December 29, 2019

After-feast of and Sunday after the Nativity of Christ

Galatians 1:11-19: St. Paul defends his ministry in his letter to the Galatians, telling them of how his former way of life was changed by a direct revelation from the Lord, and of his actions immediately afterwards.

Matthew 2:13-23: From the Gospel of Matthew we hear the fulfillment of several prophecies concerning the incarnation of our Lord.

Troparion of the Resurrection: Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad; for the Lord hath done a mighty act with his own arm. He hath trampled down death and become the First-born from the dead. He hath delivered us from the depths of hades, granting the world the Great Mercy.

Troparion of the Nativity: Thy Nativity, O Christ our God, hath given rise to the light of knowledge in the world; for they that worshiped the stars did learn therefrom to worship thee, O Sun of justice, and to know that from the east of the Highest thou didst come; O Lord, glory to thee.

Troparion of the Sunday after Nativity: Proclaim, O Joseph, to David, the grandparent of God, the amazing wonders; for thou hast seen a Virgin great with child; for with the shepherds thou didst give glory, with the Magi thou didst worship, and by the angel it was revealed to thee. Wherefore, plead thou with Christ God to save our souls.

Troparion of the Chains of St. Peter: O Holy Apostle, Peter, thou dost preside over the Apostles by the precious chains which thou didst bear. We venerate them with faith and beseech thee that by thine intercessions we be granted the great mercy.

Kontakion of Nativity: On this day the Virgin beareth the Transcendent in Essence; to the Unapproachable, the earth doth offer a small cave; Angels join in choir with shepherds in giving glory; with a star the Magi travel upon their journey; for our sakes is born a young Child, He Who existed before the ages as God.

CALENDAR

Sunday, December 29 (Sunday after the Nativity)

8:50 a.m. — Orthros

10:00 a.m. — Divine Liturgy

Monday, December 30

Father John’s Day Off

Tuesday, December 31

6:30 a.m. — Daily Orthros

6:30 p.m. — Great Vespers with Litia and Artoklasia

Wednesday, January 1 (The Circumcision of our Lord and Feast of St. Basil the Great)

6:30 p.m. — Daily Vespers

Thursday, January 2

6:30 a.m. — Daily Orthros

11:30 a.m. — Men’s Lunch

Friday, January 3

7:00 a.m. — Royal Hours

Saturday, January 4

5:45 p.m. — Ninth Hour followed by Great Vespers

Sunday, January 5 (Forefeast of Theophany)

[STRICT
FAST DAY]

8:50 a.m. — Orthros

9:00 a.m. — Christian Education

10:00 a.m. — Divine Liturgy

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

Eucharist Bread …was offered by the Schelvers for the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord last Tuesday evening and by the Morrises for the Divine Liturgy this morning.

Eucharist Bread and Coffee Hour Schedule:

Eucharist Bread Coffee Hour

December 29 Morris Pigott/Dabit/Strain/Lavric

December 31 (Tues. p.m.) Meadows (Artoklasia Bread) NO MEAL

(Feast of the Circumcision of our Lord and Feastday of St. Basil the Great)

January 5 Jones Baker/D. Root/Dansereau

January 6 (Mon. a.m.) Meadows Christina Katool

(Feast of Theophany)

January 12 Davis POT LUCK MEAL

Set-up: Katool/Davis/Algood/Baba

January 15 (Wed. p.m.) D. Root Rola Karam

(Feast of the Veneration of the Chains of St. Peter)

January 19 Karam Schelver/Karam/Pacurari

January 26 Brock Habeeb/Jones/Turner

Schedule for Epistle Readers – Page numbers refer to the Apostolos (book of the Epistles) located on the front pew. Please be sure to use this book when you read.

Reader Reading Page#

December 29 Walt Wood Gal. 1:11-19 188

January 5 Kh. Sharon Meadows II Tim. 4:5-8 354

January 6 (Mon. a.m.) Kh. Sharon Meadows Titus 2:11-14; 3:4-7 361

January 12 Mildred Morris Eph. 4:7-13 364

January 15 (Wed. p.m.) Brenda Baker Acts 12:1-11 50

January 19 Sam Habeeb Col. 3:4-11 233

January 26 Walt Wood I Tim. 4:9-15 252

Please be reminded that the Sacristy/Vestry which is adjacent to and behind the altar in our church is considered by the Orthodox Church to be part of the Sanctuary (Altar area) and should not be entered without the blessing of the priest for a specific purpose. If you need to speak with a member of the clergy while they are in the Sanctuary, please ask them to come to you in the nave.

Continue to pray for Metropolitan Paul (who is also the brother of our Patriarch) and the Syriac Archbishop John of Aleppo who were abducted while on a humanitarian mission in Syria.

Please remember Fr. Joseph and Kh. Joanna Bittle, and their daughter Abigail, in your prayers.

Please be reminded of the following:

Be very careful with the Blessed Bread when you take it after communion. Because this bread has been blessed, we should take care not to let crumbs fall on the floor. Parents, especially, please help your children to choose a small piece and treat it carefully.

Also, at the end of the liturgy, maintain a prayerful disposition during the veneration of the cross as the prayers of thanksgiving after communion are still underway. Please exchange your greetings with each other in the Fellowship Hall during Coffee Hour.

Please remember the following in your prayers: Steve, Sheryl Chamblee; Aidan Milnor, the Milnor family; Sam and Lamia Dabit; Mary Greene (Lee and Kh. Sharon’s sister); Lynda Costas; Fr. Nicholas, Kh. Jan and Angelina Speier; David Morris and his family; Vernie Meadows, Fr. James and Kh. Sharon and their family; Dn. Noah and Sh. Beth Ann (Baker) Pappas, the Reader Basil and Brenda and all of the Baker family; Chris and Rebecca Dansereau and their daughters; Fr. Leo and Kh. Be’Be’ and their family; Emad and Natalia Alaeetawi and their family.

Please continue to pray for the following members of St. Peter:

Warren Strain and their family. Warren is hospitalized in the ICU at St. Dominic’s following a stroke last Monday morning.

Nicholas Zouboukos and his family. Nickolas is recovering from pneumonia and may be undergoing surgery for a GI disorder in the future.

Aidan Milnor and his family. Aidan is hospitalized at Batson’s Children’s Hospital with influenza and possible pneumonia.

Calendar Items:

* The Men of the parish meet for lunch and fellowship on the first Thursday of the month. However, they will meet on the third Thursday in July (only).

* The Ladies of St. Peter meet at 10:00 a.m. on the second Saturday of the month to pray the Akathist to the Mother of God, Nurturer of Children.

* The Ladies of the parish meet for lunch and fellowship on the last Tuesday of the month.

* We will celebrate the Circumcision of our Lord and the Feastday of St. Basil the Great with Great Vespers with Litia and Artoklasia on Tuesday evening, December 31st, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

* The Feast of Theophany will be celebrated with Royal Hours on Friday, January 3rd, beginning at 7:00 a.m. We will have Divine Liturgy (only) on Monday morning, January 6th, beginning at 9:00 a.m.

* The annual Blessing of the Water at the Ross Barnett Reservoir will be held on the afternoon of Sunday, January 12th, beginning at 4:00 p.m. beside the Cock of the Walk restaurant. All are invited to stay for a meal together at the restaurant afterwards.

* Stewpot Dates: February 22nd and August 22nd.

Farewell and Many Years in the near future to Dorin and Carolina Lavric and their children! Dorin is being transferred to Atlanta with his job and this is the family’s last day with us. We will miss them greatly and send them away with our love and prayers and our hopes to see them again in the future. We also congratulate them on the news that an additional member to their family will be arriving in late May!

Anyone wishing to contribute to Sunnybrook Children’s Home can find information on options available on the bulletin board in the Fellowship Hall. Please let Dn. Terry know right away if you’d like to participate.

Congratulations to our own Breeze Johns for earning first team honors at the district level—in his first year playing football! And he also took home the Cougar Award!

Fasting Discipline for December/January

There is no fasting of any kind from December 25th through January 4th. January 5th is a strict fast day when the traditional fasting discipline (no meat, dairy, eggs, fish, wine or oil) is observed. Following the Feast of Theophany the traditional fasting discipline is observed on the remaining Wednesdays and Fridays of the month.

Major Commemorations for January

January 1 Circumcision of our Lord

Feast of St. Basil the Great

January 6 Feast of Theophany

January 7 Synaxis of the Forerunner

January 11 Theodosios the Head of Monasteries

January 16 Veneration of the Chains of St. Peter

January 18 Athanasios and Cyril of Alexandria

January 20 Euthymios the Great

January 25 Gregory the Theologian

January 27 John Chrysostom

January 30 The Three Hierarchs

January 31 Cyros and John the Unmercenary Healers

Unsupervised children in the Kitchen: For health and safety concerns children are not to be allowed in the kitchen unless accompanied by a parent. Please get ice for your children and do NOT allow them to use the icemaker themselves.

If severe weather is in the area please check our website or facebook page for information on services. If it is ever necessary to cancel any of our services due to severe weather conditions, this will be posted on those sites.

For Parents: Children in the nursery during Coffee Hour MUST be supervised just as they are on the playground. This room is used for Sunday School each week. Children who are unsupervised create disarray and use materials set aside for the teaching of Christian Education. This creates extra work for the Sunday School teachers who have to come in and set the room in order before class or who find supplies depleted unexpectedly. A parent must be in the room with their children at all times. Please help us with this! — Fr. John

ead of ManHead of Maonasteries

Quotable: “But [Georg] Koepgen continues:

‘God and divinity aren’t the same thing. When the mystic [the spiritual
person] speaks of God, he doesn’t mean a metaphysical divinity (ens a se), but he thinks of God in trinity, who has united in a completely incomprehensible way with men and has saved them. [If Christianity has as its
basis faith in the Holy Trinity, spirituality is a part of its very
being.] Mysticism [the life in
relationship with God, the life which has God in itself, in different degrees,
we would say], isn’t an appendix annexed later by Christianity, which is offered as a new possibility to some specially endowed souls; it belongs to the very act of faith’ [which is an act of entering into a relationship with God,
but which can be developed by the purification from the passions, we would say.]”

Dumitru Staniloae, Orthodox Spirituality

Worship: Sunday, January 5, 2020 (Forefeast of Theophany)

Scripture: II Timothy 4:5-8; Mark 1:1-8

Celebrant: Father John

Epistle Reader: Kh. Sharon Meadows

Prosphora: Jones

Coffee Hour: Baker/D. Root/Dansereau