SAINT LUKE THE EVANGELIST

GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH

augu st 23, 2 01 5

l e av e ta k i ng of t h e fa l l i ng a s l e e p of t h e t h e o t oko s
The Hieromartyr Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, was born in the year 130 in the city of Smyrna (Asia Minor). He received there the finest education, studying poetics, philosophy, rhetoric, and the rest of the classical sciences considered necessary for a young man of the world.
His guide in the truths of the Christian Faith was a disciple of the Apostle John the Theologian, St Polycarp of Smyrna (February 23). St Polycarp baptized the youth, and afterwards ordained him presbyter and
sent him to a city in Gaul then named Lugdunum [the present day Lyons in France] to the dying bishop
Pothinus.
A commission was soon entrusted to St Irenaeus. He was to deliver a letter from the confessors of Lugdunum to the holy Bishop Eleutherius of Rome (177-190). While he was away, all the known Christians
were thrown into prison. After the martyric death of Bishop Pothinus, St Irenaeus was chosen a year later
(in 178) as Bishop of Lugdunum. During this time, St Gregory of Tours (November 17) writes concerning him, by his preaching he transformed all Lugdunum into a Christian city!
When the persecution against Christians quieted down, the saint expounded upon the Orthodox teachings of faith in one of his fundamental works under the title: Detection and Refutation of the Pretended but
False Gnosis. It is usually called Five Books against Heresy (Adversus Haereses).
At that time there appeared a series of religious-philosophical gnostic teachings. The Gnostics [from
the Greek word gnosis meaning knowledge] taught that God cannot be incarnate [i.e. born in human
flesh], since matter is imperfect and manifests itself as the bearer of evil. They taught also that the Son of
God is only an outflowing (emanation) of Divinity. Together with Him from the Divinity issues forth
a hierarchical series of powers (aeons), the unity of which comprise the Pleroma, i.e. Fullness. The
world is not made by God Himself, but by the aeons or the Demiourgos, which is below the Pleroma.
In refuting the heresy of Valentinus, St Irenaeus presents the Orthodox teaching of salvation. The Word
of God, Jesus Christ, through His inexplicable blessedness caused it to be, that we also, should be made that
which He is ... , taught St Irenaeus. Jesus Christ the Son of God, through exceedingly great love for His
creation, condescended to be born of a Virgin, having united mankind with God in His own Self. Through
the Incarnation of God, creation becomes co-imaged and co-bodied to the Son of God. Salvation consists
in the Sonship and Theosis (Divinization) of mankind.
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at the small entrance we sing

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apolytikion of the feast. Mode 1.

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n giving birth you retained your virginity, and in

dormition you did not forsake the world, O Theotokos. You were translated unto life, being the Mother of Life. And thus by virtue of your intercessions
you deliver our souls from death.

et the heavens sing for joy, and let everything on

earth be glad. For with His Arm the Lord has
worked power. He trampled death under foot by
means of death; and He became the firstborn from
the dead. From the maw of Hades He delivered us;
and He granted the world His great mercy.

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, , , , .

. .

. . .

,
,
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resurrectional apolytikion. 3.

apolytikion of the feast. Mode 1.

I
T

n giving birth you retained your virginity

he holy Apostle, the All-hymned Luke, * who is

acknowledged by the Church of Christ * as the recorder of the Acts of the Apostles, * and the splendid
author of the Gospel of Christ. * Let us praise with sacred hymns as a physician, * who heals the infirmities
of man, * and the ailments of nature, * who cleanses
spiritual wounds, and prays unceasingly for our souls.

. . .

, , ,
, .

Apolyt. for the Church. Mode 5.

Kontakion. Mode pl. 2.

he Theotokos, unsleeping in intercession * and

the immovable hope of protection, * could not
be retained by any tomb or death. * For being Lifes
own Mother, she was transferred to life by Him * who
dwelt in the ever-virgin womb.

THE READINGS OF THE DAY

e p i s t l e r e a di ng

g o s p e l r e a di ng

The first letter of paul

to the corinthians 15: 111

Matthew 19: 1626

rethren, I declare to you the Good News

which I preached to you, which also you accepted, in which you also stand. And you are
saved by it, that is if you hold firmly to the word
which I preached to you. Otherwise, you believed
in vain. For I delivered to you, first of all, what I also
received: that Christ died for our sins according to
the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was
raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
and that he appeared to Kephas, then to the Twelve.
After that, he appeared to over five hundred brethren at once, most of whom remain [alive] until now,
but some have also fallen asleep. Then he appeared
to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as
to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared
to me also. Indeed, I am the least of the apostles,
unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. But by the grace of God,
I am what I am. His grace which was bestowed on
me was not in vain, but I worked more than all of
themyet not I, but the grace of God which was
with me. It does not matter whether is it I or they:
this is what we preach, and so you believed.

t t that time, a man came to Jesus, and kneeling before him asked, Good teacher, what
good thing shall I do in order to have eternal
life? Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good?
No one is good but one, that is, God. But if you
want to enter into life, keep the commandments.
The man asked him, Which ones? Jesus replied,
You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false
witness. Honor your father and mother; and, You
shall love your neighbor as yourself. The young
man then said to him, All these things I have observed from my youth! What do I still lack? Jesus
replied, If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you
have, give it to the poor, and you will have [a] treasure in heaven. Then come, and follow me! But
when the young man heard these words, he went
away sad because he was a person with great possessions. Jesus said to his disciples, Amen I say to
you: it will be hard for someone who is rich to enter
into the Kingdom of Heaven! Indeed, I tell you that
it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a
needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God. When his disciples heard this, they
were extremely astonished and said, Who then
can be saved? Gazing at them, Jesus answered, By
human resources, this is impossible, but with God
all things are possible!

announcements
Saturday, January 25, Great Vespers, 5pm

u p c om i ng c h u rc h s e r v ic e s:

Saturday, August 29, The Beheading of St. John the Baptist, Orthros / Div. Liturgy, 8:30am
Great Vespers, 5pm
bookstore
Please see Matthew Monos if you would like to
special order a book or icon. Visit today!
community pot-luck
Save the date! On Sunday, August 30 we will be
having a community pot luck. Please plan to bring
a dish to share.
hope and joy
Information about future events will be forthcoming.
school supply drive
Today is the last day for donations. Items will be
delivered tomorrow, Aug 24 to the Voluntary Action Center. Thank you to all who participated in
this supply drive.
give a month towards our future
We would like to offer families and individuals the
opportunity to help offset our mortgage payment
with a donation of $640. If you would like to sponsor one month for 2015, please contact Fr. Michael.
consecration assumption
Assumption Greek Orthodox Church will be consecrated on Sunday, October 4 by His Eminence
Metropolitan Iakovos. If you are interested in attending and would like to travel by bus to event,
please sign up in the Narthex - cost will be determined by how many people sign-up - with 40 peo-

ple, the cost will be $22 / person. There are only

40 seats on the bus. The bus will leave at 6am - you
must be at the Church by 5:45am. Services will begin at Assumption at 7:45am. The sign-up sheet is
in the narthex.

n Elder was asked: What is

humility? He replied: Humility is a great and Divine work;
the path that leads to humility
consists in bodily labors and in
considering yourself a sinner beneath everyone else. The brother
who had posed the question asked
again: What does it mean to be
beneath everyone else? The Elder
replied: It means to not be concerned about the sins of others, but
only about your own, and to pay to
God unceasingly.

from the evergetinos

synaxarion
In the refutation of another heretic, Marcian,
who denied the divine origin of the Old Testament, the saint affirms the same divine inspiration
of the Old and the New Testaments: It is one and
the same Spirit of God Who proclaimed through
the prophets the precise manner of the Lords coming, wrote the saint. Through the apostles, He
preached that the fulness of time of the filiation
had arrived, and that the Kingdom of Heaven was
at hand.
The successors of the Apostles have received
from God the certain gift of truth, which St Irenaeus links to the succession of the episcopate (Adv.
Haer. 4, 26, 2). Anyone who desires to know the
truth ought to turn to the Church, since through
Her alone did the apostles expound the Divine
Truth. She is the door to life.
St Irenaeus also exerted a beneficial influence
in a dispute about the celebration of Pascha. In the
Church of Asia Minor, there was an old tradition of
celebrating Holy Pascha on the fourteenth day of
the month of Nisan, regardless of what day of the
week it happened to be. The Roman bishop Victor (190-202) forcefully demanded uniformity,
and his harsh demands fomented a schism. In the
name of the Christians of Gaul, St Irenaeus wrote
to Bishop Victor and others, urging them to make
peace.
After this incident, St Irenaeus drops out of
sight, and we do not even know the exact year of
his death. St Gregory of Tours, in his Historia Francorum, suggests that St Irenaeus was beheaded by
the sword for his confession of faith in the year 202,
during the reign of Severus.
The Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, St Polycarp of Smyrna, and St Irenaeus of
Lyons are three links in an unbroken chain of the
grace of succession, which goes back to the Original Pastor, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

In his old age, St Irenaeus wrote to his old friend

the priest Florinus: When I was still a boy, I knew
you... in Polycarps house.... I remember what happened in those days more clearly than what happens now.... I can describe for you the place where
blessed Polycarp usually sat and conversed, the
character of his life, the appearance of his body, and
the discourses which he spoke to the people, how
he spoke of the conversations which he had with
John and others who had seen the Lord, how he
remembered their words, and what he heard from
them about the Lord ... I listened eagerly to these
things, by the mercy of God, and wrote them, not
on paper, but in my heart (Eusebius, Hist. Eccles.).
Saints Eutychius and Florentius were monks
pursuing asceticism in the region of Nursa in Italy
during the sixth century. St Eutychius converted
many to God by his teaching. When the igumen of
a nearby monastery died, they appealed to him to
become its head. He consented, but continued to
be concerned with the former place of his ascetic
activity, where his companion Florentius remained.
St Florentius worked many miracles during
his lifetime. For example, he tamed a bear, which
served him. It shepherded sheep, carried water
and obeyed other commands of the Elder. Jealous
of the fame of St Florentius, four monks killed the
bear. The saint predicted that the wrath of God
would fall upon the murderers. So it happened as
he said. The monks were stricken with illness, and
died shortly afterwards. On learning of the death of
the monks, St Florentius was grievously saddened
and distressed, considering himself the murderer of
those monks. He wept for them the rest of his life.
St Eutychius did not work miracles during his
lifetime, but after death his clothing began to produce healings. During a time of drought the people
of Nursia went to the fields with his clothing, and
God sent rain (this was in the year 1492). St Eu-

tychius died on May 23, 540, and St Florentius, on

June 1, 547.
Saint Callinicus, Patriarch of Constantinople
(693-705), was at first a presbyter in the temple of
the Most Holy Theotokos at Blachernae, but in 693
with the death of Patriarch Paul (686-693), he was
elevated to the episcopal throne of Constantinople.
The cruel Justinian II (685-695) reigned at this
time. He undertook the construction of a palace
very near the church of the Most Holy Theotokos
and decided to demolish it. The emperor ordered
Patriarch Callinicus to give his blessing for tearing
it down. The patriarch replied that he had prayers
only for the building of churches, not their destruction. When the church was demolished, he cried
out with tears, Glory to Thee, O Lord, in enduring
all things.
Soon the wrath of God befell Justinian. He was
toppled from the throne and sent for imprisonment to Cherson, where they cut off his nose (from
which he received the nickname Short-nose). Leontius (695-698) succeeded him on the throne.
The Martyr Lupus lived at the end of the third
century and beginning of the fourth century, and
was a faithful servant of the holy Great Martyr
Demetrius of Thessalonica (October 26). Being
present at the death of his master, he soaked his
own clothing with his blood and took a ring from
his hand. With this clothing, and with the ring
and the name of the Great Martyr Demetrius, St
Lupus worked many miracles at Thessalonica. He
destroyed pagan idols, for which he was subjected
to persecution by the pagans, but he was preserved
unharmed by the power of God.
St Lupus voluntarily delivered himself into the
hands of the torturers, and by order of the emperor
Maximian Galerius, he was beheaded by the sword.

ORTHODOX SPIRITUALITY
A Living Tradition
by By Bishop Photii of Triaditza
(This is an excerpt from a longer article)

Just how is itthat we can find the path that

leads to Orthodox spirituality as a living tradition,
that path which will enable us to realize this tradition and feel its unearthly spiritual beauty?
First, this path is not to be found beyond the
pale of the
Church, the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic
Orthodox Church of Christprovided, of course,
that we do not understand the Church to be a mere
system of abstract theological or philosophical
concepts or, conversely, understand it simply in
terms of its tangible administrative functions or
empirical social functions, but regard it as the essential realm of Orthodox spirituality itself and the
theology which reflects that spirituality.
Second, living contact with Orthodox spirituality demands personal effort, a struggle to put off
concerning the former conversation the old man
(Ephesians 4:22), spiritual agony, a mind prayerfully directed towards the mystery of God, and
of the Father, and of Christ (Colossians 2:2), and
not towards the traditions of men, not after the
rudiments of this world, but towards Christ (cf.
Colossians 2:8). In the context in which it is here
presented, Holy Tradition in the Orthodox Church
is not simply what is preserved in human memory
or a continuity of rites and customs, but is, above
all, the perpetual action of the Holy Spirit in the
Church. Holy Tradition is the living presence of
the Church, a presence that enables every member
of Christs Body to hear, to perceive, and to know
the Truth in its inherent light and not by way of
the natural light of the human mind: No man can
say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit
(I Corinthians 12:3). This tradition depends on no
philosophy, on nothing that lives after the tradi-

tion of men, after the rudiments of the world, and

not after Christ (Colossians 2:8). In the words of
Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow: True and Holy
Tradition is not only an actual and verbal handingdown of doctrines, rules, ordinance, and rites, but
is also an invisible, real passing-on of Grace and
sanctification. Thus, in Holy Tradition there exist two intersecting and mutually inseparable lines,
one horizontal and one vertical: the horizontal
line of the doctrines, rules, ordinances, and rites
handed down by Christ the Savior through the
Apostles and the Holy Fathers; and the vertical
line, the permanent presence of the Holy Spirit, of
Grace and sanctification, in each and every word
of the Truth revealed by God. In its vertical dimension, Holy Tradition does not posit mere formal,
extraneous guarantees of the truths of our Faith,
but makes manifest their intrinsic authenticity. It is
not the Word Itself, as contained in revelation, but
the celestial light that permeates the Word, the lifegiving breath of the Sanctifier, Who enables us to
hear both the Word Itself and the silence whereof
the Word comes, in the words of St. Ignatios the
God-Bearer.
The existential core of Orthodox spirituality
as living tradition is precisely the Holy Spirit, the
Third Hypostasis of the Triune God, and the Grace
which He pours outthat uncreated Divine energy that is manifested in wondrous and multiple
ways in those Baptized into Orthodoxy, commensurate with their voluntary, individual efforts to
grow in the spiritual life by arduously transforming
their Orthodox faith into deeds. As St. Symeon the
New Theologian has written: God the Word took
flesh and became Man, that those who believe in
Him as God-Man might receive in their souls the
Holy Spirit as a soul..., and thus be regenerated and
renovated, purifying their mind, conscience, and
feelings through the Grace of the Holy Spirit.... Every Christian is obliged to labor in the feats of repentance, almsgiving, and the rest of the virtues, in

order to attain to the Grace of the Holy Spirit and,

through this Grace, to come to live the genuine life
in Christ. According to St. Macarios the Great, the
Grace of the Holy Spirit, continually abides, becomes rooted, and acts like leaven in man.... And
this Dweller in man becomes a natural thing, something indispensable, as though of one essence with
him.
One can come into living contact with this
Orthodox spirituality through the ascetic reification of ones faith, through that Faith of the Gospel which holds firmly both to the witness of the
Apostles and the theological testimony of the Holy
Fathers.
Patristic theology is a spiritual and intellectual
exposition of the Symbol of the Faith (the Creed),
promulgated by the witness of the Apostles. It is,
at the same time, the crystallized experience of
Gracefilled Orthodox spirituality. The dogmatic
postulates of the Fathers are essentially the same
common witness that was delivered by Christs
Apostles once and for all. This Apostolic witness
is preserved not only in the Church, but it resides
there as an ever-increasing depository, in the
words of St. Irenus of Lyons. Being a fruit of the
ever-increasing depository of the Apostolic witness, Patristic teaching is, similarly, a constant standard of the Orthodox Faith, the highest measure of
correct belief. It is for this reason that it is by far
more essential to make reference to the Fathers
than to seek historical evidence from the past. In
Orthodox theology, references to the Fathers are
no less important than references to Holy Writ.
Moreover, these two things can never be separated.
The Fathers themselves have always been servants
of the Hypostatic Word and their theology is, thus,
intrinsically exegetical.
One of the basic hallmarks of Patristic theology
is also its existential nature. The Fathers theologized, in the expression of St. Gregory the Theologian, in an Apostolic way (literally, like fish-