Greeters

Misael Jordan & Rob Hattling

Prosfora

Paul Werger

Fellowship Hour

Thank you to AHEPA for hosting this Sunday!

Please consider hosting a coffee hour! Hosts are needed for the following Sundays: April 7 & 14 as well as May 12 (Mother's Day). Individuals, families, or even groups can sign up to host or co-host! Use this URL to sign up for Coffee Hour!
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D4CA5AD2BABFF2-46964197-fellowship#/

Parish Assembly--June 09

Join us on Sunday, June 09, immediately following Divine Liturgy, in the hall for a Parish Assembly meeting in person and on Zoom. https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84290595046?pwd=4rGTfXamOeOqs3iI2xrbpJ93VV0nbR.1

St. Mary’s Summer Camp

Camp will be held at Camp Wapo from Saturday, June 29th – Friday, July 5th, 2024. Campers entering the 3rd through 12th-grade level in the Fall of 2024 are eligible to register. Registration is open! https://stmaryscamp.com

Reminder to get your spring flowers from the Philoptochos Fundraiser!

Shop now for all your spring yard needs as well as Mother's Day gifts! High quality plants, flats, veggies, hanging baskets and porch pots are available. All proceeds will be used to further the Philoptochos mission of assisting the needy. Order online at: gertensfundraising.com
use Store ID: 764 at check out! Plants will be delivered to St. George on May 11 in time for Mother's Day gifting.

Intro to Orthodox Christianity Catechism Course - Spring 2024

Join us for our MEOCCA catechism course, Intro to Orthodox Christianity, now in session. Catechism is open to all; people interested in learning more about Orthodox Christianity, inquirers, catechumens, and current Orthodox Christians as well! Classes will be held on Monday evenings from 7:00-9:00 p.m. in person (1111 Summit Ave., St. Paul, MN) or online via Zoom. To register, email info@stgeorgegoc.org. Learn more at www.meocca.org.

2024 Stewardship Program

2024 Stewardship Goal
$51,098 of $275,000 (through February)

At the Fall Parish Assembly, we approved the 2024 Stewardship Goal of $275,000. We have hit this mark in the last couple of years, and we truly believe that with everyone’s support, we will hit that mark again. Now is the time to fill your 2024 pledge. Pledge Cards are at the candle stand, or click the link below to fill out the form online. Thank you for your support of the work of the Church.

Fr. Perry's Corner

Please let me know (frperry@stgeorgegoc.org or (651) 706-9672) if you can help with any of the following:

2024 Theme
"Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant,” from the Parable of the Talents. We are all blessed with certain gifts. This parable stresses the importance of developing our gifts, multiplying them, and offering them back in service to God.

Make Your 2024 Pledge Online

https://forms.gle/TAvAZUNCBrcRHX1KA

Make a Stewardship Donation Online

https://www.stgeorgegoc.org/give

Charitable Donations to Philoptochos, Missions & Benevolence, Church School, Youth, Greek School, & other St. George Ministries

Thank you to all who continue to support our Ladies Philoptochos, Missions and Benevolence, the priest discretionary fund, Church School, Youth, Greek School, and other parish ministries! For those who would like a receipt of their donations to a particular church ministry for tax purposes, please make all deductible contributions directly to the church, noting a designation of the gift in the memo line. For example, you might put in the memo line “2023 Philoptochos Stewardship/membership,” “donation to Missions and Benevolence,” "priest discretionary fund," etc. Resources will be earmarked and distributed to the ministry you note, and your donations will be included in your end-of-year statement. Thank you again for your commitment to the work of the church!

Reimbursements

To our ministry leaders and volunteers, please save receipts when making purchases for church activities. A reminder that reimbursement forms are located on the tower outside of the admin and treasurer’s office. Please make sure to submit the form with a copy of your receipt (you keep the original receipt). Finally, please make sure to submit for reimbursement contemporaneous with the expense(s). Although we do not have a set cutoff date for reimbursements, please do your best to have all prior year reimbursements submitted before the end of January of the following year. Please contact Lani if you have any questions at lani@stgeorgegoc.org.

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Roselawn Announcement for 2024 Pricing

Announcing 2024 Roselawn Program Prices
Advance planning can give you and your family peace of mind and is also cost-effective. Annual cost increases are typically at least 2% and have risen over 26% since 2013. The St. George Roselawn Cemetery Program continues to offer lots at Roselawn in Roseville for a 15% discount off list prices. All revenue from lots supports our church and its ministries. These lots are in the St. George section, adjacent to the “Greek” section, and easily identifiable by the monument/altar table. Contact the church office for more information.

2024 Discounted Prices for Parishioners:
$7,182 = Monument Lot (2 Graves)
$5,095 = Flat Lot (2 Graves)
$2,762 = Flat Lot (1 Grave, Limited Availability)

(These prices reflect a 15% off Roselawn Retail Price)

This continues to be one of those great opportunities where you can support the church, save some money, and create a legacy for your family all at the same time.

Lots for both monument and marker (flat) stones are still available.

Please follow Roselawn regulations for the care and beautification of your loved one’s lots.

The table-like monument marking our area from Victoria street is visible on google maps and google satellite view at the links below and can be found on the church website.

http://tinyurl.com/4cte47f3
http://tinyurl.com/5n6abxwa

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New Hall Setup

Please note the new hall set up for ministries and organizations using the hall. We have posted photos in the kitchen for your reference. Small white squares are under each table for proper placement if they are moved. All the groups who use our facility are responsible for putting the tables & chairs (8 per table)in place according to the layout before they leave the church. We appreciate your diligence in keeping the hall neat and organized.

Fellowship Hour 

Please sign up to host an upcoming fellowship (coffee) hour. Our next openings are in April. Click the link below to sign up, or contact Elise Werger at (612) 867-8047.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D4CA5AD2BABFF2-46964197-fellowship#/

Silent Auction

Remember to check out the Silent Auction in the Social Hall. Proceeds support our Missions and Benevolence ministry. New items are added regularly. If you would like to donate items that are new with tags or something else valuable, such as theater/sports tickets, please contact Angela Mortari at apanoskaltsis@gmail.com or text 651-280-7123.

Piano

We are looking for a new home for our piano that was previously located in the hall. It needs some work. Please contact the church office if you are interested. It measures 58.5”x12”x45.5”

By: Father George Parsenios, PhD

What appears to happen in the Passion of Christ and what actually happens are not at all the same. What appears to happen is not that extraordinary. The Romans crucified a Jewish man in order to keep public order. During their long rule over Judea, the Romans had killed many Jews, making the death of Jesus one among these many. But, only in appearance. The reality was very different. The Paschal homily attributed to St. John Chrysostom emphasizes this difference between appearance and reality. Chrysostom describes Christ's encounter with Hades as follows:

Hades…was embittered
when it encountered thee in the lower regions…
It took a body, and met God face to face.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.

Fooled by what appeared to be just another corpse, Hades was overthrown by an encounter with the Almighty God, as the Passion and Resurrection of Christ shook the foundations of the universe in the final acts of a cosmic drama.

As we enter the Lenten season, we are reminded that we have a role in this universal, cosmic drama. Let’s reflect on the proper nature of our role by using the language of appearance and reality. For, it is easy to confuse our role, or to play the wrong role by focusing on our appearance rather than our reality.

When Jesus chastises his opponents, he often calls them hypocrites for practicing their piety in public, and for drawing attention to themselves as they pray. The word hypocrite, of course, is the Greek word for "actor." They are trying to "act" pious and "act" charitable. Their focus is on their appearance in public. Jesus urges them instead "to go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you" (Matt 6:6).

Now, these things are not included in the Gospels so that we can ridicule the Pharisees whom Jesus criticizes. Indeed, they are written, not because we are unlike the Pharisees, but because we have the unfortunate potential to be just like them. The very things that are designed to make us more humble, the very acts of repentance and self-denial that are supposed to make us more open to God and more loving to one another can be used to make us more self-satisfied and more self-centered. But this is to focus on the appearance of holiness, and not its reality.

A wonderful little book called the Way of the Ascetics provides an important image for reflecting on real holiness. For, we may be inclined to think that, if we want to be humble, we must try to appear humble. We might, for instance, wear especially humble clothes or constantly adopt humble postures. But, this, too, can be a way of drawing attention to ourselves.

The Way of the Ascetics has a lovely passage about real humility, however, emphasizing that the truly humble person doesn't stand out as being more humble than others, and, indeed, doesn't stand out at all. You may not even notice him because the goal of humility is precisely not to stand out. Real holiness has a way of making a person appear relatively normal, just like everyone else. As with the Passion of Christ, of course, this appearance of being usual and everyday is only on the surface.

A very helpful step in focusing on the inner drama of holiness is to avoid comparing ourselves with others, and the Church reminds us of this fact in various ways. On the 5th Sunday of Lent, for instance, we commemorate St. Mary of Egypt. She lived alone in the desert until she met St. Zosimas, who tells her story.

We wouldn't know anything about St. Mary, however, if St. Zosimas had not encountered her in the desert. And St. Zosimas would not have been in the desert if his monastery had not observed the Lenten fast in a particular way. To keep the monks of his monastery from competing with one another, the monks retreated individually into the desert, in order to observe the fast separately. Their drama was internal and their only audience was God. This is a helpful model to imitate.

A certain silence should accompany our fasting. While it will be helpful to encourage one another and support one another over the next forty days, it is also easy for this need for support to become something else. It's easy to find ways to drop hints of our fasting regimen into casual conversations. We might even rationalize a good reason for doing so. But this is to risk making the fast into one more opportunity to put ourselves in the limelight and at center stage, and to undermine the real work of fasting, prayer and repentance that lie within the inner heart of Lent.

The great ascetics of the early Church always navigated between the appearance and the reality of holiness. We are regularly told in the stories of the Desert Fathers that the monks of the Egyptian desert would hide their ascetical practices from visitors. They don't make their guests fast with them, but prefer to show hospitality to whomever comes to see them. They feed them well and make them comfortable.

The visitors, of course, are always surprised and suppose that these renowned monks are not really all that strenuous in their spiritual exercises. We are always told in the stories, however, what really happens, and how the ascetic only allows himself to appear unimpressive, because his greater concern is the care and comfort of his guests. Here we see the opposite of the hypocrites whom Christ admonishes. The appearance is allowed to be unspectacular, while the reality of generosity and holiness is profound.

Let us, then, observe the fast in reality and not only in appearance, following these models of piety and especially the model of our Lord, whose strength was shown in weakness and whose apparent defeat in death led in reality to the victory of the Resurrection. "For, if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his" (Rom 6:5).

PRACTICAL RESOURCES FOR PARISH MINISTRY 
Department of Stewardship, Outreach & Evangelism
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
Fr. Jim Kordaris, Director
FrJimK@goarch.org
646-519-6760

Thank you for joining us in worship. Whether you are an Orthodox Christian or this is your first visit to an Orthodox Church, we are pleased to have you with us! Although Holy Communion is offered only to baptized and chrismated Orthodox Christians, all are invited to receive the Antidoron (blessed bread) at the end of the service. The Antidoron and fellowship hour are reminiscent of the Agape Feast that followed worship in the early Church.

One does not have to be of Greek descent nor speak Greek to be an Orthodox Christian and member of our parish. All people of any background are welcome to join the Orthodox Church. For those interested in learning more about the Christian Faith or becoming a member of our church, please see Fr. Perry after services or contact him at frperry@stgeorgegoc.org or (651) 222-6220.

We hope you will join us in our hall upstairs this morning after services for fellowship and refreshments!

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Prosfora (Offering Bread)

Thank you to those who make the prosfora/offering bread for Liturgy. If you would like to sign up to bake and make an offering of bread to the church, please get in touch with Krisandrea at krisandreambr@icloud.com.

“Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” John 6:27

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Content for the Bulletin

All content for the bulletin (flyers, blurbs, calendar events, etc.) is due Wednesday each week. Content submitted after Wednesday will be included in the bulletin for the following week.

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Parish Email List Sign-Up 

Sign up for our email list to see what’s happening at St. George!

Text Message Reminders - Sign Up for Youth & Family Events!

We have some AWESOME Youth & Family events coming up, and you don't want to miss out. Join our text message system Remind to stay up to date with all of our communications. Join by clicking https://www.remind.com/join/stgyandf or 

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Please Note