Sunday St. Cosmas and Damian of Asia Minor
The Fifth Sunday of Luke
Sts. Cosmas, Damian and their mother St Theodota were natives of Asia Minor (some sources say Mesopotamia). Their pagan father died while they were still quite small children. Their mother raised them in Christian piety. Through her own example, and by reading holy books to them, St Theodota preserved her children in purity of life according to the command of the Lord, and Cosmas and Damian grew up into righteous and virtuous men.
Trained and skilled as physicians, they received from the Holy Spirit the gift of healing people’s illnesses of body and soul by the power of prayer. They even treated animals. With fervent love for both God and neighbor, they never took payment for their services. They strictly observed the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, “Freely have you received, freely give.” (Mt. 10:8). The fame of Sts Cosmas and Damian spread throughout all the surrounding region, and people called them unmercenary physicians.
Read more on the Orthodoxwiki website.
Daylight Savings Ends Saturday Night
Spring forward, Fall back. Don’t forget to set your clocks back Saturday night when you go to bed.
Bishop Antoun to Visit St. Peter’s on November 1
Bishop Antoun
Bishop Antoun will be with us on Sunday November 1. You may remember that during our last visit he pushed us to find a more suitable location for St. Peter’s and here we are! This is his first visit to our new location.
Please mark your calendars and be sure to attend. It would be great to welcome him with an overflowing parish on that day.
Vespers with Bishop Antoun, Saturday, October 31, 5:30pm
Bp. Antoun will be cebrating Vesper with us on Saturday, October 31 starting at 5:30pm. Please be sure to attend.
Chior Practice and Orthodoxy 101 Class Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Choir practice begins at 6pm and Orthodoxy 101 at 7pm.
Get the class syllabus and complete information on the website.
Youth Group Has First Meeting
The Youth Group (final name pending) meets on Tuesday at 7pm. We study the reading of the day and discussion starts there and goes in all sorts of direction.
Locations vary. Contact Jeremiah Tewis for details.
Stewardship Letter Mailed
Please fill it in and return to the Church.
Pilgrimage to St. Nicholas Monastery with Presention on St. Nektarios
Some parishioners are making a pilgrimage to Saint Nicholas Monastery in Ft Myers on Saturday November 7th. We will depart caravan style from St Peter at 10am and return at 5pm. There are many unique Holy Relics to venerate.
We will have lunch there and listen to a presentation on Saint Nectarios. There is also a chapel dedicated to Saint Nectarios whose feast day is the following Monday, so anyone interested in healing should make a special effort to join us.
The onsite bookstore has some beautiful Icons available in time for Christmas.
Vist the St. Nicholas Monastery website.
We will celebrate the Divine Liturgy for St. Nectarios on Monday, November 9 at 7pm at St. Peter’s.
Wisdom from St. Poemen the Great
A man may seem to be silent, but if his heart is condemning others, he is babbling ceaselessly. But there may be another who talks from morning till night and yet he is truly silent, that is, he says nothing that is not profitable.
– St. Poemen the Great
Food for the Hungry
As we do ever year, the months approaching Christmas is when we collect foor for neighborhood foodshelves.
Please bring a canned item to Church with you on Sundays. Bins will be set up to collect them.
Cash/check donations work too. Please give your donation to Mary Copeland and notate “Food Donation” on the memo line.
The drive will run through December 29. All donations will be distributed locally.
See more information on the website.
Upcoming Memorials
Sunday, Nov. 8th, 11-year Memorial for JOHN SPIROPOULOS, father of Joan Simon.
Sunday, Nov. 22nd, 40-day Memorial for MARY SPIROPOULOS, mother of Joan Simon
May her Memory be Eternal.
Remember in Your Prayers
Soterios Ninos father of Angela Long.
Bonnie Joseph
Mary Spiropoulos, mother of Joan Simon.
Bob Smith
Tom and Jean, parents of Patty and Jerry.
How should we pray for the sick? Remember them daily. Say their names and ask God to bestow mercy and grace on them.
Sunday Readings
Epistle
For Ss. Cosmas and Damian of Asia
In the saints that are in His earth hath the Lord been wondrous.
I beheld the Lord ever before me.
The Reading from the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians. (12:27-13:8)
Brethren, you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the Church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
Gospel
For the Fifth Sunday of Luke
The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (16:19-31)
The Lord said, “There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.’
But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’
And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’
But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”