Tag Archive for: Stewardship

Weekly Sunday Bulletin-August 28, 2016

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Moses the Black of SceteMoses the Black of Scete

Saint Moses, who is also called Moses the Black, was a slave, but because of his evil life, his master cast him out, and he became a ruthless thief. Later, however, coming to repentance, he converted, and took up the monastic life under Saint Isidore of Scete. He gave himself over to prayer and the mortification of the carnal mind and later became a priest of exemplary virtue. He was revered by all for his lofty ascetical life and for his great humility. Once the Fathers in Scete asked Moses to come to an assembly to judge the fault of a certain brother, but he refused. When they insisted, he took a basket which had a hole in it, filled it with sand, and carried it on his shoulders. When the Fathers saw him coming they asked him what the basket might mean. He answered, “My sins run out behind me, and I do not see them, and I am come this day to judge failings which are not mine.” When a barbarian tribe was coming to Scete, Moses, conscious that he himself had slain other men when he was a thief, awaited them and was willingly slain by them with six other monks, at the end of the fourth century.

 

Parish Council on duty: Basil Economou, Michael Fossler, George Georgakakis, Marion Koliniatis, Harry Tangalakis, Mark Zaden

 

Weekly Sunday Bulletin-July 24, 2016

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Great Martyr Christina5th Sunday of Matthew

July 24, 2016

O Lord Jesus, unto Thee Thy lamb doth cry with a great voice: O my Bridegroom, Thee I love; and seeking Thee, I now contest, and with Thy baptism am crucified and buried. I suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee; for Thy sake I die, that I may live in Thee: accept me offered out of longing to Thee as a spotless sacrifice. Lord, save our souls through her intercessions, since Thou art great in mercy.

Apolytikion of Great Martyr Christina in the Fourth Tone

 

Parish Council on Duty:               

John Argiropoulos, John Ioannou, Jr., Tony Maiorana,  Anna Merkel, Demetri Rapanos, Katherine Ziegler

 

Weekly Sunday Bulletin-June 12, 2016

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Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council

Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council

The Church was strengthened into one faith through the preaching of the Apostles and the  doctrines of the Fathers. The Church is robed in truth woven of the word of God from above.  It teaches truth, and glorifies the great mystery of faith.

Kontakion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone

 

 

 

 

 

Parish Council on Duty:               

John Argiropoulos, John Ioannou, Jr., Tony Maiorana,  Anna Merkel, Demetri Rapanos, Katherine Ziegler

 

Weekly Sunday Bulletin-June 5, 2016

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Sunday Sunday of the Blind Manof the Blind Man

I come to You, O Christ, as the man blind   from birth. With the eyes of my soul blinded,    I cry out to You in repentance, “You are the resplendent Light of those in darkness.”

Kontakion in the Fourth Tone

 

 

 

Parish Council on duty:

Basil Economou, Michael Fossler, George Georgakakis, Marion Koliniatis, Harry Tangalakis, Mark Zaden

 

 

Weekly Sunday Bulletin-May 22, 2016

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Sunday of the Paralytic

Sunday of the ParalyticI am grievously paralyzed in a multitude of sins and wrongful deeds. As You raised up the paralytic of old, also raise up my soul by Your divine guidance, that I may cry out “Glory to Your Power O Compassionate Christ.” Kontakion in the Third Tone

Close to the Sheep’s Gate in Jerusalem, there was a pool, which was called the Sheep’s Pool. It had round about it five porches, that is, five sets of pillars supporting a domed roof. Under this roof there lay very many sick people with various maladies, awaiting the moving of the water. The first to step in after the troubling of the water was healed immediately of whatever malady he had. It was there that the paralytic of today’s Gospel way lying, tormented by his infirmity of thirty-eight years. When Christ beheld him, He asked him, “Wilt thou be made whole?” And he answered with a quiet and meek voice, “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool.” The Lord said unto him, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.” And straightaway the man was made whole and took up his bed. Walking in the presence of all, he departed rejoicing to his own house. According to the expounders of the Gospels, the Lord Jesus healed this paralytic during the days of the Passover, when He had gone to Jerusalem for the Feast, and dwelt there teaching and working miracles. According to Saint John the Evangelist, this miracle took place on the Sabbath.

 

 

Parish Council on duty:

Basil Economou, Michael Fossler, George Georgakakis, Marion Koliniatis, Harry Tangalakis, Mark Zaden

 

Flowers and Coffee Hour:

In loving memory of Maria Konstantinidis, her family has donated the flowers on the solea and today’s coffee hour.

 

Weekly Sunday Bulletin-May 15, 2016

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Holy MyyrhbearersSunday of the Myrrhbearers

When You descended to death, O Immortal Life, then, the light of Your divinity destroyed Hades. When You raised the dead from the depths of darkness, all the    heavenly powers cried out, “Glory to You our Christ, the   Giver of Life.” Lowering Your pure body from the Cross, Joseph wrapped it in clean muslin with fragrant spices and laid it in a new tomb. Standing by the tomb the angel said to the Myrrh-bearing women: “Myrrh is for the dead; but Christ has shown Himself stranger to death.”  Apolytikion in the Second Tone

Holy Myrrhbearers Sunday

About the beginning of His thirty-second year, when the Lord Jesus was going throughout Galilee, preaching and working miracles, many women who had received of His beneficence left their own homeland and from then on followed after Him. They ministered unto Him out of their own possessions, even until His crucifixion and entombment; and afterwards, neither losing faith in Him after His death, nor fearing the wrath of the Jewish rulers, they came to the sepulchre, bearing the myrrh-oils they had prepared to anoint His body. It is because of the myrrh-oils, that these God-loving women brought to the tomb of Jesus that they are called the Myrrh-bearers. Of those whose names are known are the following: first of all, the most holy Virgin Mary, who in Matthew 27:56 and Mark 15:40 is called “the mother of James and Joses” (these are the sons of Joseph by a previous marriage, and she was therefore their step-mother); Mary Magdalene (celebrated July 22); Mary, the wife of Clopas; Joanna, wife of Chouza, a steward of Herod Antipas; Salome, the mother of the sons of Zebedee, Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus; and Susanna. As for the names of the rest of them, the evangelists have kept silence (Matt 27:55-56; 28:1-10. Mark 15:40-41. Luke 8:1-3; 23:55-24:11, 22-24. John 19:25; 20:11-18. Acts 1:14).

Together with them we celebrate also the secret disciples of the Saviour, Joseph and Nicodemus. Of these, Nicodemus was probably a Jerusalemite, a prominent leader among the Jews and of the order of the Pharisees, learned in the Law and instructed in the Holy Scriptures. He had believed in Christ when, at the beginning of our Saviour’s preaching of salvation, he came to Him by night. Furthermore, he brought some one hundred pounds of myrrh-oils and an aromatic mixture of aloes and spices out of reverence and love for the divine Teacher (John 19:39). Joseph, who was from the city of Arimathea, was a wealthy and noble man, and one of the counsellors who were in Jerusalem. He went boldly unto Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus, and together with Nicodemus he gave Him burial. Since time did not permit the preparation of another tomb, he placed the Lord’s body in his own tomb which was hewn out of rock, as the Evangelist says (Matt. 27:60).

 

Parish Council on Duty:               

John Argiropoulos, John Ioannou, Jr., Tony Maiorana,  Anna Merkel, Demetri Rapanos, Katherine Ziegler

 

Flowers:

Today’s flowers for the Altar have been donated in memory of Katina Maounis by her daughter Zoi DeTuro and family.

 

 

Weekly Sunday Bulletin April 10, 2016

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ladder-of-divine-ascentSunday of Saint John Climacus (St. John of the Ladder)

On this Sunday of Great Lent, we remember St. John Climacus or St. John of the Ladder. He was the abbot of the Monastery of St. Katherine on Mt. Sinai during the seventh century. St. John wrote The Ladder of Divine Ascent, which is a guide to ascetic living (living a spiritually disciplined life). This book is read in every Orthodox monastery during Great Lent. In this book, St. John writes about 33 rungs of the ladder we climb in our ascent to   heaven. Each rung represents a different Christian virtue (obedience, repentance, love, humility, etc.). In today’s Gospel passage, we are shown that through faith in Christ all things are possible. We too need to cry as the father in today’s Gospel, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.” Furthermore, this passage reveals that faith to conquer our demons comes only from prayer and fasting. At this point, Christ begins to reveal to the disciples about His upcoming suffering. St. John of the Ladder is commerated on the Fourth Sunday of Lent. His Feast Day is on March 30.

 

O John our father, saint of God, you were revealed as a citizen of the desert, as an angel in a body and a worker of miracles. Through fasting, prayer and vigils you have received heavenly gifts of grace, and have healed the sick and the souls of those who turn to you with faith. Glory be to Him who gave you strength; glory to Him who crowned you; glory be to Him who through you grants to all men healing.

 

Parish Council on duty:

Basil Economou, Michael Fossler, George Georgakakis, Harry Tangalakis

 

Weekly Sunday Bulletin March 27, 2016

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St. Gregory PalamasMarch 27, 2016

St. Gregory Palamas

This divine Father, who was from Asia Minor, was from childhood reared in the royal court of Constantinople, where he was instructed in both religious and secular wisdom. Later, while still a youth, he left the imperial court and struggled in asceticism on Mount Athos, and in the Skete at Beroea. He spent some time in Thessalonica being treated for an illness that came from his harsh manner of life. He was present in Constantinople at the Council that was convened in 1341 against Barlaam of Calabria, and at the Council of 1347 against Acindynus, who was of like mind with Barlaam; Barlaam and Acindynus claimed that the grace of God is created. At both these Councils, the Saint contended courageously for the true dogmas of the Church of Christ, teaching in particular that divine grace is not created, but is the uncreated energies of God which are poured forth throughout creation: otherwise it would be impossible, if grace were created, for man to have genuine communion with the uncreated God. In 1347 he was appointed Metropolitan of Thessalonica. He tended his flock in an apostolic manner for some twelve years, and years, and wrote many books and treatises on the most exalted doctrines of our Faith; and having lived for a total of sixty-three years, he reposed in the Lord in 1359. His holy relics are kept in the Cathedral of Thessalonica. A full service was composed for his feast day by the Patriarch Philotheus in 1368, when it was established that his feast be celebrated on this day. Since works without right faith avail nothing, we set Orthodoxy of faith as the foundation of all that we accomplish during the Fast, by celebrating the Triumph of Orthodoxy the Sunday before, and the great defender of the teachings of the holy Fathers today.

 

Parish Council on duty:

Basil Economou, Michael Fossler, George Georgakakis, Harry Tangalakis, Marion Koliniatis

Weekly Sunday Bulletin-March 20, 2016

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Sunday of OrthodoxyMarch 20, 2016

Sunday of Orthodoxy

 

For more than one hundred years the Church of Christ was troubled by the persecution of the Iconoclasts of evil belief, beginning in the reign of Leo the Isaurian (717-741) and ending in the reign of Theophilus (829-842). After Theophilus’s death, his widow the Empress Theodora (celebrated Feb. 11), together with the Patriarch Methodius (June 14), established Orthodoxy anew. This ever-memorable Queen venerated the icon of the Mother of God in the presence of the Patriarch Methodius and the other confessors and righteous men, and openly cried out these holy words: “If anyone does not offer relative reverence to the holy icons, not adoring them as though they were gods, but venerating them out of love as images of the archetype, let him be anathema.” Then with common prayer and fasting during the whole first week of the Forty-day Fast, she asked God’s forgiveness for her husband. After this, on the first Sunday of the Fast, she and her son, Michael the Emperor, made a procession with all the clergy and people and restored the holy icons, and again adorned the Church of Christ with them. This is the holy deed that all we the Orthodox commemorate today, and we call this radiant and venerable day the Sunday of Orthodoxy, that is, the  triumph of true doctrine over heresy.

 

First Sunday of Lent – Sunday of Orthodoxy

There are three major Christian denominations in the world today: Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism and Protestanism. Each has its own customs and traditions. The Protestant Churches have eliminated most of their customs, traditions and symbols during the last 400 years. The Roman Catholics adorn their Churches with religious statues. Orthodox Christians grace their Churches with Holy Icons. Iconography (the painting of Holy pictures) does not have as its aim to reproduce a saint or an incident from the Gospel or the lives of the saints, but rather to express them symbolically, to impart to them a spiritual character. In Byzantine Iconography the saint is not represented as he is in actual life, that is naturalistically, but as he is now in the heavenly kingdom, as he is in eternity. This is called Liturgical art.

A noted writer once said about our art as he visited our most famous Church (St.Sophia which is now in the hands of the Turks in Constantinople), “Below the dome of St. Sophia I felt that the Byzantine idea has a world wide mission. Never in all the evolution of human art have painters succeeded in spreading the heaven before us so superbly, so truly, so profoundly at no other time did the feeling of rhythm and artistic knowledge find such a mature expression; at no time was art so living and real.” Western painters paint with their eyes’ the Byzantine painters paint with their heart and soul.

These Holy pictures called Icons have always graced our Churches since the Apostolic age. During the seventh century, a Byzantine Emperor attempted to remove all Icons from our Churches believing that Icons should not be worshiped but only God. He actually succeeded in doing away with the Icons, and for over 150 years Orthodox Christians were banned from using Icons in any  shape or form in the Churches and on March 11, 843 AD a great celebration was held in the Church of St. Sophia. There was a great meeting held during that period which defined the position of the Icon in Orthodox worship. The Icons produce within us a sense of repentance of our sins which sanctifies our soul. They are spiritual mirrors through which we see the Heavenly Saints. They are the symbol of our faith in Jesus Christ in accordance with our Orthodox tradition. This is why this Sunday of the restoration of the Icons in our Churches is called “Sunday of Orthodoxy” It is truly a victory for Orthodoxy which has withstood for almost 2000 years. The Sunday of Orthodoxy is celebrated all over the world and is one of the most important feast days of our Faith.

(Lives of the Saints and Major Feast Days by Rev. Fr. George Poulos)

Parish Council on Duty:               

John Argiropoulos, John Ioannou, Jr., Tony Maiorana,  Anna Merkel, Demetri Rapanos, Mark Zaden, Kathy Ziegler