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Transfiguration of Our Saviour Greek Orthodox Church
Publish Date: 2021-08-15
Bulletin Contents
Dormitio
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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

HAPPY NAMEDAY

We extend to all who celebrate their namedays today, the Feast of the Assumption of the Theotokos (Maria, Despina, Panagiota, Panagiotis), our well wishes and prayers that our Lord will bless you with many years.

JOIN US FOR FELLOWSHIP

Everyone is welcome to join the Fellowship Hour following services for coffee and conversation!  We encourage social distancing during coffee fellowship and encourage everyone to continue to act in responsible a manner to ensure the health and safety of all.

DONATIONS FOR WILD FIRES IN GREECE

The recent wild fires in Greece have created great hardship for thousands, many of whom who have lost everything.  For the next few Sundays, we will provide you an opportunity to make donations that we will collectively send to the fund established by the Archdiocese of America to aid those in need.  If you would like to make an online donation, please go to www.goarch.org or you can make a donation to the IOCC at www.iocc.org. Please be generous. 

CHOIR TO RESUME IN FALL

The Choir needs you! We thank our wonderful chanters, Patty and Melanie, for covering for us during these difficult COVID times. Thankfully, with vaccinations in place, we are looking to start up the choir again in the fall. We are in desperate need of voices! Please join us, no experience necessary. OUR FIRST REHEARSAL WILL BE ON SUNDAY AUGUST 22ND IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING LITURGY. Bring friends, family, children, and whoever you think would like to sing! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact our director, Stephanie Gulezian, at stephaniegulezian@gmail.com or our organist, Marc Gulezian, at mgulezian22@gmail.com.

PHILOPTOCHOS

Please join us for our first scheduled Philoptochos General Meeting on September 15, 2021.  Light refreshments will be served at 6:30pm.  Business meeting will begin at 7:00pm.  Our Outreach for this month is children’s chapter books for grades 2, 3 and 4 to benefit our Literacy Program. Your generosity is much appreciated.   Hope to see you there!

SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHING OPPORTUNITY 

The Transfiguration Sunday school Ministry is looking for enthusiastic individuals to teach our children and young adults beginning this coming Fall for the year 2021-2022. This opportunity encourages creative ideas using art and technology to short class lessons. The teaching staff always share ideas and support one another during the year. 

We would like to welcome you to our team!  For more info contact Corrine at corrinedubay@gmail.com

OPENING PROTOCOLS FOR CHURCH CONTINUE

The opening of the church for services continues to expand.  We ask that you follow the CDC guidelines.  Those who are vaccinated, masks are optional.  Those who are not fully vaccinated are strongly encouraged to continue mask usage to help protect themselves and others, especially our children.  Through the summer we will continue with pew spacing.  You are welcome to seat yourself as you enter the church.  As you move around the facility, please keep social distancing in mind.

We are excited to welcome you back for worship as you feel comfortable.  We are also excited to begin reinstalling many of our ministries and events.  Please offer your assistance as we begin the process of ramping up our calendar.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR UPCOMING SPECIAL EVENTS!

Keep two dates in mind.  1) The annual Golf Tournament will be held on Saturday, September 18.  Information has been mailed about playing and underwriting the event.  If you have any questions or would like to play or donate contact Costas Tsioulis (508-423-1369). 2) After having great success with our ‘Grecian Food Festival – Drive Thru’ event at the beginning of June, we have scheduled another Drive-Thru Festival for October 16.  Details on volunteering, donating, and purchasing will be coming soon.

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.

SUMMER OFFICE HOURS

The office hours have changed to summer hours – Mondays in July and August will be closed.  Tuesday through Friday the office will be opened 9:00am to 1:00pm.

WATCH SERVICES ONLINE

Worship services continue to be live streamed through YouTube at www.youtube.com/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

Some 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.

    

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: In Loving Memory of Peter Stavrou. May his memory be eternal.

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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, August 15  FEAST OF DORMITION
†Orthros, 8:30 am
†Liturgy, 9:30 am
Coffee Fellowship following Liturgy 

Wednesday, August 18  
Parish Council Meeting 

Sunday, August 22   NINTH SUNDAY OF MATTHEW
†Orthros, 8:30 am
†Liturgy, 9:30 am
Coffee Fellowship following Liturgy 

 

TODAY’S PARISH COUNCIL: Costas Tsioulis, Christian Zouzas & Chuck Nestor

 

UPCOMING EVENTS 

August 29                     
Beheading of John the Baptist

September 5                      
Eleventh Sunday of Matthew
Monthly Trisagion

September 6                      
Labor Day – Office Closed

September 7                      
Parish Council Meeting, 6:30 pm

September 8                      
Nativity of The Theotokos – Liturgy, 9:30 am

September 12                    
Sunday Before Holy Cross
3 Year Memorial for Angelike Flannagan

September 14                    
Feast of the Holy Cross, 9:30 am

September 17                    
St. Sophia and her daughters – Liturgy, 9:30 am

September 18                    
11th Annual Golf Tournament

September 19
Sunday After Holy Cross

September 26
Falling Asleep of St. John The Theologian

 

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Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. Third Mode. Luke 1: 46-48.
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
Verse: For he has regarded the humility of his servant.

The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Philippians 2:5-11.

Brethren, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.


Gospel Reading

The Dormition of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever Virgin Mary
The Reading is from Luke 10:38-42, 11:27-28

At that time, Jesus entered a village; and a woman called Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving; and she went to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve you alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her." As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!" But he said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"


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Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the Grave Mode

By the cross, O Lord, you destroyed death; to the thief you opened paradise. The myrrhbearers' sorrow you transformed into joy, and you sent your apostles forth to proclaim that you had risen from the dead, Christ our God, bestowing on all the world your great mercy.

Apolytikion for Dormition of the Theotokos in the First Mode

In giving birth you remained a virgin, and in your dormition you did not forsake this world, O Theotokos. For as the Mother of Life, you have yourself passed into life, and by your prayers you deliver our souls from death.

Seasonal Kontakion in the Second Mode

She is our vigilant intercessor, the Theotokos, our sure hope and protection. Neither death nor tomb held any power over her, for as the Mother of Life, she was taken into life by that very one who deigned to dwell in her ever virgin womb.
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Wisdom of the Fathers

What Mary might well have said to Martha, the Lord, anticipating her, replied that she had left everything to sit at the Lord's feet, and bless God all day long. You see, her sitting was for love's sake.
St. Makarios the Great
Homily XII, 4th Century

But that God's word may be made clearer, listen to this. If any one loves Jesus, and attends to Him in earnest, and not in a casual way, but in love abides by Him, God is already devising to make some return to that soul for its love, although the man does not know what he is to receive or what portion God is about to give to the soul.
St. Makarios the Great
Homily XII, 4th Century

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Saints and Feasts

Dormitio
August 15

The Dormition of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever Virgin Mary

Concerning the Dormition of the Theotokos, this is what the Church has received from ancient times from the tradition of the Fathers. When the time drew nigh that our Savior was well-pleased to take His Mother to Himself, He declared unto her through an Angel that three days hence, He would translate her from this temporal life to eternity and bliss. On hearing this, she went up with haste to the Mount of Olives, where she prayed continuously. Giving thanks to God, she returned to her house and prepared whatever was necessary for her burial. While these things were taking place, clouds caught up the Apostles from the ends of the earth, where each one happened to be preaching, and brought them at once to the house of the Mother of God, who informed them of the cause of their sudden gathering. As a mother, she consoled them in their affliction as was meet, and then raised her hands to Heaven and prayed for the peace of the world. She blessed the Apostles, and, reclining upon her bed with seemliness, gave up her all-holy spirit into the hands of her Son and God.

With reverence and many lights, and chanting burial hymns, the Apostles took up that God-receiving body and brought it to the sepulchre, while the Angels from Heaven chanted with them, and sent forth her who is higher than the Cherubim. But one Jew, moved by malice, audaciously stretched forth his hand upon the bed and immediately received from divine judgment the wages of his audacity. Those daring hands were severed by an invisible blow. But when he repented and asked forgiveness, his hands were restored. When they had reached the place called Gethsemane, they buried there with honor the all-immaculate body of the Theotokos, which was the source of Life. But on the third day after the burial, when they were eating together, and raised up the artos (bread) in Jesus' Name, as was their custom, the Theotokos appeared in the air, saying "Rejoice" to them. From this they learned concerning the bodily translation of the Theotokos into the Heavens.

These things has the Church received from the traditions of the Fathers, who have composed many hymns out of reverence, to the glory of the Mother of our God (see Oct. 3 and 4).


Napkin
August 16

Translation of the Image of Our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ

When the fame of our Lord Jesus Christ came to Abgar, the ruler of Edessa, who was suffering from leprosy, Abgar sent a messenger named Ananias, through him asking the Savior to heal him of his disease, while bidding Ananias bring back a depiction of Him. When Ananias came to Jerusalem, and was unable to capture the likeness of our Lord, He, the Knower of hearts, asked for water, and having washed His immaculate and divine face, wiped it dry with a certain cloth, which He gave to Ananias to take to Abgar; the form of the Lord's face had been wondrously printed upon the cloth. As soon as Abgar received the cloth, which is called the Holy Napkin (Mandylion), he reverenced it with joy, and was healed of his leprosy; only his forehead remained afflicted. After the Lord's Death, Resurrection, and Ascension, the Apostle Thaddaeus (see Aug. 21) came to Edessa, and when he had baptized Abgar and all his men, Abgar's remaining leprosy also was healed. Abgar had the holy image of our Savior fixed to a board and placed at the city gate, commanding that all who entered the city reverence it as they passed through. Abgar's grandson, however, returned to the worship of the idols, and the Bishop of Edessa learned of his intention to replace the Holy Napkin with an idol. Since the place where it stood above the city gate was a rounded hollow, he set a burning lamp before the Holy Napkin, put a tile facing it, then bricked up the place and smoothed it over, so that the holy icon made without hands was no longer to be seen, and the ungodly ruler gave no further thought to it.

With the passage of time, the hidden icon was forgotten, until the year 615, when Chosroes II, King of Persia, was assaulting the cities of Asia, and besieged Edessa. The Bishop of Edessa, Eulabius, instructed by a divine revelation, opened the sealed chamber above the city gate and found the Holy Napkin complete and incorrupt, the lamp burning, and the tile bearing upon itself an identical copy of the image that was on the Holy Napkin. The Persians had built a huge fire outside the city wall; when the Bishop approached with the Holy Napkin, a violent wind fell upon the fire, turning it back upon the Persians, who fled in defeat. The Holy Napkin remained in Edessa, even after the Arabs conquered it, until the year 944, when it was brought with honor and triumph to Constantinople in the reign of Romanus I, when Theophylact was Ecumenical Patriarch. The Holy Napkin was enshrined in the Church of the most holy Theotokos called the Pharos. This is the translation that is celebrated today.


Myron
August 17

Myron the Martyr of Cyzicus

Saint Myron was a priest during the reign of Decius, when Antipater was ruler of Achaia. On the day of our Lord's Nativity, Antipater entered the church to seize the Christians and punish them. Saint Myron, kindled with holy zeal, roundly insulted Antipater, for which he was hung up and scraped, then cast into a raging furnace, but was preserved unharmed. When Myron refused to worship the idols, Antipater commanded that strips be cut in the Saint's flesh from his shoulders to his feet; the Saint took one of the strips of his flesh and flung it in the tyrant's face. He was beaten, and scraped again upon his beaten flesh; then he was thrown to wild beasts, but when Antipater saw them leaving off their fierce nature and protecting the Saint from harm, he was overcome with unbearable shame and slew himself. The Saint was then sent to Cyzicus, where the proconsul had him beheaded, about the year 250.


Allsaint
August 18

Floros & Lauros the Monk-martyrs of Illyria

These Martyrs were twin brothers, and stonemasons. After the martyrdom of their teachers Proclus and Maximus, they left Byzantium and came to the city of Ulpiana in Illyricum, where a certain Licinius hired them to build a temple for the idols. The wages he gave them, they distributed to the poor, and when the temple was built, Floros and Lauros gathered the paupers, and with their help put ropes about the necks of the idols, pulled them to the ground, and furnished the temple as a church. When Licinius learned of this, he had the paupers burned alive in a furnace. Floros and Lauros were tormented, then cast into a deep well, where they gave up their souls to the Lord. When their holy relics were recovered years later, they poured forth myrrh and worked many miracles; they were enshrined in Constantinople.


Allsaint
August 19

Andrew the General & Martyr & his 2,593 soldiers

During the reign of Maximian, about the year 289, Antiochus the Commander-in-Chief of the Roman forces sent Andrew with many other soldiers against the Persians, who had overrun the borders of the Roman dominion. Saint Andrew persuaded his men to call upon the Name of Christ, and when they had defeated the Persians with unexpected triumph, his soldiers believed in Christ with him. Antiochus, learning of this, had them brought before him. When they confessed Christ to be God, he had Andrew spread out upon a bed of iron heated fiery hot, and had the hands of his fellow soldiers nailed to blocks of wood. Antiochus then commanded some thousand soldiers to chase the Saints beyond the borders of the empire. Through the instructions of Saint Andrew, these soldiers also believed in Christ. At the command of Antiochus, they were all beheaded in the mountain passes of the Taurus mountains of Cilicia.


Samuel
August 20

Samuel the Prophet

This most holy man, a Prophet of God from childhood, was the last judge of the Israelite people, and anointed the first two Kings of Israel. He was born in the twelfth century before Christ, in the city of Armathaim Sipha, from the tribe of Levi, the son of Elkanah and Hannah (Anna). He was the fruit of prayer, for his mother, being barren, conceived him only after she had supplicated the Lord with many tears; wherefore she called him Samuel, that is, "heard by God." As soon as Hannah had weaned him, she brought him to the city of Silom (Shiloh), where the Ark was kept, and she consecrated him, though yet a babe, to the service of God, giving thanks to Him with the hymn found in the Third Ode of the Psalter: "My heart hath been established in the Lord . . ." Samuel remained in Silom under the protection of Eli the priest. He served in the Tabernacle of God, and through his most venerable way of life became well-pleasing to God and man (I Kings 2: 26). While yet a child, sleeping in the tabernacle near the Ark of God, he heard the voice of God calling his name, and foretelling the downfall of Eli; for although Eli's two sons, Ophni and Phineas, were most lawless, and despisers of God, Eli did not correct them. Even after Samuel had told Eli of the divine warning, Eli did not properly chastise his sons, and afterwards, through various misfortunes, his whole house was blotted out in one day.

After these things came to pass, Samuel was chosen to be the protector of the people, and he judged them with holiness and righteousness. He became for them an example of all goodness, and their compassionate intercessor before God: "Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you; yea, I will serve the Lord, and show you the good and the right way" (ibid. 12:23). When he asked them -- having God as witness -- if he ever wronged anyone, or took anyone's possessions, or any gift, even so much as a sandal, they answered with one voice: "Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, nor afflicted us, neither hast thou taken anything from anyone's hand" (ibid. 12:4). When Samuel was old, the people asked him for a king, but he was displeased with this, knowing that God Himself was their King. But when they persisted, the Lord commanded him to anoint them a king, saying, "They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me from reigning over them" (ibid. 8:7); so Samuel anointed Saul. But Saul transgressed the command of God repeatedly, so Samuel anointed David. Yet, since Samuel was a man of God, full of tender mercy, when the Lord told him that He had rejected Saul, Samuel wept for him the whole night long (ibid. 15:11); and later, since he continued to grieve, the Lord said to him, "How long wilt thou mourn for Saul?" (ibid. 16:1). Having lived blamelessly some ninety-eight years, and become an example to all of a God-pleasing life, he reposed in the eleventh century before Christ. Many ascribe to him the authorship of the Books of judges, and of Ruth, and of the first twenty-four chapters of the First Book of Kings (I Samuel).


Holy12ap
August 21

The Holy Apostle Thaddaeus

The Apostle Thaddaeus was from Edessa, a Jew by race. When he came to Jerusalem, he became a disciple of Christ, and after His Ascension he returned to Edessa. There he catechized and baptized Abgar (see Aug. 16). Having preached in Mesopotamia, he ended his life in martyrdom. Though some call him one of the Twelve, whom Matthew calls "Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus" (Matt. 10:3), Eusebius says that he is one of the Seventy: "After [Christ's] Resurrection from the dead, and His ascent into Heaven, Thomas, one of the twelve Apostles, inspired by God, sent Thaddaeus, one of the seventy disciples of Christ, to Edessa as a preacher and evangelist of Christ's teaching" (Eccl. Hist. 1: 13).


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