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Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church
Publish Date: 2019-05-12
Bulletin Contents
Hymns of the Day
Saints and Feasts
Gospel and Epistle Readings
Parish News
Myrrbear
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Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • (904)-829-0504
  • Fax:
  • (904)829-0507
  • Street Address:

  • 2940 CR-214

  • St. Augustine, FL 32084-2718

Contact Information

Ms. Nelda Hann


holy3goc@gmail.com | 9048290504

Services Schedule

Sunday Orthros 9:00am Divine Liturgy 10:00am    Fr. John Hays, Interim Priest

Past Bulletins


Hymns of the Day

Apolytikion of Great and Holy Pascha in the Plagal 1st Tone

Christ is risen from the dead, by death trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs He has granted life. Χριστὸς ἀνέστη ἐκ νεκρῶν, θανάτῳ θάνατον πατήσας, καὶ τοῖς ἐν τοῖς μνήμασι, ζωὴν χαρισάμενος.

Apolytikion for Holy Myrrhbearers Sunday in the 2nd Tone

When You descended unto death, O Lord who yourself are immortal Life, then did You mortify Hades by the lightning flash of Your Divinity. Also when You raised the dead from the netherworld, all the Powers of the heavens were crying out: O Giver of life, Christ our God, glory to You. Ὅτε κατῆλθες πρὸς τὸν θάνατον, ἡ Ζωὴ ἡ ἀθάνατος, τότε τὸν ᾍδην ἐνέκρωσας τῇ ἀστραπῇ τῆς Θεότητος, ὅτε δὲ καὶ τοὺς τεθνεῶτας ἐκ τῶν καταχθονίων ἀνέστησας, πᾶσαι αἱ Δυνάμεις τῶν ἐπουρανίων ἐκραύγαζον· Ζωοδότα Χριστὲ ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν δόξα σοι.

Apolytikion for Holy Myrrhbearers Sunday in the 2nd Tone

When he took down Your immaculate Body from the Cross, the honorable Joseph wrapped it in a clean linen shroud with spices and laid it for burial in a new tomb. But on the third day You arose, O Lord, and granted the world Your great mercy. Ὁ εὐσχήμων Ἰωσήφ, ἀπὸ τοῦ ξύλου καθελών, τὸ ἄχραντόν σου Σῶμα, σινδόνι καθαρᾷ, εἰλήσας καὶ ἀρώμασιν, ἐν μνήματι καινῷ, κηδεύσας ἀπέθετο· ἀλλὰ τριήμερος ἀνέστης Κύριε, παρέχων τῷ κόσμῳ τὸ μέγα ἔλεος.

Apolytikion for Holy Myrrhbearers Sunday in the 2nd Tone

The Angel standing at the sepulcher cried out and said to the ointment-bearing women: The ointments are appropriate for mortal men, but Christ has been shown to be a stranger to decay. So go and cry aloud, The Lord has risen and granted the world His great mercy. Ταῖς μυροφόροις Γυναιξί, παρὰ τὸ μνῆμα ἐπιστάς, ὁ Ἄγγελος ἐβόα· Τὰ μύρα τοῖς θνητοῖς ὑπάρχει ἁρμόδια, Χριστὸς δὲ διαφθορᾶς ἐδείχθη ἀλλότριος, ἀλλὰ κραυγάσατε· Ἀνέστη ὁ Κύριος, παρέχων τῷ κόσμῳ τὸ μέγα ἔλεος.

Seasonal Kontakion in the Plagal 4th Tone

Though You went down into the tomb, O Immortal One, yet You brought down the dominion of Hades; and You rose as the victor, O Christ our God; and You called out "Rejoice" to the Myrrh-bearing women, and gave peace to Your Apostles, O Lord who to the fallen grant resurrection. Εἰ καὶ ἐν τάφῳ κατῆλθες Ἀθάνατε, ἀλλὰ τοῦ ᾅδου καθεῖλες τὴν δύναμιν· καὶ ἀνέστης ὡς νικητής, Χριστὲ ὁ Θεός, γυναιξὶ Μυροφόροις φθεγξάμενος, Χαίρετε, καὶ τοῖς σοῖς Ἀποστόλοις εἰρήνην δωρούμενος, ὁ τοῖς πεσοῦσι παρέχων ἀνάστασιν.
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Saints and Feasts

Myrrbear
May 12

Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women

About the beginning of His thirty-second year, when the Lord Jesus was going throughout Galilee, preaching and working miracles, many women who had received of His beneficence left their own homeland and from then on followed after Him. They ministered unto Him out of their own possessions, even until His crucifixion and entombment; and afterwards, neither losing faith in Him after His death, nor fearing the wrath of the Jewish rulers, they came to the sepulchre, bearing the myrrh-oils they had prepared to annoint His body. It is because of the myrrh-oils, that these God-loving women brought to the tomb of Jesus that they are called the Myrrh-bearers. Of those whose names are known are the following: first of all, the most holy Virgin Mary, who in Matthew 27:56 and Mark 15:40 is called "the mother of James and Joses" (these are the sons of Joseph by a previous marriage, and she was therefore their step-mother); Mary Magdalene (celebrated July 22); Mary, the wife of Clopas; Joanna, wife of Chouza, a steward of Herod Antipas; Salome, the mother of the sons of Zebedee, Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus; and Susanna. As for the names of the rest of them, the evangelists have kept silence (Matt 27:55-56; 28:1-10. Mark 15:40-41. Luke 8:1-3; 23:55-24:11, 22-24. John 19:25; 20:11-18. Acts 1:14).

Together with them we celebrate also the secret disciples of the Saviour, Joseph and Nicodemus. Of these, Nicodemus was probably a Jerusalemite, a prominent leader among the Jews and of the order of the Pharisees, learned in the Law and instructed in the Holy Scriptures. He had believed in Christ when, at the beginning of our Saviour's preaching of salvation, he came to Him by night. Furthermore, he brought some one hundred pounds of myrrh-oils and an aromatic mixture of aloes and spices out of reverence and love for the divine Teacher (John 19:39). Joseph, who was from the city of Arimathea, was a wealthy and noble man, and one of the counsellors who were in Jerusalem. He went boldly unto Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus, and together with Nicodemus he gave Him burial. Since time did not permit the preparation of another tomb, he placed the Lord's body in his own tomb which was hewn out of rock, as the Evangelist says (Matt. 27:60).

Epiphanius
May 12

Epiphanius, Bishop of Cyprus

Saint Epiphanius was born about 310 in Besanduc, a village of Palestine, of Jewish parents who were poor and tillers of the soil. In his youth he came to faith in Christ and was baptized with his sister, after which he distributed all he had to the poor and became a monk, being a younger contemporary of Saint Hilarion the Great (see Oct. 21), whom he knew. He also visited the renowned monks of Egypt to learn their ways. Because the fame of his virtue had spread, many in Egypt desired to make him a bishop; when he learned of this, he fled, returning to Palestine. But after a time he learned that the bishops there also intended to consecrate him to a widowed bishopric, and he fled to Cyprus. In Paphos he met Saint Hilarion, who told him to go to Constantia, a city of Cyprus also called Salamis. Epiphanius answered that he preferred to take ship for Gaza, which, despite Saint Hilarion's admonitions, he did. But a contrary wind brought the ship to Constantia where, by the providence of God, Epiphanius fell into the hands of bishops who had come together to elect a successor to the newly-departed Bishop of Constantia, and the venerable Epiphanius was at last constrained to be consecrated, about the year 367. He was fluent in Hebrew, Egyptian, Syriac, Greek, and Latin, and because of this he was called "Five-tongued." He had the gift of working miracles, and was held in such reverence by all, that although he was a known enemy of heresy, he was well nigh the only eminent bishop that the Arians did not dare to drive into exile when the Emperor Valens persecuted the Orthodox about the year 371. Having tended his flock in a manner pleasing to God, and guarded it undefiled from every heresy, he reposed about the year 403, having lived for ninety-three years. Among his sacred writings, the one that is held in special esteem is the Panarion (from the Latin Panarium, that is, "Bread-box,") containing the proofs of the truth of the Faith, and an examination of eighty heresies.

Allsaint
May 12

Germanos, Patriarch of Constantinople

Saint Germanos, who was from Constantinople, was born to an illustrious family, the son of Justinian the Patrician. First he became Metropolitan of Cyzicus; in 715 he was elevated to the throne of Constantinople; but because of his courageous resistance to Leo the Isaurian's impious decree which inaugurated the war upon the holy icons, he was exiled from his throne in 715. He lived the rest of his life in privacy, and reposed about 740, full of days. The fore-most of his writings is that which deals with the Six Ecumenical Councils. He wrote many hymns also, as is apparent from the titles of many stichera and idiomela, among which are those for the Feast of the Meeting in the Temple.

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Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. 2nd Tone. Psalm 117.14,18.
The Lord is my strength and my song.
Verse: The Lord has chastened me sorely.

The reading is from Acts of the Apostles 6:1-7.

In those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists murmured against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the body of the disciples and said, "it is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brethren, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." And what they said pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochoros, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaos, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands upon them. And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.

Gospel Reading

Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women
The Reading is from Mark 15:43-47; 16:1-8

At that time, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. And Pilate wondered if he were already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the body to Joseph. And he bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud, and laid him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.

And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?" And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back; for it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed. And he said to them, "Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you." And they went out and fled from the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

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Parish News

A Word from Fr. John:

Continuing our paschal reflections on light and glory from last week...

 

“We love everything brilliant on earth: gold, silver, precious stones, crystal, bright clothing. Why, then, do we not love the future glory to which the Lord calls us? Why do we not aspire to shine like the sun? ‘Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father’ (Matt. 13:42).... Why is there such a love for everything bright in us? Because our soul was created for heavenly light, and was originally all light, all radiance. Thus, light is inborn in it; the feeling and desire for light are inborn in it. Direct this aspiration to seeking for heavenly light!” – St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ

 

“... [I]t is this world which is in travail with that new inner man which is ‘created after the likeness of God’ (Eph. 4:24). When he has been shaped and formed here, he is thus born perfect into that perfect world which grows not old. As nature prepares the fetus, while it is in its dark and fluid life, for that life which is in the light, and shapes it as though according to a model for the life which it is about to receive, so likewise it happens to the saints. This is what the apostle Paul said when he wrote to the Galatians, ‘my little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you’ (Gal. 4:19).

 

... In our case, that future life is, as it were, infused into this present life and mingled with it. For us, too, that Sun has graciously risen; the heavenly fragrance has been poured forth into the malodorous places, and the Bread of Angels has been given even to men.”

            – St. Nicholas Cabasilas, The Life in Christ

 

“Now, all is filled with light – heaven and earth and the lower regions. Let all creation celebrate the rising of Christ; for in Him are we established.

 

Let us arise at the rising of the sun and bring to the Master a hymn instead of myrrh, and we shall see Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, who causes life to dawn for all.”   – The Paschal Canon

 

“We have seen the true Light, we have received the heavenly Spirit. We have found the true faith, worshipping the undivided Trinity; for the Trinity has saved us.”        – The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom

 

Special Prayer Requests:  We pray for mercy, life, peace, and healing for all parishioners, especially Mike Chelikas, Irene Hastalis, Jim Manos, Chresanthe Lemieux, Jane Anderson, Betty & Fred Day, Despina Xynidis, Jimmy Diamondidis, the Godson of Jeff Kauttu and Melissa Kauttu Strange who has suffered a concussion, George P. Nichols, and for their families; for continued growth of the parish family, and for those the Lord receives, serves, and sends through her lifesaving ministry. We pray for our two missionary families:  Dn. Stephanos, Dka. Alexandria & Moses Ritsi serving Albania; and Michael, Lisa & Liam Colburn serving translators worldwide We pray this Mother’s Day for all Orthodox mothers.

 

Mother’s Day Memorial: Gary and Faye Peterson are providing Koliva on Mother’s Day today, for all Orthodox mothers who have fallen asleep unto the Lord. May their memory be eternal!

 

In Times of Need:When challenging times come upon us and especially in times of illness, hospitalization, emergency, or loneliness, ask for intercession and visitation. Please notify Father John through the church office, or email prayer requests and updates to holy3goc@gmail.com.

 

Donations: Especially on great feasts of the Church, offerings above and beyond stewardship are customary in order to supply the community with needed supplies of incense, candles, olive oil for anointing & lamps, wine for Communion, flowers for icons, Easter Lilies, paper, printing ink, and more! 

Donation envelopes are available in the Narthex near the drop box.

Offerings may also be submitted directly to the Office.

 

Sunday School News: Paschal greetings from the Sunday School teachers to all the children, parents and community of Holy Trinity parish.  Christ is Risen. Indeed He Is!

 

Hostess Schedule:Carman Gaetanos (904) 540-0367 or carmgaet@gmail.com 

  • Today, May 12th                                Kristina Wilkes, Faye Peterson
  • May 19th                                          Penny Angelus, Joan Manis
  • May 26th                                          Sunday Potluck                

 

May 19th Parish Town Hall:The “Growing with a Full Time Priest” survey provided valuable information.  Once again, we are extremely grateful for contributing your thoughtful suggestions.  The survey results will be discussed at a parish town hall on Sunday, May 19 following Liturgy.  These discussions will further our efforts to make our parish vision a reality.  If you have comments on the survey or our future growth, please plan to attend May 19.

 

Iconography Update:  Our iconographer Aristidis Kovaci has begun work on the Pantocrator and Prophets in his studio in Orange Park.  He will assemble the icons, paint the background, and write the inscriptions here in our church.  Installation of the icons will take about 10-14 days, and during that time, because of the scaffolding, we will have services in the Fellowship Hall.  We look forward watching the iconography installation after Pascha, in May, and its completion before Pentecost.

 

Stewardship – A Pattern of Caring: Giving is a habit that begins with a commitment. Becoming an active steward requires a conscious decision to actively support the needs of the Church. The commitment card we offer to Holy Trinity parish parish each year encourages us to give regularly. There are extra cards in church, or you can call the church office. 

 

Weekly Offering:

  • Sacrificial Offerings - Weekly Offering:

May 5th - Candles $181; Tray $54; Stewardship $2266

Every week, at each celebration of the Divine Liturgy, members of our parish and those joining in the Eucharistic celebration are invited to support the ministry of our parish through a financial contribution.  Your offering can be made at the collection basket as you exit the service.

 

Catholic Schoolhouse Celebration – Tuesday, May 14th, 5-9 PM:Extending much gratitude for the rental and use of the hall and classrooms in the 2018-2019 schoolyear, the Catholic Schoolhouse Directors, Laura Orsini Bland and Valerie Thompson, invite all at Holy Trinity Parishioners to enjoy an evening of culminating events as they celebrate the student’s accomplishments.  We extend gratitude to God for this partnership with the dedicated Catholic Schoolhouse families of the Angelus Community in St. Augustine, Florida, and encourage participation to express our mutual thanksgiving for the fruits of their labor and love!

 

June 1, Annual Greek Summer Night - Fun, Fellowship, Family:  Greek Summer Nightis Saturday, June 1, 2019.  This annual event benefits our Holy Trinity Church.  It is a time to enjoy Greek food, music and dance.  Come for fun, fellowship and family.  Music by DJ Arista.  Tickets on sale now, $25 donation per person, $15 per children 12 & under, and reserved seating available (for tables of 8).  Please see Andy or Angela Lekos, Carman or Mikae Gaetanos, for tickets.  For reservations, call Andy 904-823-8882 or email ajlekos@att.net.

  

 

 

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