Parish News and Events (continued) St. Basil Greek Orthodox Church

Yiayia Kouzina Baking Event 733 S. Ashland Ave Chicago, IL 60607 ph: 312.243.3738

Yiayia Kouzina will be making Baklava & Kourambethies Saturday 2/25 from 10:45 - 2:30. Please join us! Orthros 8:15 a.m. Divine Liturgy 9:45 a.m.

Rev. Fr. Panteleimon Dalianis, Proistamenos 2017 Mission Team Opportunities - Albania (Youth) and Guatemala (Healthcare) Web Site: www.stbasilchicago.org The Orthodox Christian Mission Center has just released 2017 short-term mission team opportunities! Follow us on Facebook: St. Basil Greek Orthodox Church For more information visit www.ocmc.org .

A variety of college scholarships are available for Orthodox youth Sunday, February 19, 2017

For more information contact Fr. Panteleimon. Today’s Readings: Inmate correspondence 5 inmates in the Tree program have asked to correspond with St. Basil : St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 8:8-13; 9:1-2 parishioners. We are looking for people who are willing to exchange on average one letter a month with : Matthew 25:31-46 Judgment Sunday (Meatfare Sunday) an inmate. Letters are signed with a first name only, and we give St. Basil Church as the return address. If you can help in this effort, please talk to Pat or Steve Cole at coffee hour or contact them by email at Calendar for the Week Ahead [email protected] . The time commitment is minimal, but the personal rewards are great. - Sunday, February 19, 11:15am - Apokreatiko Glendi - After Liturgy in the Church Hall

- Saturday, February 25, 8:30am - Orthros and Divine Liturgy for second Saturday of the Souls Mission Team Chicago Dinner Is scheduled for Thursday, February 23rd, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at St. Church (Des - Saturday, February 25, 10:45am - Yiayia's Kouzina baking - Sunday, February 26, 8:15am - Orthros and Divine Liturgy Plaines). The keynote speaker will be Rev. Dr. Oleksa (priest, professor, and expert on Alaskan native cultures and history) Fr. Michael will address the subject of “The Missionary Importance of the Parish News and Events Alaskan Saints Today.” For more information see Fr. Panteleimon. Welcome and Good Morning The Sacraments of the Orthodox Church, including the reception of Holy Communion, are reserved for those of Sunday school begins today immediately after Holy Communion the Orthodox Faith. If you are a visitor from another Denomination or Faith, we welcome you as an observer and

Classes are for our youth grades K and up. guest. Join us for coffee fellowship hour in the Philoptochos Hall following Divine Liturgy.

Mark your calendar to be with us for Forgiveness Vespers (the first service of Great Lent) New or Visiting Our Parish Today? which will be held at St. Basil on Sunday, February 26 at 6 p.m. Thank you for visiting our parish today. We pray that your visit here will be uplifting. Welcome Cards can be found in the pockets of the pews. Please fill the cards out and return them to one of our Parish Council Plan to join us for some of the services of the first week of Great Lent members after today’s Divine Liturgy. There are many services on the first week of Great Lent - Great Compline with the Canon of St. Andrew – Ladies Philoptochos requests your donation of breakfast items to benefit the clients of of Crete on Monday and Tuesday evenings (February 27 and 28), Pre-sanctified Liturgy on Wednesday Food Drive Chicago’s Lakeview Pantry. They are among the city’s poorest seniors, children and those living with evening, and the first Akathist Hymn service on Friday. mental illness. Needed items: hot cereal, cold cereal, breakfast bars, fruit and vegetable juices (non- Now Pay with iPad – Powered by PayPal - Exciting News! Forgot your cash$$? We now have an IPAD refrigerated, no glass please). Please bring your donation during February and March. Thank you! for your use with PayPal conveniently located at the Pangari (candle) stands. You may use your own personal credit/debit card to purchase candles, contribute to passed baskets, on-going annual There will NOT be Paraklesis to the Virgin Mary this Monday. stewardship and other vital parish fundraisers, such as the upcoming Apokreatiko luncheon, Golf Outing, Apokreatiko Glendi is today following Liturgy downstairs in the church hall. Dinner Dances and more. Questions? Ask a parish council member and we will be happy to assist you! We are assembling an IOCC Action Team to do a week-long trip to build or repair homes in a We need 3 individuals or groups to sponsor 3 lenten meals we are having the Friday evenings part of the country that's recently been hit by a natural disaster. of Great Lent with the Akathist Hymn service Presvytera Konstantina will be leading this team. At this point we are collecting names of people who The dates that are currently still in need of a sponsor are March 17, 24 and 31. As many of you know, on might be interested. The exact dates are still being determined, but we are aiming to do this in the the first five Fridays of Great Lent, the Akathist Hymn is chanted in the evening and we have a practice of coming summer (2017). Please let us know ASAP - you can contact the church office, or Presvytera having a lenten meal and something educational after the service. If you can help sponsor one of these Konstantina at [email protected] . Also, you can visit the IOCC website - meals we would much appreciate it. Please let Fr. Panteleimon know. https://www.iocc.org/take-action/join-action-team . Epistle St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 8:8-13; 9:1-2

Brethren, food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off The Life of THE HOLY APOSTLES ARCHIPPUS, PHILEMON AND APPHIA if we do. Only take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if any one sees you, a man of knowledge, at table in an idol's temple, might he not be Archippus was one of the Seventy Apostles. The Apostle Paul mentions him in his to encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this the Colossians and to Philemon. "And tell Archippus, `See that you fulfill the ministry that you weak man is destroyed, the brother for whom died. Thus, sinning against your brethren and received in the Lord' " (:17) as well as in his letter to Philemon calling him his fellow wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food is a cause of my soldier in the battle: "To Archippus our fellow soldier" (Philemon 1:2). In the town of , brother's falling, I will never eat meat, lest I cause my brother to fall. the center of Christianity was in the home of Philemon. Here Christians gathered for prayer. In writing to Philemon, the Apostle Paul called this "the church at your house" (Philemon 1:2). At Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in that time, the apostles ordained their disciples as bishops; some of them in permanent places the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship and others as missionaries traveling to various places. Philemon was one of the latter. Apphia, in the Lord. Philemon's wife, hosted and served in the domestic church! At the time of a pagan feast to the

goddess Artemis, according to their custom, all the faithful in Colossae, gathered in the home Gospel Reading Matthew 25:31-46 Judgment Sunday (Meatfare Sunday) of Philemon for prayer. The pagans, learning of this gathering, rushed and apprehended all the Christians; Philemon, Apphia and Archippus, as leaders. At first, they were whipped and The Lord said, "When the Son of man comes in his glory and all the holy with him, then he will afterwards they were buried up to their waists and they began to stone them. Thus, they killed sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one Philemon and Apphia and, Archippus they removed from the pit barely alive and left him to the from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his amusement of the children. The children pierced him throughout with knives. Thus, this "fellow right hand, but the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, O soldier" in battle ended well in the course of his earthly path. blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and Reflection you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed St. Anthony teaches: "Just as a man comes forth naked from his mother's womb, so the soul you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked comes forth naked from the body. One soul is pure and bright, the second is soiled by sin, and and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King will answer the third is blackened by many sins… If a body comes forth from a mother's womb unhealthy, it them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.' cannot live; and so the soul, if it does not attain the knowledge of God through good behavior, Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared it cannot be saved neither can it be in communion with God. The organ of bodily sight is the for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me eye; the organ of spiritual sight is the mind. Just as the body is blind without eyes, so the soul is no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in blind without a correct mind and correct life." prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?' Then he will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.' And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."