March 30, 2025

Fourth Sunday of Great Lent

Commemoration of John Climacus

Self-denial for self-glory is equally as vain as any endeavor not directed toward divine love and the glory of God. In St. John Climacus, seventh-century hermit and ascetic, we have a model of sacrifice directed to the love of fellow men. St. John knew that emptying himself of the things of this world was the act of renouncing his own efforts and accepting God’s grace and mercy as true sustenance. The season of prayer and fasting is a time of true humility and complete submission to the Father’s will. We proceed to the Great Feast, following a path of reconciliation and contemplation, seeking the adoration of the Son and His sacrifice, and emphasizing leaving the things of this world to attain perfect submission.

Hebrews 6:13-20: Brethren, when God made a promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.” And thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For people indeed swear by what is greater, and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation. So when God, being minded to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of His counsel, He interposed it with an oath, that by two immutable things—in which it is impossible for God to lie—we might have a strong consolation, we, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope that is set before us; a hope, which we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and entering into “that which is within the veil,” where Jesus entered as a Forerunner on our behalf, having become a High Priest “forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

Mark 9:17-31: At that time, a man came to Jesus, kneeling down and saying unto 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 Thy Disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” And Jesus 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 Jesus, 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 Thou canst do anything, have pity on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, 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 Jesus had entered the house, His Disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” And Jesus said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.” They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And Jesus would not have anyone 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 after He is killed, He will rise on the third day.”

Troparion of the Resurrection: Thou didst shatter death by thy Cross; thou didst open paradise to the thief; thou didst turn the mourning of the ointment-bearing women into joy, and didst bid thine Apostles proclaim warning that thou hast risen, O Christ, granting the world Great Mercy.

Troparion of St. John of the Ladder: The barren wilderness thou didst make fertile with the streams of thy tears; and by thy deep sighing thou hast given fruit through thy struggles a hundredfold. Accordingly, thou hast become a star for the universe, sparkling with miracles. Therefore, O righteous Father John Climacus, intercede 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 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 30 (Fourth Sunday of Lent; Commemoration of John Climacus)

8:50 a.m. – Orthros

9:00 a.m. – Christian Education

10:00 a.m. – Divine Liturgy (webcast)

Monday, March 31

Father Herman off

Tuesday, April 1

NO Services

Wednesday, April 2

6:30 p.m. – Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete with the life of St. Mary of Egypt

Thursday, April 3

NO Services

Friday, April 4

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

Saturday, April 5

4:30 p.m. – Choir Practice

6:00 p.m. – Great Vespers

Sunday, April 6 (Fifth Sunday of Lent; Commemoration of Mary of Egypt)

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 Lasseters for the Feast of Annunciation this past Monday evening and by the Milnors for the Divine Liturgy this morning.

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

March 30 Milnor Miller/Weatherly

April 6 Baker Algood/Schelver

April 12 (Sat. a.m.) Henderson Lockhart/Karam/Snell

(Lazarus Saturday)

April 13 Algood Lasseter/Pacurari/Lavric

(Palm Sunday) Baker/Jimmy Jones

April 17 (Thurs. a.m.) Schelver Meadows

(Great & Holy Thursday)

April 19 (Sat. a.m.) Jones Pigott/Ian Jones

(Great & Holy Saturday)

April 19 (Sat. p.m.) Meadows Ellis/Zouboukos/Waites

(PASCHA) D. Root/Meadows

Miller/Weatherly

April 27 Davis Ken Jones/Stewart

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 30 Katie Miller Heb. 6:13-20 287

April 6 Grady Fisher Heb. 9:11-14 290

April 12 (sat. a.m.) Ian Jones Heb. 12:28-13:2 291

April 13 Walt Wood Phil. 4:4-9 294

April 17 (Thurs. a.m.) Reader Basil Baker I Cor. 11:23-32 295

April 19 (Sat. a.m.) Reader Chad Miller Rom. 6:3-11 300

April 19 (sat. p.m.) Brandon Strain Acts 1:1-8 25

April 27 Ian Jones Acts 5:12-20 32

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; Marilyn (Kyriake) Snell; Jack and Jill Weatherly; Dn. Terry Algood and their family; Reader Basil and Brenda Baker and their family; Fr. Joseph Bittle; Rick Carlton; Very Rev. Fr. Nicholas and Kh. Jan Speier; Lee Greene; Fr. John and Kh. Janet Henderson and their family; Galina Singletary; Emily and Cole Parker.

Please keep in your humble prayers Justin and Meredith White who will be baptized and chrismated on April 6th within the context of the Divine Liturgy, as well as Clayton Fairchild and KC Barrett who will be chrismated on Great and Holy Saturday. May God grant them Many years!

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.

* This year’s remaining date for serving at Stewpot Ministries is Saturday, September 27th.

This year’s Palm Sunday fish meal will be catered by Sal and Phil’s, as has been done in the past. The cost for those 12 years and older will be $10.00 and $6 for those under 12 years of age.

Every year during this time of the Liturgical year, the Archdiocese has an outreach campaign for Food for Hungry People. If you would like to make a monetary donation to this campaign please mark your donation as Food for Hungry People. We will collect these donations until after Bright Week (the deadline for donations will be April 27th). The church will then write one check and send it to the appropriate location. Please consider making a donation toward this blessed cause. If you would like more information on this outreach please see Father Herman.

We are continuing the process of updating our Church directory. On the bureau in the foyer there are information sheets to be filled out by each family and individual. We are asking EVERYONE to please fill out one of these information sheets and get it back to Fr. Herman or Kh. Sharon. (Please be sure to PRINT as neatly as you can.) Thank you for your timely cooperation with this.

We will be hosting the Agape Vespers on Pascha this year with our sister churches in the area. Paschal Vespers will begin at 4:00 p.m. that afternoon.

Registration for the 2025 DOMSE Parish Life Conference has opened and was emailed out to the parish. If you did not receive this email and would like to attend, please see Father Herman for registration information. This year’s conference will be hosted by St. George Parish in Jacksonville, June 11-14th.

Registration for the Archdiocese National Convention has also opened. It is being hosted by St. George Parish in Cicero, IL (just outside of Chicago) July 20-27th. If you are interested in attending, please see Father Herman and he will get you the registration information and link.

Fasting Discipline for March/April

The traditional fasting discipline (no meat, dairy, eggs, fish, wine or oil) is observed on all days of the week until Pascha. (except for Palm Sunday on April 13th, when fish, wine, and oil are permitted) There will be no fasting of any kind during Bright Week, April 28 thru May 3.

Major Commemorations for March/April

March 26 Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel

March 30 4th Sunday of Lent; Commemoration of John Climacus

April 1 Mary of Egypt

April 6 Fifth Sunday of Lent: Commemoration of St. Mary of Egypt

April 12 Lazarus Saturday

April 13 Palm Sunday

April 14-19 Holy Week

April 27 PASCHA

April 28-May 2 Bright Week

Quotable: “The soul that really loves God and Christ, though it may do ten thousand righteousnesses, esteems itself as having wrought nothing, by reason of its insatiable aspiration after God.

Though it should exhaust the body with fastings, with watchings, is attitude towards the virtues is as if it had not yet even begun to labour for them.”

+ St. Macarius the Great

Worship: Sunday, April 6, 2025 (Fifth Sunday of Lent; Commemoration of Mary of Egypt)

Scripture: Hebrews 9:11-14; Mark 10:32-45

Epistle Reader: Grady Fisher

Prosphora: Baker

Coffee Hour: Algood/Schelver