June 5/18, 2007
First Sunday after Pentecost
Commemoration of All Saints
Sunday Troparion, Tone 8: From on high didst Thou descend, O Compassionate One; * to burial of three days hast Thou submitted* that Thou mightest free us from our passions. * O our Life and Resurrection, O Lord, glory be to Thee.
Troparion of All Saints, Tone 4: Adorned in the blood of Thy martyrs throughout all the world, * as in purple and fine linen, Thy Church, through them doth cry unto Thee, O Christ God: * Send down Thy compassions upon Thy people: * grant peace to Thy flock and to our souls great mercy.
Sunday Kontakion, Tone 8: Having arisen from the tomb, Thou didst raise up the dead and didst resurrect Adam. Eve also danceth at Thy Resurrection, and the ends of the world celebrate Thine arising from the dead, O Greatly-merciful One.
Kontakion of All Saints, Tone 8: To Thee, the Planter of Creation, * the world doth offer the God-bearing martyrs as the firstfruits of nature. * By their intercessions preserve Thy Church, Thy commonwealth * in profound peace, through the Theotokos, O Greatly-Merciful One.
Today’s Readings
Epistle: Hebrews 11:33-12:2a
Gospel: Matthew 10:32-33, 37-38
Parish News
v Rachel Miller graduates from high school today. Congratulations and many years!
v Today is Elana Damiano’s name day. Many years!
v At the end of Divine Liturgy today we will bless the new altar server vestments. They were generously donated by George Lambros, who founded our parish.
v This is the first Sunday of the month, so after coffee hour we will serve the Moleben for the Conversion of the Non-Orthodox.
v Today is the last day of the Hellenic Festival at the Hellenic Orthodox Church of the Annunciation (Delaware and Utica in Buffalo).
v Remember that the Apostles’ Fast begins tomorrow and ends on July 12th (the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul). Fish is allowed the weekends and on July 2 (Apostle Jude).
v Remember to include the Prayer of St. Ephraim (“Oh Lord and Master of my life”) in your prayers tonight and tomorrow morning in order to mark the beginning of the Apostles’ Fast.
v Please remember in your prayers those who are or will be traveling: Galina Bahanovich, Valentina Jaffrey, Nicolas Jackson.
Why do we commemorate all saints today?
The Holy Empress Theophano (or Theophania) was born of eminent parents, Constantine and Anna, who were kin to several emperors. Her parents were for a long time childless, and besought the Mother of God to give them a family. God gave them this daughter, Theophano. Imbued with a Christian spirit right from her youth, Theophano outstripped her companions in every Christian virtue.
When she had grown up, she entered into marriage with Leo, the son of the Emperor Basil the Macedonian, and endured much misfortune alongside her husband. Reacting to the slander that Leo carried a knife in his breast with which, at the right opportunity, to kill his father, the gullible Basil shut his son and daughter-in-law up in prison, and these two innocent souls spent three years there.
Then, one day, on the feast of the Holy Prophet Elias, the emperor summoned all his nobles to court for a feast. At one moment, the emperor’s parrot suddenly spoke these words: “Alack, alack, my Lord Leo!” and it repeated these words a number of times. This caused great confusion among the courtiers, and they all begged the emperor to release his son and daughter-in-law. The emperor was touched and did so.
After his father’s death, this Leo became emperor, being called “the Wise”. Theophano did not consider her imperial dignity to be of much account, but, being utterly given to God, she gave thought to the salvation of her soul, fasting and praying and giving alms, founding monasteries and churches. No lying word ever passed her lips, nor any unnecessary speech or the least slander. At the time of her death, she called together her closest friends and took leave of them, then gave her soul to God, in 892.
The Emperor Leo wanted to build a church over her grave, and when the patriarch refused to allow this, he built the Church of All Saints, saying that if Theophano was a saint, she would be glorified together with the others. At that time the feast of All Saints was introduced, to be celebrated on the Sunday after the Feast of the Holy Trinity (Pentecost).
St. John of the Ladder on Anger
The beginning of blessed patience is to accept dishonor with sorrow and bitterness of soul.
The middle stage is to be free from pain in the midst of these things.
But perfection (if it is possible) is to regard dishonor as praise.
Let the first rejoice; let the second be strong; blessed is the third, for he exults in the Lord.
