Tag Archive for: Sunday of St. John Climacus

Matthew 25:31-46

St. Demetrios Bible Study

3/22/15

Matthew 25:31-46

Sampson Kasapakis

1) Text: Judging the Nations (Gospel Reading on Judgment Sunday)

31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy[a] angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ 41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’44 “Then they also will answer Him,[b] saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

 

2) Sheep VS Goats Recap: Remember one of our previous bible studies? What does it mean to be a sheep?

3) How do we stay on the right hand side that gets to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven?

4) “Even as Christ is healthy in the souls that are healthy, he is ailing in the souls that are ailing”- Unknown

5) New York City Rescue Mission Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6jSKLtmYdM

6) My challenge to us for the rest of this Lenten season. Change how you see people, not just the ones in this church but everywhere! See Christ in everyone and everything and more importantly allow Christ to come alive within us so when others look at us they may see Him.

Weekly Sunday Bulletin – Sunday of St. John Climacus

Sunday of St. John ClimacusMarch 30, 2014 – 4th Sunday of Lent

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

George Georgakakis, Manny Daskos, James Carras, Eleni Varvoutis, Michael Haralambis,  Michael Fossler, Juanita Antley

Continuing to Climb Towards Theosis – Communion with God

Rev. Christopher T. Metropulos
April 14, 2013

Book Reference
With Burning Hearts
A Meditation on the Eucharistic Life
By Henri J. M. Nouwen

Opening thoughts and basis for discussion

Reflect on the journey to Emmaus

Essence of Life in the Giving of Bread. The Eucharist is a simple human gesture. 

The Eucharist is an opportunity to welcome Christ into our home. Jesus is so human, yet so Divine,so familiar, yet so mysterious, so close, yet so revealing.

The Eucharist is the story of a God who wants to come close to us, so close that we can see him with our own eyes, hear him with our own ears, touch him with our own hands, so close that there is nothing between us and him.

Jesus Christ is God for us, God with us, God within us

“My heart is restless until I may rest in you, my beloved Creation.” St. Augustine. God wants to be with us if we will allow Him to do so.

God wants communion with us!

“I created you, I gave you all my love, I guided you, offered you my support, promised you the fulfillment of your hearts’ desires: where are you, where is your response, where is your love?  What else must I do to make you love me? I won’t give up, I will keep trying. One day, you will discover how I long for your love!” Nouwen

The receiving of the Eucharist has been for all time the realization that we are taking Christ into us. We are made with a heart that only God can fully satisfy. We know that people today are chasing many things and still remain unfulfilled. It is not secret as to why this is happening. They are chasing the wrong thing. We see people looking for the splendor of nature, the excitement of history, and the attractiveness of people.

Communion, becoming one with Christ, leads us to a new realm of being. It ushers us into the Kingdom. There the old distinctions between happiness and sadness, success and failure, praise and blame, health and sickness, life and death, no longer exist. In the Eucharist we no longer belong to the world that keeps dividing us, judging, separating and evaluating. Here we belong to Christ and Christ to us and of course with Christ we belong to God.

Communion creates community. A gathering of faithful seeking communion and or the Eucharist is in a position higher than most are able to conceive.

Communion though is not the end. Mission is. For to receive Christ and keep Him to yourself is not the way God intended His son to be represented or lived. We must make a sacrifice and let go of our selfishness and make known to all that Christ is the salvation of our souls.

This begins however in the home. This is the most difficult part since those in our home know when we miss the mark. We receive the Eucharist and then we miss the mark of living out our lives as Christians.  Our families are all too quick to pick this up but that is not the reason to avoid trying to live a Christian life. It can cause some to say why live the life of a Christian, why receive Holy Communion when we see your impatience, your jealousies, our resentments and our little games. The answer is we live as Christians and as Christ taught us to do because it is right and the end is our ultimate salvation. It doesn’t mean that we are perfect and that we will not fall along the way. We must as families and as a community realize that people will disappoint us but God never will.

Conclusion

We have a mission to fulfill. We are sent out to teach, to inspire, and to offer hope to the world–not as an exercise of our unique skill, but as the expression of our faith that all we have to give comes from him who brought us together.

Life lived Eucharistically is always a life of mission. Our world is troubled by so many things that people can become discouraged by all of these situations. Yet we are called to bring healing where there is pain. Maybe it is impossible to change what has happened to you, but you are still free to choose how to live it.

To view this class visit our Adult Education Video Page