HOLY RESURRECTION CHURCH

285 FRENCH HILL ROAD
WAYNE, NEW JERSEY 07470

FATHER PAUL KUCYNDA, PASTOR
MICHAEL GEEZA, CHOIR DIRECTOR

Telephone (973) 696-6572
E-mail pkucynda@optonline.net
 
A parish of The Orthodox Church in America

February 28, 2010

Second Sunday of Lent – St. Gregory Palamas (Tone 5)

WELCOME

If you are a guest at today’s Divine Liturgy, we invite you to Coffee Hour.   You are always welcome to share in worship, study and fellowship here at Holy Resurrection Church.

If you would like to become an enrolled parishioner, please call Fr. Paul at (973) 696-6572.

COFFEE HOUR FOR MARCH

St. Herman Group – June Lopen

WEDDING ANNIVERSARY THIS WEEK

Levan and Teona Jelia – 4 years

SCHEDULE FOR THIS WEEK

Tuesday                   6:30 p.m. Administrative Ministry Meeting
                              7:00 p.m. Parish Council Meeting

Wednesday               5:30 p.m. Lenten Confessions
                              6:30 p.m. Presanctified Liturgy
                                            Lenten Supper

Saturday                  9:30 a.m. Divine Liturgy – Cedar Crest
                              4:00 p.m. Lenten Confessions
                              5:00 p.m. Vespers 
                                            Lenten Confessions
           
Sunday                                  Veneration of the Cross
                              9:00 a.m. Choir Rehearsal
                              9:00 a.m. Education Programs
                             10:00 a.m. Divine Liturgy
                                           “Spread the Bread”
                               4:00 p.m. Deanery Vespers – Annunciation Church, Brick, NJ
   

PARISH CENTER BUILDING PROJECT

Donations in the amount of $263,262 have been received to date.  Thank you to everyone who continues to support this project each month.  Your gifts are very much appreciated and are instrumental in helping us to meet our goal.

LENTEN READING PROGRAM

Please encourage our child to incorporate some “quiet time” during this Lenten season by participating in the Lenten Reading program.  The children will earn crosses for their reading time and we hope to reach our Paschal goal of 1,000 crosses during our Lenten journey.  Please join in our daily challenge and “Take Up Your Book Daily!”  See Lorraine Ciarfella for the reading log pamphlets.

YOUTH SINGERS NEEDED

All are welcome to attend the Mission Vespers on Sunday, March 7, 2010 (Sunday of the Cross) at Annunciation Church in Brick, NJ.  Under the direction of Timothy and Basil Kozak, a choir composed of adults and youth will sing at the service.  All youth and adult singers of the New Jersey deanery are invited to attend a 3:00 p.m. rehearsal just prior to Vespers.

TEEN & CHILDREN’S RETREATS

Mark your calendars.  This year’s Diocesan Lenten Teen Retreat will be hosted and held here at our parish on March 12 – 13.    All students in grades 7 – 12 are invited to this overnight retreat.  This year’s topic is “Remembering God.”  The cost of the retreat is $35 per student and covers all fees associated with the retreat.  We are honored that our Bishop-elect, Hiermonk Michael Dahulich will be with us at some point during the retreat.  Please return your registration information by March 5th.

There will be a Children’s Retreat here in Wayne on March 20.  More information on this event will follow.

SACRAMENT OF PENANCE

Great Lent is a special time of the year when great emphasis is placed upon our “Return to God.”  With honesty, we know that we have strayed from our love of God and haven’t kept His Commandments.  Because of this and because we desire to correct our ways, the Church offers the Sacrament of Penance (Confession) as the “way back to our Father.”

All parishioners are expected to receive the Sacrament of Penance at least once during Great Lent, preferably during the first weeks.  Personal confessions will be heard before and after Saturday evening Vespers and before each Wednesday evening Lenten Services.

MID-WEEK LENTEN COMMUNION

Each Wednesday evening of Great Lent, we will have the privilege of coming together to celebrate the Presanctified Liturgy – a service unique to Great Lent.  It offers us an opportunity for communal Lenten prayer as well as an additional opportunity to receive Holy Communion during each week of Great Lent (in addition to the opportunity offered each Sunday).

As a preparation for reception of Holy Communion at Presanctified Liturgy, a fast from all food and drink should be kept at least from the noon hour.  You are also encouraged to read the Pre-Communion Prayers before coming to the Liturgy.  At the conclusion of each Presanctified Liturgy, the Post-Communion Prayers will be read communally before we depart.

Each Wednesday evening’s Presanctified Liturgy will be followed by a pot-luck fellowship supper in the parish hall.  You are welcome to bring a Lenten dish to share. 

CHILDREN’S DONATION TO WIN

The Church School students are invited to participate in a program where they can make a weekly donation to the Wayne Interfaith Network.  The children and their families are asked to donate their “favorite” of a different type of food each week.  Everyone is welcome to participate.  The remaining weeks are designated as:
March 7th – Snack
March 14th – Sandwich (peanut butter & jelly, tuna fish)
March 21st – Drink (no glass bottles)
March 28th – Meal (Mac ‘n cheese, etc.)

SPREAD THE BREAD

Our children are invited to participate in a program called “Spread the Bread”.  This is an international grassroots organization whose mission is to nurture children’s innate generosity with the goal of sparking a life-long commitment to helping others.  The basic idea is to have children bake bread and give it to their heroes and those in need.  They can choose to give it to the local police station, fire house, nursing home, neighbor, coach, teacher.  We will also have breads available to be given to parishioners who are homebound.

 We have two baking days planned —  March 7th and March 14th.  Please speak to Nina Sharrock if your child plans to participate.

SPIRIT OF ORTHODOXY

The Spirit of Orthodoxy Choir’s new 2 CD recording, “By the Still Waters,” is now available for the price of $20.  Please see Michael Geeza if you would like to make a purchase.

MOVIE NIGHT

On Saturday, March 6th following Vespers, there will be a showing of the film “The Robe.”  This 1953 film tells the story of a Roman military tribune who commands the unit that crucified Jesus.  The movie stars Richard Burton and Jean Simmons.

All are welcome to attend and you are encouraged to bring a friend.

PARISH FINANCES

The parish financial summary for the time period of October 1, 2009 – February 23, 2010 is as follows: Income    $108,213
   Expense    111,725
   Difference ( 3,512)

WEEKLY READING

The following excerpt is taken from the book Promise of Good Things:  The Apostolic Fathers.

The Temple of God

Is there such a thing as a temple of God?  Yes, there is, for he himself says that he makes it and perfects it.  It is written:  “It will happen that when the week is ended the temple of God will be built gloriously in the name of the Lord.”  So I find that a temple does exist.

This is how it shall be built in the name of the Lord.  Before we came to believe in the Lord, the habitation of our own heart was corrupt and weak like a temple which has really been built by human hands, because it was full of idolatry and was a house of demons through the doing of those things which are against God.  But “it will be built in the name of the Lord.”

Now pay close attention:  so that the Lord’s temple may indeed be built gloriously, learn exactly how it is built.  When we received the remission of our sins and placed our hope in the sacred name of God, we became entirely new and were created again from the beginning.  SO it is that God now dwells in us in truth, in this habitation that we ourselves are.  But by what means?  His word of faith, the call of his promise, the wisdom of his statutes, the commands of his teaching, himself prophesying within us, himself dwelling in us, by opening the door of the temple, which is to say the mouth, giving us repentance and leading us, who have been enslaved in death, into the incorruptible temple.

They who desire to be saved do not look at the individual but at the one who dwells and speaks within the individual.  And they are amazed, for they have never heard that person speak such words before nor have they themselves ever wished to hear them.  This then is the spiritual temple which is being built for the Lord.

DIVINE LITURGY

As one Sunday Divine Liturgy concludes, we begin to anticipate next Sunday’s celebration of our Lord’s Resurrection.  In preparation for next Sunday’s Divine Liturgy, please do the following:

* Pray daily
* Read the appointed Scriptures daily (listed below)
* Attend Vespers
* Prepare by privately reading Pre-Communion prayers if you intend to receive Holy Communion at next Sunday’s Divine Liturgy*
* Conclude your Liturgy by privately reading Post-Communion prayers

SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR THIS WEEK

Monday Gen. 6:9-22   Prov. 8:1-21

Tuesday  Gen. 7:1-5   Prov. 8:32-9:11

Wednesday  Gen. 7:6-9   Prov. 9:12-18

Thursday   Gen. 7:11-8:3  Prov. 10:1-22
          
Friday Gen. 8:4-21   Prov. 10:31-11:12
        
Saturday Heb. 10:32-38  Mark  2:14-17

BEFORE COMING TO DIVINE LITURGY ON SUNDAY, PLEASE READ:

Heb. 4:14-5:6        Mark 8:34-9:1