St. Nicholas Orthodox ChurchAmerican Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese

Ecumenical Patriarchate1123 East Avenue

Erie, PA 16503Parish Website: www.stnicholaserie.org

Diocesan Website: www.acrod.org

Rev. Fr. Nicholas Mihaly Rectory: (814) 453-4902 Cell: (203) 241-1027 E-mail: nmihaly1013@gmail.com

Sunday, December 9, 2018-Twenty-eighth Sunday After Pentecost Schedule of Services and Events: Sunday, December 9—9:30 AM; Divine Liturgy Sunday, December 9—11:00 AM; Parish Annual Meeting Wednesday, December 12—6:30 PM; Moleben to Saint Nectarios Wednesday, December 12—7:00 PM; Kardiotissa Visit Volunteer Meeting Thursday, December 13—9:00 AM; Church Cleanup Friday, December 14—6:00 PM; Visit of the Kardiotissa & Moleben to the Mother of God Saturday, December 15—9:00 AM; Church & Hall Decorating Saturday, December 15—5:00 PM; Vespers for St. Nicholas Sunday, December 16—9:30 AM; Divine Liturgy, Eightieth Anniversary Celebration & St. Nicholas Dinner

Confessions are available thirty minutes prior to Divine Liturgy on the first Sunday of every month; thirty minutes before vespers on Saturday evenings; or by appointment.

www.facebook.com/StNicholasErie/

UPCOMING EVENTSDecember 9 - Parish Annual MeetingDecember 14 - Visit of the Miraculous Myrrh-Streaming Icon of the

KardiotissaDecember 16 - St. Nicholas Brunch and 80th Anniversary CelebrationJanuary 7 - Christmas Day

On Friday, December 14, Fr. Mark Leasure from our Diocesan Parish of St. George in Taylor, PA will be bringing the Miraculous Myrrh-Streaming icon of the Kardiotissa to our parish. A Moleben to the Mother of God will be served at 6:00 PM. Following the Moleben, Fr. Mark will give a presentation on the icon and then all in attendance will be able to venerate the icon and be anointed with the Holy Myrrh.

There is a bunch of cut firewood available at the Grove. If you would like to pick some up for your personal use, please contact Jon Lipchik: (814) 397-2375

We will have a final church cleanup before the visit of the icon on Thursday, December 13 at 9:00 AM. Please come and help tidy up if you can!

On Saturday, December 15 at 9:00 AM, we will decorate the church and hall for St. Nicholas Day and our 80th Anniversary dinner.

Birthdays & Anniversaries

If you would like Many Years to be sung for you or a loved one, please letFr. Nick know prior to the beginning of Divine Liturgy

Dec

20 Richard & Kathryn (Zetts) Sesco-32nd Anniversary

26 Jayden Gaydosh

31 Helen Douglas

We will need volunteers to help with parking and ushering the evening of the visit of the weeping icon. Please sign-up using the sheet in the office. There will be a meeting for all volunteers on Wednesday, December 12 at 6:30 PM.

Parish Prayer List“Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be

healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.” James 5:16

For the Health of…Fr. John Baranik, Fr. Lawrence Barriger, Fr. James Gleason, Fr. John Gido, Fr. Tony Joseph, Fr. Nicholas Palun, Fr. Michael Rustick, Fr. Jonathan Tobias, Fr. John Zboyovski, Fr. David Smoley, Pani Donna Smoley, Pani Connie Miloro, Pani Eleanor Pribish, George Arghyrou, Douglas Borkowski, Stephen Brancho, Emma Burkell, John Candia, Sandy Carlisle, Gail Collister, Robert Collister, James DeHaven, Mary DeHaven, Peter Dimitriadis, Helen Douglas, Irene Fendya, Miko Jovanovich, John Kloss, Richard Koerner, Jean Kramer, Don Kuzmin, Olivia Kuzmin, Evelyn McCambridge, Mike McCambridge, Guy McIntyre, Serge Mihaly, Mark Mizak, Robert Perevuznik, Sr., Barbara Scheibeck, Richard Schrader, Irene Schwab, Elizabeth Skalko, Isabella Smith, Ignatius Thompson, Cheryl Walker, David Walker, Jake & Lauren, Steven, Katlyn Wyant, George Yurcan …through the prayers of St. Nectarios the Wonderworker & St. Panteleimon the Great-Martyr and Healer

For Expectant Mothers… Pani Eleni Stagon, Brenna Mihaly…through the prayers of St. Anna, the Mother of the Virgin Mary

For the Repose of…Pani Magdaline Blaschak, Pani Mary Kundla, Lawrence Beck, Helen Bires, Ann Burdick, Lousie Butts, Thomas Candia, Ann DiMarco, Anna Evanisko, Vera Fetchina, Alvin Irwin, John E. Kelley, Dennis Kormos, Kyle Lomme, Shane Murdock, Mildred Paproski, Rade Uzunovski …May their memories be eternal!

If you have someone you would like to be added to the prayer list, please see Fr. Nick

To Ponder Orthodox Christians begin and end the

liturgical year with celebrations dedicated to the Virgin Mary, whom we venerate as the Theotokos or “bearer of God.” On September 8, the end of the first week of the new year, we commemorate her Nativity or birth; on August 15, we close the year with the feast of her Dormition, her “falling asleep” and translation to heaven. As the hymns of these and other Marian feasts make clear, our veneration of Mary, the Mother of God, is basically a confession of our faith in the Person of her Son. All Marian piety, in other words, is an expression of christological dogma. It points beyond the Virgin herself and focuses on the significance—for her as for us—of the One whom she bore, our Lord Jesus Christ. In the troparion or festal hymn of her Nativity, we affirm the truth that “the Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God, has shown forth”

from her. By virtue of the fact that she gave birth to this One who is both Messiah (Christ) and Lord (God), the “curse” of our sin and resultant condemnation has been annulled. These words are reminiscent of the apostle Paul’s declaration to the Colossians: Christ has canceled the legal bond (judgment) that stood against us; He has set it aside, “nailing it to the cross” (2:14). The troparion concludes with the Paschal assurance that this Son of Mary has bestowed upon us the blessing of eternal life by destroying the power of death. As the Author of Life, He has descended into the realm of death; and by His resurrection, He has opened the way for each of us to rise up with Him and to share in His eternal glory. The troparion of Mary’s Dormition continues this theme by referring to her as the prototype of all of those who will be “translated” from death to life at the General Resurrection. The hymn begins by affirming a twofold miracle: although she gave birth in the flesh to the eternal Son of God, she did not lose her virginal quality. Virginity in this sense is a sign of purity and holiness, of self-sacrificing love. These virtues Mary preserved fully, even though she experienced pregnancy and the “opening of her womb.” This wonder is coupled with a second: the fact that her death in no wise separated her from “the world,” from the human objects of God’s boundless love. Accordingly, she is able to intercede for us before her Son and our God, and thereby to “deliver our souls from death.” Mary in no way replaces her Son in the work of salvation, nor does she serve in the technical sense as “mediatrix” or mediator between God and us. Although the liturgy at times attributes to her the title Mediatrix, the expression can be understood only in the light of her Son’s saving activity. She “mediates” for us only insofar as she prays and

intercedes on our behalf. This is the calling—and the blessed possibility—offered to all of us, insofar as we, like the Mother of God, willingly offer ourselves, together with the world around us, to the mercy and grace of our Lord. There is only “one Mediator between God and men,” the apostle declares, “the man Jesus Christ, who gave Himself as a ransom for all…” (1 Tim 2:5f). Orthodox Christians know this intuitively. Yet they also know that Jesus’ mother never ceases to intercede for us and, indeed, to “mediate” our prayer before God.

For this reason, we conclude most of our liturgical services with a word of supplication that to many people, including many other Christians, sounds scandalous or blasphemous: “Most holy Theotokos, save us!” “How can you people pray that?” a Baptist friend asked me one day. If Jesus is truly the eternal Son of God, the God-man who “became flesh” in the womb of Mary; if in and through her person He, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, actually assumed our human nature, to transfigure that nature and restore it to its “original” intended purity and holiness; if His saving, redeeming work was realized because of Mary’s “fiat,” her willing acceptance of virginal birth-giving through the power of the Holy Spirit—if all of this is true, then we can do nothing other than acknowledge her role in God’s economy of salvation, and celebrate that role, with joy and conviction, in the services of the Church. If Jesus is truly who we believe and confess Him to be, then we can do nothing other, and nothing less, than exalt His humble mother as truly Theotokos: a human person like ourselves, but whose womb “became more spacious than the heavens” by bearing the incarnate Son of God. And if, from her Nativity through her Dormition and beyond, she is truly who we believe and confess her to be—the Mother of God—then we can do nothing other, and nothing less, than ask her to intercede ceaselessly for us, for the sake of our salvation.

WEEKLY OFFERINGS – Sunday, December 2, 2018

DONOR $2.00 WEEKLY CANDLES FOR HEALTH GIVEN FOR Tamara Kloss Husband John Kloss Phyllis Tarasovich Herself and Family Phyllis, Reader David, & Debra Tarasovich Andy Shufran’s Birthday, December 3 James & Nancy DeHaven Andy Shufran’s Birthday, December 3 Debra Shufran Father Andy Shufran’s Birthday, December 3 Theodore & Patricia Molly Themselves and Family Douglas & Patricia Borkowski Themselves and Family Peter & Marge Sima Get Well Wishes to Daughter Susan Mark Beskid Wife Jenny Beskid Barbara Naculich & Eric Gabbard Her Sister Elaine Stafford’s Birthday, December 5 John Lipchik Jr. & Kathleen Boyce Uncle Peter & Aunt Marge Sima Kathleen Boyce Families of Brother John Lipchik Jr. and Husband Gary Boyce DONOR $2.00 WEEKLY CANDLES FOR THE DECEASED GIVEN FOR John & Tamara Kloss Her Parents Very Rev. Proto. Ronald & Pani Dolores Hazuda Douglas & Jean LaBoda and Family His Father Michael LaBoda Douglas & Jean LaBoda and Family His Mother Virginia LaBoda George Yurcan Parents Wasyl & Aniela Yurcan and Deceased in Family Richard & Susanne Demchak Beloved Parents Joseph & Susan Demchak Dr. George & Kitty Kuzmishin Beloved Family Members Janet Belliveau Parents Douglas & Anne Liebel John Lipchik Jr. & Kathleen Boyce Parents John Sr. & Helena Lipchik David Lipchik Parents Steve & Ann Lipchik John Katsikes Memory of Loved Ones Phyllis Tarasovich Deceased in the Tarasovich and Kelley Families Reader David & Debra Tarasovich Grandson Carter Robert Egloff Douglas & Patricia Borkowski Her Parents Thomas & Ann Burdick and His Father Walter Borkowski CATEGORY AMOUNT CATEGORY AMOUNT Candles 55.00 Diocesan Assessment 20.00 Loose Change 15.00 Grove Security Deposits 100.00 Regular Envelopes 908.00 Grove Rentals 387.50 Christmas Flowers 50.00 Grove Refunds (Water) 105.01 Social Hour 7.00 Total Income 1,647.51 ATTENDANCE Adult Education Class (Tue., Nov. 27): 4 Moleben for the Nativity Fast (Wed., Nov. 28): 3 Divine Liturgy (Sun., Dec. 2): 48 NOVEMBER 2018 CHURCH YEAR 2019 YTD (11/01/18 TO 11/30/18) Income 5,079.70 Income 5,079.70 Expenses 5,189.39 Expenses 5,189.39 (Loss)/Gain (109.69) (Loss)/Gain (109.69) NOTE: The St. Nicholas Church Financial Year runs from November 1 through October 31. So November 2018 is the first month of Church Year 2019.