Palm Sunday
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever!
Palm Sunday
March 29, 2026
Sat 3/28/26 4:00pm Vigil Divine Liturgy +Abbot Leo by Valerie Rodenbucher
Sun 3/29/26 9:30am Divine Liturgy +Paul Dimun by Patty Nastasi
Mon 3/30/26 7:00pm Liturgy of Pre-Sanctified Gifts — 5-7pm — Confession
Tue 3/31/26 7:00pm Liturgy of Pre-Sanctified Gifts — 5-7pm — Confession
Wed 4/1/26 7:00pm Liturgy of Pre-Sanctified Gifts & Anointing of the Sick
Thu 4/2/26 7:00pm Divine Liturgy
Fri 4/3/26 9:30am Good Friday Matins with 12 Gospel
Fri 4/3/26 5:00pm Good Friday Vespers
Sat 4/4/26 7:00pm Resurrection Matins & Blessing of the Food
Sat 4/4/26 8:00pm Vigil Divine Liturgy +Martha Soper by Family
Sun 4/5/26 9:30am Divine Liturgy Parishioners of Our Parish
Variable Parts Palm Sunday Festal Tone Pages 235 - 241
Epistle Philippians 4:4-9
Gospel John 12:1-18
Memorial Candle Request: +Judy Mawhinney by Scott & Becky Fizer
Epistle Readers 28-Mar John Baycura/Mary Motko 29-Mar Liz/John Pocchiari 4-Apr Mary Troyan 5-Apr Amanda Stavish
Please Pray for: Mike Oshlick, Kathy Moyta, Dorothy Moyta, Brian Buchkovich, Lejen Warner, Sharon King, Ole J. Bergh, Liz Moyta, Fr. Michael Huszti, Fr. Laska, Susie Curcio, Teresa Milkovich, Robert Saper, Anna Habil, Mike Dancisin, Diane Sotak, Anna Pocchiari, Larry Hamil, Beverly Jones, Maryann Russin Schyvers, Nick Russin and Ken Konchan
Attendance/Collection: Information will be provided next week.
Gibsonia Schedule
Sun 3/29/26 11:30am Divine Liturgy Palm Sunday
Thu 4/2/26 7pm Divine Liturgy with sacrament of healing
Fri 4/3/26 7pm Funeral Vespers
Sat 4/4/26 4pm Resurection Matins + Divine Liturgy
Sun 4/5/26 11:30am Divine Liturgy Pascha
Good Friday Grave Visitation: The church will be open on Friday until 10:00pm for grave visitation.
Student Food Pantry: March's school donation drive is Mac N Cheese.Any questions, see Pam Gagen.
Reminder to Icon Class Attendees: First class is Tuesday April 14th (6:30-8:30), then 4/21 & 4/28, skip 2 weeks, then 5/19 & 5/26.
Salad Bingo: Salad Bingo will be held on April 11 th . Doors open at 11:15am. Donations of prizes for the bingo are on the bulletin board. Donations from local businesses would also be appreciated. We need donations of salads for the bingo. Parishioners are asked to please donate at least one salad. These may be Jello, pasta, etc.
Youth Group Fundraiser: The St. John's teens will be selling milk chocolate Byzantine three-bar crosses as a fundraiser to support youth group programs and events. Crosses will be available for purchase after liturgies on March 15, 22, and 29. If you attend Saturday liturgy and would like to purchase crosses or would like to order 10 or more, please contact Amanda Stavish at 724-272-2963. The cost is $5 per chocolate cross. Thank you for supporting our youth group!
The Vatican announced that Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen will be beatified on Sept. 24 in St. Louis. The Mass for the beatification will take place at 2 p.m. CDT at The Dome at America's Center, a stadium in St. Louis.
Venerable Fulton Sheen - (born May 8, 1895, El Paso, Illinois .—died December 9, 1979, Manhattan, New York) was a religious leader, evangelist, writer, Roman Catholic priest, and radio and television personality. His popularity among Americans is credited with helping to break down anti-Catholic bias in the United States and paving the way for the election of John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic to serve as U.S. president.
Education and teaching career: Sheen was the oldest of four children born to Newt Sheen, a farmer, and his wife Delia (née Fulton) Sheen. As a child, he served as an altar boy at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria, Illinois. Sheen attended parochial school and then attended St. Viator College, in Bourbonnais, Illinois, where he earned a B.A. in 1917 and an M.A. in 1919. He was ordained a priest later that year. Sheen pursued further studies, earning a bachelor's degree in canon law from the Catholic Univeysity of America in Washington, D.C., in 1920; a Ph.D. in philosophy from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium in 1923; and a Doctor of Sacred Theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome in 1924. After another year of study in Belgium, he served as a priest in London for one year before returning to Peoria in 1926 to serve as a parish priest. Later that year he left Peoria to join the philosophy faculty at the Catholic University of America, where he taught until 1950.
A popular radio and TV evangelist: Sheen was not only a respected teacher but also a gifted orator. The rising popularity of radio in the early 20th century provided Sheen with an opportunity to gain a wide audience. In 1930 he began his 22-year radio career on the program The Catholic Hour, which reached an estimated four million listeners at the height of its popularity. In 1951 Sheen became a titular bishop, and he served as auxiliary bishop of New York (1951-66). During much of his tenure in New York, he hosted a weekly television series, Life Is Worth Living (1951-57), that attracted about 30 million viewers. On that show the bishop, often speaking without a script and appearing at his characteristic chalkboard, discussed practical matters of faith and sharply criticized communism.
Sheen was appointed national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in 1958, a position he held until 1966, when he was appointed bishop of Rochester, New York. From 1961 to 1969 he hosted another popular television show, The Bishop Fulton Sheen Show. He also wrote various books and a syndicated newspaper column. In 1969 he was appointed archbishop of Newport, Wales. From 1976 until his death three years later, Sheen served Pope Paul VI as assistant to the Pontifical Throne, a position that authorized him to stand by the papal throne during official ceremonies. He died shortly after open-heart surgery in 1979 at the age of 84. Among his many books are Communism and the Conscience of the West (1948), Way to Inner Peace (1955), and The Power of Love (1965).
Path to beatification: Sheen was declared "Venerable," or officially recognized for having lived a life of holy virtue (a major step toward canonization), by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012. In July 2019 Pope Francis approved a miracle in which a stillborn baby survived due to Sheen intercession, making possible his future beatification.
As the Church enters into the week before Jesus' Passion and death, the Lord does not ask us to contemplate him only in pictures and photographs, or in the videos that circulate on the internet. No. Instead, Jesus is present in our many brothers and sisters who today endure sufferings like his own: they suffer from slave labor, from family tragedies, from diseases. Many people also suffer from wars, from interests that are armed and ready to strike. Women and men who are cheated, violated in their dignity, discarded. Jesus is in them, in each of them, and, with marred features and broken voice, he asks to be looked in the eye, to be acknowledged, to be loved. The presence of God in each of these brothers and sisters is not "some other Jesus", but is "the same Jesus" who entered Jerusalem amid the waving of palm branches. It is the same Jesus who was nailed to the cross and died between two criminals. We have no other Lord but him: Jesus, the humble King of justice, mercy and peace.
