Church Bulletin

Clergy:
Rt. Rev Arch Mark Melone
Protodn. Bryan McNeil
Dn. John Fleshman
Dn. Ziad Layous
Dn. Michael Macoul
Saturday
Vespers
5:00pm
Sunday
Liturgy Schedule:
Orthros
8:30am
Divine Liturgy
9:00am
Divine Liturgy
11:00am
Weddings
Minimum six months'
notice
Pre-Cana required
Baptisms
Minimum one month
notice. Pre-baptismal
Catechesis is required
St Joseph Guild
7:00pm, 2nd Monday of
each month
The Publicans Prayer
Group Mtg.:
12:00 Noon 1st Monday
of each month
St. Joseph Melkite Church
241 Hampshire St., Lawrence, MA 01841
Tel (978)682-8152
www.StJosephMelkiteCatholicChurch.org
February 15, 2015
Cheese Fare - Forgiveness Sunday
Saint Eusebius the Hermit lived in the fourth century and
lived in asceticism on a mountain near the village of Asicha in
Syria. He led a very strict life under the open sky, patiently enduring the summer heat and winter cold. He wore skins for
clothing, and nourished himself on the pods of peas and
beans.
Though he was elderly and infirm, he ate only fifteen figs
during the Great Forty day Fast. When many people began to
flock to St Eusebius, he went to a nearby monastery, built a
small enclosure at the monastery walls and lived in it until his
death.
St Eusebius died at the age of ninety, sometime after the
year 400.
Sunday February 15 2015
Cheese Fare Sunday
10:00am
+ Chakib Bourjeilli by his family in America and
Lebanon.
Sunday February 22 2015
9:00am
For our Community & Friends
11:00am
+Shiraz Zalaket (1st Anniversary)
+ Mounir Zalaket (1st Anniversary)
requested by the family.
LENTEN SERVICES THIS WEEK
Monday
7:00pm Vespers
Wednesday 7:00pm Presanctified Liturgy
Friday
7:00pm Akathist Hymn and
Blessing of St. Theodore’s Wheat
Due to the snow storm the Cheese Fare
brunch has be cancelled.
The 25th Anniversary Celebration for
Protodeacon Bryan is postponed to a future
date
Due to the many snowstorms, the
last two weeks of collection was not
counted.
Next week we will publish all three.
Thank you for your patience.
Let us all pray for all Parishioners and Friends
who are sick, or homebound especially:
Anthony Scione, Josephine Bourjeili,
Samia Hashem, Souad Haj Nasr, Joel Habib
Helen Dehni, Yvonne Delpozzo, George Skeirik
Joseph Ulbin, Monira Elia, Adele Saba,
Lorraine Saba, Josephine Morway, Phillip Battey,
Rita Melone, Lidia Motta, Emanuele Moscuzza,
Jean Habeeb, Mildred Moniz, Grace Batal Busta,
Ida Dimarca, Joseph Clark, Walter Fishwick,
Theresa Morrisette, Cole Pasqualicci,
Christopher Boshar, Annie Mulrooney,
Salim Semaan, Carissa Sarkis, Samira Sarkis,
Maria Kovacs, Mary Ellen Beshara
Religious Education Dates
In 2015 our Sunday School will focus on the way
we as Melkites worship and why we worship the
way we do. Our activities will include studying
our Liturgy and rich traditions through icons and
music, as well as developing a Sunday School
Choir. Our children will find joy in giving God
their time, their attention and their voices.
Sunday February 22th - 1st Sunday of Great
Lent and Sunday of Orthodoxy. Please join us
while all of our children take part in carrying
icons during the first procession of Liturgy. Have
your children bring their favorite icon or we will
gladly have one for them to carry.
If you wish to discuss these events, you may contact Bob Kfoury 978-685-9332 or Father Mark
at 978-682-8152.
Please make every effort to have your child attend, so he or she may participate in these events.
Troparion of the Resurrection 3rd Tone
O Creator of the Universe, You fashioned Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be
Adam from the dust of the earth. You infused glad! For the Lord has done a wondrous
him with a breath of life. You gave him dodeed by his arm: He has crushed Death by
minion over the earth. By the enticement of
his death, becoming the first to rise from
the Serpent he rebelled against Your Commandments and fell. You therefore exiled him the dead. He has delivered us from the
mouth of Hades and bestowed great mercy
from Paradise. But your Only-begotten Son
was incarnate, endured Passion and restored us upon the world.
Antiphon Prayer
to the Garden of Eden which we had lost. We
therefore implore You, at the threshold of Holy and Great Lent, to make us worthy of a sincere repentance, so that we may avoid even the
shadow of evil and abstain from carnal pleasure in order to gain You, Divine River of Paradise that quenches the thirst of our souls.
Thus, having lived according to your commandments, we may share the glory of the
Resurrection of Christ, our God and Savior.
For You are long-suffering, most compassionate and You call all people to salvation;
and to You we render glory, honor and worship, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and
always and forever and ever.
___________________________
The Most Reverend Francis Kalabat, Bishop of St.
Thomas Chaldean Diocese, asks all Dioceses in the U.S.,
both Eastern and Western, to join the Chaldean Church
and their Patriarch in Baghdad, to pray to the Mother of
God for the difficult and horrific situation of Christians
in the Middle East, especially in Iraq and Syria. Many
have been forced out of their homes, and many were
martyred for their faith. Bishop Francis has composed
this prayer. Mother of God, Virgin Mary, be for us
a safeguard from all illnesses and hardships.
Through the great love you have for Christ, ask
and beseech Him to be merciful to us, to give
healing to our ailments, to console the downtrodden, to reunite those who are scattered, and
to forgive us.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us!
Troparion of St Joseph, 2nd Tone
O Joseph, proclaim to David, the ancestor
of Christ our God the great miracles you
have witnessed. You have seen the virgin
with a Child, given praise with the Shepherd, adored with the wise men, and the
Angel of the Lord has appeared to you. Intercede with Christ God that he may save
our souls.
Kondakion of Cheese Fare 6th Tone
O You who guide men towards wisdom,
and give them intelligence and understanding, Instructor of the ignorant and helper of
the poor, strengthen and enlighten my
heart, O Lord, give me word, O Word of
the Father, for behold I will not refrain my
lips from crying out to You: O Merciful
One, have mercy on me who have fallen.
Hymn to the Theotokos 3rd Tone
It is truly right to call you Blessed O Theotokos. You are ever-blessed and allblameless and the Mother of our God.
Higher in honor than the Cherubim and
more glorious beyond compare than the
Seraphim, you gave birth to God the Word
in virginity, you are truly Mother of God:
you do we exalt
Prokimenon: Sing praise to our God, sing praise!, Sing praise to our King, sing praise!
Stichon: All you peoples, clap your hands! Shout to God with cries of gladness.
Reading from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans 13:11-14:4
Brethren, now our salvation is nearer than when we came to believe. The night is far
advanced: the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the works of darkness, and put on
the armor of light. Let us walk becomingly as in daytime, not in revelry and drunkenness,
not in debauchery and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and as for the flesh, pay no attention to its lusts.
But whoever is weak in faith, receive him without arguing about opinion. For one believes he may eat all things but another who is weak, let him eat vegetables. Let not the one
who eats despise the one who does not; and let not the one who does not eat judge the one
who does, for God has received him. Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own
master he stands or falls but he will stand, for God is able to make him stand.
Alleluia: In you, O lord, I have hoped: let me never be put to shame.
In your Justice, save me and deliver me.
Stichon: Be for me a protecting God, a sheltering house to save me.
Cheese Fare Sunday
Forgiveness & Fasting
Gospel of Saint Matthew the Evangelist 6: 14-21
The Lord said, “If you forgive men their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive
you. But if you do not forgive men there offenses, neither will your Father forgive you your
offenses. And when you fast, do not look gloomy like
the hypocrites, who disfigure their faces in order to appear to men as fasting. Amen I say to you they have had
their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head
and wash your face, so that you may not be seen by men
to fast, 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 worm and
rodent consume, and where thieves break in and steal;
but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither worm nor rodent consumes, nor thieves break in
and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will be
your heart.”