February 3, 2015

Holy Nativity of the Lord

Christ Is in our Midst

Divine Liturgy for February 8 (Sunday’s Readings & Hymns)

Tone 2 Troparion

When You descended to death, O Life Immortal, You destroyed hell with the splendor of Your Godhead. And when from the depths You raised the dead, all the powers of heaven cried out: “O Giver of life, Christ our God, glory to You!”

Tone 3 Kontakion

I have recklessly forgotten Your glory, O Father; and among sinners I have scattered the riches which You gave me. And now I cry to You as the Prodigal: “I have sinned before You, O merciful Father; receive me a penitent, and make me as one of Your hired servants!”

Tone 2 Prokeimenon

The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation.

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 Gospel: Luke 15:11-32

2

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Fast

Vespers, Meal, Bible

Study Foster’s

House 5:30

Fast Men’s

Lunch – Shanes 12:00

Great Vespers

5:00 Choir

practice 4:00

Ground Breaking 12:30 —

2:30

Divine Liturgy St. Barksdale

10:00

Weekly Service Schedule

Service A reminder to those who serve Holy Nativity this week. Your service is greatly

appreicated!

Coffee Hour – Stephanie May

and Prosphora wil l be taken care of by Laura Taylor

Choir

Great Lent, Holy Week & Pascha practice this

Saturday, 4:00.

Special Prayer: From February 15th-19th Fr. Jason will be in Miami for our annual diocesan pastoral conference; and, at that

time, Abp NIKON is calling a special assembly for the nomination of a new ruling bishop for the Diocese of the South. Please keep both of these events in your prayers. It is an exciting time in the

DOS. Thanks be to God, we may have a new bishop soon!

3

Return from Exile (The Sunday of the Prodigal Son)

The Following is an excerpt from Great Lent, by Alexander Schmemann

From Chapter 2: Preparation for Lent

On the third Sunday of preparation for Lent, we hear the parable of the Prodigal Son (LK. 15:11-32).

Together with the hymns on this day, the parable reveals to us the time of repentance as man's return from exile. The prodigal son, we are told, went to a far country and there spent all that he had. A far

country! It is this unique definition of our human condition that we must assume and make ours as

we begin our approach to God. A man who has never had that experience, be it only very briefly, who

has never felt that he is exiled from God and from real life, will never understand what Christianity is

about. And the one who is perfectly "at home" in this world and its life, who has never been wounded

by the nostalgic desire for another Reality, will not understand what is repentance.

Repentance is often simply identified as a cool and "objective" enumeration of sins and

transgressions, as the act of "pleading guilty" to a legal indictment. Confession and absolution are

seen as being of a juridical nature. But something very essential is overlooked-- without which neither

confession nor absolution have any real meaning or power. This "something" is precisely the feeling

of alienation from God, from the joy of communion with Him, from the real life as created and given

by God. It is easy indeed to confess that I have not fasted on prescribed days, or missed my prayers, or

become angry. It is quite a different thing, however, to realize suddenly that I have defiled and lost my

spiritual beauty, that I am far away from my real home, my real life, and that something precious and

pure and beautiful has been hopelessly broken in the very texture of my existence. Yet this, and only

this, is repentance, and therefore it is also a deep desire to return, to go back, to recover that lost

home....

One liturgical peculiarity of this "Sunday of the Prodigal Son" must be especially mentioned here. At

Sunday Matins, following the solemn and joyful Psalms of the Polyeleion, we sing the sad and

nostalgic Psalm 137:

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, and we wept when we remembered Zion... How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy...

It is the Psalm of exile. It was sung by the Jews in their Babylonian captivity as they thought of their

holy city of Jerusalem. It has become forever the song of man as he realizes his exile form God, and

realizing it, becomes man again: the one who can never be fully satisfied by anything in this fallen

world, for by nature and vocation he is a pilgrim of the Absolute. This Psalm will be sung twice more:

on the last two Sundays before Lent. It reveals Lent itself as pilgrimage and repentance-- as return.

4

Lenten Read

“Each year we begin anew the journey to the radiant feast of Pascha, entering the season of repentance known as Great Lent. The homilies presented in this modest volume, from St John of Kronstadt—one of the spiritual giants of the Orthodox Church of Russia—can both encourage and inform us in this struggle of the fast.”

Can be ordered at: http://store.ancientfaith.com/season-of-repentance-lenten-homilies-of-st-john-of-kronstadt/

"Unless the Lord build the house,

they labor in vain that build it." (Psalm 126) Ground Breaking!

This Saturday starting at 12:30 with the Rite of

Groundbreaking.

Plan to eat with us afterwards at Chris & Stacy

Cosse’s House.

OSM

ORTHODOX STUDENT MINISTRY Lenten Progressive Dinner

When: Sunday February 8, 2015

Time: 3-5pm

Where: The progressive dinner will start at David and Christina Lester’s home for appetizers. The Lester’s address is 608 Oneonta St Shreveport,

LA 71106. The dinner will progress to Father Jason’s home at 588 Oneonta St. The dinner will end at the Thompson’s home with desserts and games. The Thompson’s live next door to the Lester’s in a white

house.

Holy Nativity of the Lord Mission Rev. Fr. Jason Foster, Pastor Visit or contact us at: 5490 Barksdale Blvd, Bossier City (Barksdale Federal Credit Union) Email: frjasonfoster@gmail.com,318-455-4219

Lenten & Paschal Cycle Zacchaeus Sunday January 25th

Publican & Pharisee February 1st.

Prodigal Son February 8th

Meatfare February 15th

Cheesefare(Forgivness Sunday) February 22

Beginning of Great Lent February 23

Palm Sunday April 2

Pashca April 12

Adult Night Out!

February 13th at the May’s Farm!

Details to come