CHRIST IS WITH US! HE IS AND ALWAYS SHALL BE!
10th Sunday of St. Matthew - PROCESSION OF THE LIFE-GIVING CROSS.
The Evening at St. George's will not be held this Wednesday, July 28th.
Please remember the weekly 'Feeding of our homeless brothers and sisters' this Friday, July 30th, beginning at 6:00 PM in the parking lot behind the Church. If you have some delicious food to share or any items of clothing and other essentials that can be distributed to the homeless, please bring them to Church either on Friday or next Sunday.
This coming Sunday, August 1st is the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost; as well as the Feast Day of the PROCESSION OF THE LIFE-GIVING CROSS.
"Because of the many diseases that occur in the month of August, the custom prevailed of old in Constantinople to carry the precious Wood of the Cross in procession throughout the city for its sanctification and its deliverance from illnesses. It was brought forth from the imperial treasury on the last day of July and placed upon the Holy Table of the Great Church of the Holy Wisdom; and beginning today, until the Dormition of the Theotokos, it was carried in procession throughout the city and was set forth for veneration before the people."
This next Sunday is also the commemoration of the Seven MACCABEES, ELEAZAR.
The names of the Holy Maccabees are Abim, Anthony, Guria, Eleazar, Eusebona, Achim, and Marcellus. They were Jews by race and exact keepers of the Laws of the Fathers. They lived during the reign of Antiochus, who was surnamed Epiphanes ("Illustrious"), the King of Syria and an implacable enemy of the Jews. Having subjugated their whole nation and done many evil things to them, not sparing to assail the most sacred matters of their Faith, he constrained them, among other things, to partake of swine's flesh, which was forbidden by the Law. Then these pious youths, on being apprehended together with their mother and their teacher, were constrained to set at nought the Law, and were subjected to unspeakable tortures: wrackings, the breaking of their bones, the flaying of their flesh, fire, dismemberment, and such things as only a tyrant's mind and a bestial soul is able to contrive. But when they had endured all things courageously and showed in deed that the mind is sovereign over the passions and is able to conquer them if it so desires, they gloriously ended their lives in torments, surrendering their life for the sake of the observance of the divine Law. The first to die was their teacher Eleazar, then all the brethren in the order of their age. As for their wondrous mother Solomone, "filled with a courageous spirit, and stirring up her womanish thoughts with a manly wrath" (II Macc. 7:21), she was present at her children's triumph over the tyrant, strengthening them in their struggle for the sake of their Faith, and enduring stout-heartedly their sufferings for the sake of their hope in the Lord. After her last and youngest son had been perfected in martyrdom, when she was about to be seized to be put to death, she cast herself into the fire that they might not touch her, and was thus deemed worthy of a blessed end together with her sons, in the year 168 before Christ."
Remember that the Divine Liturgy on Sunday begins at 10:00 AM [to receive the Sacrament of Absolution {which is a requirement to receive Holy Communion}, please make sure to be in Church no later than 9:45.]
For the weekly fellowship luncheon following the Divine Liturgy, the requested donation is $3.00 per plate with all proceeds going towards our pledge to help purchase a chancery for the Diocese of Miami and the Southeast. Please remember that for our homeless worshippers, the luncheon is a gift from the 'Ephraim Project' who are our partners in feeding the homeless.
The Discussion table during the luncheon will have as its topic to discuss: "THE POWER OF PRAYER WHEN COUPLED WITH FASTING."
We still have available special Pascha Candles. This is a wonderful way of keeping a light for the health of your loved ones or in memory of departed faithful lit before the Holy Altar of God. The donation for each candle is only $25.00-remember these special candles are re-lit at every Divine Liturgy till Christmas.
May Our Lord continue to Bless and keep you well in His Grace and Love Divine. Amen.
OF ,
sermon videos
Sermon from the Sunday of the Paralytic April 25, 2010
