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O ye incorporeal angels who stand before the throne of God, luminous with the brilliance thereof and everlastingly shining with radiance. As secondary luminaries, entreat Christ, that He grant unto our souls peace and great mercy. O immortal messengers of the truly incorruptible Life, ye most blessed ones who received life from the first Life, ye have become holy beholders of the eternal Wisdom, full of light, and reflecting lamps shown forth as is meet. O ye archangels and angels, principalities, thrones, dominions, six-winged seraphim, and divine, many-eyed cherubim, instruments of wisdom, virtues and powers most divine. Pray ye to Christ, that He grant our souls peace and great mercy. Archives:
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HOLY RESURRECTION BYZANTINE CATHOLIC MISSION
GLORY TO JESUS CHRIST! GLORY FOREVER!
DIVINE LITURGY BEGINS AT 4 P.M. EVERY SUNDAY
OCTOBER 12, 2003
Divine Liturgy Intention: If you would like the Divine Liturgy offered for a loved one, deceased or living, please give your offering to Father and obtain a Liturgy intention card from William Gogar. Please write down the intention so it can be put in the bulletin.
OUR OFFERINGS
October is Respect for Life Month: Prayer for Life
Pope John Paul II concluded his Gospel of Life encyclical with this prayer:
O Mary, bright dawn of the new world, Mother of the living, to you do we entrust the cause of life: Look down, O Mother, upon the vast numbers of babies not allowed to be born, of the poor whose lives are made difficult, of men and women who are victims of brutal violence, of the elderly and the sick killed by indifference or out of misguided mercy. Grant that all who believe in your Son may proclaim the Gospel of Life with honesty and love to the people of our time. Obtain for them the grace to accept that Gospel as a gift ever new, the joy of celebrating it with gratitude throughout their lives, and the courage to bear witness to it resolutely, in order to build, together with all people of good will, the civilization of truth and love, to the praise and glory of God, the Creator and lover of life.
Sunday of the Fathers of the 7th Ecumenical Council
On July 18 we celebrated the Sunday of the Fathers of the first six Ecumenical Councils. The First Ecumenical Council,
the Council of Nicea, condemned Arianism, a heresy that denied the divinity of Christ. The second, the Council of
Constantinople I, upheld the divinity of the Holy Spirit. The third, the Council of Ephesus, condemned Nestorianism, which
denied the unity of the divine and human natures in Christ. It also defined Mary as the Mother of God. The fourth, the Council
of Chalcedon, affirmed the humanity of Christ. The fifth, Constantinople II, further condemned Nestorianism, which also taught
the title “Mother of God” to be erroneous. The sixth, Constantinople III, condemned the doctrine of Monotheletism
which taught that Jesus had only one will, a divine will, but no human will.
Today we celebrate the Sunday of the Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council or the Second Council of Nicea. Three hundred
and fifty bishops (fathers) attended this Council held in Nicea in 787. This council was called to deal with the iconoclast
heresy which prohibited any devotion to images of Christ or the saints. This Council established the Church doctrine that
“images of Christ, of His Virgin Mother, and of other saints should be made and preserved. Due honor and veneration
should be given to them because the honor they receive refers to the subjects they represent, so that by kissing images,
uncovering our heads or kneeling before them, we adore Christ and venerate His saints, whose likeness they represent”
(Session 25).
In 843 the Synod of Constantinople instituted a special celebration to commemorate the triumph of the Church over the
Iconoclasts or “Icon Smashers.” That celebration is observed on the First Sunday of Great Lent. “As the
tabernacle of the Covenant held the presence of God, so do the icons show forth the presence of the One we worship and revere.
By venerating them, we never go astray” (Vespers, First Sunday of Lent).
Sayings from the Church Fathers
St. Basil the Great: “What the word transmits through the ear, the icon silently shows through the
image.” In other words, the icon contains and professes the same truth as the Gospels and therefore, like the Gospels,
is based on exact data and is not a human invention, for if it were otherwise, icons could not explain the Gospels nor
correspond to them.
St. John Damascene: “I do not worship matter, but I worship the Creator of matter, Who for my sake became
material and deigned to dwell in matter, Who through matter effected my salvation. I will not cease from worshipping the
matter through which my salvation has been effected.”
—From the book These Truths We Hold by a monk of St. Tikon Monastery
Did you visit www.hrbcc.org today?
Trivia Question
The Seventh Ecumenical Council, which we celebrate today, is best known for confirming the veneration of icons. Which of the
following other actions was NOT taken by that council?
a. Required all churches to contain holy relics b. Forbade individuals below the rank of lector to read the Epistle form the ambo c. Required all priests to be at least 16 years of age d. Condemned the appointment of clergy by secular princes e. Permitted lay members of the opposite sex to eat meals together
*Answer will appear in next week’s bulletin.
Answer to last week’s question: According to Tradition, St. Thomas the Apostle suffered martyrdom in (d.) India.
Oops!
Did you miss today’s class on the Divine Liturgy? Don’t worry! You can always catch up. The second session (out of
a total of six) will begin at the same time and place next Sunday, 3 p.m. in the parish hall. See Father O’Connell
or Tim J. Scripa for details.
Last updated: 15-Oct-2003 |
