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.
September 19, 2021
Sunday After the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Detour approaching the church: Another road project has closed Washington Road directly in front of the church. From Southern Blvd turn South at Olive Ave, go one block to Malverne Road, then turn left to the church.
Note - GPS directions are incorrect for the last block to the
church due to the ongoing bridge construction.
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, September 19 Sunday after the Exaltation of the Cross
8:45 am Orthros - Link to the Orthros Service text
10:00 am Divine Liturgy - Link to the Divine Liturgy text
Tuesday, September 21 Philoptochos
10:00 am Board Meeting
12:00 pm Meeting
Wednesday, September 22
7:00 pm Parish Council Meeting
Friday, September 24
7:30 pm GOYA meeting and Game Night at Saint Catherine
Saturday, September 25
7:00 am - 1:00 pm Greek School Garage Sale
11:00 am - 3:00 pm District GOYA Welcome Back Beach Party, Pompano Beach
Highlights of Upcoming Services and Events
Sunday, September 26 Falling Asleep of St. John the Theologian
8:45 am Orthros / 10:00 am Divine Liturgy
Wednesday, September 28
7:00 pm Bible Study by Zoom
2021 Stewardship: We are grateful to those who completed, or are completing, their financial pledge for 2021. For those who have not yet sent in a donation, please take a moment to do so — join our Saint Catherine family. Your Stewardship gift reflects your appreciation for God's many blessings.
Click here for the 2021 Stewardship Program. The Commitment Form is here. As of September 3rd, 223 individuals and families have either begun or completed their 2021 financial pledge. This includes 34 first-time and returning stewards whom we warmly welcome to our Saint Catherine family.
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.
HDF youth fundraiser every Sunday after the Divine Liturgy in the Hellenic Cultural Center. Help support our youth attend and compete at the Hellenic Dance Festival in Orlando this January!
Parenting is a challenge, whether you’re dealing with toddlers or teens! Join Dr. Philip Mamalakis for a discussion on responding to all our children’s misbehaviors in a way that helps them become successful adults. ADDRESS: Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 600 East Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28203 DATE: Friday, November 19 & Saturday November 20 MORE INFORMATION: frchristian@htgo.org // (914) 573-3618 CHILDCARE: We will provide childcare for ages 2+ COST: $35.00 PAYMENT: You can submit a payment via our website (https://holytrinityoff.securepayments.cardpointe.com/pay) or you can mail a check in, payable to Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral
The writers of Forged understand that our young people require both guidance in their faith and strengthening that faith in a world that is often at odds with Orthodox Christian spirituality. What does it mean to be a man? How do I conduct myself in relationships, and in friendship? What is a healthy perspective concerning technology? Using this workbook our young men will have the opportunity to consider these subjects, within the Orthodox Christian style of life. Forged uses a structure that appeals to a young man’s creative sense of adventure and problem-solving, and these lessons are reinforced through journaling, activities and discussion topics that can be utilized in group settings.
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.
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 !!!
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.
Second Orthros Gospel
The Reading is from Mark 16:1-8
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might go and anoint Jesus. And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?" And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back, for it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed. And he said to them, "Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you." And they went out and fled from the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid.
Prokeimenon. Fourth Tone. Psalm 103.24,1.
O Lord, how manifold are your works. You have made all things in wisdom.
Verse: Bless the Lord, O my soul.
The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians 2:16-20.
Brethren, knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no one be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were found to be sinners, is Christ then an agent of sin? Certainly not! But if I build up again those things which I tore down, then I prove myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Sunday after Holy Cross
The Reading is from Mark 8:34-38; 9:1
The Lord said: "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." And he said to them, "Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power."
In 278, during the reign of Probus, Saints Trophimus and Sabbatius came to Antioch, and seeing the city celebrating the festival of Apollo at Daphne lamented the blindness of the people, and presented themselves as Christians to Atticus the Governor. Saint Trophimus was stripped of his clothing, and was stretched out and beaten until the earth was red with his blood. Then he was hung up, scraped on his sides, and imprisoned in torments. Saint Sabbatius was tortured so savagely that he gave up his spirit in his sufferings. Trophimus was sent to Synnada, wearing iron shoes fitted with sharp iron nails within; he was further tormented without mercy, then cast into prison. Dorymedon, a counsellor, and a pagan, came to the prison and cared for Trophimus. When a certain feast came, Dorymedon was asked why he did not sacrifice to the idols; he proclaimed himself a Christian, for which he was imprisoned, pierced with heated spits, frightfully punished, and finally beheaded with Saint Trophimus.
The holy Martyr Eustathius before his baptism was an illustrious Roman general named Placidas in the days of the Emperor Trajan. While hunting in the country one day, he was converted to the Faith of Christ through the apparition of an uncommonly majestic stag, between whose antlers he saw the Cross of Christ, and through which the Lord spoke to him with a human voice. Upon returning home, he learned that his wife Tatiana had also had a vision in which she was instructed to become a Christian. They sought out the Bishop of the Christians and were baptized, Placidas receiving the name Eustathius, and Tatiana the name Theopiste; their two sons were baptized Agapius and Theopistus. The family was then subjected to such trials as Job endured. Their servants died, all their goods were stolen, and on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem they were scattered abroad, each not even knowing if the others were still alive. By the providence of God, they were united again after many years, and returned to Rome in glory. Nevertheless, when they refused to sacrifice to the idols-a public sacrifice from which no Roman general could be absent-the Emperor Hadrian, who had succeeded Trajan, had them put into a large bronze device in the shape of a bull, which was heated with fire until they died. When their holy bodies were removed, they were found to be without harm. They suffered martyrdom about the year 126.
Saint Helen, the mother of Saint Constantine the Great, when she was already advanced in years, undertook, in her great piety, the hardships of a journey to Jerusalem in search of the cross, about the year 325. A temple to Aphrodite had been raised up by the Emperor Hadrian upon Golgotha, to defile and cover with oblivion the place where the saving Passion had been suffered. The venerable Helen had the statue of Aphrodite destroyed, and the earth removed, revealing the Tomb of our Lord, and three crosses. Of these, it was believed that one must be that of our Lord, the other two of the thieves crucified with Him; but Saint Helen was at a loss which one might be the Wood of our salvation. At the inspiration of Saint Macarius, Archbishop of Jerusalem, a lady of Jerusalem, who was already at the point of death from a certain disease, was brought to touch the crosses, and as soon as she came near to the Cross of our Lord, she was made perfectly whole. Consequently, the precious Cross was lifted on high by Archbishop Macarius of Jerusalem; as he stood on the ambo, and when the people beheld it, they cried out, "Lord have mercy." It should be noted that after its discovery, a portion of the venerable Cross was taken to Constantinople as a blessing. The rest was left in Jerusalem in the magnificent church built by Saint Helen, until the year 614. At that time, the Persians plundered Palestine and took the Cross to their own country (see Jan. 22, Saint Anastasius the Persian). Late, in the year 628, Emperor Heraclius set out on a military campaign, retrieved the Cross, and after bringing it to Constantinople, himself escorted it back to Jerusalem, where he restored it to its place.
Rest from labour. A Fast is observed today, whatever day of the week it may be.
The Prophet Jonah, the son of Amathi, of the town of Geth-hopher (IV Kings 14:25), was of the tribe of Zabulon; he prophesied during the years 838-810 before Christ. God commanded him to go to Nineveh, the great city of the Assyrians, and to proclaim that its destruction was nigh at hand because of the sins of its people. But he, as a Prophet who knew the great compassion of God, feared that at his preaching the Ninevites would repent; that God, accepting their repentance in His love for man, would not fulfill Jonah' threats; and that he would be branded a false prophet. So he disobeyed the divine command, and boarded a ship and departed elsewhere. Yet, the sudden and fearful sea-storm and the revelation of Jonah' disbedience caused the sailors to cast him into the sea. A great sea-monster appeared straightway by divine providence, and swallowed him up. For three days and nights he was found in its belly and he prayed, saying the words, "I cried aloud in my affliction unto the Lord my God..." (Jonah 2:3, the Sixth ode of the Holy Psalter). The sea-monster then vomited him up on dry land and he again heard God's command. Wherefore, he went and preached, saying, "In three days, Nineveh shall be destroyed." The people became terrified and all repented. The great, the small, babes at the breast, and even the irrational beasts themselves fasted, and thus, having found mercy from God, they were spared His wrath. Jonah' book of prophecy is divided into four chapters, and is placed fifth in order among the twelve minor Prophets. His three-day sojourn in the sea-monster's belly is an image of our Saviour's three-day burial and His life-bringing Resurrection (Matt. 12:39-40). His name means "dove."
Saint Quadratus was a disciple of the Apostles, and became Bishop of Athens. According to the Synaxaristes, he contested for the Faith in the year 117, in the reign of Hadrian (117-138), but according to others, in the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161-180).
This saint was known for the many miracles he worked and for his apostolic zeal in shepherding the flock of Sinope. He contested for the Faith during the reign of the Emperor Trajan, in the year 102, when he was burned to death in a bath-house. A homily in his honour was composed by Saint John Chrysostom. The translation of his holy relics is celebrated on July 23.
This came to pass fifteen months before the birth of Christ, after the vision of the Angel that Zacharias, the father of the Forerunner, saw in the Temple while he executed the priest's office in the order of his course during the feast of the Tabernacles, as tradition bears witness. In this vision, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Zacharias and said to him, "Thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John" (Luke 1:13). Knowing that Elizabeth was barren, and that both he and she were elderly, Zacharias did not believe what the Angel told him, although he had before him the example of Abraham and Sarah, of Hannah, mother of the Prophet Samuel, and of other barren women in Israel who gave birth by the power of God. Hence, he was condemned by the Archangel to remain speechless until the fulfilment of these words in their season, which also came to pass (Luke 1:7-24).
This saint was from the city of Iconium. When she was eighteen years of age, she was instructed in the Faith of Christ and the hope of the resurrection by the Apostle Paul, whom also she followed, forsaking her betrothed and espousing a life of virginity for the sake of the Heavenly Bridegroom. Having preached Christ in various cities and suffered many things, she reposed in Seleucia of Cilicia at the age of 90.
Our righteous Mother Euphrosyne, who lived during the reign of Saint Theodosius the Younger (408-450), was the daughter of Paphnutius of Egypt. Forsaking her father and his wealth, she renamed herself Smaragdus, and pretending to be a eunuch of the imperial palace, she dressed herself as a man and entered a monastery of men where her identity remained unknown until her repose thirty-eight years later.
Our righteous Father Sergius was born in Rostov, north of Moscow, about the year 1314. Named Bartholomew in Baptism, he was brought up in Radonezh, and at the death of his parents he withdrew to the wilderness to become a monk. It is notable that without having been trained in a monastery, he was of such a spiritual stature as to be able to take up the perilous eremitical life from the beginning, without falling into delusion or despondency. When he had endured with courage the deprivations of the solitary life, other monks began to come to him, for whom he was made abbot against his will. On the counsel of Philotheus, Patriarch of Constantinople, he organized his monks according to the cenobitic life, appointing duties to each. While Anthony and Theodosius of Kiev, and the other righteous Fathers before Sergius, had established their monasteries near to cities, Sergius was the leader and light of those who went far into the wilderness, and after his example the untrodden forests of northern Russia were settled with monks. When Grand Duke Demetrius Donskoy was about to go to battle against the invading Tartars, he first sought the blessing of Saint Sergius, through whose prayers he was triumphant. Saint Sergius was adorned with the highest virtues of Christ-like humility and burning love for God and neighbour, and received the gift of working wonders, of casting out demons, and of discretion for leading souls to salvation. When he served the Divine Liturgy, an Angel served with him visibly; he was also vouchsafed the visitation of the most holy Theotokos with the Apostles Peter and John. He was gathered to his Fathers on September 25, 1392. At the recovery of his holy relics on July 5, 1422, his body and garments were found fragrant and incorrupt. His life was written by the monks of Epiphanius, who knew him.
Metropolitan Alexios' Message
In this Sunday’s Epistle to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul wishes to make an important distinction concerning faith and the Law of Moses. Though the Law was provided to help the Israelites walk in God’s ways, we now live in a time when the God-Man walked with us in true perfection. Therefore, St. Paul writes: “Brethren we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law...” (Galatians 2:16) However, Saint Paul also knows that just as “…no one will be justified by the works of the law” faith in Jesus Christ does not free anyone from sin either.
Therefore, St. Paul rhetorically asks the Galatians “…if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!” (Galatians 2:17) This Sunday (one week after the observance of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross) Christ tells His Disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34) He says “If” to demonstrate that it is our choice to follow Him in seeking to be made perfect; we are still vulnerable to the passions that can lead us to sin, if we choose to follow them instead.
Indeed, St. Paul acknowledges this also when he says, “…if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor.” (Galatians 2:18) This spirit of transgression was the very purpose for which Moses gave the Law, and the same for which God chose to become Man, live and work, before dying and rising again to life. As St. Paul simply writes, “For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.” (Galatians 2:19) This reunion with God, where we can be considered His followers and friends is a source of great joy. No longer are we slaves to the Law but adopted sons and daughters of God. (Galatians 4:1)
As Christians who venerate the Cross on which our Lord voluntarily went to His Passion, we know what means to say, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” (Galatians 2:19-20) While we are still in the world—but not of it—we are indeed transformed people. As St. Paul says so movingly of all Christians “…the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20) Though we shall all struggle with our weaknesses, we do so now in the hope that we are children of God, whose faith can be a source of inspiration in times of struggle, as we continue to seek true communion with Him who created us and saved us.
+ALEXIOS
Metropolitan of Atlanta
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.