Quadratus the Martyr & his Companions
These Martyrs contested for piety's sake in Corinth during the reign of the Emperor Valerian (253-260).
Sunday Schedule:
Orthros: 8:30 a.m.
Divine Liturgy: 9:30 a.m.
Bible Study:
Wednesdays, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
FELLOWSHIP HOUR
Fellowship Hour is sponsored today in Loving Memory of Virginiia Moore. Everyone is invited to join us.
ICON PROCESSION NEXT SUNDAY
The Sunday School students will participate in the icon procession next Sunday, the Sunday of Orthodoxy. We remind students to bring their favorite icon to carry during the procession.
PHILOPTOCHOS
The Philoptochos Society stewardship envelopes were recently mailed. If you were a member in 2018, please remember to renew. If you are not a member, please consider joining. The Philoptochos Society offers a special opportunity for women to promote Orthodox Christian values and to create lasting friendships. Our chapter is one of the most respected at the local, Metropolis, and National levels. If you have any questions, please contact Daphne Easton at daphneeaston1@yahoo.com or 978-761-1279.
LITERACY PROJECT
The Literacy Project is in need of “chapter” books for students in grades 3 and 4. We appreciate your interest in this project for the children. Please place new or gently used book in the bin by the stairs.
ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM ORATORICAL FESTIVAL
This year, the Transfiguration Sunday School will participate in the 36th Annual St. John Chrysostom National Oratorical Festival. Students in grades 7-12 will present their speeches on Sunday, March 24, following Divine Liturgy. We are striving for a full showing of parishioner support for our youth as they compete towards the National Finals, to be held June 7-9 at the Archangel Michael Church in Port Washington, New York. Please mark 3/24/19 on your calendar as they embark upon this opportunity. Questions or interest to help, please see Corrine Dubay or email her at corrinedubay@gmail.com.
PRACTICE SESSION FOR ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM ORATORICAL FESTIVAL
A reminder to parents of Sunday School students in grades 7-12: Students will practice their essays today, March 10, following Holy Communion in the Philoptochos Room. If your child is in grades 7-12, kindly remind him/her to go directly to the Philoptochos Room following Holy Communion. Thank you.
Each participant must register online at www.religioused.goarch.org. Follow the links to the St. John Chrysostom Oratorical Festival and to Speaker Registration form.
LTLC
The Transfiguration parish family hosts dinner at the Lowell Transitional Living Center on the second Saturday of each month. The opportunity to serve dinner is open to all parishioners. Gather a group of 4 or 5 and sign up for your month on the poster in the lower lobby.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
♥ Consider donating $10.00 Market Basket gift cards. There is also a shortage of non-perishable food in the bin in the front hall. There are people who do drop by to check the bin for their needs, so please consider making a donation. Items like peanut butter, jelly, puddings, breakfast bars, peanut butter cookies, cans of fruit, cereal, etc. would be useful.
♥ Please remember to keep the books coming for the 2019 school year!
Sunday, March 10 FORGIVENESS SUNDAY – CHEESEFARE
†Orthros, 8:30am
†Liturgy, 9:30am
40-Day Memorial for Virginia Moore
Koulourakia Baking
Monday, March 11
Lent Begins
Compline, 6:30pm
Tuesday, March 12
Parish Council Meeting, 6:30pm
Wednesday, March 13
Bible Study, 10:00am
Kafenion, 10:00am
Pre-Sanctified Liturgy, 6:00pm
Lenten meal to follow
Friday, March 15
First Salutations to the Theotokos, 6:30pm
Saturday, March 16
†Third Saturday of Souls – Liturgy, 9:30am
Sunday, March 17 SUNDAY OF ORTHODOXY
†Orthros, 8:30am
†Liturgy, 9:30am
Icon Procession
40-Day baby blessing for Nolan O’Brien
Lenten Vespers at Holy Trinity Church, 6:00pm
TODAY’S PARISH COUNCIL: Corrine Dubay, Mike Fokas, and Jimmy Demetri
TODAY’S GREETER: Lea Mitchell
UPCOMING EVENTS
March 18
Compline, 6:30pm
March 20
Bible Study, 10:00am
Kafenion, 10:00am
Pre-Sanctified Liturgy & Lenten dinner, 6:00pm
March 22
Second Salutation, 6:30pm
March 24
Koulourakia sales
Lenten Vespers at Transfiguration Church, 6:00pm
March 25
†Liturgy – Annunciation at Holy Trinity
Compline, 6:30pm
March 26
Community Kitchen, 11:30am-12:30pm
March 27
Bible Study, 10:00am
Kafenion, 10:00am
Pre-Sanctified Liturgy & Lenten dinner, 6:00pm
When You were transfigured on the mountain, O Christ our God, You showed Your disciples Your glory as far as they could bear. So now, for us sinners also, let this same eternal light shine forth through the prayers of the Theotokos. O Giver of Light, glory to You.
Prokeimenon. Plagal Fourth Mode. Psalm 75.11,1.
Make your vows to the Lord our God and perform them.
Verse: God is known in Judah; his name is great in Israel.
The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Romans 13:11-14; 14:1-4.
Brethren, salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed; the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
As for the man who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not for disputes over opinions. One believes he may eat anything, while the weak man eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who abstains, and let not him who abstains pass judgment on him who eats; for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for God is able to make him stand.
Forgiveness Sunday
The Reading is from Matthew 6:14-21
The Lord said, "If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
"And when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
These Martyrs contested for piety's sake in Corinth during the reign of the Emperor Valerian (253-260).
The Holy Fathers have appointed the commemoration of Adam's exile from the Paradise of delight here, on the eve of the holy Forty-day Fast, demonstrating to us not by simple words, but by actual deeds, how beneficial fasting is for man, and how harmful and destructive are insatiety and the transgressing of the divine commandments. For the first commandment that God gave to man was that of fasting, which the first-fashioned received but did not keep; and not only did they not become gods, as they had imagined, but they lost even that blessed life which they had, and they fell into corruption and death, and transmitted these and innumerable other evils to all of mankind. The God-bearing Fathers set these things before us today, that by bringing to mind what we have fallen from, and what we have suffered because of the insatiety and disobedience of the first-fashioned, we might be diligent to return again to that ancient bliss and glory by means of fasting and obedience to all the divine commands. Taking occasion from today's Gospel (Matt. 6:14-21) to begin the Fast unencumbered by enmity, we also ask forgiveness this day, first from God, then from one another and all creation.
This Saint was born in Damascus. As a young man he became a monk at the Monastery of Saint Theodosius the Cenobiarch in Palestine, where he met John Moschus and became his close friend. Having a common desire to search out ascetics from whom they could receive further spiritual instruction, they journeyed together through Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, and Egypt, where they met the Patriarch of Alexandria, Saint John the Almsgiver, with whom they remained until 614, when Persians captured Jerusalem (see also Saint Anastasius the Persian, Jan. 22). Saint Sophronius and John Moschus departed Alexandria for Rome, where they remained until 619, the year of John Moschus' death. Saint Sophronius returned to the Monastery of Saint Theodosius the Cenobiarch, and there buried the body of his friend. He laboured much in defence of the Holy Fourth Council of Chalcedon, and traveled to Constantinople to remonstrate with Patriarch Sergius and the Emperor Heraclius for changing the Orthodox Faith with their Monothelite teachings. After the death of Patriarch Modestus in December of 634, Sophronius was elected Patriarch of Jerusalem. Although no longer in the hands of the Persians, the Holy Land was now besieged by the armies of the newly-appeared religion of Mohammed, which had already taken Bethlehem; in the Saint's sermon for the Nativity of our Lord in 634, he laments that he could not celebrate the feast in Bethlehem. In 637, for the sins of the people, to the uttermost grief of Saint Sophronius, the Caliph Omar captured Jerusalem. Having tended the flock of his Master for three years and three months, Saint Sophronius departed in peace unto Him Whom he loved on March 11, 638.
Saint Sophronius has left to the Church many writings, including the life of Saint Mary of Egypt. The hymn "O Joyous Light," which is wrongly ascribed to him, is more ancient than Saint Basil the Great, as the Saint himself confirms in his work "On the Holy Spirit" (ch. 29). However, it seems that this hymn, which was chanted at the lighting of the lamps and was formerly called "The Triadic Hymn," was later supplemented somewhat by Saint Sophronius, bringing it into the form in which we now have it. Hence, some have ascribed it to him.
Saint Theophanes, who was born in 760, was the son of illustrious parents. Assenting to their demand, he married and became a member of the Emperor's ceremonial bodyguard. Later, with the consent of his wife, he forsook the world. Indeed, both of them embraced the monastic life, struggling in the monastic houses they themselves had established. He died on March 12, 815, on the island of Samothrace, whereto, because of his confession of the Orthodox Faith, he had been exiled by Leo the Armenian, the Iconoclast Emperor.
The main feast day of this Saint is June 2. The translation of his holy relics took place in 846, when Saint Methodius (see June 14) was Ecumenical Patriarch.
This Saint, whose name means "blessed," was born in 480 in Nursia, a small town about seventy miles northeast of Rome. He struggled in asceticism from his youth in deserted regions, where his example drew many who desired to emulate him. Hence, he ascended Mount Cassino in Campania and built a monastery there. The Rule that he gave his monks, which was inspired by the writings of Saint John Cassian, Saint Basil the Great, and other Fathers, became a pattern for monasticism in the West; because of this, he is often called the first teacher of monks in the West. He reposed in 547.
The holy Martyrs contested for piety's sake during the reign of Diocletian (284-305), when Urban was Governor of Caesarea of Palestine. When Urban had commanded that together with a heathen festival, certain condemned Christians be publicly cast to wild beasts, Timolaus, a native of Pontus, Dionysius of Tripolis in Phoenicia, Romulus of Diospolis, Plesius (or Paisius) and Alexander from Egypt, and another Alexander from Gaza, tied their own hands and presented themselves to Urban when the exhibition was about to begin, professing their faith in Christ; they were immediately cast into prison. A few days later Agapios and Dionysius also presented themselves. All were beheaded together at Caesarea. Their martyrdom is recorded by Eusebius (Eccl. Hist.,Book VIII, ch.3, called The Martyrs of Palestine).
Julian the Apostate, knowing that the Christians purify themselves by fasting most of all during the first week of the Fast -- which is why we call it Clean Week -- planned to defile them especially at that time. Therefore he secretly commanded that during those days the markets be filled with foods that had been defiled with the blood of animals offered in sacrifice to idols. But by divine command the Martyr Theodore (see Feb. 17) appeared during sleep to Eudoxius, then Archbishop of Constantinople. The Saint revealed to him the tyrant's plan, then told him to call the faithful together immediately on Monday morning and prevent them from purchasing those foods, but rather to make kollyva to supply their needs. The bishop asked what kollyva might be, and the Saint answered, "Kollyva is what we call boiled wheat in Euchaita." Thus, the purpose of the Apostate was brought to nought, and the pious people who were preserved undefiled for the whole of Clean Week, rendered thanks to the Martyr on this Saturday, and celebrated his commemoration with kollyva. These things took place in 362. Wherefore, the Church keeps this commemoration each year to the glory of God and the honour of the Martyr.