Pastoral Perspective
Christ is risen!
Ihope this message finds you well and filled with the joy of the Resurrection. As I reflect on our recent Holy Week, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the depth of faith and devotion that each of you brought to our services. Together, we experienced a truly inspiring Pascha that was made even more special by your participation and spirit.
Thank you for your commitment and love that transformed our celebrations into a powerful testament of our faith. It is moments like these that remind us of the strength of our community and the importance of coming together in worship.
As we look ahead, I want to extend a heartfelt invitation to all of you for our upcoming an-
nual festival. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to gather once again, sharing our talents, prayers, and love for one another. Let us unite our efforts to ensure that this festival is a joyful and successful celebration for our com-
With deep appreciation and love, I encourage each of you to come together as we prepare for this event. Your participation is vital, and I am confident that, with God’s grace, we will create something truly memorable.
Thank you once again for your unwavering support and faith.
With love and gratitude,
Fr. George
Father Georgios Livaditis
Χριστος Ανεστη! Christ is Risen!
April was a busy month for Philoptochos, with many days of baking and preparing for Pascha. Our bake sale was very successful. Thank you to all who support us. Thank you to all the ladies who worked tirelessly in the kitchen, day after day to produce our delicious baked goods!
On April 9th, breakfast and lunch were provided by Philoptochos for our seniors who worked on the palm crosses and again on April 16th, when they wrapped up the red eggs. So grateful for their help.
Philoptochos donated the palm trees for Palm Sunday and also the Easter lilies for Easter Sunday. Lenten desserts and other goods were also donated for the Palm Sunday Fish Luncheon, which was provided by the Parish Council.
Eight hundred red eggs prepared by the ladies were given for Resurrection night and Agape Sunday services. The eggs were donated by Goodies restaurant (Kolitsas, Filipidis, and Vlastaris families). We are extremely grateful for their donation.
It was great to have one of the Holy Cross Seminarians and his family visit Holy Trinity. His chanting along with our chanters made a beautiful addition to Holy Week services. Philoptochos contributed $3,000 towards his expenses while he was with us.
Goodie bags with tsourekia, koulourakia and candy, were given to 14 shut ins. Also 12 gift bags for the needy were prepared and given out.
Written by: MARIA COOK Philoptochos President
Festival baking has began and will continue throughout the month. All baking expenses for the pastrries sold at the festival, including the spanakopitas and tyropitas, are donated by Philoptochos. Let's all work together to make another successful festival year.
As my second year as a president comes to an end I would like to thank all of you who supported me and Philoptochos. Greatful and thankful also for my board and all members for their continuous support through the last 2 years. Elections for the new board will be held on May 6th .
“Speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and songs from the spirit, sing and make music from your heart to the Lord”, Ephesians 5:19
Christ is Risen!
Wglorified; and as God, I will unceasingly exalt in glory those who magnify you with faith and love.
e hope everyone had a beautiful Easter and enjoyed the special services this time of year. We always enjoy singing the special hymns during Holy Week, and oftentimes, some of the simplest phrases invoke the most emotion. This is one such hymn, which is part of the Good Friday evening Lamentation service:
This month, we’d like to share with you a special poem written by our own beloved Dimitrios “Jim” Trigonis, who we all miss and remember often. He was a treasured member of our choir family for many years.
Ecclesiastical
Choir Poem,
by Dimitrios Trigonis Member of the Choir of Holy Trinity, July 2003
To All the Ecclesiastical Choirs
The choir in the Church with its divine music takes away your breath. It is a golden bridge, that joins the heavens with the mother Earth.
Written by: HELEN YEOTSAS
Praising and chanting the glory of God and the passion of Christ, His only begotten Son, and His every divine deed with beautiful hymns indeed. And with sweet voices is offering prayers and gratitude to the Saints for the forgiveness of us all and for everybody’s soul With happiness welcomes all men, women and children young or old to join together with one sweet voice to celebrate in song the glory of the Lord. Sopranos, contraltos, tenors, basses and baritones, they all form a musical family that sings with Angelic harmony!
That is why the choir in every Church is a golden ornament, under the shelter of Jesus Christ and God our Father, and the immaculate Virgin “Theotokos” our Most Holy Mother!
Please Note for Youth Choir: Stay tuned for opportunities for your child to sing, or plan on having them start in September. Rehearsals are held Sundays after church. Contact Joanna with any questions at 203-650-4204 or at djbogardus@att.net. Save the Date! Choir will be hosting a Fundraiser/Coffee Hour on Sunday, October 5th after services! Please plan to join us and support the Choir on this Sunday.
Help Wanted! We need every voice - Sopranos, Altos, Tenors - but especially Bass singers! If you think you’d like to join us, please feel free to contact Joanna at 203-650-4204 or see her or any choir member in church on
Sundays. You can come up to the Loft on any Sunday and join us too – We welcome all! Together let’s #filltheloft!
The Senior and Junior Choirs of our church would like to thank our director, Joanna Bogardus, for her dedication and commitment to these programs! During Easter especially, we can’t tell you how much time she devotes to Choir.
Words to describe her from our own members include: Tireless
Devoted Patient Talented
Enthusiastic
Energetic Devoted Hard Working
We wouldn't have Choir programs without her, and we are grateful for her guiding & leading us, & inspiring us always!
Our purpose is to make connections within our Holy Trinity Church through our bi monthly meetings, which occur on the second and last Wednesdays of the month. As we age, our lives can become more isolating or limited and we encourage any and all Senior Members who are in our faithful Community to join us for our activities.
We met on April 9th and many of our members worked to fulfill the amount of Palm Crosses needed in our Parish for Palm Sunday Liturgy.
the many pairs of hands that made this task achievable. It represents how Christ called upon 12 people to follow him and he built an enormous community of people to help him
beautiful lunch offered by our Ladies Philoptochos. We all enjoyed our Lenten lunch and we praise the Ladies for their generous offer of labor and good food. We also appreciate our Senior members who also brought some
bers know that only the color red is used for the eggs symbolizing the blood of Christ that was shed for us. We also look forward to the cracking of the Eggs ( tsougrisma) on Easter Sunday. When the egg is cracked, this symbolizes Christ’s emergence from the tomb and his birth into Eternal Life. It is claimed that the one who egg remains uncracked shall enjoy a year of good luck.
We wish to offer our condolences to our Senior Member and her family, Effie Stavros for the passing of her husband John. May his Memory be Eternal and may she receive strength from God to endure this difficult time. Αιώνια η μνήμη" (Aiónia i mními).
We would like to wish any Senior who has a birthday celebration in May a Happy Birthday, (Χρόνια Πολλά!)! We also want to wish all of our Mothers in our Church Community a Happy Mother’s Day! May the love of your families ignite all the precious memories held within your hearts and minds, and may you be honored for all you have done and still do.
Please consider our group if you are a Senior and would like to join us. ou may contact Linda Bellas at 203 731-1382 to let us know you are interested in joining our group.
Written by: THEODORA FATIBENE DOP PRESIDENT
ments. Our next fundraiser is our annual Mother planter raffle. Ten lucky winners will have the opportunity to win a beautiful planter to adorn their surroundings. This fundraiser will help us with our scholarship award to a member of our DOP/Ahepa family. Please join us on Moth-
nual Easter bags for Father George
d like to thank our fellow parishioners as well as all our DOP sisters who generously 12)
We are looking forward to a DOP bingo night at Brewport in October with more information to come.
Following our Mother’s Day raffle we will hold a toiletry drive through mid June. Look for our contribution box in the back entrance of the church.
Knitting group meets faithfully, and the ladies continue to turn out beautiful items. Again, no experience or
stress necessary just a relaxed, fun atmosphere. Our organization’s season will soon be coming to an end but not our mission and commitments! With a new board we will continue to grow with our philanthropic duties for our church community and beyond.
Please consider joining our group with no pressure, just a fulfilling and enjoyable group of women.
Looking forward to many
ing a difference in some person’s life. Wishing you all a safe, happy, wonderful month of May.
DOP is continuing its new annual tradition to beautify the outside of our church. Recently some of our sisters planted beautiful spring flowers in the back entrance of our church. Shortly we will also plant in the front. Thank you ladies.
In theta pi, Theodora
We’re excited to announc a Spring Dance for all our young adults on May 3, perfect opportunity to gather, dance, and enjoy a great evening together.
Mark your calendars for Greek School Graduation on May 18, 2025! AHEPA will be providing pizza for the children, and the PTO is treating everyone to ice cream. So many fun events are coming up for our youth
V. Andriotis
Submitted by
Works of
Art
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” - (Ephesians 2:10 ESV)
This is a wonderful truth we can hold on to and align our thinking to, because each one of us is God's workmanship, His master work, His work of art!
So often, though, it is really hard to see ourselves this way. We don't “feel” work of art. We don't always appreciate or understand the way in which God sees us. His perspective of us is somewhat different from ours, and we are often our own worst critics.
But, if we could only see ourselves as God's workmanship, it would make a real difference to our lives and what we value as important. We would be more content with who we are and more content in our skin, instead of trying to change the physical things we don't like about ourselves, or hide
the “personality traits” we dislike or which causes us embarrassment.
We need to remember that we have been created in Christ Jesus, spiritually reborn, transformed, renewed and are ready to be used for the good works God has prepared beforehand for us. We are also in the process of being continually transformed, growing in Christ-likeness as we journey through life with God. We walk the paths that He has mapped out for us, which results in living the ultimate good-life one of abundance, joy, peace and hope, living to the full and to our full potential in Christ. This is a gift and a promise.
Fast Foods
Prep Time: 5minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Course: Soup
Cuisine: Greek
Servings: 4 people
Calories: 61kcal
Ingredients
10 cups water
4 balls of fide
0.5 - 1 tsp salt
1.5 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp grated mizithra optional
Fide soup
A pasta based soup made with thin noodles and flavoured with a touch of olive oil
While the water is boiling, break the fide apart in your hands so that it is broken into little pieces. When the water has come to a boil, add the salt and the fide to it. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes.
Add the olive oil to the pot, stir the fide, and cook for an additional 5 minutes.
Serve the fide soup with grated mizithra on the side.
Enjoy!
Nutrition
Calories: 61kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 2mg | Sodium: 366mg | Potassium: 5mg | Fiber: 0.01g | Vitamin A: 22IU | Calcium: 40mg | Iron: 0.04mg
Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church
4070 Park Avenue
Bridgeport, CT 06604
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