Every Saturday we have Great Vespers (unless otherwise noted) at 6:00 p.m. Every Sunday - Orthros at 8:50 a.m., Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m. Weekday Services are as listed on the Calendar and Community News.
Weekday Services...
Every Sunday we have Orthros beginning at 8:50 a.m. and Divine Liturgy beginning at 10:00 a.m. Saturday evenings we have Great Vespers at 6:00 p.m., unless otherwise noted. Weekday services begin at 9:00 a.m. with Orthros followed by Divine Liturgy. Unless otherwise stated service will be at St. George.
(Note: All services are at 9:00 a.m. and at St. George unless otherwise noted)
August
1st, Wednesday - Paraklesis, 7 p.m.
3rd, Friday - Paraklesis, 7 p.m.
6th, Monday - Holy Transfiguration, 9 a.m., Paraklesis, 7 p.m.
8th, Wednesday - Paraklesis, 7 p.m.
10th, Friday - Paraklesis, 7 p.m.
13th, Monday - Paraklesis, 7 p.m.
14th, Tuesday - Great Vespers, 7 p.m.
15th, Wednesday - Dormition of the Theotokos, 9 a.m.
29th, Wednesday - Beheading of St. John the Baptist, 9 a.m.
The similarities between the trainer and the spiritual father
Just after my graduation from college I moved to Portland, Oregon, where I worked at various jobs, including waiting tables in an upscale restaurant (to this day, I’m a good tipper), bartender in a small Irish pub (I’m one quarter Scottish), and working as an orderly in a trauma center. All these jobs contributed in important ways to my ultimate vocation as a priest and a monk. (I’ll leave it to my readers to figure this one out.)
Shortly after my move to Portland, I decided that I wanted to work out at a local weight lifting gym (what young man doesn’t want to be buff?). After asking around, I discovered Laprinzi’s Gym, a Portland institution to this day. Laprinzi’s has always been known for having some of the best trainers, and I knew that success at weightlifting would require professional help and direction.
Being a skinny college grad, I felt somewhat intimidated as I walked into a gym filled with Olympic style weightlifters, but I was soon made to feel at ease after one of the trainers approached me, offering to help me get started. Grateful for the direction, I began what was to be a mainstay of my physical exercise for years to come. I didn’t stop weight lifting until I’d become a monk, and have regretted the decision to stop until this very day. Long distance running was my other passion, leading ultimately to hip replacement surgery some seven years ago, according to my surgeon.
The very day I walked into Laprinzi’s Gym, another young man walked in for his first try at weightlifting. But, unlike myself, he was too prideful to accept direction from anyone. He stupidly turned down the offer of a trainer, and proceeded to weight lift without professional guidance. Some six months later, my trainer quietly pointed to the other young man, saying, “David, do you notice the difference between your body and his? Since he has been his own trainer, he sees only his front side, so his muscle development is concentrated in his upper arms and chest. His back muscles and legs are underdeveloped, so he looks like a skinny ape”.
I share this story because of the saying in Orthodoxy, “The man who is his own spiritual director, becomes the disciple of a fool.” When we embark on the spiritual path, we need the direction and foresight of someone who is experienced, for there are all sorts of traps ahead, including pride. In choosing a spiritual father or mother as our guide, we are directed on the path to Christ by someone who knows us, and is able to point out those traps that would snare us. This guide, like the trainer described above, sees us from a perspective that is otherwise hidden from us, and like the weightlifter who desires to look buff, the man on a quest for spiritual transformation, needs a spiritual father can point to those sins and omissions that need our attention.
“A priest is a spiritual physician. Show your wounds to him without shame, sincerely, openly, trusting and confiding in him as his son; for the confessor is your spiritual father, who should love you more than your own father and mother; for Christ’s love is higher than any natural love. He must give an answer to God for you (Saint John of Kronstadt, ‘My Life in Christ’).”
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Community Connections
Please contact the church office or email Stacy at st.george.stacy@coxinet.net to let us know if you would like to include announcements of any special personal recognition, i.e., graduations, promotions, prayer request, births, etc. to include in our Sunday Bulletin.
Youth Groups
JOY (K - 5th Grade), will meet the first Thursday of each month. GOYA (6th - 12th) Grade will meet the second Thursday of each month. Other activities are scheduled and will be mentioned as they come up.
Classes...
We will be having a Sacraments Class and a Book Club beginning mid-August, stay tuned.
The Sacraments Class will begin on Tuesday, August 21st, 7 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. All are welcome!
Bible Study is every Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. provided that there is not a Service.
Fellowship Hour...
We invite you to take part in our fellowship hour by hosting for a Sunday. Bring your own food or have the Church cook for the congregation. Sign up as a Sunday School class, or celebrate a special birthday or name-day, the list goes on. You can even offer to buy the donuts for the day, and we will add your name in the bulletin. Call Stacy in the Church office to sign up today!
Philoptochos Corner
Philoptochos would like to thank everyone who helped pack our meals to hand out to the homeless this past Sunday. We would like to also thank those who participated in handing out the meals on Saturday, August 4th. It was much appreciated!!!!
Our BUZZED with BLESSINGS fundraiser is on going. 30 bees for $50 donation. Contact Jennifer Economopoulos 351-2212 or jennifer.elene@yahoo.com for a booking or more information.
The next Philoptochos meeting will be August 26th at 3:00 at the hoome of Sue Stavros. WE WELOCOME ALL LADIES to join us in any and all events.
Prosfora Schedule
August
5th - Patrick Ingle
12th - Rachel & Jake Trotter
15th - Fofo Bargeliotes
19th - Vana Economopoulos
26th - Tasia Vrentas
We are need of a few people to make the Prosfora for the upcoming months. Please call the office if you would like to have your name added to the list. Thank you!
The making of Prosfora is an honor and gift we offer to Christ and His Church, thus the name of Prosforo, which means "offering." We are in need of a few people to join the list of bakers.
Pleased call the office if you would like to have your name added to the list. Thank you!
Tenth Orthros Gospel
The Reading is from John 21:1-14
At that time, being raised from the dead, Jesus revealed himself to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat; but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, "Children, have you any fish?" They answered him, "No." He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, for the quantity of fish. The disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his clothes, for he was stripped for work, and sprang into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.
When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them; and although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." Now none of the disciples dared ask him, "Who are you?" They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
Prokeimenon. First Mode. Psalm 32.22,1.
Let your mercy, O Lord, be upon us.
Verse: Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous.
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.
10th Sunday of Matthew
The Reading is from Matthew 17:14-23
At that time, a man came up to Jesus and kneeling before him said, "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; for often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him." And Jesus answered, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me." And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move hence to yonder place,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. But this kind never comes out except by prayer and fasting." As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day."
Reading is under copyright and is used with permission, all rights reserved by: Holy Transfiguration Monastery - Brookline, MA
Reading is under copyright and is used with permission, all rights reserved by: Holy Transfiguration Monastery - Brookline, MA
Reading is under copyright and is used with permission, all rights reserved by: Holy Transfiguration Monastery - Brookline, MA
This Martyr was from Antioch, and had been a soldier from the time of the reign of Constantius Chlorus (the father of Saint Constantine the Great) to that of Julian the Apostate. He censured Julian's ungodliness and reminded him that he was the nephew of Saint Constantine the Great, the first Christian Emperor. He reminded him further, that from his tender youth he had been nourished on the milk of piety and instructed in the Faith of Christ, had been a fellow student of Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian, had been a reader of the Church of Nicomedia, and that he had set all these things at nought and become a transgressor of the promises made in his divine Baptism, and had offered to the idols the adoration that is due to God alone. Reminding the Apostate of all these things and reproving him, he was beheaded in the year 361, having lived altogether 110 years, and been a soldier for more than sixty.
Our Lord had spoken to His disciples many times not only concerning His Passion, Cross, and Death, but also concerning the coming persecutions and afflictions that they themselves would endure. Since all these evils were near at hand, but the enjoyment of good things which they hoped to receive in their stead was yet to come, our Savior desired to give them full assurance, evidently and openly, concerning that glory which is prepared for those who endure to the end. Therefore, fulfilling that which He had promised shortly before, that "there be some standing here which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in His Kingdom" (Matt. 16:28), He took His three foremost disciples and ascended Mount Tabor, where He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as the light. Suddenly, together with this dread and marvelous effulgence of light, there appeared those pinnacles of the Prophets, Moses and Elias, who spoke with the Lord Jesus concerning His saving Passion which was about to take place. Standing before Him as reverent servants, they showed that He is the Lord of both the living and the dead, for Moses came forth from Hades, having died many centuries before, and Elias, as it were from heaven, whither he had been taken up while yet alive. After a little while a radiant cloud overshadowed them and out of the cloud they heard that same voice which had been heard at the Jordan at the Baptism of Christ, testifying to the Divinity of Jesus and saying: "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well-pleased; hear ye Him" (Matt. 17: 5).
Such are the marvels, truly worthy of God, celebrated in this present feast, which is an image and prefiguring of the future state of the righteous, whose splendor the Lord spoke of, saying: "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun" (Matt. 13:43). It is because of this that the Kontakion of this Feast is said daily (when there is not a great feast) in the Service of the Typica in perpetual commemoration of the glory that will be the lot of the Saints. According to tradition, the Lord's Transfiguration came to pass forty days before His Crucifixion; this is why the Transfiguration is celebrated forty days before the Exaltation of the Cross.
This Martyr, who lived during the reign of Saint Constantine the Great, was a Persian by race and an idolater by religion. He was catechized by a certain Christian named Abarus. He went to Nisibis, a city of Mesopotamia, where he was baptized and donned the monastic habit in a certain monastery. He afterwards ascended a mountain and there endured in extreme ascetical struggles, working miracles for those that came to him, and converting many unbelievers. Julian the Apostate learned of these things as he was marching against the Persians in 363, and at his command the Saint and his two disciples were stoned to death, as they were chanting the Sixth Hour.
This Saint was one of the illustrious Orthodox Bishops called to Constantinople by the holy Patriarch Nicephorus to defend the veneration of the holy icons against Leo the Armenian (see Mar. 8). Saint Emilian was sent into exile by Leo about the year 815, and gave up his soul to the Lord amidst many afflictions and sufferings for the sake of his confession.
After Judas by transgression fell from his apostleship (Acts 1: 25), and hanging himself out of despair ended his life with a wretched and shameful death (Matt. 27: 5), then, that the number of the Twelve not be lacking, all the disciples gathered in one place after the Ascension of the Savior (the number of men and women being 120), and they chose two men from among them, Joseph, called Barsabas, who was also surnamed Justus, and Matthias, and they set them in the midst. Then they prayed to God and cast lots, "and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven Apostles" (Acts 1: 15-26). And thus, having taken the place of Judas, Matthias fulfilled the work of apostleship and the prophecy concerning Judas, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David: "And his bishopric let another take" (Ps. 108:7). After this, it is said, Matthias preached the Gospel in Ethiopia, and completed his life there in martyrdom.
This Saint, who was born in Spain, was the Archdeacon of the Church of Rome, caring for the sacred vessels of the Church and distributing money to the needy. About the year 257, a harsh persecution was raised up against the Christians by Valerian. Pope Sixtus, who was from Athens, was commanded to worship the idols, and refused; before his martyrdom by beheading, he committed to Laurence all the sacred vessels of the Church. When Laurence was arrested and brought before the Prefect, he was questioned concerning the treasures of the Church; he asked for three days' time to prepare them. He then proceeded to gather all the poor and needy, and presented them to the Prefect and said, "Behold the treasures of the Church." The Prefect became enraged at this and gave command that Laurence be racked, then scourged with scorpions (a whip furnished with sharp iron points - compare II Chron. 10:11), then stretched out on a red-hot iron grill. But the courageous athlete of Christ endured without groaning. After he had been burned on one side, he said, "My body is done on one side; turn me over on the other." And when this had taken place, the Martyr said to the tyrants, "My flesh is now well done, you may taste of it." And when he had said this, and had prayed for his slayers in imitation of Christ, he gave up his spirit on August 10, 258.
This Martyr was from Catania in Sicily and contested during the reign of Diocletian. He presented himself of his own accord to Calvisianus the Governor, who put him to exceedingly harsh torments. As Euplus was on the rack, Calvisianus commanded him to worship Mars, Apollo, and Aesculapius; he answered he worshipped the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He was beheaded in the year 304.