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St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church
Publish Date: 2019-06-30
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St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • (781) 237-5561
  • Fax:
  • (781) 237-8612
  • Street Address:

  • 57 Brown Street

  • Weston, MA 02493


Contact Information








Services Schedule

Matins Sunday - 8:30 a.m. Weekdays - 9:00 a.m.

Liturgy Sunday - 9:30 a.m. Weekdays - 9:30 a.m.


Past Bulletins


St. Demetrios Calendar

SYNAXIS OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES, June 30
- Orthros & Divine Liturgy, 8:30 am

THURSDAY, July 4
Independence Day
- Church Office Closed

SATURDAY, July 6
- Agape Prayer Group, 8:30 am

3rd SUNDAY OF MATTHEW, July 7
- Orthros & Divine Liturgy, 8:30 am

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Readings and Information

Today’s Epistle Reading (I Corinthians 4:9-16) is found on page 79 in your Red Liturgy Book.

Today’s Gospel Reading (Matthew 9:36;10:1-8) is not found in your Red Liturgy Book.

Resurrectional Apolytikion, “From On High” is found on page 172 in your Red Liturgy Book.

Thanksgiving prayers, for after Communion, are found on page 40 in your Red Liturgy Book.

TODAY’S USHERS: Chris Pashos, Captain; George Gatzunis; Steve Sotir; Dean Coclin; Linda Theoharis; Gina Pagonis ; Tom Gatzunis; Laz Vekiarides; Nick Mitrokostas.

TODAY’S MEMORIAL: 10 years for Arthur Dukakis.

TODAY’S GREETERS: Carol and Arthur Loridas.

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Parish News and Events

PHILOPTOCHOS CATERING

Philoptochos is delighted to offer their St. Christine's Catering Program. Visit  the church website under the Philoptochos page to view the ordering menu. Thanks for using the Philoptochos Catering !

METROPOLIS OF BOSTON CAMP 

Registration is now open for the Metropolis of Boston Camp and weeks are filling up fast! Be sure to go to www.metropolisofbostoncamp.org to register! Session 1 July 8 - July 14 (WAITLIST); Session 2 July 15 - July 21; Session 3 July 22 - July 28; Session 4 July 29 - August 4 (SOLDOUT)

ST. DEMETRIOS BOOKSTORE

Graduation season is here and the bookstore has a variety of items to offer.  There are many religious books for adults and children, icons and St. Demetrios crosses, to name a few. Stop by and browse.

ST. DEMETRIOS SILENT AUCTION FOR 60TH ANNIVERSARY GALA

The Auction Committee has a “wish list” for the November 60th Anniversary Gala Silent Auction. If you wish to contribute an item for auction fundraising, it would be greatly appreciated. Some suggestions that are always popular and succeed at fund raising: Tickets to sports events, theater, concerts (Pops, Symphony, etc.), gift certificates to restaurants, spas, cooking classes, and photo shoots, timeshare weeks, vacation home weeks, jewelry pieces, or any other ideas you might have. Please contact Kathy Hamilton for questions or donations: 508-358-5520 Suzzane Polymeros, Carolyn DelGizzi, Bobi Koukounaris Thank you so much!

ALKISTIS PROTOPSALTIS CONCERT

As part of the 60th Anniversary we are please to announce that we have begun selling tickets the upcoming Alkistis Protopsalti concert on September 28th. This event will be held at Sanders Theater at Harvard University. Tickets are selling fast! Prices are $55, $75, or $95. You can call Sanders Theater Box Office at 617-496-2222 or visit https://www.boxoffice.harvard.edu for ticket sales. For more information there will be a table at coffee hour or you can contact concertevent@stdemetriosweston.org  

SAVE THESE DATES

Saturday, September 28 - Alkistis Protopsaltis Concert, Sanders Theatre, Cambridge

Friday, October, 25 - Vespers for St. Demetrios

Saturday, October 26 - St. Demetrios Feast Day Liturgy

Saturday, November 2 - St. Demetrios Gala Dinner Dance, Westin Hotel in Waltham

SPONSORING FLOWERS

If you would like to sponsor altar flowers in memory of loved ones or in honor of a special occasion please contact the church office for more details on available dates.

60TH ANNIVERSARY EVENTS 

We need your help in chairing and working on the many events that are planned for 2019. Please contact Peter Condakes at  617-571-8540 or Stephen Condakes at 781-235-8429 if you are interested in participating. Don't forget to mark your calendars Saturday, November 2 for the Saint Demetrios 60th Anniversary Gala at the Westin-Waltham!

SPONSORING FELLOWSHIP HOUR
The calendar is open for any one wishing to sponsor coffee hour this coming year. If you are interested please contact Pam Brody at 781-864-6427. 

USHERING GUIDELINES
As the Church School year comes to a start, we ask that everyone assist us by waiting patiently in your seats for the children to receive Holy Communion first so that they may get to their classes.

In order to facilitate this process as efficiently as possible, we ask that Church School Teachers, Children and their parents be dismissed first for communion. All other parishioners are asked to stay in their seats and wait for the ushers to dismiss their row. We appreciate your patience and your support!

ST. DEMETRIOS ORTHO-TAXI SERVICE
We miss you when you are not with us! If you need a ride to and from church consider taking the St. Demetrios Ortho-Taxi service.  If you are interested call the church office (781-237-5561) by Friday at noon for Sunday Liturgy, or two days in advance for other services or events. You will receive a call from your driver to arrange pick-up times. The roundtrip fare is $5 to be donated to the Senior Guild.

SUNDAY GREETERS
We are looking for additional people to help greet/welcome our parishioners to church on Sunday mornings. All those who are interested in being a part of this wonderful program please contact Angel Hatgelakas through Marianne at the church office. Tel: 781-237-5561 or email: office@stdemetriosweston.org. Thank you.

USHERING
If you are interested in joining the Usher Team please contact Georgia Gefteas at gaghome1@gmail.com or 978-973-7476.

WWW.GOARCH.ORG
The webpage of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has a great amount of resources for anyone looking to learn more about the faith. You can find the daily readings of the church, information about saints, what we believe, and prayers for any occasion. Additionally, you can stay up to date with news that affects us as Christians. Be sure to check www.goarch.org regularly!

PHILOXENIA HOUSE
Located near HCHC in Brookline, the Philoxenia House offers a home and hospitality to patients and those who accompany them while they are undergoing treatment in the Boston area.  For several years a few of us visit the home twice a year to try to brighten their lives by planting flowers.  This is a joy for us.  For more information regarding this ministry please contact Betty Titus, 781.237.4748, or Eleanor Spiliakos, 978.443.3746.

WHAT IS THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
Being asked this during our festival a number of times — we as Orthodox Christians ought to respond:

“The Orthodox Christian Church is a worldwide body of believers who  confess and worship Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as Lord and Messiah. This body has a tangible and continuous history of Christian faith and practice from the time of Christ’s Apostles. The use of the adjective ‘orthodox’ to describe the Church dates back to the earliest centuries and was applied to those Christians who maintained the tradition transmitted by Christ’s Apostles (1 Thess 2:15)”

FR. MANIKAS LIBRARY
Come and visit the Fr. Manikas Library and check out one of our many books on a variety of different topics. After Divine Liturgy, please stop by the library and see what we have to offer. See Cindi Dabrowski in the library for assistance on picking out a selection to take home and further your knowledge of our faith.

DAILY READINGS APP
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has developed and released a Daily Readings App for iOS and Android. It offers the daily Epistle and Gospel readings of the day as well as the saints that are commemorated on that day. Furthermore, it offers prayers,  dates of future Feast Days and fasting guidelines.

It’s a great resource that is offered by our Archdiocese. Sign into your app store and download it today!

BE THE BEE WEBSERIES 
The National Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries offers a weekly web video series on YouTube called “Be the Bee” each week a question or theme about our faith is answered in just 5 minutes! Check out this new and interesting approach to learning about our faith! Go to: www.youtube.com/user/y2am to see the entire series! 

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Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. Plagal Fourth Tone. Psalm 18.4,1.
Their voice has gone out into all the earth.
Verse: The heavens declare the glory of God.

The reading is from St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 4:9-16.

Brethren, God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the off-scouring of all things. I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.


Gospel Reading

Synaxis of the Twelve Holy Apostles
The Reading is from Matthew 9:36, 10:1-8

At that time, when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaios, and Thaddaios; Simon the Cananaean. and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. These twelve Jesus sent out, charging them, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And preach as you go, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying, give without pay."


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Saints and Feasts

June 30

Michael the New Martyr of Athens


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June 30

Synaxis of the Twelve Holy Apostles

The names of the Twelve Apostles are these: Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew, the First-called; James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John, who was also the Evangelist and Theologian; Philip, and Bartholomew (see also June 11); Thomas, and Matthew the publican, who was also called Levi and was an Evangelist; James the son of Alphaeus, and Jude (also called Lebbaeus, and surnamed Thaddaeus), the brother of James, the Brother of God; Simon the Cananite ("the Zealot"), and Matthias, who was elected to fill the place of Judas the traitor (see Aug. 9).


30_12apost
June 30

Synaxis of the Twelve Holy Apostles

The names of the Twelve Apostles are these: Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew, the First-called; James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John, who was also the Evangelist and Theologian; Philip, and Bartholomew (see also June 11); Thomas, and Matthew the publican, who was also called Levi and was an Evangelist; James the son of Alphaeus, and Jude (also called Lebbaeus, and surnamed Thaddaeus), the brother of James, the Brother of God; Simon the Cananite ("the Zealot"), and Matthias, who was elected to fill the place of Judas the traitor (see Aug. 9).


July 01

Germanus, Bishop of the Isle of Man


July 01

Constantine the New Martyr of Cyprus


Kosmdami
July 01

Cosmas & Damian the Holy Unmercenaries

These Saints, who are different from those that are celebrated on the 1st of November, were from Rome. They were physicians, freely bestowing healing upon beasts and men, asking nothing from the healed other than that they confess and believe in Christ. They ended their life in martyrdom in the year 284, under the Emperors Carinus and Numerian.


Kosmdami
July 01

Cosmas & Damian the Holy Unmercenaries

These Saints, who are different from those that are celebrated on the 1st of November, were from Rome. They were physicians, freely bestowing healing upon beasts and men, asking nothing from the healed other than that they confess and believe in Christ. They ended their life in martyrdom in the year 284, under the Emperors Carinus and Numerian.


July 01

Aaron and Julius the Martyrs of Caerelon


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July 02

Deposition of the Precious Robe of the Theotokos in Blachernae

During the reign of Leo the Great (457-474) two patricians and brethren on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land lodged with an old widow, a Christian of Jewish descent. Seeing the many miracles wrought at a small shrine in her house, they pressed her until she revealed to them that she had raiment of the most holy Theotokos kept in a small coffer. Our Lady had had two virgins in her lifetime who attended upon her; before her holy dormition, she gave each of them one of her divine garments as a blessing. This old widow was of the family of one of those two virgins, and it had come through the generations into her hands. With the permission of God, that this holy relic might be had for the profit of many, the two men took the garment by stealth and brought it to Blachernae near Constantinople, and building a church in honor of the Apostles Peter and Mark, they secretly enshrined the garment therein. But here again, because of the multitude of miracles that were worked, it became known to the Emperor Leo, and a magnificent church was built, as some say, by that same Leo, but according to others, by his predecessors Marcian and Pulcheria, and enlarged by Leo when the holy raiment was found. The Emperor Justin the Younger completed the church, which the Emperor Romanus IV Diogenes raised up immediately again after it had burned in 1070. It burned again in 1434, and from that time it remained a small house of prayer together with the renowned holy spring. After the seventh century, the name Blachernae was given to other churches and monasteries by their pious founders out of reverence for this famous church in Constantinople. In this church John Catacuzene was crowned in 1345; also, the Council against Acindynus, the follower of Barlaam, was convoked here (see the Second Sunday of the Great Fast).


July 02

Juvenal, Patriarch of Jerusalem


July 02

Juvenal the Protomartyr of America & Alaska

Saint Juvenal was (together with Saint Herman; see Dec. 12) a member of the first mission sent from Russia to proclaim the Gospel in the New World. He was a priest-monk, and a zealous follower of the Apostles, and baptized hundreds of the natives of Alaska. He was martyred by enraged pagans in 1796.


Maximovitch
July 02

John Maximovitch, Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco

The Holy Hierarch John Maximovitch was born in the Kharkov region in 1896, and reposed in Seattle in 1966. In 1921, during the Russian Civil War, his family fled to Belgrade, joining the ranks of Russian exiles in Serbia, where he later became a monk and was ordained priest. In 1934 he was made Bishop of Shanghai, where he served until the Communists came to power. Thereafter he ministered in Europe, serving as Bishop first in Paris then in Brussels, until he became Archbishop of San Francisco in 1962. Throughout his life he was revered as a strict ascetic, a devoted man of prayer, and a truly wondrous unmercenary healer of all manner of afflictions and woes. He served the Divine Liturgy daily, slept little more than an hour a day, and kept a strict fast until the evening. It is doubtful that any one man gave so much protection and comfort as he to the Russian Orthodox people in exile after the Revolution of 1917; he was an unwearying and watchful shepherd of his sheep in China, the Philippines, Europe, and America. Through his missionary labors he also brought into the Church many who had not been "of this fold." Since his repose in 1966, he has been especially glorified by God through signs and miracles, and his body has remained incorrupt.


July 02

Synaxis of the Most Holy Theotokos of the Orphan


July 03

3rd Wednesday after Pentecost


July 03

Hyacinth the Martyr of Caesarea & Theodotos and Theodota the Martyrs

The Martyr Hyacinth, who was from Caesarea of Cappadocia, was the chamberlain of the Emperor Trajan. On being constrained by the Emperor to partake of the sacrifices offered to idols and not wishing to do so, he was shut up in prison without food, where he gave up his spirit to God in the year 108.


July 03

Anatolius, Patriarch of Constantinople

Saint Anatolius was a priest from Alexandria, who had been ordained deacon and perhaps also priest by Saint Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria. In 449, at the Robber Council of Ephesus, Saint Cyril's infamous successor, the violent Dioscorus, unlawfully deposed Flavian, the Patriarch of Constantinople and opponent of the Monophysite Eutyches; Flavian, from the beatings which he received, died soon after. Dioscorus, thinking that the priest Anatolius would support him, consecrated him Patriarch of Constantinople in Saint Flavian's stead. After he had been consecrated by Dioscorus-who at that time had not yet been deposed-Anatolius united with the Orthodox; before the Council of Chalcedon in 451, he held a council of the Bishops in Constantinople, at which the Orthodox "Tome" of Pope Leo (see Feb. 18), which Dioscorus had not allowed to be read at the Robber Council, was read and approved; and at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, he condemned Nestorius, Eutyches, and, for his unlawful actions, Dioscorus. Saint Anatolius reposed in the year 458. Some ascribe to this Anatolius the hymns of Vespers and the Praises in the Octoechos that are labeled Anatolian Stichera; but others (which may be more correct), to another with the same name, who was from the Monastery of Studium, and a disciple of Saint Theodore the Studite, whose epistle to this Anatolius is still extant.


July 03

Gerasimos the Holy Martyr of Karenesi


July 03

Translation of the Holy Relics of our Father Among the Saints Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow

Today we also commemorate the translation of the holy and incorrupt relics of Saint Philip from the Monastery of Solovki, where he was Abbot, to the Cathedral of the Dormition in Moscow, his Metropolitan throne. This came to pass in 1652, some eighty years after his martyric death in Tver. (See also Jan. 9 and Oct. 5.)


July 04

3rd Thursday after Pentecost


Andrewhymn
July 04

Andrew of Crete Author of the Great Canon

Saint Andrew was from Damascus; his parents' names were George and Gregoria. He became a cleric and secretary of Theodore and Patriarch of Jerusalem; from this, he is called "the Jerusalemite." He was present at the Sixth Ecumenical Council in Constantinople, which was convoked in 680 during the reign of Emperor Constantine IV (668-685). He became deacon of the Great church in Constantinople, that is, the Church of the Holy Wisdom of God, then Archbishop of Crete. He reposed in 720 or 723. Beside his other sacred writings, he also composed various hymns, among which is the famous Great Canon, which is chanted during Great Lent (see the Thursday of the Fifth Week of the Fast).


July 04

Martha, mother of St. Symeon Stylites the Younger


July 04

Asclepias the Wonderworker


Royalfamily
July 04

Holy Royal Martyrs of Russia

Tsar Nicholas II was the son of Alexander III, who had reposed in the arms of Saint John of Kronstadt. Having been raised in piety, Tsar Nicholas ever sought to rule in a spirit consonant with the precepts of Orthodoxy and the best traditions of his nation. Tsaritsa Alexandra, a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria of England, and a convert from Lutheranism, was noted for her piety and compassion for the poor and suffering. Their five children were beloved of all for their kindness, modesty, and guilelessness.

Amidst the political turmoil of 1917, Tsar Nicholas selflessly abdicated the throne for what he believed was the good of his country. Although he had abdicated willingly, the revolutionaries put him and his family under house arrest, then sent them under guard to Tobolsk and finally Ekaterinburg. A letter written from Tobolsk by Grand Duchess Olga, the eldest of the children, shows their nobility of soul. She writes, "My father asks that I convey to all those who have remained devoted to him ... that they should not take vengeance on his account, because he has forgiven everyone and prays for them all. Nor should they avenge themselves. Rather, they should bear in mind that this evil which is now present in the world will become yet stronger, but that evil will not conquer evil, but only love shall do so."

After enduring sixteen months of imprisonment, deprivation, and humiliation with a Christian patience which moved even their captors, they and those who were with them gained their crowns of martyrdom when they were shot and stabbed to death in the cellar of the Ipatiev house in Ekaterinburg in 1918.

Together with them are also commemorated those who faithfully served them, and were either slain with them, or on their account: General Elias Tatishchev; Prince Basil Dolgorukov; the physician Eugene Dotkin; the lady-in-waiting Countess Anastasia Hendrikova; the serving-maid Anna Demidova; the cook John Kharitonov; and the sailors Clement Nagorny and John Sednev.


July 04

Michael Choniates, Metropolitan of Athens


Athanasiosathos
July 05

Athanasius of Mount Athos

Saint Athanasius had Trebizond for his homeland. He first entered the monastic life on the mountain called Kymaeos or Kyminas, which is in Mysia of Bithynia, then he went to Mount Athos and founded a large monastery, which is known as the Great Lavra. He became so renowned for his virtue that from Rome, Calabria, Georgia, and elsewhere, rulers, men of wealth and nobility, abbots, and even bishops came to him and were subject to him. When the time for his departure was at hand, God revealed to him how it would take place, so that he was able to instruct his spiritual children not to be troubled when it should come to pass. A new church was being built for the sake of the many who came to him, and only the dome had not been finished. Together with six of the brethren, the Saint went to the top of the church to help the workmen. The dome collapsed, and they fell. Five were killed at once, and the Saint died three hours later. His holy body remained incorrupt and he worked many miracles after his death. He reposed about the end of the tenth century.


July 05

Righteous Father Lampadus the Wonderworker


July 05

Kyprianos the New Martyr of Koutloumousiou Monastery


July 05

Uncovering of the Holy Relics of Our Righteous Father Sergius of Radonezh

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.


Elizabethnewmartyr
July 05

Holy New Martyrs Elizabeth the Grand Duchess and the Novice Barbara

Grand Duchess Elizabeth, a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria of England and elder sister of Empress Alexandra of Russia (see July 4), was one of the most illustrious women of her day, known throughout Europe not only for her high birth and graceful beauty, but also for her modesty and goodness of heart. After marrying Grand Duke Sergius Alexandrovich, she converted to Orthodoxy, although this was not required of her by her position. After the assassination of her husband in 1905, Grand Duchess Elizabeth withdrew from public life, founding the convent of Saints Martha and Mary, of which she became the superior. There she dedicated herself to prayer, fasting, tending the sick, and caring for the poor. After the Bolsheviks seized power, she was exiled to the Urals, where she and those with her were martyred in 1918 when they were cast alive into an abandoned mine. The Novice Barbara followed Saint Elizabeth into exile. When she was separated from the Grand Duchess, Barbara asked to be allowed to join her again; to terrify her, the Bolsheviks told her that she would be allowed to do this, but only if she were prepared for unheard-of torments and a violent death. To their amazement, she consented, and was deemed worthy of martyrdom with the Grand Duchess. Their holy relics were recovered and taken through Russia to China, and came to rest in the Convent of Saint Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem. When their reliquaries were opened in 1981, their bodies were found to be partially incorrupt, and sweet with the odour of sanctity. With them are also commemorated their fellow Martyrs: Grand Duke Sergius Mikhailovich; Princes John, Constantine, and Igor, the brethren; Prince Vladimir Paley; and Theodore Remez.


July 06

3rd Saturday after Pentecost


Sisoes
July 06

Siso?s the Great

This Saint, great and renowned among the ascetics of Egypt, lived in the fourth century in Scete of Nitria. After the death of Saint Anthony the Great, he left Scete to live in Saint Anthony's cave; he said of this, "Thus in the cave of a lion, a fox makes his dwelling." When Sisoës was at the end of his long life of labours, as the Fathers were gathered about him, his face began to shine, and he said, "Behold, Abba Anthony is come"; then, "Behold, the choir of the Prophets is come"; his face shone yet more bright, and he said, "Behold, the choir of the Apostles is come." The light of his countenance increased, and he seemed to be talking with someone. The Fathers asked him of this; in his humility, he said he was asking the Angels for time to repent. Finally his face became as bright as the sun, so that the Fathers were filled with fear. He said, "Behold, the Lord is come, and He says, 'Bring Me the vessel of the desert,'" and as he gave up his soul into the hands of God, there was as it were a flash of lightning, and the whole dwelling was filled with a sweet fragrance.


July 06

Holy Apostles Archippus, Philemon and Onesimus


July 06

Loukia the Virgin-martyr, Rixios and the 24 Companion Martyrs


July 06

Juliana the Virgin-martyr


July 07

3rd Sunday of Matthew


July 07

Thomas the Righteous of Malea

Saint Thomas, though wealthy in material goods, though illustrious for the military trophies he had won in wars against the barbarians, forsook all that he had that he might gain Christ, and was led by a pillar of fire to Mount Maleon. By divine grace he wrought wonders, cast out demons, gave sight to the blind, caused springs of water to gush forth, healed many, and while in prayer appeared as a pillar of fire. The century in which he lived is not known.


07_kyriaki
July 07

Kyriake the Great Martyr

Saint Kyriake was the daughter of Christian parents, Dorotheus and Eusebia. She was given her name because she was born on Sunday, the day of the Lord (in Greek, Kyriake). She contested in Nicomedia during the reign of Diocletian, in the year 300. After many bitter torments she was condemned to suffer beheading, but being granted time to pray first, she made her prayer and gave up her holy soul in peace.


July 07

Akakios of Sinai


July 07

Willibald, Bishop of Eichstatt


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Wisdom of the Fathers

He puts an end to the woman's fear ... He sets her right, in respect of her thinking to be hid ... He exhibits her faith to all, so as to provoke the rest also to emulation ...
St. John Chrysostom
Homily 31 on Matthew 9, 4th Century

But of what laborers doth He speak here? Of the twelve disciples...He sent them out alone. ...Because though they were but twelve, He made them many from that time forward, not by adding to their number, but by giving them power. ...He Himself at once ordains them...Whence it is evident that Himself is the husbandman, Himself the Lord of the harvest...Still the Spirit was not yet given...How then did they cast out the spirits? By His command, by His authority. ...Seest thou the greatness of their ministry? Seest thou the dignity of apostles?...See how He provides for their conduct, and that no less than for their miracles, implying that the miracles without this are nothing. Thus He both quells their pride by saying, "Freely ye have received, freely give;" and takes order for their being clear of covetousness.
St. John Chrysostom
Homily 32 on Matthew 9, 4th Century

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Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the First Tone

When the stone had been sealed by the Jews and the soldiers were guarding Thine immaculate Body, Thou didst arise on the third day, O Saviour, granting life unto the world. Wherefore, the powers of the Heavens cried out to Thee, O Lifegiver: Glory to Thy Resurrection, O Christ. Glory to Thy Kingdom. Glory to Thy dispensation, O only Friend of man.

Apolytikion for Synaxis of the 12 Apostles in the Third Tone

O Holy Apostles, intercede with the merciful God that He grant unto our souls forgiveness of offenses.

Seasonal Kontakion in the Second Tone

O Protection of Christians that cannot be put to shame, mediation unto the creator most constant: O despise not the voices of those who have sinned; but be quick, O good one, to come unto our aid, who in faith cry unto thee: Hasten to intercession and speed thou to make supplication, O thou who dost ever protect, O Theotokos, them that honor thee.
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