Second Sunday of Great Fast
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever!
2nd Sunday of Great Lent
March 16, 2025
Sat 3/15/25 4:00pm Vigil Divine Liturgy +John R Prokopchak by John R Prokopchok family
Sun 3/16/25 9:30am Divine Liturgy +Nancy Zavacky by Butler American Legion
Wed 3/19/25 7:00pm Liturgy of Pre-Sanctified Gifts + deceased from Motko family
Fri 3/21/25 7:00pm Liturgy of Pre-Sanctified Gifts + deceased from Motko family
Sat 3/22/25 9:30am 3rd All Souls Saturday
Sat 3/22/25 4:00pm Vigil Divine Liturgy +Souls in Purgatory by Marian Luther
Sun 3/23/25 9:30am Divine Liturgy +Lois Schott by Lynne and Hans Bergh
Variable Parts Tone 2- Pgs 130 — 131; 2nd Sunday Pgs - 222 — 223
The Beatitudes During Lent the 3rd Antiphon of the Liturgy will be the Beatitudes. Melody & text are on pg. 23 of the Divine Liturgy Book.
Epistle Hebrews 1:10-2:3
Gospel Mark 2:1-12
Memorial Candle Request - No Candle Request
Epistle Readers 15-Mar John Baycura/Mary Motko 16-Mar Mike Dancisin 22-Mar Mary Troyan 23-Mar Kathy Moyta
Please Pray for: Ole J. Bergh, Erik Bergh, Liz Moyta, Fr. Michael Huszti, Fr. Laska, Susie Curcio, Teresa Milkovich, Robert Saper, Anna Habil, Martha Sapar, Mike Dancisin, Karen Smaretsky Vavro, Diane Sotak, Anna Pocchiari, Larry Hamil, Beverly Jones, Marilyn Book, Maryann Russin Schyvers, Nick Russin, Ken Konchan
Attendance: 3/5 — 30; 3/8 — 22; 3/9 — 81 Collection: 3/8 & 3/9 — $1,564.15
Food Prep - Help Needed: We will be baking Easter bread on April 10th and 11th If you are available, please help. The starting time is 9am.
Paska Bread: Orders will be taken through March 30th. $10.00 per loaf and $12.00 for round. Order forms are on the bulletin board, or you may call 412-837-9446. Pickup is Saturday April 12th 10am — 1pm.
Salad Bingo: Please save the date on April 26th for Salad Bingo.
Donation Request: 1. We need Gift Card donations for the salad bingo. Cards of $10.00 or higher value are being requested for door prizes and the basket auction. Cards may be placed in the collection basket. Please mark the cards with their appropriate monetary values. Thank you! 2. If anyone is aware of businesses that may consider making donations, a tax exemption number will be required. Please ask Shari for the donation letter which contains the tax number.
St. Gregory Palamas (1296-1359) On 2nd Sunday of Lent is dedicated to the memory of St. Gregory of Palamas. St. Gregory Palamas was born in the year 1296. He grew up in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) in a critical time of political and religious unrest. It was a city under attack from all sides. From the west, it was infiltrated by Western philosophies of rationalism and scholasticism and by many attempts at Latinization. From the east, it was threatened by Muslim Turkish military invaders. Gregory's family was wealthy. His father was a member of the senate. Upon his father's sudden death, Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Paleologos (1282-1328), who was a close friend of the family, gave it his full financial support. He especially admired Gregory for his fine abilities and talents, hoping that the brilliant young man would one day become a fine assistant. Upon finishing his studies Gregory at 22 years of age, followed a burning passion in his heart. Like a lover who strives to stay alone forever with his loved one, Gregory was thirsty for this living water (see Rev 22:17). He simply withdrew to Mount Athos, an already established community of monasticism. In Athos, the novice Gregory took as his spiritual guide St. Nicodemos of Vatopedi. This holy man guided Gregory on the path of ascetic labor: prayers, vigils, fasting, continuous repentance, and monastic obedience. The novice Gregory was especially attached to the prayer of the heart, also known as the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner" (Lk 18:38).
The experienced practice of the Jesus Prayer, requiring solitude and silence combined with physical exercises is called "hesychasm" (from the Greek hesychos, meaning inner stillness, peace, or silence). Those practicing it are called "hesychasts. Why do they do that? The reason is found in the writings of St. Palamas: "inner silence of this kind makes us capable of listening to the whispers of the Divine . "
The core of their unique prayer experience is based on the praying without ceasing, as the Apostle Paul commands all Christians to do (1 Thes 5:17). In prayer, man is filled from within with the eternal glory, with the divine light beheld at the Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor.
The Jesus Prayer is not a mantra, as in Eastern religions, and it cannot be taken as such. The prayer's call for "mercy" involves inner repentance and change. It is also a prayer practiced within the sacramental life of the Church, a prayer combined with Holy Communion, confession, reading the Word of God, fasting, loving one's neighbor.
Finally, it is not a prayer using "vain repetitions" or babble, but a prayer recited again and again, in persistence (Lk 18:1), from the inner heart of man reaching the divine heights of glory, confessing Christ as the Lord and Savior, in sincerity, humility, and faith.
For that prayer (the Jesus Prayer) is true and perfect. It fills the soul with Divine grace and spiritual gifts. As chrism perfumes the jar the more strongly the tighter it is closed, so prayer, the more fast it is imprisoned in the heart, abounds the more in Divine grace. . . . By this prayer the dew of the Holy Spirit is brought down upon the heart, as Elijah brought down rain on Mount Carmel. This mental prayer reaches to the very throne of God and is preserved in golden vials. . . . This mental prayer is the light which illumines man's soul and inflames his heart with the fire of love of God. It is the chain linking God with man and man with God. (Palamas, "Homily")
Such prayer was practiced from the early Christian period. The hesychasts were drawn by God's unconditional graceful love (Rom 5:15) to fill a certain human need around them. Many hesychasts abandoned their solitude to serve their brothers, "since he who loves God must love his brother also" (1 Jn 4:21). Some cared for the sick in hospitals, like St. Basil the Great in Caesarea; others helped the poor, like St. John the Almsgiver in Alexandria; and yet others welcomed the faithful for confession. Nevertheless, they did not abandon the Jesus Prayer and their inner silence. In this sense, all Christians are called to follow this hesychast way leading to salvation.
Let no one think, my brother Christians, that it is the duty only of priests and monks to pray without ceasing, and not of laymen. No, no; it is the duty of all of us Christians to remain always in prayer. . . every Christian in general should strive to pray always, and to pray without ceasing. . . this very name of our Lord Jesus Christ, constantly invoked by you, will help you to overcome all difficulties, and in the course of time you will become used to this practice and will taste how sweet is the name of the Lord. . . . For when we sit down to work with our hands, when we walk, when we eat, when we drink we can always pray mentally and practice this mental prayer—the true prayer pleasing to God. ("Homily")
St. Gregory studied the works of the great Fathers and made a fascinating synthesis of the scriptural and patristic teaching on the prayer of the heart, combined with his personal experience. Around year 1330, a certain monk arrived in Constantinople from Italy. He was a famous scholar, a skilled orator, and an acclaimed Christian teacher. He valued education and learning much more than contemplative prayer. He believed the monks were wasting their time in contemplative prayer when they should be studying. He influenced many prominent bishops and rulers by this teaching that has associated the image of God with man's intellect but its heart was cold. "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?" (Lk 24:32).. That teaching of suppression of the contemplative prayer (prayer of the heart) caused a great turmoil in the church.
In 1351, a council of Blachernae was held to settle the issues. It confirmed the teachings of St. Gregory of Palamas. This council was considered the second triumph of Orthodoxy (the first being the restoration of icons). This is why the second Sunday of Lent is also called also 2nd triumph (restoration of the prayer of heart). St. Gregory Palamas due to some controversy was sold to slavery to Muslims by his own parishioners. Gregory's love and respect for all men made his captors admire him and treat him with reverence. A year later, St. Gregory was ransomed and returned to Thessalonika. He died on November 14, 1359 seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary.
