January 15, 2012
Twenty-ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Colossians 3:4-11: As we read in Colossians, we see St Paul encouraging the Church to practice the virtues of compassion, kindness, and humility. He reminds us that love is the bond which holds us together and calls us to let the peace of Christ to rule us.
Luke 17:12-19: In the reading from St Luke we see the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ as He heals ten lepers, only one of whom thanks the Lord for being healed.
Troparion of the Resurrection: When Mary stood at thy grave looking for thy sacred body, angelic powers shone above thy revered tomb, and the soldiers who were to keep guard became as dead men. Thou led hades captive and wast not tempted thereby. Thou didst meet the Virgin and didst give life to the world; O thou who art risen from the dead! O Lord, glory to thee.
Troparion of St. Paul: With the streams of thy tears, thou didst cultivate the barrenness of the desert; and by thy sighings from the depths, thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold in labors; and thou becamest a luminary, shining with miracles upon the world, O Paul, our righteous Father. Intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.
Troparion of St. John: Since thou hadst with fervor longed after the Lord from thy youth, thou leftist the world with its delights and nobly didst strive in valiant ascetic deeds. Thou didst pitch thy hut before the gates of thy parents; thou didst break the demons' snares, O all-blessed Father. And therefore, as is meet, hath God glorified thee, O John.
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 Presentation: Thou, O Christ God, who by your Birth, didst sanctify the Virgin's womb, and as is meet, didst bless Simeon's arms, and didst also come to save us, preserve thy fold in wars, and confirm them whom thou didst love; for thou alone art the Lover of mankind.
CALENDAR
Sunday, January 15 (Twenty-ninth Sunday after Pentecost)
8:50 a.m. -- Orthros
9:00 a.m. -- Christian Education
10:00 a.m. -- Divine Liturgy
12:00 p.m. -- Pot Luck
5:30 p.m. -- Youth Group
Monday, January 16 (Veneration of the Chains of St. Peter)
Office Closed -- Father John's Day Off
Tuesday, January 17
6:00 a.m. -- Daily Orthros
Wednesday, January 18 (Athanasios and Cyril of Alexandria)
5:00 p.m. -- Catechism Class
6:30 p.m. -- Daily Vespers
7:30 p.m. -- Choir Practice
Thursday, January 19
NO Daily Orthros
Friday, January 20 (Euthymios the Great)
NO Daily Orthros
Saturday, January 21
8:30 a.m. -- Workday at the Church
5:45 p.m. -- Ninth Hour followed by Great Vespers
Sunday, January 22 (Thirty-second Sunday after Pentecost)
8:50 a.m. -- Orthros
9:00 a.m. -- Christian Education
10:00 a.m. -- Divine Liturgy
12:00 p.m. -- Ladies of St. Peter
1:00 p.m. -- Young Adults
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
Eucharist Bread …was offered by the Schelvers for the Divine Liturgy today.
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.
Eucharist Bread and Coffee Hour Schedule:
Eucharist Bread Coffee Hour
January 15 Schelver POT LUCK MEAL
(set-up: Algood/R. Root)
January 22 Morris Schelver
January 29 Jones Fahmy
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#
January 15 Kh. Be'Be' Schelver Col. 3:4-11 233
January 22 Brenda Baker I Tim. 4:9-15 252
January 29 Tom Willingham II Cor. 6:16-7:1 173
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.
Please remember Fr. Joseph and Kh. Joanna Bittle and their daughter Abigail in your prayers.
Please continue to pray for the health of His Grace, Bishop ANTOUN.
Please remember the following in your prayers: Maria Costas; Amy and Michael Surratt and Amy's family; Tom and Jennifer Skirtech and Jennifer's mother, Jessamine Hinkson; Warren and Sandi Strain and their family; Fr. Leo, Kh. Be'Be', Stephen and Amy, Justyn and Jeffrey; Steve, Sheryl and Stephen Chamblee; Amy and Brantley Oliver; Aidan Milnor, the Milnor family; Sam and Lamia Dabit; David Turner's mother Mary Jean; Georgia Buchanan, George Johns (Georgia's grandson) and his family; Dorin and Carolina Lavric and Victor (Carolina's brother); Mary Greene (Lee and Kh. Sharon's sister).
Our Patronal Feast (the Veneration of the Chains of St. Peter) will be celebrated today with a Pot Luck Meal following the Divine Liturgy. Please be sure to stay for the fellowship.
House Blessings! A sign-up sheet is available in the Fellowship Hall to sign up for your house blessing. Please schedule these as soon as possible. Everyone should have their home blessed. However, the responsibility for scheduling lies with individuals and not Father John. No house blessings will be done once Great Lent starts (February 27th this year).
Calendar Items:
* The Men of the parish meet for lunch and fellowship on the first Thursday of the month.
* Parish Creative Arts Festival – Saturday morning, February 4th from 9-12.
* The Annual Deanery Youth Retreat will be held on February 10-12, 2012 at John W. Kyle State Park in Sardis. Joel and Sarah Finley will be addressing the topic of the Culture of Dating. More information will be available as the time draws near.
* Father Thomas Hopko will be speaking at Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church in Clinton February 14-16, 2012. More information will be available at a later date.
* The Youth Group is planning to hold their annual Cheesefare Fundraising Luncheon on Sunday, February 26th.
* His Grace, Bishop ANTOUN will be here the weekend of May 6, 2012 to help us celebrate our 25th anniversary as a parish. The planning committee is working very hard to make our celebration a memorable one. There will be an evening event at the MS Museum of Art on Saturday, May 6th. Other events are being planned and more information will be available in the coming months.
Fasting Discipline for January
The traditional fasting (no meat, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy, wine and oil) is observed on the remaining Wednesdays and Fridays of the month.
Major Commemorations for January
January 18 Athanasios and Cyril of Alexandria
January 20 Euthymios the Great
January 25 Gregory the Theologian
January 27 John Chrysostom
January 31 Cyros and John the Unmercenary Healers
Parish Creative Arts Festival: The Christian Education classes will have a festival to work on their entries for this year's Creative Arts Festival on Saturday morning, February 4th from 9-12. There will be teaching about this year's conference theme and then time to work on the projects themselves. A Pizza lunch will be provided afterwards. Please make plans now for your children to attend.
Breakfast and Bible Study: we are continuing to meet every 2-3 weeks for Bible Study on Saturday morning at 7:30 a.m. with breakfast. This is open to all who are interested. Be sure to come and enjoy the fellowship.
Happy Birthdays in January:
January 1 -- Dn. Richard Root
January 5 -- Sarah Anne Milnor
January 10 -- Georgia Buchanan
January 11 -- Nicholas Henderson
January 12 -- Cheryl Pigott
January 13 -- Nader Dabit
January 19 -- Saliba (Sam) Dabit
January 20 -- Alfred Katool
January 22 -- Tatiana Lavric
January 24 -- Oliver Yeatts
January 29 -- Michelle Pigott
January 30 -- Chris Dansereau
Happy Anniversaries in January:
January 10 -- Bob and Georgia Buchanan (1987)
January 17 -- Chris and Rebecca Dansereau (2009)
January 19 -- Ramzi and Jean Kafoury (2003)
Please be sure to turn in your pledge letters as soon as possible. If you did not receive one in the recent weeks, please let Kh. Sharon know.
Windows into Heaven: We are looking for a volunteer to take charge of the small bulletin board in the Fellowship Hall that was used in the past to display icons, hymns and information about the major feasts that occur during the year. The packets of material needed for the bulletin board are available in the church office and only need to be changed for each of the feasts as they occur. If you are interested in taking on this responsibility, please let Fr. John know.
If you are the last to leave the building, please make sure that the heating and cooling unit in the Fellowship Hall is turned off.
Quotable: "The way the Orthodox teachers look at the story of Adam and eve is quite different from the way it is generally understood in the West. In the West, commentaries tend to emphasize the themes of disobedience, guilt, sin, and remorse, including a fairly heavy hint that the sin of our first parents was somehow sexual in nature—an attitude that would have enormous impact on the development of Western psychology many hundreds of years later.
For the east, by contrast, the story of Adam and Eve is, at its heart, a story of disintegration, fragmentation, and estrangement. The man and the woman—and the world in which they lived—were torn apart by their behavior, and vast gaps came to exist between God and man, between heaven and earth, between one person and another, between the genders, and finally even within the human personality itself. Each and every person is internally fragmented and externally isolated from the outside world, right down to the ultimate depths of his or her being. Fragmentation within the human personality is observed essentially as the division between the mind and the nous or heart."
Archimandrite. Meletios Webber, Bread and Water, Wine and Oil: an Orthodox Christian Experience of God
Worship: Sunday, January 22, 2012 (Thirty-second Sunday after Pentecost)
Scripture: I Timothy 4:9-15; Luke 19:1-10
Celebrant: Father John
Epistle Reader: Brenda Baker
Prosphora: Morrises
Coffee Hour: Schelvers