Weekly News
JUNE 17, 2018
Fourth Sunday After Pentecost
Father’s Day
Homily: Deacon Michael T Sabounjian
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Our Father who art in Heaven
Hallowed be Thy Name!”
Find the Jesus within You! |
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SUNDAY SCHEDULE
Morning Prayer: 8:30AM
Divine Liturgy Family Worship: 9:30AM
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Special Hokehankist on Father’s Day
We will offer special “Hokehankist” prayers for all deceased fathers, grandfathers and godfathers on Father’s Day, June 17th. Please email your request to frkrikor@holytranslators.org or fill out a Requiem form at fellowship. Donations may be sent to the Church or brought with you and given to Scott Zaleski, Memo: Father’s Day Hokehankist.
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JUNE 17, 2018 – FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
Father’s Day.
Across the United States today is observed as Father’s Day: a chance to reflect, with gratitude, on the deeper meaning of fatherhood. While the surrounding popular culture may sometimes fail to treat fatherhood with due seriousness, the Armenian Church accords great reverence and respect to fathers.
The greatest tribute we pay to fatherhood lies in the way we apply the word “Father” to God. Our ability to call upon Him as our Father is a privilege and blessing—beautifully conveyed in a prayer from our Divine Liturgy:
“God of truth and Father of mercy, we are grateful that you have exalted us above even the [Old Testament] patriarchs. For you were called ‘God’ to them; but you are pleased to be named ‘Father’ to us.”
The priest recites this prayer right before the congregation sings the Hayr Mer—reminding us that it was Jesus, God’s only-begotten Son, who taught us to call God “Our Father.” And when we understand God in terms of His Fatherhood, we also understand godliness to be the duty to which all fathers are called.
This Sunday, thank the fathers who strive to provide such an example in your own life, and remember those who have departed this world in your prayers
(From the Diocesan Website)
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Annual Church Picnic and Food Festival
Sunday, September 16, 2018
12:00 NOON – 5:00PM
This Year Once Again on our Church Grounds |
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| WEEKLY PARISH ANNOUNCEMENTS |
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Bible Readings:
The readings for this Sunday’s Badarak are: 7:25-8:11 & Matthew 12:38-45.
The readings for next Sunday’s Badarak are: Romans 8:31-10:4 & Matthew 13:24-30
Special Hokehankist on Father’s Day: We will offer special “Hokehankist” prayers for all deceased fathers, grandfathers and godfathers on Father’s Day, June 17th. Please email your request to frkrikor@holytranslators.org or fill out a Requiem form at fellowship. Donations may be sent to the Church or brought with you and given to Scott Zaleski, Memo: Father’s Day Hokehankist.
Summer Camps: Applications for St. Vartan Camp, St. Nersess Summer Study Programs and Camp Haiastan are being accepted at this time. See Der Krikor for more information.
Parish Outreach: The Outreach program at our parish focuses on activities for our local communities as well as meeting parish-wide needs. Renee Ferraro is the Outreach Coordinator (508-541-6770 or reneegferraro@gmail.com.)
Membership Dues/Stewardship: Please remember to renew your 2018 membership. We ask that you also fulfill your stewardship obligations in a timely manner. Our goal is to have 100% participation in stewardship this year.
Fellowship Sign-up: Volunteers are needed to sponsor and work at our Coffee Fellowship Hours after Church as well as make donations toward the expense of the Altar Flowers and Candles. A sign-up sheet is available at Fellowship or contact
Jaymie Babaian (jaymie1754@gmail.com)
Please inform Der Krikor at 774-292-9116 or frkrikor@holytranslators.org of those who may be sick at home, hospitalized or may simply want to talk, so that he can make arrangements to visit.
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SCRIPTURE READINGS
Sunday, June 17, 2018 |
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Gospel Reading
(Matthew 12:38-45)
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth. The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here! The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here! “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but it finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ When it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So will it be also with this evil generation.”
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Epistle Reading
(Romans 7:25-8:11)
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law–indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.
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Gospel Commentary
In their request for a sign, some spectacular display, the scribes and Pharisees show their wickedness. Even after so many miracles, they still ask Jesus for such a sign. But Jesus does not cater to their hardness of heart. His sign will be His Passion and Resurrection from the dead. When the Israelites were delivered out of Egypt, by God’s mercy, they did not repent of their impure ways, and they returned to their impure ways. The same holds true in this passage and even for us today. Unless there is full-hearted repentance and the Holy Spirit dwells in a person, evil will return with even greater force.
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Sunday Morning Prayer: 8:30AM
Sunday Divine Liturgy: 9:30AM
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Sun. June 17 Father’s Day
Sun June 24 Divine Liturgy – Der Krikor
Sun. July 1 No Church
Sun. July 8 Divine Liturgy – Der Krikor
Sun. July 15 Divine Liturgy – Der Krikor
Sun. July 22 Divine Liturgy – Der Krikor
Sun. July 29 Divine Liturgy – Der Krikor
Sun. Aug. 5 Divine Liturgy – Der Krikor
Sun. Aug. 12 Divine Liturgy (Blessing of the Grapes) – Der Krikor
Sun. Aug. 19 No Church
Sun. Aug 26 Divine Liturgy – Der Krikor
Sun. Sept 2 Divine Liturgy – Der Krikor
Sun. Sept 9 Divine Liturgy – Der Krikor
Sun. Sept 16 Divine Liturgy – Der Krikor
Annual Church Picnic
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The Eastern Diocese recently launched a new electronic resource – VEMKAR – aimed at the pastoral and educational leaders of our church. Each edition inspires readers to “get ready for Sunday,” by presenting classroom lessons, sermon topics, and other resources to enrich young and old alike in their worship and learning experiences. View this week’s VEMKAR newsletter.
Download the VEMKAR app! Click here for iOS or Android platforms. VEMKAR and its affiliated website (www.vemkar.us) is a new initiative from our Diocesan Ministries department, and is produced by Diocesan staff members and the new Director of Ministries, the Very Rev. Fr. Mesrop Parsamyan.
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FAR PROGRAMS (CASP)
Springtime Round of CASP Stipends
are Distributed to Vulnerable Children & Families.
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Roughly 460 orphans and children of single-mothers living in six regions of Armenia and Javakhk recently received their financial stipends for spring 2018 through the Children of Armenia Sponsorship Program (CASP).
For many of these families, CASP is the crucial support they need to overcome some of their social and financial hardships and the help through which their children’s lives can be improved.
“With this stipend, I was able to buy the firewood we needed to heat our house last year. I spent the rest on the children’s needs, like school supplies, warm clothes, and food. It’s hard to raise three daughters without a consistent income,” said Meri Shahzadyan, 31, from Khndzoresk whose husband, Rustam, died in a car accident in 2011.
Her three daughters, Shahane, 10, Nvard, 8, and Elen, 7, were accepted into the CASP program three years ago. They will receive their annual financial support from an American family until they turn 18. Currently, they live with their grandparents; all six of them barely survive on state benefits and stipends, which amount to roughly $250 a month.
Just before CASP recipients received their spring stipends at his church, Father Rafayel Khachikyan, pastor of the community of Meghri, encouraged beneficiaries to give back to their communities and schools. “You receive this support from women who even don’t know you. Some of them are not even Armenian, however they have embarked on a journey to help Armenians and to try and eradicate child poverty in these regions. Moreover, by their example, these women show the goodwill and love of our Lord,” he said, referring to the Women’s Guild of the Central Council, the group that manages CASP.
Distributions were followed by beneficiary home visits made by FAR staff members to better understand families’ needs and concerns, and how this particular support helps them to overcome certain difficulties.
The Children of Armenia Sponsorship Program (CASP) is a FAR project sponsored by the Women’s Guild Central Council of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern).
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