The Orthodox Messenger

Vol. VII, No. 18 – Sunday, April 13, 2008

Christ the Savior Greek Orthodox Church - Presentation of Christ at the Temple

The Hellenic Orthodox Mission of Hernando County, Florida – “A Pan-Orthodox Christian Community”

Ecumenical Patriarchate + Greek Orthodox  Archdiocese of America + Metropolis of Atlanta

Website: http://orthodoxhernandocountyfl.org

RELIVING THE LAST DAYS OF CHRIST’S LIFE ON EARTH - 2

ast week’s bulletin article reviewed the first part of Holy Week. This week we continue this brief description of Holy Week which begins next Sunday (Palm Sunday).

   Holy Thursday Night:  In this service, through twelve Bible Readings, we relive the awesome drama of the arrest, the trials and the Crucifixion of Christ. The service includes hymns which are reflections on the great mercy of God in giving His Incarnate Son to die for our sins. After the fifth Gospel reading the large cross with the icon of the Crucified Lord is taken in procession out of the Altar Area and place in front of the Royal Gate. The hymn chanted then points to the paradox and wonder of the event: “Today is hung upon the wood of the Cross, he who hung the earth in the waters.” At the end of the service we reverence the Crucified Lord, as if we were there, two thousand years ago, standing before Him as He hung on the Cross (April 24).

  Great Friday Morning we read the Old Testament prophetic writings foretelling Christ’s great Sacrifice for us, and parishioners decorate the Bier (a canopied table) with flowers.

  Great Friday Afternoon we conduct the Vespers of the Descent from the Cross. Toward the end of the Gospel Reading, the Priest stops and removes the icon of the Lord from the Cross and wraps it in a white sheet. It is then placed in the Altar area. On the Altar Table is a cloth icon of the body of the dead Christ. Toward the end of the Vespers it is carried around the church, as if it was being taken to, and placed in his casket, the Bier. At the end of the Service, we file by and pay our devotional respect.

  Great Friday Evening is the wake or viewing of His Sacred Body. An Orthros service, a highlight is the singing of the “Lamentations” by which once again we mourn His death, and expressing the sense of contradiction between the Lord as the Author of all life, and the death that He suffered for our sake: “How can the source of Life, lay dead in a tomb?” We then take the Bier with its icon of the dead Christ (known as the “Epitaphion”) in procession outside the church and the faithful carry lighted candles and we sing hymns. Again we pass by the Bier and venerate the icon of Christ’s Holy Body. At the end, the Priest carries the Epitaphion icon around the Holy Altar three times and then he places it on the Altar Table, where it will stay until Ascension Day, forty days after Pascha (April 25).

  Holy Saturday Morning the Orthros and Divine Liturgy anticipate the Resurrection with chants and the scattering of flower petals look forward to the new life of the Resurrection

highlighted by the theme of the three children in the fiery furnace.

                                                                                                              (Continued next week)

Service Hours: Sundays and Feast Days: Orthros at 9:30 a.m.; Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m.

5TH  SUNDAY OF GREAT LENT  - ST. MARY OF EGYPT

 GOSPEL ENTRANCE AND OTHER HYMNS - DIVINE LITURGY OF ST. BASIL

Dismissal Hymn of the Resurrection -  1st  Plagal Tone

   (Sing in Greek before the Entrance) "Ton synanarchon logon "  Hymnal, 85-86.

   (Sing in English after the Entrance) "The Eternal Word" (Same).

Dismissal Hymn of St. Mary of Egypt

   The leaders sing in Greek “En si, Miter, akrivos”

   (Read) Through you / the divine likeness was securely preserved, / O Mother Mary; / for you carried the Cross and followed Christ. / By example and precept you taught us / to ignore the body / because it is perishable, / to attend to the concerns / of the undying soul. / Therefore, your soul rejoices / with the angels.

Dismissal Hymn of the Presentation of Christ (See paper in the pews)

Kontakion of Lent: Sing in English “To you as champion. . .”  Hymnal, 98

 Turn to pp. 26-27 of the Hymnal, for “Holy God . . . .”

EPISTLE – Hebrews 9:11-14 (5th Lent- St. Mary of Egypt)

RETHREN, when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

GOSPEL – Mark 10:32-45 (5th Lent- St. Mary of Egypt)

t that time, Jesus taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles; and they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise." And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him, and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." And he said to them, "What do you want me to do for you?" And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory." But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" And they said to him, "We are able." And Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared." And when the ten heard

it, they began to be indignant of James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, "You know that those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

   A ONE YEAR MEMORIAL SERVICE  with Kolyva was offered after the Divine Liturgy last Sunday, March 6, by Argyri and Carol Gymnaos on the first anniversary of the passing of Argiri’s mother Maria and for his brothers Niko and Vasili. May Their Memories be Eternal!

   A TRISAGION MEMORIAL SERVICE will be offered following today’s D. Liturgy by Spero and Kathy Lemonedes for the rest of the soul of Aspacia Kessisoglou, mother of their “Koumbaroi.”  May her memory be eternal.

   FOR THE RECORD: Sunday, 4/06/08 Candles $102; Visitors’ Donations $105.57; Stewardship $815; Lenten/Holy Week Flowers $95; Phone Book Ads $325; Coffee Hour $22. Attendance  56. Many thanks for your support!

   APRIL NAME DAY BLESSINGS will be offered next Sunday, April 20, following the Divine Liturgy: George Angeliadis 4/23; Marko Feola 4/25; Argyrios Gymnaos 4/30; George Maniates 4/23; Carmen Alexandra Moshonisiotis 4/22;  Martin Narverud 4/13; George Nikas 4/23.

   HOSPITALIZED: Oak Hill: Louis Storgion, Stephen Woitovich; Lindalee Bell. Herron Pointe Rehab:  Demetra (Toula) Panagopoulos. Let Father Stanley know when a family member is hospitalized. We pray for a “Rapid Recovery”!

    PARISH COUNCIL-CANDLE STAND: 4/13 - Argyris & Carol Gymnaos; 4/20 -Venice Cosmadelis & Jennie Palmenteri. Holy Week - All Parish Council members should be available.

   THE APRIL PARISH COUNCIL MEETING wad held on Tuesday, April 8. Some of the actions take were as follows: following the reading of the minutes (Jennie Palmenteri) the financial report for the first quarter was presented (Curtis Thomas, Achilles Thomas), The $8,500 Archdiocese assessment has been appealed. The monthly Mission assistance of $400 has been ended following five years of support from the Home Missions Department of the Archdiocese. A letter of thanks will be sent to Nick Panagopoulos for the two iconostasis icons donated for the health of his wife, Dimitra. Candle Stand assignments were made (President William Pasisis) for the next three months. The date for the Parish Assembly was set for Sunday, June 1. Thanks was expressed to Argiris Gymnaos for painting the Gazebo, the parking barriers, fixing the Gazebo light, repairing bathroom fixtures and for installing the new iconostasis icons. The Stewardship report (Venice Cosmadelis) indicated 66 households with 106 Parish Assembly voting participants. The 2008-2009 Parish Telephone Directory ads amount to $1,800 at present. (Venice Cosmadelis, Achillies Thomas). Fund raising events are in process and a community Hawaiian  Luau is planned for Saturday, May 24 (Emily Thomas). The Building Committee report will be included in next week’s Bulletin (Niko Maroulis). A discussion on the Youth and Education Committee was held (Carol Gymnaos). The Parish will honor Past President Gloria Vardakis on Sunday, April 13 following the D. Liturgy (William Pasisis) and food will be prepared by Bette and Feenie Ferriero and John & Dora Halvatzes and Helen Vangel, with the parish offering the cake. Next meeting - May 6.

  COFFEE HOUR SPONSORS: 4/13 - Bette Ferriero, Dora Halvatzes & Helen Vangel; 4/20 - (Palm Sunday Buffet) Diane & David Covington & Harriet Pasisis; 4/27 - (After Easter Sunday Midnight Liturgy) Hazivasilis Family, Harriett Pasisis, Diane Covington; (Easter Sunday Vespers followed by “Easter Sunday Glendi”) Curtis and Emily Thomas.  

   “MAGERITSA” will be served after the Resurrection Service, April 26 The traditional “Mageritsa Soup Meal,” made only with real lamb meat by Bill Hazivasilis and his crew. Come, experience the Resurrection, share in the Liturgy and enjoy the fellowship!

   P.E.P.: Friday, April 18, 4:00 p.m. Video on the Early Church: Testimony

CHRIST THE SAVIOR

GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH

P.O. BOX 5566

SPRING HILL, FL 34611