Announcements

WARM WELCOME

The Transfiguration parish extends a warm welcome to guests from throughout the Metropolis who are visiting today and who will participate in the ‘MBC Winter Camp’. Due to pandemic protocols necessary adaptations to the MBC Winter Camp program were put into place. Four half day ‘Winter Camp’ gatherings were scheduled with limited capacity. These programs were scheduled throughout the Metropolis. The ‘Winter Camp’ at Transfiguration is the last one to be held and will begin at noon.

WEEKLY WORSHIP

The Transfiguration parish continues to use enhanced protocols in order to gather for worship in a safe manner. Even with the increase in cases we believe we are well prepared. We continue to ask everyone to socially distance themselves that keeps our seating limited. We ask that you follow the direction of the ushers. Everyone must wear a mask. These protocols have been established to help protect and keep safe all who gather for worship. But please, if you think you have been exposed to someone with COVID, or you have underlying health conditions, or are not feeling well, please stay home and stay safe.

SERVICES LAST WEEK

Last week we were blessed to welcome His Eminence Metropolitan Methodios to our parish as he led us in worship. We thank Dn. John Vaporis, the chanters, the altar boys, and the Parish Council for sharing a warm welcome with him and assisting us in worship. If you were unable to attend or watch through the live stream, please feel free to go to www.youtube.com to watch the service. Below in the insert section you can read the welcome Fr. Tom offered to the Metropolitan on behalf of the parish. Check out photos on the Metropolis website Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston | Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston (goarch.org).

SATURDAY OF SOULS LITURGIES USHER IN GREAT LENT

On the first three Saturdays in March we will commemorate the Saturdays of Souls with Liturgy and Memorial service following. The first two, March 6 & 13, lead us to Great Lent starting on March 15 with the third Saturday of Souls taking place on the first Saturday of Great Lent, March 20. You are encouraged and welcomed to submit names of loved ones who have passed away to be commemorated on these days. For your convenience, a form can be found in the ‘Insert’ section of the bulletin below. You can mail your list of names to the parish office or bring them to church when you attend services.

MAINTENANCE HELP WANTED

Interested in helping the church with its maintenance needs? We are organizing a group of people to be on the Maintenance Crew to coordinate service with vendors and to do small projects around the facility. We would appreciate hearing from you! Thanks in advance! Please contact Marc Gulezian (978-649-3387) if you are interested or have any questions.

CHECK OUT OUR INSERTS AND FLYERS

Weekly, in the section following the announcements you will find inserts and flyers about special events and ministries. Please make sure to check out this section.

PARISH OFFICE HOURS

Our parish office is currently open Monday through Friday from 9 am to 2 pm. Generally, the office is open in person. On Wednesday, it is open remotely. Even though we are open in person, if you need to come to the office, for your safety, please call and set up an appointment.

NEW CAMERA INSTALLED – WATCH SERVICES ONLINE

Through the generosity of the Helene Antonakis estate the parish has installed a live stream camera that will allow us to continue to stream services. Though we hope the learning curve will be short, please bear with us during the next few weeks as we get to know the equipment better.

We will continue to live stream services through YouTube at www.youtube.come/transgoc. A weekly listing of services can be found on our website www.transchurch.org and listed on the calendar found in this bulletin.

HELP ONLINE

Many still do not feel comfortable physically attending services, but would still like to light a candle or support the parish. Your continued generosity is greatly appreciated. We encourage your continued use of our secure online giving platform for single or repeating donations, https://transchurch.churchgiving.com. Of course, you are still welcome to mail in a check to make your donation.

1) To light a vigil candle, please contact Pat Mahoney (pmahoney7@comcast.net or 978-436-0998) or the church office (info@transchurch.org or 978-458-4321). Pat will make sure that your vigil candle is lit for you. Donation: $10. As with all donations, you can mail in a check or you can make a donation online.

2) You are able to make your stewardship, weekly basket offering, candle, memorial, special event, or general donations by using our secure website. Your donations help support the ministries of the parish. Although you may not be in the church building, essential ministries of the parish continue.

STEWARDSHIP PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, our God, accept our offerings as You accepted the gifts of Your people throughout the ages. We offer these gifts to Your glory, for the support of the ministries of Your holy Church, for the alleviation of suffering and hunger, and for the proclamation of Your Gospel to the whole world.

Grant us Your blessing, Lord our Savior, that we may always be faithful stewards, continuing to share the gifts you have given us, by the power of Your grace, mercy and love. May Your name be glorified forever. Amen.

Trinity votive candles (To Sponsor a Candle please call the Church Office.)

†Vigil Light at the Side Altar (Icon of the Theotokos): In Memory of those who have died during the pandemic and for the health of those recovering. - Chuck and Amelia Karayianis

†Vigil Light at the Icon of Christ: In Loving Memory of Deborah Victoria Skrekas and George Skrekas

†Vigil Light at the Theotokos: In Loving Memory of Ioannis "John" Zaralidis from his family

†Vigil Light at the Icon of the Forerunner: Available

†Vigil Light at the Foot of the Holy Cross: For the Good Health of Peggy Giovane

Weekly Inserts

Saturday of Souls

Saturday of Souls Listing for 2021

Your Eminence Welcome

Your Eminence Welcome February 21, 2021

Weekly Calendar

We will be live streaming services through our YouTube channel whenever possible - www.youtube.com/TransGOC Please see the online calendar for the full schedule.

Sunday, February 28 SUNDAY OF THE PRODIGAL SON
†Orthros, 8:30 am
†Liturgy, 9:30 am
40 Day Memorial for George Patterson
MBC Winter Camp at Transfiguration Lowell (Registration Required)

Wednesday, March 3
Bible Study (online), 10:00am

Saturday, March 6
First Saturday of Souls - Liturgy, 9:30 am

Sunday, March 7 JUDGEMENT SUNDAY (MEATFARE SUNDAY)
†Orthros, 8:30 am
†Liturgy, 9:30 am
Monthly Trisagion
40 Day Memorial for Andrew Pappas
10 Year Memorial for Soterios Papadopoulos

Wednesday, March 10
Bible Study (online), 10:00am
Parish Council Meeting, 6:30 pm

Saturday, March 13
Second Saturday of Souls - Liturgy, 9:30 am
LTLC Meal 5:00 pm

Sunday, March 14 FORGIVENESS SUNDAY
†Orthros, 8:30 am
†Liturgy, 9:30 am

TODAY’S PARISH COUNCIL: Nick Kouloungis, Carl Maib & Marc Gulezian

UPCOMING EVENTS

March 15
Great Lent Begins
Compline, 6:30 pm

March 17
Bible Study (online), 10:00 am
Pre-Sanctified Liturgy, 6:00 pm

March 19
Salutations Service, 6:30 pm

March 20
Third Saturday of Souls - Liturgy, 9:30 am

March 22
Compline, 6:30 pm

March 24
Bible Study (online), 10:00 am

March 25
FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION
†Orthros, 8:30 am at Holy Trinity
†Liturgy, 9:30 am at Holy Trinity
Greek Independence day

March 26
Salutations Service, 6:30 pm

March 29
Compline, 6:30 pm

March 31
Bible Study (online), 10:00 am
Pre-Sanctified Liturgy, 6:00 pm

Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. Plagal First Mode. Psalm 11.7,1.
You, O Lord, shall keep us and preserve us.
Verse: Save me, O Lord, for the godly man has failed.

The reading is from St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 6:12-20.

Brethren, "all things are lawful for me," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be enslaved by anything. "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food" -- and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two shall become one flesh." But he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Shun immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body and in your spirit which belong to God.

Gospel Reading

Sunday of the Prodigal Son
The Reading is from Luke 15:11-32

The Lord said this parable: "There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that falls to me.' And he divided his living between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living. And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his belly with the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants.' And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to make merry. Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what this meant. And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound.' But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, 'Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!' And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'"

Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the Plagal First Mode

To the Word, coeternal with the Father and the Spirit, born of the Virgin for our salvation, let us, the faithful, give praise and worship. For he willed to be lifted up on the cross in the flesh, to endure death and raise the dead by his glorious resurrection.

Seasonal Kontakion in the Third Mode

Let us flee the boastful words of the Pharisee and learn humility from the sights of the publican; let us cry out to the Savior: Spare us, for you alone are rich in forgiveness.

Wisdom of the Fathers

But if he had despaired of his life, and, ... had remained in the foreign land, he would not have obtained what he did obtain, but would have been consumed with hunger, and so have undergone the most pitiable death: ...

St. John Chrysostom

AN EXHORTATION TO THEODORE AFTER HIS FALL, 4th Century

... but since he repented, and did not despair, he was restored, even after such great corruption, to the same splendour as before, and was arrayed in the most beautiful robe, and enjoyed greater honours than his brother who had not fallen.

St. John Chrysostom

AN EXHORTATION TO THEODORE AFTER HIS FALL, 4th Century

Saints and Feasts

February 28

Sunday of the Prodigal Son

Through the parable of today's Gospel, our Saviour has set forth three things for us: the condition of the sinner, the rule of repentance, and the greatness of God's compassion. The divine Fathers have put this reading the week after the parable of the Publican and Pharisee so that, seeing in the person of the Prodigal Son our own wretched condition -- inasmuch as we are sunken in sin, far from God and His Mysteries -- we might at last come to our senses and make haste to return to Him by repentance during these holy days of the Fast.

Furthermore, those who have wrought many great iniquities, and have persisted in them for a long time, oftentimes fall into despair, thinking that there can no longer be any forgiveness for them; and so being without hope, they fall every day into the same and even worse iniquities. Therefore, the divine Fathers, that they might root out the passion of despair from the hearts of such people, and rouse them to the deeds of virtue, have set the present parable at the forecourts of the Fast, to show them the surpassing goodness of God's compassion, and to teach them that there is no sin -- no matter how great it may be -- that can overcome at any time His love for man.

March 01

The Holy Righteous Martyr Eudocia the Samaritan

This Saint, who was from Heliopolis of Phoenicia (Baalbek in present-day Lebanon), was an idolater and led a licentious life. Being beautiful beyond telling, she had many lovers, and had acquired great riches. Yet brought to repentance by a monk named Germanus, and baptized by Bishop Theodotus, she distributed to the poor all her ill-gotten gains, and entered a convent, giving herself up completely to the life of asceticism. Her former lovers, enraged at her conversion, her refusal to return to her old ways, and the withering away of her beauty through the severe mortifications she practiced, betrayed her as a Christian to Vincent the Governor, and she was beheaded, according to some, under Trajan, who reigned from 98 to 117, according to others, under Hadrian, who reigned from 117 to 138.

March 02

Hesychius the Martyr

Holy martyr Hesychius lived during the reign of king Maximian in 302. He was the first and the leader in the royal palace and the Senate, because he was magistrianus by office. When Maximian ordered that all Christians who were royal soldiers ought to be deprived of their belts (which were a sign of their royal merit) and live as civilians and without honour, many Christians preferred to live without any outward honour due to this illegal order than to be honoured and lose their soul. St. Hesychius was numbered with these Christians as well. When the king heard this, he ordered that the saint ought to be stripped of the expensive clothes, which he used to wear, and be dressed with a shabby mantle without sleeves woven from hair and to be as disgraced and disdained as to consort with women.

When this had been carried out, the king invited him and asked him: "Aren't you ashamed, Hesychius, that you lost the honour and office of magistrianus and that you have been debased to this kind of life? Or maybe you don't know that the Christians, whose way of life you preferred, have no power to restore you to your previous great honour and office?" The saint replied: "Your honour, o king, is temporary but the honour and glory which Christ gives is eternal and without end." Because of these words the king got angry and ordered his men to tie a great millstone around the saint's neck and then to throw him in the middle of river Orontus, which lies in Coele Syria and which is commonly called Oronge. Thus, the blessed man received the crown of martyrdom from the Lord.

March 03

The Holy Martyrs Eutropius, Cleonicus, and Basiliscus

The Martyrs, who were from Amasia, were fellow soldiers and kinsmen of Saint Theodore the Tyro (see Feb. 17). They were betrayed to the Governor Asclepiodotus as Christians, during the reign of Diocletian (284-305). After many torments, Eutropius and Cleonicus were crucified; Basiliscus was not slain together with them, but was shut up in prison, in the hope that with time he might change his mind and sacrifice to the idols. He was beheaded on May 22; see also the account on that day.

March 04

Gerasimus the Righteous of Jordan

This Saint, who was from Lycia in Asia Minor, lived there for many years as a hermit, and then went to Palestine. There he built the great Lavra by the Jordan River, where a lion served him with great obedience and devotion. One day the lion came looking for Gerasimus that he might feed him, but his disciples took the lion to the place where they had buried the Saint shortly before. The lion fell at the Saint's grave and, after roaring with grief, died at that very place. Saint Gerasimus reposed in 475.

March 05

Conon the Gardener

This saint lived during the reign of emperor Decius in 251. He came from the town of Nazareth. He left his hometown and went to the city of Mandron, in the province of Pamphylia. There he stayed at a place called Karmela or Karmena cultivating a garden which he used to water and plant with various vegetables. From this garden he obtained what is necessary for life. He had such an upright and simple mind that, when he met those who wished to arrest him and saw that they greeted him, he also greeted in return from the bottom of his soul and heart. When they told him that governor Publius called the saint to go to him, the saint answered with simplicity: "What does the governor need me, since I am a Christian? Let him call those who think the way he does and have the same religion with him." So, the blessed man was tied and brought to the governor, who tried to move him to sacrifice to the idols. But the saint sighed from the bottom of his heart, cursed the tyrant and confirmed his faith in Christ with his confession, saying that it is not possible to be moved from it even though he might be tortured cruelly. So, for this reason they nailed his feet and made the saint run in front of the governor's coach. But the saint fainted in the street. Having fallen on his knees, he prayed and, thus, he commended his holy soul to the hands of God.

March 06

42 Martyrs of Amorion in Phrygia

These Martyrs, men of high rank in the Roman (Byzantine) army, were taken captive when the city of Amorion in Phrygia fell to the Moslem Arabs in 838, during the reign of Theophilus the Iconoclast. Among them were Aetius and Melissenus, the generals; Theodore, the chief of the imperial ceremonial bodyguard; Craterus, the eunuch; Callistus, Constantine, Bassoes, and Theophilius, who were military officials; and certain others who held important positions. Because of their experience in war and their virtue, the Moslems did not slay them, but tried by all means to convert them to Islam and have them to fight in their own campaigns. They kept the holy Martyrs shut up in a dark dungeon in the city of Samarra in Syria, threatening and abusing them, making promises of glorious rank and magnificent riches, keeping them in hunger, oppression, and darkness, not for a few weeks, or a few months, but for seven full years. Finally, unable to break the courage and faith of their captives, they beheaded them in the year 845.

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