Please see our online calendar for dates and times of Feast Day services.
Jesus Christ taught us to love and serve all people, regardless of their ethnicity or nationality. To understand that, we need to look no further than to the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Every time we celebrate the Divine Liturgy, it is offered "on behalf of all, and for all." As Orthodox Christians we stand against racism and bigotry. All human beings share one common identity as children of God. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatian 3:28)
Members of our Parish Council are:
Joseph Barbera - Council Member at Large
Susan Davis- Council Member at Large
Carolyn Neiss - President
Marlene Melesko - Vice President
Susan Egan - Treasurer
Dn Timothy Skuby - Secretary
Pastoral Care - General Information
Emergency Sick Calls can be made at any time. Please call Fr Steven at (860) 866-5802, when a family member is admitted to the hospital.
Anointing in Sickness: The Sacrament of Unction is available in Church, the hospital, or your home, for anyone who is sick and suffering, however severe.
Marriages and Baptisms require early planning, scheduling and selections of sponsors (crown bearers or godparents). See Father before booking dates and reception halls!
Funerals are celebrated for practicing Orthodox Christians. Please see Father for details. The Church opposes cremation; we cannot celebrate funerals for cremations.
Council Request: The Council is currently looking to hire someone to plow our driveway & parking lot this winter. If you know of anyone, please contact Father, a Council member or text Marlene Melesko at 860-857-5255 or e-mail at mmelesko@sbcglobal.net.
St. Tikhon’s Seminary Choir comes again to Connecticut for a special Sacred Music Concert!
Three Saints Orthodox Church in Ansonia, CT will again be hosting a Concert of Sacred Music, sung by seminarians from St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in South Canaan, PA on Sunday, December 4th at 4 PM.
As with last year, to honor our former chancellor and beloved pastor emeritus, we will be funding “The Very Rev. Mitered Archpriest Nicholas Timpko St. Tikhon’s OCA Seminarian Memorial Scholarship”. A further blessing has been offered in the form of a $5,000 matching grant from a donor in our parish. There is no admission fee, but donations will help fund the scholarship, to help prepare priests and leaders within the Orthodox Church. Please see the Flyer Posted on your Church Bulletin Board for more information.
Donation checks made out to Three Saints Orthodox Church (with STOTS written on your memo line) may be mailed to:
Three Saints Orthodox Church
ATTN: Scholarship
26 Howard Ave,
Ansonia, CT 06401
Don’t hesitate to contact Rdr .Peter Romanovsky at 203-305-5683 or pwromanovsky89@gmail.com for more information or look us up at threesaintschurch.org.
May our good Lord bless you for your generosity!
Safe Futures
OUTREACH COMMITTEE is once again collecting Christmas gifts for Safe Futures in New London. Safe Futures is a shelter for abused men, women and children who is currently housing 700 adults and families. You can find their gift list request attached and copies on the candle desk at church. Please be as generous as you have been in the past. Thank you!
Marlene Melesko at 860-739-4360
If you or someone you know is a victim of abuse, please call Safe Futures at 860-701-6001.
Liturgical Calendar Orders
Before we order the liturgical calendars for nexy year, we would like to know who would like to have one. A sign-up sheet will be available at the candle desk. Please put your name, and the number of calendars you would like to have. Please be advised that you may be asked to make a $5 donation for each calendar that you would like.
Pledge Forms
Also available on the candle desk are the pledge forms for the next calendar year. I am asking that you please take one and prayerfully complete it, returning it on Sunday of the Annual Meeting. This will certainly help us managing the budget as we approach 2023.
Many Years! to Alexei Hoehnebart, Thomas Brubaker and Christine Boyd on the occasion of their birthdays, and to Catherine Brubaker on the occasion of her Name's Day.
Please continue to pray for our catecumens, David, James and Anthony (and his family).
Forefeast of the Entry Into the Temple of the Most-holy Theotokos. Ven. Gregory Decapolites (816). St. Proclus, Archbishop of Constantinople (446-447). Ven. Diodorus, Abbot of Yuregórsk (1633). Martyr Dasius of Dorostorum (3rd c.). Martyrs Eustace, Thespesius, and Anatolius of Nicea (312). Hieromartyrs Nerses and Joseph; John, Saverius, Isaac, and Hypatius, Bishops of Persia; Martyrs Azades the Eunuch, Savonius, Thecla, Anna, and many other men and women who suffered in Persia (343).
Alexei Hoehnebart
Annual Meeting
9th Sunday of Luke
9:30AM Divine Liturgy
5:00PM Community Service of Thanksgiving
The Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple
8:30AM Divine Liturgy
Archippus the Apostle, Philemon the Apostle & his wife, Apphia, Onesimos the Disciple of Paul
8:30AM Daily Matins
A. Martins - N
Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium
6:00PM Akathist of Thanksgiving
Our Holy Father Clement, Pope of Rome
Catherine the Great Martyr of Alexandria
Alypius the Stylite of Adrianopolis
Christine Boyd - B
5:30PM Great Vespers
13th Sunday of Luke
Page - A
9:30AM Divine Liturgy
Stephen the New
Daria Krawchuk - B
According to the tradition of the Church, the Theotokos was brought to the Temple at three years of age, where she was consecrated to God and spent her days until she was fourteen or fifteen years old; and then, as a mature maiden, by the common counsel of the priests (since her parents had reposed some three years before), she was betrothed to Joseph.
Philemon, who was from Colossae, a city of Phrygia, was a man both wealthy and noble; Apphia was his wife. Archippus became Bishop of the Church in Colossae. All three were disciples of the Apostle Paul. Onesimus, who was formerly an unbeliever and slave of Philemon, stole certain of his vessels and fled to Rome. However, on finding him there, the Apostle Paul guided him onto the path of virtue and the knowledge of the truth, and sent him back to his master Philemon, to whom he wrote an epistle (this is one of the fourteen epistles of Saint Paul). In this epistle, Paul commended Onesimus to his master and reconciled the two. Onesimus was later made a bishop; in Greece he is honoured as the patron Saint of the imprisoned. All these Saints received their end by martyrdom, when they were stoned to death by the idolaters. Saint Onesimus is also commemorated on February 15.
Saint Catherine, who was from Alexandria, was the daughter of Constas (or Cestus). She was an exceedingly beautiful maiden, most chaste, and illustrious in wealth, lineage, and learning. By her steadfast understanding, she utterly vanquished the passionate and unbridled soul of Maximinus, the tyrant of Alexandria; and by her eloquence, she stopped the mouths of the so-called philosophers who had been gathered to dispute with her. She was crowned with the crown of martyrdom in the year 305. Her holy relics were taken by Angels to the holy mountain of Sinai, where they were discovered many years later; the famous monastery of Saint Catherine was originally dedicated to the Holy Transfiguration of the Lord and the Burning Bush, but later was dedicated to Saint Catherine. According to the ancient usage, Saints Catherine and Mercurius were celebrated on the 24th of this month, whereas the holy Hieromartyrs Clement of Rome and Peter of Alexandria were celebrated on the 25th. The dates of the feasts of these Saints were interchanged at the request of the Church and Monastery of Mount Sinai, so that the festival of Saint Catherine, their patron, might be celebrated more festively together with the Apodosis of the Feast of the Entry of the Theotokos. The Slavic Churches, however, commemorate these Saints on their original dates.
Saint Clement was instructed in the Faith of Christ by the Apostle Peter. He became Bishop of Rome in the year 91, the third after the death of the Apostles. He died as a martyr about the year 100 during the reign of Trajan.
Tone 6 Troparion (Resurrection)
The Angelic Powers were at Your tomb;
the guards became as dead men.
Mary stood by Your grave,
seeking Your most pure body.
You captured hell, not being tempted by it.
You came to the Virgin, granting life.
O Lord, Who rose from the dead,//
glory to You.
Tone 4 Troparion (Forefeast)
Today Anna bequeaths joy to all instead of sorrow,
by bringing forth her fruit, the only ever-Virgin.
In fulfillment of her vow,
today with joy she brings to the temple of the Lord//
the true temple and pure Mother of God the Word.
Tone 4 Troparion (Sts. Gregory and Proclus)
The twofold lamps of divine gifts,
Proclus, shepherd of New Rome, and Gregory, scion of Decapolis,
guide us by the light of grace as divinely-inspired fathers.
Let us draw near and eagerly beseech them,//
that we may receive forgiveness and salvation of our souls!
Tone 6 Kontakion (Resurrection)
When Christ God, the Giver of Life,
raised all of the dead from the valleys of misery with His mighty hand,
He bestowed resurrection on the human race.//
He is the Savior of all, the Resurrection, the Life, and the God of all.
Tone 3 Kontakion (St. Gregory)
The Church knows you to be a brilliant sun
enlightening all with the rays of healing and the beauty of virtue.
Therefore, as we celebrate your honored memory,
We glorify your struggles,//
ever-blest and all-wise Father Gregory.
Tone 4 Kontakion (Forefeast)
Today the universe is filled with joy
at the glorious feast of the Mother of God,//
and cries out: “She is the heavenly tabernacle.”
Communion Hymn
Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the highest! (Ps. 148:1)
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
Prokeimenon. 6th Tone. Psalm 27.9,1.
O Lord, save your people and bless your inheritance.
Verse: To you, O Lord, I have cried, O my God.
The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians 2:4-10.
Brethren, God who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God: not because of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
9th Sunday of Luke
The Reading is from Luke 12:16-21
The Lord said this parable: "The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?' And he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." As he said these things, he cried out: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
FEASTS OF THE MOTHER OF GOD
7 November, 1972
Since early days the Church has given to the Mother of God titles of holiness greater than those which are given to any saint. She is called the All-holy, Panagia. We venerate Her as One who is greater and holier than the Cherubim and the Seraphim, greater than the angels of God who, endowed with vision, can see, contemplate and adore, greater than the angels of God who are, as it were, the throne of the Most High. Because the ones as the others see, worship, serve God as their Lord, as their Master, and yet somehow they remain farther from Him than She, who in Her exceeding holiness has become the kin of God, has become the Mother of the Incarnate Word, who is the Bride, the perfect revelation of what the whole creation is called to be and to become.
The Feast of the Presentation of the Mother of God to the Temple quite obviously raises historical problems. We know that in Israel no one was allowed into the Holy of Holies, that the High Priest entered it only once a year after having undergone purification by sacrificial blood. What the feast stands for primarily is described, enlarged on, in a sermon on prayer written in the 19th century by Theophane the Recluse. The Holy of Holies, he says, is the heart of hearts of human worship. It is the place where men in the Old Testament can meet God to the extent to which God can be met. It is the heart of the mystery of Israel. It is also the point which somehow is beyond the point of the sacrificed. The sacrifice opens the door to it. The sacrifice somehow remains this side of it. And to enter into the Holy of Holies means first and foremost to enter into that depth of adoration, into that depth of prayer which makes one present to the living God, which makes one stand face to face with the living God. The presentation of the Mother of God, apart from historical features, is extolled by the Church because it indicates to us where She stands in the whole of Her life, in the divine presence in complete surrender, in complete adoration.
Tradition has it that she was brought by Joachim and Anna. On the icons you can see young girls with candles bringing her to the temples. She was handed over to the high priest, who took Her into the place to which he had no access himself. Now I don't think there is any advantage in discussing the possible historicity of an event of that kind. From a purely historical point of view it is unlikely that it could have happened. But what matters is what it stands for, and it stands for a moment when, having reached the maturity of a young child, but the maturity of one who can already worship, serve, lend an ear, be ready to respond and to obey, She chose all that and went into that depth of obedience, of listening, of attention to what was God's will. By what I say I do not mean to say that it did or did not happen. But what matters as far as She is concerned is obviously this aspect of the thing much more than the historicity of the event as described in icons or in folkloric tradition.
“ON NOVEMBER 21/DECEMBER 4, A WEEK after the Nativity Fast begins, we celebrate the Virgin Mary’s entry into the Temple in Jerusalem, where, according to Tradition, she entered the Holy of Holies (the abode of the Ark of the Covenant) and where she dwelt in preparation for the Birth of Christ...”
“The entry of the Mother of God into the Temple in Jerusalem marks the beginning of a radical change in religious history. The Holy of Holies, being the dwelling place of the Word of God, the Ark of the Covenant, was inaccessible to human beings, but now enters a woman to become the holiest thing on earth: the ark of the Word made flesh. Now the human body is the holiest thing on earth, and each of us is a temple of the Holy Spirit...”
“As we ponder the wonder of God, who is infinite and who cannot be bound by the created universe, being conceived in the womb of a mortal woman, we are reminded of our exalted calling to be temples of the Holy Spirit, who cannot be contained...”
“The human being has become the temple of God. This is the calling of every one of us, male and female, young and old, rich and poor. In realizing this calling to be the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, we discover the fullness of humanity: the image and likeness of God; we become priests of creation, charged with the special vocation of the first-formed to bridge and hold together flesh and spirit, sharing in both the animal and celestial kingdoms, binding together earth and heaven. This is what marks out the human being from the rest of the animal kingdom: Man alone has the power, the calling, the vocation, to act as priest and steward of the earth and to offer creation back to the Creator, for man alone is endowed with the image and likeness of God. Thus to be fully human is to be divine, and to give thanks and praise to the One who made us.”
Excerpt From
Meditations for the Twelve Great Feasts
Theodore Christopher Vasilis
https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=0
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Troparion to St Alexis
O righteous Father Alexis, / our heavenly intercessor and teacher, / divine adornment of the Church of Christ! / Entreat the Master of All / to strengthen the Orthodox Faith in America, / to grant peace to the world / and to our souls, great mercy!
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