April 7, 2024

Third Sunday of Great Lent

Adoration of The Holy Cross

In the middle of Lent, the church sets before us the Cross of Christ. On two other occasions during the year, September 14 and August 1, the cross is presented for our remembrance and veneration. Both these feasts link the Adoration of the Cross to historic events. However, the remembrance of the cross on the third Sunday in Lent prepares us for the commemoration of the crucifixion which is soon to follow in Holy Week, and at the same time, it reminds us that the whole of Lent is a period when we are crucified with Christ. The dominant note on this Sunday, as on the two Sundays preceding, is one of joy and triumph. No separation is made between Christ’s death and His resurrection, but the cross is regarded as an emblem of victory on Calvary as seen in light of the Empty Tomb.

Hebrews 4:14-5:6: Brethren, since we have a great High Priest, Who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession. For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to sympathize with our infirmities, but one Who has been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help in time of need. For every high priest, being taken from among the people, is appointed on behalf of the people in things pertaining to God, that he may offer up both gifts and sacrifices for sins; who can have compassion on the ignorant and on those who are erring, since he himself also is encompassed with infirmity. Because of this he is bound, as for the people so also for himself, to offer up for sins. And no one takes the honor upon himself, but as being called by God, as was Aaron. So Christ also did not glorify Himself to become a High Priest, but it was by the One saying to Him, “Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee.” As He says also in another place, “Thou art a Priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.”

Mark 8:34-9:1: The Lord said, “If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of man also be ashamed, when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” And Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.”

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 Holy Cross: O Lord, save thy people and bless thine inheritance, granting to thy people victory over all their enemies, and by the power of thy Cross preserving thy kingdom.

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, April 7 (Third Sunday of Great Lent; Adoration of the Holy Cross)

8:50 a.m. – Orthros (webcast)

9:00 a.m. – Christian Education

10:00 a.m. – Divine Liturgy (webcast)

Monday, April 8

Father Herman off

Tuesday, April 9

NO Services

Wednesday, April 10

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

Thursday, April 11

NO Services

Friday, April 12

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

Saturday, April 13

10:00 a.m. – Ladies meet for Akathist followed by Brunch and a talk by

Father Herman

3:30 p.m. – Choir Practice

6:00 p.m. – Great Vespers

Sunday, April 14 (Fourth Sunday of Great Lent; Commemoration of John Climacus)

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 Bakers for the Divine Liturgy this morning.

April is Men’s Month in the Archdiocese. Please honor the men of our parish by allowing them to take communion first, beginning with the men in the choir. The men will also be reading the Epistle this month in the Divine Liturgy.

Eucharist Bread Schedule:

Eucharist Bread Coffee Hour

April 7 Baker Dansereau/Alaeetawi

April 14 Lasseter 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#

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.

Please keep in your prayers all of our catechumens who will be received into the One Holy and Apostolic Church on Great and Holy Saturday this year in your prayers. Those who will be chrismated during the Vesperal Liturgy will be : Ian Walters, Jenny Jones, Jimmy and Gabrielle Jones, Will, Lisa and Rad Lively.

Kh. Janet’s surgery went well this past Tuesday. Please continue to keep her, Fr. John and their family in your thoughts and prayers. Glory to God for all things!

The Ladies raised $1600 in March for the Endowment Fund for Widowed Clergy Wives. Thank you for your support of this worthwhile project.

Akathist and Brunch: On Saturday morning, April 13th, the Ladies will meet for their usual monthly Akathist to the Mother of God, Nurturer of Children at 10:00 a.m. Afterwards, we will have a brunch in the Fellowship Hall and Father Herman will speak to us. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend.

Palm Sunday Fish Fry Meal: Once again we will have our Fish Fry Meal catered by Sal and Phil’s following the Divine Liturgy on Sunday, April 28th. More information on costs, etc. will be available soon. Please sign-up on the sheet located on the bureau in the hallway outside the nave.

Paschal Meal: We will bring baskets of our favorite foods that we have not enjoyed while fasting for this meal. A handout will be available in the next week or so with information about Paschal Baskets. We ask that everyone help with clean-up following this meal (just as we do for our monthly Pot Luck Meals).

The Agape Vespers for Pascha this year will be hosted by Holy Trinity/St. John the Theologian Greek Orthodox Church. Further details and information will be forthcoming.

Registration is 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.

There has arisen an issue with the large amount of trash being left in the back area of the church around and inside the playground area over the past several weeks. If everyone would please monitor this situation by making sure no trash is left around the area. Thank you for your help in this matter.

On a related note: Several of the older children have begun to drink coffee on Sunday mornings. Due to the amount of creamer they use, our supply of coffeemate pods are being used up quickly. So, we will be providing a small container of almond milk for them to use in their coffee and the coffeemate pods will be for adults only. Parents please monitor this situation with your children who are allowed to drink coffee. Thank you.

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).

* Ladies Brunch and Lenten Talk by Father Herman following monthly Akathist on Saturday morning, April 13th.

* The complete Canon of St. Andrew of Crete with the Life of St. Mary of Egypt on Wednesday evening, April 17th, beginning at 6:30 p.m. (NO Soup Supper afterwards).

* Small Complines with the Canon of St. Lazarus on Friday, April 26th (NO Akathist that evening).

* Orthros followed by Divine Liturgy for Lazarus Saturday on April 27th at 9:00 a.m.

* Remaining Stewpot date for 2024 will be November 30th.

Fasting Discipline for April

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 April

April 7 3rd Sunday of Lent; Adoration of the Holy Cross

April 14 4th Sunday of Lent; Commemoration of John Climacus

April 21 5th Sunday of Lent; Commemoration of Mary of Egypt

April 23 Great-martyr George

April 25 Holy Apostle Mark

April 27 Lazarus Saturday

April 28 Palm Sunday

April 29 Great and Holy Monday

April 30 Great and Holy Tuesday

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: “Devils take great delight in fullness, and drunkenness and bodily comfort. Fasting possesses great power and it works glorious things.”

+ St. Athanasius the Great

Worship: Sunday, April 14, 2024 (Fourth Sunday of Great Lent; Commemoration of John Climacus)

Scripture: Hebrews 6:13-20; Mark 9:17-31

Celebrant: Father Herman

Epistle Reader: Reader Chad Miller

Prosphora: Lasseter

Coffee Hour: Lockhart/Karam/Snell