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St. Gregory of Nyssa Greek Orthodox Church
Publish Date: 2017-05-14
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St. Gregory of Nyssa Greek Orthodox Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • 619-593-0707
  • Street Address:

  • 1454 Jamacha Rd.

  • El Cajon, CA 92019-3752


Contact Information




Services Schedule

Saturday Vespers

5:00 PM

Sunday Liturgies

9:00AM Orthros

10:00AM Divine Liturgy

 

Follow Us on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/StGregoryGOC


Past Bulletins


A Warm Welcome to Our Visitors

It is our hope that we will help you learn more about our parish and the Orthodox Christian faith that we confess.  At St. Gregory of Nyssa, you will discover an ancient, yet dynamic faith, a warm Church family and even perhaps a spiritual home where you can grow roots and a deep relationship with Christ in the Holy Spirit.  Please know that in the Holy Orthodox Church, Holy Communion is given only to those Baptized/Chrismated Orthodox Christians who have properly prepared themselves through prayer, fasting and recent Confession.  You are welcome to come forward at the end of the Liturgy to be given the Blessed Bread(Antidoron), of which all are blessed to partake, & a blessing from the Priest.

Welcome to our Church Home!  We would like to meet you!  Please join us at Coffee Hour following the service.

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Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

The Reading is from Acts of the Apostles 11:19-30

IN THOSE DAYS, those apostles who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to none except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number that believed turned to the Lord. News of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad; and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose; for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a large company was added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul; and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church, and taught a large company of people; and in Antioch the disciples were for the first time called Christians. Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of them named Agabos stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world; and this took place in the days of Claudius. And the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brethren who lived in Judea, and they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.


Gospel Reading

Sunday of the Samaritan Woman
The Reading is from John 4:5-42

At that time, Jesus came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?" Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw."

Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband; this you said truly." The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain; and you say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to him, "I know that the Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ); when he comes, he will show us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he."

Just then his disciples came. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but none said, "What do you wish?" or, "Why are you talking with her?" So the woman left her water jar, and went away into the city and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" They went out of the city and were coming to him.

Meanwhile the disciples besought him, saying "Rabbi, eat." But he said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know." So the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought him food?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest'? I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest. He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony. "He told me all that I ever did." So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard ourselves, and we know that this is indeed Christ the Savior of the world."


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Hymns of the Day

Apolytikion of Great and Holy Pascha in the Fifth Tone

Christ is risen from the dead, by death, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs He has granted life.

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone

When the tidings of the resurrection from the glorious angel was proclaimed unto the women disciples and our ancestral sentence also had been abolished to the Apostles with the boasting did they proclaim that death is vanquished ever more and Christ Our God has risen from the dead and granted to the world His great mercy.

Apolytikion for Mid-Pentecost in the Eighth Tone

At Mid-feast give Thou my thirsty soul to drink of the waters of piety; for Thou, O Saviour, didst cry out to all: Whosoever is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Wherefore, O Well-spring of life, Christ our God, glory be to Thee.

Seasonal Kontakion in the Eighth Tone

When thou didst descend into the grave, O Immortal, thou didst destroy the power of hades. In victory didst thou arise, O Christ God, proclaiming 'Rejoice' to the myrrh-bearing women, granting peace to thine apostles and bestowing resurrection of the fallen.
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Saints and Feasts

Allsaint
May 14

Leontius, Patriarch of Jerusalem


Jcsamwom
May 14

Sunday of the Samaritan Woman

One of the most ancient cities of the Promised Land was Shechem, also called Sikima, located at the foot of Mount Gerazim. There the Israelites had heard the blessings in the days of Moses and Jesus of Navi. Near to this town, Jacob, who had come from Mesopotamia in the nineteenth century before Christ, bought a piece of land where there was a well. This well, preserved even until the time of Christ, was known as Jacob's Well. Later, before he died in Egypt, he left that piece of land as a special inheritance to his son Joseph (Gen. 49:22). This town, before it was taken into possession by Samaria, was also the leading city of the kingdom of the ten tribes. In the time of the Romans it was called Neapolis, and at present Nablus. It was the first city in Canaan visited by the Patriarch Abraham. Here also, Jesus of Navi (Joshua) addressed the tribes of Israel for the last time. Almost three hundred years later, all Israel assembled there to make Roboam (Rehoboam) king.

When our Lord Jesus Christ, then, came at midday to this city, which is also called Sychar (John 4:5), He was wearied from the journey and the heat, and He sat down at this well. After a little while the Samaritan woman mentioned in today's Gospel passage came to draw water. As she conversed at some length with the Lord and heard from Him secret things concerning herself, she believed in Him; through her many other Samaritans also believed.

Concerning the Samaritans we know the following: In the year 721 before Christ, Salmanasar (Shalmaneser), King of the Assyrians, took the ten tribes of the kingdom of Israel into captivity, and relocated all these people to Babylon and the land of the Medes. From there he gathered various nations and sent them to Samaria. These nations had been idolaters from before. Although they were later instructed in the Jewish faith and believed in the one God, they worshipped the idols also. Furthermore, they accepted only the Pentateuch of Moses, and rejected the other books of Holy Scripture. Nonetheless, they thought themselves to be descendants of Abraham and Jacob. Therefore, the pious Jews named these Judaizing and idolatrous peoples Samaritans, since they lived in Samaria, the former leading city of the Israelites, as well as in the other towns thereabout. The Jews rejected them as heathen and foreigners, and had no communion with them at all, as the Samaritan woman observed, "the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans" (John 4:9). Therefore, the name Samaritan is used derisively many times in the Gospel narrations. After the Ascension of the Lord, and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the woman of Samaria was baptized by the holy Apostles and became a great preacher and Martyr of Christ; she was called Photine, and her feast is kept on February 26.


Allsaint
May 14

Isidore the Martyr of Chios

This Saint was a soldier from Alexandria. He came with the Roman fleet to Chios, where he was betrayed as a Christian to Numerian, Commander of the Fleet. Because he boldly pro-fessed himself to worship Christ as God and refused to worship any other, he was tormented and beheaded in 251, during the reign of Decius.


Therapon
May 14

Holy Hieromartyr Therapontus


Allsaint
May 14

Holy New Martyrs Mark and John


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Prayer List

HEALTH & WELFARE:
Abducted Metropolitan Paul & Archbishop John; Jethmark, Eveland Family, Vernon and Kathern Rogers, Alex, Patty, Lin, Jimmy, Honey, Elias, Nick Koucoumaris, Richie, Margie, Paul Lane, Alexi, Ralph Bradley, Dr. Minerva, Sarah, Richard, Stella Angeles, Carl Anthony, Stan, James, Kyriakos, Dora, Julia, Alexandra, Sebastian, Queentina, Diana, Nico, Janet Burgess, John Peters, Dionysios, Haralambos, Lillian Ana Grace, George(Marc's Uncle), Samantha(Marc's friend), Bonnie-Father's mother, Sarah-Betsy's mother, MaryAnn, Gabrielle, Kiki, Michael; Father John Pilafas & family;Virginia, Corey and family;Adrienne & Josef in Thessolonika; George, Maria Hazlaris, Sarah Oftedal and her family, Darin Williams, Marika Stantcheva, Athina Cavelaris, Stephanie, Dionisios & Eftixia Diakoumeas, Nicky, Michael and Cathy Jean Alexander, Dionysios, Haralambos.
DEPARTED: Katherine Eveland, Catherine Sullivan, Manousos Saradakis, Carole, Thomas Munteanu, Steve Kosic, Effie Matsolis, George, Arety, Manny, Archimandrite Paul, Eleni (Kyriako's Sister), Gregory Galanis, Deacon Michael; George and Iris Pilafas, Manuel Dragan, Elizabeth Zogob, Darla Gliptis, George Mastorakos and Fr. Theodore and Pres. Mary Phillips, Sophia Vourexis, Jason Hyde, Peter Kanelos, Mary Giana, Katherine Armatas; Lana Piliaris; William Piliaris, Katherine Kladouras, Heather Grinnell and Danny Ranglos
FOR OUR CHURCH LEADERS:
Patriarch Bartholomew; Archbishop Demetrios; Metropolitan Gerasimos; Bishop Apostolos; Father Simeon Corona, Presbytera Joy & family; Chris Psillas & the members of the Parish Council; Philoptochos; Pete Shenas and our Building Committee; Chris Kotitsa & our Stewardship Committee; Chanters & our Sunday School teachers, Mothers Victoria, Melania & the Mothers & Sisters of St. Barbara's & Holy Assumption Monasteries. Frs. Dionisie & Neonil of Holy Resurrectuion Monastery in Temecula.

If you would like our community to pray for you or a loved one or have a name removed, please call the Church office 619-593-0707.

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Wisdom of the Fathers

THE persecution turned out to be no slight benefit as "to them that love God all things work together for good." (Rom. viii. 28.) If they had made it their express study how best to establish the Church, they would have done no other thing than this--they dispersed the teachers.[*] Mark in what quarters the preaching was extended. "They travelled," it says, "as far as Phenice and Cyprus and Antioch; to none however did they preach the word but to Jews only." Dost thou mark with what wise purposes of Providence so much was done in the case of Cornelius? This serves both to justify Christ, and to impeach the Jews. When Stephen was slain, when Paul was twice in danger, when the Apostles were scourged, then the Gentiles received the word, then the Samaritans. Which Paul also declares: "To you it was necessary that the Word of God should first be spoken; but since ye thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy, lo, we turn unto the Gentiles." (ch. xiii. 46.)..."And the hand of the Lord," it says, "was with them," that is, they wrought miracles; "and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord." (v. 21.) Do you mark why now also there was heed of miracles (namely) that they might believe? "Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem: and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch." (v. 22.) What may be the reason that, when such a city received the word, they did not come themselves? Because of the Jews. But they send Barnabas. However, it is no small part of the providential management even so that Paul comes to be there. It is both natural, and it is wisely ordered, that they are averse to him, and (so) that Voice of the Gospel, that Trumpet of heaven, is not shut up in Jerusalem..."And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch." (v. 26.) Verily this is the reason why it was there they were appointed to be called Christians, because Paul there spent so long time!
St. John Chrysostom
Homily 25 on Acts 11, 4th Century

The example of the good Samaritan shows that we must not abandon those in whom even the faintest amount of faith is still alive.
St. Ambrose of Milan
Two Books of St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, Concerning Repentance, Chapter 11

He shows that she is worthy to hear and not to be overlooked, and then He reveals Himself. For she, as soon as she had learnt who He was, would straightway hearken and attend to Him; ...
St. John Chrysostom
Homily 31 on John 3, 4th Century

Here is love! Here is teaching! Here is acquiescence! Here is a model! ... Those who love they also serve. If you want to find out how great your love is towards God, then measure your obedience to the will of God, and you will immediately learn.
Bishop Nicolai Velimirovic
Prolog, 7 Sept., B #80, 706.

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Calendar

  • Calendar

    May 14 to June 12, 2017

    Sunday, May 14

    Samaritan Woman/Mothers' Day!

    9:00AM Morning Prayers (Orthros)

    10:00AM Divine Liturgy

    Monday, May 15

    11:00AM Office Hours 11am-3pm

    6:30PM Parish Council Meeting

    Tuesday, May 16

    Office Closed

    Wednesday, May 17

    3:00PM FOCUS God's Extended Hand Ministry

    Thursday, May 18

    6:30PM COFFEE AND COMPLINE

    Saturday, May 20

    5:00PM Great Vespers AT Sts. C and H with the Metropolitan TBD

    Sunday, May 21

    Sts. Constantine and Helen

    9:00AM Morning Prayers (Orthros)

    10:00AM Divine Liturgy

    12:00PM Philoptochos Meeting

    Monday, May 22

    11:00AM Office Hours 11am-3pm

    Tuesday, May 23

    Office Closed

    6:30PM Leavetaking of Pascha Vesperal Liturgy

    Wednesday, May 24

    3:00PM FOCUS God's Extended Hand Ministry

    6:30PM Holy Ascension Festal Vespers

    Thursday, May 25

    9:00AM GREAT FEAST of Ascension Matins and Liturgy

    6:30PM Orthodoxy 101 - Prayer and Bible Study

    Saturday, May 27

    5:00PM Great Vespers

    Sunday, May 28

    1st Ecumenical Council

    9:00AM Morning Prayers (Orthros)

    10:00AM Divine Liturgy

    Monday, May 29

    Memorial Day - Office Closed

    Tuesday, May 30

    Office Closed

    Wednesday, May 31

    3:00PM FOCUS God's Extended Hand Ministry

    Thursday, June 1

    6:30PM Orthodoxy 101 - Prayer and Bible Study

    Friday, June 2

    6:30PM Great Vespers for Pentecost Soul Saturday

    Saturday, June 3

    8:00AM Soul Saturday Liturgy AT 8AM!!!

    5:00PM Great Vespers

    Sunday, June 4

    Holy Pentecost!

    9:00AM Morning Prayers (Orthros)

    10:00AM Divine Liturgy

    11:00AM Kneeling Vespers

    Monday, June 5

    10:00AM Holy Spirit Liturgy AT ST. ANTHONY'S

    11:00AM Office Hours 1-3pm

    Tuesday, June 6

    Office Closed

    Wednesday, June 7

    3:00PM St. Gregory's Particular Night God's Extended Hand Ministry

    Thursday, June 8

    6:30PM Orthodoxy 101 - Prayer and Bible Study

    Saturday, June 10

    5:00PM Great Vespers

    Sunday, June 11

    All Saints

    9:00AM Morning Prayers (Orthros)

    10:00AM Divine Liturgy

    12:00PM Philoptochos Meeting

    Monday, June 12

    Apostle's Fast Begins!

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