(901)
274-4119
www.stjohnmemphis.org
V. Rev. Fr. Basil Cushman V.
Rev. Fr. John Troy Mashburn, Jr. Rev. Fr. Donald Berge
Assistant Pastor Pastor
GREAT
VESPERS ORTHROS and
Saturday,
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of
“…the
Disciples were called Christians first in
Sunday of Gregory Palamas
2nd Sunday of the Great Fast
Epistle: Heb 1:10-14; 2:1-3 Gospel: Mark 2:1-12
The Holy Bread for Eucharist is offered this morning by Nathan and Jodi
Elliott.
Welcome
to all those visiting St. John Orthodox Church.
We are honored by your presence.
It is our sincere desire that your participation today in the Divine
Liturgy will draw you closer to Christ and His Church.
If you are from a non-Orthodox background you may
see new things such as icons, incense, the sign of the
cross, the veneration of saints, and a great deal of standing. These can be perplexing to the uninitiated
eye. Rest assured that everything we do
has a solid biblical foundation and a long history among Christian people. Please feel free to participate where you
feel comfortable, and feel equally as free only to observe when you prefer.
The Orthodox Church understands the Eucharist, or Lord’s supper, to be – among other things – the paramount
expression of
Sunday - Teen Group – meet at the church,
- Young Adults – at the Mashburns’
home,
Monday - First Hour,
- Great Compline,
Tuesday
- Third Hour,
- Inquirer’s class,
Wednesday - Third
Hour,
-
Presanctified Liturgy,
Thursday - Third Hour,
-
Men’s Lunch,
Friday - First Hour,
- Little Compline/Akathist,
Saturday -
Ninth Hour and Great Vespers,
Sunday -
-
Divine Liturgy,
Schedule for Presanctified Liturgy Wednesday, March 7
PRIEST: Fr. John
DEACON: James
READER:
USHER:
Schedule for Vespers, Orthros
& Divine Liturgy Sunday, March 11
PRIEST: Fr. John
HOMILY: Fr. John
DEACONS: Tim & James
ALTAR SERVERS: Patrick,
Weston, Zach, Justin, Alex
HOLY BREAD:
READER: Rd.
Leo Schommer
USHER:
COFFEE HOUR: Fadi & Rana Ibrahim, Nidal &
Mark Your Calendar
Little Compline with the Great Canon, March 21,
Great Feast of Annunciation, March 25
Sunday of Palms – April 1
PASCHA – April 8
COMMEMORATIONS*
March 4: Venerable Gerasimos of the
Jordan; Gregory, bishop of Constantios in
March 5: Hieromartyr Konon of Isauria; Martyrs Archelaos and his 152 companions in
March 6: The 42 martyrs of Amoria
in Phrygia; discovery of the precious cross and nails by St. Helena; Venerable Fridolin, enlightener of the
March 7: The Hieromartyrs of Cherson: Basil, Ephraim, Eugene, Kapiton,
Elpidios, Agathodoros and Aetherios; Venerable Laurence; Venerable Paul the Simple,
disciple of Venerable Anthony the Great.
March 8: Theophylaktos, bishop of
March 9: The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste.
March 10: Kodratos of
March 11: Sophronios, patriarch of
*For reading material on the
saints for this week, visit the display in the church library.
DAILY
SCRIPTURE
Sunday Heb
Monday Gen 6:9-22 Prov 8:1-21
Tuesday Gen 7:1-5 Prov 8:32-9:11
Wednesday Gen
7:6-9 Prov 9:12-18
Thursday Gen 7:11-8:3 Prov
10:1-22
Friday
Gen
8:4-22 Prov 10:31-11:12
Saturday Heb
10:32-38 Mk 2:14-17
Sunday Heb
Pray for our catechumens:
Larry
& Susanne, Tucie, and Aslan
Koenig,
Please remember in your prayers: His
Daylight
Savings Time – It begins early this year. Next weekend we move our clocks
forward one hour at
New Handouts for Great Lent! –There are copies of a number of handouts downstairs
for your taking, including the following new
additions:
Comments
on the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts
The
Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian
Reflections
on the Akathist Hymn
The
Sundays of Great Lent
Daily
Scriptural
The
prayer of repentance used at Forgiveness Vespers
Previous handouts still in the hall:
The schedule of services for the Great Fast through
Bright week
“The Rules of Fasting” - by Bp KALLISTOS
“The Four Canonical Fasting Seasons” – by Bp BASIL
Fasting Guidelines – Some nice comments on fasting
OCF reactivating—
We have recently re-activated
our local Memphis OCF chapter. For those of you who are unfamiliar with what
OCF is, it stands for Orthodox Christian
Fellowship, and is a ministry directed towards college students.
We are hoping to meet regularly
for a meal, either at a restaurant or elsewhere, ordering take-out. In the past, there have been donors who
provided a donation to cover the cost of the meal for the meetings. And
because college students are notoriously impoverished as a rule, we are looking
for those who may now be interested in either providing a meal, or donating
towards an OCF dinner fund.
If you are interested in helping with this ministry,
please contact
March 15 (Thursday) – Women’s
Teaching at Urania’s,
April 16 (Monday) Book Club – Reading
Lolita in
Book club meetings are
on Monday nights at the home of Urania Alissandratos,
from
Remember Food for Hungry – Collection
boxes are in the parish hall for you to take and use during Great Lent. As Lent is a time to increase our alms giving as well as our
prayer, this program is a great way to involve yourself and your children. See Metropolitan PHILIP’s
letter elsewhere in the announcements.
Alms Giving Opportunities:
OCF lunches
– contribute to feed Orthodox Christian Fellowship meeting attendees
The Alms Fund
– used for a variety of uses throughout the year.
Food
for Hungry People – add to the food pantry
Diocese of
From the Fathers—
Someone asked Abba Anthony, “What must one do in order to please
God?” The old man replied, “Pay attention to what I tell you: whoever you may
be, always have God before your eyes; whatever you do, do it according to the
testimony of the holy Scriptures; in whatever place you live, do not easily
leave it. Keep these three precepts and you will be saved.” - Sayings of St. Anthony of
“Just as the thought of fire
does not warm the body, so faith without love does not actualize the light of
spiritual knowledge in the soul.”
-
St. Maximos the Confessor
“Being bountiful and full of
love, God awaits with great patience the repentance of every sinner, and He
celebrates the return of the sinner with celestial rejoicing. But when someone
sees this generosity and patience, and how God awaits repentance and so does
not punish sins one by one, he may neglect the commandment and make such
generosity an excuse for indifference, adding sin to sin, offence to offence,
laziness to laziness. In this way he will reach the furthest limits of sin, and
fall into such transgression that he is not able to recover himself. On the
contrary, sinking into the lowest depths and finally committing himself to the
devil, he destroys himself. That is what happened in the time of Noah: people
had surrendered so unrestrainedly to the impulses of evil, piling up such a
load of sin on themselves and showing not the least sign of repentance, that
the whole earth became corrupt (cf. Gen 6:5).” -
St. Makarios of
SOME
JEWISH STUDENTS said to a Rabbi, “Rabbi, we believe the
liturgy should be updated to reflect our concerns and to express our
feelings.” “My children,” he replied, “it is not the job of the liturgy to express your feelings.
It is your job to learn to feel what the liturgy expresses.” (While not specifically from the Fathers, it
clearly expresses their mind regarding our worship – Fr. John)
Parish Life Conference – Information for the Parish Life
Conference (June 20-24, 2007), for
our diocese is in the parish hall, including 1) Hotel information, 2)
Registration information, 3) Conference schedule of events, 4) Souvenir journal
submission forms. Hotel information is
also included in these announcements. In
addition, a personalized Web site for Diocese has been created for making hotel
reservations. Guests can access the site
to learn more about the event and to book, modify, of cancel a reservation from
On the Bulletin Board –
From the Library – Today is the Sunday of St. Gregory of Palamas. Is he a stranger
to you? Learn more about him at St. John
Library. Look for: The
Lives of the Pillars of Orthodoxy (REF/HAG/HOL); St. Gregory Palamas and Orthodox Spirituality
by John Meyendorff (SPR/LIV/MEY) and Saint Gregory Palamas
As a Hagiorite by Metropolitan of Nafpakos Hierotheos
(HAG/GRE/HIE). These books are on
display on the cart.
Teen Group Events
This Sunday, March 4th – Meeting at church,
Next Sunday, March
11th – Bowling
after Liturgy
Teen Catechism
Next meeting,
March 12, @ the Spinolos’ House