THIS SUNDAY, January 27, 2019 Orthros 9:00am Divine Liturgy 10:00am. The 15th Sunday of Luke. Zachaeus Sunday.
Long before Great Lent begins (March 11th this year) the Church begins to prepare us for Great Lent by giving us some biblical readings, the first of which is this Sunday's about Zachaeus. It is the story of a man who desired to see Jesus passing by but was too short and there was a crowd, so he climbed up a tree. This desire to see Jesus is the first symbol of repentance. Repentance begins with the rediscovery of the deep nature of all desire which is the desire for God and His righteousness and for the true life. Thus we are given our first announcement and invitation to renew our desire for all that is deepest and truest in ourselves, and to hunger and thirst for the Kingdom of God and for our Saviour Jesus Christ who leads us back to our heavenly Father. And if our desire is deep enough and strong enough, the story of Zachaeus gives us confidence that Christ will respond!
The Philoptochos Collection for Vasilis Ntantanis. Vasilis Ntantanis came to the United States and worked around the church helping in many ways. He was a parishioner for the past few years and recently was getting treatment for cancer at Yale and then returned back to Greece because of health reasons.
He was from the island of LIMNOS, came to the United States, and worked around the church helping in many ways. While here he became seriously ill with Laryngeal Cancer and was hospitalized for a long time at Yale. and needed further operations and chemotherapy. Because he did not have sufficient medical insurance here, he was transferred from Yale back to a hospital in Athens (Attikon) for an operation to remove his vocal cords making him unable to speak, and then received Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy. His health has improved now, free of Cancer and back to his island. He will need another operation in the future to make him able to speak. He is married with children and the family is in need of financial help due to Vasilis' health situation. Please support the Philoptochos with your donation to help Vasilis.
There will be a collection in church for two Sundays to assist with his medical bills. Parishioners are asked to help him at the difficult time for him and his family.
You can make your check out to: "St. Basil Philoptochos" and note "Vasilis Ntantanis". You can place it in the tray at church or mail to: Philoptochos, St. Basil G. O. Church, PO Box 9356, New Haven, CT 06533.
GREETER COVERAGE SCHEDULE: Jan 27 Aven,.... February 3 Ross,..... February 10 Spyros,..... February 17 Mike,..... February 24 Greg,..... March 3 Nia.
Email to Fr. Don: FrDonatAugusta@mail.goarch.org.
Email to St. Basil Church: office@stbasil.ct.goarch.org. You can ask to forward your email to the parish priest, the parish council, the Philoptochos, the Greek School, or the New Haven Greek Community for a response. Just indicate where you want your email to be directed..
Visit our St. Basil parish website: www.stbasil.ct.goarch.org. You will find many interesting links. Especially visit the "Orthodox Marketplace" where you will find an excellent selection of icons, books, and gift ideas for birthdays and holidays. Also, you can link to our Parish Facebook page. Thanks to Arven Saunders for managing the parish website.
On Facebook do a search for: "Saint Basil Greek Orthodox Church." You will find lots of information about parish activities, photos, and updates. Thanks to Athena Nomikos for her work posting photos and information on our parish Facebook site.