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Dormition Greek Orthodox Church
Publish Date: 2020-02-16
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Prodson
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Dormition Greek Orthodox Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • (8020 862-2155
  • Fax:
  • (802) 881-0717
  • Street Address:

  • 600 South Willard Street

  • Burlington, VT 05401


Contact Information



Past Bulletins


Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the 2nd Mode

When You descended unto death, O Life Immortal, You rendered to Hades a mortal blow by the lightning of Your divinity, and when from the depths of darkness You also raised the dead, all the heavenly powers cried out: O Giver of Life, Christ our God, glory to 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 3rd Mode

I revolted senselessly out of Your fatherly glory; I have squandered sinfully all of the riches You gave me. Hence to You, using the Prodigal's words, I cry out, I have sinned before You, merciful loving Father. O receive me in repentance, I pray, and treat me as one of Your hired hands.
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Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

Sunday of the Prodigal Son
The Reading is from St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 6:12-20

Brethren, "all things are lawful for me," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be enslaved by anything. "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food" -- and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two shall become one flesh." But he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Shun immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body and in your spirit which belong to God.


Gospel Reading

Sunday of the Prodigal Son
The Reading is from Luke 15:11-32

The Lord said this parable: "There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that falls to me.' And he divided his living between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living. And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his belly with the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants.' And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to make merry. Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what this meant. And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound.' But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, 'Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!' And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'"


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This Week

Saturday, Feb. 15
4:00 PM: Bible Study; 5:00 PM: Great Vespers

Sunday of the Prodigal Son, Feb. 16
9:00 AM: Orthros; 10:00 AM: Divine Liturgy, Sunday School; 12:00 PM: Parish Council; 12:15 PM: Philoptochos

Saturday of Souls, Feb. 22
9:00 AM: Divine Liturgy, Memorial Service

Meatfare Sunday, Feb. 23
9:00 AM: Orthros; 10:00 AM: Divine Liturgy; 11:30 AM: Apokriatiko Luncheon


Fasting this Week
Wednesday & Friday: Strict Fast
All other days: No Fasting

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Announcements & Future Events

Apokriatiko Luncheon: next Sunday, Feb. 23, is called Meatfare Sunday (Apokreas Sunday), which is the last day we can eat meat until Pascha on Apr. 19! This is our Orthodox equivalent of "Carnival" which Western Christians celebrate before their Lent begins. To celebrate this day, and prepare us all together as a parish family for Great Lent, our local Chapter #24 of the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association (AHEPA) is sponsoring this year's delicious luncheon. Chicken, spaghetti and salad will be served immediately after Divine Liturgy. There is no set charge, however AHEPA is suggesting a $10 donation per adult, which will all be given to the parish. Please plan on joining your brothers and sisters in Christ next Sunday, and be sure to offer thanks to our AHEPA members for offering this Apokriatiko Luncheon.

Saturday of Souls: next Saturday, Feb. 22, is the first Psychosavvato or Soul Saturday of 2020. There will be three more of these Saturday commemorations: Feb. 29, Mar. 7 and Jun. 6. On these days, we commemorate all of the Orthodox faithful departed in our families, by preparing kollyva (boiled wheat kernels symbolizing the Resurrection), making an offering & submitting the names of departed family to the Priest, and attending Divine Liturgy. Please take note of our Parish's policy for Memorial Services and the template for submitting names (both attached). Παρακαλούμε, γράψτε τα ονόματα σε γενική πτώση (names written in Greek should be listed in the genitive case).

House Blessings: during the days following the Feast of the Theophany, it is customary for the Priest to visit the homes of his parishioners, bringing with him the “Jordan Water” for the traditional Theophany House Blessing. All who reside in the household should make every effort to be present for the Blessing. Fr Andreas will be available for House Blessings until the beginning of Great Lent on March 2. Please contact Father directly (priest@gocvt.org) or at the church office to schedule your family's 2020 Blessing.

PROSKOMIDE (OFFERINGS)

Prosphora: Alexandra Michaelides
Coffee Hour: Batranac Family

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Saints and Feasts

Prodson
February 16

Sunday of the Prodigal Son

Through the parable of today's Gospel, our Saviour has set forth three things for us: the condition of the sinner, the rule of repentance, and the greatness of God's compassion. The divine Fathers have put this reading the week after the parable of the Publican and Pharisee so that, seeing in the person of the Prodigal Son our own wretched condition -- inasmuch as we are sunken in sin, far from God and His Mysteries -- we might at last come to our senses and make haste to return to Him by repentance during these holy days of the Fast.

Furthermore, those who have wrought many great iniquities, and have persisted in them for a long time, oftentimes fall into despair, thinking that there can no longer be any forgiveness for them; and so being without hope, they fall every day into the same and even worse iniquities. Therefore, the divine Fathers, that they might root out the passion of despair from the hearts of such people, and rouse them to the deeds of virtue, have set the present parable at the forecourts of the Fast, to show them the surpassing goodness of God's compassion, and to teach them that there is no sin -- no matter how great it may be -- that can overcome at any time His love for man.


Allsaint
February 16

Pamphilus the Martyr & his Companions

This Martyr contested during the reign of Maximian, in the year 290, in Caesarea of Palestine, and was put to death by command of Firmilian, the Governor of Palestine. His fellow contestants' names are Valens, Paul, Seleucus, Porphyrius, Julian, Theodulus, and five others from Egypt: Elias, Jeremias, Esaias, Samuel, and Daniel. Their martyrdom is recorded in Book VIII, ch. 11 of Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, called The Martyrs of Palestine.


Theotyrn
February 17

Theodore the Tyro, Great Martyr

Saint Theodore who was from Amasia of Pontus, contested during the reign of Maximian (286-305). He was called Tyro, from the Latin Tiro, because he was a newly enlisted recruit. When it was reported that he was a Christian, he boldly confessed Christ; the ruler, hoping that he would repent, gave him time to consider the matter more completely and then give answer. Theodore gave answer by setting fire to the temple of Cybele, the "mother of the gods," and for this he suffered a martyr's death by fire. See also the First Saturday of the Fast.


Lastjudgement1
February 22

Saturday of Souls

Through the Apostolic Constitutions (Book VIII, ch. 42), the Church of Christ has received the custom to make commemorations for the departed on the third, ninth, and fortieth days after their repose. Since many throughout the ages, because of an untimely death in a faraway place, or other adverse circumstances, have died without being deemed worthy of the appointed memorial services, the divine Fathers, being so moved in their love for man, have decreed that a common memorial be made this day for all pious Orthodox Christians who have reposed from all ages past, so that those who did not have particular memorial services may be included in this common one for all. Also, the Church of Christ teaches us that alms should be given to the poor by the departed one's kinsmen as a memorial for him.

Besides this, since we make commemoration tomorrow of the Second Coming of Christ, and since the reposed have neither been judged, nor have received their complete recompense (Acts 17:31; II Peter 2:9; Heb. 11:39-40), the Church rightly commemorates the souls today, and trusting in the boundless mercy of God, she prays Him to have mercy on sinners. Furthermore, since the commemoration is for all the reposed together, it reminds each of us of his own death, and arouses us to repentance.


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Wisdom of the Fathers

Thank God every day with your whole heart for having given to you life according to His image and likeness - an intelligently free and immortal life...Thank Him also for again daily bestowing life upon you, who have fallen an innumerable multitude of times, by your own free will, through sins, from life unto death, and that He does so as soon as you only say from your whole heart: 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before Thee!' (Luke 15:18).
St. John of Kronstadt
My Life in Christ: Part 1; Holy Trinity Monastery pgs. 104-105, 19th century

For "these many years," saith he "do I serve thee, neither transgressed I thy commandment at any time, and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends; but when this thy son is come who hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf." So great is the power of repentance.
St. John Chrysostom
AN EXHORTATION TO THEODORE AFTER HIS FALL, 4th Century

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Event Insert

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