Twenty-seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Tenth Sunday of Luke
The Martyrs Menas, Eugraphos and Hermogenes of Alexandria
The Holy Martyrs Hermogenes, Menas, and Eugraphus suffered for their faith in Christ under the emperor Maximian (305-313).
Saint Menas was sent by the emperor from Athens to Alexandria to suppress the riots that had arisen between the Christians and the pagans. Distinguished for his gift of eloquence, Menas instead openly began to preach the Christian Faith and he converted many pagans to Christ. Learning of this, Maximian sent Hermogenes to Alexandria to place the saints on trial. Moreover, he gave orders to purge the city of Christians.
Hermogenes, although he was a pagan, was distinguished by his reverent bearing. And struck by the endurance of Saint Menas under torture and by his miraculous healing after the cruel torments, he also came to believe in Christ. Maximian himself then arrived in Alexandria. Neither the astonishing stoic endurance of Saints Menas and Hermogenes under torture, nor even the miracles manifested by God in this city, mollified the emperor. Instead, they vexed him all the more. The emperor personally stabbed Saint Eugraphus, the secretary of Saint Menas, and then gave orders to behead the holy Martyrs Menas and Hermogenes.
The relics of the holy martyrs, cast into the sea in an iron chest, were afterwards found (see February 17) and transferred to Constantinople in the ninth century. The emperor Justinian built a church in the name of the holy Martyr Menas of Alexandria. Saint Joseph the Hymnographer (April 4) composed a Canon in honor of these holy martyrs.
Source: Orthodox Church in America.
Read the complete history on the Mystagogy website.
Living the Orthodox Faith Class Continues Wednesday, December 6 at 7:00pm
“Living the Orthodox Faith” will look at why our Church does things the way it does, and how to do it properly. We will learn about the sign up the cross, how to enter the Church properly (candles and veneration), how to make a home altar, and more. This is a very practical class, not theological as much as how to live the Orthodox life as an Orthodox Christian.
Can’t make the class? Join in on Facebook Live! You can also view last week’s class too.
Topic for this week: The Sacraments and Confession
St. Nicholas Celebration on Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Plan to attend the St. Nicholas Day Celebration Tuesday December 5, 2017. We will begin with Divine Liturgy at 6:00pm (note time!) followed by a presentation on the real Santa Clause (hint: it was really a bishop from Myra in the fourth century) for the children.
All children should attend! The program will be for them including a surprise at the end.
Parents and anyone attending, please some light refreshments for sharing at the end of the program.
Christmas Season Food Drive for NAMI Continues
Every Christmas season St. Peter’s runs a food drive for NAMI (National Association for Mental Illness)serving local people in need. NAMI helps people with serious and persistent mental illnesses, as well as their parents, children, spouses, siblings and friends.
St. Peter’s has contributed to NAMI emergency food bank care for six years. Donations go to the Sarah Ann Drop In Center in Naples, FL. Three categories of items are needed:
- Canned and dry goods
- Toiletry articles (The small hotel type items work very well)
- Diabetic foods
Bring them to church and we will get them to NAMI. The drive will run through Christmas.
Christmas Fast Continues
The Nativity Fast is one of the four Canonical Fasting Seasons in the Church year. This is a joyous fast in anticipation of the Nativity of Christ. That is the reason it is less strict than other fasting periods. The fast is divided into two periods. The 1st period is November 15th through December 19th when the traditional fasting discipline (no meat, dairy, fish, wine, and oil) is observed. There is dispensation given for wine and oil on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Similarly, fish, wine, and oil are permitted on Saturdays and Sundays.
The 2nd period is December 20th through 24th when the traditional fasting discipline (no meat, dairy, fish, wine, and oil) is observed. There is dispensation given for wine and oil only on Saturday and Sunday during this period.
Fasting always works in conjuction with prayer and giving alms (helping the poor, giving to worthy charities, etc.). Fasting helps us reorder the interior life, but the reordering does not occur with greater prayer and greater concern for the poor.
The reordering is a clarification — we end up seeing things more clearly, we get stronger in the fight against sin and temptation. The fast always ends on a great Feast Day of our Lord.
For a complete list, visit the Antiochian website or click on the image below:
Calendar At A Glance
December
- Tuesday, December 2, 2017 10:00am. Decorate Social Hall
- Tuesday, December 2, 2017 6:00pm. Christmas Pot Luck
- Tuesday, December 5, 2017 6:00pm. St. Nicholas Liturgy
- Tuesday, December 5, 2017 7:15pm. St. Nicholas Program
- Tuesday, December 10, 2017 7:00pm. Living the Orthodox Faith Class
Nativity (Christmas) Worship Schedule
- Friday, December 22, 2017 9am Nativity Royal Hours
- Sunday, December 24, 2017 8:30am/9:30am Orthros and Divine Liturgy
- Sunday, December 24, 2017 7:00pm Great Vespers of Nativity
- Monday, December 25, 2017 8:30am/9:30am Festal Orthros and Festal Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great
Wisdom From The Elders
Previously, I wanted everything to go my way, but seeing that nothingwas done as I wanted, I began to wish that everything be done as it is done; so it was that everything started to be done as I wanted.
Elder Joseph of Optina
Spiritual vigilance or sobriety is a spiritual art which completely delivers a man, with the help of God, from sinful actions and passionate thoughts and words when fervently practiced for a considerable time. It is silence of the heart; it is guarding of the mind; it is attention to oneself without any other thought which always, incessantly and unceasingly calls upon Jesus Christ, the Son of God…
St. Hesychius of Jerusalem
The way of humility is this: self-control, prayer, and thinking yourself inferior to all creatures.
Abba Thithoes
ponds to the will of God. To do this one must ask God to reveal His plan for the particular person who is asking.
Priest Daniel Sysoev
A prayer from the heart has more power than a thousand words, especially for someone who won’t listen.
Elder Paisios of Mount Athos
Just as soul and body combine to produce a human being, so practice of the virtues and contemplation together constitute a unique spiritual wisdom, and the Old and New Testament together form a single mystery.
St. Maximos the Confessor
Remember in Your Prayers
Jill
Connie
Sean Helgeland (great nephew to Steve and Anne Brietenbach)
Kathryn
Jeremy
Robert
Jane
Theodora
Baby Brynn L.
Micheal
Haralambos
Lillian
Presbytera Rosy
Valentina
John
Eva W.
Barbara
Angela
Sonya
Kenneth
Carol Ann
Matthew
Chrysostom
Tim
Ron
Ivy-Jean
Pat
Christina
Maria Louise
Maximos
Marian
Photini
Nicholas
Brad William
Sarah
Petronia (Wife of Phil Pappas)
Constantine Houpis
Anna Marie Smith Baker
Ron Chromulak
Beverly Chromulak
Katerina
Loucine Kassis
Mary Kassis
Baby Maximus
Christine
Maria
Annette Star
Claire Livaditis
Eva Chandilles
Baby Dani
Scott Nedoff
Anthony Mourgis
John Hansen
James Hord
Tom and Jean, parents of Patty and Jerry.
How should we pray for the sick? Remember them daily. Say their names (first names are sufficient) and ask God to bestow mercy and grace on them.
Add or remove names and print this list for easy reference during your prayer time on the St. Peter website.
Sunday Readings
Epistle
For the Twenty-Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
The Lord is my strength and my song.
With chastisement hath the Lord chastened me.
The Reading from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians. (6:10-17)
Brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; besides all these, taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Gospel
For the Tenth Sunday of Luke
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (13:10-17)
At that time, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And there was a woman who had had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years; she was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. And when Jesus saw her, He called her and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity.” And He laid His hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and she praised God.
But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.”
Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrite! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger, and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” As Jesus said this, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by Him.