DUE TO PENDING TREACHEROUS WINTER WEATHER SERVICES ARE CANCELLED TODAY, SUNDAY FEB 16 Parish Council made this decision with the safety and well-being our our parish community in mind. See you next Sunday, Feb 23!
TODAY IS THE SUNDAY OF THE PRODIGAL SON A beautiful meditation on the meaning of this parable can be read at this link: https://stjohndc.org/en/orthodoxy-foundation/parable-prodigal-son, There is always something deeply meaningful to reflect on when this passage is put before us year to year. May we all come closer to God's abiding love for us as we meditate on the passage.
FASTING RULE THIS WEEK Eat normally and keep the usual Wednesday and Friday fasting days which are vegan food days. Next Sunday, Feb 23 will be the yearly "apo kreas" or "leave taking" from eating meat until Holy Pascha, Sunday, April 20. If desired, bring a meat dish (beef, lamb, pork, chicken) next Sunday to share at fellowship hour.
MEMORIAL NEXT SUNDAY, FEB 23 Memorial prayers will be offered for the soul of God's servant, Athena Brountas, who reposed three years ago. Memory Eternal! The Kulikowski family will provide the koliva.
PRAYER REQUESTS Prayer changes things--let us support one another. Fr. Leo is still recovering from a nasty cold / sinus infection, prayers will hasten the get well process. Prayers are requested for Deacon James from St. Innocent of Alaska mission in Bucksport. He has been diagnosed with lymphoma and will be undergoing chemotherapy. Sharon's sister, Lori, is facing a surgery and would be grateful for prayer support - surgery date yet undetermined. Victoria asks for prayer as she expects to have a knee surgery in about six months. In the meantime, she will need to manage with a less than stellar knee. Please keep remembering Dr. Allison's mom, Paula, in your prayers. She is managing a serious health condition. Thank God, she is doing well. Also, keep Mona's dad, Fr. Anthony, a priest in Pakistan, in your prayers. At present, his health is frail. Please keep remembering two Orthodox sisters in Christ still recovering from strokes (slow, but sure), Panagiota (Jaye) and Seraphima (Linnea). Pat E continues to thank everyone who prays for her as she copes with impaired eyesight. Again, your prayers for these these brothers and sisters in Christ are of great assistance.
SNOW SHOVELING AT CHURCH IS A MINISTRY IN MAINE Practical help clearing the path to the front door, the porch and ramp soon after any snowfall is considered a ministry. For many years, Lee has done this work mostly on his own and we'd like to give him a well-deserved break! Please send him a text to volunteer and let him know your availability so some coordination can be done. This should not be just one person's ministry, it can be shared among those willing to help. Reach out to Lee at 207 570 4324. Thank you!
GROUP READING OF THE PSALTER (BOOK OF PSALMS) DURING GREAT LENT Last year we assembled a group of 20 people who read through the Book of Psalms daily, each taking assigned portions. Thus, each day, the entire Book of Psalms was read by the group. And, at the end of Great Lent, each individual had read the Book of Psalms in its entirety, twice. This is an edifying spiritual practice and many Orthodox churches do this during Great Lent. All parishioners, both new or old, are invited to get involved. There is a blessing in making this offering of Psalm reading for love of God and our spiritual well-being.
This prayer discipline is done at home with the use of an Orthodox Psalter, readers should plan to devote approximately 30 minutes a day to reading their Psalm portion or "kathisma." If you would like to participate and need a Psalter (the Psalter is broken into numbered sections which helps readers keep their place and progress through the readings easily), please let Pres. know TODAY if you'd like her to order one for you ([email protected] or 207 949 2913). A larger Psalter book costs $30 and a smaller pocket size costs $18. Both are hardcovers. Details for the HOW TO do the Psalm readings and your assigned starting kathisma will be sent to participants this coming week. The first day of group Psalm reading will be Monday, March 3, aka "Clean Monday."
BOARD GAMES FOR ENJOYMENT AT ST. GEORGE Once a month right after fellowship hour, there will be a time of board game playing among those who'd like to participate. This will get underway next Sunday, 23 February. Bring a board game with you or play one that someone else brought. Dhesorae is the coordinator for this time of fun. Bring a friend, if you'd like. Hope to see you then!
A NICE WAY TO HELP ST. GEORGE For an unspecified time, a family has offered to buy our bookshop stock as a donation so the church does not need to fund the stock purchases. That means whenever you buy from our bookshop St. George benefits a good bit. So please shop here and if there is a book or something else (icon, prayer rope, neck cross, bread seal, or the like) you're looking for, please let Pres. know so it can be ordered. We recently did a bump up of books so check out what's on the shelf. Titles received over the past week are: The Illumined Heart (on the vibrant Faith of the ancient Christians); Eusebius - The Church History (hardcover); Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer (hardcover); The Orthodox Study Bible (hardcover); The Apostolic Fathers and Wounded by Love - the Life and Wisdom of St. Porphyrios and two red Antiochian pocket prayer books. We also have censers, self-light charcoal briquettes and aromatic Orthodox incense. Beautiful prayer ropes (33 knot and 100 knot in varied colors) made in Ukraine will be on display shortly. Thanks for shopping here--and let Pres. know if you are looking for specific items or want to order/re-order a book.
FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE - Donations can be made online.
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.
February 16
Pamphilus the Martyr & his Companions
This Martyr contested during the reign of Maximian, in the year 290, in Caesarea of Palestine, and was put to death by command of Firmilian, the Governor of Palestine. His fellow contestants' names are Valens, Paul, Seleucus, Porphyrius, Julian, Theodulus, and five others from Egypt: Elias, Jeremias, Esaias, Samuel, and Daniel. Their martyrdom is recorded in Book VIII, ch. 11 of Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, called The Martyrs of Palestine.
Prokeimenon. First Tone. Psalm 32.22,1. Let your mercy, O Lord, be upon us.
Verse: Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous.
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.
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.'"
