AVOID A WINTER PARKING TICKET by observing city guidelines for plowing: If the day of the week is an even number then we park on the church side of the street. If the day of the week is an odd number then we park across from the church. This Sunday is an odd number, park across the street from the church.
WELCOME TO OUR VISITORS Whether you are new to Bangor or if you're just passing through -welcome! If you've come because you are curious about the Orthodox Church, its beliefs and worship, you are very welcome, too! Please don't hesitate to introduce yourself to someone you've never met and consider staying for some refreshments and fellowship after the morning service. If you would like to receive mailings or otherwise stay in touch, please leave your contact information (name, address, phone, email) with the person in the church office.
SUNDAY SCHOOL meets in the fellowship hall right after Holy Communion is offered. All ages 6+ are welcome. Mrs. Bucklin is taking our young people on an adventure through the Book of Acts.
MEMORY ETERNAL!Today, Sunday, Feb 23, memorial prayers will be offered for the soul of God's servant, Athena Brountas, who reposed three years ago. God grant eternal memory to dear Athena! Koliva is provided by the Kulikowski family.
TODAY'S THEME IS THE LAST JUDGMENT It is also Meatfare Sunday - the last Sunday to consume meat until Holy Pascha, April 20. Please consider bringing a meat dish for the fellowship hour today.
MONDAY FEB 24 STARTS CHEESEFARE WEEK The fasting rule for the week allows for fish, seafood, any dairy products (including eggs), grains, fruits, nuts, legumes, oil and wine. There is no fasting on Wednesday or Friday of this week. Please bring a suitable dish for fellowship hour next Sunday. Thank you!
NOW'S THE TIME to start looking for vegan recipes. Great Lent starts Monday, March 3. Make a list of dishes your family might enjoy and try them. A roster of 10 recipes that you can cycle through and repeat during Great Lent will help relieve the stress of "what will we eat?" Meal planning is a great help during the season. One favorite vegan cooking site that has great recipes, many of them demonstrated on YouTube, is https://plantbasedcookingshow.com/. Another popular site is https://rainbowplantlife.com/. Also, consider asking other parishioners what dishes or products they rely on during Great Lent. People are glad to share what works for them.
PRAYER REQUESTS Prayer changes things--let us support one another. 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.
TODAY--BOARD GAMES FOR ENJOYMENT AT ST. GEORGEOnce a month right after fellowship hour, there will be a time of board game playing among those who'd like to participate. We're launching today, Feb 23. 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!
PROSPHORA BAKERS The season of Great Lent calls for extra prosfora. If you will bake extra breads of offering this season, please let Fr. Leo know. Thank you!
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 six Antiochian pocket prayer books. We also have censers, self-light charcoal briquettes and aromatic Orthodox incense. Beautiful prayer ropes (30 knot and 100 knot in varied colors) from Ukraine are on display 30 knot bracelet is $14; 100 knot rope is $45. Thanks for shopping here--and let Pres. know if you are looking for specific items or want to order/re-order a book.
YOU CAN PRE-ORDER A HOLY WEEK & EASTER (PASCHA) SERVICE BOOK NOW This year we will place an order for service books that will cover services from Palm Sunday night through Holy Pascha's Agape Vespers. This is the same service book we've used for years only this time you can buy one to own. The church has some books available for use, but we often run short of copies near the end of Holy Week. In order to own your own copy, please place your order with Presbytera by Sunday, March 9. The cost is $25 per book. You can write a check to St. George for $25 (mark Holy Week book in the memo section) and give to Pres. so she can log your order and note your payment. Thank you!
FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE - Donations can be made online.
The foregoing two parables -- especially that of the Prodigal Son -- have presented to us God's extreme goodness and love for man. But lest certain persons, putting their confidence in this alone, live carelessly, squandering upon sin the time given them to work out their salvation, and death suddenly snatch them away, the most divine Fathers have appointed this day's feast commemorating Christ's impartial Second Coming, through which we bring to mind that God is not only the Friend of man, but also the most righteous Judge, Who recompenses to each according to his deeds.
It is the aim of the holy Fathers, through bringing to mind that fearful day, to rouse us from the slumber of carelessness unto the work of virtue, and to move us to love and compassion for our brethren. Besides this, even as on the coming Sunday of Cheese-fare we commemorate Adam's exile from the Paradise of delight -- which exile is the beginning of life as we know it now -- it is clear that today's is reckoned the last of all feasts, because on the last day of judgment, truly, everything of this world will come to an end.
All foods, except meat and meat products, are allowed during the week that follows this Sunday.
February 23
Polycarp the Holy Martyr & Bishop of Smyrna
This apostolic and prophetic man, and model of faith and truth, was a disciple of John the Evangelist, successor of Bucolus (Feb. 6), and teacher of Irenaeus (Aug. 23). He was an old man and full of days when the fifth persecution was raised against the Christians under Marcus Aurelius. When his pursuers, sent by the ruler, found Polycarp, he commanded that they be given something to eat and drink, then asked them to give him an hour to pray; he stood and prayed, full of grace, for two hours, so that his captors repented that they had come against so venerable a man. He was brought by the Proconsul of Smyrna into the stadium and was commanded, "Swear by the fortune of Caesar; repent, and say, 'Away with the atheists.'" By atheists, the Proconsul meant the Christians. But Polycarp, gazing at the heathen in the stadium, waved his hand towards them and said, "Away with the atheists." When the Proconsul urged him to blaspheme against Christ, he said: "I have been serving Christ for eighty-six years, and He has wronged me in nothing; how can I blaspheme my King Who has saved me?" But the tyrant became enraged at these words and commanded that he be cast into the fire, and thus he gloriously expired about the year 163. As Eusebius says, "Polycarp everywhere taught what he had also learned from the Apostles, which also the Church has handed down; and this alone is true" (Eccl. Hist., Book IV, ch. 14,15).
Prokeimenon. Fourth Tone. Psalm 146.5;134.3. Great is our Lord, and great is his power.
Verse: Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good.
The reading is from St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 8:8-13; 9:1-2.
Brethren, food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. Only take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if any one sees you, a man of knowledge, at table in an idol's temple, might he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak man is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food is a cause of my brother's falling, I will never eat meat, lest I cause my brother to fall.
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
Judgment Sunday (Meatfare Sunday)
The Reading is from Matthew 25:31-46
The Lord said, "When the Son of man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.' Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?' Then he will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.' And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
