Palm Sunday Brunch this Sunday
St. Peter’s will hold a Palm Sunday Brunch immediately following Divine Liturgy this Sunday, April 28. Cut off for tickets is this Wednesday (tomorrow). Please call or email Mary Jarvis if you plan to attend (239-263-9292, jamjar4mb@gmail.com). Ticket price is $20.
Katina Protopapadakis has graciously donated all of the fish and is directing the cooking and luncheon. Other parishioners will bring salad, drinks, and so forth. The full price of your ticket will be donated to the Tewis family to help them offset some of the costs of Jeremiah’s hospitalization. If you would like to donate more please do.
Thank you to Katina Protopapadakis, Mary Jarvis, Mary Copeland and everyone who is working hard to make the Palm Sunday Brunch a success.
Holy Week Starts on Palm Sunday
The final sprint of Lent is about to begin. Palm Sunday marks the start of Holy Week. Holy Week is preparation for the final Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ which we call Pascha in the Orthodox world, which of course means Passover.
Click here to download a schedule of all services and times for Holy Week. All services will be held at St. Paul’s (get map) except for the Agape Vespers (the final service after the Paschal Liturgy on Saturday evening) which will be held at the Holiday Inn at 11am on Sunday, May 5.
The website of the Antiochian Archdiocese has a good summary of the services and meaning of Holy Week. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese website has many valuable articles as well.
Agape Vespers to be held at St. Peter’s on Sunday, May 5 at Holiday Inn.
Although we will celebrate the Paschal Liturgy (Easter Liturgy, the Resurrection Service) with our sister parish St. Paul’s, we will return to celebrate the Agape Vespers at the Holiday Inn starting at 11am.
This is a very short service (by Orthodox standards anyway), about 45 minutes. We read the gospel in different languages to represent the gospel going into all the world. We will need people who know different languages to read the gospel that day.
Fr. Hans will do Greek and Dutch. If any parishioner knows a different language in which the gospel can be read, please notify Fr. Hans this week.
Easter Pot-Luck at Bob and Mary Jarvis’ home on Sunday, May 5
We celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by getting together and breaking the fast together. This year Mary and Bob Jarvis are holding the celebration at their home (get directions) starting at 2pm on Sunday, May 5.
Everyone is invited, bring something to share, and be sure to bring a chair (a lawn chair is fine). Our pot lucks are always a great time of fellowship and the food is always great and there is always enough to go around.
Many, many thanks to Bob and Mary for hosting this.
Sunday Scripture Readings
Epistle
Philippians 4:4-9 (Palm Sunday)
Vow and pay unto the Lord your God In Judah is God known.
The Reading is from St. Paul to the Hebrews.
Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord.
Confess to the Lord; for he is good.
The Reading is from St. Paul to the Philippians
BRETHREN, rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, Rejoice. Let all men know your forbearance. The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, do; and the God of peace will be with you.
Gospel
John 12:1-18 (Palm Sunday)
The Reading of the Holy Gospel according to St. John
Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. There they made a supper; Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those at table with him. Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.
But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was to betray him), said, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” This he said, not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to carry what was put into it.
Jesus said, “Let her alone, let her keep it for the day of my burial. The poor you always have with you, but you do not have me always.”
When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came, not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing Jesus.
The next day a great crowd who had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying, “Hosanna! Blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young ass and sat upon it; as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on an ass’s colt!”
His disciples didn’t understand this at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that this had been written of him and had been done to him. The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead bore witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard that he had done this sign.