Welcome to Saint George’s today. We are glad to have you! If you are here for the first time, please stay for the coffee social in the parish hall after liturgy so we can get acquainted.

SCRIPTURE READINGS THIS WEEK
May 21st     Ss. Constantine and Helen, Equals-to-the-Apostles
                    Acts 17:1-15    John 11:47-57
May 22nd    Martyr Basiliscus, Bishop of Comana; Monk Martyr Paul of the Lavra
                    Acts 17:19-28    John 12:19-36
May 23rd    St. Michael the Confessor, Bishop of Synnada; Martyr Michael
                    Acts 18:22-28    John 12:36-47
May 24th    THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD
                    Acts 1:1-12    Luke 24:36-53
May 25th    After feast of Ascension; 3rd Finding of the Head of John the Baptist
                   Acts 19:1-8    John 14:1-11
May 26th    After feast of Ascension; Apostle Carpus and Alphaeus of the 70  
                   Acts 20:7-12    John 14:10-21

                                Greeter: Nancy Angin                                                                     Reader: Alex Beleny

Activities/Services this Week
Women’s Guild Meeting: Sunday, May 20th, after Liturgy
4th Annual Ss. Cyril & Methodius Lecture: Sunday, May 20th, 6:30 PM, at the church
Heartbeat of Toledo Support Group: Tuesday, May 22nd, 10 AM at Yonov home.
Vesperal Liturgy: Feast of Ascension Wednesday, May 23rd, 6:30 PM, at the church
Great Vespers/Confessions: Saturday, May 26th, 5 PM at the church

The Sanctuary Lamp is burning this week for the health of George & Tanya Thompson and family. 

On May 13th, 41 Adults and 14 Youth attended Divine Liturgy services.

Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral will be holding services on May 21st for the feast day of Ss. Constantine and Helen. Services will begin with Matins at 9:30 AM, followed by Divine Liturgy at 10:15 AM.

All Saints Food Pantry
During the month of May bring in breakfast cereal (hot or cold) in whatever quantity you can afford to donate for the All Saints Food Pantry.
 
Heartbeat of Toledo is a pregnancy support center which serves pregnant teens and women and their babies. Twice monthly meetings are planned for all who would be interested in helping make donations of baby items (meetings will alternate between church and someone’s home).  If you know how to knit, crochet, quilt, make tied blankets, whatever, or if you want to learn how then please come! The next meeting will be Tuesday, May 22, 10am, at the home of Carol Yonov, 5510 Ginger Tree Lane, Toledo, 43623.

The 4th Annual Ss. Cyril & Methodius Lecture will be on Sunday, May 20th; at 6:30 PM. Fr. Paul Monkowski of Ss. Cyril & Methodius Orthodox Church in Lorain, OH will be our speaker. If you have any questions about the event, speak with Fr. Paul or Popadia Kathleen Biernacki. The theme for this year’s lecture is: “Does Orthodoxy Fit into Your Culture?”

The Sundays after Pascha: The Blind Man
The sixth Sunday commemorates the healing of the man blind from birth (Jn 9). We are identified with that man who came to see and to believe in Jesus as the Son of God. The Lord has anointed our eyes with his own divine hands and washed them with the waters of our baptism (John 9:6-11)
Jesus used clay of spittle and told the man to wash in the waters of Siloam. He did so because it was the Sabbath day on which spitting, clay-making and washing were strictly forbidden. By breaking these ritual laws of the Jews, Jesus showed that he is indeed the Lord of the Sabbath, and, as such, that he is equal to God the Father Who alone, according to Jewish tradition, works on the Sabbath day in running his world.
There is scandal over the healing of the blind man on the Sabbath day. He is separated from the synagogue because of his faith in Christ. The entire Church follows this man in his fate, knowing that it is those who do not see Jesus as the Lord who are really blind and still in their sins (Jn 9:41). The others have the light of life and can see and know the Son of God, for “you have seen him, and it is he who speaks to you” (Jn 9:37).
I come to Thee, O Christ, blind from birth in my spiritual eyes, and call to Thee in repentance: Thou art the most radiant Light of those in darkness! (Kontakion)

Feast of the Ascension
Jesus did not live with his disciples after his resurrection as he had before his death. Filled with the glory of his divinity, he appeared at different times and places to his people, assuring them that it was he, truly alive in his risen and glorified body.To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3).

It should be noted that the time span of forty days is used many times in the Bible and signifies a temporal period of completeness and sufficiency (Gen 7:17; Ex 16:35, 24:18; Judg 3:11; 1 Sam 17:16; 1 Kg 19:8; Jon 3:4; Mt 4:2). On the fortieth day after his passover, Jesus ascended into heaven to be glorified on the right hand of God (Acts 1:9-11; Mk 16:19; Lk 24:51). The ascension of Christ is his final physical departure from this world after the resurrection. It is the formal completion of his mission in this world as the Messianic Saviour. It is his glorious return to the Father who had sent him into the world to accomplish the work that he had given him to do (Jn 17:4-5).
... and lifting his hands he blessed them. While blessing them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy. ... (Lk 24:51-52).
The Church’s celebration of the ascension, as all such festal celebrations, is not merely the remembrance of an event in Christ’s life. Indeed, the ascension itself is not to be understood as though it were simply the supernatural event of a man floating up and away into the skies. The holy scripture stresses Christ’s physical departure and his glorification with God the Father, together with the great joy which his disciples had as they received the promise of the Holy Spirit who was to come to assure the Lord’s presence with them, enabling them to be his witnesses to the ends of earth (Lk 24:48-53; Acts 1:8-11; Mt 28:20; Mk 16:16-14).

In the Church the believers in Christ celebrate these very same realities with the conviction that it is for them and for all men that Christ’s departure from this world has taken place. The Lord leaves in order to be glorified with God the Father and to glorify us with himself. He goes in order to “prepare a place” for and to take us also into the blessedness of God s presence. He goes to open the way for all flesh into the “heavenly sanctuary ... the Holy Place not made by hands” (see Hebrews 8-10). He goes in order send the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father to bear witness to him and his gospel in the world, making him powerfully present in the lives of disciples.  Taken from “The Orthodox Faith”, Fr. Thomas Hopko, Volume 2, Worship