St Michael Orthodox Church Old Forge, PA

09/06/2024

We might not see it at the moment, but a "No" from God carries as much grace and love as a "Yes."

09/06/2024

Today, the Orthodox world commemorates the passing of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman (+9/6/2022), the former Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, former Archbishop of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, Rector of St. Tikhon’s Theological Seminary, and Abbot of St. Tikhon’s Monastery. His Beatitude is especially remembered by those who were seminarians under his mentorship and by members of the Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania. His love for the divine services will always be remembered.

On the 2nd anniversary of his repose, we pray that his memory be eternal! Вечная память!

09/05/2024

With Metropolitan Tikhon – I just got recognized as one of his top fans! 🎉

09/05/2024

09/05/2024

09/03/2024

THE HIEROMARTYR (PRIESTLY-MARTYR) ANTHIMUS

He was born in Nicomedia, and was raised from childhood as a true Christian. "His body was mortified, his spirit humbled, his envy uprooted, his anger subdued, his sloth banished…. He had love for all and peace with all; he was prudent with all, had zeal for the glory of God and was forthright with all.'' It is no wonder that a man with such virtues was appointed bishop. St. Anthimus governed as Bishop of Nicomedia during the cruel persecution of Christians under the villainous Emperors Diocletian and Maximian. Streams of Christian blood were shed, especially in Nicomedia. One year, on the Feast of Christ's Nativity, twenty thousand martyrs were burned to death in one church (see December 28). This took place during the time of Anthimus's episcopacy. Even so, the persecution did not end with this, but continued, and many Christians were cast into prison and kept there for torture and death. St. Anthimus withdrew to the village of Semana, not because he was fleeing from death, but in order to continue encouraging his flock in the feat of martyrdom, so that no one would fall away out of fear. One of his letters to the Christians in prison was intercepted and turned over to Emperor Maximian. The emperor dispatched twenty soldiers to find Anthimus and bring him to him. The gray-haired and clairvoyant elder came out to meet the soldiers, brought them to his house, and treated them as guests--and only then revealed that he was Anthimus, whom they were seeking. The soldiers, astonished by Anthimus's kindness, suggested that he hide, saying they would tell the emperor that they could not find him. But Anthimus replied that he could not let himself transgress God's commandment against falsehood to save his life, and he went with the soldiers. Along the way, all the soldiers came to believe in Christ and were baptized by Anthimus. The emperor had Anthimus harshly tortured for a long time, and then had him beheaded with an axe. He glorified the Lord and went to his rest at the beginning of the fourth century.

09/02/2024

Live Your Purpose

This earthly life that we have been given has no meaning unless we see it as a workshop for the future life. We must not neglect that which is of an eternal nature, for the Creator has bestowed this life upon us as a time of preparation for eternity with Him. This is the time when we should be progressing from God's image to God's likeness. This life takes a tragic turn if we do not look beyond the confines of this earthly existence, for the gift of love that is Christ, helps us escape the nightmare of an all-consuming death.

The Apostle Paul gave an account of the Christian understanding of death when he said, "When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15:54).'" It is in this life that we "put on Christ," for in doing so we attain the holiness that is necessary for us to stand in the presence of God for all eternity, and not be burned. Focusing on this life as anything but a time of preparation for eternity is to ignore the reality that God has gifted us with life as a time of preparation for the heavenly vision of an all-consuming life.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Quote of the Day
"We, who believe in the living God and whose hopes depend upon Him, ought to rejoice that we have such a Father in the heavens, Who loves us more than all fathers and mothers and Who takes infinite care to render us worthy of Him."
Elder Ephraim of Arizona
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-8KnBHbHSto

Monday, August 20, 2024 (7532) / Monday, September 02, 2024
Monday of the 11th week after Pentecost; Tone I\
No fast

Afterfeast of the Dormition
✺ Prophet Samuel (11th C BC)
Hieromartyr Philip, Bishop of Heraclius and with him the Martyrs Sevirus, Memnon, and the 37 Martyrs burned at Thrace († 304)
Martyr Lucius the Senator († 310)
Martyrs Iliodoros, and Dosos († 380)

Daily Scripture Readings
(Monday of the 11th week after Pentecost)(Liturgy)

II Corinthians 2:3b-15a

3 And I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.
4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.
5 But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all.
6 Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many.
7 So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.
8 Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.
9 For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.
10 To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ;
11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
12 Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord,
13 I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother: but taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia.
14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.
15 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:

Matthew 23:13-22

13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
16 Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!
17 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?
18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.
19 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.
21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.
22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon.

09/02/2024

THE BEGINNING OF THE CHURCH YEAR

The First Ecumenical Council [Nicaea, 325] decreed that the Church year should begin on September 1. The month of September was, for the Hebrews, the beginning of the civil year (Exodus 23:16), the month of gathering the harvest and of the offering of thanks to God. It was on this feast that the Lord Jesus entered the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:16-21), opened the book of the Prophet Isaiah and read the words: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn (Isaiah 61:1-2). The month of September is also important in the history of Christianity, because Emperor Constantine the Great was victorious over Maxentius, the enemy of the Christian Faith, in September. Following this victory, Constantine granted freedom of confession to the Christian Faith throughout the Roman Empire. For a long time, the civil year in the Christian world followed the Church year, with its beginning on September 1. The civil year was later changed, and its beginning transferred to January 1. This occurred first in Western Europe, and later in Russia, under Peter the Great.

09/01/2024

On behalf of His Eminence, Archbishop Mark, the Diocesan Media Office would like to wish the Clergy, Matushki, and Faithful of the Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania a blessed start to the Ecclesiastical New Year on the occasion of the beginning of the Indiction.

08/30/2024

https://doepa.org/diocesan_news_archpastoral_message_on_the_beginning_of_the_new_liturgical_year

08/29/2024

THE BEHEADING OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST

Herod Antipas (son of the elder Herod who slew the children of Bethlehem at the time of Christ's birth) was ruler of Galilee when John the Baptist was preaching. He was married to the daughter of Aretas, an Arabian prince. But Herod, an evil sprout of an evil root, put away his lawful wife and unlawfully took Herodias as his concubine. Herodias was the wife of his brother Philip, who was still alive. John the Baptist stood up against this lawlessness and strongly denounced Herod. Herod then cast John into prison. During a banquet in his court at Sebastia in Galilee, Salome--the daughter of Herodias and Philip--danced before the guests. Herod, drunk with wine, was so taken by this dance that he promised Salome anything she asked of him, even if it were half of his kingdom. Salome was persuaded by Herodias to ask for the head of John the Baptist. Herod gave the order, and John was beheaded in prison--and his head was presented to him on a platter. John's disciples took the body of their teacher by night and honorably buried it, but Herodias pierced John's tongue with a needle repeadedly, and buried his head in an unclean place. What later happened to John the Baptist's head can be read on February 24. However, God's punishment quickly befell this group of evildoers. Prince Aretas, avenging his daughter's honor, waged war against Herod with his army and defeated him. The defeated Herod was sentenced by the Roman Caesar, Caligula, to exile (at first to Gaul, then later to Spain). Herod and Herodias lived in poverty and humiliation in exile, until the earth opened up and swallowed them. Salome died an evil death on the Sikaris (Sula) River (see "Reflection" below). St. John's beheading occurred just before Passover [the Pascha] but its celebration on August 29 was established because a church that had been built over his grave in Sebastia (by Emperor Constantine and Empress Helena) was consecrated on August 29. The relics of John's disciples, Eliseus and Audius, were also placed in that church.

08/29/2024

The Beatitudes of St. Daisias the Athonite
1. Blessed are those who love Christ more than all the worldly things and live far from the world and near God.
2. Blessed are those who manage to live in obscurity and acquired great virtues but did not acquire even a small name for themselves.
3. Blessed are those who manage to act the fool and, in this way, protected their spiritual wealth.
Blessed are those who do not preach the Gospel with words, but live it and preach it with their silence, with the Grace of God, which betrays them.

08/29/2024

All Saints Orthodox Church is pleased to host another Public Concert & Open House: "Blessed Among Women: A Selection of Hymns to the Virgin Mary" - All are welcome!

Thursday, September 5, 2024 ~ 6:30 pm ~ Light Meal & Reception to Follow ~ 210 Susquehanna Avenue, Olyphant, PA 18447

08/28/2024

08/27/2024

08/26/2024

“The house of prayer is a precious treasure; for in it is held the mystery of our salvation.”

-St. Basil the Great

08/26/2024

I pray all is well and want to update everyone on our ice cream social. Yesterday after liturgy we had an ice cream social in conjunction with our coffee hour. At the ice cream social we discussed two topics: house keeping and ministries.

House Keeping we discussed the progress of:
1. getting the copulas painted
2. replacing the red carpet in the narthex and the isle carpet leading to the ambvon and alter with new carpet
3. last Sunday several people stayed after liturgy to pick tile that would compliment the marble on the walls and the flooring in the nave. This tile is to replace the carpet in the alter.
4. Having the shrubbery pulled in the back for less maintenance. Perhaps an area for our youth to play.

Those are the topics that stick out in my mind.

In regards to ministry:
1. Visiting Ministry. I have several people who I visit in a regular basis but I invite those who are interested to accompany me. And likewise, if you visit people, they don’t have to be parishioners let alone orthodox I would go with you.
2. Greeting ministry. It is important that we have someone greeted visitors Orthodox and non Orthodox. I am working on a greeters packet so we all can be in the same sheet when doing this ministry.
3. Catechism will start back up after Labor Day. Catechism will be on Sundays after Liturgy.
4. Bible/Adult Study Group. This is a vital ministry we are missing. I had it scheduled on Wednesday for the past year but had little to no interest with it. But also, some were interested but it is the time of the week. Suggestion was maybe a potluck once or twice a month after vespers.

His unworthy servant,
Fr Michael