Weekly Bulletin

His Eminence Metropolitan Nicholas

120 W. Seneca St. Ithaca, NY 14850 http://www.stcatherine.ny.goarch.org

TEL. 607-273-2767 e-mail: stcatherinegoc@gmail.com

Fr. Zenoviy Zharsky /607/ 245-9988

 

Sunday, December 21, 2025

 

Welcome all visitors, please come again.

 

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"By changing ourselves in Christ, we are able to change the world around us"

 

Please let Father know who is in need of visiting and prayers. 

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Daily reading of the holy scripture, Saints for the day, liturgical schedule, news from the parish life, announcements and more, please read the Sunday Bulletin on the parish websitewww.stcatherine.ny.goarch.org 

Please submit to the parish priest all announcements for the church bulletin website before Thursday evening. Thank you.

Follow us on Facebook: St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church of Ithaca, NY.

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Scripture Reading: Matins: Gospel Reading: Luke 24:36-53. Divine Liturgy Epistle: Hebrew 11:9-10, 32-40. Gospel: Mathew 1:1-245.

When you write your will, won't you please remember St. Catherine's Church? Such a gift will live forever as our church minister to our spiritual needs and others it's an investment in the Gospel of our Lord and life eternal

If you know someone who would like to rent church apartment please see Ike Nestopoulos or Fr. Zenoviy. Thank you.

Announcement:If you didn't give names and date of your birthdays and your families birthdays please provide them. Also please give the names and dates of your family members who fell asleep in the Lord. We will pray for them. The list of the names located near the Sunday Bulletins. Thank you. 

We pray for those who celebrate their birthday. Хρόνια πολλά & ευλογημενα! December - 19 Paige Tomberelli, 22 Vasiliki Karantzoulis, 23 Sofia King, 26 Carole West, 27 Elizabeth Talty.

 

Thank you to all who support our bake sale!

Dear parishioners, the New Year is quickly approaching. I wanted everyone to be informed we will begin holding a Paraklesis service every Thursday night at 6pm. The first Paraklesis service will be January 8^th Following the service you will be anointed with the holy oil from Kardiotissa miracle icon.

Congratulations to Emeline and Andrew Mandeville! Their son was born December 15. 

Philoptochos Christmas and Holiday dinner is scheduled for Sunday, January 10, 4:00 PM at the Souvlaki House.  

Elections: We were blessed this year to have five candidates for two opening on Parish Council. Following ratification from our Metropolitan Nicholas and blessing from our spiritual father Zenoviy, Cocta Lambrou and George Avramis will each serve a three year term on Parish Council beginning in January. Many thanks to Alex Perialas, Nick Lambrou and Bill Manos for running and for their many contributions to our beloved St. Catherine Church over the years! 
Dear parishioners, Thursday, December 24^th on Christmas Eve following the service we will sing Christmas carols. If anyone would like to sing a particular carol in a group or individual it will bring a lot of joy to all of us. Carols in different languages are welcome as well.

Wednesday, December 24^th - 5:00 PM. Christmas Eve Service. Carolings. 

Thursday, December 25^th - 10:00 AM Divine Liturgy. Nativity of our Lord. 

Saturday, December 27^th- 10:00 AM. Divine Liturgy. First Martyr Stephen

Vasilopita Sunday: Is scheduled for January 4, please bring your Vasilopita directly into the church to be blessed. Philoptochos will be passing a tray on that day to benefit St. Basil's Academy the Greek Orthodox home for children in need. 

Memory Eternal! Αιώνια η μνήμη του! December - 26 Theophania Arvantides, 28 George Arvantides, 29 Pericles Nikolakis.  

Every year before Christmas we read the genealogy of Christ from St. Matthew's Gospels. Why have we got to read all these names that mean so little to us, if anything at all? And then we became more perceptive of what they convey to us. For one thing, they are the people to whose family the Lord Jesus Christ belongs through His humanity. They all are relatives of His, and this should be enough for us to find their names deeply moving. Furthermore, some names stand out: names of Saints, heroes of the spirit, and names of sinners. The Saints among them could well teach us what it means to believe; not simply to have an intellectual faith, a world outlook which coincides, as far as it is able, with God's vision, but a faith which means a complete trust in God, an unlimited faithfulness to Him, the readiness, because of what we know of God, to give our lives for what He stands for, for what He is. In this context think of Abraham whose faith was tested to the utmost. How difficult we find it to give to God something of ours: but Abraham was asked to bring as a blood offering his own son and he did not doubt God. And Isaac? He surrendered without resistance, in perfect obedience to his father, and through him to God. We can remember the struggle of Jacob with the Angel in the darkness, as we at times struggle for our faith, for our integrity, for our faithfulness, in the darkness of the night, or the darkness of doubt, in the darkness that seizes us at times on all sides. But we can also learn something from those who in history, in the Bible, appear to us as sinners. They were frail, this frailty conquered them, they had no strength to resist the impulses of their bodies and of their souls, of the complex passions of men. And yet, they believed in God passionately. One of them was David, and one of his Psalms expresses it so well: "From the deep I cry unto Thee .." From the depths of despair, of shame, from the depths of his fall, from the depths of his alienation from God, from the darkest depths of his soul he still cried to God. He does not hide from Him, he does not go away from Him, it is to Him he comes with this desperate cry of a desperate man. And others, men and women have this same concreteness as, for instance, Rahab the harlot - and so many more. Do we, when we are at the darkest point of life, when we are wrapped in all the darkness that is within us do we, from within this darkness turn to God and say: It is to You, oh Lord, I cry! Yes I am in darkness, but You are my God. You are the God who created the light, and the darkness, and You are within the darkness as You are within the blinding light; You are in death as You are in life; You are in hell, as You are on the Throne and from wherever I am I can cry to You.  And then, there is a last thing, to us these people are names; of some of them we know a little from the Bible, about others we know nothing. But they all were concrete human beings, men and women like us, with all our frailty and all our hope, all the wavering of the will and all the hesitations, all the incipient love that is so often marred, and yet remains light and fire. They are concrete and real, and we can read their names with the feeling, that, Yes I don't know you, but you are one of those who are of the family of Christ, concrete, real, who belong to God. And we ourselves can try and learn, in the concreteness of our lives, whether we are frail or strong at a given moment still to be God's own. So let us reflect on this genealogy, let us next time we come to hear it receive it with a spark in our eyes, with a warm feeling in our hearts; but this will be possible only to the extent to which Christ becomes more and more real to us and when it is in Him, through Him that we discover them all real, living, our own and God's own.                             

Με χαρά και αγαλλίαση η οικουμένη όλη ετοιμάζεται να γιορτάσει τη Γέννηση του Σωτήρος Χριστού. Η φόρτιση των ημερών είναι έντονη. Οι προετοιμασίες εντατικές. Όλα ολόφωτα, στολισμένα γιορτινά. Τα δώρα έτοιμα για τη μεγάλη γιορτή. Όλα αυτά είναι πολύ όμορφα και συνυφασμένα με την εσωτερική ανάγκη του ανθρώπου να χαλαρώσει από τον καθημερινό αγώνα δρόμου για την επιβίωση και να καθίσει στο γιορτινό τραπέζι με πρόσωπα αγαπημένα. Δεν προϋποθέτουν όμως την ουσιαστική πνευματική μας προετοιμασία για το γεγονός της σωτηρίας του ανθρωπίνου γένους. Ας προβληματιστούμε για λίγο κι ας σκεφτούμε το εξής: όλοι ανταλλάσσουμε δώρα τούτες τις μέρες. Στο Χριστό που μας χάρισε δωρεάν τη σωτηρία μας, τί δώρο θα μπορούσαμε να προσφέρουμε; Ένας από τους πιο όμορφους ύμνους των Χριστουγέννων μας δίνει την τέλεια και απόλυτα θεολογική απάντηση στο ερώτημα μας αυτό: Τί δώρο να σου προσφέρουμε Χριστέ και Θεέ μας; Εσύ που ήρθες στη γη ως άνθρωπος για να μας ενώσεις αιώνια μαζί Σου; Όλα τα δημιουργήματά Σου, συμμετέχοντας στο γεγονός της γέννησης του Βασιλιά των βασιλιάδων Σου προσφέρουν από κάτι. Οι Άγγελοι Σε υμνούν. Ο ουρανός προσφέρει τον αστέρα, οι Μάγοι σπεύδουν να προσφέρουν χρυσό, λιβάνι και σμύρνα. Οι ποιμένες με έκπληξη και θαυμασμό σε προσκυνούν. Η γη Σου προσφέρει το Σπήλαιο για να γεννηθείς και η έρημος τη φάτνη. Εμείς Χριστέ μας τι έχουμε να σουπροσφέρουμε; Εμείς προσφέρουμε την Παρθένο Μητέρα για να λάβεις την ανθρώπινη σάρκα. Σου προσφέρουμε την Παναγία Μητέρα σου για να γεννηθείς. Έρχεσαι Εσύ Σωτήρα μας, ο Πατέρας μας, ο Δημιουργός μας για να αναλάβεις την ανθρώπινη φύση και να μας ενώσεις μαζί Σου. Εμείς σε απαρνηθήκαμε στο πρόσωπο του παλαιού Αδάμ και χάσαμε την ένωση, την κοινωνία μαζί Σου. Εσύ δε μας εγκατέλειψες. Ήρθες κι έγινες άνθρωπος, έγινες ο νέος Αδάμ, ανέλαβες την αμαρτία, την άρνηση, την αλαζονεία του ανθρώπου και μας έκανες μετόχους και κοινωνούς της θεότητάς Σου. Ακόμη και η Παναγία μας, το δώρο της ανθρωπότητας για τη σωτηρία μας, Εσύ μας το έδωσες. Εσύ με την απέραντη αγάπη Σου μας αγκαλιάζεις. Εσύ που είσαι ο αιώνιος Θεός ελέησέ μας τα παιδιά Σου. Αξίωσε μας να γιορτάσουμε με ειρήνη, με αγάπη και χαρά τη Γέννησή Σου! 

Liturgical Schedule:  

Daily 3:00 PM. Let's pray Jesus Prayer for 10 minutes straight saying,"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner." 

Monday, December 22 - 3:00 PM. JesusPrayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner" Day of Fasting.

Tuesday, December 23 - 3:00 PM. Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner" Day of Fasting. 

Wednesday, December 24 - 3:00 PM. Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner" Day of Fasting.  5:00 PM. Christmas Eve Service. Carolings. Every Wednesday we remember when Judas betrayed Christ. 

Thursday, December 25 - 10:00 AM Divine Liturgy. Nativity of our Lord 3:00 PM. JesusPrayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner" 

Friday, December 26 - 3:00 PM. Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner." Every Friday we commemorate Christ's Crucifixion. 

Saturday, December 27 - 10:00 AM Divine Liturgy. First Martyr Stephen 3:00 PM. Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner" 

Sunday, December 28 - 8:45 AM Orthros/Confession. 10:00 AM. Divine Liturgy. Every Sunday we commemorate Christ's resurrection.

Wisdom of the Saints.

"When a person has the grace of God, he does not even notice if there are other people around him. On the other hand, without this grace he finds fault with everything." 

"By means of the name of Jesus Christ, we must destroy those sinful thoughts and feelings, begotten of our sin-damaged nature and of demonic intrigue, before they grow and take root."

"He who wants to overcome the demon of fornication with gluttony and surfeiting is like a man who puts out a fire with oil. He who attempts to stop this war by temperance, and by that alone, is like a man who has the idea of escaping the sea by swimming with one hand. Join humility to temperance, because without the former the latter is useless." 

"Christianity has hallowed marriage, for the union of husband and wife assumed its true meaning only when it became a symbol of the union between Christ and His Church." /St. Nilus the Faster of Sinai/

 

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Methods of Giving:

Cash and checks can be brought to the church and put in the donation baskets.

 

Checks made out to Saint Catherine Greek Orthodox Church can also be mailed to:

St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church

120 W. Seneca St Ithaca, NY 14850

 

When you write your will, won't you please remember St. Catherine's Church? Such a gift will live forever as our church minister to our spiritual needs and others. It's an investment in the Gospel of our Lord and life eternal.

 

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