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Icon of the Archangel Gabriel

O ye incorporeal angels who stand before the throne of God, luminous with the brilliance thereof and everlastingly shining with radiance. As secondary luminaries, entreat Christ, that He grant unto our souls peace and great mercy.

O immortal messengers of the truly incorruptible Life, ye most blessed ones who received life from the first Life, ye have become holy beholders of the eternal Wisdom, full of light, and reflecting lamps shown forth as is meet.

O ye archangels and angels, principalities, thrones, dominions, six-winged seraphim, and divine, many-eyed cherubim, instruments of wisdom, virtues and powers most divine. Pray ye to Christ, that He grant our souls peace and great mercy.

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HOLY RESURRECTION BYZANTINE CATHOLIC MISSION
FATHER THOMAS O’CONNELL, PASTOR
FATHER MICHAEL MAPLES, ASSISTANT PASTOR
FATHER DEACON RON VOLEK, PASTORAL ASSISTANT
HOLY FAMILY CATHOLIC CHURCH
307 BLACK OAK RIDGE ROAD PO BOX 817
SEYMOUR, TN 37865
PHONE: 865-609-1081
www.hrbcc.org
Slava Isusu Christu! Slava Na Niky!
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever!
Divine Liturgy begins at 4 p.m. Every Sunday
Ninth Hour Prayer precedes Liturgy at 3:30 p.m.
Potluck supper follows Liturgy on the third Sunday of the month
Also at this time non-perishable foods and items for those in need
MARCH 16, 2008
PALM (FLOWERY) SUNDAY
ENTRY OF OUR LORD INTO JERUSALEM

Our Offerings
Mar. 9: $488 — Candles: $17

LIFE AND THE PUSSY WILLOW
On Palm Sunday, we receive and take home with us a branch of the pussy willow, which was blessed at the end of the Divine Liturgy. In other rites, palms are received instead. They are a reminder of the palms used to hail Jesus Christ on the road to Jerusalem. We use pussy willows because they are among the first plants to bud open or come to life after the death of winter.
The pussy willows are the first of many symbols we will use throughout Holy Week and Pascha that will tie our lives with the mystery of the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ. The branches with their fresh young buds of life remind us that just as the branches had to “die” so that they could awake anew in spring, so, too, did Jesus suffer and die, and then rise again to a new and more glorious life.
They remind us that we also will die, but will have a new life to look forward to as surely as the pussy willows that awake to new life every spring. We share in the fullness of life that Christ won for us by His victory over sin. “By His death, He conquered death,” we sing in the Pascha Tropar.
The experience of Lent should be for us an experience of renewal, or rebirth, as we become more closely united with Jesus by our prayers and penitence, and by our practice of unselfishness. What we do in Lent is also symbolized by the pussy willow: We die to everything that is selfish in us, and awaken or inject in our hearts, the faith, hope and charity that marks us as Christian and makes us one with Christ.
As Holy Week takes us through a spiritual experience of “witnessing” the passion, death, and then, the joyous, glorious resurrection of Christ on Pascha, so may we all experience a spiritual rebirth of God’s grace in us, and may the pussy willow truly be our souvenir of that experience!
HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE (Revised)
March 19: Holy Wednesday
7:30PM—9:15PM: Matins of Holy Thursday
March 20: Holy Thursday
7:30PM—10:00PM (Garden Level): Matins of Holy Friday and the 12 Passion Gospels
March 21: Good Friday
9:00AM—10:30AM (Garden Level): Royal Hours and Typika
2:00PM—3:00PM: Vespers of Holy Friday
3:00PM—5:30PM: Vigil at the Tomb
5:30PM—6:00PM: Compline of Holy Friday
6:00PM—7:30PM (Garden Level): Vigil at the Tomb
7:30PM—9:15PM (Garden Level): Matins of Holy Saturday
9:15PM—12:00AM (Garden Level): Vigil at the Tomb
March 22: Holy Saturday
12:00AM—10:00AM: Vigil at the Tomb
10:00AM—10:15AM: Blessing of Food
10:30AM—12:00PM: Vespers of Holy Saturday
11:30PM—12:00AM: Midnight Office
March 23: Resurrection of our Lord (Pascha)
12:00AM—1:15AM: Resurrection Matins
3:30PM: Ninth Hour 4:00PM: Divine Liturgy
FROM THE CHURCH FATHERS:
“The pain, which in ways surpassing nature, Thy mother did not undergo at Thy birth, she suffered at Thy holy passion. For she was filled with agony, when she saw Thee, nailed of Thy own will by the Jews, upon the cross, O Thou, who hast set the earth upon the foundation of the waters.” —St. Theodore the Studite
PALM SUNDAY: THE ENTRANCE OF OUR LORD INTO JERUSALEM
“Prefiguring your Holy Resurrection for us, O Lord, by your word, You raised your friend Lazarus from death and the tomb on the fourth day. You rode upon the foal of a donkey to symbolize for the Gentiles the triumph of the Savior. Therefore, Israel, your beloved, offers You praise, O Christ, through the mouths of infants and babes, the witnesses of your entrance into the Holy City, six days before the Passover. Today the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us together; and taking up your cross, we all say: Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
Don’t forget the taking of family pictures for the church directory on April 6, 2008 or whenever you signed up!
PASTORAL PONDERINGS

The blessing of Easter Food Baskets will take place at church on Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m.

—Father Thomas O’Connell

Last updated: 13-Apr-2008