Saturday, Sept. 2
4:00 PM ✞Paul Suscavage – Eileen Derwin
Sunday, Sept. 3 EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
8:30 AM God’s Blessings and Good Health for all Parishioners
Friday, Sept. 8 NATIVITY OF THE MOTHER OF GOD
9:00 AM Anointing with Holy Oil & Myrovania
✞ Paul Suscavage – Tony & Joanne Kukosky
Saturday, Sept. 9
4:00 PM ✞Anna Bosack – Friends of the Family
Sunday, Sept. 10 SUNDAY BEFORE THE EXALTATION OF THE CROSS
8:30 AM God’s Blessings and Good Health for all Parishioners
BIBLE STUDY/ADULT DISCUSSION: Some of you parishioners have asked that we hold a Bible Study/Adult Discussion Group. At Transfiguration of Our Lord Parish in Nanticoke, there will be on Saturday evenings, immediately following Divine Liturgy, Bible Study/Adult Discussion group meetings. Discussion Sessions will be Saturday, September 16 and Saturday, September 30. The topic of the 1st meeting will be to discuss the Book of Psalms and the Liturgy. Please feel free to attend. At our next parish council meeting, the date is yet to be determined, we will discuss having a BibleStudy/Adult Discussion group meeting at Ss. Peter and Paul, in addition to other parish business.
Purposes of the Divine Liturgy
The Divine Liturgy is offered to God for many purposes, four of them are:
(1) Adoration: It is for Himself that God made all things. Therefore the end of all creatures is to glorify their Creator and form but one choir of exulting adoration and joyful praise. The Divine Liturgy contains an infinitely perfect adoration of God. Sacrifice by its very nature is an act of adoration for it acknowledges solemnly the supremacy and dominion of God over all creatures. The more perfect the sacrifice, the greater is the honor rendered to God.
The Divine Liturgy, being a sacrifice of infinite value, includes in itself infinitely worthy adoration and praise of the triune God.
(2) Thanksgiving: The Divine Liturgy is a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving. God is the origin of all things. He is also the source of every good we possess, that is, He is our first and greatest Benefactor to Whom we must render due thanks. He made us out of nothing, He preserves our life, He gives us His graces and both spiritual and temporal blessings. He helps us in our work and He awaits us in paradise, that wonderful place of happiness and eternal bliss. We cannot thank God for all His blessings and benefits better than by the celebration of the Divine Liturgy.
(3) Propitiation: The Divine Liturgy is the most powerful Sacrifice of propitiation or Atonement, because it applies to sinful man the price of our redemption paid by our Lord By the sacrifice of the Cross. As a Sacrifice of propitiation the Divine Liturgy has the power to satisfying for those temporal punishments, which, after the pardon of mortal or venial sins, would otherwise have to be undergone either in this world or in purgatory. This is the reason why the Church exhorts her faithful to have Masses celebrated for their sins and for those who have passed away and are doing penance in purgatory for their sins.
(4) Petition: The Divine Liturgy is the most powerful and efficacious Sacrifice of impetration. The Divine Liturgy is essentially a prayer, the most sublime prayer, and, therefore, most proper to incline the heart of the Heavenly Father in impart to us the riches of His graces and blessings.
We may pray by ourselves. Our prayer is pleasing to God. The prayer of the Liturgy is infinitely more efficacious and pleasing to God, for on the altar Jesus Christ, as High Priest, offers Himself and intercedes in our behalf, by offering to Him His painful death and His own merits, in order to induce Him to bestow His gifts and blessing upon us. Our prayer during the Divine Liturgy is very powerful because we do not merely implore God, but at the same time we offer to our Heavenly Father the most precious of gifts – the Body and the Blood of His beloved Son Jesus, our Redeemer Who joins us in prayer to His Father. St. Bernard says: “The Lord either gives us that which we ask, or He bestows something else which He knows will be more advantageous to us. And St. Augustine adds: “Some gifts are not refused to us, but granted later at a more appropriate time.”
The Feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God
September 8th
One of the great feasts we celebrate at the beginning of the Liturgical Year is the feast of the Nativity of the most Holy Mother of God (Theotokos). As is evident from the words of the troparion on this festival, it is a joyful and significant feast. It is joyful because it is the birthday of the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven and earth. It is significant because it places before our eyes the great truth of our holy faith concerning the Divine Motherhood of the most Pure Virgin Mary, from whom “shone forth the Sun of Justice, Christ our God.”
The birth of Mary, who was to become the Mother of God, was a singular source of joy for her parents – Joachim and Anna, for heaven, for earth, and for all creation. The spiritual joy occasioned by this feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God has been stressed by various Fathers of the Church.
The day following the feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God, the Church honors the memory of the “Holy and Righteous Ancestors of Christ, Joachim and Anna”. The Church pays them special veneration as the parents of Mary and the ancestors of Jesus Christ.
Christian iconography has also expressed great devotion to the parents of the Blessed Mother of God. Quite frequently and icon will depict St. Anna with the child Mary upon her knees, or both parents will be portrayed bringing the little Mary to the temple to consecrate her to the service of God.
“The multitude of angels in heaven and the human race on earth are singing praises, for you became the Mother of the Creator of all,
Jesus our God.
While imploring Him, do not cease praying for us, who after God place our hope in you, O Mother of God, ever praised and Immaculate”.
CLERGY RETREAT: There will be a clergy retreat on Monday, September 18th through Thursday, September 21st in Longbranch, NJ. If you should have an emergency contact any local Catholic priest.
WEDDING CELEBRATION: The rescheduled date for the Wedding Anniversary Celebration is Sunday, October 15, 2017. All married couples are invited to attend the 11 a.m. Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Philadelphia, followed by a dinner. Please see bulletin board in back of church.
APPLES
This is as good as it gets!!! A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night’s dinner. In their rush to catch the plane home and with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly-missed boarding……..
ALL BUT ONE!!! He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned. He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight.
Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor. He was glad he did. The 16-year-old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her; no one stopping and no one to care for her plight.
The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.
When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, “Here, please take this $50 for the damage we did. Are you okay? “She nodded through her tears.
He continued on with, “I hope we didn’t spoil your day too badly. “As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, “Mister….” He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, “Are you Jesus?”
He stopped in mid-stride…. and he wondered. He gently went back and said, “No, I am nothing like Jesus – He is good, kind, caring, loving, and would never have bumped into your display in the first place.
The girl gently nodded: “I only asked because I prayed for Jesus to help me gather the apples. He sent you to help me, Thank you for hearing Jesus, Mister.”
Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: “Are you Jesus?”
Do people mistake you for Jesus?
That’s our destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace.
If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting scripture and going to church. It’s actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day.
You are the apple of His eye even though you, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked up you and me on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.
Sometimes we just take things for granted, when we really need to be sharing what we know.
The nicest place to be is in someone’s thoughts, the safest place to be is in someone’s prayers and the very best place to be is ……..in the hands of God
SANCTUARY LIGHT: The Sanctuary light is requested to burn this week September 2 – 9 by Paul & Maion Rose in honor of Paul’s 84th Birthday.
ALTAR CANDLES: The Altar Candles will burn for all the services in September in memory of Louis and Anna Kolotelo requested by Geri Kolotelo.
BIRTHDAY GREETINGS: Our sincere Birthday Greetings to Paul Rose celebrating his 84th Birthday. Many more Happy Healthy Years. Mnohya Lita!
WELCOME: We extend our welcome to Marilyn Godumski Huff and her husband Jack to our Parish Family. Marilyn was baptized in this parish but lived out of town, is now back in the area and happy to join our Church. God bless you both.
HOAGIE SALE: St. Nicholas Church, 153 E. Main St., Glen Lyon, PA is sponsoring a Turkey and Italian Hoagie Sale and Bake sale on Wednesday, September 13, 2017. The hoagies are $5.00 each and can be ordered by calling 570-736-6908 by September 10th.
LOTTERY TICKETS: The Church Lottery Tickets for the month of November are available. Please try to purchase your share of at least 5 tickets. This is a good project but we need sellers and buyers. Mike Sinko does a great job with this project so let’s try to help him out. Thanks.
PRAYER BOOKS: Daily Prayers of the Eastern Church, which was mentioned by Father Walter several months ago, have been printed. You will find the copies of the books in the back of the church. As you have paid for them with your church donations, please feel free to take one home per parishioner. Respectfully, I, Father Walter, asks if you wait three weeks before you take additional copies to share with family or friends. If we should run out we can obtain more copies.
RUMMAGE – FLEA MARKET SALE: The Parish Women’s Society will be sponsoring a Rummage Sale in October. Now is the time to start packing things that are no longer useful to you and donate them to the sale. Any household items such as – linens & bedding, drapes, curtains, utensils, pot & pans, dishes, glasses, toys, small furniture, knick knacks and any useful items. Bring your items to the church or call one of the Society members to arrange for pick up
SS Peter & Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church 