St. George Church
Publish Date: 2025-03-02
Bulletin Contents
News, Events and Announcements
Saints and Feasts
Gospel and Epistle Readings
Wisdom and Guidance from the Saints

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St. George Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • (207) 945-9588
  • Street Address:

  • 90 Sanford St

  • Bangor, ME 04401
  • Mailing Address:

  • 90 Sanford St

  • Bangor, ME 04401

Contact Information

Parish Priest Fr. Leo Schefe

[email protected] | 207 385-3000

Services Schedule

ORTHROS: 9:00

LITURGY:  10:00

Past Bulletins


News, Events and Announcements

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 even number, park on the church side of the street. 

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.   

TODAY: THE GIVING AND RECEIVING OF MUTUAL FORGIVENESS  This afternoon, at the conclusion of fellowship hour, those who would like to, are encouraged to meet upstairs in the church for a time of mutual forgiveness.  If this is a first time for your participation or if you'd like to refresh your memory, you can visit this link to learn more about how this is done:  https://garynealhansen.com/forgiveness-vespers/  

A READING ON RESENTMENT & FORGIVENESS http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/resentforgive.aspx

EVENING SERVICES DURING GREAT AND HOLY LENT  Every Wednesday evening beginning March 5 at 6PM, a Pre-Sanctified Divine Liturgy is celebrated.  If you would like to receive Holy Communion that evening for strengthening, please fast from food and drink from an early lunch time that day.  Every Friday night during Great Lent (beginning March 7) we have the Salutations service to our Panagia and on the fifth Friday, we pray the entire akathist service to the Mother of God.  Those  services begin at 7PM.

TOMORROW is "Clean Monday," the first day of Great and Holy Lent.  The greeting is "Kali Sarakosti!" meaning:  "Good 40 Day Fast or Good 40 Day Lent."  Kali Sarakosti to all!  May we find joy in the journey to Holy Pascha even though there may be some inevitable bumps in the road as we engage the spirit of repentance.  As it reads in the service of Great Compline, "God is With Us."  

READY, SET, GO!  Have you got your vegan recipes in hand? Great Lent starts tomorrow, Monday, March 3. 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. 

GREAT COMPLINE PRAYERS  These are the after dinner prayers that are offered Mon-Thurs evenings during Great and Holy Lent.  You can find the on-line text here:  https://www.goarch.org/-/order-of-the-after-dinner-prayer-office-of-the-great-compline.  If you have a copy of the Lenten Triodion, the Canon of St. Andrew of Crete is sectioned into four parts and inserted into the Great Compline prayers during M-Thurs of the first week of Great Lent.  The serialized Canon of St. Andrew can be found here:  https://www.saintjonah.org/services/greatcanon_sts.pdf.

THE LENTEN PRAYER OF ST. EPHRAIM THE SYRIAN  This text is often offered during Great and Holy Lent. It is appropriate to use it at the conclusion of your prayer times at home. Simply read and offer the prostrations as noted below in the text.  May our hearts be softened as one this season.   

THE LENTEN PRAYER OF SAINT EPHRAIM  

Lord and Master of my life, cast away from me the spirit of laziness, idle curiosity, love of power and vain talk. (Prostration)

But grant me, Your servant, the spirit of moderation, humility, patience and love. (Prostration)

Yes, Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to judge my brothers and sisters. (Prostration)

(Followed by 12 bows saying silently each time, "O God be gracious to me a sinner.")

Yes, Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to judge my brothers and sisters.

For You are Blessed forever and ever.   Amen.

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.  

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ORDER A COPY OF "A Spiritual Psalter - Reflections on God" by St. Ephraim the Syrian, please let me know no later than TODAY, Sunday, as I plan to place an order. This beautiful book encourages personal reflection for the purpose of repentance during Great and Holy Lent.  It can be used as an aid for prayer or as devotional reading.  If you have interest in obtaining a copy, please let Pres. know. 2079492913 TXT or [email protected].  

NEXT SUNDAY IS THE SUNDAY OF ORTHODOXY  Please bring a portable icon with you next Sunday to hold in procession at the conclusion of the morning's Divine Liturgy.  This is a yearly tradition, let's all participate, it's beautiful as we declare the proper use of holy icons in our Orthodox Faith.  Next Sunday is also the Feast of the 40 Holy Martyrs of Sebaste--and Presbytera's Name Day. 

A VERY NICE OPPORTUNITY  Eleni A is willing to lead a beginner's class in pysanky egg decorating (this is an Ukrainian folk art) during this Lenten season.  She's been taking classes for some years now and is willing to conduct a beginner's class for us which is wonderful!  The cost to cover the class and materials will be $35 per person.  Please RSVP to Eleni directly to express your interest.  

METROPOLIS OF BOSTON CAMP  MBC Summer Camp 2025 opens for registration on March 11.  This camp is for ages 8 - grade 12.  Learn more here:   https://www.metropolisofbostoncamp.org/summer-camp.html

NEXT BOARD GAME GET TOGETHER  Mark your calendar for March 30, the next board game activity at St. George.  The plan is to have the activity on the last Sunday of the month, toward the end of fellowship hour.  Bring a game along or join in on someone else's game.  Bring a friend, too, and the fellowship will grow!  Questions?  Ask our coordinator, Dhesorae. 

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.  COMING SOON:  Paschal egg dye (red) and Paschal egg wraps (similar to shrink wrap) in beautiful designs. 

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.

 

 

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Saints and Feasts

March 02

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.

March 02

Hesychius the Martyr

Holy martyr Hesychius lived during the reign of king Maximian in 302. He was the first and the leader in the royal palace and the Senate, because he was magistrianus by office. When Maximian ordered that all Christians who were royal soldiers ought to be deprived of their belts (which were a sign of their royal merit) and live as civilians and without honour, many Christians preferred to live without any outward honour due to this illegal order than to be honoured and lose their soul. St. Hesychius was numbered with these Christians as well. When the king heard this, he ordered that the saint ought to be stripped of the expensive clothes, which he used to wear, and be dressed with a shabby mantle without sleeves woven from hair and to be as disgraced and disdained as to consort with women.

When this had been carried out, the king invited him and asked him: "Aren't you ashamed, Hesychius, that you lost the honour and office of magistrianus and that you have been debased to this kind of life? Or maybe you don't know that the Christians, whose way of life you preferred, have no power to restore you to your previous great honour and office?" The saint replied: "Your honour, o king, is temporary but the honour and glory which Christ gives is eternal and without end." Because of these words the king got angry and ordered his men to tie a great millstone around the saint's neck and then to throw him in the middle of river Orontus, which lies in Coele Syria and which is commonly called Oronge. Thus, the blessed man received the crown of martyrdom from the Lord.

March 02

Our Holy Father Nicholas Planas

 

Saint Nicholas Planas was born in 1851 A.D. on the island of Naxos in Greece. He was married as a teenager and soon after ordained to the diaconate and then the priesthood. His wife reposed soon after and so he assumed the burden of being a widowed father and a parish priest. He was known for his zeal in serving the liturgy, especially his habit of serving the Divine Liturgy every day for 50 years. Many altar boys would see him radiating light or raised off the ground while serving the liturgy. Being so revered by his parishioners, he became known as “Papa,” which is an affectionate term for a parish priest. Papa Nicholas reposed in 1932 and was formally canonized as a saint in 1992.

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Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

Προκείμενον. Eighth Tone. ΨΑΛΜΟΙ 75.11,1.
Εὔξασθε καὶ ἀπόδοτε Κυρίῳ τῷ Θεῷ ἡμῶν.
Στίχ. Γνωστὸς ἐν τῇ Ἰουδαίᾳ ὁ Θεός, ἐν τῷ Ἰσραὴλ μέγα τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ.

τὸ Ἀνάγνωσμα Πρὸς ῾Ρωμαίους 13:11-14, 14:1-4.

Ἀδελφοί, νῦν ἐγγύτερον ἡμῶν ἡ σωτηρία ἢ ὅτε ἐπιστεύσαμεν. Ἡ νὺξ προέκοψεν, ἡ δὲ ἡμέρα ἤγγικεν· ἀποθώμεθα οὖν τὰ ἔργα τοῦ σκότους, καί ἐνδυσώμεθα τὰ ὅπλα τοῦ φωτός. Ὡς ἐν ἡμέρᾳ, εὐσχημόνως περιπατήσωμεν, μὴ κώμοις καὶ μέθαις, μὴ κοίταις καὶ ἀσελγείαις, μὴ ἔριδι καὶ ζήλῳ. Ἀλλʼ ἐνδύσασθε τὸν κύριον Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν, καὶ τῆς σαρκὸς πρόνοιαν μὴ ποιεῖσθε, εἰς ἐπιθυμίας. Τὸν δὲ ἀσθενοῦντα τῇ πίστει προσλαμβάνεσθε, μὴ εἰς διακρίσεις διαλογισμῶν. Ὃς μὲν πιστεύει φαγεῖν πάντα, ὁ δὲ ἀσθενῶν λάχανα ἐσθίει. Ὁ ἐσθίων τὸν μὴ ἐσθίοντα μὴ ἐξουθενείτω, καὶ ὁ μὴ ἐσθίων τὸν ἐσθίοντα μὴ κρινέτω· ὁ θεὸς γὰρ αὐτὸν προσελάβετο. Σὺ τίς εἶ ὁ κρίνων ἀλλότριον οἰκέτην; Τῷ ἰδίῳ κυρίῳ στήκει ἢ πίπτει. Σταθήσεται δέ· δυνατὸς γάρ ἐστιν ὁ θεὸς στῆσαι αὐτόν.

Prokeimenon. Eighth 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
Κατὰ Ματθαῖον 6:14-21

Εἶπεν ὁ Κύριος· ᾿Εὰν γὰρ ἀφῆτε τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τὰ παραπτώματα αὐτῶν, ἀφήσει καὶ ὑμῖν ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ οὐράνιος· ἐὰν δὲ μὴ ἀφῆτε τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τὰ παραπτώματα αὐτῶν, οὐδὲ ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ἀφήσει τὰ παραπτώματα ὑμῶν. ῞Οταν δὲ νηστεύητε, μὴ γίνεσθε ὥσπερ οἱ ὑποκριταὶ σκυθρωποί· ἀφανίζουσι γὰρ τὰ πρόσωπα αὐτῶν ὅπως φανῶσι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις νηστεύοντες· ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ἀπέχουσι τὸν μισθὸν αὐτῶν. σὺ δὲ νηστεύων ἄλειψαί σου τὴν κεφαλὴν καὶ τὸ πρόσωπόν σου νίψαι,ὅπως μὴ φανῇς τοῖς ἀνθρώποις νηστεύων, ἀλλὰ τῷ πατρί σου τῷ ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ, καὶ ὁ πατήρ σου ὁ βλέπων ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ ἀποδώσει σοι ἐν τῷ φανερῷ. Μὴ θησαυρίζετε ὑμῖν θησαυροὺς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ὅπου σὴς καὶ βρῶσις ἀφανίζει, καὶ ὅπου κλέπται διορύσσουσι καὶ κλέπτουσι· θησαυρίζετε δὲ ὑμῖν θησαυροὺς ἐν οὐρανῷ, ὅπου οὔτε σὴς οὔτε βρῶσις ἀφανίζει, καὶ ὅπου κλέπται οὐ διορύσσουσιν οὐδὲ κλέπτουσιν· ὅπου γάρ ἐστιν ὁ θησαυρὸς ὑμῶν, ἐκεῖ ἔσται καὶ ἡ καρδία ὑμῶν.

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."

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Wisdom and Guidance from the Saints

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