Second Sunday after Pentecost
Second Sunday of Matthew
Martyrs Leontios, Hypatios and Theodoulos at Tripoli in Phoenicia; Venerable Leontios the Hagiorite of Dionysiou monastery on Athos
al army in the Phoenician city of Tripoli during the reign of Vespasian (70-79). Leontius was distinguished for his bravery and good sense, and the people of Tripoli held him in deep respect because of his virtue.
The emperor appointed the Roman senator Hadrian as governor of the Phoenician district, with full powers to hunt out Christians, and in case of their refusal to offer sacrifice to the Roman gods, to give them over to torture and death. And on his way to Phoenicia Hadrian received a report that St. Leontius had turned many away from worshipping the pagan gods. The governor sent the tribune Hypatius with a detachment of soldiers to Tripoli so as to find and arrest the Christian Leontius. Along the way the tribune Hypatius fell seriously ill, and being near death, he saw in a dream an angel, which said: “If you wish to be healed, you and your soldiers should say three times: ‘God of Leontius, help me.'”
Read the complete history on the Mystagogy website.
The Apostles Fast
the same disciplines we used for Great Lent). Many people do not practice this fast but nevertheless it is part of the Orthodox Liturgical calendar.
Fr. Hans Our of Town
Fr. Hans will be out of town from Tuesday, June 20, to Saturday, June 24.
Parish Portraits: Introducing George Chionis
is mother and father, seeking opportunities in America, migrated to the middle of the country. George’s hard working father began as a meat cutter in Chicago and soon opened his own grocery store.
George remembers that that the four boys in his family worked in the grocery store after school. No baseball or sports activities for them because they immediately went to work, helping their father at the store.
Read George’s full story on the St. Peter website.
Coming in September: Through the Bible in One Year
f the new Church Year, St. Peter’s will start a program to read the bible in one year. Information will be posted on the website in August.
Start thinking about it now.
Calendar At A Glance
- June 20-24, 2017 (Tuesday-Saturday) Fr. Hans Out of Town
Wisdom From The Elders
Those who labor for the vain things in life strive to make those who labor for God’s sake stumble, that they might not be confronted with examples that accuse their conscience; but in so doing they only embellish the crowns of conscientious laborers.
Ephraim the Syrian
If one understands the mysteries of spiritual life and the mystical way in which God works, he ceases worrying over what happens to him, because he accepts joyfully the bitter medicines that God gives him for the health of his soul. Such a person considers everything to be the result of his prayer, since he constantly asks from God to purify his soul.
St. Paisios of Mount Athos
Brother: Who is the true monk? Old Man: He who makes his word manifest in deeds, and bears his passion with patient endurance; with such a man life is found, and the knowledge of the spirit dwells in him.
The Paradise of the Holy Fathers
If the divine Logos of God the Father became son of man and man so that He might make men gods and the sons of God, let us believe that we shall reach the realm where Christ Himself now is; for He is the head of the whole body (cf. Col. 1:18), and endued with our humanity has gone to the Father as forerunner on our behalf. God will stand ‘in the midst of the congregation of gods’ (Ps. 82:1 LXX) – that is, of those who are saved – distributing the rewards of that realm’s blessedness to those found worthy to receive them, not separated from them by any space.
St. Maximos the Confessor
Steep and thorny is the path that leads to the Heavenly Kingdom. What is your path? It is the struggle unto blood against fleshly passions and self-love. Self-love is the soil upon which grow passions, emptiness of life, and sorrow.
Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) of Bogucharsk
Remember in Your Prayers
James L.
Anthony
Marcie
Michele
Sonya
Kenneth
Carol Ann
Matthew
Gerhard
Valerie
Chrysostom
Tim
Ron
Ivy-Jean
Pat
Christina
Baby Samuel
Jennie
Mary
Baby Kyriake
Maximos
Marian
Photini
Nicholas
Brad William
Ryan
Sarah
Robert Jarvis
Petronia (Wife of Phil Pappas)
Anna Marie Smith Baker
Iris Kuring (Bettina Zifiris' mother)
Constantine Houpis
Ron Chromulak
Beverly Chromulak
Katerina
Dianne
Loucine Kassis
Mary Kassis
Baby Maximus
Annette Star
Christine
Maria
Claire Livaditis
Eva Chandilles
Baby Dani
Scott Nedoff
Anthony Mourgis
John Hansen
Constandina James
James Hord
Bob Smith
Tom and Jean
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
righteous.
The Reading from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans. (2:10-16)
Brethren, glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. All who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law. For it is not the hearers of the Law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the Law who will be justified. When Gentiles who have not the Law do by nature what the Law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the Law. They show that what the Law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
Gospel
For Second Sunday of Matthew
The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew. (4:18-23)
At that time, as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. And going on from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and He called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him. And He went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the Kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people.