ST.

NICHOLAS ALBANIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE
SHRINEOFTHEHOLY VIRGIN MARY
2701 NORTH NARRAGANSETT AVENUE CHICAGO, IL 60639 773-889-4282
stnicholasalbanianchicago.org

Palm Sunday
April 9th, 2017
 Epistle Reading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to
Prokeimenon. Mode 4 Psalm 117.26,1 God. And the peace of God, which passes all
Blessed is he who comes in the name of understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in
the Lord. Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true,
Verse: Give thanks to the Lord, for He is whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is
good. His mercy endures forever.
pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is
The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the
Philippians 4:4-9 any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise,
BRETHREN, rejoice in the Lord think about these things. What you have learned and
always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let all men know your received and heard and seen in me, do; and the God of
forbearance. The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about peace will be with you.
anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication

Gospel Reading
The Gospel According to John 12:1-18
Six days before Passover,
Jesus came to Bethany, where
Lazaros was, whom Jesus had raised
from the dead. There they made him
a supper; Martha served, and Lazaros
was one of those at table with him.
Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and
anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her
hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the
ointment. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who
was to betray him), said "Why was this ointment not
sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?"
This he said, not that he cared for the poor but because
he was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to
take what was put into it. Jesus said, "Let her alone, let
her keep it for the day of my burial. The poor you always
have with you, but you do not always have me."
When the great crowd of the Jews learned that
he was there, they came, not only on account of Jesus
but also to see Lazaros, whom he had raised from the
dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazaros also to
death, because on account of him many of the Jews
were going away and believing in Jesus.
The next day a great crowd who had come to the
feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they
took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him,
crying, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name
of the Lord, even the King of Israel!" And Jesus found a
young donkey and sat upon it; as it is written, "Fear not,
daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on
a donkey's colt!" His disciples did not understand this at
first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they
remembered that this had been written of him and had
been done to him. The crowd that had been with him
when he called Lazaros out of the tomb and raised him
from the dead bore witness. The reason why the crowd
went to meet him was that they heard he had done this
sign.

Llazar - Kaliopi - Eftiqi

Grigor - Klaudi
Diodor - Viktor
Platon - Josif - Iliri
 MESSAGES FROM Fr. KOSTANDINs OFFICE

GREAT HOLY WEEK 2017

All parishioners should attend our
Holy Week processions.
For any questions or inquiries feel free to contact directly

Fr. Kostandin Tuda 312-730-3337

frkostandin@gmail.com

Fr. KOSTANDIN WISHES ALL CHRISTIAN

ORTHODOX BELIEVERS AND ALL
ALBANIAN FELLOWS WHEREVER THEY
ARE AROUND THE WORLD FOR A
BLESSED PASCHA TIME, FULL OF DIVINE
GIFTS, LOVE, GOODNESS, AND HOPE
FOR BETTER AND PEACEFUL DAYS YET
TO COME.

APRIL 9 PALM SUNDAY

APRIL 14 HOLY FRIDAY
APRIL 16 GREAT AND HOLY PASCHA
With blessing and guidance of Fr. Tuda, both Ladies auxiliary and Parish
Council are joining efforts in these two important future events for our
parish. Please make plans to participate

CELEBRATION OF 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF 80TH BIRTHDAY OF OUR VERY OWN

WEEPING MARY.
This event does not have to be a celebration with food and
music. The goal of the joint committee and Father Tuda is to
brainstorm what is appropriate and feasible to accomplish
this. Bishop Ilia will be here on March 26 so we hope to have
something by then.
HIS GRACE, BISHOP ILIA
on July 23, 2017. Some of the initial planning and reservation
of the venue have already been determined as timing was
very crucial for the event. The committee will determine all
the other aspects of the event like entertainment,
advertisement, gift/s and so on.

LAZARUS OF BETHANY
Commemorated on Palm Sunday
St. Johns Gospel records the story of Christs
raising Lazarus from the dead as the last
action of Christ before His entry into
Jerusalem. That setting has given rise to the
feast of Lazarus Saturday in the Orthodox
Church a small Pascha before Holy Week.
The three synoptic gospels make no mention
of these events, to which I draw no historical
conclusions. The gospels include and exclude
events for many reasons, historical
considerations seeming to be of the least
importance. Which stories, and in what
order, primarily serve deeper theological
concerns.
For St. John, the story of Lazarus serves as the occasion for
commentary and teaching on the resurrection of believers, much
like the Feeding of the Five Thousand serves for commentary and
teaching on the Eucharist.
If you had been here, my brother would not have died, (Marthas
words) echoes the universal voice of the Church in the face of
Christs delayed Second Coming. It is the plaintive heart of believers
who wonder why God allows suffering.
And some of them said, Could not this Man, who opened the eyes
of the blind, also have kept this man from dying? (Joh 11:37)
It is an obvious question, repeated in various forms by believers as
well as scoffers through the centuries. The story of Lazarus, which
occurs before Christs suffering and death, specifically addresses
the heart of the Church after Christs suffering and death. For
though we rejoice in Christs death and resurrection, it is our dead
brother (mother, father, sister, friend) who lies heavy on our
hearts. Your brother will rise again. These words of Christ, like a
statement of Church doctrine, bring little comfort to someone
stuck in their grief. It is Christs affirmation, I am the resurrection
and the life, that sums up the encounter. The people do not
understand, not even when Lazarus is raised from the dead. That
Christ Himself is the resurrection and the life does not become
clear until His own resurrection.
Christ says elsewhere in Johns gospel: For as the Father has life in
Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, (Joh
5:26). But none of this is remembered until after Christ Himself is
raised. And the resurrection of Christ is not like the resurrection of
Lazarus: Lazarus dies again, later. Tradition holds that he became
the bishop of Cyprus and was buried there (his tomb can still be
seen in Larnaca). We all stand like Mary and Martha of Bethany,
mourning brothers and others whom we have lost. And the
resurrection of Christ too easily passes into dry doctrine, My
brother will rise at the last day. The resurrection of Christ, as
historical event, easily begins to lose its existential importance: I
am the resurrection.
It is an interesting phrase, I am the
resurrection. This is not at all the same thing
as saying, I will be raised from the dead, or I
will raise your brother from the dead. For both
of those statements turn an existential matter
into a simple statement of fact. And though
facts may be true, they are often simply
inaccessible. That Paris is the capital of France
is a fact but it means nothing to me Ive
never been there and have no plans to go.
The resurrection is more than fact, it is a
person. And as a person, it may be known and
existentially encountered. And it is this that lies
at the heart of Pascha. For it is not the risen
Lord of history, lost to us among the many facts,
that we proclaim and celebrate. It is the Christ, Who is the
Resurrection, present in our midst, united with us, daily trampling
down death by death, the Jesus Whom we know that we greet with
joy.
The Church does not shout, Christ rose from the dead! Fact! Fact!
Fact! It shouts, Christ is risen from the dead! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia!
Lazarus was raised from the dead. Christ is risen from the dead. The
difference is everything. Our hope is not in being resuscitated to
our present form, but a true transformation into the life of
resurrection.
There is an ancient story told about Lazarus in his years following
his being raised. It was said that he never smiled such was the
sobering effect of what he had seen in Hades. However, it is said
that he laughed once. A man was angry and smashed a pot.
Lazarus laughed and said, The clay smashes the clay.
Lazarus was not in love with our life as clay. He knew the
Resurrection and longed for a true and final victory. His first
encounter with Hades, the fact of his being raised when he had
been four-days-dead, is not the victory itself but the
foreshadowing of something far greater which is to come. Lazarus
Saturday reminds us of a greater Saturday and of a dawn that
shatters all dawns.
Welcome to St. Nicholas Church
Be part of our Albanian-American community
flasim shqip Shrbehet n Shqip dhe Anglisht