+ A Parish of +

The Orthodox Church in America www.oca.org

Most Rev. Archbishop Benjamin, Diocese of San Francisco and the West

www.dowoca.org

Very Rev. Fr. Archpriest John Armstrong frjohnarm@hotmail.com

Rev. Fr. Deacon John Manutes john.manutes@gmail.com

+ Worship Services +

Saturdays, 6:00 pm Great Vespers & Confession

(3rd & 6th Hour Prayers, 9:10 am)

Sundays, 9:30 am Divine Liturgy

Feast Days (See Monthly Calendar)

+ Parish Prayer List +

Please pray for and ask the Lord to have mercy on:

Hieroschemamonk Ambrose (Young) Fr. Lawrence & Matushka Sophia Mother Theodelphia Peter Anderson Benjamin, Justus, Debra, Kalena, AJ & Anthony Bertie Ericson; Linda & Kelly Armstrong Kathryn Birmingham Jeanie (Mary) Cooper Agnes Craig Kafa Dalal Michael & Dagmar Drakulich Jon Douglas Adam Goodman Lauren Hansen Ronald Maue & Rhonda Grace George; Sarah; Nikolai and “Z” Joshua & Shannon Mead Joyce Mikita Shaun & Cheryl Matthew & Oleg Barbara Murray John & Michael Palmer Clergy and Parishioners of our Mission parishes:

St. Anthony, St. Elijah, St. Sophia, and St. Tikhon Jonathan Paul Barbara Payne Natalia Perrin Jack & Glenda Pyle Martha Rapso Irina Reynolds John Russell John Salmon Sona Sarkissian, Mardig, and Seta Esther Schafer Kathleen Smith Christopher Sprecher Mary Streech Dana Such Muriel Weisman Natalia Zolotoochin

Missionaries and Ministries: Michael, Lisa and Liam Colburn; Fr. David Rucker & family; James Hargrave & family; OCPM (“25:36”); “Dipes & Wipes”

Catechumens: Troy Nunley (Vladimir); Michael, Phally (Photini) & Kimean (Mary Magdalene) Stucki

Newly Departed:

Memorial: George LaCondo (5/26)

Saint Herman

Orthodox Church

991 West Prentice Avenue Littleton Colorado 80120 303-798-7306 www.sthermanoca.org

+ Pastoral Ministries +

Please contact Fr. John anytime for the following: Confession; Hospital Visits / Holy Unction; Memorial Services; Slavas; Moliebens; or, just to talk... You can call me at: 720-971-5931, or email me at: frjohnarm@hotmail.com

Saint Herman Orthodox Church

May 21, 2017

6th Sunday of Pascha, Tone 5 Sunday of the Blind Man.

Holy Equal-of-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine and his mother, Helen

Today’s Scriptures: Acts 16:16-34; Acts 26:1-5,12-20 (Saints); St. John 9:1-38; St. John 10:1-9 (Saints)

Handmaidens Schedule for May/June

Today, May 21, Elizabeth & Juliana G. May 28, Nika & Sophia Bergbauer June 4, Tori (Helen) & Katherine Pyle June 11, Tori Pyle & Cassia Brown June 18, Elizabeth & Juliana Gaines

Greeters Schedule for May/June

Today, May 21, Christine Salmon May 28, Olga Thomas June 4, Dorothy Zang June 11, Julia Urdenis June 18, Kevin Donahue

+ Today + May 21, 2017 Christ is risen!

Welcome to St. Herman Orthodox Church! We’re glad you came to worship with us!

Patron Saints: Ss. Constantine & Helen (5/21)

Birthdays: George Eckert (5/23)

“Preserve them, O Lord, for many years!”

Please join us for Coffee Hour after Divine Liturgy

+ Looking Ahead +

“Soul Saturday,” June 3: • 9:30 am, Memorial Liturgy • 6:00 pm, Vigil for Pentecost

Sunday, June 4, 9:30 am, Festal Divine Liturgy for Pentecost & Kneeling Vespers Fast-free Friday after Pentecost, June 9

+ This Week +

Wednesday, May 24, 6:30 pm, Great Vespers w/Litiya for the Ascension

Thursday, May 25, 9:30 am, Festal Divine Liturgy for the Ascension

Friday, May 26, 6:30 pm, Introduction to the Orthodox Faith/Church

Saturday, May 27, 6:00 pm, Great Vespers; Confession available

On this day, the Thursday of the 6th week of Pascha, we celebrate the Ascension of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ (Synaxarion):

“After His Resurrection, Jesus remained on earth for 40 days, appearing to His Disciples in various places. He ate, drank and conversed with them, verifying & assuring His Resurrection. On the 40th

day after Pascha, Jesus appeared to His Disciples in Jerusalem. He gave them His last commandment, to go forth and preach in His Name to all the nations. At the same time, He told them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait until they were clothed with the power from on High by the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them. Having said this, Jesus led His Disciples to the Mount of Olives. Then He lifted up His hands and blessed them. And as He was speaking to them with words of fatherly blessing, Jesus departed from them and ascended into the Heavens, being received by a shining cloud, indicating His divine majesty. He gradually disappeared from the sight of the Disciples as they gazed at Him. And as they stood thus, two angels in brilliant white robes appeared to them in the form of men and said to them: “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into Heaven? This same Jesus, Who is taken from you into Heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven.” In these words is fulfilled and defined the doctrine concerning the Son of God and His Word, in the Confession of Faith. After our Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled all His great dispensation for us, He ascended in Glory into the Heavens, and sat at the right hand of God the Father. His Disciples returned from Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, rejoicing in the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit. O Christ our God, Who didst ascend in Glory, have mercy on us! Amen.”

+ Synaxarion +

The Sunday of the Blind Man (6th Sunday of Pascha). The Lord Jesus was coming from the Temple on the Sabbath when, while walking in the way, He saw the blind man mentioned in today’s Gospel. This man had been born thus from his mother’s womb, that is, he had been born without eyes. When the disciples saw this, they asked their Teacher, “Who sinned — this man, or his parents — that he was born blind?” They asked this because when the Lord had healed the paralytic at the Sheep’s Pool, He had told him, “Sin no more, lest a worse thing happen to you” (St. John 5:14); so they wondered, if sickness was caused by sin, what sin could have been the cause of his being born without eyes. But the Lord answered that this was for the glory of God. Then the God-man spat on the ground and made clay with the spittle. He anointed the eyes of the blind man and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.” Siloam (which means “sent”) was a well-known spring in Jerusalem used by the inhabitants for its waters, which flowed to the E side of the city and collected in a large pool called “the Pool of Siloam” [which St. Theophylact calls, “a figure of Christ, the spiritual Siloam.”] Therefore, the Savior sent the blind man to this pool that he might wash his eyes, which had been anointed with clay — not that the pool’s water had such power, but that the faith and obedience of the one sent might be made manifest and that the miracle might become more remarkable and known to all, and leave no room for doubt. Thus, the blind man believed in Jesus’ words, obeyed His command, went and washed himself, and returned, no longer blind, but having eyes and seeing. This was the greatest miracle that our Lord had yet worked; as the man healed of his blindness himself testified, “Since time began, never was it heard that any man opened the eyes of one that had been born blind,” although the Lord had already healed the blind eyes of many. Because he now had eyes, some even doubted that he was the same person (St. John 9:8-9); and it was still lively in their remembrance when Christ came to the tomb of Lazarus, for they said, “Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind man have caused that even this man should not have died?” St. John Chrysostom gives a thorough and brilliant exposition of the Gospel texts for these last three Sundays: the Samaritan Woman, the Paralytic, and the Blind man in his commentary on St. John: http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF1-14 The Holy Equal-of-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine and his mother, Empress Helena. Constantine's parents were the Emperor Constantius Chlorus and the Empress Helena. Chlorus had further children by another wife, but by Helena he had only the one, Constantine. Constantine fought two great battles when he came to the throne: one against Maxentius, a tyrant in Rome, and the other against Licinius not far from Byzantium. At the battle against Maxentius, when Constantine was in great anxiety and uncertainty about his chances of success, a shining Cross, surrounded by stars, appeared to him in the sky in full daylight. On the Cross were written the words: 'By this sign, conquer!' The wondering Emperor ordered that a great Cross be put together, like the one that had appeared, and be carried before the army. By the power of the Cross, he gained a glorious victory over enemies greatly superior in number. Maxentius drowned himself in the Tiber. Immediately after this, Constantine issued the famous Edict of Milan, in 313, to put an end to the persecution of Christians. Conquering Byzantium, he built a beautiful capital city on the Bosphorus, which from that time was named Constantinople.

At this time, Constantine fell ill with leprosy. The pagan priests and doctors advised him to bathe in the blood of slaughtered children, which he refused to do. Then the Apostles Peter and Paul appeared to him and told him to seek out a bishop, Sylvester, who would heal him of the disease. The bishop instructed him in the Christian Faith and baptized him, and the leprosy vanished from the Emperor's body.

When there was discord in the Church about the troublesome heretic Arius, the Emperor summoned the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, in 325, where the heresy was condemned and Orthodoxy confirmed.

St. Helena, the Emperor's devout mother, was very zealous for the Christian Faith. She visited Jerusalem and found the Precious Cross of the Lord, and built the Church of the Resurrection over Golgotha and many other churches in the Holy Land. This holy woman went to the Lord in 327, at the age of 80. The Emperor Constantine outlived his mother by ten years and entered into rest at the age of about sixty in 337, in the city of Nicomedia. His body was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. Our Holy Father, the Martyr Pachomius. Born in Little Russia, he was taken by the Tartars as a boy and sold to a Turkish tanner as a slave. He spent 27 years in slavery in Usaki in Asia Minor, and was forced to embrace Islam. He went off to the Holy Mountain, became a monk and spent twelve years near the monastery of St. Paul. He resolved to suffer for Christ. His spiritual elder, Joseph, sent him off to Usaki, where he showed himself to his former owner as a Christian, wearing his monastic habit. The Turks gave him over to torture, then threw him into prison and finally beheaded him on May 8, 1730, on Ascension Day. Many miracles were wrought by his blood and his relics, his body being buried on the island of Patmos in the Church of St. John the Theologian. Thus this villager from Little Russia became a martyr and wears the wreath in the Kingdom of Christ.