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WELCOME! If you are a first time visitor to Saint George’s today. We are glad to have you! Please stay for the coffee social in the parish hall after liturgy so we can get acquainted.
SCRIPTURE READINGS THIS WEEK
Sept 6th Miracle of Archangel Michael at Collossae; St. Archippus of Herapolis
Galatians 4:28-5:10 Mark 6:55-7:8
Sept 7th Fore feast of the Nativity of Theotokos; Martyr Sozon of Cilicia
Galatians 5:11-6:10 Mark 7:5-24
Sept 8th NATIVITY OF THE MOST HOLY THEOTOKOS & EVER-VIRGIN MARY
Philippians 2:5-11 Luke 10:38-42; 11:27-28
Sept 9th After feast of the Nativity; Holy & Righteous Ancestors of God, Joachim & Anna
Ephesians 1:1-9 Mark 7:24-30
Sept 10th After feast of the Nativity; Martyrs Menodora, Metordora & Nymphodora
Ephesians 1:7-17 Mark 8:1-10
Sept 11th Saturday before the Elevation; After feast of Nativity; St. Euphrosynus the Cook
1 Corinthians 2:6-9 Matthew 10:37-11:1
Activities/Services this Week:
Vesperal Liturgy: Feast of the Nativity, Tuesday, September 7th, 6:30 PM, at the church
Compline/Akathist: Wednesday, September 8th, 6:30 PM, at the church
Bowling Green Book Club: Thursday, September 9th, 6:30 PM, at Grounds for Thought in BG
Great Vespers: Saturday, September 11th, 5 PM, at the church
Last Sunday, August 29th, 46 Adults and 15 Youth attended Divine Liturgy
The Sanctuary Lamp is burning this week in memory of Marjorie Haulund.
For the month of September, please bring flour or sugar in whatever amount you can afford to donate for the All Saints Food Pantry. On August 30th, 20 pounds of flour and $20.00 was donated to the All Saints Food Pantry. A correction from the September Newsletter; we collected $91.00 for the gas fund, not $86.00 that was reported.
The Bowling Green Book Club will resume meeting on Thursday, September 9th, at 6:30PM at the Grounds for Thought on Main St. in Bowling Green. We will complete our study of the book Towards a Eucharistic Vision of Church, Family, Marriage & Sex.
ST GEORGE FAMILY DAY ANNOUNCEMENT
We invite you and your family to participate in activities scheduled for the 2nd Annual St. George Family Day on Sunday, September 19th, beginning at 11:30 AM, right after liturgy. Free lunch will start the afternoon activities. There will be a variety of games for the children. Inside and outside games will allow for everyone to get involved.
Plans are underway to get Mom and Dad involved as well. A “Memory Book” is planned for this year’s community project. This book when completed will be enjoyed by all. Last year, backgammon games and Turkish coffee brought the old country atmosphere to St George. So we will make that available this year as well. To complete a wonderful afternoon, at 3 PM we will begin line and Bulgarian dancing; a nice way to end the day.
The deadline for sponsoring a hole for the upcoming St. George Golf Outing is September 10th. Please get your information and donation to Stan Pentsos if you are interested in sponsoring a hole for a $50.00 donation.
Available in the Narthex: Copies of Diocesan Constitution that has been revised a second time. This draft will be voted on at the upcoming Sobor on November 12th. If you haven’t pick up a copy to review please take one with you when you leave. We also have copies of the OCA church magazine “The Orthodox Church”. Due to litigation expenses, this periodical has not been mailed out to people’s homes as was done previously. About 25 copies were mailed directly to St. George in Rossford for people to pick up in church.
This Tuesday, September 7th, we will celebrate the Great Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos with a Vesperal Liturgy at 6:30 pm. If receiving communion that day, please fast after eating your noon meal.
September 10th through the 12th, Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church is holding their annual Greek-American Festival. To get more information on the particulars go the festival website at: www.toledogreekfest.net.
On September 5 we remember Elizabeth, who was privileged to give birth to the last and greatest of the prophets, John the Baptist. She also was privileged to be inspired—visited by the Holy Spirit--in some special ways.
But the years before John's birth were certainly not a time of privilege. Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah, were "both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless" (Luke 1:6-7). But they had no children—the greatest of misfortunes. Still worse, their hopes of having a baby were slim because "both were advanced in years."
So when the angel Gabriel told Zechariah that they would have a child, and that this child would "make ready for the Lord a people prepared" (1:17), Elizabeth was deeply grateful. Unlike
her husband, who foolishly doubted the archangel's word, she thanked God by saying, "Thus the Lord has done to me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men" (1:25).
The next extraordinary event in Elizabeth's life was the visit of her cousin Mary, who told Elizabeth that she, too, was going to have a baby. Elizabeth, at this, was "filled with the Holy Spirit" and her own baby leaped in her womb. Again, she was overwhelmed with gratitude and exclaimed, "And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (1:43).
Elizabeth's words "mother of my Lord" are very important. They are Biblical precedent for the Orthodox practice of referring to Mary as "Theotokos" or "Mother of God." This is another way in which the Spirit visited Elizabeth in a special way—she is the one privileged to give Mary this title.
The meeting with Mary was a private event—just the two women, two cousins, rejoicing in their impending births and in the goodness of God. But Elizabeth would soon be inspired again, this time at a very public moment. That came when she gave birth, and "her neighbors and kinsfolk heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and rejoiced with her" (1:57). On the eighth day after the birth, preparations were made to circumcise the newborn child and it was assumed that he would carry on his father's name of Zechariah.
But to everyone's surprise, Elizabeth spoke up decisively and said, "Not so; he shall be called John." The people around her noted that there was nobody in the family named John. The unspoken question in their minds was, of course, where this name could come from, since it had no place in the parents' family history. The episode shows us that again Elizabeth was given the privilege of expressing God's will by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We know that other barren women, like Hannah the mother of Samuel, suffered from the same kind of "reproach among men" that Elizabeth endured. But God is full of surprises, as Elizabeth, the elderly mother of John, was delighted to discover.
Kontakion, Tone 4
As the full moon brightly reflects the light of the sun,
you reflected the glory of the Messiah, the Light of wisdom!
With Zachariah you walked in all of the Lord¹s commandments, Elizabeth, beloved by God.
So as we bless you with fitting songs,
we praise the Lord, the bountiful Light, Who enlightens all.
Taken from: http://dce.oca.org/page/bulletins/
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