Sunday of the Prodigal Son
The Sunday of the Prodigal Son is the second Sunday of pre-Lent, the weeks of preparation preceding Great Lent. It is the Sunday after the Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee and Sunday before Meatfare Sunday. This pre-Lent is the start of the Easter cycle of worship in the Orthodox Church.
On this Sunday in the preparation for Great Lent, Orthodox Christians are read Christ’s parable about God’s loving
forgiveness (Luke 15:11-24). They are to see themselves as being in a foreign country far from the Father’s house and to make the movement of return to God, where we truly belong. The parable gives assurance that the Father will receive them with joy and gladness in their journey through Great Lent, their journey home.
From Orthodoxwiki.
Sermon on the Prodigal Son
Bp. Timothy Ware: When we take one step towards God, He takes a hundred towards us.
NAMI Walkathon this Saturday, February 27
Every year St. Peter’s joins the NAMI walk organized by Bill and Mary Copeland.
Bill and Mary will be there this Saturday at 8:30AM to greet anyone that would like to walk with them to support their team. Participants will have to fill out a form and will be able to purchase a t-shirt for a small donation if they would like. Blue and white are the colors of NAMI.
The Grand Marshall will be Keith O’Neal former player for the Dallas Cowboys, Indianapolis Colts, and New York Giants. During his professional career he played with an undiagnosed mental illness, bipolar disorder and is passionate about helping others who live with mental health issues. He will be there to take pictures with and give autographs.
NAMI will provide water and power drinks to take with you. After the walk there will be food and entertainment all provided free of charge.
Please let Mary know if you will be joining us for the walk by calling 239-498-1331.
Learn more about NAMI here.
Holy Week Service Books
This year we will be using the Holy Week Service Book of the Antiochian Archdiocese during Holy Week. If you would like one for private use please order it from Ancient Faith Publishing. The price is $35.00.
Includes the three Bridegroom services, the three Liturgies of the Presanctified Gifts; the service of Holy Unction; the Vesperal Divine Liturgy and 12 Passion Gospels of Holy Thursday; the Royal Hours, Vespers, and Lamentations of Holy Friday; the Vesperal Divine Liturgy of Holy Saturday morning; Great and Holy Pascha; and the Agape Vespers of Sunday afternoon.
Lenten Service Schedule
The schedule for Lenten services is being finalized and will be put on the Church calendar and emailed to all all parishioners this week.
Bible Study Continue Tuesday, March 1, 2016 at 7pm
Choir practice resumes shortly.
Youth Bible Study Continues on Wednesday March 2 at 6pm
We meet at Tony’s Off Third Restaurant in downtown Naples (get map).
Orthodox Wisdom
Worldly thoughts and the cares of life have the same effect on the understanding as a veil draped over the eyes, for the understanding is the eye of the soul. So long as we leave them there, we cannot see. But when they fall away as we remember that we are to die, then we shall clearly see the true light which illumines every man as it comes into the world from on high.
-St. Symeon the New Theologian
Better than (all the particular gifts God gives) … is the patient endurance of afflictions; and he who has been found worthy of this great gift should give thanks to God in that he has been all the more blessed. For he has become an imitator of Christ…
-St. Peter of Damaskos
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Remember in Your Prayers
Constandina James
Peter Wouralis
James Hord
Bonnie Joseph
Bob Smith
Tom and Jean, parents of Patty and Jerry.
How should we pray for the sick? Remember them daily. Say their names and ask God to bestow mercy and grace on them.
Sunday Readings
Epistle
For Sunday of the Prodigal Son
Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us.
Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous.
The Reading from the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians. (6:12-20)
Brethren, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything. Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food; but God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two shall become one flesh.” But he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.
Shun immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Gospel
For Sunday of the Prodigal Son
The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (15:11-32)
The Lord spoke this parable: “There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that falls to me.’ And he divided his living between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living.
And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have fed on the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father.
But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to make merry.
Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what this meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid that I might make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!’
And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”