Publish-header
Transfiguration of Our Saviour Greek Orthodox Church
Publish Date: 2019-04-07
Bulletin Contents
Allsaint
Organization Icon
Transfiguration of Our Saviour Greek Orthodox Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • (978) 458-4321
  • Fax:
  • (978) 458-8726
  • Street Address:

  • 25 Fr. John Sarantos Way

  • Lowell, MA 01854
  • Mailing Address:

  • 25 Fr. John Sarantos Way

  • Lowell, MA 01854


Contact Information






Services Schedule

Sunday Schedule:

Orthros: 8:30 a.m.
Divine Liturgy: 9:30 a.m.

Bible Study:

Wednesdays, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.


Past Bulletins


Announcements

FELLOWSHIP HOUR

We welcome everyone to join us for coffee and fellowship in the hall following service. 

PARISH ASSEMBLY

Our spring Parish Assembly will be held on Sunday, April 14. Please mark your calendar and plan to participate.

WEBSITE UPDATE

Log on to www.transchurch.org to take a look at our newly updated and redesigned website. Thanks to Melanie Pappas for her hard work updating the site.

PHILOPTOCHOS LENTEN SOUP & KOULOURAKIA SALES

Koulourakia and lenten soups are available for you to purchase. Koulourakia are $7.00 per dozen or 3 dozen for $20.00. Soups are $10.00 per quart. All proceeds wil benefit the Philoxenia House.

PHILOPTOCHOS MEMBERSHIP

The Philoptochos Society stewardship envelopes were mailed weeks ago. Please renew your membership or consider joining us. The Philoptochos Society offers a special opportunity for women to promote Orthodox Christian values and to create lasting friendships. Our stewardship is due to National and Metropolis by May 1. Receiving your stewardship by April 15 would be appreciated. If you have any questions, contact Daphne Easton at daphneeaston1@yahoo.com or 978-761-1279.

SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

Scholarship applications are now available online at transchurch.org for graduating high school seniors planning to attend college in the fall.  Please contact Pat Mahoney at pmahoney7@comcast.net or 978-436-0998 for more information.

LITERACY PROJECT

The Literacy Project is in need of “chapter” books for grades 3 and 4. Please place new or gently used book in the bin by the stairs. This year, we will provide books for students in the 11th of 14 schools.

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! 

BACK TO TOP

Weekly Calendar

Sunday, April 7  SUNDAY OF SAINT JOHN CLIMACUS
†Orthros, 8:30am
†Liturgy, 9:30am
Monthly Trisiagon
40-Day Memorial for Mary Molivas
GOYA Meeting
Koulourakia and Soup sales
Great Vespers at St. George (Greek), 6:00pm

Monday, April 8                 
Compline, 6:30pm
Philoptochos Meeting, 7:30pm

Tuesday, April 9                 
Parish Council Meeting, 6:30pm

Wednesday, April 10          
Bible Study, 10:00am
Kafenion, 10:00am
Pre-Sanctified Liturgy, 6:00pm 
Lenten meal to follow

Friday, April 12                  
Akathist Hymn, 6:30pm

Saturday, April 13               
LTLC, 5:15pm

Sunday, April 14  SUNDAY OF SAINT MARY OF EGYPT
†Orthros, 8:30am
†Liturgy, 9:30am
Parish Assembly following services
Lenten Vespers at the Assumption in Dracut, 6:00pm

  

TODAY’S PARISH COUNCIL: Jimmy Demetri, Corrine Dubay, and Mike Fokas

TODAY’S GREETER: Mary Piper

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

April 15                                  
Compline, 6:30pm

April 17                                  
Bible Study, 10:00am                               
Kafenion, 10:00am                                
Pre-Sanctified Liturgy, 6:00pm
Lenten meal to follow

April 20                                  
Saturday of Lazarus                                                    
†Orthos, 8:30am
†Liturgy, 9:30am
Palms and Pancakes follows Liturgy in
Fellowship Hall

BACK TO TOP

Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the Fourth Mode

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 rivers of your tears, you have made the barren desert fertile. Through sighs of sorrow from deep within you, your labors have borne fruit a hundred-fold. By your miracles you have become a light, shining upon the world. O John, our Holy Father, pray to Christ our God, to save our souls.

Apolytikion of the Church

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.

Seasonal Kontakion in the Plagal Fourth Mode

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!"
BACK TO TOP

Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. Fourth Mode. 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."


BACK TO TOP

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

He that prays with fasting hath his wings double, and lighter than the very winds. ... For nothing is mightier than a man who prays sincerely. ... But if thy body be too weak to fast continually, still it is not too weak for prayer, nor without vigor for contempt of the belly. For although thou canst not fast, yet canst thou avoid luxurious living.
St. John Chrysostom
Homily 57 on Matthew 17,4,5. B#54, pp.355,356., 4th Century

BACK TO TOP

Saints and Feasts

Allsaint
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.


Allsaint
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.


Allsaint
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.


BACK TO TOP