
have humility? Is humility
walking around beating ourselves on the chest, throwing
ashes over our heads, and putting ourselves down? Is that
what humility is? No. If we
look at the experience of the
saints, none of them talked
about putting yourself down.
They talked about being what
you are, They talked about being real. That's the aim of Orthodox Christian life - to become a human being. What a
paradox! We think that we are!
But, we are not yet in the image
and likeness of God There's a
shadow of it there, but we
should be aiming to become
truly human. To become honest, sincere, and genuine human
beings. That's what our aim is.
And what it means to have humility, is simply to know what
you are.
The word "humility" comes
from humus, the Latin word for
"soil". "Human" is the creature
that comes from the soil. Humility means to know that you
are human - that you come
from the soil. You don't need
humility to put yourself down.
Your sins will do that for you,
if you're genuine.
So, to stand like the tax collector before God (but not to
stand there trying to convince
ourselves we're something
we're not) is the hardest thing
to do in life - it's easy to say,
but it's the hardest thing to do.
And what should you say when
you stand before God? Say
what the prophets of the Old
Testament always said to God
who called them by name,
"Here I am, Lord!"
Fr. Dimitri Tsakas,
- Stewardship -
MARRIAGE BAN (II)
SUNDAY
LUNCH BUFFET
Join us following
Divine Liturgy
Adults $7.00
Children $4.00
Special Nonperishable Food
Drive on Sunday
March 13. Bring
your food items to
the St. Basil of
Ostrog Narthex.
Help us make a
difference for
others.
Dalibor Karanovic, son of
Zeljko and Vesela (Bjelan)
Karanovic, of Arlington Hts,
IL and Branka Zecevic,
daughter of Mihailo and
Milijana (Stojanovic)
Zecevic, of Arlington Hts, IL
will get married on Saturday,
March 5, 2016 at Most Holy Mother of God monastery
Gracanica, in Third Lake, Il.
If there are any impediments to this marriages
please advise the parish
priest.
Thursday, March 10, 7PM
Cooking with Basil.
Special Guest
Wedn. March 30, PM
Contemplation for
Adults with Fr. Serafim
Sunday, April 10—Lunch
Hour, Nikola Tesla Day
Guest Presenter.
Book of the Month
An acclaimed expert in Christian mysticism travels to a monastery high in the
Trodos Mountains of Cyprus and offers a fascinating look at the Greek Orthodox approach to spirituality.
In an engaging combination of dialogues, reflections, conversations, history,
and travel information, Kyriacos C. Markides continues the exploration of a
spiritual tradition and practice little known in the West he began in Riding with
the Lion. His earlier book took readers to the isolated peninsula of Mount Athos
in northern Greece and into the group of ancient monasteries. There, in what
might be called a “Christian Tibet,” two thousand monks and hermits practice
the spiritual arts to attain a oneness with God. In his new book, Markides follows Father Maximos, one of Mount Athos’s monks, to the troubled island of Cyprus.
Images of the land and the people of Cyprus and details of its tragic history enrich the “Mountain of Silence”. Like the writings of Castaneda, the book brilliantly evokes the confluence of an
inner and outer journey. The depth and richness of its spiritual message echo the thoughts and
writings of Saint Francis of Assisi and other great saints of the Church as well. The result is a remarkable work–a moving, profoundly human examination of the role and the power of spirituality
in a complex and confusing world.
Stewardship Update
To date, for the year 2016 we have 26 stewards with a combined commitment of $29,700.00. More and more stewardship is how any church of any
Faith can exist in today's world with all it has to offer and compete. Stewards
are the earthly guardians that keep God in this earthly world. We need to seek
out and enroll, as many stewards as we can, for the coming year to be able to
continue the pay down of the mortgage and keep the church doors open. If each of us can reach out
to help find stewards for St. Basil of Ostrog Church, it will make our spiritually journey together as
God's faithful. Together, we can reach more people and our goal, one person at a time with commitments of help and support. Our mission and the goal is to - “Find 100 Stewards" this year .
Every single person can make a difference in “building a future” for St. Basil of Ostrog Serbian Church. Our love and support means investing our time, talents, monetary pledges, prayers and
hopes in St. Basil of Ostrog and then others will invest in us knowing that we can continue the
years to keep this church a viable “living church." No effort or amounts are too small. No talent
overlooked. Make a difference and your faithful contribution to this world and life. Together, we
are making a Christian Orthodox legacy, like the one we were all blessed with by those (i.e. our
forefathers) who came before us.
Lord, visit
Thy servants
in their
suffering,
and grant
them grace
and strength to bear their
sickness with which they
are afflicted; heal and save
them:
Sister ANGELINA;
Kathy ARGYRIS;
Milica BILBIJA;
Milorad BLAGOJEVIC;
Zivota BLAZIC;
Stevan BOGOJEVIC;
Aleksandar BURMEISTER;
Milica CASTALDO;
Petar COKIC;
Milan DAVORIJA;
Danilo DEJANOVICH;
Dusan DRONDIC;
Svetomir DUPOR;
Susan GALLATI;
Aleksandar GLISOVIC;
Daniela GOMEZ;
Dusan JEROSIMIC;
Philip KEJZAR
Jadranka KOPAC;
Branko KOSANOVIC;
George KOVAC;
Mara KOVACEVIC;
Stojanka KOVACEVIC;
Ray/Laura KULMALA;
Cathy LALICH;
Una MIHAJLOVIC:
Slavojka MILESIC;
Milka/Milan MILICEVIC;
Ron MITROVICH;
Dragica MRKALJ;
Boro NEDINIC:
Daliborka OPACIC;
Djuro/Jelena OPSENICA;
Mladen PECANAC;
Natalija PETROVIC:
Aleksandra RALEVICH;
Jessica SELOUNTOS;
George SINNOKRAK;
Bessie STEVANOVIC;
Nikola SREJOVIC;
Simonida STIPANOVIC;
Zivan SUBARIC;
Angie/Aco TERZIC;
Jovan VOJCANIN;
Milenko VUCKOVIC;