3rd Sunday of Great Fast Veneration of the Holy Cross
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever!
3rd Sunday of Great Lent: Veneration of the Holy Cross
March 23, 2025
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
Mon 3/24/25 7:00pm Vigil Divine Liturgy of the Annunciation +Maria Pocchiari by Pocchiari fam.
Tue 3/25/25 9:30am Divine Liturgy Annunciation
Wed 3/26/25 7:00pm Liturgy of Pre-Sanctified Gifts
Fri 3/28/25 7:00pm Liturgy of Pre-Sanctified Gifts
Sat 3/29/25 9:30am 4* All Souls Saturday
Sat 3/29/25 4:00pm Vigil Divine Liturgy +Nancy Zavacky by Bob, Betsy and Jenn Sychak
Sun 3/30/25 9:30am Divine Liturgy +Dan Moniot by Drew Moniot
Variable Parts Tone 3 - Pages 135 — 137 the Holy Cross Pages - 223 - 225
The Beatitudes During Great Lent the 3rd Antiphon of the Divine Liturgy will be the Beatitudes. Melody and text are on page 23 of the Green Divine Liturgy book.
Epistle Hebrews 4:14-5:6
Gospel Mark 8:34-9:11
Memorial Candle Request - No Candle Request
Epistle Readers 22-Mar Mary Troyan 23-Mar Kathy Moyta 29-Mar John Baycura/Mary Motko 30-Mar Shari Allen
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: 3/12 (Pre) — 27; 3/15 — 23; 3/16 — 83; Collection: 3/15 and 3/16 — $2,303.50
Gibsonia Schedule
Sun 3/23/25 11:30am Divine Liturgy 3rd Sunday of Great Lent
Tue 3/25/25 7:00pm Divine Liturgy
Thu 3/27/25 7:00pm Divine Liturgy
Sun 3/30/25 11:30am Divine Liturgy 4th Sunday of Great Lent: St. John Climacus
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.
THE BEGINNING of all that is good and true in our lives — our very capacity to be saved — begins with the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The feast of the Annunciation on March 25 marks the apparition of St. Gabriel the Archangel to Our Lady. When she was told that she was to conceive of the Holy Ghost, Mary answered with the greatest "yes" in our sad history. It was the beginning of the Salvation of all who were to be Saved — and we are participating in that story ourselves, whenever we receive the Sacraments or perform a work of mercy.
The Greek and Slavonic names for the Feast may be translated as "good tidings." This, of course, refers to the Incarnation of the Son of God and the salvation He brings. The background of the Annunciation is found in the Gospel of Saint Luke (1:26-38). The troparion describes this as the "beginning of our salvation, and the revelation of the eternal mystery," for on this day the Son of God became the Son of Man.
There are two main components to the Annunciation: the message itself, and the response of the Virgin. The message fulfills God's promise to send a Redeemer (Genesis 3:15): "I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed; he shall crush your head, and you shall lie in wait for his heel." The Fathers of the Church understand "her seed" to refer to Christ. The prophets hinted at His coming, which they saw dimly, but the Archangel Gabriel now proclaims that the promise is about to be fulfilled. Not surprisingly, the Annunciation is the earliest feast /after The Resurectionl we know of. There is the oldest painting of the Annunciation in the catacomb of Priscilla in Rome dating from the early second century. (see resconstructed picture). Ultimately, Christmas would derive its dating from it — nine months from the Annunciation being the date of the latter feast, despite all the many efforts to disprove December 25 as the birthday of Our Lord. It is a feast that always occurs in Lent and stands out by its Marian rather than Lenten propers — the bright (blue) vestments re-emerge for the day after weeks of purple. So important was this beginning of our own ascents to Heaven, that in the Middle Ages It was an ancient custom of the papal Curia (executive office) to start the year on March 25 in all their communications and documents, thus calling it the 'Year of the Incarnation.' This practice was also adopted by most civil governments for the legal dating of documents. In fact, the Feast of the Annunciation, called 'Lady Day,' marked the beginning of the legal year in England even after the Reformation, up to 1752. was made New Year's Day. Lady Day was one of the days when rents were due, and work contracts were concluded. It remained a Holy Day of Obligation in the public sphere until 1918.
The hardest part of Lent is the consistency. It takes what the Desert Fathers, 'monks of the Egyptian desert!, liked to call "discernment" or "discretion." In a modern Catholic context, "discernment" often means determining whether God wants you to be a priest, a deacon, or a religious. But for the monks, this word meant something more. They used the Greek word "diakresis," which has the same root word as "crisis," meaning a moment of decision. Discernment was that ability to understand what God's will was in any situation, above all to judge one's interior motives for any action. The monks were serious about what St. Paul calls in Romans 12:2 the "renewing of your mind." They were not advocating scrupulosity of the head or heart. Their own strategy was precisely not to think about how much progress they had made in the spiritual life, but to keep working and avoid presumption and despair. Even on their deathbeds they rejected judging themselves. How were they to know how they stood in God's eyes? They threw themselves on Christ's mercy as we all should.
They understood that exteriorly good acts without the intention to obey God gain us no praise. They knew good actions without the necessary foundation of prayer behind and under those actions often do us no good. Though they fled ordinary society and lived in a way that was not just strange but often repugnant to others, people flocked to the desert to get answers for themselves and to enlist their help. The Desert Fathers understood that the best response to such requests was sometimes "No." They knew that they could become idols both to others and to themselves.
How did the monks stay on guard? The answer is very simple and very hard: they actually tried to pray without ceasing. They understood that banishing an evil train of thought was not enough. You have to fill your mind with good. The monks prayed all 150 Psalms each day. They fixed their minds on Scripture texts, often repeating a single verse throughout the day. The most famous line they tended to repeat was the "Jesus Prayer": "Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner."
