Sunday of the Fathers of the 1st Nicene Council
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever!
Fathers of the 1st Nicene Council
June 1, 2025
Sat 5/31/25 4:00pm Vigil Divine Liturgy +Philip Bray by Tina Soley
Sun 6/1/25 9:30am Divine Liturgy Anna Olen by Cindy Hills
Wed 6/4/25 7:00pm Liturgy for Healing +Tim Hayes by Marion Luther
Fri 6/6/25 7:00pm Moleben to Jesus
Sat 6/7/25 9:30am 5th All Souls Saturday
Sat 6/7/25 4:00pm Vigil Divine Liturgy Pentecost Sunday +Bob Yohe by Marian Luther
Sun 6/8/25 9:30am Divine Liturgy Pentecost Sunday +Karen Bohin by Anonymous
Variable Parts Sunday of the First Nicene Council - Festal Tone Pages 196- 202
Epistle Acts 20:16-18 & 28-36
Gospel John 17:1-13
Epistle Readers 31-May Mary Troyan 1-Jun Liz/John Pocchiari 7-Jun John Baycura/Mary Motko 8-Jun Amanda Stavish
Memorial Candle Request - Rene Dancisin Koppleman - by her father Michael Dancisin
Please Pray for: Sharon King, Ole J. Bergh, Erik Bergh, Liz Moyta, Fr. Michael Huszti, Fr. Laska, Susie Curcio, Teresa Milkovich, Robert Saper, Anna Habil, Martha Sapar, Mike Dancisin, Karen Smaretsky Vavro, Diane Sotak, Anna Pocchiari, Larry Hamil, Beverly Jones, Marilyn Book, Maryann Russin Schyvers, Nick Russin and Ken Konchan
Attendance: 5/24-15 5/25 — 80 Collection: 5/24 & 5/25 $1,649.04
Flag Day Celebration: Save the date, June 8th, for our Flag Day Celebration after Sunday Liturgy. Lunch will be served in the church hall after a program at the Lyndora Post Office.
Six hundred years ago, the great Franciscan theologian Duns Scotus explained that falling into sin could be likened to a man approaching unaware a deep ditch. If he falls into the ditch, he needs someone to lower a rope and save him. But if someone were to warn him of the danger ahead, preventing the man from falling into the ditch at all, he would be saved from falling in the first place. Likewise, Mary was saved from sin by receiving the grace to be preserved from it. But she was still saved.
But what about "all have sinned" (Rom. 3:23) and "if any man says he has no sin he is a liar and the truth is not in him" (1 John 1:8)? Wouldn't "all" and "any man" include Mary? On the surface, this sounds reasonable. But this way of thinking carried to its logical conclusion would list Jesus Christ in the company of sinners as well. No faithful Christian would dare say that. Yet no Christian can deny the plain texts of Scripture declaring Christ's full humanity, either. Thus, to take 1 John 1:8 in a strict, literal sense would apply "any man" to Jesus as well. The truth is, Jesus Christ was an exception to Romans 3:23 and 1 John 1:8. And the Bible tells us he was in Hebrews 4:15: "Christ was tempted in all points even as we are and yet he was without sin."
Name of Virgin Mary- St. Luke uses the perfect passive participle, kekaritomene, as his "name" for Virgin Mary. This word literally means "she who has been graced" in a completed sense. The perfect tense is used to indicate that an action has been completed in the past, resulting in a present state of being. "Full of grace" is Mary's name. So what does it tell us about Mary? Well, the average Christian is not completed in grace and in a permanent sense (Phil. 3:8-12). But according to the angel, Mary is. You and I sin, not because of grace, but because of a lack of grace, or a lack of our cooperation with grace, in our lives. This greeting of the angel is one clue into the unique character and calling of the Mother of God. Only Mary is given the name "full of grace," and in the perfect tense, indicating that this permanent state of Mary was completed.
The Old Testament Ark of the Covenant was a true icon of the sacred. Because it contained the presence of God symbolized by three types of the coming Messiah—the manna, the Ten Commandments, and Aaron's rod—it had to be pure and untouched by sinful man (2 Sam. 6:1-9 and Exod. 25:10ff; Num. 4:15).
In the New Testament,.the new ark is not an inanimate object, but a person: the Blessed Mother. How much more pure would the new ark be when we consider the old ark was a mere "shadow" in relation to it (Heb. 10:1)?
This image of Mary as the Ark of the Covenant is an indicator that Mary would fittingly be free from all contagion of sin to be a worthy vessel to bear God in her womb. And most importantly, just as the Old Covenant ark was pristine from the moment it was constructed, with explicit divine instructions, in Exodus 25, so would Mary be pure from the moment of her conception. God, in a sense, prepared his own dwelling place in both the Old and New Testaments.
1. The Ark of the Covenant contained three "types" of Jesus inside: manna, Aaron's rod, and the Ten Commandments. In Hebrew, commandment (dabar) can be translated "word." Compare: Mary carried the fulfillment of all these types in her body. Jesus is the "true [manna] from heaven" (John 6:32), the true "High Priest" (Heb. 3:1), and "the word made flesh" (John 1:14).
2. The glory cloud (Hebrew Anan) was representative of the Holy Spirit, and it "overshadowed" the Ark when Moses consecrated it in Exodus 40:32-33. The Greek word for "overshadow" found in the , Septuagint is a form of episkiasei. Compare: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). The Greek word for "overshadow" is episkiasei.
3. David "leapt and danced" before the Ark when it was being carried into Jerusalem in procession in 2 Samuel 6:14-16. Compare: As soon as Elizabeth heard the sound of Mary's salutation, John the Baptist "leaped for joy" in her womb (see Luke 1:41-44).
4. After a manifestation of the power of God working through the ark, David exclaims, "How can the ark of the Lord come unto me?" Compare: After the revelation to Elizabeth about the true calling of Mary, who was carrying God in her womb, Elizabeth exclaims, "Why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1:43).
5. The Ark of the Lord "remained in the house of Obededom... three months" in 2 Samuel 6:11. Compare: "Mary remained with [Elizabeth] for about three months" (Luke 1:56).
It is important for us to recall that New Covenant fulfillments are always more glorious and more perfect than their Old Testament types, which are "but a shadow of the good things to come" in the New Covenant (Heb. 10:1). With this in mind, let us consider the revelation of Mary as the "New Eve." After the fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, God promised the advent of another "woman" in Genesis 3:15, or a "New Eve" who would oppose Lucifer, and whose "seed" would crush his head. This "woman" and "her seed" would reverse the curse, so to speak, that the original "man" and "woman" had brought upon humanity through their disobedience. It is most significant here to note that "Adam" and "Eve" are revealed simply as "the man" and "the woman" before the woman's name was changed to "Eve" (Hebrew, "mother of the living") after the Fall. When we then look at the New Covenant, Jesus is explicitly referred to as the "last Adam," or the "New Adam" in 1 Cor. 15:45. And Jesus himself indicates that Mary is the prophetic "woman" or "New Eve" of Genesis 3:15 when he refers to his mother as "woman" in John 2:4 and 19:26. Moreover, St. John refers to Mary as "woman" 8x in Revelation 12. As the first Eve brought death to all of her children through disobedience and heeding the words of the ancient serpent, the devil, the "New Eve" of Revelation 12 brings life and salvation to all of her children through her obedience. The same "serpent" who deceived the original woman of Genesis is revealed, in Revelation 12, to fail in his attempt to overcome this new woman. The New Eve overcomes the serpent, and as a result, "the serpent is angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God, and bear testimony to Jesus" (Rev. 12:17). If Mary is the New Eve and New Testament fulfillments are always more glorious than their Old Testament antecedents, it would be unthinkable for Mary to be conceived in sin. If she were, she would be inferior to Eve, who was created in a perfect state, free from all sin.
