Saint George Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church 1250 Oakdale Avenue, West Saint Paul, Minnesota 55118

Parish Website: http://www.saintgeorge-church.org Church Phone: 651-457-0854

The Most Reverend Metropolitan JOSEPH, Archbishop of New York, Metropolitan of all North America

Right Reverend Bishop ANTHONY, Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Toledo and the Midwest

Right Reverend Archimandrite John Mangels, Pastor Reverend Father John Chagnon, attached Very Reverend Archpriest Paul Hodge, attached

Reverend Deacon John Mikhail, attached Very Reverend Archpriest Thomas Begley, retired Rt. Reverend Archimandrite Duane Pederson, retired

Reverend Father Daniel Simon, retired Reader Michael Begley, Music Director

Pastor’s email: ajammn@aol.com Pastor’s Cell: 303-520-0981 Signing up for services: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0444A8AC23ABF85-stgeorge

Sunday, April 4, 2021 Third Sunday of Great Lent

Veneration of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross Tone 2 Eothinon 10 Commemorations: Venerable George of Mt. Maleon; Martyrs Theodoulos the reader and Agathopodos the

deacon of Thessalonica; Venerable Theonas, archbishop of Thessalonica; Isidore, bishop of Seville

THE DIVINE LITURGY OF ST. BASIL THE GREAT

RESURRECTIONAL APOLYTIKION IN TONE TWO When Thou didst submit Thyself unto death, O Thou deathless and immortal One, then Thou didst destroy hell with Thy Godly power. And when Thou didst raise the dead from beneath the earth, all the powers of Heaven did cry aloud unto Thee: O Christ, Thou giver of life, glory to Thee. APOLYTIKION FOR THE HOLY CROSS IN TONE ONE O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance, granting to Thy people victory over all their enemies, and by the power of Thy Cross preserving Thy commonwealth. Now sing the apolytikion of Saint George

KONTAKION FOR SUNDAYS IN GREAT LENT IN TONE EIGHT To thee, the Champion Leader, do I offer thanks of victory, O Theotokos, thou who hast delivered me from terror; but as thou that hast that power invincible, O Theotokos, thou alone can set me free: from all forms of danger free me and deliver me, that I may cry unto thee: Hail, O Bride without Bridegroom. THE ANTI-TRISAGION HYMN Before Thy Cross we bow down in worship, Master, and Thy Holy Resurrection we glorify. (THRICE)

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; both now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. And we glorify Thy Holy Resurrection. Dynamis! Before Thy Cross we bow down in worship, Master, and we glorify Thy Holy Resurrection. EPISTLE: O Lord, save Your people and bless Your inheritance. Unto You, O Lord, will I cry, O my God!

The Reading from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews. (4:14-5:6) rethren, since we have a great High Priest, Who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we have not a High Priest Who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one Who in every respect has been tempted as we are,

yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help in time of need. For every high priest, chosen from among men, is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this he is bound, to offer sacrifice for sins as well as those of the people. And one does not take the honor upon himself, but he is called by God, just as was Aaron. So also Christ also did not exalt Himself to be made a High Priest, but was appointed by the Him who said to Him, “Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee.” As He says also in another place, “Thou art a Priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” GOSPEL:

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Mark. (8:34-9:1)

he Lord said, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world

and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of man also be ashamed, when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” And Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.”

HOLY BREAD Holy Bread is offered for the health and welfare of Assaad, Norma and Joyce Haddad, Julie and Greg Coleman, all Covid victims, their families and all St. George parishioners. In loving memory of Michel, Georgette, Aziz, Evelyne, the recently departed cousins Rima, Mouneer, Naim, Samir, Ghassan and all departed members of their families, all Covid victims and all departed members of St. George Parish.

ELCOME to all our guests and visitors. We are delighted to have you visiting and wor-shipping with us this morning and hope that you return soon. We invite you to participate in the Divine Liturgy, but, sadly, due to the divisions in Christianity, only bap-

tized/chrismated members of the Orthodox Church who have made their Confession before an Orthodox priest and prepared themselves by fasting may receive Holy Communion. Please come forward after Liturgy to venerate the Cross and partake of the Antidoron-Holy Bread. Please turn off your cell phones and all electronic devices.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS PRAY FOR THE SICK Please pray for Jeffrey Brown, Ibrahim, George Droubie, Helen Katsampes, James Awada Sr., Lowell Colliander, Elizabeth Swanson, Ethen Leff, Elizabeth Henry, James and Emily, Corrie Fox, Lauretta Villareal, Genevieve Lehnen, Jim Etoll, Michael Etoll, Dwight Johnson, George & Ellie Saba, Anna Windsor, Peter Hafiz, Fr. Duane, John and John Etoll, Wally, Maria, Allen, Nick, Jack-son & Hunter Golden, Yasmin Kakish, Carol Haddad, Camille Goll, Kh. Vergin Khoury, Margaret Boalbey, Norm Holmes, Phyllis Hodge, Lamese McDowell, Edgard Siouffy, Berhane Haliemi-chael, Fr. Dan & Eileen Simon, Joseph Kammeyer, Marilyn Perry, Nancy Maker, Dawn Tillbury, Joshua & Richard Lang, Eva Etoll, Alan & Mary Poulsen, Natalie Mozey, Mervat & Abigail Lot-falla, Samira Shehata. If you are ill or having surgery and wish to be remembered in the Liturgy and daily prayers of the priest, please contact Fr. Mangels.

BULLETIN & NEWSLETTER ANNOUNCEMENT PROCEDURE ANY announcement in the weekly bulletin and Newsletter is subject to approval by Fr. Man-gels/and the Council. It is important to notify Brigitte by e-mail (bgkstgeorge@gmail.com) or phone with all your bulletin information by NOON Wednesday of the week before you offer the Holy Bread in order to print the bulletin in a timely manner. Deadline for MAY newsletter: 4/22/2021. HOLY BREAD LIST April 11, Sue Perry April 18, Pat Burbank One Year Memorial for Sandy Heuer April 24, Tina Rudquist Lazarus Saturday April 25, Jubran/Ferraro Palm Sunday April 29, Joan Alevizos Holy kursday

To schedule Holy Bread and/or memorial, contact Joan Alevizos (651-453-1894). It is completely proper to offer more than one memorial or Holy Bread on the same Sunday. Coffee hour, due to the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic, has been suspended in the Parish Hall.

THIS WEEK AT ST. GEORGE UPCOMING SERVICES & EVENTS

• Sunday, April 4, Pan-Orthodox Vespers at 4:00pm • Wednesday, April 7, Pre-Sanctified Liturgy at 6:30pm • Friday, April 9, Akathist at 7:00pm • Saturday, April 10, Great Vespers at 5:00pm • Sunday, April 11, Orthros at 9:00am • Sunday, April 11, Divine Liturgy at 10:00am

THANK YOU! To our St. George church family, Thank you so much for your prayers, cards, gifts, support and the meals you provided during this difficult time. We are thankful to be loved by so many. May Garrett’s memory be eternal! Love, Kim, Anthony and Ava Bumgarner CONGRATULATIONS & Many Years Congratulations to Loren and Amy Colliander on the birth of the 6th child, Nikolai Ignatius (Niko) last Saturday. Baby and mother are at home doing well. Many years!

CHURCH SCHOOL CHURCH SCHOOL RESUMES WEEKLY and IN PERSON TODAY - Thanks for signing up and joining us for Church School. Families were emailed the new weekly, in person schedule for the rest of the school year and reminders about masks and sanitization. Please bring the children to the Church at 8:45am so that we can say our morning prayer together and Father can greet the students before they go to their classrooms from 9 - 10am. We appreciate your support! So won-derful to be back together again on a regular basis.

FALAFEL DINNER 2021 Thank you all for spreading the word and coming out to the falafel dinner this year. It is with tremendous joy to report that this was the best year ever and we actually ended up running out of falafel dough at about 2pm. We had to send someone to Beirut Restaurant to get whatever raw falafel that was on hand to make sure all those who pre-ordered would not be disappointed. After all counting was done we tallied 1960 falafels fried, 245 loaves of bread, 245 cups of tahini sauce, 245 containers of cabbage salad, and numerous containers of garlic sauce, hummus and bags of bread sold, bringing the total sales for this year's event $2,630.00!! And thanks to a donation of $370.00, a grand total of $3000.00 will be donated. We could not do this without the help of George Khoury, Nancy Ayoub, and all those awesome kids putting the meals together like an auto assembly line! We consider this an honor, a privilege, and a whole lot of fun to be able to do this and hope we can continue to do this in Father Khoury's honor and name. John Khoury

N. B. We are tremendously grateful to John Khoury and his family and the Beirut Restaurant for the selfless work and for providing this annual event for our parish! May God richly bless all of them for their generosity and hard work.

2021 LENTEN PAN-ORTHODOX VESPERS SCHEDULE 4/4 Sunday of the Cross at St. George AOCA 4:00pm Streaming on YouTube In-person sign-up link: SignUpGenius 4/11 St. John Climacus at St. Mary GOC 4:00pm Streaming on YouTube In-person sign-up link: SignUpGenius 4/18 St. Mary of Egypt at Twelve Holy Apostles (Duluth) GOC 4:00pm Streaming on YouTube 4/25 Bridegroom Matins at St. Herman of Alaska, OCA 4:00pm TBA THE ANNUAL SEMINARIANS OFFERING During the Month of March we will receive a Second Offering for the annual Seminary drive in our Archdiocese. Help insure the proper training of our future priests. THE CHURCH FATHERS SPEAK—Do not allow human politeness to get in your way when you hear someone slandering his neighbor. Instead, say to him, “Brother, stop it! I do worse things every day, so how can I criticize him?” You accomplish two things when you say this. You heal yourself and you heal your neighbor with the one bandage. St John Climacus ST GEORGE BOOKSTORE is online! Our bookstore offers an array of quality Ortho-dox Christian books, icons, jewelry, music, and gifts. Visit our store online and discover the rich-ness and beauty of our Orthodox faith. Go to https://bit.ly/2UHrUno and start shopping! Contact Deb Korluka at 612-889-5868 for pricing and to place your order. Arrangements will be made for payment and pickup at St. George Church. Quantities are limited. Your support of our bookstore is greatly appreciated.

Young Adults/Relationship Sundays We have moved our one hour zoom gathering to 2:30pm so as not to conflict with Pan-Orthodox Vespers. If you have not joined us, but would like to, contact Cindy or Paul Karos at 612.701.7320 or cindyzkaros@gmail.com.

SOYO BIBLE STUDY Every Sunday night at 6:15, SOYO meets for bible study on Zoom. It is a time for fellowship, spiritual nourishment, and connection among the youth at St. George. Right now, we are making our way through the Gospels, starting with Matthew. Anyone 8th Grade and up is welcome and encouraged to join… We would love to have you with us! We start each meeting with a prayer, then read/discuss together, and close with prayer. Contact Joseph Karos at josephka-ros33@gmail.com or 612-500-327 if you are interested! THE CHURCH FATHERS SPEAK—“But I say to you, love your enemies; do good to those who hate you, pray for those who persecute you.” Why did Jesus command these things? So that He might free you from hatred, sadness, anger and grudges, and might grant you the greatest pos-session of all—perfect love, which is impossible to possess except by the one who loves all equally in imitation of God. St Maximos the Confessor CHURCH SUPPORT DURING THIS TIME kank you so much for your continued support of your parish during this time! We are very much aware of what a hardship this crisis is putting on people throughout the country. If you are able, please continue to financially support your Church during this time. ke Parish Council has approved numerous ways to donate to St. George.

1. Venmo is a free secure app that can be downloaded and installed on a mobile phone. Donors that install the Venmo app can directly transfer money from their bank account to St. George's Old National Bank account with no fees incurred. However, if a credit card transaction is used by the donor, the donor will incur a 3% fee. Venmo your donation to @stgeorgeaoc. ke church is automatically emailed a notification of your donation. 2. From your online bank account, do an External Transfer directly to the church's Old National Bank account. Info you will need: Routing Number 086300012 Account Num-ber 322042. Please send an email to stewardshipstgeorge@gmail.com so that our Financial Secretary can properly record your donation. 3. From your online bank account, schedule Bill Pay and a paper check will be written to the church. 4. A paper check can be written and mailed to the church. 5. When you come to Church, the collection tray will not be passed. Please leave your offering in the plate on the Candle Table before or after Services.

PROFOUND THANKS TO ALL OF YOU! FROM THE HOLY FATHERS—The Cross is the proof of the love of God. The Cross is the unshaken wall, the unconquered weapon, the Kingdom of virtue. The Cross has torn asunder our mortgage and rendered useless the prison of death. The Cross has opened Paradise, it has admitted the thief and has guided the human race from impending disaster to the Kingdom of God. St. John Chrysostom

GOOD FRIDAY & PASCHA FLOWER & CANDLE FUND It has been our custom for many years to receive an offering to help offset the cost of flowers and candles to adorn the Kouvouklion and Church for Good Friday & Pascha. Please mark your check “flowers and candles” and leave it in the offering plate or use one of the apps. Many thanks!

HELP FOR THOSE IN NEED If anyone, particularly our older or shut-in parishioners needs help with anything, please call either Fr. John or George/Brigitte Khoury. We have a number of parishioners who are willing to help with bringing food or supplies to you. It is important that we follow the guidelines that have been given us but in an emergency or time of need, don’t hesitate to call.

ANTIOCHIAN WOMEN Coffee Cup Collection money is due, those who have been filling your cup this year, send your check to Katharine Price. Book Club...New Book! The featured book is THIRTY STEPS TO HEAVEN by Archimandrite Vassilios Papavassiliou, and is available in the church book store. If you would like to sign up, contact Lisa Hartwig at Lihartw@aol.com or Cindy Karos at cindyzkaros@gmail.com. THE CHURCH FATHERS SPEAK—Let us contemplate with faith the mystery of the divine incarnation and in all simplicity let us simply praise Him who in His great generosity became man for us. For who, relying on the power of rational demonstration, can explain how the conception of the divine Logos took place? How was flesh generated without seed? How was there an engendering without loss of maidenhood? How did a mother after giving birth remain a virgin? How did He who is wholly God by nature become wholly man by nature, not renouncing either nature in any way at all, neither the divine, through which He is God, not ours, through which He became man? Faith alone can embrace these mysteries; for it is faith that makes real for us things beyond intellect and reason (cf. Heb.11:1). St Maximos the Confessor NEIGHBORS Neighbors and MN March Food Share Let's all do our part and help Neighbors Inc with their biggest food and fund drive of the year. The MN Food Share campaign begins on March 1 through April 11. If it is within your means, Neigh-bors prefers funds this year to help them purchase items they need. But know that food donations are always welcome! Make your check out to Neighbors Inc and give to Willy Percy, George Khoury or Michelle Apman. Food donations may be dropped off outside the church hall. Thank you for helping Neighbors help our neighbors! The Church School children will be passing out donation bags and there will also be bags available in the Narthex. Please take one and fill it up so everyone can have a blessed Easter!!

1 John 3:17: "But whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him.”

THE CHURCH FATHERS SPEAK—This is the true athlete—one who is crowned for having victory over all passions in the great stadium, the world. For He who directs the contest is the Almighty God, and He who awards the prize is the Only-begotten Son of God. Angels and demons are the spectators. And the context, containing all the different exercises, is “not against flesh and blood,” but against the spiritual powers of unregulated passions that work through the flesh. Those who master these struggles and overthrow the tempter win eternal life. St Clement Alexandria

The Third Sunday in Lent: Sunday of the Cross "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Ac-cording to accepted English dictionaries, "deny" means to refuse, reject, repudiate and/or to declare something untrue. If we limit ourselves to these definitions, we do an injustice to the deeper mean-ing of Christian self-denial. For a clearer picture of what Jesus means, we must return to the original Greek text. The Greek is "aparnisastho" and it has the meaning of renunciation and absolute rejec-tion of whatever is incongruous with Jesus' planned salvation for us. Utter denial does not mean depriving ourselves of the necessities of life, nor does it mean we must become paupers and live in rags. Neither does it mean we must lose our individuality, personality and identity. When Jesus speaks of total and utter denial of self, He means we must subordinate our clamoring ego that prohibits us from being the Children of God we were intended to be. Good intentions are not enough. This is why Jesus says, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." "Take up your cross and follow me" means to get started on our journey to salvation. If the road we are on does not have God's Eternal Kingdom as its destination, then we had better make a U-turn and find the right one! "Taking up our cross and following Jesus" means trying harder when those moments of calamity, tragedy, sorrow and loss and grief beset us. It means bringing under control our uncon-trollable anger, our undue insensitivity, our impatience and impetuosity. It means subduing our temperament and disposition so that we can master them rather than their mastering us. There is another reason this gospel passage is read at the Divine Liturgy of the Third Sun-day of Lent. The Synaxarion of the Orthros both announces and describes the observed Feast Day for today, says the following:

"On this the Third Sunday of Great Lent, we observe the Veneration of the Precious and Life-giving Cross and for this reason: Inasmuch as in the forty days of fasting we in a way crucify ourselves and become bitter, despondent and failing, the Life-giving Cross is presented to us for spiritual refreshment and assurance, for remembrance of our Lord's Passion and for comfort. Like those who are following a long and tedious path are tired, see a beautiful tree with many leaves, they would sit in its shade and rest for a while and then, as if rejuvenated, they will continue their journey. Likewise today, in the time of fasting and difficult journey and effort, the Life-giving Cross was planted in its midst by the Holy Fathers of the Church to give rest and spiritual refreshment, to make us light and courageous for the remaining task. Christ comforts us who are, as it were, in a desert until He will lead us up to the spiritual Jerusalem by His Resurrection. Just as the Precious Cross, which is also called the Tree of Life, was planted in the middle of Paradise, so our Holy Fathers planted the Cross in the middle of holy and Great Lent, as a sacred reminder of both Adam's bliss and how he was deprived of it. Remembering also that by partaking of this Tree of Life, the Precious and Life-giving Cross, we no longer die but are kept alive."

Jesus extends His invitation to us once again to "deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him." Our Church gives us this Third Sunday of Lent—Mid-point to Golgotha—to pause with Jesus, to refresh ourselves spiritually, to assess our Lenten journey and to continue with greater determination. But the initiative is still ours. There is no way into spring but that we endure the rigors of winter. There is no way we can arrive at Pascha if we do not live the agonies of all our Good Fridays. There is no way we can achieve eternal life with God unless we deny ourselves utterly and totally in Christ. This we do when we endure and sustain our own personal crosses and follow Him.

Sunday, April 4, 2021 Third Sunday of Great Lent

Veneration of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross