8th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST — Tone 7. Apostles Silas and Silvanus of the Seventy, and those with them: Crescens, Epenetus, and Andronicus (1st c.).
Tone 7 Troparion (Resurrection)
By Your Cross You destroyed death. To the thief You opened Paradise. For the Myrrhbearers You changed weeping into joy. And You commanded Your disciples, O Christ God, to proclaim that You are risen,// granting the world great mercy.
Tone 4 Troparion (St. Nicholas)
The truth of your deeds has revealed you to your flock as a rule of faith, an image of meekness and a teacher of self-control; your humility exalted you; your poverty enriched you.// O Father Bishop Nicholas, pray to Christ God that our souls may be saved.
Tone 4 Troparion (Apostles)
Holy Apostles Silas and Silvanus, entreat the merciful God// to grant our souls forgiveness of transgressions!
Tone 7 Kontakion (Resurrection)
The dominion of death can no longer hold men captive, for Christ descended, shattering and destroying its powers. Hell is bound, while the Prophets rejoice and cry: “The Savior has come to those in faith;// enter, you faithful, into the Resurrection!”
Tone 3 Kontakion (St. Nicholas)
You proved yourself to be be a holy priest, O Nicholas. You served God in Myra and lived the gospel of Christ. You offered your life for your people, And rescued the innocent from death. Therefore God has glorified you as a trustworthy guide of things divine.
Tone 4 Kontakion (Apostles)
You were revealed to be branches of the vine of Christ, O wise ones, bearing clusters of virtues that pour out on us the wine of salvation. Receiving it, we are filled with gladness, and we celebrate your most honored memory, Apostles of the Lord, Silas and Silvanus.// Therefore, intercede that great mercy and remission of sins may be granted to us.
Tone 6 Kontakion (Steadfast Protectress)
Steadfast Protectress of Christians, Constant Advocate before the Creator; Do not despise the cries of us sinners, but in your goodness come speedily to help us who call on you in faith. Hasten to hear our petition and to intercede for us, O Theotokos, for you always protect those who honor you!
Tone 7 Prokeimenon (Resurrection)
The Lord shall give strength to His people. / The Lord shall bless His people with peace. (Ps. 28:11)
V. Offer to the Lord, O you sons of God! Offer young rams to the Lord! (Ps. 28:1a)
1 Corinthians 1:10-18 (Epistle)
Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Tone 7
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
V. It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to Your Name, O Most High. (Ps. 91:1)
V. To declare Your mercy in the morning, and Your truth by night. (Ps. 91:2a)
Matthew 14:14-22 (Gospel)
And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.” But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” He said, “Bring them here to Me.” Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children. Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away.
The Importance of Worship in the Life of the Orthodox Church
Worship is so important in the life of the Orthodox Church that many non-Orthodox Christians associate Orthodoxy mainly with liturgical services, singing, and icons. Protopresbyter John Meyendorff wrote:
“In our day millions of people are being nourished spiritually by Orthodox worship. Very many … in the West … are beginning to understand Orthodoxy through the liturgical tradition not only of the Christian East, but also of the ancient Christian West. They are finding in Orthodox worship a connection with the apostolic faith of the first centuries of Christendom and the experience of the coming kingdom of God. It is for this reason that we Orthodox must preserve worship not only as a necessary link with the past, but also as a living testimony of the faith. We need both a good knowledge of the history of this testimony as well as a theological and spiritual experience of the core of prayer in the Church—in which the past, present, and future are united in the life of the body of Christ.”
In terms of content, length of services, and theological richness, Orthodox worship differs noticeably from worship in non-Orthodox Christian communities, both Protestant and Catholic. Even outward distinctions are plain to see…
After the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, worship in many Catholic churches differs little from Protestant worship. It is marked by the same absence of wholeness and the same alternation of unconnected, unrelated prayers and hymns.
Things are done differently in the Orthodox Church. From the very first exclamation of every service—be it the divine liturgy, vespers, matins, the hours, the midnight office, or compline—the faithful are immersed in an environment of prayer, interrupted by nothing. Psalms, litanies, troparia, prayers, and the priest’s exclamations—these elements follow one another uninterrupted. The entire service takes place in one breath as an integrated and constantly unfolding mystery. Everything is carried out in the same rhythm and nothing takes away from prayer. Byzantine liturgical texts, rich in profound theological and mystical content, alternate with the prayerful breathing of the psalms. Even those elements of “choreography” that are characteristic of Orthodox divine services—the ceremonious entrances and processions, prostrations, and censing—are intended not to divert the attention of the faithful but, on the contrary, to establish the faithful in a prayerful mood and to draw them into that theourgia in which not only the earthly Church participates, but the heavenly Church as well—not only people, but also angels.
The divine service texts used in the Orthodox Church were written, for the most part, in great antiquity—roughly between the third and seventh centuries. Many of these texts are so replete with profound theological content and interspersed with so many biblical allusions that their meaning may be extremely difficult to grasp for contemporary people who do not have any special training. Some have spoken in favor of simplifying worship with a liturgical reform, while some have even called for an outright “surgical operation” in Orthodox worship with the goal of updating it to make it more understandable and more in accordance with the mindset of the contemporary person. Not a single local Orthodox Church, however, has deemed it possible to revise the liturgical Typikon, even though in the Church’s practical experience, certain essential changes have been made in the Typikon’s use (these will be described later). The texts used in Orthodox worship services are both profound and rich in content, even if they are not always understandable and contemporary. For the faithful, the presence of these texts in the divine services helps to make Orthodox worship a veritable school of theology and contemplation of God.
Furthermore, worship in its primordial and unchanged form represents the basic criterion of life in the Church—the criterion of theological development. It is necessary to confirm theology in worship, the liturgy, and the Eucharist. “Our opinion is in accordance with the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn establishes our opinion,” said Saint Irenaeus of Lyons. The principle of agreement between worship and theology is solidly rooted in the Orthodox consciousness. For this very reason, a theology which is not founded on liturgical experience, or which clearly contradicts this experience, cannot be regarded as truly Orthodox.
Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, The Worship and Liturgical Life of the Orthodox Church, trans. Andrei Tepper, vol. 4, Orthodox Christianity (Yonkers, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, n.d.), 11.
Apostle Silas of the Seventy
The Holy Apostle of the Seventy Silas was a disciple of the Savior. Saint Silas was a respected figure in the original Church at Jerusalem, one of the “chief men among the brethren” (Acts 15:22). The Council of the Apostles was convened at Jerusalem in the year 51 to deal with the question of whether Gentile Christian converts should be required to observe the Mosaic Law. The Apostles sent a message with Paul and Barnabas to the Christians of Antioch, giving the decision of the Council that Christians of Gentile origin did not have to observe the prescriptions of the Mosaic Law. Nonetheless, they were told that they must refrain from partaking of foods offered to idols, from things strangled and from blood, to refrain from fornication (Acts 15:20-29). Together with Saints Paul and Barnabas, the Council of the Apostles sent Saints Silas and Jude to explain the message in greater detail, since they both were filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit. Saint Jude was later sent back to Jerusalem, but Saint Silas remained at Antioch and zealously assisted Saint Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, on his missionary journeys preaching the Gospel. They visited Syria, Cilicia, and Macedonia….
From Philippi Saints Paul and Silas proceeded on to the cities of Amphipolis, Apollonia and Thessalonica. In each city they made new converts to Christ and built up the Church.
At Corinth the holy Apostle Silas was consecrated as bishop, and worked many miracles and signs, and there he finished his life.
Sunday Bulletin July 23, 2023