St. Basil of Ostrog Serbian Orthodox Church

UPCOMING EVENTS,
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Blessings are Gifts
FROM God.
Stewardship is our
Gift TO God. WE
CANNOT OUTGIVE GOD!
Stewardship is a legacy of personal support to maintain a
church for today and tomorrow.
STEWARDSHIP FORMS
FOR 2015 ARE AVAILABLE
**********************************
WALK THE WALK FOR IOCC
Saturday, October 3, 2015
St. Andrew Greek Orthodox Church
5649 N. Sheridan Rd,
Chicago, IL.
Registration: 8:00 AM
Walk/Run Begins: 9:00 AM
Breakfast: following the race
Register at: iocc.org/chicago
Adult $20.00; Children 12 and
under: $10.00
Day of Race: $25.00
SERBIAN ORTHODOX UNITY AND SPIRITUAL GROWTH
IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM
TROPARION OF THE RESURRECTION - Tone 7:
Thou didst destroy death by Thy Cross, Thou didst open Paradise to the thief.
Thou didst change the lamentation of the Myrrh-bearers, and Thou didst
command Thine Apostles to proclaim that Thou didst arise, O Christ God,
and grandest to the world great mercy
TROPARION OF THE FORE-FEAST - Tone 4:
Mary, the divine Maiden, is born unto us today from the root of Jesse and the
loins of David; and all things rejoice and are made new through joy. Rejoice
together, O heaven and earth! Praise her, ye lands of the nations! Joachim
maketh glad, and Anna holdeth festival, crying aloud: A barren woman giveth
birth to the Theotokos, the Nourisher of our Life!
TROPARION OF ST. BASIL OF OSTROG - Tone 4:
From your youth you gave yourself entirely to the Lord, remaining in prayer, labor
and fasting, O God-bearing Father. Because you were an example of virtues and
good works to your flock, seeing your good work, God established you as a pastor
and good hierarch of His Church. And after your repose, He kept your body incorrupt, O Holy Basil. Therefore, with boldness pray to Christ God to save our souls.
TROPARION OF MARTYR SOZON - Tone 4:
In his suffering, O Lord, Thy martyr Sozon received an imperishable crown
from Thee, our God; for, possessed of Thy might, he cast down the tormentors
and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. By the supplications save
Thou our souls.
Kontakion of the Resurrection - Tone 7:
No longer will the dominion of death be able to keep men captive; for Christ
hath descended, demolishing and destroying the powers thereof. Hades is
bound; the Prophets rejoice with one voice, saying: A Savior hath come
for them that have faith. Come forth, ye faithful, for the Resurrection.
Kontakion of St. Basil of Ostrog - Tone 8:
Even as a youth, you served the Lord, O Wise one, belaboring your body with
prayer and vigil. Because you were shown to be a precious vessel of the Holy
Spirit, He established you as a pastor of His Church which you tended well.
And as such, you departed to the Lord whom you loved. We pray to you to
remember us who keep your memory with faith, that all may shout unto you:
Rejoice, O most honorable Basil.
GLORY… Kontakion of Martyr Sozon - Tone 2:
Assembling today, with a loud voice let us praise Sozon, the true and divinely
wise martyr, the skilled athlete of piety, the initiate of the mysteries of grace,
the most generous bestower of healings: for he entreateth Christ God in behalf
of us all..
BOTH… Kontakion of the Fore-feast - Tone 3:
Today Mary, the Virgin and Theotokos, the boundless chamber of the heavenly
Bridegroom, is born! From a barren woman, by the counsel of God, the chariot
of the Word is rightly adorned; for she was foretold as the divine portal and
Mother of life.
St. Basil of Ostrog Serbian Orthodox Church
27450 N. Bradley Rd . Mettawa – Lake Forest , Illinois 60045 –5104
Email: (office@stbasilchurch.org) www.stbasilchurch.org
Parish Priest: V. Rev. Stavrophor Djuro Krosnjar - frkrosnjar@gmail.com (847) 477-1531 cell
Trustee Chairman (President): Michael Kosanovich
Circle of Serbian Sisters: Richelle Ar andjelovic
Choir Director: Nada Savatic
Coordinators: Church School: Vasilija Vojcanin; Folklore: Slobodanka Vr anjes
St. Varnava Men’s Club: Vladimir Rokvic; Bookstore: Diana Potkonjak and Paul Saniuk
Facilities Contact: Matija Peyakovic and Nikola Gabr ic; Weekly Email: Zor an Mihajlovic
Serbian School: Jelena Visnjevac, Svjetlana Masic and Dunja Vla
St. Basil of Ostrog
Serbian Orthodox Church
27450 N. Bradley Rd, Mettawa - Lake Forest, IL. 60045-5104
V. Rev. Stavrophor Djuro Krosnjar - Home (847) 680-1117 Cell (847) 477-1531 H. Fax (847) 680-1127
frkrosnjar@gmail.com - Church Phone (847) 247-0077 - Church FX (847) 247-0088
16th Sunday after Pentecost
EYE ON SCRIPTURE
Holy martyr Sozon;
(Sunday before Exaltation)
We then, as workers together
with Him also plead with you
not to receive the grace of God
in vain. For He says: In an acceptable time I have hear you,
and in the day of salvation I
have helped you. Behold, now
is the accepted time; behold,
now is the day of salvation.
We give no offence in anything,
that our ministry may not be
blamed, but in all things we
commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience,
in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in fasting; by purity, by
knowledge, longsuffering..
2 Cor. (6, 6-10)
(Fore-feast of the Nativity of Theotokos)
Tone 7:
Epistle:
2 Cor. (6, 1–10)
Gospel:
Mt. (25, 14-30)
Saturday and Pre-Feast
Vespers 5:00 P.M.
~Next Sunday~
Divine Liturgy at 10:00 A.M.
STS. JOACHIM AND ANNA
Sts. Joachim and Anna took Mary, at the age of three, to the temple to be dedicated to the service of the Lord, and presented her to the priest Zechariahs. The
parents then, after offering up her sacrifice, left the Virgin with other maidens
in the apartments of the temple to be brought up therein.
St. Joachim was of the tribe of Judah, and a descendent of King David. St.
Anna was the daughter of Matthan the priest, of the tribe of Levi as was Aaron
the High Priest. Matthan had three daughters: Mary, Zoia and Anna. Mary was
married in Bethlehem and bore Salome; Zoia was also married in Bethlehem and bore Elizabeth, the mother of St. John the Forerunner; and Anna was married in Nazareth to Joachim, and
in old age gave birth to the Theotokos.
Sts. Joachim and Anna had been married for fifty years, and were barren. They lived devoutly
and quietly, using only a third of their income for themselves and giving a third to the poor and
a third to the Temple. Joachim had done this since he was 15-years-old, and God multiplied his
flocks, so the couple was well provided for. They longed for a child but remained childless into
their old age. When they were in Jerusalem to offer sacrifice to God, the High Priest, Issachar,
upbraided Joachim, “You are not worthy to offer sacrifice with those childless hands.” Others
who had children jostled Joachim, thrusting him back as unworthy. In despair, he consulted the
genealogical records of the tribes of Israel and discovered every righteous man in the nation had
been blessed with children, except him. This caused the aged saint great grief, and he and his
wife left with heavy hearts. Then the two of them gave themselves to prayer to God that He
would work in them the wonder that He had worked in Abraham and Sarah, and give them a
child to comfort their old age.
St. Joachim took his flock and went to a high mountain, refusing to return home in shame.
Meanwhile, St. Anna prayed in her garden. God sent the Archangel Gabriel to each of them,
who gave them tidings of the birth of “a daughter most blessed, by whom all the nations of the
earth will be blessed, and through whom will come the salvation of the world.” Each promised
to have their child raised in the temple as a holy vessel of God. The archangel told St. Joachim
to return home, where he would find his wife waiting for him in the city gate. St. Anna was told
to wait at the gate. When they was one another, they embraced, and this image is the traditional
icon of their feast. St. Anna conceived shortly thereafter and gave birth to the Blessed Virgin.
ST. BASIL OF OSTROG SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
Orthodox Study Bible
Here is an authentic apostle! His life demonstrates
the paradox of God’s
strength of God’s strength
working in human weakness, of renouncing the
world in order to master
it.
The day of salvation is
now, always the present
moment in the period before Christ’s return.
This passage is read
on days commemorating female martyrs...
www.serbiancathedral.org
ST. BASIL OF OSTROG SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
Nativity of Theotokos
On this coming Monday, September 21th, we celebrate the
feast of the Nativity of the
Theotokos. This feast is the
joy of the barren. This is the
feast of the husband and wife.
We see the icon of a faithful
husband and wife living together in that holy union of
matrimony. These two faithful servants of the most-high
God were ridiculed by the
Jewish people because in that
culture to be a barren couple
is a terrible curse. It was frequently said that if a family
were childless it was because
of their sinfulness and that the
barrenness was a punishment
for sin. Children were the way
that the family was remembered to God; it was by their
children, as was the tradition
and is also our Orthodox tradition, that God remembers us
and we have life even though
we may be dead. Therefore if
families could not bear children the family would die, for
the husband and wife would
have no one to remember
them. The beloved forebears
of God were scorned by their
own people even though they
were one of the most pious
couples in all Israel. As a result, they lived a life of trial
and persecution.
Our apocryphal tradition
says that an angel appeared to
Anna and announced that she
would conceive and bear a
daughter who would be na-
tainly were not expecting to
med Mary. Anna, of course,
have a child at their age. They
received the word and told her
husband, after which they came were very old, certainly past
the age of bearing children.
together and did bear a child,
They were not expecting a
the Ever-virgin Mary. Again
child in return for their faiththe barren gives birth in order
fulness. And what happens?
to bring about the salvation of
A miracle! These two elderly
the fallen human race! It is
Jews come together and Anna
the barren that are the portals
is found to be pregnant.
through which God's salvation
We cannot out-give God. We
history is wrought.
can try and try, but God will
When we offer our faithfulness because we hope to recei- always out-give us. Joachim
and Anna gave out of their
ve something in return, this is
love for God, with the intent to
not a real offering, this is not a
just give and simply because
real sacrifice. Sacrifices are
God was their beloved. Then
consumed by fire on the altar
God gives back, and gives in
of God, and nothing is given
such a way that it makes their
back. Sts. Joachim and Anna
years of sacrifice look feeble.
made their offerings and lived
They conceive the
faithfully before
EverGod withVirout
Sts. Joachim and Anna made their offer-
ings and lived faithfully before God without any idea of a "deal", of hoping to get
something in return from God. When our
hearts are in this state of giving, the Lord
will bless us, but we must not base our
faith and sacrifice on returns.
any
idea of a
"deal", of hoping
to get something in return from
God. When our hearts are in
this state of giving, the Lord
will bless us, but we must not
base our faith and sacrifice on
returns.
We see this same principle
in Genesis, when Abraham is
told to sacrifice his only son.
Abraham would have done it if
God did not stop him. We see
God proving the faith of the
patriarch and then stops him
from killing his son. Our sacrifice is simply the pouring out
of our love for God, without
the desire to get something
back, just as Abraham and as
Saints Joachim and Anna.
We may ask, how did Joachim
and Anna make this sacrifice?
They were faithful at the temple
and bore their cross of barrenness. They offered their lives as
faithful Jews, without any expectation of return. They cer-
gin
Mary.
They bear the
greatest gift of God to mankind - the "New Eve".
What then occurs? Joachim
and Anna attempt to out-give
God again, and give up their
only child, this pure girl, to
God, to live in the temple. We
then need to ask, "How did
God out-give Joachim and
Anna in this?" We no longer
hear of any great blessing received, although we can be
sure that they received their
blessings. But what was the
blessing that was greater than
giving up their only child, the
Virgin Mary? The gift did not
come until a number of years
later, when the Archangel
Gabriel came to the Virgin
Mary and announced the
coming of Jesus Christ in the
flesh. The gift which God
gave was His only Son, Jesus
Christ, the fulfillment of all
sacrifice and love.
This contest of sorts, is not
about receiving greater and
greater gifts, by trading our
blood in for money; God is not
operating a blood drive. No.
This contest is about love. We
give to God because we love
Him and God gives to us because He loves us.
When we see Joachim and
Anna in their marriage, and
then bearing the struggles of
life together, offering their love
to God together, and receiving
their blessing together, let us
strive for this same spirit of
unity. In the respective communities in which we live, be it in
our family, our church community, or in our monastic communities, we need to live in this
fashion, in this deep unity of
spirit. We must give our offerings in this unified spirit of
love for God. We must give to
God in unity and love for love's
sake. Let us not desire a return
for our sacrifice, but love God
alone. If God blesses us and
gives back doubly, let us rejoice and give thanks, in that
same unity and love. It is in
this spirit that God worked His
divine economy in bringing
forth the Mother of God. Truly
we will be blessed if we have
this spirit, by our Lady, and by
our good God.
As we receive the portal of
God's incarnation on the feast
of Her nativity, let us offer our
love and gifts to Her who gave
birth to love - Jesus Christ the greatest gift to creation.
Let us give God glory and
thanksgiving for counting us
worthy to receive His most
pure Mother on the day of her
Nativity, and also give back our
very lives to Him. What more
can we give if not the very existence, the very life, which we
have been blessed to receive?
The Lord says, He who loses
his life for My sake will find it
(Matt 10:39), that is - Life.
Therefore let us offer our very lives to God as our gifts to
Him, for this is the greatest gift
we can offer.
Chicago Synergy
STEWARDSHIP
Sep. 26 10AM-5PM
RETREAT
‘Igniting Stewardship’
On
HRSOC on RedSunday,
wood Drive
October
4th,
Altar Boy
2015
Workshop
St. Basil of Ostrog
Church will host our
Stewardship and
Ministry Sunday
event - an opportunity
to learn about and
volunteer for the
many ministries we
support.
SUNDAY
LUNCHES
With our Chef Jelica
Available weekly for
food and fellowship.
Sun, Oct. 4
Noon—2PM
Sept. 27
High School Church
School Class
Leadership and Team
Building Training
Improvе Theater
735 No Milwaukee,
Libertyville
10AM
Join us following
Divine Liturgy
Adults $7.00
Children $4.00
Dear Stewards and Parishioners,
Another record year. This year gross income was over $111.000.00, with NET profit of
$54.000.00. None of this would be possible without your dedication, financial expertise
and integrity, and "can do" spirit and will. We had a record amount volunteers and workers, our largest number to date, and many new faces worked for the first time. We received a record amount of press coverage this year, often saying how well organized everything was, what good service we provide, and what a welcoming church we are, how
smoothly “Taste” runs and the exceptional quality of the food. St. Basil is a showcase of
hospitality, an example of the best parts of Serbian culture for our American neighbors,
and the best place to bring families. Thank you to all our guests and friends who helped..
Fr. Djuro Krosnjar
with Church Board and
“Taste of Serbia” committee
Dates to Remember:
September 20 - First day of Sunday School classes.
September 20 - College-bound students meeting after
liturgy
September 25 - Adult education at 6:00 pm. Instrumental music at 6:00pm
September 26 - Chicago Synergy– Igniting Stewardship 10:00am—5:00 pm.
September 27 - High School Leadership Training. CROSS DAY (Strict Fast)
October 3 - IOCC Walk/Run at 9:00am at St. Andrew Greek Church in Chicago.
October 4 - Sunday; Altar Boys wor kshop 12:00pm - 2:00pm.
Gift cards area available for purchase every Sunday for hundreds of your favorite stores, restaurants,
coffee places, etc. Special orders available as well. Dawn Pakaski orders cards weekly if necessary.
Cards are sold sometimes in the narthex or hall following liturgy. Thanks for your support.
Lord, visit
Thy servants
in their
suffering,
and grant
them grace
and strength to bear their
sickness with which they
are afflicted; heal and save
them:
Sister ANGELINA;
Milica BILBIJA;
Milorad BLAGOJEVIC;
Zivota BLAZIC;
Stevan BOGOJEVIC;
Aleksandar BURMEISTER;
Milica CASTALDO;
Petar COKIC;
Milan DAVORIJA;
Danilo DEJANOVICH;
Dusan DRONDIC;
Svetomir DUPOR;
Ivan GAVRILOVIC;
Roxanne GETZ;
Aleksandar GLISOVIC;
Daniela GOMEZ;
Philip KEJZAR
Dobrila KNEZEVIC;
Jadranka KOPAC;
Branko KOSANOVIC;
George KOVAC;
Ivan/Lesia KOSTIC;
Mara KOVACEVIC;
Ray/Laura KULMALA;
Cathy LALICH;
Milica MIHAJLOVIC;
Slavojka MILESIC;
Milka/Milan MILICEVIC;
Ron MITROVICH;
Dragica MRKALJ;
Suzana NEDIC;
Boro NEDINIC:
Marija NIKOLICH;
Daliborka OPACIC;
Djuro/Jelena OPSENICA;
Mladen PECANAC;
Natalija PETROVIC:
Aleksandra RALEVICH;
Jessica SELOUNTOS;
George SINNOKRAK;
Bessie STEVANOVIC;
Nikola SREJOVIC;
Simonida STIPANOVIC;
Nikola STOKOVIC;
Zika SUBARIC;
Angie/Aco TERZIC;
Fr. Rastko TRBUHOVIC
Jovan VOJCANIN;
Milenko VUCKOVIC;
Petar ZIVANOVIC;