Transfiguration of Our Saviour Greek Orthodox Church
Publish Date: 2024-10-13
Bulletin Contents
Announcements
Weekly Inserts
Weekly Calendar
Gospel and Epistle Readings
Hymns of the Day
Wisdom of the Fathers
Saints and Feasts

Organization Icon
Transfiguration of Our Saviour Greek Orthodox Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • (978) 458-4321
  • Street Address:

  • 25 Fr. John Sarantos Way

  • Lowell, MA 01854
  • Mailing Address:

  • 25 Fr. John Sarantos Way

  • Lowell, MA 01854

Contact Information

Proistamenos Fr. Gregory Floor


[email protected] | 978-458-4321

Fr. John Vaporis


[email protected] | 978-204-7814

Services Schedule

Sunday Schedule:

Orthros: 8:30 a.m.
Divine Liturgy: 9:30 a.m.

Bible Study:

Wednesdays, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Past Bulletins


Announcements

FELLOWSHIP

We welcome everyone to join us for Coffee Fellowship following Liturgy.

DONATIONS FOR NATIONAL HURRICANE RELIEF

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has announced the establishment of the National Hurricane Relief Fund to raise funds for the immediate needs of those affected by the recent Hurricanes. Next Sunday, October 20th, we will replace our weekly collections basket with a collection for the Hurricane Relief Fund. Please be generous.

MONTHLY PARAKLESIS

We will be offering a monthly Paraklesis to the Theotokos on the 4th Friday of every month starting Friday, October 25th at 6:30 PM, wherein we will beseech the Theotokos to intercede for all of our living loved ones who are suffering in any way. Therefore, I would ask that you bring names of your loved ones to the service or email them to Fr. Gregory in advance of the 4th Friday of the month. 

GOLF TOURNAMENT

Our 14th Annual Golf Tournament is on October 28, 2024, at the Indian Ridge Country Club in Andover. Please support our Golf Tournament by putting together a foursome or by becoming a golf sponsor. Unable to join us for golf? You are welcome to join us for dinner. The cost for dinner is $50 per person with appetizers beginning at 4:30 pm followed by dinner at 5:00 pm.

Philoptochos News

  • Close Drive Fundraiser – THANK YOU to all who participated in the Clothes Drive Fundraiser.  500+ bags of clothes/textile bags were received.  A special thank you to Coordinators Deb Sevigny and Ellen Dobi and their outstanding team of volunteers organizing, collecting/storing/delivering the bags.  All proceeds to benefit our Philoptochos ministries.  

  • Fall Raffle underway. Drawing for winners begin in November.  All winning tickets are re-entered for the next day’s drawing-YOU could win multiple times.  Tickets drawn on:  week days win $25/on a weekend $50. A lucky winner wins $100 for ticket drawn on Thanksgiving Day! All winners will be notified by mail or in person.  Your support is much appreciated to meet our philanthropic ministries.  Thank you and Good Luck to all.

100th ANNIVERSARY EVENTS

SAVE THE DATE - Our “O Come All Ye Faithful” Christmas Concert featuring talented, professional musicians will be held on December 8th.

PARISH COUNCIL NOMINATIONS WELCOME

Nominations for the 2025-2026 term of the Parish Council are welcome. Any parishioner in good standing interested in being nominated must contact the Parish office to request an official nomination form to complete and return to the office by 1:00 pm Friday, November 1, 2024. Elections will be held on December 8, 2024.

PLEASE NOTE NEW EMAIL ADDRESSES!!

New email addresses for church contacts. See the reverse side of the bulletin for an updated listing of email addresses with the domain @transfigurationlowell.org. 

 

 Trinity votive candles (To Sponsor a Candle please call the Church Office.)

†Vigil Light at the Side Altar (Icon of the Theotokos): In Loving Memory of Catherine Fitzpatrick on the one year anniversary. – from Deb Sevigny
†Vigil Light at the Icon of Christ: In Loving Memory of Deborah Victoria Skrekas and George Skrekas
†Vigil Light at the Theotokos: In Loving Memory of Ioannis "John" Zaralidis - from his family
†Vigil Light at the Icon of the Forerunner: Available
†Vigil Light at the Foot of the Holy Cross: In Loving Memory of George Tsoukalas - from his family

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Weekly Inserts

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Weekly Calendar

Sunday, October 13  SUNDAY OF THE 7TH ECUMENICAL COUNCIL
†Orthros 8:30 am
†Liturgy 9:30 am

Monday, October 14                         
Columbus Day (Office Closed)

Wednesday, October 16
Bible Study (online), 10:00 am/7:00 pm

Friday, October 18                          
St. Luke the Evangelist – Liturgy, 9:30 am

Sunday, October 20  SIXTH SUNDAY OF LUKE
†Orthros 8:30 am
†Liturgy 9:30 am
40 Day Memorial for Angie Rigs
5 Year Memorial for Virginia Kimball

TODAY’S PARISH COUNCIL:  Patricia Mahoney, Peter Gavriil & Valerie Diggs

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

October 25
Paraklesis, 6:30 pm

October 26
St. Demetrios - Liturgy, 9:30 am

October 27
Seventh Sunday of Luke

October 28
Transfiguration Golf Tournament

October 30
Bible Study (online), 10:00 am/7:00 pm

November 3                        
Fifth Sunday of Luke
Monthly Trisagion
Parish Assembly

November 9
St. Nektarios - Liturgy, 9:30 am

November 10
Eighth Sunday of Luke
40 Day Memorial for Peter Cakounes

November 11
Veterans Day - Office Closed

November 13
Bible Study (online), 10:00 am/7:00 pm

November 17
Ninth Sunday of Luke

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Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. Fourth Mode. Daniel 3.26,27.
Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers.
Verse: For you are just in all you have done.

The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to Titus 3:8-15.

Titus, my son, the saying is sure. I desire you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to apply themselves to good deeds; these are excellent and profitable to men. But avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels over the law, for they are unprofitable and futile. As for a man who is factious, after admonishing him once or twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is perverted and sinful; he is self-condemned.

When I send Artemas or Tychicos to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there. Do your best to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way; see that they lack nothing. And let our people learn to apply themselves to good deeds, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not to be unfruitful.

All who are with me send greeting to you. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Amen.

Gospel Reading

Sunday of the 7th Ecumenical Council
The Reading is from Luke 8:5-15

The Lord said this parable: "A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell along the path, and was trodden under foot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew, and yielded a hundredfold." And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy; but these have no root, they believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. And as for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience." As he said these things, he cried out "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

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Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the Grave Mode

By your cross you destroyed death, and opened paradise to the thief. You transformed the sorrow of the Myrrh-bearers, and commanded the apostles to proclaim that you have risen from the dead, Christ our God, granting to the world great mercy.

Reading is under copyright and is used with permission, all rights reserved by: Holy Cross Press


Apolytikion for Sun. of the 7th Ecumenical Council in the Plagal Fourth Mode

O Christ our God You are above all praise, * You established our Fathers as lights to all the earth. * You led us to the true faith through them. * O Most Bountiful Lord, glory to You.

Reading is under copyright and is used with permission, all rights reserved by: American Carpatho-Russian Diocese


Seasonal Kontakion in the Second Mode

A protection of Christians unshamable, intercessor to our Holy Maker, unwavering, please reject not the prayerful cries of those who are in sin. Instead, come to us, for you are good; your loving help bring unto us, who are crying in faith to you: hasten to intercede and speed now to supplicate, as a protection for all time, Theotokos, for those who honor you.

Reading is under copyright and is used with permission, all rights reserved by: Holy Cross Press


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Wisdom of the Fathers

When you see life's pleasures, beware that they might not distract you, for they conceal death's snares. Likewise a fisherman casts not his hook to no purpose. As bait for his hook, the enemy uses the delusion of sensuality to arouse desire, that he might thereby catch men's souls and subject them to himself. A soul which has been caught to serve the enemy's will then serves as a snare for other souls, for it conceals the grief of sin with its apparent delight.
St. Ephraim the Syrian
A Spiritual Psalter no 43, pg. 74, 4th century

Since there are certain people who find great fault with us for adoring and honoring both the image of the Savior and that of our Lady, as well as those of the rest of the saints and servants of Christ, let them hear how from the beginning God made man to His own image. For what reason, then, do we adore one another, except because we have been made to the image of God? As the inspired Basil, who is deeply learned in theology, says: "the honor paid to the image conveys to the original.," and the original is the thing imaged from which the copy is made.
St. John of Damascus
The Orthodox Faith, 4.16. Catholic University of America Press in Washington D.C. Translated by Frederic H. Chase, Jr. volume 37, page 370., 8th Century

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Saints and Feasts

October 13

Carpus, Papylus, Agathodorus, & Agathonica, the Martyrs of Pergamus

Saint Carpus was Bishop of the Church of Thyatira in Asia Minor and Papylus was his deacon, whom he had ordained. Seized as Christians and tormented in Thyatira, they were taken to Sardis, whither Agathodorus, their servant, followed them, and also confessed Christ, and was tormented with them. Together with Agathonica, the sister of Saint Papylus. they were all beheaded during the reign of Decius, in the year 250.

October 14

Martyrs Nazarius, Gervasius, Protasius, & Celsus

The holy Martyrs all contested for piety's sake in Milan; after the passage of much time their holy relics were discovered and given honourable burial by Saint Ambrose.

October 15

Loukianos the Martyr of Antioch

This Saint was from Samosata, the son of pious parents. He established a catechetical school in Antioch, and taught the correct doctrines of the Faith and made clear the parts of the divine Scriptures that were difficult to understand. He edited the Old Testament translation from the Hebrew tongue, and published it in an excellent edition, free from every heretical corruption and interpolation. He travelled to Nicomedia to strengthen the faithful there in their contests for Christ, and was accused before Maximinus, with whom he conversed openly. When he had made a defence of the Christian Faith, he was condemned to imprisonment where, in 311, he died of hunger and thirst.

October 16

Longinos the Centurion

This Martyr was in the service of Pontius Pilate at the time of Christ our Saviour's Passion. While standing guard at the Cross and beholding the earthquake and all that came to pass, he cried out with fear, "Truly this was the Son of God" (Matt. 27:54). After the Resurrection, he forsook the military and departed for Cappadocia, his homeland, where he preached Christ. By the agency of Pontius Pilate, Tiberius Caesar had him arrested and beheaded.

October 17

Hosea the Prophet

According to some, Hosea, whose name means "God is help," was from the tribe of Issachar, or more likely, from that of Reuben; he was the son of Beeri. He is the first in order of the twelve minor Prophets and the most ancient of all. He prophesied in the days of the divided Kingdom; the Lord told him to take a harlot to wife (Hosea 1:2), and then an adulteress (ibid., 3:1). The harlot, a known sinner, was a figure of the Kingdom of Israel in Samaria, which openly worshipped idols; the adulteress, lawfully married yet sinning secretly with her lovers, was a figure of the Kingdom of Judah in Jerusalem, which, while having the Temple, and the priesthood, and the divine worship according to the Law, stealthily served the idols also. The Prophet Hosea prophesied for sixty years, and lived for some ninety years, from 810 to 720 B.C. His book is divided into fourteen chapters.

October 18

Luke the Evangelist

This Apostle was an Antiochean, a physician by trade, and a disciple and companion of Paul. He wrote his Gospel in Greek after Matthew and Mark, after which he wrote the Acts of the Apostles, and dedicated both works to Theophilus, who, according to some, was Governor of Achaia. He lived some eighty-six years and died in Achaia, perhaps in Patras, the capital of this district. His emblem is the calf, the third symbolical beast mentioned by Ezekiel (1:10), which is a symbol of Christ's sacrificial and priestly office, as Saint Irenaeus says.

October 19

Joel the Prophet

The Prophet Joel, whose name means "Yah is God," was of the tribe of Reuben, the son of Bathuel, and lived from 810 to 750 B.C. (but some say in the 7th century B.C.). His book is divided into three chapters, and is the second in order of the minor Prophets. He foretold the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Joel 2:28, and quoted by the Apostle Peter in Acts 2:17), and the saving power of the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Joel 2:32).

October 19

Joel the Prophet

The Prophet Joel, whose name means "Yah is God," was of the tribe of Reuben, the son of Bathuel, and lived from 810 to 750 B.C. (but some say in the 7th century B.C.). His book is divided into three chapters, and is the second in order of the minor Prophets. He foretold the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Joel 2:28, and quoted by the Apostle Peter in Acts 2:17), and the saving power of the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Joel 2:32).

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