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
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 24:12-35. Divine Liturgy Epistle: 2 Timothy 1:8-18. Gospel: Luke 14:16-24.
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 - 15 John Bishop, 18 Thomas Bishop, 18 Samuel Mandevelle, 19 Paige Tomberelli.
Please mark your calendar. December 19 and 20 Philoptochos Bake Sale.
Saturday, November 15 Nativity Fast Begins. We keep fast till December 24
Dear parishioners, Thursday, December 24th 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 24th - 5:00 PM. Christmas Eve Service. Carolings.
Thursday, December 25th - 10:00 AM Divine Liturgy. Nativity of our Lord.
Saturday, December 27th - 10:00 AM. Divine Liturgy. First Martyr Stephen. No Vespers on that day.
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 15 - 3:00 PM. JesusPrayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner" Day of Fasting.
Tuesday, December 16 - 3:00 PM. Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner" Day of Fasting.
Wednesday, December 17 - 3:00 PM. Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner" Day of Fasting. Every Wednesday we remember when Judas betrayed Christ. 6:00 PM. Prayers near Miraculous Icon Mother of God "The Tender Heart" St. George's Orthodox Church in Taylor, PA.
Thursday, December 18 - 3:00 PM. Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner" Day of Fasting.
Friday, December 19 - 3:00 PM. Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner." Every Friday we commemorate Christ's Crucifixion. Day of Fasting.
Saturday, December 20 - 3:00 PM. Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner" Day of Fasting. 6:00 PM. Great Vespers/Confession. Reading the life of the Saints. Catechism classes following the Vespers.
Sunday, December 21 - 8:45 AM Orthros/Confession. 10:00 AM.Divine Liturgy. Every Sunday we commemorate Christ's resurrection. Day of Fasting.
Wisdom of the Saints.
"Let us hope in His grace. We have Christ as our beloved Bridegroom and we must call upon His name. Our Panagia has Christ not only as Her Son, but also as Her Beloved and Her God. She has a mother's love for Him, but also the love of one betrothed. He made Her full of grace due to the boundless love She had for Him."
"To go beyond thought is not yet to attain true knowledge. Such knowledge comes from God speaking wordlessly in the spirit that is yearning for Him; it does not come from the spirit itself. God come and make His abode only if the person approaches Him in absolute humility, for God Himself is humility, and like attracts like"
- "When a gentle word of persuasion has no effect, when people are so steeped in evil that they do not yield to any admonishment and continue doing evil, a Christian cannot and should not take refuge in this teaching of the forgiveness of all, sit indifferently with his arms crossed, and apathetically watch as evil abuses good, as it increases and destroys people, his close ones."
- "The transition from this life into eternity is a very difficult one. Before we pass on into eternity, we can pray, but afterwards we cannot do anything for ourselves only our loved ones can help us with their prayers. In whatever state the Lord finds us at the hour of our death, He will judge us according to it."
- "As far as possible, be discreet in your conversations and do not overly open up to others. One will say it to another and another to yet another, and then what will come of that? Prayer and Worship gradually transform depression and turn it into joy." /Elder Porphyrios/
- Today, on this Sunday in preparation of the Nativity of our Lord, we remember the Patriarch Abraham and his lineage, ancestors of Christ. The story of Abraham and his faithfulness should be read in the Book of Genesis. "Through the connection of the holy Ancestors and Patriarchs, Our Saviour Jesus Christ is Himself also, in a way, the fruit of the faith of Abraham. So, when God makes his voice known to each of us while we are still in the strange land of the passions and worldly vanities, we must like Abraham unhesitatingly leave all that is ours, and follow the divine calling with faith until we reach the Promised Land where, in our turn, we shall be able to give birth spiritually to Christ For, planted in us by faith and Baptism, He has to grow in us through the virtues so as to shine in the light of contemplation. We descendants of Abraham, 'children of the promise' as Isaac was, having become 'sons of God' through the gift of the Grace of the Holy Spirit, out therefore to see Christ form in us. Let us then for our part become forebears of Christ and continue steadfast in the faith, so that we may keep the feast of His Nativity, saying: It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."
Reflections on today's Gospel reading. Luke 14:16-24. We have heard today's parable about those people who were called to the Bridal Feast of the King, and who refused to come: the one who had acquired a plot of land; he thought he was in possession of it; in reality, he was so attached to it that he could not detach himself from it: he was a prisoner of what he thought he possessed. And so it is with whatever we imagine we possess; it is enough for us to have the smallest thing in our hand and this hand is alienated to us; we cannot use it anymore, we cannot use our arm, our whole body is conditioned by what we possess, or imagine we possess: we are held a prisoner by it. Others refused to come because they had bought five pairs of oxen: they had to try them, they had a task to fulfill, they had work to do, they had perhaps what they believed to be a mission in life, and therefore they had no time for anything except that that was their personal concern. And the last refused to come because his heart was full of his own joy: having married, how could he be concerned with anyone else's marriage? He was full of his own joy how could he participate in anyone else's joy? And so, they all turned away from the call. Doesn't it apply very directly to us? Each of us possesses something that he deems so important that he is prepared to turn away from God yes, from God: there is no time for prayer, there is no time for worship; to turn away from other people who need him because he is busy with his own business?And how often happened that we are full of joy or of sorrow but they are our own, we hug them to our heart, we have no time for anyone else's sorrow or anyone else's joy. But then, what should we do? We hear every Sunday in the Divine Liturgy words that say, "Let us lay aside all the cares of this life"; does it mean that we must turn away from the earth on which we live, from the tasks which are ours, from the joys and true sorrows that come our way? No! But there is an answer to it. Are you risen with Christ? What does it really mean to us? It means that if we are dead with the death of Christ to everything which is destructive of love, destructive of compassion, which is self-centredness, which is self-love, which leaves no space for anyone but ourselves - if we are dead to all this, and if we have accepted life on Christ's terms, ready to live for others, live for God, then we are risen with Christ, it is at the very depth of God, at the very depth of divine love! And then we can turn to the earth; then instead of possessing we can serve, instead of overpowering we can try to bring this earth of ours, in an act of love, in an act of reverence to be free, to be God's earth, to be able to bring fruit, not as it does being raped, being violently possessed by us, but giving us its fruit in an act of responsive love. And the same applies to our tasks; we are called to serve, we are called to make of all our life an act of concern, of love, of service, then all that we do becomes an act of God, then it becomes meaningful and it does not separate us from God. And if joy has come into our heart, it is a gift of God; if sorrow has come into our heart, we can carry it to God, for it to be integrated in the mystery of salvation! Let us reflect on this! Let us truly lay aside all the cares of this life in the sense that let us not be prisoners of sin, but free: Christ has come to set us free. And then the earth, and our labour, and our joys, and our sorrows will become part of the Kingdom of God. Then indeed, our life will be hid with God, but a God Who have chosen so to love the world to be incarnate, to become man among men, to take upon Himself all the human destiny, createdness, life in a fallen world, the consequences of human sin. And, having accepted it all in an act of saving and redemptive love, God has risen, and anyone can enter into eternal life, the life of the resurrection by uniting himself or herself to Christ.
14 Δεκεμβρίου.Τη αυτή ημέρα μνήμη του Αγίου Ιερομάρτυρος Θεράποντος.
Ώφθης Θεράπων οία θύτης του Λόγου,
Ώφθης Θεράπων και δι' αίματος πάτερ.
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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.
Tuesday of the 13th Week Visit the Online Chapel for more daily readings, hymns, a monthly calendar of saints and feasts, and more.Online Chapel
Saints and Feasts Commemorated