|
|
|---|
| Home |
This week's bulletin:Fourth Sunday of LentSt. John Climacus March 14, 2010 Tone 7 Epistle: Hebrews 6:13-20 Gospel: Mark 9:17-31 Today’s Schedule 2:00AM Daylight Savings Time: Clocks “spring ahead” 9:00AM Hours: Sini Abraham Greeters: 9:30AM Divine Liturgy of St. Basil Epistle: Ryan Sima Chapel Cleaners: Communion Aides: Treas. Aides: Bruce Garber 10:45AM Church School 11:00AM Youth Group 11:20AM Fellowship Hour: Group 2 7:00PM Lenten Vespers 7:40PM Confession Today’s Hymns Resurrection Hymn [Tone 7]: By Thy Cross, Thou didst destroy death! To the thief, Thou didst open Paradise! For the myrrhbearers, Thou didst change weeping into joy! And Thou didst command the disciples, O Christ God, to proclaim that Thou art risen, granting the world great mercy! Hymn of St. John [Tone 1]: O Dweller of the wilderness and angel in the body! You were a wonderworker, O our God-bearing Father John! You received heavenly gifts through fasting, vigil and prayer, healing the sick and the souls of those drawn to you by faith. Glory to Him who gave you strength! Glory to Him who granted you a crown! Glory to Him who grants healing to all! Hymn of SS Peter and Paul: (Tone 4) O First-Enthroned of the Apostles! Teachers of the Universe! Entreat the Master of all, to grant peace to the world and great mercy to our souls! Hymn of St. John [Tone 4]: The Lord truly set you on the heights of abstinence, to be a guiding star, showing the way to the universe, O our Father and Teacher John! Resurrection Hymn [Tone 7]: The dominion of death can no longer hold men captive, for Christ descended, shattering and destroying its powers! Hell is bound, while the prophets rejoice and cry: The Savior has come to those in faith! Enter, you faithful, into the Resurrection! Prokeimenon [Tone 7]: Let the saints be exalted in glory; they will rejoice on their couches EPISTLE: Brothers and Sisters... (Hebrews 6:13-20) When God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, "Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you." And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. GOSPEL: (Mark 9:17-31) And one of the crowd answered him, "Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit; and wherever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able." And he answered them, "O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me." And they brought the boy to him; and when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, "How long has he had this?" And he said, "From childhood. And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us." And Jesus said to him, "If you can! All things are possible to him who believes." Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!" And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You dumb and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again." And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse; so that most of them said, "He is dead." But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" And he said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer." They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he would not have any one know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he will rise." CONFESSING OUR SINS When you are sick, you feel weak and feeble, and your face is pale; you are incapable of performing your normal tasks, and people remark how ill you appear. So you go to the doctor. What do you want from him? You say you want some medicine to cure your sickness. But if the cause of your sickness was cured, and you remained feeble and pale, would you be satisfied? Of course not. The truth is, a person goes to the doctor for relief of symptoms of disease, not disease itself. The doctor, on the other hand, knows that the symptoms cannot be relieved unless their cause is overcome. Similarly, when we declare ourselves to be disciples of Christ, we claim that we want him to cure our spiritual and moral disease. Yet in truth we want him to relieve the symptoms, such as misery, discontent, despair, and so on. Jesus, by contrast, knows that he cannot relieve these symptoms unless he overcomes their deep, inner cause. And this is where the problems arise. While we would like to be rid of the symptoms, we stubbornly resist the efforts of Jesus to penetrate our souls. We do not want our deep-set feelings and attitudes to be changed. But only when we truly open our souls to the transforming grace of God will the symptoms of spiritual disease begin to disappear. (St. John Chrysostom ON LIVING SIMPLY) CHARITY Christ’s command that we do to others as we would that they do to us is so natural and so clearly good that it is a wonder and a shame that it has not long ago become a daily habit among men. No man desires that others do him evil: let him therefore do no evil to others. Every man desires that others do good to him: let him therefore do good to others. Every man desires to be forgiven when he sins: let him therefore forgive the sins of others. Every man desires that others be sad in his sadness and rejoice in his rejoicing: let him then be sad in the sadness of others and rejoice in their rejoicing. Every man desires that others speak good of him and give him honour, feed him in hunger, visit him in sickness and protect him in persecution: let him do the same to others. (Bishop Nikolai Velimirovi?) A HIGH PRIEST FOREVER ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK “The Lord has sworn, and he will not change his mind. ‘You are a priest forever in the line of Melchizedek’. Do you see how once again he brings his speech down to a more concrete level, discoursing in one place of his divinity and in another of his humanity? This is what the evangelists also do so as to preserve the precision of the doctrines on both scores. What was the reason for his saying in the line of Melchizedek? With the eucharist in mind, because he too offered bread and wine to Abraham, and because of the independence of this priesthood of the Law and its being without end and without beginning, as Paul too says. You see, what that priest had in shadow was realized in reality in the case of Jesus; and as the names, like ‘Jesus’ and ‘Christ,’ had preceded him, so too this Melchizedek seems to have had no beginning to his days nor end to his life, not because he did not have them but because he had no genealogy. Jesus, on the other hand, had no beginning to his days nor end to his life, not in that fashion but because there was absolutely no chronological beginning in his case, nor any end. One case was shadow, you see, the other reality.” (St. John Chrysostom Commentary on the Psalms ) GOD GRANT THEM MANY YEARS Birthday: Tatiana Fenner, Ellie Cross, Teresa Cvetkov, Tomas Gresh, Stefanie Wagner, Rebekah Russ, Brian Garber Name’s Day: Dot Federinko SCHEDULE DISRUPTION The painters are planning to finish painting the entrance hallway this week, and so all day time activities are being cancelled Monday-Thursday. Evening events will go ahead as scheduled. THE FEAST OF ANNUNCIATION Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church of Dayton has extended an invitation to all of us to join them in celebrating their Patronal Feast on March 24 and 25. Great Vespers for the Feast will begin on Wednesday, March 24 at 7pm. On Thursday, March 25, Matins begins at 8:30am with the Divine Liturgy beginning at 9:30am. COUNCIL MEETING this Monday, March 15 immediately following the 7pm Vespers. CHOIR REHEARSAL If you are planning on singing in the choir at Pascha please attend the mandatory choir rehearsals following Fellowship Hour. Please see Chip Pritchard with any questions. CONFESSION As we approach Great Lent, we know it is a season of repentance. Fr. Ted is available for confession at the times listed in the bulletin and also by appointment. Now is the time for salvation, eagerly seek Christ’s forgiveness. MARCH CHARITY We are giving our support this month to a young Orthodox mom who is in need of financial help due to some hard times. Please do remember to pray for single parents and for their children as well as the children who are going through their parents’ divorce. Pray that God will give them wisdom and love to navigate the sometimes treacherous currents of family dysfunction and dissolution. PARKING LOT EXPANSION The Township Zoning Board did approve our petition to expand our parking lot with the proviso that we do one more engineering study to assure our neighbors that we won't be contributing to any flooding problems. We are hoping to have the overflow parking available in April. ICON PROJECT Icon Project Fund Raiser: a reminder to all who pledged toward this project - we do need you to fulfill your pledges so that we can meet our financial obligations with the iconographer. Also, to everyone - if you weren't part of the initial Icon Project Fund raiser, you can still contribute to the project. We still can use some additional funds to cover the costs of the project and perhaps to prepare for additional lighting we may want to do in the nave of the church once the icons are installed. If you would like to contribute to the Icon Project or the future lighting of the nave, please speak with Fr. Ted or Jeff Wiese. Opportunities Remain on 2010 OCMC Mission Teams Opportunities still exist to serve on an OCMC Orthodox Mission Team in 2010. Volunteers for teams traveling to South Africa, India, Madagascar, Romania and Alaska are needed. The team to Romania will offer a youth camp, while the other teams will focus on teaching and catechism. Please prayerfully consider offering a living witness to Jesus Christ by serving on one of these teams. Clergy are especially needed. Contact Andrew Lekos by phone at 1-877-463-6784, or by e-mail at teams@ocmc.org for more information. You can learn about all of OCMC's 2010 mission teams or apply online at http://teams.ocmc.org. FR. TED’S BLOG God Questions His Creation: Genesis 4:19-24 (b) The ongoing series of reflections on Genesis 4-11. If you want the entire set of reflections on Genesis 4 you can find it at: God Question His Creation Genesis 4 as one PDF Document Thus Says the Lord: The Fast I Choose is to Share Bread with the Hungry The Prophet Isaiah conveys to us what God expects from us during fasting (Isaiah 58) Matins Texts of the Expulsion of Adam & Eve (4) Fr. Ted’s other ongoing blog series for this Lent This Week’s Schedule FAST: GREAT LENT Monday, March 15 Hieromartyr Alexander of Side (270-275) Isaiah 37:33-38:6 Genesis 13:12-18 Proverbs 14:27-15:4 6:00PM Confession 7:00PM Lenten Vespers 8:00PM Parish Council Meeting Tuesday, March 16 Apostle Aristobolus of the 70 (1st C) Isaiah 40:18-32 Genesis 15:1-15 Proverbs 15:7-19 7:00PM Cathecism and Inquirer’s Class Wednesday, March 17 Ven. Aleksy the Man of God (411) Isaiah 41:4-14 Genesis 17:1-9 Proverbs 15:20-6:9 6:00PM Confession 6:30PM Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts 8:00PM Confession 8:00PM Lenten Potluck Thursday, March 18 Martyrs Trophimus and Eucarpus (ca. 300) Isaiah 42:5-16 Genesis 18:20-33 Proverbs 16:17-17:17 6:00PM Confession 7:00PM The Canon of Repentance of St. Andrew 8:00PM Confession Friday, March 19 Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria (283) Isaiah 45:11-17 Genesis 22:1-18 Proverbs 17:17-18:5 8:30AM Matins 9:00AM Confession 9:30AM Office Hours Saturday, March 20 Holy Martyrs of St. Sabas Monastery Hebrews 9:24-28 Mark 8:27-31 6:00PM Confession 7:00PM Vespers 7:40PM Confession Sunday, March 21 St. Mary of Egypt Hebrews 9:11-14 Mark 10:32-45 9:00AM Hours: Brad Miter Greeters: 9:30AM Divine Liturgy of St. Basil Prosfora: Michelle Scott Epistle: Mark Pearson Chapel Cleaners: Communion Aides: Treas. Aides: 10:45AM Church School 11:00AMYouth Group 11:10AM Church School Confessions 11:20AM Fellowship Hour: Team 3 7:00PM Vespers 7:40PM Confession |
| Home -
Bulletin -
About Orthodoxy -
Pictures -
Calendar
Fr. Ted's Blog - Ministries - Youth - Directions - Links Submissions, questions, and comments on this web site can be sent to: stpaulwebmaster@gmail.com | |
|---|---|