St. Demetrios Calendar

SUNDAY OF ST. JOHN CLIMACUS, April 7
- Orthros & Divine Liturgy, 8:30 am
- Church School
- Greek Independence Day Parade in Boston

MONDAY, April 8
- Great Compline, 6 pm
- Orthodox Life Series, following Compline

TUESDAY, April 9
- Greek School, 4 pm

WEDNESDAY, April 10
- Presanctified Divine Liturgy, 10 am
- Senior Guild Luncheon
- Parish Council Meeting, 7 pm
- Philoptochos Board Meeting, 7 pm

FRIDAY, April 12
- Akathist Hymn, 7 pm

SATURDAY, April 13
- Agape Prayer Group, 8:30 am

SUNDAY ST. MARY OF EGYPT, April 14
- Orthros & Divine Liturgy, 8:30 am
- Church School

Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone

Having learned the joyful proclamation of the Resurrection from the Angel, and having cast off the ancestral condemnation, the women disciples of the Lord spake to the Apostles exultantly: Death is despoiled and Christ God is risen, granting great mercy to the world.

Apolytikion of Sun. of St. John Climacus in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone

With the streams of thy tears, thou didst cultivate the barrenness of the desert; and by thy sighings from the depths,thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold in labours; and thou becamest a luminary, shining with miracles upon the world, O John our righteous Father. Intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.

Seasonal Kontakion in the Plagal Fourth Tone

To you, Theotokos, invincible Defender, having been delivered from peril, I, your city, dedicate the victory festival as a thank offering. In your irresistible might, keep me safe from all trials, that I may call out to you: "Hail, unwedded bride!"

Readings and Information

Today’s Epistle Reading (Hebrews 6:13-20) is found on page 11 in your Red Liturgy Book.
Today’s Gospel Reading (Mark 9:17-31) is found on page 142 in your Red Liturgy Book.
Resurrectional Apolytikion, “The Joyful News” is found on page 171 in your Red Liturgy Book.
Thanksgiving prayers, for after Communion, are found on page 40 in your Red Liturgy Book.

TODAY’S USHERS: Chris Pashos, Captain; George Gatzunis; Steve Sotir; Dean Coclin; Linda Theoharis; Gina Pagonis ; Tom Gatzunis; Laz Vekiarides; Nick Mitrokostas.

TODAY’S MEMORIAL: 1 year for Ralph Audi.

TODAY’S FELLOWSHIP HOUR: is graciously hosted by Margo Chryssis, Filitsa Kapalis, and Maria Makkas.

TODAY’S GREETERS: Vaios Papadimitriou.

Parish News and Events

Greek Independence Day Parade- NEXT SUNDAY– APRIL 7

If you are taking the bus to the parade meet the group in the large social hall in the designated area. ΖΗΤΩ Η ΕΛΛΑΣ!

METROPOLIS OF BOSTON PHILOPTOCHOS EVENT

Join us on Thursday, May 2 for an evening with Chef Maria Loi, Greek food ambassador, restaurateur and healthy lifestyle expert and Dr. Stefanos Kales, Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School discussing Maria's book The Greek Diet. Tickets: $65. For more information, contact Theresa Nibi at (617) 519-5010 or theresanibi@gmail.com.

RACHMANINOFF LITURGY OF ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM CONCERT

Sunday, May 19, 2019 at 4:00 pm the Rachmaninoff Choir with Dr. Anthony Antolini, Conductor from Bowdoin College. Tickets: $10. Contact: Matina Psyhogeos at (781) 609-2959 or Candace Hetzner (617) 251-4825 or events@stdemetriosweston.org for more information.

UPCOMING GOYA EVENTS

Join us for a number of upcoming and exciting GOYA events!

4/5- GOYA Retreat AT Taxiarchae in Watertown, 6-9 pm. Email Fr. Vinnie for more details.

4/19-20- GOYA Lock-in Overnight Retreat at St. Demetrios

PALM SUNDAY FISH LUNCHEON

Sunday, April 21, immediately following the Divine Liturgy. Tickets - Adults: $25. Children: $5. Contact Susan Denn at 508-380-5515 or smdenn@comcast.net; Eugenia Kourlos at 508-735-8866 or ekourlos@gmail.com

LENTEN ORTHODOX LIFE SERIES

Lent is a time to learn and strengthen our faith. The book of Hebrews is the book that we hear during Sunday Services during Lent. Dr. James Skedros will lead a study of Hebrews and discussion. Please join us every Monday for the Compline service at 6 pm followed by the study of Hebrews. All are welcome!

SAVE THESE DATES

Sunday, May 19 - Rachmaninoff Choir Concert, Anthony Antolini, Professor at Bowdoin College, Conductor

Saturday, September 28 - Alkistis Protopsaltis Concert, Sanders Theatre, Cambridge. Details to follow.

Saturday, November 2 - Saint Demetrios Gala Dinner Dance, Westin Hotel in Waltham

BOTTLE CAP FUNDRAISER

Throughout Great Lent we will be collecting plastic bottle caps. For every cubic meter of bottle caps collected a wheelchair will be donated to a child in need. There will be boxes throughout the church for collections.

HOLY LAND PILGRIMAGE– 2020

A number of parishioners have asked if we will be planning a trip back to the Holy Land. Since such trips take a long time to plan and secure accommodations we are thinking of a pilgrimage in February of 2020. This time frame allows for best accommodations, pricing and planning. If interested or just have questions please speak with Fr. Nick or call the office. Thank you.

SPONSORING FLOWERS

If you would like to sponsor altar flowers in memory of loved ones or in honor of a special occasion please contact the church office for more details on available dates.

Please consider sponsoring the flowers that adorn the icon of the Theotokos for the Salutations service. If you are interested please contact the church office.

SENIOR GUILD

The next Senior Guild meeting will be on April 10th following Divine Liturgy. Make sure to wear your blue and white! We are planning a Newport Rail Tour in Newport, RI on June 20th. We hope you can join us! 40 people are needed to attend this event. More details and the price will be determined in the coming weeks. If you have questions contact Artemis Martakis at 508-785-0045. The Senior Guild hopes to see you there!

60TH ANNIVERSARY EVENTS

The 60th Anniversary Committee continues to organize several events to celebrate this special milestone of our
beloved Church. Thus far, the Welcome Back BBQ, the Young Adult Event, Holiday at Pops and singing carols to the Seniors from our Parish, are just a small sample of community fellowship involving parishioners from the past and present.

We need your help in chairing and working on the many events that are planned for 2019. Please contact Peter Condakes at 617-571-8540 or Stephen Condakes at 781-235-8429 if you are interested in participating. Don't forget to mark your calendars Saturday, November 2 for the Saint Demetrios 60th Anniversary Gala at the Westin-Waltham!

Saturday, April 6 - St. Demetrios Parish Retreat

Sunday, May 19 - Rachmaninoff Choir Concert, Anthony Antolini, Professor at Bowdoin College, Conductor

Saturday, September 28 - Alkistis Protopsaltis Concert, Sanders Theatre, Cambridge

Saturday, November 2 - Saint Demetrios Gala Dinner Dance, Westin Waltham

HOMEBOUND VISITATION
Our clergy along with our Philoptochos will be visitinghomebound parishioners over the next few weeks. If someone you know would appreciate a visit, please contact the church office.

ST. DEMETRIOS BOOKSTORE

Take a few moments to stop by and check out our new arrivals such as: Parenting Toward the Kingdom by Dr. Philip Mamalakis of the HC/HC School of Theology. This book will help you make connections between the spiritual life of the Orthodox Church and the ongoing challenges of raising children. Another new arrival is St. Demetrios Children’s Book, including a CD. There are inspirational books in English and Greek for adults and children and also St. Demetrios crosses in gold and silver, icons, prayer bracelets, and prosforo seals from the Holy Land all suitable gifts.

SPONSORING FELLOWSHIP HOUR
The calendar is open for any one wishing to sponsor coffee hour this coming year. If you are interested please contact Pam Brody at 781-864-6427.

USHERING GUIDELINES
As the Church School year comes to a start, we ask that everyone assist us by waiting patiently in your seats for the children to receive Holy Communion first so that they may get to their classes.

In order to facilitate this process as efficiently as possible, we ask that Church School Teachers, Children and their parents be dismissed first for communion. All other parishioners are asked to stay in their seats and wait for the ushers to dismiss their row. We appreciate your patience and your support!

ST. DEMETRIOS ORTHO-TAXI SERVICE
We miss you when you are not with us! If you need a ride to and from church consider taking the St. Demetrios Ortho-Taxi service. If you are interested call the church office (781-237-5561) by Friday at noon for Sunday Liturgy, or two days in advance for other services or events. You will receive a call from your driver to arrange pick-up times. The roundtrip fare is $5 to be donated to the Senior Guild.

SUNDAY GREETERS
We are looking for additional people to help greet/welcome our parishioners to church on Sunday mornings. All those who are interested in being a part of this wonderful program please contact Angel Hatgelakas through Marianne at the church office. Tel: 781-237-5561 or email: office@stdemetriosweston.org. Thank you.

USHERING
If you are interested in joining the Usher Team please contact Georgia Gefteas at gghome1@verizon.net or 978-973-7476.

WWW.GOARCH.ORG
The webpage of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has a great amount of resources for anyone looking to learn more about the faith. You can find the daily readings of the church, information about saints, what we believe, and prayers for any occasion. Additionally, you can stay up to date with news that affects us as Christians. Be sure to check www.goarch.org regularly!

PHILOXENIA HOUSE
Located near HCHC in Brookline, the Philoxenia House offers a home and hospitality to patients and those who accompany them while they are undergoing treatment in the Boston area. For several years a few of us visit the home twice a year to try to brighten their lives by planting flowers. This is a joy for us. For more information regarding this ministry please contact Betty Titus, 781.237.4748, or Eleanor Spiliakos, 978.443.3746.

WHAT IS THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
Being asked this during our festival a number of times — we as Orthodox Christians ought to respond:

“The Orthodox Christian Church is a worldwide body of believers who confess and worship Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as Lord and Messiah. This body has a tangible and continuous history of Christian faith and practice from the time of Christ’s Apostles. The use of the adjective ‘orthodox’ to describe the Church dates back to the earliest centuries and was applied to those Christians who maintained the tradition transmitted by Christ’s Apostles (1 Thess 2:15)”

FR. MANIKAS LIBRARY
Come and visit the Fr. Manikas Library and check out one of our many books on a variety of different topics. After Divine Liturgy, please stop by the library and see what we have to offer. See Cindi Dabrowski in the library for assistance on picking out a selection to take home and further your knowledge of our faith.

DAILY READINGS APP
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has developed and released a Daily Readings App for iOS and Android. It offers the daily Epistle and Gospel readings of the day as well as the saints that are commemorated on that day. Furthermore, it offers prayers, dates of future Feast Days and fasting guidelines.

It’s a great resource that is offered by our Archdiocese. Sign into your app store and download it today!

BE THE BEE WEBSERIES
The National Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries offers a weekly web video series on YouTube called “Be the Bee” each week a question or theme about our faith is answered in just 5 minutes! Check out this new and interesting approach to learning about our faith! Go to: www.youtube.com/user/y2am to see the entire series!

Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. Fourth Tone. Psalm 103.24,1.
O Lord, how manifold are your works. You have made all things in wisdom.
Verse: Bless the Lord, O my soul.

The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Hebrews 6:13-20.

BRETHREN, when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore to himself, saying, "Surely I will bless you and multiply you." And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise. Men indeed swear by a greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he interposed with an oath, so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God should prove false, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.

Gospel Reading

Sunday of St. John Climacus
The Reading is from Mark 9:17-31

At that time, a man came to Jesus kneeling and saying: "Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit; and wherever it seizes him it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able." And he answered them, "O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me." And they brought the boy to him; and when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, "How long has he had this?" And he said, "From childhood. And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us." And Jesus said to him, "If you can! All things are possible to him who believes." Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!" And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You dumb and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again." And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse; so that most of them said, "He is dead." But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" And he said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting." They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he would not have any one know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he will rise."

Wisdom of the Fathers

Seest thou how He now proceeds to lay beforehand in them the foundation of His doctrine about fasting? ... See, at any rate, how many blessings spring from them both. For he that is praying as he ought, and fasting, hath not many wants, and he that hath not many wants, cannot be covetous; ...

St. John Chrysostom

Homily 57 on Matthew 17,4,5. B#54, pp.355,356., 4th Century

... he that is not covetous, will be also more disposed for almsgiving. He that fasts is light, and winged, and prays with wakefulness, and quenches his wicked lusts, and propitiates God, and humbles his soul when lifted up. Therefore even the apostles were almost always fasting.

St. John Chrysostom

Homily 57 on Matthew 17,4,5. B#54, pp.355,356., 4th Century

Saints and Feasts

April 07

Sunday of St. John Climacus

The memory of this Saint is celebrated on March 30, where his biography may be found. He is celebrated today because his book, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, is a sure guide to the ascetic life, written by a great man of prayer experienced in all forms of the monastic polity; it teaches the seeker after salvation how to lay a sound foundation for his struggles, how to detect and war against each of the passions, how to avoid the snares laid by the demons, and how to rise from the rudimental virtues to the heights of Godlike love and humility. It is held in such high esteem that it is universally read in its entirety in monasteries during the Great Fast.

April 07

Martyrs Calliopius and Akylina

The holy Martyr Calliopius was from Perga in Pamphylia, brought up in piety by his godly mother Theocleia. When the persecution of Maximian broke out, Saint Calliopius presented himself of his own accord before the Governor Maximus in Pompeiopolis of Galatia. After he had suffered many torments, his mother visited him in prison and encouraged him in his martyrdom. After this, his thrice-blessed mother, upon learning that he was to be crucified on Holy and Great Thursday, bribed the tyrants to defer it one day, that he might imitate the Lord's Crucifixion on the same day that He suffered it. The holy Martyr Calliopius received the crown of martyrdom on Holy and Great Friday in the year 304, being crucified upside down.

April 07

Tikhon, Pat. of Moscow

Born in 1865 in the region of Pskov, our Father among the Saints Tikhon was tonsured a monk in 1891 and ordained to the priesthood in the same year. In 1897 he was consecrated Bishop of Lublin, and a year later appointed Bishop of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, with his see extending to all of North America from 1900 onwards. He did much to unite the Orthodox Christians of a great many ethnic backgrounds in North America, so that there was indeed one flock under one shepherd. In 1907 he was made Archbishop of Yaroslavl and Rostov, and in 1913, Archbishop of Lithuania.

In 1917, when he was Metropolitan of Moscow, he was elected to be the first Patriarch of Russia in over 200 years, in times that could not have been more difficult. After the Revolution of 1917, the persecution of the Russian Church by the atheist government grew more bold and more fierce with every year. By nature a meek and peace-loving man, Tikhon sought to determine, while giving only to God that which is God's, what could be given to Caesar to preserve peace and avoid the shedding of blood. At his departure on the feast of the Annunciation in 1925, Saint Tikhon made the sign of the Cross thrice, pronouncing the words, "Glory to Thee, O God!" Because of the many unspeakable sufferings he endures as Patriarch, he is honoured as a Confessor.

Note: St. Tikhon's repose was on the Feast of the Annunciation according to the Old Calendar (March 25), but on the New Calendar his repose falls on April 7.

April 07

Savas the New

April 07

Gerasimos the God-Bearer

April 07

George, Bp. of Mytylene

The righteous George struggled in behalf of the holy icons, and reposed in peace about the year 821.

April 08

Martyr John the Ship-Builder

April 08

Rufus the Obedient

April 08

Celestine, Pope of Rome

April 08

Herodion, Agabus, Rufus, Asyncritus of the 70

The Apostle Herodion, whom Saint Paul mentions in his Epistle to the Romans (16:11) and calls his "kinsman," was ordained presbyter and then Bishop of New Patras, where he was slain by Jews and pagans. Saint Agabus is mentioned in Acts 21:10-11, where he prophesied SaintPaul's arrest in Jerusalem at the hands of the Jewish leaders. In Acts 11:27-28 it is mentioned also that this Saint foretold the great famine that would come to pass in the time of Claudius Caesar. Having preached the Gospel throughout various regions, he departed to the Lord. The Apostle Rufus became Bishop of Thebes in Greece. The Apostles Asyncritus and Phlegon preached Christ in many places, suffered many afflictions at the hands of the pagans and Jews, and departed unto the Lord. The Apostle Hermes is mentioned with them in the Epistle to the Romans (16:13-14).

General Information

Contact Information

Services Schedule

Past Bulletins

St. Demetrios Calendar

Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone

Apolytikion of Sun. of St. John Climacus in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone

Seasonal Kontakion in the Plagal Fourth Tone

Readings and Information

Parish News and Events

Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

Gospel Reading

Wisdom of the Fathers

Saints and Feasts

Sunday of St. John Climacus

Martyrs Calliopius and Akylina

Tikhon, Pat. of Moscow

Savas the New

Gerasimos the God-Bearer

George, Bp. of Mytylene

Martyr John the Ship-Builder

Rufus the Obedient

Celestine, Pope of Rome

Herodion, Agabus, Rufus, Asyncritus of the 70