BE ONE OF OUR 2024 STEWARDS
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
Living the Gospel
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.
Friday, February 2 Presentation to the Temple
7:00pm Orthodoxy 101: Journey to Fullness
Saturday, February 3
5:00pm Vespers
Sunday, February 4
8:30am Matins
9:45am Liturgy
Monday, February 5
9:00am Church University: Prayers and Bible Study (online)
7:00pm PPE Meeting
Tuesday, February 6
9:00am Church University: Prayers and Bible Study (online)
4:00pm IHELP - Ladies
7:00pm Missions and Evangelism Committee
Wednesday, February 7
9:00am Church University: Prayers and Bible Study (online)
10:00am Book Forum: Living According to God's Will
6:00pm Akathist to the Theotokos Miracle-working Icon of Iviron/ Hawaii
6:45pm Catechism
Thursday, February 8
9:00am Church University: Prayers and Bible Study (online)
Friday, February 9
9:00am Church University: Prayers and Bible Study (online)
6:00pm Vespers
7:00pm Orthodoxy 101: Journey to Fullness
Saturday, February 10 Saint Haralambos
5:00pm Vespers
Sunday, February 11
8:30am Matins
9:45am Liturgy
11:30am PPE Assembly
For more information, go to //www.stjohn-monterey.org/parish-calendar
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
Living the Gospel
A Ministry led by Angelina Taylor
Sunday, February 4
Parish Council: Mary Kanalakis
Greeter: Nadia Zajicek
Fellowship Gratitude Meal: PINK TEAM - Thank you to Maria, Rania, Nadia, Tana, and Presbytera Ana
Sunday, February 11
Parish Council: Euthimios Saites
Greeter: Anthony Zavitsanos
Fellowship Gratitude Meal: ORANGE TEAM - Thank you to Mimi, Mary, Marissa, Christine, and Melanie
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). The next one is on Thursday, February 29.
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.
This Saint was from Alexandria and was a disciple of Saint John Chrysostom. He struggled in asceticism in a monastery at Mount Pelusium, and became abbot of the monks struggling in that monastery. He wrote a great many epistles replete with divine grace, wisdom, and much profit. Over 2,000 of them are preserved in Volume 78 of Migne's Patrologia Graeca (PG 78:177-1646); according to some, he wrote over 3,000 epistles, according to others, 10,000. He reposed on February 4, 440.
As for the thrice-blessed Photius, the great and most resplendent Father and teacher of the Church, the Confessor of the Faith and Equal to the Apostles, he lived during the years of the emperors Michael (the son of Theophilus), Basil the Macedonian, and Leo his son. He was the son of pious parents, Sergius and Irene, who suffered for the Faith under the Iconoclast Emperor Theophilus; he was also a nephew of Saint Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople (see Feb. 25). He was born in Constantinople, where he excelled in the foremost imperial ministries, while ever practicing a virtuous and godly life. An upright and honorable man of singular learning and erudition, he was raised to the apostolic, ecumenical, and patriarchal throne of Constantinople in the year 857.
The many struggles that this thrice-blessed one undertook for the Orthodox Faith against the Manichaeans, the Iconoclasts, and other heretics, and the attacks and assaults that he endured from Nicholas I, the haughty and ambitious Pope of Rome, and the great persecutions and distresses he suffered, are beyond number. Contending against the Latin error of the filioque, that is, the doctrine that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son, he demonstrated clearly with his Mystagogy on the Holy Spirit how the filioque destroys the unity and equality of the Trinity. He has left us many theological writings, panegyric homilies, and epistles, including one to Boris, the Sovereign of Bulgaria, in which he set forth for him the history and teachings of the Seven Ecumenical Councils. Having tended the Church of Christ in holiness and in an evangelical manner, and with fervent zeal having rooted out all the tares of every alien teaching, he departed to the Lord in the Monastery of the Armenians on February 6, 891.
The holy Martyr Theodore was from Euchaita of Galatia and dwelt in Heraclea of Pontus. He was a renowned commander in the military, and the report came to the Emperor Licinius that he was a Christian and abominated the idols. Licinius therefore sent certain men to him from Nicomedia, to honor him and ask him to appear before him. Through them, however, Saint Theodore sent back a message that it was necessary for various reasons, that Licinius come to Heraclea. Licinius, seeing in this a hope of turning Saint Theodore away from Christ did as was asked of him.
When the Emperor came to Heraclea, Saint Theodore met him with honor, and the Emperor in turn gave Theodore his hand, believing that through him he would be able to draw the Christians to the worship of his idols. Seated upon his throne in the midst of the people, he publicly bade Theodore offer sacrifice to the gods. But Theodore asked that the emperor entrust him with the most venerable of his gods, those of gold and silver, that he might take them home and himself attend upon them that evening, promising that the following day he would honor them in public. The Emperor, filled with joy at these tidings, gave command that Theodore's request be fulfilled.
When the Saint had taken the idols home, he broke them in pieces and distributed the gold and silver to the poor by night. The next day a centurion named Maxentius told Licinius that he had seen a pauper pass by carrying the head of Artemis. Saint Theodore, far from repenting of this, confessed Christ boldly. Licinius, in an uncontainable fury, had the Saint put to many torments, then crucified. While upon the cross, the holy Martyr was further tormented -- his privy parts were cut off, he was shot with arrows, his eyes were put out, and he was left on the cross to die. The next day Licinius sent men to take his corpse and cast it into the sea; but they found the Saint alive and perfectly whole. Through this, many believed in Christ. Seeing his own men turning to Christ, and the city in an uproar, Licinius had Theodore beheaded, about the year 320. The Saint's holy relics were returned to his ancestral home on June 8, which is also a feast of the Great Martyr Theodore.
This Saint was a priest of the Christians in Magnesia, the foremost city of Thessaly, in the diocese having the same name. He contested during the reign of Alexander Severus (222-235), when Lucian was Proconsul of Magnesia. At the time of his martyrdom the Saint was 103 years of age.
St. Haralambos is commemorated on February 10th, with the exception when this date falls on the Saturday of the Souls preceding Lent or on Clean Monday (the first day of Lent), in which case the feast is celebrated on February 9th.
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 - 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 anyone, for they were afraid.
Prokeimenon. 2nd Mode. Psalm 117.14,18.
The Lord is my strength and my song.
Verse: The Lord has chastened me sorely.
The reading is from St. Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians 4:6-15.
Brethren, it is the God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.
Since we have the same spirit of faith as he had who wrote, "I believed, and so I spoke," we too believe, and so we speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
15th Sunday of Matthew
The Reading is from Matthew 22:35-46
At that time, a lawyer came up to Jesus and asked him a question, to test him. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."
Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, "What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David." He said to them, "How is it then that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I put your enemies under your feet'? If David thus calls him Lord, how is he his son?" And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.