Publish-header
St. James Orthodox Church
Publish Date: 2017-02-26
Bulletin Contents
Hymns of the Day
Gospel and Epistle Readings
Saints and Feasts
Upcoming Services, Events, and Information
Eden
Organization Icon
St. James Orthodox Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • 770 639-3641
  • Street Address:

  • 1651 Horizon Parkway Suite 400

  • Buford, GA 30518

Contact Information

The Very Rev. Fr. Steven Ritter
Pastor


Services Schedule

Great Vespers - 5:30 PM Saturday; Orthros - 9:00 AM Sunday; Divine Liturgy - 10:00 AM Sunday

Confessions are available after Services, or contact Fr. Steven  

 The Fiftieth Day after Pascha

The Great Feast of Pentecost

        WELCOME! WE WISH TO EXTEND A GRACIOUS WELCOME TO ALL WHO ARE VISITING TODAY!  A FRIENDLY REMINDER: Only Orthodox Christians who have properly prepared themselves through fasting, prayer, and recent confession may approach the Chalice to receive Holy Communion.

Past Bulletins


Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the 3rd Tone

PAGE 95: Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad; for the Lord hath done a mighty act with his own arm. He hath trampled down death and become the First-born from the dead. He hath delivered us from the depth of hades, granting the world the Great Mercy.

Seasonal Kontakion in the 6th Tone

Teacher of wisdom, Bestower of virtue, who teachest the thoughtless and protectest the poor: Strengthen and enlighten my heart, O Master. Give me word, O Word of the Father, for behold my lips will not be restrained from crying to thee: Have mercy on me, the transgressor, O merciful Lord.
BACK TO TOP

Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. 8th Tone. 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.

Gospel Reading

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."

BACK TO TOP

Saints and Feasts

Eden
February 26

Forgiveness Sunday

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.

Porphyrios_bishop_of_gaza
February 26

Porphyrius, Bishop of Gaza

Saint Porphyrius had Thessalonica as his homeland. He became a monk in Scete of Egypt, where he lived for five years. He went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, after which he spent five years in much affliction in a cave near the Jordan. Stricken with a disease of the liver, he departed to Jerusalem, where he was ordained presbyter and appointed Keeper of the Cross at the age of 45. Three years later he was made Bishop of Gaza. He suffered much from the rulers and pagans of Gaza; but with the friendship of Saint John Chrysostom, and the patronage of the Empress Eudoxia, he razed the temple of the idol Marnas in Gaza and built a great church to the glory of God. He reposed in 450.

Photini
February 26

The Holy Great Martyr Photine, the Samaritan Women

Saint Photine was the Samaritan Woman who encountered Christ our Saviour at Jacob's Well (John 4:1-42). Afterwards she laboured in the spread of the Gospel in various places, and finally received the crown of martyrdom in Rome with her two sons and five sisters, during the persecutions under the Emperor Nero.

BACK TO TOP

Upcoming Services, Events, and Information

St._james

Wisdom of the Fathers

Henceforward then we must be free from our listlessness; "for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."[*] You see how he puts the Resurrection now close by them. For as the time advances, he means, the season of our present life is wasting away, and that of the life to come waxes nearer. If then thou be prepared, and hast done all whatsoever He hath commanded, the day is salvation to thee...Yes, for the day is calling us to battle-array, and to the fight. Yet fear not at hearing of array and arms. For in the case of the visible suit of armor, to put it on is a heavy and abhorred task. But here it is desirable, and worth being prayed for. For it is of Light the arms are! Hence they will set thee forth brighter than the sunbeam, and giving out a great glistening, and they place thee in security: for they are arms, and glittering do they make thee: for arms of light are they!...It is the deadly kind of passions then that he is for extinguishing, lust, namely, and anger. Wherefore it is not themselves only, but even the sources of them that he removes. For there is nothing that so kindles lust, and inflames wrath, as drunkenness, and sitting long at the wine...

St. John Chrysostom, Homily 25 on Romans 13, 4th Century

TODAY: Forgiveness Vespers immediately follows Divine Liturgy. Please stay for this important service as we reconcile with one another! Coffee hour occurs afterward.

CLEAN WEEK SCHEDULE:

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete @ 6:30 PM

Wednesday: Presanctified Liturgy with Great Canon @ 6:00 PM

Friday: 1st Salutations to the Theotokos @ 6:30 PM

Everyone should plan on attending at least two extra services in order to properly focus our spiritual lenten efforts.

IT'S LENT! Read a spiritual book! Our library has many of them!

The 2017 Parish Life Conference is in Atlanta this year June 15-17. If you are a teen interested in the Bible Bowl, please see Beth Green.

Remember in your prayers those in need Nicholas, Tamara, Theodore, Aubrey, Elizabeth, Alexandra, Mary, Edward, Daren, Florence, Josephine, Pelagia, Tara, Mitrophan, Ruth, Lani, Douglas, Anastasia, Mary, Reader Miguel, Jesse, Timothy, Andrea, Patricia, Pasquale, Allyn, Robert, Jesse, Angelina, Kevin, Peter, Mary, Jude, Patricia, Jennifer, the catechumens Mary, Xenia, Michael, Gabriel, Alexander, Ephraim, Susan, Glyceria, John, Theophylact, Thomas, Richard, Alexandra; Jerome, Stephanie. 

 If you have an announcement for the bulletin, please send an email to bulletin@stjamesorthodox.org by THURSDAY.

 St. James Orthodox Church is a mission of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America.

BACK TO TOP