WEEK 1
Saturday 14th [1st] of September, 2002
The Induction of the Ecclesiastical New Year
Readings: First Epistle of the Apostle Paul to Timothy 2:1-7; Saint Luke 4:16-22
Sunday 15th [2nd] of September 2002
12th Week after Pentecost, 3rd Tone
Readings: First Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians 15:1-11, Saint Matthew 19:16-26
Shabbat 8 Tishri 5763
SHABBAT "HA'AZINU" [Hearken our prayers] and SHABBAT "SHUVAH" [Return to God]
Readings: Torah [Five Books of Moses]: The Book of Deuteronomy 32:1 - 34:52
Haftarah [Prophetic Books] for Ashkenazim [European Jews] and Sfaradim [Spanish Jews]:
The Second Book of the Prophet Samuel 22:1-51
Haftarah [Prophetic Books] for Yeminite Jews: The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel 17:22 - 18:32
Sunday [Yom Rishon, Day A] 9 Tishri 5763
Day of Atonement - Yom HaKippurim
The Holy Fast begins on Sunday at 6:09 p.m. [Jerusalem] and ends on Monday at 6:23 p.m. [Jerusalem]
No eating, no wearing of leather shoes, no marital sexual intercourse, no special care of the body, no anointing with oils or perfumes, no washing with pleasure.
Readings: The book of the Prophet Yonah
INTRODUCTION
THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER USUALLY CORRESPONDS TO THE NEW YEAR MONTH OF TISHRI in the Jewish calendar and therefore both the Orthodox Church and the Community of Israel celebrate the period of a new time in our lives. This aspect is rarely known to both communities but is based on a common liturgical origin.
The Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, as well as some other Churches throughout the world, continues to use the ancient Old Styhle calendar, the Julian calendar. This is why September 1st corresponds to September 14th of the civil Gregorian calendar adopted by most countries as a conventional, practical and universal calendar. Anyway, the delay of 13 more days added to the civil calendar does not change anything about the fact that the month of September begins with the Ecclesiastical or Liturgical New Year, followed one week later by the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and on September 15/28 by the Exaltation of the Holy and Life-Giving Cross, which is a major Feast in Jerusalem and the Holy Land.
# THIS SHOWS THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SPECIAL TIME OF RENEWAL. THE CHURCH SWITCHES FROM A CERTAIN PERIOD OF PAST 12 MONTHS TO A NEW PORTION OF LIFE TO BE ACCEPTED IN THE FACE OF GOD AND HIS SON. THIS MOVE IS ONLY POSSIBLE BECAUSE OF THE PERMANENT ASSISTANCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
All these Feasts show the importance of times and delays in our own destinies. We are not slaves of any kind of fate or routine wheel of time. The Orthodox Christian believers know that their days, weeks, months and years lead them towards a target in order to achieve something. The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary recalls for us that she bore the Saviour, Our Lord Jesus Chist, at the fulfillment of time [Galatians 4:4]: "When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, submitted to the [Jewish] Law that we might receive the adoption of sons".
# THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY IS THE IMAGE OF THE CHURCH. THEREFORE BISHOPS HAVE A "PANAGIA' ["All-Saints" in Greek], A SPECIAL ICON OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD, WHICH IS ESPECIALLY PRESENT IN THE HEART OF THE FAITHFUL LIVING IN JERUSALEM. MARY, MOTHER OF SION, ENCOMPASSES THE WHOLE CHURCH AS MEMBERS AND LIMBS OF HER SON, JESUS CHRIST.
The feast of the Exaltation of the Holy and Life-giving Cross recalls the exhibition of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem by Saint Helena who found It at the Holy Sepulchre, truly named "Anastasis" [Place of the Resurrection] whose altar was consecrated in 335.
# A TRUE CHRISTIAN ORTHODOX DOES BELIEVE THAT JESUS DIED ON THE CROSS, THE TREE OF LIFE, AND WAS RESURRECTED, ROSE FROM THE DEAD. THE CROSS IS NOT A SIGN OF PUNISHMENT OR OF DESPAIR. IT OPENS THE GATES OF LIFE AND LEADS TO THE REIGN OF GOD.
THE COMMUNITY OF ISRAEL CELEBRATES ON TISHRI 1ST the autumnal New Year and a liturgical New Year starts on that day. It should be noted that this date usually corresponds to the civil month of September or the beginning of October.
The first of Tishri is Rosh HaShanah, Head of the Year ["capo d'anno" in Italian]. It is also known as the Yom HaZikaron or "Day of Rememberance, Memorial Day". Nobody dies. In fact, it is not connected with any feeling of death. "Zikaron" is a dynamic process of Memory in which the past projects into the future. We are called not to remember past things, but to understand how God renews our live like taking into consideration our personal and collective destiny. Paradoxically, "memory" in Hebrew implies to look forward into the future and this is one of the meanings of the "memorial of the Lord" or Eurharist that we receive from old to new throughout the dynamics of life.
# WE NEVER ENTER THE SAME PORTIN OF LIFE. FUTURE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE PAST AND THE PAST SHOWS THE ACTIONS OF GOD AND OF HUMAN BEINGS IN ORDER TO PAVE THE WAY TO WHAT WILL HAPPEN. THIS PROPHETIC ASPECT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THE COMMON HERITAGE OF THE JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN FAITHS.
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