Icon of Saint Gregory Palamas

Second Sunday of the Great FastSunday of Saint Gregory Palamas

Second Sunday of the Great Fast/Gregory Palamas March 12, 2017

Glory to Jesus Christ! Our Bishop, clergy, religious and faithful welcome you to St. Stephen Cathedral. We are delighted that you have joined us for our Divine Liturgy. Our Church follows the teachings of

Jesus Christ as found in the Gospel and passed on to us through the teachings of the Apostles and Tradi-tion. If you are looking for a spiritual home, try our Cathedral parish. If you have questions, feel free to

ask any of our clergy and religious. Join us again soon! God bless you!

This Week’s Liturgy Schedule

Sun. 3/12 SECOND SUNDAY OF THE GREAT FASTSat. 5:00 PM +Ella “Bette” Ankowski by George Tomley (Fr. David)Sun. 8:00 AM For Our Parishioners & Benefactors (Fr. Diodoro)Sun. 10:00 AM Special Intention (Fr. Joe)

Mon. 3/13 The Translation of the Relics of our Holy Father Nicephorus8:00 AM Matins of Alleluia Fr. Diodoro)

Tue. 3/14 Our Venerable Father Benedict (Fr. Joe)8:00 AM Terce & Sext

Wed. 3/15 The Holy Martyr Agapius and His Companions7:00 PM Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified Gifts (Fr. David) +Nicholas Moyta by Sr. Jean Marie Cihota

Thu. 3/16 The Holy Martyrs Sabinus and Papas (Fr.Joe)7:00 PM Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified Gifts (Office of Readings transferred from Friday) +Emily Dolan by Mary Solava

Fri. 3/17 Our Venerable Father Alexis, Man of God No Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified Gifts5PM-7PM Lenten Fish Fry

Sat. 3/18 Third All Souls Saturday (Fr. Diodoro)9:00 AM Divine Liturgy for the Faithful Departed and Reading of Diptychs

Sun. 3/19 THIRD SUNDAY OF THE GREAT FAST / ST. GREGORY PALAMASSat. 5:00 PM +Shawn Matse by Joseph Gallucci (Fr. Joe)Sun. 8:00 AM For Our Parishioners and Benefactors (Fr. Diodoro)

Sun. 10:00 AM+Richard Walsh by Jane Walsh (Fr. David)

ANNOUNCEMENTS

A HUGE THANKS to all the volunteers who came to make the pirohi and those who came to work at the fish fry and pirohi dinner on the first two Fridays of Great Lent.

CONGRATULATIONS AND MAY GOD GRANT MANY HAPPY AND BLESSED YEARS TO OUR PARISHIONERS: John Danovich and Akela Oania who were crowned in marriage by Very Rev. Michael O’Loughlin at St. Francis Assisi Catholic Church in Incline Village, Nevada on Saturday, March 4.

PARISH ADVISORY MEETING: Sunday, April 23, 2017 in the parish office after the 10:00 AM Divine Liturgy.

CURRENT BISHOP’S APPEAL RESULTS FOR ST. STEPHEN CATHEDRAL:Parish Goal: $29,700.00, Pledge Payments Received: $6,935.00, Amount Needed to Reach Goal: $22,765.00*Please note that now instead of requesting $200.00 per family that the eparchy is kindly asking for a pledge of $275.00 per family to allow the eparchy to continue funding new programs within our eparchy that the eparchy financially supports. Thank you.

ATTENTION SUNDAY COLLECTION COUNTERS: New Sunday Collection count-ing procedures will begin on March 19, 2017.

PARISH FINANCE COUNCIL MEETING IN THE RECTORY OFFICE ON SUNDAY, MARCH 26 AFTER THE 10:00 AM DIVINE LITURGY.

PREPARATION PLANS FOR 50TH JUBILEE: Our St. Stephen Cathedral was of-ficially dedicated on July 28, 1968. The Preparatory Committee for the 50th Jubilee is seeking photos, slides and/or memorabilia from parishioners who may wish to share these with the com-mittee. Be sure that these are well marked with your name, placed in a large envelope and given to Kathleen Wursta or Deacon John Montalvo. These will be returned to you in the future. Next 50th Jubilee Meeting is Sunday, March 19 after the 10 AM Divine Liturgy.

FORMING A FOOLS FOR CHRIST COMMITTEE: This Lenten season we will help the hungry, impoverished, and needy by organizing specialized food drives, visits to homeless shelters, sidewalk prayers, and outreaches by gifting our time, talent and treasure to the margin-alized of our society. For more information please see Fr. Diodoro

GREAT LENT FOOD DRIVE: We are having a parish food drive during Great Lent, and we hope all of you will participate. If each household donates just one item per week, we can have a really successful drive. If you can afford more, that is fantastic. Please bring one of the following on these dates: March 12- jam or jelly, March 19- pasta, March 26- canned vegetables or fruit, April 2- canned meat, April 9- rice or beans. If you have any questions please see Bar-bara Stefaniak or Fr. Diodoro. FISH FRY & PIROHI PARISH FUND RAISERS: We greatly appreciate the dedication and effort of those who came to work this event. We are always in need of more workers in an effort to not burn out the volunteer workers. Also sometimes regular volunteers are not able to come to every Fish Fry and Pirohi Dinner because of other commitments or illness. The sign- up sheet for volunteers to work is in the parish hall. Doing good works is an essential part of our Great Lent journey and coming to work at the Fish Fry and Pirohi Dinner would be an excellent addition in our spiritual life, to our prayer, worship and fasting during the Great Lent. Please take some time in prayer and discernment and think about coming to help us at the Fish Fry and Pirohi Dinners. As we have done in the past, we are asking for people to donate cake mixes and icing to be used for cakes and cupcakes for dessert at the fish fry. Thank you.

Future Fish Fry and Pirohi Dinners will take place from 5 PM to 7 PM on:

Friday, March 17 Friday, March 31Friday March 24 Friday, April 7

BACK TO THE GARDEN: A LENTEN JOURNEY THROUGH GENESIS. In the middle section of the bulletin you will find several articles which are reflections on the Book of Genesis for the First Week of the Great Fast. Please read them and use this material as part of your spiritual exercises during the Great Fast.

REMEMBER TO PLACE YOUR BAKE SALE ORDER: Please place your bake sale order as soon as possible so that we will know how much pirohi, stuffed cabbage and rolls that we will have to have on hand to fill all the orders. You can order by seeing Joanie Mahar or calling the rectory office: 602-943- 5379 or e-mail at Ststephenphxbakes@gmail.com Baked goods orders can be picked up at fish frys. Last day for pick up is Sunday, April 9 between 9:00 AM and Noon.

BACK TO THE GARDEN

A LENTEN JOURNEY THROUGH GENESIS

Monday of the Second Week of the Great Fast

Genesis 3:21-4:7

As the story of Cain and Abel is brought to its most critical movement, God suddenly enters the story as a speaking character and brings everything to a sudden halt. His words are left ringing in our ears: “Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

For a brief moment, even though we know this tale so well, we wonder if this time Cain might make the right choice. Will he master his sullen disappointment? Will his fallen countenance be lifted up, not in bitter anger, but in the determination to “do well” and be accepted? This abrupt interruption-God’s sudden unsolicited advice-gives us the opportunity to reflect, at least for an evening on the puzzling details of this foundation human story. Since we already know the story, its’s tempting to neatly divide the characters up: innocent victim and violent villain. But with this cliffhanger worthy of a Netflix miniseries we are given an opportunity to reconsider what’s going on.

Let your eyes wander back over the passage. If anyone is causing trouble in this story, it seems to be God. He inexplicably chose Abel’s animal sacrifice and rejects Cain’s vegetable one. No explanations are given. Cain has not violated any previously established legislation regarding the inappropriateness of vegetable sacrifices. We can easily sympathize with Cain. His craft, his bread and butter, the job he learned from his father Adam the gardener, has just been judged un-acceptable by a dismissive and uncommunicative God. “So Cain was very angry and his face fell.” And it is at that moment that God speaks, suggesting that if Cain does well, he will be accepted and master that little goblin, sin, that is crouching at the door. Frustratingly, God gives Cain no further instructions, no five-step plan for successful sin management. To Cain, His words hang in the air, somewhere between encouragement and a taunt. “If you do well…”

“My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh” (Proverbs 4:22). These words of the ancient Father also hang in the air this evening. They are an invitation to listen more deeply to the puzzling ad-monishment of this God who never lays out a clear path. If Cain is to find a way forward out of his moment of humiliation, if he is to “do well” and lift up his face, it will be because he works through an internal struggle at the door of his heart. It will be because he takes the time to listen and mull over God’s words, “If you do well.”

For Reflection

The challenge placed before us in the moments of our disappointments and rejections, our own smoldering suffocating resentments (we know Cain’s experience all too well!!) is to listen, to be attentive.

The key to mastering our sin at that moment may not necessarily be ready at hand and the path beyond that dangerous doorway may still be as dark as the night Cain is about to enter. But if we pause in the middle of it all, just as God’s words put a stop to this story for a night, we might just, in those dark moments begin to hear some new counsel emerge. However, it will never be heard if we don’t stop to listen to anything other than our own resentment crouched and whispering at the door of our heart.

Tuesday of the Second Week of the Great FastGenesis 4:8-15

Cain does not do well. He indulges the whispered counsel of his own resentment and is mas-tered by it, allowing the unspeakable to be given full expression. Yet, after being questioned by God, Cain evades speaking plainly, unwittingly diagnosing his own disorder: “Am I my brother’s keeper?’ For a moment, we get a glimpse into all that was left unsaid in the beginning of the story. God had no regard for Cain’s offering because Cain had no regard for Abel. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Cain permitted his self-centeredness to usurp his brother in that privileged place at the door of his heart. At the critical moment of rejection and humiliation, it was not love for Abel that mastered his heart, but that crouching and resentful wounded self.

As the story moves along, we are reminded of our reading from Proverbs (5:12): “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof.” Interestingly enough, God does not curse Cain, but rather, he is “cursed from the ground” because of Abel’s blood and he will therefore now fail as a farmer, destined to wander upon the earth. Cain cries out in desperation, unable to bear the prospect of this wandering. “Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” Cain hates this discipline and despises this reproof. God’s assessment of the situation sounds for all the world to Cain like the pronouncement of a death sentence spoken by the sternest of judges. God immediately corrects Cain: “Not so!” God marks Cain as a sign of mercy as a pledge to accompany Cain in his wandering. Suddenly, what first seemed to be a harsh punishment for the crime of murder is transformed into a redemptive discipline. God will not abandon Cain in his wandering. The doom of wandering itself takes on new and subtle possibilities. If Cain embraces this discipline, redemption becomes a real possibility.

Abel was a shepherd. In order to care for his flock, he was forced to wander from place to place, always attentive to the bleating voices of his flock. Abel’s experiences had taught him to have regard for the needs of others. As a tiller of the ground, Cain had never learned the more difficult task of listening. He failed to cultivate regard for the needs of others. This is why Abel’s offering was accepted and Cain’s was not. The rejection of Cain’s offering was a subtle hint from God, an invitation to learn what makes sacrifice acceptable; a heart that regards the needs of others. What God is now asking Cain to do is to take up the wandering life of his brother. God’s discipline is never to punish, but to correct and restore. God will not leave Cain to do this redemptive work alone, but rather accompany him. And this is all a great foreshadowing: one day, God will come in the flesh to his wandering people and take up their wandering himself: “Foxes have their dens, and the birds of the air have their nest, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:20)

For Reflection:

In Psalm 141 we pray: “If a just man strikes me or reproves me, it is kindness.” Have you ever experienced that sort of rebuke clearly done out of kindness? How did it help you? Can you recall any experiences that may have been God’s loving discipline? What did you learn from it? How did it change you for the better? Where do you struggle most against the Lord’s discipline in your life right now? Pray for the humility and the wisdom to accept it and to learn the lesson.

Wednesday of the Second Week of the Great FastGenesis 4:16-26

We often hear the Epistles and Gospels using the word “world” in a negative way. “Do not con-form yourselves to this world” (Romans 12:2); “I have chosen you out of the world” (John 15:`9); “friendship with the world is enmity with God” (James 4:4). Such sayings are hard to hear and easy to misunderstand. We are human, creatures with bodies and souls, and we inhabit this world, which God created and loves (John 3:16). We live material lives: we eat, drink, marry, raise a fam-ily, earn a living, and build homes, neighborhoods and nations.God did not create us to be bodiless angels and we cannot pretend to be so.

Used negatively, “world” refers to all the passions and drives and plans and structures and institutions and philosophies fallen human beings create for themselves in the failed attempt to be their own gods and realize their own happiness on their own, for themselves, without God. Today that “world begins to be built by Cain and his descendants, estranged further and further from God and from God’s likeness in themselves.

On the one hand, we see humanity becoming more sophisticated: Cain’s descendants invent trades, create music, and build cities. Before long, these city dwellers will attempt to build themselves all

the way to heaven (Genesis 11:1-9). But at the same time, Cain’s descendants grow even coarser and more violent than Cain himself. Six generations on, we meet the brutish Lamech, whose two wives are forced to listen to his threats and boasts of violence, vengeance, and murder.

We know people like Lamech, always rehashing old battles, treasuring grudges like jewels, seek-ing petty ways to “get even.” Lamech’s deadly mix of machismo and touchiness is the unavoidable result of alienation from God and from His lordship and justice. If we believe that we have no one to rely on but ourselves, we will become squirrelly hoarders and vicious dogs fighting over every bone.

For Reflection:

Are there areas in your relationship with God and with the Church where your education and experience make you doubt or challenge the faith?Are you clinging to any grudges, accustomed to refight old battles in your mind, tempted to revenge? Why?Invite the Lord into those memories and situations and ask for His healing and guidance.Do you cultivate a “tough” or “sophisticated” personality? What are you defending yourself from? How do you balance trust in God with taking responsibility for yourself?

Thursday of the Second Week of the Great FastGenesis 5:1-24

The Holy Scriptures vividly portray a basic tension in our experience: between being individu-als and being in relationships. Individuals are endowed by God with qualities that make each of us like Him: intelligence, free will, creativity-and each of us is ultimately responsible for our individual choices in this life. But persons can only truly be themselves in relationship with other persons. After all, we are created in the image of a God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, distinct but perfectly united in a perfect sharing of life and love.

God first created a couple, a man and a woman, and then empowered them to build a family. The family is the basic building block of human life, what St. John Paul II called “a workshop of love, unity and openness to life” (Angelus, December 28, 2003). Adam and Eve’s sin profoundly left them weakened and wounded, both as individuals and as a couple(Genesis 3:12-16). We see the weakness and the wounds in Adam and Eve’s family tree: from the murder of Abel by Cain to the ever-shortening lifespans of Adam’s descendants.

Still, the image of God in man, while tarnished, is never erased. When St. Luke traces Jesus’ genealogy back to Adam, he makes the point of listing: “Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God” (Luke 3:38). Each of the men Genesis lists, along with all of the other nameless

sons, wives and daughters, was created with reason and freedom to make choices. Each of them, despite all the dysfunction that may have existed all around them, had access to God’s grace.

And so, while most of these men were names for us, two stand out. Somehow Enosch distin-guished himself and is said, mysteriously, to have “walked with God” in his life and to have been “taken by God” at its end. The other standout is Noah, who will be in the spotlight all next week. Even as we marvel that Adam’s corrupted family tree could produce someone like Noah, we must also notice that Noah was unable to save any of his extended family. All those nameless cousins “perished in the flood -- only Noah’s immediate family was saved.” Salvation, like guilt (Ezekiel 18; John 9:1-3) cannot be inherited. Others can help us but we must make the fundamental choice to cooperate with God’s grace for ourselves.

Genesis reveals God’s plan almost entirely as a family history. After Noah, we will see how that plan unfolds in the life of Abraham, his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who become the Hebrews of the Exodus. We will see both the wounds and weakness of ancestral sin played out in strife between spouses and among siblings. But we will also see men and women striving for virtue and realizing their likeness to God in good, wise, creative and faithful life choices.

For Reflection:

Did parents or other family members help you grow in your relationship with God? How? Offer a prayer of thanks for them. Do you blame a family member for any of the sins, failures or weak-nesses in your own life? Do you in any way feel “condemned” or “predestined” by your family history? Prayerfully, reconsider any such thoughts in the light of today’s Scripture and ask the Lord to help you claim responsibility for your own life choices. Are there family members you worry about? Prayerfully entrust them to the Lord and ask for His help to be a positive influence in their lives.

Friday of the Second Week of the Great Fast

Genesis 5:32-6:8You cannot see monuments like Stonehenge in England or the huge stone heads on Easter Island without marveling that people erected such things with only the most basic tools. Three thousand years ago, people readily attributed such feats to giants, heroes, superhuman figures from a golden age vastly superior to the present. In speaking human language and expressing Himself in human literature, the Word of God sometimes uses such commonly-held ideas to make a deeper point that remains true even if the folklore behind it is clearly imaginary.

Yesterday, we watched human lifespans grow shorter and shorter. The story of the Nephilim (He-

brew for “the fallen”) is another way of saying that humans were once greater than we are now. But everything else we have read in Genesis clarifies that it is in terms of our likeness to God that we have shrunk and that the symptoms are as much spiritual as physical.

The story of the Nephilim marks the “last straw: in the saga of sin that began in Eden. From the very first, sin has been equated with selfishness, with the attempt to be our own gods so that we don’t need God (Genesis 3:4). God had already created man as both physical and spiritual when He breathed His own “breath of life” into the man fashioned out of clay and made Adam a “living soul” (Genesis 2:7) The monstrous mating of heavenly beings with human women portrays a crude attempt for creatures to do for themselves what God had already done. Of course, bodiless angels cannot mate with humans. The folktale points to a deeply rooted fantasy: what if we could acquire heavenly power for ourselves, in a pleasurable way, and make ourselves superhuman? That temptation expresses itself in all sorts of ways in every generation

The same folktale also teaches another spiritual truth. From centaurs to mermaids, mythol-ogy abounds with imaginary creatures that are half one thing and half another. Human beings really are both body and soul, both spiritual and material. Only by self-discipline and modera-tion can we learn to strike the proper balance in caring for both body and soul. Otherwise the spirit will always risk being dragged down by physical passions and appetites left untended and uncontrolled, or we will pretend to live a purely spiritual life that is, in fact, beyond our abilities.

In a sense, it is only now that God chooses to execute the sentence of death he pronounced on Adam and Eve ten generations earlier (Genesis 2:17; Genesis 3:19): the human lifespan will be strictly limited. It is not that the turn of events on earth has taken God by surprise and it is not that He has changed His mind about creation. This style of storytelling, which we find elsewhere in Genesis, is meant to impress on us the immensity and tragedy of human sin. It did not have to be this way. And, in fact, God’s sentence of death is not His last word. The divine spirit or breath that gives life to our bodies is our immortal soul. The Old Testament shows a gradual understanding of what happens to that soul after death (what the Bible calls ‘Sheol’ or ‘Hades:’Job17:16; Psalm 16:10; Psalm 88:10-12; Isaiah 14:9-15; Isaiah 38:10-20; Jonah 2:2) but also reveals a growing hope that body and soul would, in fact, be reunited (Isaiah 26:19; Psalm 16:10-11; Ezekiel 37; Daniel 12:1-3).

The resurrection of the body is a difficult concept to accept and indeed many religions and philosophies throughout history have preferred to imagine that human beings survive only in “spirit.” We are reminded today, even as we fast, how profoundly Christian faith respects the human body and the material creation as a whole. And we are also reminded that only the res-urrection of Christ makes our own resurrection possible (1 Corinthians 15). Today, for the first time we see the goal of the Resurrection at the end of the Lenten journey.

ANCESTRAL SIN

In the Old Testament account of creation, God created mankind and established a place for him called Paradise. He also gave him a commandment regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: “And the Lord God commanded Adam saying, ‘You may eat food from every tree in the garden; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you may not eat; for in whatever day you eat from it, you shall die by death’” (Gn. 2:16, 17) In that Adam and Eve did not physically die the day they ate from the tree, the words “you shall die” indicate a spiritual death through separation from God.

Ancestral sin is the disobedience of Adam to God’s command regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam willingly disobeyed this commandment and diverted himself, or fell, from God’s path to perfection, thus separating himself from His Creator, the Source of life.

WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE FALL?

1 This Fall of Adam caused mankind to become subject to mortality. While this is often seen mainly as a punishment, or penalty, the emphasis concerning God’s judgments on Adam and Eve at the Fall is best understood in terms of His mercy. So, for example, concerning man’s mortality (Gn. 3:19), St. Gregory the Theologian states, “Yet here too He provides a benefit-namely death, which cuts off sin, so that evil may not be everlasting. Thus His punishment is changed into a mercy.”

2 We who are of Adam’s race are not guilty because of Adam’s sin, but because of our own sin. However, because of mankind fell away from the grace of God’s through Adam’s disobedience, man now has a propensity, a disposition, an inclination towards sin, because just as death entered the world through sin, now sin enters through fear of death.

3 Mankind’s strong propensity to commit sin reveals that in the Fall, the image of God in man (Gn 1:26, 27) is also fallen. However, the ancient Fathers emphasize the divine image in man has not been totally corrupted or obliterated. Human nature remains inherently good after the Fall; mankind is not totally depraved. People are still capable of doing good, although bondage to death and the influences of the devil can dull their perception of what is good and lead them into all kinds of evil.

4 Adam’s Fall not only brought mortality and sin into the world, but also seat, toil, hunger, thirst, weariness, sorrow, pain, suffering, sickness, tribulations, tragedy and tears.

5 Even after the Fall, the intellectual, desiring and incensive (forceful or driving) aspects of the soul are natural and therefore neutral. They can be used in a good way, or in a bad, harmful way. For instance, desire is very good when one directs it towards God. But when desire is out of control, one may use it in very inappropriate ways, such as becoming gluttonous or desiring another per-son’s spouse. The classic analogy is that these powers of the soul are like iron, which can be made

into a plow to help grow food, or into a sword to be used to kill someone.

Christ by His Death and Resurrection, conquered the devil and death, freeing mankind from the fear of death (Heb. 2:14-15) and making possible a more complete communion between God and man than was ever possible before. This communion allows people to become “partakers of the

divine nature” (2Pt. 1:4), to transcend death and, ultimately, all the consequences of the Fall.

Coming Events – Mark Your Calendars Now

Friday, March 10: Fish Fry & Pirohi Dinner in Parish Hall from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PMFriday, March 17: Fish Fry & Pirohi Dinner in Parish Hall from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PMSunday, March 19: 50th Jubilee Committee Meeting after the 10:00 AM Divine LiturgyFriday, March 24: Fish Fry & Pirohi Dinner in Parish Hall from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PMSunday, March 26: St. Stephen Cathedral Parish Finance Council Meeting in Rectory Office After the 10:00 PM Divine LiturgySunday, April 9: Last time to pick up your Bake Sale Items: 9:00 AM – 12 NoonSunday, April 23: Parish Advisory Council Meeting in Rectory Office after 10 AM Liturgy

Our Weekly Gifts to the Lord—May the Lord bless your kindness and generosity!Saturday: 5:00 PM: 28 Sunday: 8:00 AM: 39 Sunday: 10:00 AM: 105 Tithes: $2,302.15, Candles: $41.50, Donations: $280.00, Easter Flowers: $220.00,Bishop’s Appeal: $5,960.00, Coffee Social: $21.00, Gift Shop: $88.00, Total: $8,912.65

This Week’s Candle Intentions

Eternal Candle: Intention of Parishioners & BenefactorsResurrection: +Shawn Matse by Joseph Gallucci

Special Intentions: Erwin Armada, Barbara Dugan, Joanie Mahar, Helen Furka, Vincent Rice, Mc-Carthy Family, Gemma Hillman, Marti Lopez, Kathleen Linkowsky, Betty Geletey, Richard Gable,

Robert King, Margaret Kunak, Ann Ryan, Chris Faix, Robyn Foy and Elaine Browne.

May the Lord rest His healing hand on His servants and hear their requests:Mary Rabayda, Jane Walsh, Steve Durkit, Dorothy Dumnich, Richard Reese, Chris Balsz, Mary

Lou Clark, Sr. Christopher, OSBM, Dorothy Bezeredi, Carlene Eneroth, Fred Way, Audrey Noble, Sharon White, Nancy Sandrock, Marlene Rolling, Bob Dugan, Cathy Milko, Cathy Simpson, Michael Dougherty, Widad Butty, Kris Lara, Mike Chapa, Mark D. Chapa, Noa Lee Chapa,

Teresa Blanc, Clementina Mendoza, Dolores Balcazar, Vivian Rodarte, Nicholas Stefaniak Jr., Marie Mika, Mary Popovich, Betty Iwinski, Anne Peterson, Dan Palaschak,

Michael Sherwood, Christina Toth, Alice Garcia, Liz Kol and the Sopiak Families.

SPECIAL SPONSORS

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HOLY REDEEMER CATHOLIC CEMETERYThere is an Eastern Catholic Section at

Holy Redeemer Cemetery located at 23015 N. Cave Creek Road, Phoenix, AZ 85024. The telephone number is 480-513-3243.

Wisdom from St. Gregory Palamas

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Second Sunday of Great Lent Glory to Jesus Christi

March 12, 2017 Glory to Him forever!

Saint Stephen Byzantine Catholic Cathedral 8141 North 16th Street, Front Phoenix, Arizona 85020-3950

Offi ce: 602.943.5379 Fax 602.997.4093 Website www.stsbcc.org

Sunday Divine Liturgy - Saturday 5:00 PM Sunday: 8:00 AM & 10:00 AM Weekday Divine Liturgy -Monday, Tuesday & Friday: 8:00 AM & Wednesday: 7:00 PM

Holy Mystery of Penance: One hour before each Liturgy or by appointment Served by:

Most Reverend John S. Pazak, C.Ss.R., Byzantine Catholic Bishop of Phoenix Most Reverend Gerald N. Dino, Bishop Emeritus

Very Rev. Diodoro Mendoza, Rector - rectorss@eparchyofphoenix.org , Rev. Joseph Hutsko, Vice-Rector - hutsl009@gmail.com

Very Reverend Archpriest David M. Petras, Retired Msgr. Kevin McCauliff e, In Residence

Deacon John Montalvo - Deacon James Danovich Sister Christopher, OSBM - Sister Jean Marie, OSBM