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Four Evangelists Orthodox Church, Bel Air, Maryland

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You are here: Home / Archives for Prodigal Son

Prodigal Son

Weekly Happenings – House Blessings; Great Fast; Baptism; Panikhida; Prodigal Son

12 February 2025 at 09:00

Glory to Jesus Christ!

House blessings continue through the beginning of Great Lent. Please see Fr. Gregory to schedule a time if you would like to have your house blessed.


In preparation to enter into the Great Fast, please note that this week is fast free! The weekly Wednesday/Friday fast will resume next week, Meatfare week, and then no meat will be consumed in Cheesefare week, followed by the beginning of Lent. This gradual entrance into the Fast is very practical and beneficial, as opposed to a sudden deep-dive into the Fast!

While Orthodoxy has a defined tradition of fasting, it should be noted that there are exceptions to the rule (e.g., small children, the sick, the very old, pregnant and nursing mothers, travelers, etc.) and that practical pastoral wisdom might be called for (e.g., it might not be beneficial for someone who has never fasted to take on a strict fast) when fasting. Everyone’s situation in life is different.

If anyone has questions regarding the Orthodox practice of fasting, please see Fr. Gregory.

“True fasting is being a stranger to vice, controlling the tongue, abstaining from anger, distancing oneself from lust, evil speech, lying, perjury. The absence of these vices makes fasting true, and so shunning these vices makes fasting good.
— On Fasting and Feasts, St. Basil the Great


Saturday Vespers, 15 February 2025, will begin at the normally scheduled time of 6pm. Please join us!


This coming Sunday, 16 February 2025, at 8:30am, the Hillman family will be baptized and received into the Orthodox Church. Please join us on this joyous occasion! And please continue to keep the Hillman’s in your daily prayers.

The Divine Liturgy will begin at approximately 9:30am.


Following the Divine Liturgy on Sunday, we will pray a Panikhida (memorial service) for +David Mukai, on the 2 year anniversary of his passing. Memory eternal!


Sunday, 16 February 2025, is also the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, one of the pre-Lenten Sundays. The readings for the Divine Liturgy are:

1 Corinthians 6.12-20 (Epistle)
Luke 15.11-32 (Gospel)

I have recklessly forgotten Your glory, O Father; / and among sinners I have scattered the riches which You had given me. / Therefore, I cry to You like the Prodigal: / “I have sinned before You, O compassionate Father; / receive me a penitent and make me as one of Your hired servants.
— Kontakion for the Sunday of the Progigal Son

Prodigal Son
Icon of the Prodigal Son

Filed Under: News Tagged With: baptism, fasting, Great Lent, house blessing, Prodigal Son

Sunday of the Prodigal Son

9 February 2023 at 06:00

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

This coming Sunday, 12 February 2023, is the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, as well as the commemoration of St. Ethilwald of Lindisfarne (+740) and St. Alexis of Moscow (+1378), among others.

The Epistle and Gospel readings for Sunday are:

⁜ 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 (Epistle)
⁜ Luke 15:11-32 (Gospel)

About this Sunday we read from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese website: “… As with the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, the theme of this Sunday is repentance, and the focus on the parable of the Prodigal Son leads Orthodox Christians to contemplate the necessity of repentance in our relationship with our Heavenly Father”. | continue reading at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese website.


Parable of the Prodigal Son

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Divine Liturgy, Prodigal Son

Sunday of the Prodigal Son

27 February 2021 at 08:24

Tomorrow, February 28, is the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. This Sunday, the second of the pre-Lenten Sundays, highlights the love and mercy that God extends to those who repent. The Gospel reading (Luke 15:11-32) calls us to forgo the false home we’ve created and return to the Father. | Read more about the Sunday of the Prodigal Son here.

It also on this day that, during Matins, we begin to sing the sorrowful and poignant verses of Psalm 136, ‘By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept...’.

As Metropolitan Kallistos Ware writes in his introduction to The Lenten Triodion:

This Psalm of exile, sung by the children of Israel in their Babylonian captivity, has a special appropriateness on the Sunday of the Prodigal, when we call to mind our present exile in sin and make resolve to return home”.

The Meaning of the Great Fast

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Great Lent, Prodigal Son

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Four Evangelists Orthodox Church is a mission parish of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, a jurisdiction under the archpastoral care of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Ukrainian Orthodox Church USA and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
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Sunday Divine Liturgy: 9am
Saturday Vespers: 6pm

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