EIGHTEENTH AFTER SUNDAY PENTECOST
October 12, 2025
Saturday, October 11 EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
4:00 PM Anna Dempsey- Anna Magill
Sunday, October 12 EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
8:30 AM God’s Blessings & Good Health for All Parishioners
Saturday, October 18 NINTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
4:00 PM God’s Blessings & Good Health for All Parishioners
Sunday, October 19 NINTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
8:30 AM Geri Kolotelo- Steven & Gloria Udiski
ASK FATHER A QUESTION? Father, I am a Roman Catholic and I am curious about the Eastern definition of an Icon and their spiritual and religious purpose. Can you educate me on them? Answering your question is difficult, yet easy, simple yet obtuse. How do we know God? Is it not with our minds? Why this way? Because we have sinned, God does not presently walk the surface of the earth as He did prior. God who is immaterial, can be known by our immaterialness. Our thoughts are immaterial and happen in our souls which are immaterial. Prior to our sin, God walked with man every day, physically present to us. We encounter God with all our senses, not merely with our minds. So too we pray with all our senses in the Eastern Church-including our eyes. Icons are windows into heaven, they are story in image, they are sacramentals and not, I repeat, not religious art that is they are writings of things not of this world. The icon makes present the person or event just like the Jewish sense of “memory.” When Jesus says “Do this in memory of me,” we do not merely have a mental thought of something now gone, but rather, we are transported across creation to be present at that one event for all time. Now we are transported to heaven, the Eternal Sacrifice and Banquet. Likewise, the icon transports us into this one event for all time and hence to heaven. Icons help us pray because it makes heaven present to us visually and mentally, helping us to focus on divine things. We are taught to transform ourselves, not to reject our physical life, but to transform our life to match God’s will for us, just as the holy people in the icons have done. This is why we venerate the icon, venerate literally means to ‘bow in front of.’ We venerate icons and we worship only God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Since icons are story in image and they show us heaven then there are rules, or language of icons, which need to be obeyed and understood. For example; the color blue tells us this creature is human and red tells us divine. So, we see to our left on the iconostas Mary holding Jesus, her inner robe is blue because she is man, and her outer cloak is red because when she says yes to the Angel Gabriel’s message she puts on divinity. To our right is Jesus. His inner robe is red because He is divine, He is God, and when He was born, He put on mankind, i.e. became man. These colors cannot be changed because to change the color is to change the meaning. Mary is a created creature like us and is not divine in and of herself like Jesus is, being God.
Icons are not created to force an emotional response. When portraying historical scenes, the faces don’t show emotion, but instead portray virtues such as purity, patience in suffering, forgiveness, compassion and love. An example of this would be the portrayal of Christ on the cross. Christ is always shown as God. Even the icons of Christ seated on His mother’s lap show Him with an adult face [and adult proportions], revealing that even though Christ lived as a child among us He is also God ( Forest,1997).[i] Icons depict silence. There are no actions displayed, no open mouths. The icon invites the Christian to enter into contemplation, prayer, and silence (Ware,1979). Space is not defined in three axis and time is insignificant. The story told by the icon precludes time and space. An example would be the icon of the Nativity, which shows the cave where Christ was born in the background with those who came to adore in small vignettes. Lighting proceeds from the character portrayed in the icon. There are never shadows in icons. This shows us that the saint portrayed is “glorified” having completed the race and entered into heaven (Quenot,1991). Symbolism is used in icons and details are used minimally. For example, when showing John the Baptist baptizing in the river, the grown man he baptizes is shown as an infant because the baptism is a rebirth. Colors are also symbolic. Blue reveals heaven and mystery. Green is youth, fertility and the earth’s vegetation. Red, the color of blood, suggests life, vitality and beauty. White is purity, the divine world and innocence. Gold indicates sanctity, splendor, and the glory of God and life in the heavenly kingdom [eternity]. Purple reveals wealth, power and authority.
[i] From the website www.antiochian.org, Eastern Orthodox Christians and Iconography, By Cindy Egly.
BOOK(S) OF THE MONTH FOR OCTOBER:
Lectures on the Christian Sacraments
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem
ISBN: 978-0-88141-564-3
The Sanctuary Light this week was requested by Anna Magill in loving memory of her mother, Anna Dempsey.
Additional Days; WOMEN’S SOCIETY BAKE, SOUP & RUMMAGE SALE: Friday, October 24th (9am-4pm) and Saturday, October 25th (9am -2pm) ½ Price Day, and FINAL DAY Sunday October 26th (12Pm-2PM) Bag Day. If have questions contact Anna Magil at 570-239-9263.
PYROHY SALE: Transfiguration of Our Lord Church is selling potato pyrohy (frozen). The cost is $12.00 per dozen. If you would like to purchase pyrohy please contact the church rectory or call Lisa at 570-574-1016.
CLOTHING & “STUFF” FLEA MARKET, Nanticoke: Transfiguration of Our Lord Church will hold a Clothing and “Stuff” sale on Friday, October 17 and Saturday, October 18 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday October 19 “Bag Day” from noon until 2 p.m. Pierogies, Clam Chowder, Sausage & Peppers, Hot Dogs and Wimpies will be served for eat in or take out.
CEMETERY: As the weather is getting cooler, please make sure that summer items are removed from the cemetery prior to the ground freezing in preparation for the Feast of the Nativity.
STANDARD TIME: Don’t forget Daylight Savings Time Ends Sunday, November 2. Set your clocks back one hour Saturday night before you go to bed on November 1st.
HALLOWEEN MOVIE: As fall looms ahead and the days get shorter & cooler…… It’s Movie Time at Transfiguration of Our Lord Church on Sunday, November 2nd! The movie will be fun and light hearted.
Ask Father a Question…..? If heaven is striving for perfection and man is imperfect how can anyone get in? The answer to this question is in actually quite short and simple. We can get into heaven by following our Father’s instruction who came into this world; Jesus Christ. A feeling of helplessness comes if a person has a malformed sense of mankind, i.e. their own human condition. Where does this come from and what are the 2 opposing views of mankind? The errant view of mankind comes from the false concept of; we are here on the earth by pure random chance (Chemical soup to mankind Evolution). If we are here by pure chance and there is no God who created us, then our sense and grasp of Anthropology [study of mankind] will be flawed. “Evolution” says we are here by chance, therefore there is no God, you can do what you want, maximize pleasure and minimize pain {Nihilism}, and so on. If you operate under this concept and yet hold on to the idea of God’s existence then there will be a conflict between a false sense of man and God’s message to us. This false sense comes from people who stubbornly try to deny God’s existence because they don’t want to accept that there is a concrete moral code we are called to live up to and they desire to have a subjective, everything can change, sense of morality. This cannot be. Even from our human experience we can grasp there is one objective morality, i.e. concrete and unchangeable. The other view of our human experience in the here and now is informed by God’s self-revelation to mankind. God tells us of how we were created perfect but we hurt ourselves with our own sin in the Garden of Eden; Adam and Eve’s sin is our sin. Is there anyone alive who has not sinned? We have been expelled from the Garden, but God knew we would do this and He prepared a way for our return. Because of God’s immeasurable love for us he gave Himself, Jesus Christ, to pay our debt on the cross and God gives us what we need to get to heaven, His gifts to us which the Church calls God Graces. If we enter the church, are Baptized and Chrismated and receive Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and take full advantage of these and apply all of God’s teaching to our living, yet recognizing my sinfulness, I can enter heaven. This is what The Divine Liturgy, a public prayer, is all about. Take the time to read all the priest’s silent prayers that you normally do not read during the liturgy and you will notice this strong theme, “Lord forgive me my sins and have mercy on me so that I may enter into Your kingdom.” We recognize our sins and while may fall into the occasion of sin we know we should not do this, so we go to confession and try to clean ourselves up once again. All the time while we do this we recognize it is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is God, who paid our debt. Be true to Him and do not fail to receive Him in the Eucharist the mystical medicine which heals our sins and is the mystical food which is Christ Himself that nourishes our lives through this corrupt age to give us strength to battle our own sins in this world. Your question has the same sense of Isaiah’s reply to the angel who gave God’s message to Isaiah that Lord would send Isaiah to prophecy. Isaiah said, “”Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. How can I go being a sinful man?” The angel went to the fire and took a hot coal from the fire with tongs and touched Isaiah’s lips saying, “See now, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” This is the same prayer the priest says for himself and the people after the Eucharist is distributed to the people. So the ultimate question is am I stubborn and demand things my way; or do I grasp my sinfulness and the need for God’s assistance? Accepting God’s graces I therefore accept His gifts and do not stay away from God and His Church and the company of the saints.
SS Peter & Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church 