Publish-header
St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church
Publish Date: 2018-03-25
Bulletin Contents
Lectionary & Typicon
Church Services and Events
Parish Stewardship
Announcements
Saints and Feasts
Gospel and Epistle Readings
Wisdom of the Fathers
Bulletin Inserts
Diocesan Stewardship Blog
ACROD News
Assembly of Bishops News
Diocesan Resources
Allsaint
Organization Icon
St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • (203) 375-2564
  • Street Address:

  • 1240 Broadbridge Avenue

  • Stratford, CT 06615

Contact Information

Very Rev. Protopresbyter Peter Paproski


rppaproski@gmail.com | 203-375-2564

Services Schedule


Divine Liturgy - Sundays and Feast Days : 9:00 am

Great Vespers - Saturday Evenings: 5:00 pm

Great Vespers - Eve of Great Feasts: 7:00 pm

Moleben to St. Nectarios - Second Tuesday 7:00 pm 

Past Bulletins


Lectionary & Typicon

Image result for icon publican and Pharisee

 

Fifth Sunday of Lent -  March 25, 2018

St. Mary of Egypt 


Epistle :  Hebrews 9:11-14  Gospel:  Mark 10:32-43


Resurrectional  Tone 1

BACK TO TOP

Church Services and Events

  • Calendar

    March 25 to April 8, 2018

    Sunday, March 25

    9:00AM Divine Liturgy

    10:45AM Church School

    Monday, March 26

    4:00PM Lord's Kitchen - Christ Church, Stratford

    Tuesday, March 27

    4:00PM Teen Catechism Class

    Wednesday, March 28

    6:30PM Presanctified Liturgy and Adult Ed

    Friday, March 30

    7:00PM Paraklis to The Theotokos

    Saturday, March 31

    8:00AM Lazarus Saturday Liturgy

    10:00AM Easter Bake Sale

    5:00PM Great Vespers

    Sunday, April 1

    9:00AM Divine Liturgy - Palm Sunday

    10:45AM Church School

    4:00PM Bridegroom Matins

    Monday, April 2

    6:30PM Presanctified Liturgy - Holy Monday

    Tuesday, April 3

    9:00AM Bridegroom Matins - Holy Tues

    6:30PM Presanctified Liturgy - Holy Tues

    Wednesday, April 4

    7:00PM Deanery Holy Unction - St John's Bridgeport

    Thursday, April 5

    9:00AM Vesperal Liturgy of Holy Thursday

    7:00PM Matins of Holy Friday - 12 Passion Gospels

    Friday, April 6

    11:00AM Royal Hours of Holy Friday

    7:00PM Vespers and Entombment of Our Lord

    Saturday, April 7

    9:00AM Vesperal Liturgy of Holy Saturday and Feast of The Annunciation

    6:00PM Blessing of Paschal Foods

    11:30PM Nocturnes of Holy Saturday

    Sunday, April 8

    12:00AM Resurrection Matins

    10:00AM Paschal Divine Liturgy

    11:30AM Paschal Fellowship Reception

BACK TO TOP

Parish Stewardship

Logo_-_stewardship_commission_-_10-7-2013_(234_x_249)

 

DATE COFFEE HOUR HOST HOURS EPISTLE
April 1 Ryan/Nucifora Pani Carol Hailey
April 8 Paschal Fellowship N/A Matthew Mihaly
       

2018 STEWARDSHIP

     YTD: $13,905.00  As of 3/18/18  Goal: $70,000.00

 

BACK TO TOP

Announcements

ADULT EDUCATION - We are now now studying The Psalms. It takes place following Presanctified Liturgy on Wednesday Evenings. Those who are interested in taking part in the class either in person or by telephone or video conferencing are kindly asked to contact Fr. Peter.  

EASTER BAKE SALE - Many thanks to all of our devoted Pagachi Crew and our Pierogie and Bread lady for all of their hard work preparing baked items for the Easter Bake Sale which will take place this coming Saturday March 31, 2018 at 10:00 am.  Please see Fr. Peter or Pani Carol if you can assist at the sale. 

HOLY WEEK AND PASCHA - PROCESSIONS - FELLOWSHIP  - Sign up sheets are posted in the Church Hall for  Holy Week Processions, Vigil at The Lord's Tomb and Paschal Fellowship Meal.  Please add your name (or confirm your participation again year)

LORD’S KITCHEN - Our Next  Meal is Mon,  March 26, 2018 at  Christ Church in Stratford.  Please See Mary or Eve if you  wish to help. 

LENTEN READING CHALLENGE: - We are reading Help I Am Bored In Church: Entering Fully Into Worship In The Divine Liturgy – A newly released book by Fr David Smith which offers four compelling reasons for going to church regardless of how we feel. It also explores six reasons people sometimes feel bored in church, five ways to think about your priest, four ways to participate more fully in services,three kinds of waiting, two kinds of prayer, and the one thing truly needful in our relationship with God. This book will help the reader see church as the best place they could possibly be—and the place they most want to be There will be an opportunity to discuss your reading at our Sunday coffee hour.. Books Are Now On Sale For $11.00 See Fr. Peter!

LENTEN CHARITY SUPPORT  -  There is a collection box on the Coffee Hour table in support of the Orthodox Christian Mission Center.  Proceeds will be earmarked to Fr Juvanal from Stratford who is doing missionary work in Guatemala. 

BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES 
March 26 Orestes Mihaly, Jr.   Birthday
March 30  Ryan LeClerc      Birthday
March 30 Serge Mihaly, Jr. Birthday
 
FINANCIAL STATS - 3/11/18 
Pew Collection              1584.00
7 Day Candles                  21.00 
First Sunday Collection                  10.00 
Third Sunday Collection                 136.00 
Four Hour Candles                155.00 
Offering at Lenten Services                  12.00 
Dues                75.00
TOTAL          $1,993.00
BACK TO TOP

Saints and Feasts

Allsaint
March 12

Theophanes the Confessor

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.

Allsaint
March 12

Gregory Dialogos, Bishop of Rome

Saint Gregory was born in Rome to noble and wealthy parents about the year 540. While the Saint was still young, his father died. However, his mother, Sylvia, saw to it that her child received a good education in both secular and spiritual learning. He became Prefect of Rome and sought to please God even while in the world; later, he took up the monastic life; afterwards he was appointed Archdeacon of Rome, then, in 579, apocrisiarius (representative or Papal legate) to Constantinople, where he lived for nearly seven years. He returned to Rome in 585 and was elected Pope in 590. He is renowned especially for his writings and great almsgiving, and also because, on his initiative, missionary work began among the Anglo-Saxon people. It is also from him that Gregorian Chant takes its name; the chanting he had heard at Constantinople had deeply impressed him, and he imported many elements of it into the ecclesiastical chant of Rome. He served as Bishop of that city from 590 to 604.

Symeonnewspious
March 12

Symeon the New Theologian

Saint Symeon became a monk of the Studite Monastery as a young man, under the guidance of the elder Symeon the Pious. Afterwards he struggled at the Monastery of Saint Mamas in Constantinople, of which he became abbot. After enduring many trials and afflictions in his life of piety, he reposed in 1022. Marvelling at the heights of prayer and holiness to which he attained, and the loftiness of the teachings of his life and writings, the church calls him "the New Theologian." Only to two others, John the Evangelist and Gregory, Patriarch of Constantinople, has the church given the name "Theologian." Saint Symeon reposed on March 12, but since this always falls in the Great Fast, his feast is kept today.

BACK TO TOP

Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

The Reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Hebrews 9:11-14

BRETHREN, when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Gospel Reading

Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt
The Reading is from Mark 10:32-45

At that time, Jesus taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles; and they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise." And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him, and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." And he said to them, "What do you want me to do for you?" And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory." But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" And they said to him, "We are able." And Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared." And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant of James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, "You know that those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

BACK TO TOP

Wisdom of the Fathers

But the head of every good endeavor and the guiding force of right actions is perseverance in prayer. By means of it we can daily obtain the rest of the virtues by asking God for them. By this means are engendered in those deemed worthy the fellowship of God's holiness and of spiritual energy and the attachment of the mind disposed toward the Lord in ineffable love. For the person who daily forces himself to persevere in prayer is enflamed with divine passion and fiery desire from a spiritual love toward God, and he receives the grace of the sanctifying perfection of the Spirit.
St. Makarios the Great
Homilies 40.2, in Spiritual Homilies, 4th century

I am amazed that there are some who are extremely doubtful whether the holy Virgin should be called Mother of God or no. For if our Lord Jesus Christ is God, then surely the holy Virgin who gave him birth must be God's mother.
St. Cyril of Alexandria
Letter I to the Monks in Egypt. B#15, p. 252., 5th Century

BACK TO TOP

Bulletin Inserts

BACK TO TOP

Diocesan Stewardship Blog

Logo_-_stewardship_commission_-_10-7-2013_(234_x_249)

On Stewardship and the Orthodox Life - Part 152: Bad Excuses (6/25/17)

05/02/2017

http://acrod.org/ministries/stewardship/stewarship-blog/stewardship-152
"Honor the Lord with your substances and with the first fruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.” (Proverbs 3: 9-10 RSV)

We tend to shy away from a discussion involving money when it comes to stewardship. The reason lies in the fact that the Western church has put such an emphasis on it in America that even the Orthodox Church has adopted the “westernization of stewardship.” We have tried very hard to present the true biblical connotation of stewardship through the Diocesan Stewardship Commission. Stewardship of your treasure/wealth is an important factor in the church. Without it, the church cannot pay the mortgage, priest salary, utilities and most importantly, outreach efforts.

On Stewardship and the Orthodox Life - Part 151: Giving Away the Kingdom (6/18/17)

05/02/2017

http://acrod.org/ministries/stewardship/stewarship-blog/stewardship-151
“Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it.” (Matthew 21: 43 RSV)

The New Testament is full of parables which Christ attempts to teach us using common day examples. We see in Matthew, Chapter 21, several parables. The parable of the two sons (versus 28 -32) and the parable of the wicked tenants (versus 33- 41) both teach us that we are not guaranteed a place in the Kingdom of God. Eternal life is truly a gift that God has given us but how we experience that gift depends entirely on how we use the gifts that God has given us as well as expressing our gratitude for those gifts.

On Stewardship and the Orthodox Life - Part 150: Fairness and Credibility (6/11/17)

05/02/2017

http://acrod.org/ministries/stewardship/stewarship-blog/stewardship-150
"I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me. You know that I have served your father with all my strength; yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, but God has not permitted him to harm me.”.” (Genesis 31: 5-7 RSV)

Jacob was deceived several times by La’ban. It was not fair how La’ban had treated him yet Jacob persisted until God instructed him to take his wives, children and flocks and leave. I think that most of us at one time or another and to one degree or another have had something happen to us that was just not fair. Most of us took it in stride and continued with other lives. There is an ever increasing movement in this country that there must be an equality of outcomes.
BACK TO TOP

BACK TO TOP

BACK TO TOP

Diocesan Resources

Diocesan Website:  http://www.acrod.org Camp:  http://www.campnazareth.org
Facebook:   http://www.facebook.com/acroddiocese
  Twitter: https://twitter.com/acrodnews
You Tube: https://youtube.com/acroddiocese
  National ACRY: http://www.acry.org

 

BACK TO TOP