Weekend services: the weekend schedule is fixed for most of the year. The services take place in Carmel-by-the-Sea, at All Saints Church, lower level, 9th and Lincoln.
Saturdays: 5:00pm Vespers
Sundays: 8:30am Matins
9:45am Liturgy
Week-day services: during the week we may celebrate the major feast days of the Church either in Carmel or in Salinas. Please check the calendar! The schedule pattern is:
Wednesdays: 6:00pm Paraklesis
Eve of feasts: 6:00pm Vespers
Feast days: 8:30am Matins
9:45am Liturgy
Note: our services are posted on Zoom unless specified otherwise.
Saturday, January 27 Translation of the Relics of St. John Chrysostom
5:00pm Vespers
Sunday, January 28
8:30am Matins
9:45am Liturgy
Monday, January 29
9:00am Church University: Prayers and Bible Study (online)
6:00pm Vespers
Tuesday, January 30 Three Hierarchs
8:30am Matins + Liturgy
Wednesday, January 31
9:00am Church University: Prayers and Bible Study (online)
10:00am Book Forum
6:00pm Paraklesis Service
6:45pm Catechism Class
Thursday, February 1
9:00am Church University: Prayers and Bible Study (online)
6:00pm Vespers + Liturgy
Friday, February 2 Presentation to the Temple
9:00am Church University: Matins and Bible Study (online)
7:00pm Orthodoxy 101: Journey to Fullness
Saturday, February 3
5:00pm Vespers
Sunday, February 4
8:30am Matins
9:45am Liturgy
For more information, go to //www.stjohn-monterey.org/parish-calendar
We would like to have a healthy start of the new year in terms of our commitment to the Lord by casting our 2024 pledges before the end of January.
Please join in Living the Gospel by offering gratitude through tithing (10% of income), or perhaps through a 1% increase from 2023's giving towards this goal.
Make your 2024 pledge HERE
Our Vision
We are Saint John's community, people seeking transformation in Jesus Christ
and to bring people to Christ.
Living the Gospel
Please note that our fellowship time this Sunday will take place in Grant Hall. This is because the All Saints community will hold their Annual Meeting in the big hall. The Grant Hall is located at the top of the stairs from the courtyard, on the right.
This Sunday is the first pointer this year to the Great and Holy Lent. Zacchaeus desired to see the Lord. That changed his life. The same can happen with ours if we desire it.
Download the Hyperlinked diagram HERE.
The winter ecclesiatical cycle that we began on November 15 with Advent will be closing with the royal feast of the Presentation to the Temple (40 days after Christmas) which will be observed for a whole week. The Liturgy is scheduled on the eve, following Vespers, to make it accessible to more people. The matins will be studied at the Church University on the feast day, February 2 (online).
A Ministry led by Father Ion
Father Ion will be available to bless houses through January. Please contact him directly to setup a time for the blessing.
Living the Gospel, Community
A Ministry led by Angelina Taylor
Sunday, January 28
Parish Council: Mary Kanalakis
Greeter: Rania Zavitsanos
Fellowship Gratitude Meal: GOLD TEAM – Thank you to Ita, Christine D, Christine D, and Angelina – Note: we will meet in the Grant Hall, up on the hill.
Sunday, February 4
Parish Council:
Greeter: Anthony Zavitsanos
Fellowship Gratitude Meal: PINK TEAM - Thank you to Maria, Rania, Nadia, Tana, and Presbytera Ana
Community
Ministries led by Despina Hatton
FOOD BANK: Tuesday, February 13 9:00 -10:30am @St Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Seaside.
LADIES I-HELP: Tuesday, February 6. Cooking - 4-5pm, Dinner with the ladies - 5-6pm. Plan to stay for prayers in the chapel after dinner.
We are also adding a meal preparation on the fifth Thursday of the month (which will happen only 4 times in 2024). We will make a meal and take it to the iHelp ladies in Seaside. If you can help, the next preparation will be Thursday, February 29. Please contact Despina for serving on that day.
Community
A ministry led by Angela Wagoner
JOURNEY TO FULLNESS: An Introduction to the Fullness of the Original Christian Faith
The Journey to Fullness presentations and small group discussions are offered via Zoom on Fridays from 7pm. Always check the schedule online for this week.
Adult Education
A Ministry led by Father Ion
Study of Scriptures, church hymns and lives of the saints. Week days, 9:00am online.
Worship, Education, Community
A Ministry Led by Kathy Shaw
Meeting every Wednesdays, 10 am, on Zoom.
According to God's Will, a rich, stimulating and edifying short text. Order your copy online from HERE.
Brief review: "The task of man’s earthly life is preparing himself for eternal salvation and blessedness. To attain this, a man must live in a holy and pure manner - that is, according to God’s will." In this short but incisive treatise the reader is guided on a spiritual journey that begins with the awakening of conscience and the realization of the presence of both sin and virtue in the world, culminating in a union with God: that is “a living, personal relationship with the one we love.” In following the path of this ascent, the author delineates many of its markers and stresses that these have both personal and societal aspects. This book is suitable for both private reading and group study. Questions for discussion or contemplation are interspersed throughout this edition. A short biography of the author is also included.
Adult Education, Community
A Ministry led by Ali and Marissa Castaneda
Community
A Ministry led by Father Ion
All are invited to deepen the knowledge of the Orthodox faith. We meet in person from 6:45pm, after the 6pm service on Wednesdays, subject to other events in our community. Join the class for learning and fellowship! The class is also posted on Zoom unless otherwise specified in the community schedule/ calendar.
Living the Gospel, Community
Clergy-Laity Conference
March 4-5, 2024
Clergy and lay leaders of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco will have the opportunity to gather at Saint Nicholas Ranch and Retreat Center in Dunlap, CA on March 4 – 5, 2024 for the Clergy-Laity Assembly.
It will be a special honor to welcome His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America who will offer an Archpastoral Message for the attendees.
You may register to attend HERE.
Please let Thimi know if you are planning to attend.
Saint Ephraim was born in Nisibis of Mesopotamia some time about the year 306, and in his youth was the disciple of Saint James, Bishop of Nisibis, one of the 318 Fathers at the First Ecumenical Council. Ephraim lived in Nisibis, practicing a severe ascetical life and increasing in holiness, until 363, the year in which Julian the Apostate was slain in his war against the Persians, and his successor Jovian surrendered Nisibis to them. Ephraim then made his dwelling in Edessa, where he found many heresies to do battle with. He waged an especial war against Bardaisan; this gnostic had written many hymns propagating his errors, which by their sweet melodies became popular and enticed souls away from the truth. Saint Ephraim, having received from God a singular gift of eloquence, turned Bardaisan's own weapon against him, and wrote a multitude of hymns to be chanted by choirs of women, which set forth the true doctrines, refuted heretical error, and praised the contests of the Martyrs.
Of the multitude of sermons, commentaries, and hymns that Saint Ephraim wrote, many were translated into Greek in his own lifetime. Sozomen says that Ephraim "Surpassed the most approved writers of Greece," observing that the Greek writings, when translated into other tongues, lose most of their original beauty, but Ephraim's works "are no less admired when read in Greek than when read in Syriac" (Eccl. Hist., Book 111, 16). Saint Ephraim was ordained deacon, some say by Saint Basil the Great, whom Sozomen said "was a great admirer of Ephraim, and was astonished at his erudition." Saint Ephraim was the first to make the poetic expression of hymnody and song a vehicle of Orthodox theological teachings, constituting it an integral part of the Church's worship; he may rightly be called the first and greatest hymnographer of the Church, who set the pattern for these who followed him, especially Saint Romanos the Melodist. Because of this he is called the "Harp of the Holy Spirit." Jerome says that his writings were read in some churches after the reading of the Scriptures, and adds that once he read a Greek translation of one of Ephraim's works, "and recognized, even in translation, the incisive power of his lofty genius" (De vir. ill., ch. CXV).
Shortly before the end of his life, a famine broke out in Edessa, and Saint Ephraim left his cell to rebuke the rich for not sharing their goods with the poor. The rich answered that they knew no one to whom they could entrust their goods. Ephraim asked them, "What do you think of me?" When they confessed their reverence for him, he offered to distribute their alms, to which they agreed. He himself cared with his own hands for many of the sick from the famine, and so crowned his life with mercy and love for neighbor. Saint Ephraim reposed in peace, according to some in the year 373, according to others, 379.
This common feast of these three teachers was instituted a little before the year 1100, during the reign of the Emperor Alexis I Comnenus, because of a dispute and strife that arose among the notable and virtuous men of that time. Some of them preferred Basil, while others preferred Gregory, and yet others preferred John Chrysostom, quarreling among themselves over which of the three was the greatest. Furthermore, each party, in order to distinguish itself from the others, assumed the name of its preferred Saint; hence, they called themselves Basilians, Gregorians, or Johannites. Desiring to bring an end to the contention, the three Saints appeared together to the saintly John Mavropous, a monk who had been ordained Bishop of Euchaita, a city of Asia Minor, they revealed to him that the glory they have at the throne of God is equal, and told him to compose a common service for the three of them, which he did with great skill and beauty. Saint John of Euchaita (celebrated Oct. 5) is also the composer of the Canon to the Guardian Angel, the Protector of a Man's Life. In his old age, he retired from his episcopal see and again took up the monastic life in a monastery in Constantinople. He reposed during the reign of the aforementioned Emperor Alexis Comnenus (1081-1118).
When the most pure Mother and Ever-Virgin Mary's forty days of purification had been fulfilled, she took her first-born Son to Jerusalem on this, the fortieth day after His birth, that she might present Him in the temple according to the Law of Moses, which teaches that every first-born male child be dedicated to God, and also that she might offer the sacrifice of a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons, as required by the Law (Luke 2:22-24; Exod. 13:2; Lev. 12:6-8). On this same day, a just and devout man, the greatly aged Symeon, was also present in the temple, being guided by the Holy Spirit. For a long time, this man had been awaiting the salvation of God, and he had been informed by divine revelation that he would not die until he beheld the Lord's Christ. Thus, when he beheld Him at that time and took Him up into his aged arms, he gave glory to God, singing: "Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, O Master. . ." And he confessed that he would close his eyes joyfully, since he had seen the Light of revelation for the nations and the Glory of Israel (Luke 2:25-32). From ancient times, the Holy Church has retained this tradition of the churching of the mother and new-born child on the fortieth day and of the reading of prayers of purification.
The Apodosis of the Feast of the Meeting in the Temple is usually on the 9th of February. This, however, may vary if the Feast falls within the period of the Triodion. Should this occur, the Typicon should be consulted for specific information concerning the Apodosis of the Feast.
First Orthros Gospel
The Reading is from Matthew 28:16-20
At that time, the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him they worshiped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age. Amen."
Prokeimenon. 1st 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 Timothy 4:9-15.
Timothy, my son, the saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and suffer reproach, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe. Command and teach these things. Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Till I come, attend to the public reading of scripture, to preaching, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophetic utterance when the council of elders laid their hands upon you. Practice these duties, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress.
15th Sunday of Luke
The Reading is from Luke 19:1-10
At that time, Jesus was passing through Jericho. And there was a man named Zacchaios; he was a chief collector, and rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not, on account of the crowd, because he was small of stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaios, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today." So he made haste and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it they all murmured, "He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner." And Zacchaios stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded any one of anything, I restore it fourfold." And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost."