Our Lady of the Sign
Catholic Church
Byzantine Rite
7311 Lyons Road
Coconut Creek, FL 33073
ph: (954) 429-0056
News
Divine Liturgy every Saturday and Sunday
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
Come and join us to the Divine Liturgy to acknowledge the most precious gift that we have ever received, and that we keep receiving every single day of our lives: God’s unconditional love for each and every one of us.
Come, because we need your prayers, and we will pray for you as well. Come and express solidarity to all Christian individuals and communities who have given courageous witness to Christ in all our Churches throughout the world and those who face trials and difficulties because the lack of religious freedom.
You are invited to strengthen your faith, increase your hope and be more mindful of God’s love and creation by participating in the beautiful Liturgies during the year.
- Events
The Divine Liturgy is celebrated:
Each Saturday evening at 5:00 PM and Sunday morning at 10:00 AM.
Join us 20 mins. before the Sunday Divine Liturgy to Pray the Rosary in honor of the Mother of God.
Troparion of Theophany (Epiphany At Your baptism in the Jordan, O Lord, worship of the Trinity was revealed. For the Father's voice bore witness to You, calling You His "beloved Son", and the Spirit in the form of a dove confirmed the truth of these words. O Christ God, Who appeared and enlightened the world, glory to You!
Let us join our Pope Benedict XVI who is praying for an increase in knowledge of and esteem for the Eastern Catholic Churches. His general intention is "that the Eastern Catholic Churches and their venerable traditions may be known and esteemed as a spiritual treasure for the whole Church."
LITURGICAL CALENDAR FOR YEAR 2012
Major Feasts and Fasts. Pascha and the 12 Great Feasts are in bold.
January 1
Circumcision of Our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ
Feast of St. Basil the Great
New Year's Day (Civil)
January 6
Theophany of Our Lord, God, and Savior, Jesus Christ
January 8
Sunday After Theophany
January 22
Sunday of Zacchaeus
January 30
Synaxis of the Ecumenical Teachers and Hierarchs: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom
January 29
Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee
February 2
Encounter of Our Lord, God, and Savior, Jesus Christ with Simeon and Anna (Presentation of Our Lord Into the Temple)
February 5
Sunday of the Prodigal Son
February 11
First All-Souls Saturday
February 12
Sunday of the Second Coming of Christ (Meat-Fare)
February 19
Forgiveness Sunday (Cheese-Fare)
February 20
Beginning of the Holy Forty Days Fast
February 26
First Sunday of the Great Fast (Sunday of Orthodoxy)
March 3
Second All-Souls Saturday
March 4
Second Sunday of the Great Fast (St. Gregory Palamas)
March 10
Third All Souls Saturday
March 11
Third Sunday of the Great Fast (Veneration of the Cross)
March 17
Fourth All-Souls Saturday
March 18
Fourth Sunday of the Great Fast (St. John of the Ladder)
March 22
Canon of St. Andrew of Crete
March 24
Akathistos Saturday
March 25
Annunciaton to the Mother of God
Fifth Sunday of the Great Fast (St. Mary of Egypt)March 31-April 8
Great and Holy Week
March 31
Lazarus Saturday
April 1
Palm (Flowery) Sunday - Entrance into Jerusalem
April 2
Great and Holy Monday
April 3
Great and Holy Tuesday
April 4
Great and Holy Wednesday
April 5
Great and Holy Thursday
April 6
Great and Holy Friday
April 7
Great and Holy Saturday
April 8
Pascha - Feast of the Resurrection of Christ (Easter Sunday)
April 8-15
Bright Week
April 15
Second Sunday of Pascha (Apostle Thomas)
April 22
Third Sunday of Pascha (Myrrh-Bearing Women)
April 29
Fourth Sunday of Pascha (Healing of the Paralytic)
May 2
Mid-Pentecost
May 6
Fifth Sunday of Pascha (Samaritan Women at the Well)
May 11
Feast of Saints Cyril & Methodius
May 13
Sixth Sunday of Pascha (Man Born Blind)
May 17
Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord, God, and Savior, Jesus Christ
May 20
Seventh Sunday of Pascha (Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council)
May 26
Fifth All-Souls Saturday
May 27
Pentecost - Descent of the Holy Spirit
June 3
All Saints Sunday
June 4-28
The Apostles' Fast
June 24
Nativity of the Holy Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John
June 29
The Holy Glorious and All-Praised Leaders of the Apostles, Peter & Paul
July 15
Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Six Ecumenical Councils
July 20
Holy, Glorious Prophet Elijah
August 1-14
Dormition Fast
August 6
Transfiguration of Our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ
August 15
The Dormition of our Most Holy Lady the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary
August 29
The Beheading of the Holy Glorious Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist John
September 1
Liturgical New Year (7920)
September 8
The Nativity of our Most Holy Lady, the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary
September 14
The Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross
October 1
The Protection of our Most Holy Lady the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary
October 14
Sunday of the Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council
November 8
Synaxis of the Archangel Michael and the Other Bodiless Powers
November 11
Veterans' Day (USA), Remembrance Day (Canada)
November 15
Nativity Fast (Philip's Fast also known as Advent)
November 21
The Entry of the Most Holy Mother of God into the Temple
December 6
St Nicholas the Wonderworker and Archbishop of Myra in Lycia
December 9 (8)
The Conception of the Most Holy Mother of God by the Righteous Anna
December 12
Our Lady of Guadalupe
December 16
Second Sunday Before Christmas (Holy Forefathers)
December 23
Sunday Before Christmas (Holy Fathers)
December 25
The Nativity of our Lord God and Savior, Jesus Christ
December 26
Synaxis of the Most Holy Mother of God
December 27
First-Martyr and Archdeacon Stephen
December 28
20,000 Martyrs of Nicomedia
December 29
14,000 Infants (the Holy Innocents) Slain by Herod at Bethlehem
December 30
Sunday after the Nativity: Commemoration of the Holy Righteous David the King, Joseph the Betrothed, and James the Brother of the Lord
- From Christmas
We gather to remember all the prophets that revealed the promises from God; beginning with the Old the Voice and Will of God
You are invited to strengthen your faith, increase your hope and be more mindful of God’s love and creation by participating in the beautiful Liturgies during the year.
to bear witness of the living God in order to live our conversion towards God - Pentecost Sunday is one of the most ancient feasts of the Church, is often called "the birthday of the Church." On this day, with the descent of the Holy Spirit, Christ's mission is completed, and the New Covenant is inaugurated. Pentecost is celebrated early enough to be mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles and in St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians.
Easter. Bright Week and Pascha His Resurrection is an expression and a description of the joy and fruits of Christ’s victory as crowned by His glorious Resurrection. As the Jewish Passover was celebrated to commemorate the exodus of the Jews from captivity, so also the Christian Pascha is an exodus from death to life and from the earth to heaven.
May heaven and earth rejoice at the witness of those who suffer opposition and even persecution for their faith in Jesus Christ. May the proclamation of his victorious resurrection deepen their courage and trust.
His Resurrection is an expression and a description of the joy and fruits of Christ’s victory as crowned by His glorious Resurrection. As the Jewish Passover was celebrated to commemorate the exodus of the Jews from captivity, so also the Christian Pascha is an exodus from death to life and from the earth to heaven.
The risen Christ is journeying ahead of us towards the new heavens and the new earth, in which we shall all finally live as one family, as sons of the same Father. He is with us until the end of time. Let us walk behind him, in this wounded world, singing Alleluia.
In our hearts there is joy and sorrow, on our faces there are smiles and tears. Such is our earthly reality. But Christ is risen, he is alive and he walks with us. For this reason we sing and we walk, faithfully carrying out our task in this world with our gaze fixed on heaven.
We are called every day to live to the fullest and discover the Living Word, the risen Christ.
- Great Lent
- The Lenten season is a time of repentance, prayer, and joy in the Lord.The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, also called the Liturgy of St. Gregory the Dialogist, is celebrated on Friday evenings at 6:00 PM during Great Lent. This is a Vespers service at which a portion of the Body and Blood of Christ are distributed to the faithful."1. On Monday of the first week of Great Lent, our Byzantine Church invites us first of all to repentance. In the first prayer of Vespers, we say: “As we set out on the course of the Fast, let us hasten to tame our flesh through abstinence. With prayer and tears, let us seek the Lord our Savior. In order that He may forget our evil deeds, let us say to Him: We have sinned against You, O Christ Our King! Save us as you saved the people of Nineveh of old. In Your compassion grant us a share in Your heavenly Kingdom.” Our sins are always sins against God: “We have sinned against You, O Christ Our King!” That is why the Church invites us to “seek the Lord our Savior.” By sin we live outside God’s Kingdom. That is why we pray that God, in His compassion, grant us a share in His heavenly Kingdom.
2. By sin we also live in darkness and we disfigure the image and likeness of God in us. That is why we pray to God in the second prayer of Vespers: “I entreat You: cleanse me in the waters of repentance. And through prayer and fasting, make me shine with light, for You alone are merciful.” Those who recount the lives of the Saints, especially of the hermits in the desert, always mention that their faces shone with light. This light is the Divine Light, the glory of God that filled the Temple of Solomon and that radiated from Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. St. Paul says: “All of us, gazing on the Lord’s glory with unveiled faces, are being transformed from glory to glory into His very image by the Lord Who is Spirit.” (2 Cor. 3:18) The faces of the Saints were illumined by the radiant glory of Divine Life that filled their hearts.
3. The Lenten season is also a season of joy and a time of purification. In the third prayer of Vespers we pray: “Let us enter the season of the radiant Fast with joy, giving ourselves to spiritual combat. Let us purify our spirit and cleanse our flesh. As we fast from food, let us abstain also from every passion. Rejoicing in the virtues of the Spirit, may we persevere with love, so as to be worthy to see the solemn Passion of Christ our God, and with great spiritual gladness to behold His holy Resurrection.” This Lenten combat is first and foremost a spiritual combat. Our fasting from food has spiritual value only when it used as a weapon in the spiritual battle for our hearts. Fasting is not an end in itself but rather a most effective means in helping us attain liberation from the passions, a necessary condition for our sanctification.
By fully embracing the spiritual combat of Great Lent we prepare ourselves to celebrate with pure and radiant joy the Feast of the Resurrection. In the second hymn of the Orthros on the first day of the Fast, we pray: “Let us joyfully begin the holy season of abstinence. Let us shine with the bright radiance of the holy Commandments of Christ our God, with the brightness of love and the splendor of prayer, with the purity and the strength of good courage. Clothed in a garment of light, let us hasten to the holy third-day Resurrection that shines upon the world with the glory of eternal life.” When we live clothed “with the brightness of love and the splendor of prayer,” we can say that we are already living in the spirit of the Resurrection".
Above written by Archbishop Cyril Salim Bustros, Eparchy of Newton. Permission to use this quotation was obtained from Archbishop Cyril Salim Bustros, Eparchy of Newton. The following is based in a Homily from Pope Benedict XVI pronounced in the first day of Lent 2010.
Sin basically consists in disobeying God, in a lack of love. The first act of justice is recognizing one's own iniquity rooted at the heart of each person. An expression of penitence is only worthy in God's eyes if it is the sign of a sincerely repentant heart. The true reward is not the admiration of others but friendship with God and the grace that derives from Him, the grace that gives peace and the strength to do good.
Lent enlarges our horizon, orients us toward eternal life it makes us to understand the relativity of earthly goods and thus enables us to make the necessary renunciations, frees us to do good.
Prayer and listening to the Word, conversion and penance, works of charity. Like Jesus said to those who asked him: You too go and do the same!
- Our Lady of the Sign Guild
December 12- Celebration of St Nicholas. Dinner after Divine Liturgy.We thank all that were in this feast organized by the Guild, who gave a surprise to the small ones.
Our Lady of the Sign Guild held elections of officers, Sunday November 7, 2010
Congratulations to the new officers elected that will help to serve our Past and Community.President: Rose Auer VicePresident: MaryAnn Gonzalez Secretary: Janice Carey RoseAuer (at) gmail.com
Please support them and participate in the different events they plan!
- 30 Years of Priesthood May 1980- May 2010
- Fr. Michael Kane celebrated his 30th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood on Sunday May 16th.We thank him for his service and for his faithfulness to his vocation.Let's keep Fr. Michael in our prayers and express him our support!
- At the solemn closing of the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops.
Our Holiness pope Benedict XVI encouraged the participation of the faithful in liturgical celebrations of other Catholic rites, thus opening themselves to the dimensions of the Universal Church. “We have thus enhanced the liturgical, spiritual and theological wealth of the Eastern Catholic Churches, as well as of the Latin Church”.
- On the pastoral visit of Our Pope Benedict XVI to Cyprus Jun 4-6 2010
Come Holy Spirit, Give us the understanding to work for the unity of the Church!
With joy, we celebrate the pastoral visit of our Pope, Benedict XVI to Cyprus, “a bridge between East and West”, the Gate of Christianity, and the encounter with Cypriot Orthodox Archbishop, Chrysostomos II.
Let’s pray and work for the unity of Orthodox and Catholics so as disciples of Jesus the world might believe.
We reject the violence which cost the life of the Bishop from Turkey Luigi Padovese who while headed to the airport in Turkey to travel and meet our Pope was stabbed to death. May his martyrdom inspire all Christians to use the great commandment we received from our Lord:
To love our neighbors and to forgive those who don’t respect the sanctity of life.
- Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 5PM Bishop William Skurla at Our Lady of the Sign
Most. Rev. William Skurla, DD, Bishop of Passaic celebrated the Divine Liturgy at Our Lady of the Sign Church.
Everyone enjoyed his warm presence. Thank you Bishop William for coming. We'll be very pleased to have you back again in the future.
- Easter
May the grace and joy of the Risen Christ be with you all.
"Easter does not work magic. Just as the Israelite found the desert awaiting them on the far side of the Red Sea, so the Church, after the resurrection, always finds history filled with joy and hope, grief and anguish. And yet, this history is changed, it is marked by a new and eternal covenant, it is truly open to the future. For this reason, saved by hope, let us continue our pilgrimage, bearing in our hearts the song that is ancient and yet ever new: “Let us sing to the Lord: glorious his triumph!” Pope Benedict XVI- Blessing of Easter Food and Baskets after Easter Liturgy on Saturday and Sunday.
The tradition of blessing Easter baskets celebrates the joy of the Resurrection. The Easter meal breaks the six weeks of Lenten fasting with the sharing of blessed food on Easter morning. The foods represent fare abstained from during Lent: meat, butter, rich breads and more.
The foods in the baskets are foods that are especially significant to our faith. They are symbolic of Christ Himself, our true Passover.
A candle is usually inserted into the basket to represent Christ the Light of the World. The basket is covered with a linen cloth and brought to the church to be blessed.
Paska, a baked round loaf, often with decorative cross baked on top, is a symbol of Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life. Eggs, plain or decorated and hardboiled is a sign of rejoicing in the new life and the risen that is ours in Christ.
The Paschal Lamb, usually made from cake, bread or butter, is symbolic of the victory of Jesus Christ after his Resurrection. Butter or sugar represents the sweetness of God’s blessings. Meats (sausage, ham, bacon) are symbolic of abolishment of the “Old Law” in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Horseradish and red beets reminds us of the bitter sufferings of our Lord. Salt, the fundamental seasoning and preservative, is symbolic of prosperity and justice.
On Easter Sunday the blessed foods are shared with family and friends. The colored eggs are exchanged with friends.
This old custom is indeed richly symbolic and beautiful and one in which the whole family can participate in and prepare.
When you ask God to bless your meal, you turn in thanking Him for the blessing He has given to your family and the gift of His only Son. Easter is a celebration of Jesus' victory over death and the hope of eternal life that He has given us.
7311 Lyons Road
Coconut Creek, FL 33073
ph: (954) 429-0056
