May 5, 2024

Great and Holy PASCHA

“Unique and holy day, King and lord of days, feast of feasts, solemnity of solemnities. . . ” Thus we celebrate the Great Feast because of the resurrection of our Lord and begin the season of celebration which lasts through Pentecost. The paschal solemnities (of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday) are joined to the feast of the resurrection to endow the mystery of Christmas and the Incarnation with the fulness of its meaning and are the prerequisite condition for Pentecost. Easter, therefore, is the center, the heart of the Christian Year.

“Come, take light from the Light that has no evening, and glorify Christ, risen from the dead.” The Church again represents the Christian mystery in terms of light; this Light, whose birth was marked by the star of Bethlehem, is shining among us with growing intensity; the darkness of Golgotha could not extinguish it. The physical Resurrection of Jesus would be without value to us if the divine light did not shine at the same time among us, within us. But the good news of the Resurrection is that the light brought by the Saviour now completely overcomes the darkness of our sins!

“Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down Death by death, and to those in the tomb He has given life!”

Acts of the Apostles 1:1-8: In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up, after He had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles whom He had chosen. To them He presented Himself alive after His passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God. And while staying with them He charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, He said, “You heard from Me; for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” So when they had come together, they asked Him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.”

John 1:1-17: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light. The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world knew Him not. He came to His own home, and His own people received Him not. But to all who received Him, who believed in His Name, He gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. (John bore witness to Him, and cried, “This was He of Whom I said, ‘He Who comes after me ranks before me, for He was before me.’”) And from His fullness have we all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Paschal Troparion: Christ is risen from the dead; by Death has he trodden death, and upon those in the tombs, hath he bestowed life.

Hypakoe of Easter: They who were with Mary came before the dawn, found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre, and heard the angels say unto them, Why seek ye him as man with the dead, who dwelleth in light eternal? Behold the grave wrappings; make haste and declare to the world that the Lord is risen, and hath caused death to die; for he is the Son of God, the Saviour of mankind.

Kontakion of Pascha: When Thou didst descend into the grave, O Immortal, Thou didst destroy the power of Hades. In victory didst Thou arise, O Christ God, proclaiming Rejoice! to the myrrh-bearing women, granting peace to Thine apostles and bestowing resurrection on the fallen.

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, May 5 (Great and Holy PASCHA)

4:00 p.m. – Agape Vespers at Holy Trinity/St. John the Theologian Greek

Orthodox Church

Monday, May 6 (Bright Monday)

Father Herman off

Tuesday, May 7 (Bright Tuesday)

NO Services

Wednesday, May 8 (Bright Wednesday)

6:30 p.m. – Vespers of Bright Week

Thursday, May 9 (Bright Thursday)

11:00 a.m. – Men’s Lunch

NO Services

Friday, May 10 (Bright Friday)

NO Services

Saturday, May 11 (Great and Holy Saturday)

10:00 a.m. – Ladies meet for Akathist

4:30 p.m. – Choir Practice

6:00 p.m. – Great Vespers

Sunday, May 12 (Thomas Sunday)

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 the Meadows for the Vesperal-Divine Liturgy for Great and Holy Saturday this morning and by the Davises for the Paschal Divine Liturgy tonight.

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.

Eucharist Bread Schedule:

Eucharist Bread Coffee Hour

May 4 (Sat. a.m.) Meadows Pigott/Stewart

May 4 (Sat. p.m.) Davis PASCHA BASKETS

(PASCHA) Algood/Schelver/I. Jones

May 12 D. Root Henderson/K. Jones/Lavric

May 19 Karam Dansereau/Alaeetawi

May 26 Brock Lasseter/Miller

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#

May 4 (Sat. a.m.) Brenda Baker Rom. 6:3-11 300

May 4 (Sat. p.m.) Walt Wood Acts 1:1-8 25

May 12 Brandon Strain Acts 5:12-20 32

May 19 Katie Miller Acts 6:1-7 38

May 26 Sam Habeeb Acts 9:32-42 45

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; Galina Singletary; Emily and Cole Parker.

Congratulations and Many Years! to all our catechumens and their sponsors, who were chrismated this morning during the Vesperal-Divine Liturgy: Ian Walter (Reader Basil Baker), Jimmy Jones (Simon Karam), Gabrielle Jones (Brenda Baker), Jenny Jones (Kyriaki Snell), Will Lively (Walt Wood), Lisa Lively (Sarah Miller), and John Henry (RAD) Lively (Emad Alaeetawi). Please continue to keep them all in your prayers.

Paschal Meal: We are bringing baskets of our favorite foods that we have not enjoyed while fasting for this meal. We ask that everyone help with clean-up following the meal (just as we do for our monthly Pot Luck Meal).

The Agape Vespers for Pascha this year will be hosted by Holy Trinity/St. John the Theologian Greek Orthodox Church in Jackson, beginning at 4:00 p.m. St. Peter will bring desserts for the Agape meal. If anyone plans to attend, please bring a dessert of some kind.

Wednesday Catechumen Class: Due to Bright Week and the Holy Dormition Monastery pilgrimage, there will be no catechumen class on Wednesday until May 22nd, beginning at

5:20 p.m.

Updating the Parish Directory: We will in the very near future, begin another update on our parish directory. If you have any changes since the last directory was updated, or think you have not been added to the directory, please see Kh. Sharon or Fr. Herman within the next two weeks to have this done.

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.

Vacation Church School: This year we will be having Vacation Church School in conjunction with Holy Resurrection and Holy Trinity/St. John the Theologian Orthodox Churches. The dates are May 30 – June 1 at Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church in Clinton. More details will be available at a later date. If you would like to help, please see Father Herman or Daniel Root.

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.

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.

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.

* Agape Vespers at Holy Trinity/St. John the Theologian Greek Orthodox Church, this

afternoon, beginning at 4:00 p.m. We bring desserts!

* Wednesday Catechumen Class resumes on May 22nd, beginning at 5:20 p.m.

* Vacation Church School May 30 – June 1 at Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church in Clinton.

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

Fasting Discipline for May

There is no fasting of any kind during Bright Week which follows Pascha (May 6-11).

The Holy Synod of Antioch has given instruction that there will be no fasting during the entirety of the Paschal Season.

Major Commemorations for May

May 5 Great and Holy PASCHA

May 8 Apostle John the Theologian

May 10 Simon the Zealot

May 12 Thomas Sunday

May 19 Sunday of the Holy Myrrh-bearers

May 21 Sts. Constantine and Helen

May 25 The Forerunner (3rd Discovery)

May 26 Sunday of the Paralytic

Quotable: “Now that the Savior has raised His body, death is no longer terrible; for all who believe in Christ tread him under as nought, and choose rather to die than to deny their faith in Christ. For they verily know that when they die they are not destroyed, but actually [begin to] live, and become incorruptible through the Resurrection…Their contempt for death is so great that they even eagerly rush upon it, and become witnesses for the Resurrection the Savior has accomplished against it…And so, death having been conquered and exposed by the Savior on the Cross, and bound hand and foot, all they who are in Christ, as they pass by, trample on him, and witnessing to Christ scoff at death, jesting at him, and saying what has been written against him of old: ‘O death, where is thy victory? O grave, where is thy sting?

– St. Athanasius the Great

Worship: Sunday, May 12, 2024 (Thomas Sunday)

Scripture: Acts 5:12-20; John 20:19-31

Celebrant: Father Herman

Epistle Reader: Brandon Strain

Prosphora: D. Root

Coffee Hour: Henderson/K. Jones/Lavric