Sunday Services:
8:45 am Orthros
10:00 am Divine Liturgy
Christ is in our midst! He is and ever shall be!
Join us for Orthodox Divine Liturgy every Sunday at 10:00 a.m.
August 22, 2021
Afterfeast of the Dormition of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever Virgin Mary
The Synaxis of the Icon of the Mother of God of Prusa
Important Notice: We now require masks inside the church and the Hellenic Cultural Center for all adults (vaccinated or not) and children at all parish worship and activities. This policy was implemented for the safety of all. The Parish Council will evaluate this COVID -19 protocol monthly as conditions in Palm Beach County change.
Holy Communion: When the faithful approach the Holy Chalice, they should stand with respect before the priest and say their baptismal/chrismation name. After the name is uttered, the faithful should open their mouth to receive Holy Communion. When the spoon goes into the mouth, the faithful should close their mouth and make sure that they swallow the consecrated Bread and Wine. Every person who stands before the Holy Chalice, should not have any contact with the red communion cloth, before, during, or after receiving Holy Communion. The red communion cloth is to be placed under each person’s chin by those who are assisting the clergy. Under no circumstances should the red communion cloth be used as a table napkin to wipe the mouth, nor should one who has received Holy Communion touch it at all.
Coffee and Fellowship: Our Philoptochos welcomes everyone to join us for the coffee and fellowship hour in our Hellenic Cultural Center following the Divine Liturgy.
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This Week at Saint Catherine
Sunday, August 22 Afterfeast of the Dormition of the Theotokos
8:45 am Orthros - Link to the Orthros Service text
10:00 am Divine Liturgy - Link to the Divine Liturgy text
Philoptochos Fanouropita
The Philoptochos collection as we are leaving the church
is for the Metropolis Youth Ministries of our
Diakonia Retreat Center
Highlights of Upcoming Services and Events
Saturday, August 28
6:30 pm Vespers with Artoklasia
Sunday, August 29 The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist
8:45 am Orthros / 10:00 am Divine Liturgy
2021 Stewardship We invite you to join our Saint Catherine family. Click here for the 2021 Stewardship Program. The Commitment Form is here. As of August 7th, 214 individuals and families have either begun or completed their 2021 financial pledge. This includes 32 first-time stewards whom we warmly welcome to our church family. Giving to His Church is how we thank God for His grace and many blessings!
Youth Safety Resources
We’re committed to connecting young people with Jesus Christ. To do that, we need to create ministry environments that are safe and health. For more on how you can help, please visit our Youth Safety website: goarch.org/safety.
Many of our Divine Liturgies have been recorded and can be viewed at www.youtube.com. Subscribe to our new YouTube channel for 2020:
Saint Catherine Greek Orthodox Church (2020 and 2021 services)
Saint Catherine Greek Orthodox Church (Selected services from 2015-2019)
Shop with Amazon, donate to Saint Catherine
Amazon Smile is a program that allows for 0.5% of your eligible Amazon purchase to be donated to our Saint Catherine Church (No Added Cost To You). To sign-up visit Sign up for Amazon Smile and press "Select" next to our church name. Then remember to log in to "smile.amazon.com" when you shop.
The fires ravaging Greece have caused the communities of the Omogeneia to muster their strength and their resources, and rush to the aid of the Greek People and Land. For when we see a house on fire, we do not stop to ask who started it, but hasten to assist in any way that we can. Join us in providing aid to those who have lost their homes and possessions to these unprecedented infernos that are scourging the natural beauty of Greece, and those who are risking their lives fighting these fires. Together we can contribute to the much-needed longer term reconstruction efforts and spur economic revitalization. https://www.goarch.org/-/archiepiscopal-encyclical-for-greek-fire-relief
Creating healthy, Christ-centered ministry environments. ------------ As an Archdiocese, we're ready to take the next step in youth safety. ------------ The new Policies for the Safety of Children and Youth is how we'll do it. ------------ Ministry heads check this out! We must prepare and follow all the steps for the safety of our children. Our Archdiocese requires this in order to participate in any youth events !!!
Saint Catherine Youth Ministries are holding registration for the 2021-2022 Ecclesiastical Year on Sunday, August 8th in the Hellenic Cultural Center after the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy. Click here to see the listing of Sunday School events. Planned events for all Youth Ministries will soon be entered on the Google planning calendar on our website.
CYBER CRIME HAS BEEN INFILTRATING OUR LIVES FOR YEARS. More recently, parishes and religious communities around us are being targeted by a phishing scam . . .
An update, January 2021, from the city of West Palm Beach. They project that the bridge should be completed by the end of 2021.
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 Tone. 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 wonderworking icon of the Mother of God of Prusa was saved from destruction at the hands of the Iconoclasts in the ninth century, when a certain nobleman of Prusa (near Constantinople) brought it secretly to Greece. There he lost the icon, but it miraculously appeared in a cave in the area of Litza and Agrapha, where the monastery and the shrine of the icon are presently found. The feast today was established in commemoration of the many signs and healings that the holy Theotokos has wrought through the icon.
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).
The Holy Hieromartyr Irenaeus was born in Asia Minor about the year 120, and in his youth was a disciple of Saint Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna. Saint Irenaeus was sent to Lyons in Gaul, to be a fellow labourer of Pothinus, Bishop of Lyons (celebrated June 2), who had also been a disciple Saint Polycarp. After the martyrdom of Saint Pothinus, Saint Irenaeus succeeded him as Bishop of Lyons. Besides the assaults of paganism, Irenaeus found himself compelled to do battle with many Gnostic heresies, against which he wrote his greatest work, A Refutation and Overthrow of Knowledge Falsely So Called . He was also a peace-maker within the Church. When Victor, Bishop of Rome, was prepared to excommunicate the Christians of Asia Minor for following a different tradition celebrating Pascha, Irenaeus persuaded him to moderate his zeal, and mediated peace. He made Lyons an illustrious bastion of Orthodoxy and a school of piety, and sealed his confession with martyrdom about the year 202, during the reign of Septimius Severus. He is not to be confused with Saint Irenaeus, Bishop of Sirmium, also celebrated today, who was beheaded and cast into a river in 304 under Diocletian.
The Holy Martyr Lupus was a devoted servant of the holy Great Martyr Demetrius, and was present at his martyrdom. Later, when his own labours in confession of the Faith became known to the rulers, Saint Lupus himself was arrested, given over to torture, and finally beheaded for Christ.
Saint Eutyches was a disciple of Saint John the Theologian and a fellow laborer of the holy Apostle Paul. He preached the Gospel in many places, pulled down the idols' temples, and suffered imprisonments and many torments at the hands of the idolaters. He finally reposed in peace in deep old age in his native city of Sebastia, near Tarsus.
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.
When Saint Dionysios died in 1622 A.D., his last wish was that he be buried in the Church of Saint George on the Strofades Islands where he lived as a monk. Three years after his interment there his body was found to be incorrupt. In 1717 his body was transferred from the Strofades Islands back to his home island of Zakynthos where it resides to this day.
On this day we also commemorate the translation of the holy relics of Saint Peter, Metropolitan of Moscow, which took place in the year 1646.
Our holy and wonderworking Father Peter, Metropolitan of Moscow, was born in Volhynia, tonsured a monk at twelve years of age, and later ordained a priest. He lived in solitude for a time in a desert place north of Lvov and founded the Holy Transfiguration Monastery; afterwards he was sent to Constantinople, where the holy Patriarch Athanasius consecrated him Metropolitan of Kiev in 1308, and he returned to Vladimir, where the Metropolitans of Kiev had their residence at that time (see Saint Jonas on June 15). In 1325, he moved to Moscow, where he founded the Dormition Cathedral, and after his repose in December 21, 1326, was buried there. He was also an iconographer, and two of his icons, the Dormition and the Petrovskaya, are found in the Dormition Cathedral (see Oct. 5).
Concerning the Apostle Bartholomew, see June 11
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.
In all probability, the icon of the Mother of God of Vladimir was painted in Constantinople. In the twelfth century, Patriarch Luke Chrysoberges sent it to Kiev to Great Prince Yuri Dolgruky. The icon was kept in the convent at Vyshgorod, whence the holy Prince Andrew of Bogoliubovo brought it to Vladimir. The icon is one of the most venerated in Russia, having been carried by princes in military campaigns, prayed before by rulers for the welfare of the people, and flocked to by the faithful of all walks of life. At the election of the metropolitans and patriarchs, the names of the candidates were placed before this holy icon, and after prayer, the lot chosen; Patriarch Tikhon the Confessor was elected this way. The icon is celebrated also on June 23 and May 21, the last feast being established to commemorate the deliverance of Moscow in 1521 from the onslaught of the Tartar Khan Makhmet-Girei.
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 Pimen was from Egypt and shone forth in the ascetical life in Scete in the fourth century; he was renowned for his discretion. Many of his sayings and deeds are preserved in the Paradise of the Fathers and the Sayings of the Fathers.
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).
Saint Job of Pochaev was born about 1551 in southwest Galicia of a pious Orthodox family. In his tenth year the Saint departed for the Ugornitsky Monastery of our Saviour in the Carpathian Mountains. Tonsured after two years, he was ordained hieromonk about 1580. Renowned for his meekness and humility, Job was invited by the great zealot for Holy Orthodoxy in the Carpatho-Russia, Prince Constantine Ostrozhky, to be Abbot of the Monastery of the Cross in Dubno. In his zeal for the preservation and propagation of the Orthodox Faith, and to counteract the propaganda of the Uniates, he printed and widely disseminated Orthodox spiritual and liturgical books. About 1600 he removed to the Mountain of Pochaev where at insistence of the brethren, he became Abbot of the Monastery of the Dormition of the Theotokos, which he enlarged and made to flourish. Through his labours, a large printing works was founded at Pochaev and greatly assisted in the nurture of the Orthodox faithful in that region. His monastery became the center of the Orthodox Church in western Ukraine. The Saint reposed, having taken the schema with the name of John, in 1651, at the advanced age of one hundred.
On this day, we celebrate the Synaxis of the Kiev Cave Fathers who were laid to rest in the Far Caves of Saint Theodosius in Kiev (see also Sept. 22-28).
My Beloved Ones,
This coming Sunday, we are blessed to commemorate a feast which is especially important to the life of our Metropolis.
During the Iconoclastic period, in the year 829, a devout young nobleman resisted his Emperor Theophilos’s command to destroy the Holy Images by taking into safety an Icon of the Theotokos painted by St. Luke the Evangelist. Understanding the danger in which he had placed himself and the Icon, he fled from the city of Proussa (which is near Constantinople) to Greece, where the Iconoclast persecutions were not as severe as they were in the Imperial City.
However, in spite of his devotion, the young man was sorrowful when he lost the icon as he came near the city of Gallipoli, believing that, “The Lady Theotokos left me because of my sins.” However, the young man was not going to turn back and live among the Iconoclasts. Instead, he settled and lived in Peloponnese.
Time passed, and one day the nobleman was surprised to learn of a miracle which had taken place in Aitola. This small region of Greece was so mountainous that only a few shepherds were able to live in the caves, though it was a safe space for those supporters of Icons to hide during times of persecution. This unlivable place seemed unlikely to contain a miracle, and yet a child of one of the shepherds reported being woken in the night by beautiful chanting as he slept near his father’s flock. He saw light coming from one of the caves, and as he entered, he heard both the chanting, and saw the great light. Afraid, he ran to his father, who dismissed his talk as imaginary, telling his son not to fear things that were not real. The next night however, the young boy took his father to the same cave, where both saw the vision. Afraid to enter, the shepherd brought more to confirm the vision the next night. Together, they entered the cave and found the Icon of the Theotokos, which they venerated, and protected.
Learning of this great miracle, the young nobleman hurried to see the Icon he had thought lost. Venerating it, he gave great gifts to the shepherds, and then arranged to resume his journey with the Icon. The shepherds were saddened to be deprived of the Icon, but the nobleman explained that not only did he give them gifts to repay them, but this area was not easily accessible to pilgrims. On his journey, the nobleman and his party became tired, and so stopped to rest. On waking and discovering that the Icon had disappeared, he suspected the pilgrims had come and stolen it as he slept. Turning back, and coming to a river, the young man was the only member of his party to hear a voice tell him, “Oh young man, be saved, go in peace and do not toil anymore. I am pleased to remain here in this rugged wilderness with the shepherds and peasants and not to be in the cities with people who preach heresies: and if you wish to stay with me come where you had found me. This will be good for you.”
Obedient to our Lady, the nobleman dismissed his servants, gave away all his possessions, and, together with the one servant who chose to remain, established a chapel in the cave. The nobleman was tonsured with the name of Demetrios, and his former servant became Timothy. Demetrios built a cell away from the chapel to have peace from the pilgrims who came to venerate the Icon, and eventually, he reposed in the cave. After his burial, his Disciple Timothy began the Monastery of the Panagia Prousa (or Prousiotissa), which, even one thousand years later, still welcomes pilgrims to the cave on the days between the Dormition (the 15th) & the feast of Panagia Prousiotissa (the 22nd).
Veneration of this miracle-working icon was passed through the generations, and so our Metropolis was blessed, not only to name one of its five monasteries after the Icon of Panagia Prousiotissa, but also to receive one of the only copies of the Holy Icon, which now resides in the Monastery.
In honor of this blessed day, I wish a sincere and blessed to the sisterhood of Panagia Prousiotissa, to all those pilgrims who shall visit the Monastery in North Carolina, and to all those who hold the Icon in their hearts as a symbol of pride and faith.
+ALEXIOS
Metropolitan of Atlanta
Metropolis Religious Education Committee Progress Report
Important Metropolis Events
A Concert commemorating the bicentennial anniversary of Cyprus in the Greek War of Independence, performed by New York based artists Demetris Michael (tenor) & Phyto Stratis (Artistic and Musical Director) with special guests. The program includes a premier of a song composed by Stratis to mark the occasion, with text from the prologue of the dramatic poem “July 9th” by celebrated Cypriot poet, Vassilis Michaelides. The program was Saturday, June 26th 2021, at Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church in Marietta, Georgia. The program has been saved for viewing at: https://youtu.be/WDNkYND47W8
A week of intensive instruction in Iconography under the guidance of Fr. Anthony Salzman, priest and iconographer from Athens, GA. Students spend 5-6 hours in the classroom workshop each day. Daily prayers, meals, and evening activities round out the week. AUGUST 22 - 28, 2021 Diakonia Retreat Center Salem, South Carolina For more details, see our new website at www.theliturgicalarts.org.
Youth, Education and Hellenic Culture
For information on Policies for the Safety of Youth and Children, please click https://atlmetropolis.org/policies-for-the-safety-of-youth-and-children!
Please remember that all parishes must comply and sign their parish contracts to host any youth ministry programs or events on the parish level (Sunday School) or to participate on a District or Metropolis Level Events (Retreats, WYR & HDF).
Journey of Marriage (Pre-Marital Seminar)
All couples marrying in the Metropolis must attend a Metropolis-sponsored Journey of Marriage seminar prior to their wedding. The couple will present their certificate of completion to their parish priest after the seminar.
To see the full list of seminars in Florida and in our entire Metropolis for 2021 and beyond, and to register, please visit: https://atlmetropolis.org/pre-marital-seminars-journey-of-marriage
Registration is online. Materials costs are included in the registration. The seminars are currently being conducted by Zoom meeting.