The Holy Martyr Agathonicus
The Martyr Agathonicus, because he converted pagans to Christ, was seized in Nicomedia, violently beaten, haled about in bonds, and beheaded in Selyvria, during the reign of Maximian, in the year 298.
CDC and the County of San Diego Covid Mask Wearing Reminder
Just a reminder as the reported cases, etc. of the coronavirus surge - the most updated and current guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the county of San Diego recommends that those who are fully vaccinated wear a face covering while indoors.
For those who have not yet been vaccinated the CDC and County of San Diego still require those who are unvaccinated (for whatever reason) should continue to wear a mask while indoors, i.e. - inside the Sanctuary, in an attempt to help stop the spread of the (very contagious Delta) coronavirus. We are still following the "honor system" and respectfully ask that if you have not been fully vaccinated to wear your face covering while in the Sanctuary and fellowship hall.
Thank you for your thoughtful consideration, understanding, and patience as we continue to safely navigate our way through this concerning time once again.
Come and Join us for Coffee Hour and Fellowship Following Sunday's Services
Weekly Fellowship Hour has resumed, but we need your help in providing the refreshments that we share during this time of fellowship. Please consider sponsoring with your friends and family. Let's keep it simple by providing cookies or donuts and juice. To sign-up to sponsor Fellowship Hour on a particular Sunday, please contact Sofia Samouris at 619.518.4537.
Donate to the Greece Fires Relief Fund
“...I am inviting whoever wishes to make a direct donation, to do so by visiting the website of our Archdiocese https://www.goarch.org/greecefiresdonate. May God, the Comforter, through the Holy Intercessions of the Virgin Mother of God, whose sacred Dormition we will celebrate in a few short days, send speedy relief to the people of Greece, and bring to an end this terrible inferno that continues to devastate our Ellada, την Ελλάδα μας.”
+His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America
(Excerpt from Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, Aug. 9, 2021)
Stewardship Corner
As the summer season comes to an end, I am again reminded that this is “God’s Country” - and that all we have is not only inspired by God but given through God to all of us. So, as our community enters into a new season full of God’s Blessings and Favor, the Stewardship Committee would like to remind all of you that there are many new promises of change and improvements on our horizon this coming fall season as we continue to “return,” we ask you, faithful sojourner, to join us in the most honorable and tangible manner in which you may give back to God and His Church: fulfill your monthly pledge and/or make your contribution to your parish, in order to fulfill God’s promise for a fuller and more peaceful Orthodox Christian life.
Please remember to be faithful stewards of St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church and make your weekly/monthly stewardship contribution to your parish. For your convenience, you may do this online at www.stspyridon.org or pay through ACH or call the office at 619-297-4165.
As Father Andrew has reminded us over the last 14 years, “everything flows from the Divine Liturgy.” Your support of our Stewardship Program allows us to robustly provide this sacred blessing and all that it entails for our spiritual well-being.
Have a wonderful month of August and don’t forget to do your part!
With God’s Blessing - The Stewardship Committee thanks you in advance:
John Kalas, Chairperson
Greek Language Classes (In-Person and via Zoom) Begin September 6th
It's back-to-school time! Children and Adult Classes begin the week of September 6, 2021. For registration, class schedule, and tuition payment, please visit the school website at www.stspyridongreekschool.org. For more information, please email Athena Georges at athenakotinopoulos@gmail.com.
Register now using the online registration form https://forms.gle/khpUkYJzyZQmoGd68 or via the Church Website stspyridon.org under the Ministries > Sunday School tab. Help us to plan for September by registering early! Are you looking for a way to help St. Spyridon kids and teens? We have many volunteer options available - Teachers, Classroom Assistants, Service Project Coordinator, Social Media Leader, and Christmas Pageant Leader. Email Julie Dennis at sundayschool.stspyridon@gmail.com for more information.
Please see the Sunday School Registration Form in the "Inserts & Fliers" section.
Seniors Potluck Postponed for Tuesday, September 14th
Our September meeting will regrettably be postponed until it is safer to gather. Thank you for your patience and understanding during these uncertain times. Stay healthy, keep in touch, and please reach out if you need anything at all.
With love,
Sophia (619)855-2991
Save the Date - GOYA Family Movie Night
GOYANS join us on Saturday, September 25th at 6:00 pm for GOYA family movie night outside in the Church parking lot. GOYAns bring your chairs, blankets, and families as we watch a movie outside on the BIG screen. Dinner will be provided by GOYA for everyone in the Educational Building. Remember we WILL hold elections for officers BEFORE the movie starts on September 25th so if you would like to run for a GOYA office for the 2021-2022 year please plan on attending. RSVP at navridesfamily@gmail.com by September 20th. For questions call Mr. Navrides at 619-825-6750.
Give Back 0.5% From “Amazon Smile” Foundation
We remind you to please participate in the AmazonSmile program. When you shop on Amazon, the AmazonSmile Foundation will give back 0.5% of your purchase price to St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church. That’s right, every eligible/registered purchase you or someone else makes at AmazonSmile 0.5% will be donated back to your parish!!!
It's quick and easy to register by visiting AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com) and select “St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church” before you make your first purchase (be sure to select St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church - San Diego, California).
For more information about AmazonSmile, go to http://smile.amazon.com/about
We hope you’ll consider this easy way to support your beloved parish. Everyone is eligible to participate so tell your friends and relatives and spread the word about this wonderful opportunity.
Your Legacy and Your Church
...to whom much is given; from them much more is required (Luke 12:48).
Please remember to include your Saint Spyridon parish in your estate plan and bequest.
"WeShare" Online Stewardship Offering
Sunday School Registration Info
PDF Sunday School Registration Form 2021/22
Sunday School Volunteers
Ninth Orthros Gospel
The Reading is from John 20:19-31
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them: "Peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them: "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him: "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them: "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe."
Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said: "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe."
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
Prokeimenon. Plagal Fourth Mode. Psalm 75.11,1.
Make your vows to the Lord our God and perform them.
Verse: God is known in Judah; his name is great in Israel.
The reading is from St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 3:9-17.
Brethren, we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it. For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw - each man's work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If any one destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and that temple you are.
9th Sunday of Matthew
The Reading is from Matthew 14:22-34
At that time, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was many furlongs distant from the land, beaten by the waves; for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out for fear. But immediately he spoke to them, saying "Take heart, it is I; have no fear."
And Peter answered him, "Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water." He said, "Come." So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus; but when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, "Lord, save me." Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, "O man of little faith, why did you doubt?" And when they entered the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God." And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret.
The Hymn of Saint Spyridon
At the first of the Synods, you appeared as a champion, * and Wonderworker, our God-bearing Father Spyridon. * Wherefore, you addressed the dead one in the grave, * and a serpent you changed to gold. * And while chanting * in service your sacred prayers, * you joined the angels concelebrating, most holy one.* Glory to Christ who glorified you, * glory to Him who crowned you, * glory to the One who works through You, * healings for everyone.
Τής Συνόδου τής πρώτης ανεδείχθης υπέρμαχος, * καί Θαυματουργός Θεοφόρε Σπυρίδων πατήρ ημών. * διό νεκρά σύ έν τάφω προσφωνείς, * καί όφιν είς χρυσούν μετέβαλες. * καί έν τώ μέλπειν τάς αγίας σου ευχάς, * Αγγέλους έσχες συλλειτουργούντας σοι Ιερώτατε, * Δόξα τώ σέ δοξάσαντι Χριστώ * δόξα τώ σέ στεφανώσαντι. * δόξα τώ ενεργόυντι, διά σου πάσιν ιάματα.
The Martyr Agathonicus, because he converted pagans to Christ, was seized in Nicomedia, violently beaten, haled about in bonds, and beheaded in Selyvria, during the reign of Maximian, in the year 298.
Concerning the Dormition of the Theotokos, this is what the Church has received from ancient times from the tradition of the Fathers. When the time drew nigh that our Savior was well-pleased to take His Mother to Himself, He declared unto her through an Angel that three days hence, He would translate her from this temporal life to eternity and bliss. On hearing this, she went up with haste to the Mount of Olives, where she prayed continuously. Giving thanks to God, she returned to her house and prepared whatever was necessary for her burial. While these things were taking place, clouds caught up the Apostles from the ends of the earth, where each one happened to be preaching, and brought them at once to the house of the Mother of God, who informed them of the cause of their sudden gathering. As a mother, she consoled them in their affliction as was meet, and then raised her hands to Heaven and prayed for the peace of the world. She blessed the Apostles, and, reclining upon her bed with seemliness, gave up her all-holy spirit into the hands of her Son and God.
With reverence and many lights, and chanting burial hymns, the Apostles took up that God-receiving body and brought it to the sepulchre, while the Angels from Heaven chanted with them, and sent forth her who is higher than the Cherubim. But one Jew, moved by malice, audaciously stretched forth his hand upon the bed and immediately received from divine judgment the wages of his audacity. Those daring hands were severed by an invisible blow. But when he repented and asked forgiveness, his hands were restored. When they had reached the place called Gethsemane, they buried there with honor the all-immaculate body of the Theotokos, which was the source of Life. But on the third day after the burial, when they were eating together, and raised up the artos (bread) in Jesus' Name, as was their custom, the Theotokos appeared in the air, saying "Rejoice" to them. From this they learned concerning the bodily translation of the Theotokos into the Heavens.
These things has the Church received from the traditions of the Fathers, who have composed many hymns out of reverence, to the glory of the Mother of our God (see Oct. 3 and 4).
Our holy Father Cosmas was from the town of Mega Dendron (Great Tree) of Aetolia. At the age of twenty, he went to study at the school of the Monastery of Vatopedi on the Holy Mountain. Later, he came to the Athonite Monastery of Philotheou where he was tonsured. With the blessing of his abbot, he departed for Constantinople where he learned the art of rhetoric, and thereafter, he began to preach throughout all the regions of northern Greece, the Ionian Islands, but especially in Albania, for the Christian people there were in great ignorance because of the oppression and cruelty of the Moslems. Finally, in 1776, after having greatly strengthened and enlightened the faithful, working many signs and wonders all the while, he was falsely accused by the leaders of the Jewish people and was executed by strangulation by the Moslem Turks in Albania.
Saint Titus was a Greek by race, and an idolater. But having believed in Christ through the Apostle Paul, he became Paul's disciple and follower and labored with him greatly in the preaching of the Gospel. When Paul ordained him Bishop of Crete, he later wrote to him the Epistle which bears his name. Having shepherded in an apostolic manner the flock that had been entrusted to him, and being full of days, he reposed in peace, some ninety-four years of age.
The holy Martyrs Adrian and Natalie confessed the Christian Faith during the reign of Maximian, in Nicomedia, in the year 298. Adrian was a pagan; witnessing the valor of the Martyrs, and the fervent faith with which they suffered their torments, he also declared himself a Christian and was imprisoned. When this was told to his wife Natalie, who was secretly a believer, she visited him in prison and encouraged him in his sufferings. Saint Adrian's hands and feet were placed on an anvil and broken off with a hammer; he died in his torments. His blessed wife recovered part of his holy relics and took it to Argyropolis near Byzantium, and reposed in peace soon after.
Little is known of the holy Martyr Phanurius, except that which is depicted concerning his martyrdom on his holy icon, which was discovered in the year 1500 among the ruins of an ancient church on Rhodes, when the Moslems ruled there. Thus he is called "the Newly Revealed." The faithful pray to Saint Phanurius especially to help them recover things that have been lost, and because he has answered their prayers so often, the custom has arisen of baking a Phaneropita ("Phanurius-Cake") as a thanks-offering.
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, dissolute in all his ways. 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 with such diligence that he 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. He was a contemporary of Saint Arsenius the Great (see May 8).