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Holy Week Services

2019 Holy Week and Pascha Services

• April 20 (Saturday) Vespers 6:30PM  (confesions are heard after vespers as usual)
  
• April 21 (Sunday) Divine Liturgy 10 AM Sunday of  Entry into Jerusalem
• April 23 (Tuesday) 6:30 PM Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts
• April 24 (Wednesday) 7:00 PM Sacrament of Holy Unction – Healing Sacrament, open to all Orthodox Christians
• April 26 (Friday) 7:00 PM Holy Saturday Matins (served Friday evening)
• April 27 (Saturday into Sunday) 11:30 PM Holy Pascha Vigil (Nocturns, Matins, Divine Liturgy)
• April 28 (Very early Sunday morning) Blessing of food baskets.(after the Liturgy)
  

Holy Week

Holy Week

^{By Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann}
"Having fulfilled the Forty Days we ask to see the Holy Week of Thy passion."  With these words sung at Vespers of Palm Friday, Lent comes to its end and we enter into the annual commemoration of Christ's suffering, death and resurrection. It begins on the Saturday of Lazarus. The double feast of Lazarus' Resurrection and the Entrance of the Lord to Jerusalem is described in liturgical texts as the 'beginning of the Cross' and is to be understood, therefore, within the context of the Holy Week. The common troparion of these days explicitly affirms that 'by raising Lazarus from the dead Christ confirmed the truth of general resurrection.' It is highly significant that we are led into the darkness of the Cross by one of the twelve major feasts of the Church. Light and joy shine not only at the end of Holy Week but also at its beginning; they illumine darkness itself, reveal its ultimate meaning.

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Archpastoral Letter for the Great Fast 2019

Sunday of Forgiveness, March 10, 2019

Dearly Beloved of Our Diocesan Family:

Christ is in our midst! – He is and ever shall be!

What is the Church, if not a place where the sick meet their physician?

Those sick from sin come to confess their sickness to God the Physician, and to find medicine and healing from Him who is the true Healer from

all human suffering and weakness, and the Giver of all good things.

-- St. Nikolai (Velimirovich) of Zhicha

At sundown on Forgiveness Sunday, we Orthodox Christians begin our annual observance of Great Lent. This is a season provided by the Church as a time of our healing. As unbelievable as it may seem, we are commanded by Our Savior to “be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48) … and the Lord would not command us to do something that is impossible. Of course, it is not possible for us to become perfect on our own efforts; but with the power of the Holy Spirit, becoming like God (theosis) can be achieved.

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The Paschal Service

The Paschal Service

Enjoy ye all the feast of faith; receive ye all the riches of loving-kindness.
^{(Sermon of St. John Chrysostom, read at Paschal Matins)}

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the center of the Christian faith. St. Paul says that if Christ is not raised from the dead, then our preaching and faith are in vain ^{(I Cor. 15:14)}. Indeed, without the resurrection there would be no Christian preaching or faith. The disciples of Christ would have remained the broken and hopeless band which the Gospel of John describes as being in hiding behind locked doors for fear of the Jews. They went nowhere and preached nothing until they met the risen Christ, the doors being shut ^{(John 20:19)}. Then they touched the wounds of the nails and the spear; they ate and drank with Him. The resurrection became the basis of everything they said and did ^{(Acts 2-4)}: "... for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have" ^{(Luke 24:39)}.

The resurrection reveals Jesus of Nazareth as not only the expected Messiah of Israel, but as the King and Lord of a new Jerusalem: a new heaven and a new earth.

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About the Patron of our Parish

(the Icon of the Mother of God "the Joy of All the Sorrowful"  is Commemorated on July 23, October 24, and November 19)

About the Patron of our Parish

^{By Helen Creticos Theodoropoulos}

Deep within the heart of the Church, in the place where sorrow and joy meet and where our bitter tears are kissed away by a mother's love, we encounter the Most Holy Mother of God. The Church in its devotion to the Ever-Virgin Mary has always known that she is a mystery and a gift given to us by God. The Theotokos is a mystery that can be experienced and encountered, and yet never explained or described in words of logic and science, and she is a gift that brings radiant joy and comfort in the midst of darkness and need. Through the centuries the Church has expressed its love for her through countless hymns, has praised her in its most exquisite poetry and song, and has portrayed her in its most beautiful and beloved icons. No other saint is the subject of so much devotion, and no other saint has so many miracles attributed him or her.

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Purpose

Purpose

As the local community of the Church of the Mother of God, this parish, exists for the purpose of worshiping God according to the Holy Scriptures and Tradition of the Holy Orthodox Church, to encourage union with God among the members of the parish, to seek out the lost, the searching, and the un-churched and to strive to bring them into union with the Church, to provide religious education to its members and potential members, provide charitable aid, and to defend, promote, and witness to theOrthodox Christian Faith in southern New Jersey.

This website is a tool to help in this purpose. Primarily to publicize our existence in southern New Jersey, and hopefully, encourage people to "come and see".  

The many pages on this website contain information we hope is helpful. 

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Our Church Building

Our Church Building

Our church building, and the services celebrated within it, are from the tradition of the Church, from the vision of St John the Apostle, as well as the Old Testament Temple. The interior of the Orthodox Church buildings are particularly styled to give the experience of the unity of all things in God. They are not constructed to reproduce the upper room of the Last Supper, nor to be simply a meeting hall for people whose life exists solely within the bounds of this earth. The church building itself, is an image of the world.

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