Assumption of the Virgin Mary Orthodox Church
Publish Date: 2025-03-09
Bulletin Contents

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Assumption of the Virgin Mary Orthodox Church

General Information

  • Street Address:

  • 801 Montecito Drive

  • San Angelo, TX 76903


Contact Information




Services Schedule

Alternating Sundays:

9 AM Orthros Prayer Service & 
10 AM Divine Liturgy Communion Service

10 AM Typica Service

The 10 AM Sunday services are followed by Coffee Hour and Fellowship.


Past Bulletins


Calendar & Announcements

UPCOMING  SERVICES    

Sunday, March 9 - Sunday of Orthodoxy

10:00 am  Reader's Service

Procession of the Holy Icons 

Friday, March 14 - Second Week of Great Lent 

6:00 pm - Salutations to the Theotokos 

Saturday, March 15 

6:00 pm - Great Vespers and Holy Confessions 

Sunday, March 16 - Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas

9:00 am  Orthros  -  10:00 am  Divine Liturgy

Friday, March 21 - Third Friday of Lent

7:00 am  Presanctified Divine Liturgy

6:00 pm  Salutations to the Theotokos

Saturday, March 22 - Third Saturday in Lent

5:00 pm  Inquirer's Class

6:00 pm  Great Vespers

Sunday, March 23 - Sunday of the Holy Cross

9:00 am  Orthros  -  10:00 am  Divine Liturgy

Sunday, March 30 - Sunday of St. John Climacus

10:00 am Reader's Service

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THE  DISCIPLINE  OF  FASTING  DURING  GREAT  LENT

As we prepare to enter the journey of Great Lent, we also prepare our bodies to fast, both physically and spiritually. Linked is an article for reflection and guidance on fasting, and below is pastoral guidance as we use this time of repentance, reflection and renewal to deepen our communion with God.

For the Lenten Fast, please note the following guidelines:

 -Fasting should never jeopardize your health. If you are required to eat or abstain from certain foods as a medical/health necessity, please do what is necessary. Please speak with Fr. Nektarios if you need spiritual guidance for observing the Fast.

 -Fasting is spiritual. It is about avoiding excess and time spent preparing food in order to commit time to prayer and contemplation.

 -Fasting is giving our bodies the nutrition and sustenance needed, but lessening our focus on the desires of our physical body and seeking to commune more with God.

-Fasting is also diminishing the external influences of our fallen world and connecting more with the kingdom of God through prayer, worship, and spiritual reading.

-Fasting in personal. It is between you and God with the help of your spiritual father as needed. The goal is not to be perfect in fasting. The goal is to be nearer to the One who makes us holy because He is holy.

Great Lent begins on Monday, March 3

For Lenten Resources visit - https://www.goarch.org/lent

-On the weekdays during Great Lent, fast from meat, fish, dairy, oil, and wine.

 -Fish, oil and wine are permitted on the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25) and on Palm Sunday (April 13)

 -Oil and wine are allowed on Saturdays and Sundays during Great Lent with the exception of Holy Saturday.

-Oil and wine are allowed on the following Commemorations during Great Lent:

-Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel – March 26

-Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete - April 3

-The Lenten Fast ends on Great and Holy Pascha, April 20, and there is no fasting from April 20 through April 27 in observance of Bright Week.

 -Oil and Wine are permitted on Wednesdays and Fridays following Bright Week to Pentecost (June 8), with fish also permitted on the Feast of Mid-Pentecost (May 14) and the Leavetaking of Pascha (May 28).

 https://www.goarch.org/-/when-you-fast

 

RESOURCES  FOR  INQUIRERS 

If you are inquiring about the Orthodox Christian faith, please reach out to Fr. Nektarios for resources.Our faith is focused on our worship and participation in the Church, the Body of Christ, and in cultivating our communion with God. 

We can provide you with a prayer book to guide you in daily prayers, as well as a book and online resources that explain the Orthodox Christian faith and life.

Fr. Nektarios is also available to meet with you by phone, Zoom or in person to offer guidance as you follow God's guidance and seek your spiritual home in the Orthodox Church.

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ONLINE  CATECHISM  CLASS   

Catechism Session  - next class is on Thursday, March 7, at 7 pm. 

Our weekly sessions will be on Zoom with the link sent by email to the parish list each Thursday.  The sessions are also available livestream on the YouTube Channel for St. Stephen Mission at https://www.youtube.com/@st.stephenorthodoxmission8116/streams

The sessions will also be archived at the same YouTube link in case you miss a session or would like to go back and listen to a specific week or topic. 

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CARING  MEALS  MINISTRY 

If you know someone who needs meals due to illness, birth, etc., please see Kathy Baughman or Noelle Bartl. Thank you to everyone who volunteers for this ministry. You are being the hands of Christ!

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FAMILY  ASSISTANCE  FUND  

This is a fund that we use at Assumption to address needs among our brothers and sisters in Christ in our parish.  You have been faithful and generous in the past to assist.  If you would like to contribute to this fund, please send your designated offering to Costa Dunias, our Treasurer.  You can send your gift by mail to the church or bring your donation to one of our services. 

You can also donate online at https://orthodoxsanangelo.org/about/ways-to-give

As we begin Great Lent, one of the spiritual disciplines we emphasize is assisting those in need.  Please consider a gift to help meet the needs of others.

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COFFEE  HOUR

We have open slots on the sign up sheet for Coffee Hour, which can be found on the refrigerator in the church kitchen. Can you help host? It's okay to bring something simple, or even just one dish. Encourage others to sign up with you as co-hosts. "Many hands make the burden light." Thank you for your help!

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SPECIAL  OCCASIONS  FROM  SUNDAY,  MARCH  9 THROUGH  SUNDAY,  MARCH 16 

Birthdays: Sharmaine Zamora, Anna Baker

Anniversaries: none

Namedays: 3/11 - Theresa Alexander (St. Theodora)

Memorials: 3/16 - Memorial Dimitri Papachristos

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Check out the rest of the bulletin! See below for news from the world of Orthodoxy, online concerts and lecture series, and more.

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AFTER  CHURCH

Please join us for refreshments in the Social Hall.

 

** As always, see the parish website for any changes and updates. **

 

 

 

 

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Gospel and Epistle Readings

Matins Gospel Reading

Fourth Orthros Gospel
The Reading is from Luke 24:1-12

On the first day of the week at early dawn, the women went to the tomb, taking spices, which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel; and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how He told you, while He was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise." And they remembered His words and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told this to the Apostles; but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home wondering at what had happened.


Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. 5th Tone. Psalm 11.7,1.
You, O Lord, shall keep us and preserve us.
Verse: Save me, O Lord, for the godly man has failed.

The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Hebrews 12:1-10.

BRETHREN, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons? "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage when you are punished by him. For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time at their pleasure, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.


Gospel Reading

Sunday of Orthodoxy
The Reading is from John 1:43-51

At that time, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. And he found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael, and he said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" Jesus answered him, "Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these." And he said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man."


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Saints and Feasts

March 09

Sunday of Orthodoxy

For more than one hundred years the Church of Christ was troubled by the persecution of the Iconoclasts of evil belief, beginning in the reign of Leo the Isaurian (717-741) and ending in the reign of Theophilus (829-842). After Theophilus's death, his widow the Empress Theodora (celebrated Feb. 11), together with the Patriarch Methodius (June 14), established Orthodoxy anew. This ever-memorable Queen venerated the icon of the Mother of God in the presence of the Patriarch Methodius and the other confessors and righteous men, and openly cried out these holy words: "If anyone does not offer relative worship to the holy icons, not adoring them as though they were gods, but venerating them out of love as images of the archetype, let him be anathema." Then with common prayer and fasting during the whole first week of the Forty-day Fast, she asked God's forgiveness for her husband. After this, on the first Sunday of the Fast, she and her son, Michael the Emperor, made a procession with all the clergy and people and restored the holy icons, and again adorned the Church of Christ with them. This is the holy deed that all we the Orthodox commemorate today, and we call this radiant and venerable day the Sunday of Orthodoxy, that is, the triumph of true doctrine over heresy.


March 09

The Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebastia

These holy Martyrs, who came from various lands, were all soldiers under the same general. Taken into custody for their faith in Christ, and at first interrogated by cruel means, they were then stripped of their clothing and cast onto the frozen lake which is at Sebastia of Pontus, at a time when the harsh and freezing weather was at its worst. They endured the whole night naked in such circumstances, encouraging one another to be patient until the end. He that guarded them, named Aglaius, who was commanded to receive any of them that might deny Christ, had a vision in which he saw heavenly powers distributing crowns to all of the Martyrs, except one, who soon after abandoned the contest. Seeing this, Aglaius professed himself a Christian and joined the Martyrs on the lake, and the number of forty remained complete. In the morning, when they were almost dead from the cold, they were cast into fire, after which their remains were thrown into the river. Thus they finished the good course of martyrdom in 320, during the reign of Licinius. These are their names: Acacius, Aetius, Aglaius, Alexander, Angus, Athanasius, Candidus, Chudion, Claudius, Cyril, Cyrion, Dometian, Domnus, Ecdicius, Elias, Eunoicus, Eutyches, Eutychius, Flavius, Gaius, Gorgonius, Helianus, Heraclius, Hesychius, John, Lysimachus, Meliton, Nicholas, Philoctemon, Priscus, Sacerdon, Severian, Sisinius, Smaragdus, Theodulus, Theophilus, Valens, Valerius, Vivianus, and Xanthias.


March 09

Caesarios the Righteous


March 10

2nd Monday of Lent


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Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the 4th Tone

The joyful news of your resurrection was proclaimed by the angel to the women disciples. Having thrown off the curse that fell on Adam, they ran elatedly to tell the apostles: Death has been vanquished; Christ our God is risen from the dead, blessing all the world with his great mercy.

Apolytikion for 40 Martyrs of Sebastia in the 1st Tone

Be Thou entreated for the sake of the sufferings of Thy Saints which they endured for Thee, O Lord, and do Thou heal all our pains, we pray, O Friend of man.

Apolytikion for Sun. of Orthodoxy in the 2nd Tone

Before your most pure image we bow down, O Good One, entreating you to forgive our sins, Christ our God, for you willingly ascended the cross in the flesh to deliver from the enemy those whom you had made. For this we thank you and we cry to you, O Savior: By coming to save the world you have filled all things with joy.

Seasonal Kontakion in the 8th Tone

Victorious Lady, mighty champion, defending us, we, your servants, now inscribe to you this hymn of thanks, for you rescued us from suff'ring and tribulation. Theotokos, with your power that can never fail, keep us safe from ev'ry danger our whole life long, that we may cry to you: Rejoice, O Bride unwedded.
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