3rd Sunday of Great Lent

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3rd Sunday of Great Lent ~ Adoration of the Cross

Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:1-6
Mark 8:34-38; 9:1

This Sunday commemorates the venerable Cross and the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The Cross as such takes on meaning and adoration because of the Crucifixion of Christ upon it. Therefore, whether it be in hymns or prayers, it is understood that the Cross without Christ has no meaning or place in Christianity. The adoration of the Cross in the middle of Great Lent is to remind the faithful in advance of the Crucifixion of Christ. Therefore, the passages from the Bible and the hymnology refer to the Passions, the sufferings, of Jesus Christ: The passages read this day repeat the calling of the Christian by Christ to dedicate his life, for “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Christ)” (Mark 8:34-35). This verse clearly indicates the kind of dedication which is needed by the Christian in three steps:

1. to renounce his arrogance and disobedience to God’s plan.

2. to lift up his personal cross (the difficulties of life) with patience, faith and the full acceptance of the Will of God without complaint that the burden is too heavy; having denied himself and lifted up his cross leads him to the,

3. decision to follow Christ.

These three voluntary steps are three links which cannot be separated from each other, because the main power to accomplish them is the Grace of God, which man always invokes. The Adoration of the Cross is expressed by the faithful through prayer, fasting, alms giving and the forgiveness of the trespasses of others. On this Sunday the Adoration of the Cross is commemorated with a special service following the Divine Liturgy in which the significance of the Cross is that ti leads to the Resurrection of Christ.

From THE GREAT LENT – A Week by Week Meaning Rev. George Mastrantonis

Apostica Prayers

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The Aposticha Prayers for the Vespers on Thursday Evening of the 3rd Week of Great Lent:

O Christ our God, the life of all, You were hung upon the Cross: restore life to my soul, slain by my sins. Do not allow Your sheep to perish completely, O Good Shepherd. I have rebelled against Your commandments, and through my willful live of sin, I have wasted the wealth of innocence that You gave me. Living like the Prodigal, I have grown corrupt and loathsome. But bring me to repentance and renew me, for You alone are full of mercy.

Your martyrs, O Lord, did not deny You, nor did they fall away from Your commandments. At their intercession, have mercy on us.

Apostica Prayers

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The Aposticha Prayers for the Vespers on Wednesday Evening of the 3rd Week of Great Lent:

Like the prodigal, I squandered the riches which the Father gave me. Now I am destitute and dwell in the land of the wicked. In my folly, I have become like the senseless beasts, stripped of all the grace of God. But turning back, I cry aloud to you, the compassionate and merciful Father: “I have sinned, O God! Receives me as a penitent and have mercy on me.”

O Holy martyrs, you were living sacrifices, spiritual holocausts, victims pleasing to the Lord, sheep who know their divine Master and are known by Him whose fold is inaccessible to the ravaging wolves. Intercede with the Good Shepherd that we, too, may be nourished with you beside the sill waters.

Immigration

Posted on by Fr. Peter
On Tuesday, March 6th the INS raided a factory in New Bedford, Massachusetts and detained more than 300 undocumented workers and transported them to a holding facility at the Devens Reserve Training Center in Devens, Massachusetts.
Legally the Government Storm troopers were correct in what they did. I am not sure they needed more than 500 agents to round up these folks, but I will not arm chair quarterback what they did. I will also agree that we have an immigration problem in this country and we need to fix it. How we do that I am not sure, but there has to be a better way. I understand the owners of the company were also taken into custody and were in court yesterday, but they were released and asked to return to court at another time. Meanwhile their employees are being detained and processed and their court hearings could be weeks away.
The story quoted above speaks of the panic and fear and people fleeing and having guns drawn on them as they tried to get away. Now I am not saying that it was right for them to try and flee but is it necessary to draw your gun on someone who only moments ago was sitting a a sewing machine? But the real story is not about the ones detained, but about the ones left behind the children.
Today’s Boston Globe has a story about Karin Fernandez a 19 year old from Honduras. She paid a smuggler $4,500 to smuggle her to the United States, the land of the free and the home of the brave, so she could make a better life. I cannot imagine how bad things are where at 19 and pregnant by the way, you would pay another $4,500 to smuggle you into another country. How dangerous is that? Basically you sell yourself into slavery in the factory because you do not have any documents the owners use that and hold it over your head and make you work all sorts or hours under the worst conditions you can imagine. Some argue that they are now better off then they were in the factory.
So what happens to the children. It would seem that hundreds were stranded in day care and schools around the city with no one to come and pick them up. The story continues that 60 were released but more than 200 are still being held.
Oddly enough the factory they worked in has an $82 million dollar contract with the US government to make good out of leather for the military, and even after all of this they still have the contract. I am sure the factory owners, who were allowed to leave right away, are back to work and employing more of these poor people.
Again, I am not saying that coming to this country illegally is right, but as the richest nation on the face of the earth we must be able to do something, other then spending millions on a fence, to stop this problem. Some have said they way to stop immigration is to make life better in the countries they are coming from. We have a problem, in our own back yard and we are doing nothing to address this with the one exception of building the fence to keep them out.
The Statue of Liberty that stands so bright in New York has an inscription on her. This was one of the first things that immigrants from Europe saw. The inscription says everything about who we are as Americans and what it means to be an American. We talk the talk, now it is time to walk the walk.

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

Another Celebrity Rant

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Okay, it would seem that Tom Brady has been up to it again. A story in today’s Boston Globe reports that Mr. Brady and his new girlfriend, note girlfriend and not wife, are going to have a baby. If you are keeping score, that’s two children with, wait for it… two different women! Let us not forget that just TWO weeks ago another Brady throw back reported that she is pregnant by the Patriots QB. We were all so proud of him because he said he is going to do the right thing.
So here is Mr. Brady who people look up too, and I guess we are saying it is okay to get your girl friend pregnant and then after break up with her and go and do it again.
SHAME ON YOU MR. BRADY!

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Move on dot org is giving these bumper stickers away for free. Click here to get one for yourself.

OCMC News

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Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC) missionary, Edwin Pier, has been serving in Guatemala since last year. Mr. Pier’s story will be one of many that we profile throughout the year to keep you informed regarding the many ministries of the missionaries that you have sent to witness for Christ. Last December, he filed the following report detailing the incredible work that is being done at the Hogar Rafael Ayau Orphanage in Guatemala City.

“Dad” Work
My Spanish continues to improve thanks to the generous help of the kids and Hogar staff. Although it still has a long way to go, it’s allowed me to be called on to take a larger role in assisting Erica and the Nannies in keeping the boys in line, especially in church.

In September, we took the boys on a hike up the active Pacaya Volcano to see the lava. We only made it halfway up due to the weather and new lava over the trails (10 ft deep in places). It was too rugged and sharp for our younger members to scale. We did get close enough to see some of the new lava, though

In November, a team from Minnesota (St. Mary’s OCA and St. Mary’s GOCA) visited the orphanage. The men from the team took the boys on our first visit to the Parque Ecolo’gico Senderos de Alux (ecolcogical park) near Guatemala City. Fr. Chris led us all in a hiking chant, “Somos hombres” (We are Men!) as we stomped and hiked the trails of the Park.

Construction Trades, Carpenteria
The boys completed their first carpentry project: Tool boxes. This project taught them the fundamentals of reading and interpreting simple plans, measuring and laying out rectangular figures and curves. This was followed by learning how to cut, finish, and assemble the pieces. It turns out one of the biggest benefits of these projects is that the kids are really learning how to understand and use fractions—the tangible applications seem to help their comprehension of this aspect of mathematics! Volunteers, Luke Naame and Stephen Bober from, Wichita, Kansas assisted in the carpentry classes! Both girls and boys are now working on the second project: a nail box.

The Invernadero (greenhouse) project for Professor Claudia’s Doctoral project was completed in late September as well! This has been a great learning project for the kids as we went through all the fundamentals of house framing. The kids learned how to lay out, excavate and pour the foundations in concrete. Then they were taught how to lay brick, measure, cut and assemble wood frames for walls and rafters for the roof.

Applied Computer Skills
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) classes are now held entirely at the Hogar in the room dedicated to the Smart board (a fantastic interactive screen donated by a team from Indianapolis). We are working through an exciting teaching manual, “Mapping Our World” from ESRI. The course teaches the students important geographic concepts including, physical geography (e.g. tectonic plates, earthquakes and volcanoes, climate, vegetation, ecosystems), Human geography (population patterns, processes, political geography), and how these two elements interact. The lessons are framed in the context of a formal step by step geographic investigation process that lead them from constructing a Hypothesis, through constructing queries for data tied to map features, to analyzing the data and developing plans of action based on the results of the investigation.

Other Duties as Assigned
This coming year I will assist in the long range Facilities Planning for the orphanage annex at the monastery. There will also be a continued investigation into, and repair of, the Hogar water system. A proposal for storm water drainage and disposal near the church will also be proposed.

“As I see it, one of my responsibilities is to be your representative here; I am your presence with the nuns and children”. Your contributions enable me to be here and act in your name, to extend your community to the children and staff. Please help me in this task by going online to http://www.ocmc.org/giving.php and making your donation there to my name under long term missionaries. Thank you!

The Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC) is the official international mission agency of the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA). Its purpose is to encourage, support and facilitate the establishment and development of self-supporting, Eucharistic Orthodox Christian communities worldwide, thus incorporating the person into the fullness of a life in Christ. For more information on OCMC’s long-term missionaries, contact the Mission Center at 1-877-463-6784 or by e-mail at missionaries@ocmc.org.

Aposticha Prayers

Posted on by Fr. Peter
The Aposticha Prayers for the Vespers on Tuesday Evening of the 3rd Week of Great Lent:

Though I am a creature born on earth, I share in Your image, O Lord, and thus dare to call upon You, the Creator, as my Father. Living as the Prodigal, I have lost the grace of sonship; and forgetful of Your gifts, I have wasted my inheritance. Do not disown me, for You sent Your only-begotten Son to endure Crucifixion and death for my sake in the flesh. In Your love for mankind, being me back from evil and make me Yours again.

To You I have lifted my eyes, to You who live in heaven. Behold: the eyes of the servants are turned to the hands of their masters and the eyes of the maid-servants to the hands of their mistresses: thus do our eyes watch the Lord our God until He takes pity on us.

Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us, for we have been filled with shame: our soul has been filled to overflowing. May scorn befall detractors, and humiliation come to the proud.

The choir of holy martyrs withstood their persecutors as they said: “We are soldiers of the Lord of Powers on high! Even though you give us over to torture and the fire, we shall not deny the power of the Trinity!”

When the law-transgressors suspended You upon the Cross, O Savior who give life to us, Your all-holy Mother stood by You and grieved as she wept: “O beloved Child, Light of my eyes, how can You endure being nailed to the Cross between two criminals, O You suspended the earth over the waters?”

Apostica Prayers

Posted on by Fr. Peter
The Aposticha Prayers for the Vespers on Monday Evening of the 3rd Week of Great Lent:

O loving Father, my folly has stripped me bare of all Your gifts. I have gone far from You and have enslaved myself to a strange citizen. I led unclean beasts to pasture; and eating from their food, I was not filled. Knowing Your tender mercy, I run now to You: in Your tender love for mankind, cover my nakedness and save me!

To You I have lifted up my eyes, to You who live in heaven. Behold; the eyes of the servants are turned to the hands of their masters, and the eyes of the maid-servants to the hands of their mistresses: thus do our eyes watch the Lord our God until He takes pity on us.

Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us, for we have been filled with shame: our soul has been filled to overflowing. May scorn befall detractors, and humiliation come to the proud.

Since the holy martyrs are interceding for us and celebrating Christ in their hymns, every error has been ended and the human race is saved by faith.

Through your word, the Word has shown as a light upon the world from your virginal womb. O most holy Theotokos, pray to Him that our souls may be delivered from the snares of the Enemy.

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