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Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church
Publish Date: 2020-12-13
Bulletin Contents
Forefathers
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Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • (970) 242-9590
  • Street Address:

  • 3585 North 12th Street

  • Grand Junction, CO 81506


Contact Information




Services Schedule

8:45am - Orthros, 10am - Divine Liturgy


Past Bulletins


Message from your Priest

Beloved in Christ,

Our relationship with Jesus Christ is the same as the relationship between a wife and her husband. The book of Revelation describes Jesus Christ as being wedded to his Church: "The marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready," (19:7). This is, in fact, what gives marriage its meaning and significance. Our marriages today are not simply legal arrangements or worldly relationships; they are icons of the love that Christ has for his Church.

Unfortunately, there are healthy marriages and there are unhealthy marriages. Some marriages teach us true things about Christ's love for us, and some marriages teach us false things about Christ's love for us. A marriage in which the spouses lie to each other, abuse each other, cheat on each other, or simply do not love each other is a marriage that is failing to reflect the truth about God's love for his Church.

In healthy marriages, the spouses will put in effort to nurture their love for each other. They will spend time together. They will talk to each other. They will care for each other. They will give gifts to each other. Now and again, they will make sure that an element of romance is still part of their relationship. If either spouse is unwilling to put in the effort to build up their love, then the marriage is already on the path to failing tragically.

In the same way, our relationship with Jesus Christ needs to be nourished. We can either have a healthy or an unhealthy relationship with Jesus. If we are unwilling to put in the effort to strengthen our relationship with him, then, just like the married couple, that relationship is already on the path to failing. How do we build up our relationship with Jesus? The same way a married couple would: by spending time together, by getting to know one another, by making sacrifices for each other.

The good news is that, if we see that our marriage is failing, we can always make the decision to turn the marriage around. Our relationships with others are not doomed to fate; we can decide whether we want to change them or not. In a marriage that requires both spouses making the same decision and following through on it.

If we see that our relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ is going in the wrong direction, we can make the decision to turn that relationship around. That decision is ours to make freely. Then, if we follow through on that decision, our loving relationship with God can only grow. Then, both in our marriage and our relationship with Christ, we can say along with the prophet Solomon, "much water will not be able to quench love, nor will rivers drown it," (Song of Songs 8:7).

In Christ,
Fr. Jeremy

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Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the Second Mode

When you descended to the realm of death, you as life immortal rendered to Hades a mortal blow by your all-radiant divinity. And when you from infernal depths and the darkness below did raise the dead, all the hosts of heaven's powers did proclaim and cry out: O lifegiving Christ and our God, we give glory!

Apolytikion for 11th Sun. of Luke in the Second Mode

By faith didst Thou justify the Forefathers, when through them Thou didst betroth Thyself aforetime to the Church from among the nations. The Saints boast in glory that from their seed there is a glorious fruit, even she that bare Thee seedlessly. By their prayers, O Christ God, save our souls.

Seasonal Kontakion in the Third Mode

On this day the Virgin cometh to the cave to give birth to * God the Word ineffably, * Who was before all the ages. * Dance for joy, O earth, on hearing * the gladsome tidings; * with the Angels and the shepherds now glorify Him * Who is willing to be gazed on * as a young Child Who * before the ages is God.
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Gospel and Epistle Readings

Matins Gospel Reading

Fifth Orthros Gospel
The Reading is from Luke 24:13-35

At that time, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, "What is this conversation which you are holding with each other as you walk?" And they stood still looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?" And he said to them, "What things?" And they said to him, "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since this happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; and they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb, and found it just as the women had said; but him they did not see." And he said to them, "O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He appeared to be going further, but they constrained him, saying, "Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent." So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him; and he vanished out of their sight. They said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?" And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven gathered together and those who were with them, who said, "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.


Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. Fourth Mode. Daniel 3.26,27.
Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers.
Verse: For you are just in all you have done.

The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Colossians 3:4-11.

Brethren, when Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. In these you once walked, when you lived in them. But now put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.


Gospel Reading

11th Sunday of Luke
The Reading is from Luke 14:16-24

The Lord said this parable: "A man once gave a great banquet, and invited many; and at the time of the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, 'Come; for all is now ready.' But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I go out and see it; I pray you, have me excused.' And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I must go to examine them; I pray you, have me excused.' And another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.' So the servant came and reported this to his master. Then the householder in anger said to his servant, 'Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame.' And the servant said, 'Sir, what you commanded has been done, and there is still room.' And the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. For many are called, but few are chosen.'"


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Saints and Feasts

Forefathers
December 13

Sunday of the Holy Forefathers

On the Sunday that occurs on or immediately after the eleventh of this month, we commemorate Christ's forefathers according to the flesh, both those that came before the Law, and those that lived after the giving of the Law.

Special commemoration is made of the Patriarch Abraham, to whom the promise was first given, when God said to him, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 22:18). This promise was given some two thousand years before Christ, when Abraham was seventy-five years of age. God called him and commanded him to forsake his country, parents, and kinsmen, and to depart to the land of the Canaanites. When he arrived there, God told him, "I will give this land to thy seed" (Gen. 12:7); for this cause, that land was called the "Promised Land," which later became the country of the Hebrew people, and which is also called Palestine by the historians. There, after the passage of twenty-four years, Abraham received God's law concerning circumcision. In the one hundredth year of his life, when Sarah was in her ninetieth year, they became the parents of Isaac. Having lived 175 years altogether, he reposed in peace, a venerable elder full of days.


Hermanalaska
December 13

Herman the Wonderworker of Alaska & First Saint of America

Saint Herman (his name is a variant of Germanus) was born near Moscow in 1756. In his youth he became a monk, first at the Saint Sergius Hermitage near Saint Petersburg on the Gulf of Finland; while he dwelt there, the most holy Mother of God appeared to him, healing him of a grave malady. Afterwards he entered Valaam Monastery on Valiant Island in Lake Ladoga; he often withdrew into the wilderness to pray for days at a time. In 1794, answering a call for missionaries to preach the Gospel to the Aleuts, he came to the New World with the first Orthodox mission to Alaska. He settled on Spruce Island, which he called New Valaam, and here he persevered, even in the face of many grievous afflictions mostly at the hands of his own countrymen in the loving service of God and of his neighbour. Besides his many toils for the sake of the Aleuts, he subdued his flesh with great asceticism, wearing chains, sleeping little, fasting and praying much. He brought many people to Christ by the example of his life, his teaching, and his kindness and sanctity, and was granted the grace of working miracles and of prophetic insight. Since he was not a priest, Angels descended at Theophany to bless the waters in the bay; Saint Herman used this holy water to heal the sick. Because of his unwearying missionary labours, which were crowned by God with the salvation of countless souls, he is called the Enlightener of the Aleuts, and has likewise been renowned as a wonderworker since his repose in 1837.


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Parish Information

If you do not currently receive emails from our parish, please give Fr. Jeremy your name and email address to be added to our list.
 
Children's Christmas Party
 
Join us at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church for our Children's Christmas Party on December 26th, running from 4pm-6pm. Enjoy holiday food, games, music and crafts!
 
Adult Ed
 
Please join us on Wednesday following Paraklesis for our last Adult Ed Discussion Group before Christmas break. We are currently continuing to meet over Zoom. Please ask Fr. Jeremy if you need the link for the class.
 
Beginning on January 12, Adult Ed will transition into Orthodox Christianity 101. This class will cover the beliefs, practices, and history of our faith from a broad perspective. It is intended for catechumens, or anyone who would like a 'refresher' on our faith. Meetings will take place at 6pm on Tuesdays in-person, with a Zoom option available.
 
Coronavirus Procedures
 
Here at St. Nicholas we are blessed to be able to welcome our community to in-person services with the following directives in place:
 
-Individuals who have been exposed to the Coronavirus, or are at high risk as defined by the CDC (those 65-years or older, those with compromised immune systems, those with respiratory illness, heart conditions, or other underlying medical conditions) are encouraged to stay at home. Our livestream will still be active for the time being.
-A distance of six feet must be observed between families at all times.
-Use of non-medical masks is required in the Church building.
-There will be no fellowship hour following Liturgy. Parishioners are asked to depart the Church in an orderly fashion family-by-family following the dismissal.
-Icons are to be venerated by crossing oneself and bowing. Please do not kiss the icons.
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This Week at St. Nicholas

  • Monday, December 14: 6pm Vespers
  • Tuesday, December 15 St. Eleutherios: 8am Orthros, 9am Divine Liturgy
  • Wednesday, December 16: 6pm Paraklesis, 7pm Adult Ed (Zoom)
  • Thursday, December 17: 10am Adult Ministry Service
  • Saturday, December 19: 6pm Vespers
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