Plato the Great Martyr of Ancyra
Saint Plato contested in martyrdom in 266, when Agrippinus was proconsul. He was from the city of Ancyra in the province of Galatia.
Sunday Schedule:
Orthros: 8:30 a.m.
Divine Liturgy: 9:30 a.m.
Bible Study:
Wednesdays, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
FELLOWSHIP HOUR
Today’s Fellowship Hour is sponsored In Loving Memory of George and Debbie Skrekas. Following Fellowship Hour, the Parish Assembly will begin. Everyone is invited to participate.
GOYA PIE PICKUP
If you have ordered an apple pie, please pick it up today.
THE 65th BENEFIT TEA RAFFLE IS LOOKING FOR PATRONS
Our Tea raffle committee would love to have more parishioners contribute to our biggest Philoptochos fundraiser of the year. If you have any of the following, we would love to gift it as a raffle prize and give you the credit in our program: sports tickets to a Bruins or Celtics Game; theater tickets; a restaurant gift certificate; a professional service that you could provide as a raffle gift; any gift cards or even a cash donation to help us purchase other raffle gifts for the table. Any of these items would be so appreciated to help us make a successful 65th Benefit Tea.
Please text Ann (978-375-9460) or Soula (978-551-0169) if you are willing to contribute. Thank you!
ADVENT CAMP
Advent Camp, which was originally scheduled for November 3, will take place on December 8.
AHEPA HELLAS 102/HAA (Hellenic American Academy)
Saturday, November 24, 2018: NO LIMIT TEXAS HOLD’EM at 41 Broadway Street in Lowell. For more information, call Dylan Archambault at 978-821-0410 or Paul Hardy at 978-857-1973.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
♥ Consider donating $10.00 Market Basket cards. There is always a need. Please place any food donations in the green container in the lobby.
♥ Please remember to keep the books coming for the 2018-2019 school year!
Sunday, November 18 NINTH SUNDAY OF LUKE
†Orthros, 8:30am
†Liturgy, 9:30am
Monthly Trisagion
40-Day Memorial for George Skrekas and
25-year Memorial for Debbie Skrekas
40-Day Memorial for Penelope Chicklis
Parish Assembly following Liturgy
Wednesday, November 21
Entrance of the Theotokos-Liturgy, 9:30am
Kafenion, 10:00am
Thursday, November 22
Thanksgiving Day
Office closed
Friday, November 23
Office closed
Sunday, November 25 THIRTEENTH SUNDAY OF LUKE
†Orthros, 8:30am
†Liturgy, 9:30am
TODAY’S PARISH COUNCIL: Corrine Dubay, Mike Fokas, and Jimmy Demetri
TODAY’S GREETER: Mia Vaporis
UPCOMING EVENTS
November 27
Community Kitchen, 11:30am-12:30pm
November 29
Vespers – St. Andrew – at Metropolis
November 30
St. Andrew – Liturgy, 9:30am
December 2
Philoptochos Tea, 2:00pm
December 4
Parish Council Meeting, 6:30pm
December 5
Bible Study, 10:00am
Kafenion, 10:00am
December 6
St. Nicholas – Liturgy, 9:30am
December 8
Advent Camp, 9:30am
December 9
Elections
December 12
St. Spyridon – Liturgy, 9:30am
Kafenion
December 14
Family Fun Night – Gingerbread Houses, 6:30pm
December 18
Community Kitchen, 11:30am-12:30pm
December 19
No Bible Study
Kafenion, 10:00am
December 23
Christmas Pageant
Prokeimenon. Plagal Fourth Mode. Psalm 75.11,1.
Make your vows to the Lord our God and perform them.
Verse: God is known in Judah; his name is great in Israel.
The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians 4:1-7.
Brethren, I, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
9th Sunday of Luke
The Reading is from Luke 12:16-21
The Lord said this parable: "The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?' And he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." As he said these things, he cried out: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
Saint Plato contested in martyrdom in 266, when Agrippinus was proconsul. He was from the city of Ancyra in the province of Galatia.
Saint Romanus, who was from Antioch, lived during the reign of Maximian. He presented himself before Asclepiades the Eparch, and rebuked him, saying, "The idols are not gods; even a little child could tell you that." Then the Saint asked that a child be brought in from the market, that he might be the judge of the matter at hand. Therefore, when the child was asked, "Which God must we worship?" he replied, "Christ." The child was beaten mercilessly and beheaded at the command of the tyrant. As for Saint Romanus, his tongue was cut out, and then he was cast into prison, where he was strangled in the year 305.
The Divine Scriptures do not tell us with any certainty when the Prophet Obadiah lived nor what was his homeland. Thus, some say that he is that Obadiah who was Ahab's steward, who, because of Jezebel's wrath, hid one hundred prophets in a cave and fed them with bread and water (III Kings 18:4), and that he later became a disciple of Elias the Prophet about 903 B.C. But others surmise from the words of the same prophetical book that he is somewhat later than Joel (celebrated on Oct. 19). He is also called Obdiu, or Abdiu, or Obadiah; his name means "servant of God." His book of prophecy, which consists of only one chapter, is ranked fourth among the minor Prophets.
Saint Gregory who was from Irenopolis of the Decapolis of Asia Minor, was the son of Sergius and Mary. He became a monk as a young man, and after struggling for many years in virtue and prayer under obedience to a wise spiritual father, he was informed by revelation that it was the will of God for him to live, like the Patriarch Abraham, with no certain dwelling, moving from place to place. His journeyings took him to Ephesus, Constantinople, Corinth, Rome, Sicily, Thessalonica, and again to Constantinople, where, after many labours in defence of Orthodoxy against Iconoclasm, he reposed in peace in the first half of the ninth century. He had two disciples, one of whom was Saint Joseph the Hymnographer (see Apr. 3), who wrote the Menaion service for Saint Gregory, his father in Christ.
According to the tradition of the Church, the Theotokos was brought to the Temple at three years of age, where she was consecrated to God and spent her days until she was fourteen or fifteen years old; and then, as a mature maiden, by the common counsel of the priests (since her parents had reposed some three years before), she was betrothed to Joseph.
Philemon, who was from Colossae, a city of Phrygia, was a man both wealthy and noble; Apphia was his wife. Archippus became Bishop of the Church in Colossae. All three were disciples of the Apostle Paul. Onesimus, who was formerly an unbeliever and slave of Philemon, stole certain of his vessels and fled to Rome. However, on finding him there, the Apostle Paul guided him onto the path of virtue and the knowledge of the truth, and sent him back to his master Philemon, to whom he wrote an epistle (this is one of the fourteen epistles of Saint Paul). In this epistle, Paul commended Onesimus to his master and reconciled the two. Onesimus was later made a bishop; in Greece he is honoured as the patron Saint of the imprisoned. All these Saints received their end by martyrdom, when they were stoned to death by the idolaters. Saint Onesimus is also commemorated on February 15.
Saint Amphilochius, who was born in Cappadocia, shone forth in asceticism and divine knowledge even from his youth. He was consecrated Bishop of Iconium in 341, he struggled courageously against the blasphemies of Eunomius, Macedonius the enemy of the Holy Spirit, and the followers of Arius. He was present at the Second Ecumenical Council of the 150 Fathers, which took place in Constantinople, convoked during the reign of Theodosius the Great in the year 381. In 383 Amphilochius wished to persuade the Emperor Theodosius to forbid the Arians from gathering in Constantinople and to commit the churches to the Orthodox, but the Emperor was reluctant to do such a thing. The next time that Amphilochius entered the palace, he addressed Theodosius with proper honour, but slighted his young son Arcadius in his presence. Theodosius was indignant, and said the dishonour shown to his son was equally an insult to himself. To this Saint Amphilochius answered that as he would not suffer an insult to his son, so he ought to believe that God is wroth with those who blaspheme His Only-begotten. Saint Theodosius understood and admired Amphilochius' ingenious device, and he issued the desired edict in September of the same year. Saint Amphilochius, having reached deep old age, reposed in peace about the year 395. Saint Basil the Great wrote many letters to Saint Amphilochius, his friend and Fellow champion of the Faith, and at his request wrote his treatise On the Holy Spirit, which besides demonstrating the divinity of the Holy Spirit and His equality with the Father and the Son, defends the Church's unwritten ancient traditions, such as making the sign of the Cross, turning towards the East in prayer, no kneeling on Sunday, and so forth.
Saint Clement was instructed in the Faith of Christ by the Apostle Peter. He became Bishop of Rome in the year 91, the third after the death of the Apostles. He died as a martyr about the year 100 during the reign of Trajan.