March 24, 2024

First Sunday of Great Lent

Sunday of Orthodoxy

On the first Sunday of Great Lent, we celebrate the feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy. This is an historical feast commemorating the restoration of the icons, which had been banned for several decades, to their rightful liturgical use in the year 843 A.D.

The major emphasis of this feast is the victory of the true faith, the victory which always ultimately triumphs. Having completed the first week of our lenten efforts, we are reminded that Christ, the perfect image of God the Father, calls us to personal victory by restoring within ourselves “the image and likeness of God” in which we were first created (Genesis 1:26).

The icons of Our Lord, the Theotokos, and all the saints are images of true humanity, signs of what our eternal calling and vocation really is. They tell us that we are all called to be living icons and imitators of Christ, bearing the likeness of God as gracious vessels of the Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 11:24-26, 32-40: Brethren, by faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to share ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he looked to the recompense of reward. And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Sampson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and all the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, and turned to flight armies of the aliens. Women received their dead by resurrection, and others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a witness through their faith, did not receive the promise, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

John 1:43-51: At that time, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. And He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael, and said to him, “We have found Him of Whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” Nathanael said to Jesus, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God! Thou art the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these.” And Jesus said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”

Troparion of the Resurrection: The stone being sealed by the Jews, and thy pure body being guarded by the soldiers, thou didst arise on the third day, O Saviour, granting life to the world. Wherefore, the heavenly powers acclaimed thee, O Giver of life, crying, Glory to thy Resurrection, O Christ! Glory to thy kingdom! Glory to thy gracious providence, O only Lover of mankind.

Troparion of the Sunday of Orthodoxy: Thy pure image do we venerate, O good One, asking forgiveness of our sins, O Christ our God; for by thine own will thou didst ascend the Cross in thy body, to save thy creatures from the bondage of the enemy. Thou hast truly filled all with joy, since thou didst come, O our Saviour, to save the world.

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 the Sundays of Lent: To thee the champion leader, I thy servant offer thanks for victory, O Theotokos, thou who hast delivered me form terror. As thou hast power invincible, free me from every danger that I may cry unto thee: Rejoice, O bride without bridegroom.

CALENDAR

UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE: All services listed on the calendar will be available through streaming and webcast. (Instructions can be found on the parish website.)

Sunday, March 24 (Sunday of Orthodoxy; First Sunday of Great Lent)

8:50 a.m. – Orthros (webcast)

9:00 a.m. – Christian Education

10:00 a.m. – Divine Liturgy (webcast)

(The Procession of the Icons will be done during the Divine Liturgy)

6:00 p.m. – Great Vespers with Litia and Artoklasia for the Feast of Annunciation

At Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church in Clinton

Monday, March 25 (Feast of the Annunciation)

THE SCRIPTURE (Luke 1:26-38): The Angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee (the northernmost district of Palestine) named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house (family) of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Rejoice, you who are full of grace, the Lord is with you! Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold you shall conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father (ancestor) David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob (the father of all the tribes of Israel) for ever; and of His kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the Angel, “How can this be, since I have no husband?” And the Angel said to her, “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.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid (servant) of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the Angel departed from her.

THE SIGNIFICANCE: This feast commemorates the day when the Archangel Gabriel announced to a young virgin named Mary that she, among all women, had found favor with the Father. She was invited to cooperate with Him for the Incarnation of His pre-eternal Son through the operation of the Holy Spirit. This, “the beginning of our salvation,” was conditioned not only by God’s will and His election of Mary, but also by Mary’s own “YES” to do God’s will – “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

Father Herman off

9:00 a.m. – Divine Liturgy (only) (webcast)

Tuesday, March 26 (Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel)

NO Services

Wednesday, March 27

6:30 p.m. – Presanctified Liturgy followed by Soup Supper

Thursday, March 28

NO Services

Friday, March 29

6:30 p.m. – Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos

Saturday, March 30

11:30 a.m. – Serving at Stewpot

4:30 p.m. – Choir Practice

6:00 p.m. – Great Vespers

Sunday, March 31 (Second Sunday of Great Lent; Gregory Palamas)

8:50 a.m. – Orthros

9:00 a.m. – Christian Education

10:00 a.m. – Divine Liturgy (webcast)

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Eucharist Bread …was offered by Brocks for the Divine Liturgy this morning.

March is Ladies Month in our Archdiocese. Please allow the Ladies to receive Holy Communion first. This month ladies will also be reading the Epistle during the Divine Liturgy.

Eucharist Bread Schedule:

Eucharist Bread Coffee Hour

March 24 Brock Algood/Schelver/I. Jones

March 25 (Mon. a.m.) R. Root Lasseter/Miller

(Feast of the Annunciation)

March 31 Pacurari D. Root/Baker

April 7 Lasseter Dansereau/Alaeetawi

April 14 Baker Lockhart/Karam/Snell

April 21 Henderson Henderson/K. Jones/Lavric

April 27 (Sat. a.m.) Algood Ellis/Zouboukos/Waites

(Lazarus Saturday)

April 28 Schelver FISH FRY MEAL

(Palm Sunday) Meadows/Pacurari

Also, please remember that we still need your tithes and offerings which may be placed in the tray that is passed during the Divine Liturgy, in the tithe box at the back of the nave or be mailed to: St. Peter Orthodox Church, P.O. Box 2084, Madison, MS 39130-2084.

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

Reader Reading Page#

March 24 Anastasia Heb. 11:24-26, 32-40 281

March 25 (Mon. a.m.) Kh. Sharon Meadows Heb. 2:11-18 376

March 31 Brenda Baker Heb. 1:10-2:3 283

April 7 Reader Basil Baker Heb. 4:14-5:6 285

April 14 Reader Chad Miller Heb. 6:13-20 287

April 21 Brandon Strain Heb. 9:11-14 290

April 27 (Sat. a.m.) Ian Jones Heb. 12:28-13:8 291

April 28 Sam Habeeb Phil. 4:4-9 294

Please remember the following in your prayers: Aidan Milnor, the Milnor family; Lamia Dabit

and her family; Mary Greene (Lee and Kh. Sharon’s sister); Jay and Joanna Davis; Fr. Leo and Kh. Be’Be’ Schelver and their family; Kathy Willingham; Marilyn (Kyriake) Snell; Jack and Jill Weatherly; Lottie Dabbs (Sh. Charlotte Algood’s mother), Sh. Charlotte and their family; Reader Basil and Brenda Baker and their family; Buddy Cooper; Georgia and Bob Buchanan; Fr. Joseph Bittle; Steve and Sheryl Chamblee; Rick Carlton; Very Rev. Fr. Nicholas and Kh. Jan Speier; Dora Lambert (Dimitri Zouboukos’ fiancée); Lee Greene; Joseph, Amanda and Hunter Hines; Fr. John and Kh. Janet Henderson and their family.

Each year the Metropolitan assigns a project to the Antiochian Women and money is collected during Ladies’ Month. This year the AW Project is to establish an Endowment Fund to assist the widowed Clergy Wives in our Archdiocese. The Ladies of St. Peter will have a donation box available in the Fellowship Hall during Coffee Hour on Sundays for the entire month. Please consider giving generously to this very worthy cause.

Registration is now open for this year’s Parish Life Conference which will be held June 12-15th in Atlanta at the Hilton Peachtree City Atlanta Hotel and Conference Center and hosted by St. Stephen in Hiram. Please go to the Diocesan website (DOMSE.org) to register for the conference and for the hotel.

If your child is registered for summer camp at Camp St. Thekla, please let Father Herman know ASAP so that he can apply for the scholarships through the Order of St. Ignatius by March 31st.

The Church Workday that was scheduled for yesterday has been rescheduled for April. The date will be forthcoming.

Calendar Items:

* The men of the parish meet for lunch at 11:00 a.m. on the first Thursday of the month.

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

* The Ladies meet for lunch at 1:00 p.m. on the last Tuesday of the month.

* During Great Lent we will have the Pre-sanctified Liturgy on Wednesday evenings instead of Daily Vespers. As is our parish custom, we will have pot-luck Soup Suppers afterwards (except for Wednesday, April 17th, when we will have the complete Canon of St. Andrew of Crete with the reading of the Life of St. Mary of Egypt instead of the Pre-sanctified Liturgy).

* This year the Sunday of Orthodoxy falls on the Paramon (Forefeast)of the Annunciation. So instead of our usual custom, we will have Great Vespers with Litia and Artoklasia for the Feast of the Annunciation with our sister churches at Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church in Clinton, beginning at 6:00 p.m. We will have our usual procession of the icons during our Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning. Please be sure to bring your icons with you to the Liturgy that morning.

* The Feast of the Annunciation will be celebrated with Divine liturgy (only) on Monday morning, March 25th, beginning at 9:00 a.m.

* Stewpot dates for 2024 will be March 30th and November 30th.

Fasting Discipline for March

Beginning with Clean Monday on March 18th, the traditional fasting discipline (no meat, dairy, eggs, fish, wine or oil) is observed on all days of the week until Pascha (except for the Feast of the Annunciation on March 25th and Palm Sunday on April 28th, when fish, wine and oil are permitted).

Major Commemorations for March

March 24 1st Sunday of Lent; Sunday of Orthodoxy

March 25 Feast of the Annunciation

March 26 Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel

March 31 2nd Sunday of Lent; Commemoration of Gregory Palamas

There will be an icon writing workshop at Holy Resurrection July 8-13. The iconographer who will be teaching this class is Theodoros Papadopoulos. Tuition for this class is $780. For further information and enrollment, please visit the website http://www.theodoreicons.com/clinton. Holy Resurrection is only providing space for this class.

Quotable: “Humble yourself and reproach yourself. Do not justify yourself, even if you are absolutely right, for self-justification is not conducive to the healing of our spiritual illness. …If you want to be fragrant, embrace a humble, simple, obedient, and meek spirit. Despise egotism as a stench and stupidity. Your do very well to reproach yourself in everything. This path is most true to the Fathers. Yes, my child, implant this manner of life deeply within your dear little soul and you will benefit enormously.”

Elder Ephraim of the Holy Mountain

Worship: Sunday, March 31, 2024 (Second Sunday of Great Lent; Commemoration of Gregory Palamas)

Scripture: Hebrews 1:10-2:3; Mark 2:1-12

Celebrant: Father Herman

Epistle Reader: Brenda Baker

Prosphora: Pacurari

Coffee Hour: D. Root/Baker