Today we celebrate the triumph of Orthodoxy and with it the triumph of the ability to come to know Christ as “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6) that He is revealed to be, first through the creation, second through the prophets, and third and especially, by virtue of His Incarnation. With the victory of the “right-believing” (Orthodox) Christians, came the defeat of all those heretics and their heresies that twisted the truth that Jesus Christ is, and therefore, threatened the healing and salvation of the human race. There is nothing arbitrary in Holy Tradition, the faith “once received” by the Saints. An Orthodox Christian today believes the same as one in the first century because our faith is about coming to know and grow in communion with God the Holy Trinity through His Christ and by the Holy Spirit. Indeed, this and only this is what it means to be “in communion”: we share that same fullness of faith and life in Christ God that those who came before us did. There are threats to the Orthodox Faith in every age, every generation. Thank God, those who have come before us have preserved the truth for us, that we, in turn, may come to know Him who is that Truth. It’s incumbent on us, likewise, to live and proclaim the same Faith, that others after us may come to know the one, true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and in knowing Him, may have eternal life.
In Christ’s love, Fr. Robert+
This week at Holy Archangels:
- Today SUNDAY OF ORTHODOXY with PROCESSION of ICONS at end of Divine Liturgy and SUNDAY SCHOOL with our new curriculum, “Journey to Pascha.”
- Wed., March 12, 6:30 pm, Second PRESANCTIFIED LITURGY, Lenten potluck, St. Martin’s (Sign-Up Sheet for all Potlucks for the Presanctified Liturgies is located at Entrance Table).
- Saturday, March 15, 6:00 p.m., Great Vespers. Confession following.
- Sunday, March 16, 9:30 Hours, 10 a.m. Divine Liturgy
Save the Dates:
- Thursday, April 3, 6:00 p.m., The GREAT CANON of St. Andrew, St. John’s Boathouse
- Saturday, April 12, 10 a.m., Divine Liturgy of LAZARUS SATURDAY
- Sunday, April 13, PALM SUNDAY. HOLY WEEK BEGINS!
$5,000 Matching Grant Update
We’ve been offered a $5,000 matching grant by an anonymous donor, the goal of which we must reach by Pascha. Please take a flyer from the entrance table or forward the weekly email to friends and family to help us spread the word to meet this challenge! Non-pledged donations will go to help meet this goal. So far $3,060 has been raised
Prayer Requests:
- That God may grow our Mission “in spirit and in numbers…”
- For God’s financial provision for our Mission and ACM;
- For our Mission that we may find a Choir Director;
- Archpriest George, Archpriest Michael, Priest John, Dcn. Basil, Rdr. John, Benedict, Colette, Mary, Carol, Katherine, James, Daniel, Sarah, Seraphim, Ed, Patricia, the Church in Georgia and Romania as they address the relativism of the West, speaking the truth in love, our suffering Orthodox brethren in Syria, the nuns and orphans of St. Thekla Monastery abducted by Syrian terrorist rebels, our brethren in Ukraine.
- The newly-departed Reader Michael
Troparion (Resurrection) Tone 4
When the women Disciples of the Lord
learned from the Angel the joyous message of the Resurrection,
they cast away the ancestral curse // and elatedly told the Apostles:
“Death is overthrown! // Christ God is risen,// granting the world great mercy!”
Troparion (Sunday of Orthodoxy) Tone 2
We venerate Your most pure image, O Good One;
and ask forgiveness of our transgressions, O Christ our God.
Of Your good will You were pleased to ascend the cross in the flesh
and deliver Your creatures from bondage to the Enemy.
Therefore with thankfulness we cry aloud to You:
“You have filled all with joy, O our Savior,//
for You alone have come to save the world.”
Troparion (for Forty Martyrs of Sebaste) Tone 1
Through the sufferings which Your holy Forty Martyrs endured for Your sake, O Lord,
we beseech You, O Lover of ↑mankind:// “Heal all of our infirmities!”
Kontakion (Resurrection) Tone 4
My Savior and Redeemer
as God rose from the tomb and delivered the earth-born from their chains.
He has shattered the gates of hell, // and as Master,// He has risen on the third day!
Kontakion (Forty Martyrs of Sebaste) Tone 6
You abandoned all earthly armies,
cleaving to the heavenly Master, O Forty Martyrs of the Lord.
Having passed through fire and water, O blessed Ones,//
you have fittingly received heavenly glory and many crowns.
Kontakion (from the Lenten Triodion) Tone 8
No one could describe the Word of the Father;
but when He took flesh from you, O Theotokos, He accepted to be described,
and restored the fallen image to its former state by uniting it to divine beauty.//
We confess and proclaim our salvation in words and images.
