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, January 18, 2026

 

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: John 21:1-14. Divine Liturgy Epistle: 1 Timothy 1:15-17. Gospel: Luke 18:35-43.

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. 

Memory Eternal! Αιώνια η μνήμη του! January - 17 Peter G. Nickels, 17 Demitra Nikolakis, 25 Sophia Lambrou, 25 Maria Lambrou.

We pray for those who celebrate their birthday. Хρόνια πολλά & ευλογημενα! January - 19 Antonia Franck, 21 Candis Constantine, 23 Katerina Papachryssantou, 25 Jeff West.   

Dear Parishioners, A new projects in our church. On the steps of Solea near the Iconostasis and in the Altar, the carpet will be replaced with tile. In addition, after Christmas a new floor was installed in the kitchen of the church hall. We thank our parishioner, as well as the Philoptochos and all those who donated toward these necessary changes in the church and the church hall. Thank you to everyone who supports this Church of St. Catherine. If you would like to become involved and help the church, please contact the financial secretary John Franck or the president of the parish council, Ike Nestopoulos. Thank you. 

A Note from Parish Council: Many thanks go out to the thoughtful and generous donor who offered $10,000 for special projects if our community could match that amount. In response, and through many donations large and small, twice that amount was raised and, to date, the special projects fund has been tripled!! As a result, the kitchen floor has been replaced, the altar project is underway and the bell tower project is seeking estimates. Our wonderful community is blessed to have members who give of their time, talent and resources. Thank you to all!

Philoptochos News: This Sunday, January 18, is our General Philoptochos meeting following Divine Liturgy, please plan to attend. Thank you to Souvlaki House for hosting our annual Christmas dinner. A wonderful evening of fellowship and great food was enjoyed by all! Thank you to Angela Teeter, Nandini Ananth and all every single one of you who worked so hard for another successful Philoptochos bake sale! Net result was close to $8,000 and will be used to help those in need as well as our beloved St. Catherine.

Happy New Year 2026! Please remember to renew your membership or join for the first time - we ended last year with 27 members - let's see if we can get to 30 members this year. Dues remain at a minimum amount of $25 to cover our chapter's membership to the Metropolis and Archdiocese Philoptochos. A new coffee hour calendar has been posted. Please take a look and sign up alone or with a friend(s) so we can continue this warm, wonderful tradition. (If you can bring something this Sunday, please call or text Paulette 607.279.6641) Mark your calendar for Sunday, February 8 to wear something RED. This small effort is encouraged by our National Philoptochos during American Heart Month, a time when all people can focus on their cardiovascular health. This specific initiative called Go Red For Women is to help raise awareness for the no. 1 cause of death for women: cardiovascular disease.  

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, January 19 - 3:00 PM. JesusPrayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner 

Tuesday, January 20 - 3:00PM Jesus Prayer "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner."

Wednesday, December 21 - 3:00 PM. Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner" Day of Fasting. 6:00 PM. Prayers near Miraculous Icon Mother of God "The Tender Heart" St. George's Orthodox Church in Taylor, PA.  Every Wednesday we remember when Judas betrayed Christ. 

Thursday, January 22 - 3:00 PM. Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner." 6:00 PM. Akaphist to the Theotokos. Following the service you will be anointed with the holy oil from Kardiotissa miracle icon. 

Friday, January 23 - 3:00 PM. Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner." Day of Fasting. Every Friday we commemorate Christ's Crucifixion.

Saturday, January 24 - 3:00 PM. Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner" 6:00 PM. Great Vespers/Confession. Reading the life of the Saints. Catechism classes following the Vespers. 

Sunday, January 25 - 8:45 AM Orthros/Confession. 10:00 AM. Divine Liturgy. Every Sunday we commemorate Christ's resurrection.  

LACK OF FAITH.  Among the difficulties encountered in prayer is lack of faith. Whatever clothes we may wear, whatever professions we may have exercised in our lives, we so often experience a moment of hesitation, a lack of deep faith. We frequently declare that "intercessory prayer and petitionary prayer are inferior forms of prayer. The monk's prayer, the prayer of the Orthodox Christian who has reached a certain maturity, is thanksgiving and praise". This is indeed the goal to which we attain in the long run. At the end of a long life devoted to spiritual and physical ascesis, when we are radically detached from everything and ready to receive all things from God's hands as a precious gift, it only remains for us to thank and praise him. But have we yet reached this goal? Is it not easier to thank the Lord for what he has done or to praise him for what he is, especially in those moments when our hearts are kindled by the touch of grace? Is it not easier to thank or praise him after the event than trustfully to ask him to grant some request? Very often, people who are well able to give thanks and praise to the Lord are not capable of making a complete act of faith, with an undivided heart, an unwavering mind and a will wholly straining towards him, because the following doubt arises: "What if he does not answer my prayer?" Would it not be simpler to say: "Thy will be done"? Then everything is for the best, for God's will is bound to be done, and I shall be at one with this divine will. Yet it so constantly and frequently happens that the essential requirement is different. It is different precisely in relation to "active life", in the sense that this expression is used in the Western world, namely a life oriented towards situations that are external to us. Someone we love is stricken with an illness; famine prevails in a country. We would like to seek God's help, and very often we are cowardly enough to ask for it in such a way that, whatever happens, our prayer might apply to the given situation. We find the terms and the poles of our prayer: God's will is bound to be done in the long run, and we will be satisfied; but have we made an act of faith? This raises a problem for all those who are engaged in active life, and who believe in the efficacious action of prayer and of effective passivity. If we wish to act with God, it does not suffice to leave him a free hand and to say: "In any case, Lord, you will only do what you wish to do; so get on with it and don't let me hinder you". We have to learn to discern God's will, we have to agree with his plan, but we must also understand that his plan is sometimes hidden. We must know how to look, how to go in search of the Lord's invisible trail. The Lord is like an embroideress working on a tapestry; only, as it has been pointed out more than once, we see the wrong side of the tapestry, the right side being the one that faces God. And the problem of life, of that vision which will cause our prayer to be not in opposition to God's will but in harmony with it, consists in knowing how to examine that wrong side at length in order to perceive the right side, how to look at the way in which God fashions history, directs a life, deepens a situation, creates a system of relationships, and how to act not against him, or independently, but with him, allowing him to act, enabling him to act with us and in us. For in this case, there is a continuity between action and contemplation, provided that we do not accept a desacralized action, an action from which God is absent, an action envisaged as wholly human and grounded in our own human energies. That is neither a Orthodox Christian action nor a Orthodox Christian prayer. In the very heart of the situation of the active man who wishes his action to be the continuation of God's work, who wishes the action of the Church and his own action, as a living member of the total Christ which is the Church, to be the act of Christ, the act of the living God, the word of the living God, we have to learn a form of contemplation, a way of being contemplative that discloses to us what is truly the will of God. Apart from that every action will be an act performed haphazardly.  /Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh./

Ιανουαρίου 18: Τω αυτώ μηνί ΙΗ', μνήμη των εν Αγίοις Πατέρων ημών Αθανασίου και Κυρίλλου, Αρχιεπισκόπων Αλεξανδρείας. Από τους δύω τούτους Πατέρας ημών, ο μεν Άγιος Αθανάσιος, ήτον κατά τους χρόνους του Μεγάλου Κωνσταντίνου εν έτει τιη' [318], και ευρέθη παρών εις την εν Νικαία γενομένην Πρώτην και Οικουμενικήν Σύνοδον εν έτει τκε' [325], Διάκονος ων και τον τόπον επέχων του τότε Αλεξανδρείας Αλεξάνδρου. Όπου και κατεντροπίασε τον δυσσεβή Άρειον με λόγους σοφίας και με αποδείξεις των θείων Γραφών. Αφ' ου δε εκοιμήθη ο μακάριος Αλέξανδρος, έγινε της Αλεξανδρείας Αρχιεπίσκοπος. Και επειδή ο Κωνστάντιος ο υιός του Μεγάλου Κωνσταντίνου ήτον Αρειανός, δια τούτο εις διαφόρους τόπους εξώρισε τον Μέγαν τούτον Αθανάσιον. Καρτερήσας δε ο μακάριος τους διωγμούς τεσσαράκοντα χρόνους, προς Κύριον εξεδήμησεν. Ο δε Άγιος Κύριλλος ήτον επί της βασιλείας Θεοδοσίου του μικρού εν έτει υιε' [415], ανεψιός ων Θεοφίλου Αρχιεπισκόπου Αλεξανδρείας, και του θρόνου αυτού γενόμενος διάδοχος. Ούτος εστάθη έξαρχος και προστάτης της εν Εφέσω αγίας και Οικουμενικής Τρίτης Συνόδου, της εν έτει υλα' [431] συγκροτηθείσης, και τον δυσσεβή καθείλε Νεστόριον, ο οποίος βλάσφημα πολλά κατά της Αγίας Δεσποίνης ημών Θεοτόκου, ο κακόδοξος εδογμάτισε. Με πολλά δε κατορθώματα και αρετάς ο Άγιος ούτος Κύριλλος διαλάμψας, προς Κύριον εξεδήμησε. Ήτον δε κατά τον χαρακτήρα του σώματος, ο μεν Άγιος Αθανάσιος, μέτριος κατά το μέγεθος και την ηλικίαν, ολίγον πλατύς, σκυπτός, χαρίεις εις το πρόσωπον, εύμορφον χρώμα έχων, φαλακρός εις την κεφαλήν, την μύτην έχων γρυπήν, ήτοι κυρτήν ωσάν του γερακίου. Δεν είχε το πρόσωπον μακρουλόν, είχε πλατέα τα σιαγόνια, το γένειον μέτριον, και το στόμα μικρόν. Δεν ήτον πολλά άσπρος, αλλά ελαμπρύνετο με ένα χρώμα υπόξανθον. Ο δε Άγιος Κύριλλος, ολίγον τι είχε πλέον εύμορφον το χρώμα του προσώπου, είχε τα οφρύδια δασέα και μεγάλα και στρογγυλά με ευαρμοστίαν. Ήτον μακρομύτης, είχε τα μάγουλα μακρά, και τα χείλη παχέα, ήτον φαλακρός, είχε το μέτωπον μικρόν, και το γένειον δασύ και μακρόν, είχε τα μαλλία συνεστραμμένα και σκαντζουρά, ήτον ολίγον ξανθός, είχε τας τρίχας μεμιγμένας, ήτοι άσπρας με μαύρας. Τελείται δε η Σύναξις αυτών εν τη αγιωτάτη Μεγάλη Εκκλησία. 

 

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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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