Sts. Peter & Paul Boulder

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1 Sts. Peter & Paul Boulder Weekly Bulletin Week of August 9th, 2015 Week of August 9th, 2015 Sunday, August 9th Monday, August 10th Vacation Church School 9 am - 12 pm Tuesday, August 11th Vacation Church School 9 am - 12 pm Wednesday, August 12th Vacation Church School 9 am - 12 pm Thursday, August 13th Vacation Church School 9 am - 12 pm Friday, August 14th Vacation Church School 9 am - 12 pm Cathedral Saturday, August 15th Ushers Service Schedule & Parish Activities Jim Azar Dormition of the Theotokos Orthros Divine Liturgy Great Vespers Hosts & Volunteers Sunday, August 9th, :30 am 9:30 am 5 pm Myrrhbearers Demetra S., Alanna, Alexandra, Elizabeth, Constandina, Sophia W. Choir Epistle Reader Fellowship Hosts Marrianna, Georgia, Demetra G., Sophie S., Kyriaki Georgia No Volunteers (Please remember to sign up!) Contact Info Sts. Peter & Paul Greek Orthodox Church 5640 Jay Rd. Boulder, CO Office: Rev. Fr. Jordan Brown Recurring Services Orthros 9 am Divine Liturgy 10 am Great Vespers 5 pm Confession by appt. Welcome to Our Parish! The mission of Sts. Peter & Paul is to be a beacon of Orthodox Christian spirituality in the greater Boulder area. We strive together to live our Orthodox Christian Faith by having a devoted prayer life, through fasting and almsgiving, and through regular participation in the services and sacraments of the Holy Orthodox Church. Have an Announcement? Please contact Aaron Wall: awall609@yahoo.com; (720) Deadline is every Wed. before Divine Liturgy.

2 Sermon on the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos By St. John Kronstadt Magnify O my soul, the honourable Translation of the Mother of God from earth to heaven. (Refrain for the 9th Ode of the Canon) Let us be happy, beloved brothers and sisters that we belong to the Holy Orthodox Church, worthily and rightly glorifying the Most Holy Sovereign Theotokos on this eminent day out of all the days of the year with special solemnity. There exists on earth many societies and entire governments that do not consider the need nor the obligation to call upon and glorify the Queen of heaven and earth, the Mother of Our Divine Lord Jesus Christ, and other saints and angels; to submissively serve Her lovingly, as the true Mother of God. Sadly in Russia nowadays we have heretics (among us) who actively dishonor the Mother of God, the saints, their icons, their relics and their festivals. O, if only they also unanimously with us glorified the worthy Queen of heaven and earth! Today the Holy Church solemnly glorifies the honorable Dormition or translation of the Mother of God from earth to heaven. A wonderful translation - she died without serious illness, peacefully. Her soul is taken up in the divine hands of Her Son and carried up into the heavenly abode, accompanied by the sweet singing of angels. And then, her most pure body is transferred by the apostles to Gethsemane where it is honorably buried, and on the third day it is resurrected and taken up to heaven. You see this on the icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos. On it is represented the life-bearing body of the Theotokos laying on a bier, surrounded by the apostles and hierarchs, and in the center of the icon the Lord holding in His hands the most pure soul of the Theotokos. The translation of the Mother of God is a paradigm of the translation in general of the souls of Christians to the other world. We say that our dead have fallen asleep or passed away. What does this mean? This means that for the true Christian there is no death. Death was conquered by Christ on the cross. But there is a translation, i.e, a rearrangement of his condition, i.e. his soul is in another place, in another age, in another world beyond the grave, eternal, without end, that is what is meant by falling asleep. It is as if it were a temporary dream after which, by the voice of the Lord and the fearful yet wonderful trumpet of the Archangel, all the dead shall live and come forth each to his place: either to the resurrection of life or to the resurrection of condemnation (John 5:29). This is what the Christian means by translation. We should be ready for this translation, for the day of the general resurrection and judgment, for this indescribable world event, recorded in the Holy Scriptures. This preparation for the meeting of the heavenly King before the dread judgment seat, after death, is essentially the person s preparation throughout the whole of his life. This preparation means a change in all his thoughts, and the moral change of all his being, so that the whole man would be pure and white as snow, washing clean everything that defiles the body and spirit, so that he is adorned with every virtue: repentance, meekness, humility, gentleness, simplicity, chastity, mercifulness, abstention, spiritual contemplation, and burning love for God and neighbor. Our preparation for meeting the heavenly King, and for the inheritance of eternal life in heaven, should consist of these things. The heavenly King desires souls adorned with immutable virtue, souls prepared so that the Very Lord Himself could abide in them. Do not marvel that the Very Lord wants to live in us. In fact the human soul is more spacious than the heavens and the earth, for it exists in the image of God. And if one removes sins from the soul, the Lord of all will settle in it and will fill it with Himself. We will come to him and make our dwelling with him (John 14:23), says the Lord about the souls who love Him. And so, ye participants in the Christian feasts, and especially the present feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, ye who are brightly adorned with every virtue and translated to the heavenly kingdom, to Her Son and God, proclaim to each and every one about preparing their souls to be the dwelling place of the Lord, about continual repentance, and about the incorruptible adornment of Christian virtue. Let your death also be unashamed and peaceful, serving as the pledge of a good answer at the dread judgment seat of Christ. Amen.

3 Events & Announcements Presyvtera Kedrann s Father Presvytera Kedrann's father, John Mogren, fell asleep in the Lord on Monday August 3rd. He will be buried at the veteran's cemetery in Boulder City, Nevada. Please pray for John's departed soul and for Presvytera Kedrann and family. May his memory be eternal! Sts. Peter and Paul s Vacation Church School - August 10th-14th All Aboard! VCS 2015 is getting ready to sail! This year s theme is Traveling on the Ark of Salvation, a review of the Feasts of the Theotokos. It will take a big crew to make it a successful voyage. Please consider joining us at a teacher s assistant, craft helper, snack helper, or activity assistant. Contact Cindy Stamus, , or thestamii@earthlink.net if you would like to come aboard as part of our crew! Community Night Sat. Aug. 22nd Organize Fellowship Hall for ToO Please join us for Great Vespers at 5pm, after which we will have pizza, salad and soft drinks! We will be breaking down and stacking tables and chairs, organizing the hall room for dry goods, bringing down, cleaning, and organizing all the equipment and utensils from the balcony and closet, and cleaning and organizing the kitchen. Anyone can help, and we strongly encourage booth chairpersons to come and inventory their equipment. Please RSVP to Nicole Tsiouvaras so we have an idea of how many pizzas to order. IOCC Pan-Orthodox 5K Run/Walk and Picnic - Sat, August 22nd, 2015 Attention walkers and joggers of all levels! We are putting together a Sts Peter and Paul team to participate in the IOCC run. Please contact Father frjordan@stspeterandpaulboulder.org if you are interested in participating. All proceeds will benefit International Orthodox Christian Charities. The event will take the St Catherine Greek Orthodox Church located in South Denver. Registration material is available in the Narthex and in the August Petra. Youth Ministry Retreat - Saturday, August 29th - 8 am to 2 pm Attention Parents, Sunday School Teachers, and Youth Workers! Please join guest speaker Fr. John Angelis for a retreat focused on better serving and building up the youth of our church. The retreat will take place at Sts. Peter & Paul. The theme of the retreat is Building Stronger Youth in the Church. Schedule: 8 am Orthros; 9 am Divine Liturgy; 10:30 am Breakfast; 11 am Session 1; 12:30 pm Session 2. Please contact Fr. Jordan at frjordan@stspeterandpaulboulder.org or with any questions. Youth Ministry Retreat - Saturday, August 29th - 8 am to 2 pm Attention Parents, Sunday School Teachers, and Youth Workers! Please join guest speaker Fr. John Angelis for a retreat focused on better serving and building up the youth of our church. The retreat will take place at Sts. Peter & Paul. The theme of the retreat is Building Stronger Youth in the Church. Schedule: 8 am Orthros; 9 am Divine Liturgy; 10:30 am Breakfast; 11 am Session 1; 12:30 pm Session 2. Please contact Fr. Jordan at frjordan@stspeterandpaulboulder.org or with any questions.

4 2015 Taste of Orthodoxy Next Festival Meeting: Sunday, August 9 after Liturgy JOBS STILL AVAILABLE Parking: taping off the parking area and finding volunteers to direct traffic Hosting: welcoming visitors as they arrive at our festival Kids Activities: finding volunteers to supervise the bouncy castle ToO Accountant: manage the books for this year's festival. Contact Pete Stamus for more information. TENT SET-UP Starting today 8/9, and every Sunday in August thereafter, we will be setting up tents for 2 hours after church. Please bring a change of clothes and a water bottle. See Nick Kallan after church to get started. Thank you! COMMUNITY NIGHT AUGUST 22 Please join us at 5pm for Vespers, followed by a pizza dinner. We will be breaking down the tables & chairs in the hall and then carrying down all the equipment and supplies from the loft. Please RSVP to Nicole Tsiouvaras. BAKERS NEEDED Please see Sheila Zissimos to bake pastries that we sell at the festival. SODA/WATER DONATIONS Each year, our parishioners donate the soda and water that is sold at the festival. Please bring your donations to the hall by September 6 th. Last names beginning A - E: Coke; F - K: Diet Coke; L - R: Sprite; S - Z: bottled water. The ToO Committee thanks you! VOLUNTEER SIGN-UPS Online sign-up for the festival weekend is now available at Paper sign-up will be available every Sunday in the hall until September 6 th. Like to work the Beer/ Wine tent? Please contact Chris Artemis directly to sign up.

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