Publish-header
Dormition Greek Orthodox Church
Publish Date: 2018-12-09
Bulletin Contents
Anna
Organization Icon
Dormition Greek Orthodox Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • 802.862.2155
  • Street Address:

  • 600 South Willard Street

  • Burlington, VT 05401


Contact Information



Past Bulletins


This Week

10th Sunday of Luke - STEWARDSHIP SUNDAY, December 9
9:00 AM - Orthros, Holy Chrismation, Divine Liturgy, & Memorial Service; Sunday School; PC Elections; Ladies Philoptochos meeting

St. Spyridon the Wonderworker, Wednesday, December 12
9:00 AM - Divine Liturgy 

Saturday, December 15
4:00 PM - Bible Study; 5:00 PM - Great Vespers

11th Sunday of Luke, December 16
9:00 AM - Orthros & Divine Liturgy; CHRISTMAS PAGEANT; PC Elections

Fasting This Week
Thur & Fri: Strict Fast; Wed & Sat: Wine & Oil Allowed; All Other Days: Fish Allowed

BACK TO TOP

Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the 3rd Mode

Let the heavens rejoice; let the earth be glad, for the Lord has shown the mighty power of His arm. He trampled down death by death and become the first-born of the dead. From the depths of Hades, He delivered us and granted to the world great mercy.

Apolytikion for Conception of the Theotokos in the 4th Mode

Today the bonds of childlessness are broken. For hearing the prayers of Joachim and Anna, God promised that against all hope they would give birth to the Maiden of God. He, the Uncircumscribed, would be born of her, when He would become man, and by the Angel's example, He commands us to call to her: "Rejoice, Maiden full of the grace, the Lord is with you."

Apolytikion of Church of the Dormition in the 1st Mode

In giving birth you did retain your virginity. In your repose, you did not forsake the world, O Theotokos. You have passed into life, you that are the Mother of Life. And by your intercessions, you redeem our souls from death.

Seasonal Kontakion in the 4th Mode

On this day the whole wide world is celebrating that Saint Anna conceived a child, which was a miracle of God. And she gave birth to the one who bore the divine Logos, in ways passing speech and thought.
BACK TO TOP

Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

The Conception by St. Anna of the Most Holy Theotokos
The Reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians 4:22-27

Brethren, Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, the son of the free woman through promise. Now this is an allegory: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written, "Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and shout, you who are not in travail; for the children of the desolate one are many more than the children of her that is married."


Gospel Reading

10th Sunday of Luke
The Reading is from Luke 13:10-17

At that time, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years; she was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her and said to her, "Woman, you are freed from your infirmity." And he laid his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and she praised God. But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the sabbath, said to the people, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be healed, and not on the sabbath day." Then the Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?" As he said this, all his adversaries were put to shame; and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.


BACK TO TOP

Announcements & Future Events

WELCOME VISITORS — WE ARE PLEASED THAT YOU HAVE JOINED US TODAY! The Orthodox Church teaches that Holy Communion is a sign of unity. In order to receive Holy Communion in the Greek Orthodox Church, you must have been baptized or chrismated in the Christian Orthodox Faith. If you are interested in learning more about Christian Orthodoxy, please contact our Parish Priest, Father Andreas. Communicants should prepare themselves through fasting, prayer and confession. All Christians are invited to come forward at the end of Divine Liturgy to receive the Antidoron, holy bread, which is offered to all as a blessing.

This morning is our annual Stewardship Sunday, where we will make our 2019 Commitment to God and His holy Church of the Dormition. As has become customary in our parish, we will prayerfully offer our 2019 Stewardship Commitment together at the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy. If you do not have your Pledge Card, copies will be available at the candle stand.

This morning's Memorial Service is offered for Nicholas Zontanos and Zoe Griffing's Godmother, Angelike. Voula Zontanos is providing refreshment in memory of her husband and for St. Nicholas.

On Wednesday, December 12, we commemorate St. Spyridon the Wonderworker with Divine Liturgy at 9:00 AM. After this feast day, the Nativity Fast become more strict with fish (and of course meat and dairy/egg products) no longer allowed, and wine and olive oil consumed on the weekends.

Next Sunday after Divine Services will be our Christmas Pageant, followed by the AHEPA Christmas Breakfast. Please plan on staying to support our precious young people!

BACK TO TOP

In the Life of the Church

Holy Chrismation: This morning, Matthew Pierce. Sponsor is Roy-Cuthbert Barnes.

BACK TO TOP

Saints and Feasts

Anna
December 09

The Conception by St. Anna of the Most Holy Theotokos

According to the ancient tradition of the Church, since Saint Anna, the Ancestor of God, was barren, she and her husband Joachim remained without children until old age. Therefore, sorrowing over their childlessness, they besought God with a promise that, if He were to grant them the fruit of the womb, they would offer their offspring to Him as a gift. And God, hearkening to their supplication, informed them through an Angel concerning the birth of the Virgin. And thus, through God's promise, Anna conceived according to the laws of nature, and was deemed worthy to become the mother of the Mother of our Lord (see also Sept. 8).


Spyridon
December 12

Spyridon the Wonderworker of Trymithous

Spyridon, the God-bearing Father of the Church, the great defender of Corfu and the boast of all the Orthodox, had Cyprus as his homeland. He was simple in manner and humble of heart, and was a shepherd of sheep. When he was joined to a wife, he begat of her a daughter whom they named Irene. After his wife's departure from this life, he was appointed Bishop of Trimythus, and thus he became also a shepherd of rational sheep. When the First Ecumenical Council was assembled in Nicaea, he also was present, and by means of his most simple words stopped the mouths of the Arians who were wise in their own conceit. By the divine grace which dwelt in him, he wrought such great wonders that he received the surname 'Wonderworker." So it is that, having tended his flock piously and in a manner pleasing to God, he reposed in the Lord about the year 350, leaving to his country his sacred relics as a consolation and source of healing for the faithful.

About the middle of the seventh century, because of the incursions made by the barbarians at that time, his sacred relics were taken to Constantinople, where they remained, being honoured by the emperors themselves. But before the fall of Constantinople, which took place on May 29, 1453, a certain priest named George Kalokhairetes, the parish priest of the church where the Saint's sacred relics, as well as those of Saint Theodora the Empress, were kept, took them away on account of the impending peril. Travelling by way of Serbia, he came as far as Arta in Epirus, a region in Western Greece opposite to the isle of Corfu. From there, while the misfortunes of the Christian people were increasing with every day, he passed over to Corfu about the year 1460. The relics of Saint Theodora were given to the people of Corfu; but those of Saint Spyridon remain to this day, according to the rights of inheritance, the most precious treasure of the priest's own descendants, and they continue to be a staff for the faithful in Orthodoxy, and a supernatural wonder for those that behold him; for even after the passage of 1,500 years, they have remained incorrupt, and even the flexibility of his flesh has been preserved. Truly wondrous is God in His Saints! (Ps. 67:3 5)


BACK TO TOP

Wisdom of the Fathers

So great an evil is envy. For not against strangers only, but even against our own, is it ever warring.
St. John Chrysostom
Homily 40 on Matthew 12, 4th Century

And yet here He speaks only; whereas elsewhere in many cases He heals by laying on of hands also. But nevertheless none of these things made them meek; rather, while the man was healed, they by his health became worse. For His desire indeed was to cure them before him, and He tried innumerable ways of healing, both by what He did in their presence, and by what He said: but since their malady after all was incurable, He proceeded to the work.
St. John Chrysostom
Homily 40 on Matthew 12, 4th Century

BACK TO TOP

BACK TO TOP