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CHRISTMAS 2019 Among the asses (stubborn I as they) I see my Savior where I looked for hay; So may my beast like folly learn at least The patience of a beast C. S. Lewis
CHRISTMAS 2019
Among the asses (stubborn I as they)
I see my Savior where I looked for hay;
So may my beast like folly learn at least
The patience of a beast C. S. Lewis
MY DEAR PARENTS, Christmas, the feast of the Nativity of our Lord, is a time of the year that every heart is in search of something different, beyond the normal… the routine; in search of something extraordinary, not of this world; “magic” as we often describe it.
By this we mean, happiness, peace, warmth and excitement in our heart. The vast majority of us, alas, will find only anxiety and worries.
The “magic” is beyond our grasp only because we try to find it elsewhere, where it is not, while it is in front of us. The “magic” is not really magic but rather Divine blessing, a gift from God.
It is the Traditions that we have from immemorial times as Greek Orthodox people. These Traditions strengthened the faith and enriched the life of generations upon generations of our ancestors.
As we approach Christmas I invite you to regenerate within your
families this life-giving Traditions; Come to Church on Christmas morning, as a family; don’t let the feast bypass you while you are getting ready to celebrate it; this, unconsciously, leaves emptiness in your hearts…and emptiness brings anxiety and pain.
I look forward to celebrating together with you and your beloved families, these most heartfelt Feasts. In Christ Born, Fr. Nicholas
Christmas Carols: Saturday, Dec. 21 & 22, anytime between 4:30-8:00 p.m. Christmas Eve, Tuesday, December 24 5:00 PM – Christmas Eve Liturgy; an opportunity to receive Christ and celebrate His Birthday for people who are heading out for Christmas Eve parties and may not be able come to Church on Christmas morning.
Christmas Day, Wednesday, December 25 7:00 AM – Christmas Orthros & around 8:00 a.m. Christmas Liturgy (finishing around 9:30 a.m.). This is the Birth-Day of our Lord. By tradition the service starts very early in the morning and finishes at dawn. It is an amazing experience, to wake up early on Christmas day and from the frostiness and coldness of the day arrive to the sweet warmness of the Christmas Church! Our service is not very early (as tradition has it) but not very late either (to keep as close to our tradition).
New Year Carols: Saturday, Dec. 28 & 29, anytime between 4:30-8:00 p.m.
New Year, Tuesday, January 1 9:30 AM – Divine Liturgy of St. Basil,
to celebrate his feast and start with the Lord’s blessing of the New Year. At the end of the service,
around 11:00, we will cut the Vasilopita!
Theophany, Sunday, January 6 The Great Feast of Lights, the Day we bless
the waters and through them the whole creation, including ourselves.
9:00 AM – Divine Liturgy ● 10:30 AM Great Blessing of the Waters
2019 ΚΑΛΑΝΤΑ/CAROLS Σαββατοκύριακο 21 & 22 Δεκεμβρίου:
κάλαντα των ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥΓΕΝΝΩΝ & τo Σαββατοκύριακο 28 & 29 Δεκεμβρίου:
κάλαντα της ΠΡΩΤΟΧΡΟΝΙΑΣ. Παρακαλούμε ανοίξτε τα σπίτια σας στα παιδιά
και την ωραία παράδοση των καλάντων.
Weekend, December 21st & 22nd: Christmas Carols &
Weekend, December 28th & 29th: New Year Carols Calling all members of St. George Church
Adults, Children - Young or Old!!! There is no better way to get into the spirit of the Holidays than sharing the joy of Christmas
with our community – it truly is something to celebrate! Please join us in spreading Christmas cheer and sign up for a
Caroling route on Christmas or New Year’s weekend!
Please Join Us For The CHRISTMAS HOLY UNCTION ΕΥΧΕΛΑΙΟ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥΓΕΝΩΝ
on Sunday, December 22nd @ 4:00 p.m.
ΠΡΟΓΡΑΜΜΑ ΔΩΔΕΚΑΗΜΕΡΟΥ 2019-2020
Σάββατο 21 Δεκεμβρίου: 10:30 π.μ. Riverside & 12:00 μ.μ. στο St. John’s. Επίσκεψη στα Κοιμητήρια για Τρισάγια Κυριακή 22 Δεκεμβρίου - 8:45 -11:15 π.μ.: Όρθρος και Θ. Λειτουργία Κυριακής προ της Χριστού Γεννήσεως • 4:00 μ.μ.: Ιερό Ευχέλαιο Χριστουγέννων
Τρίτη 24 Δεκεμβρίου – 9:00 π.μ.: Μεγάλες Ώρες Χριστουγέννων • 4:30-6:00 μ.μ.: Μέγας Εσπερινός Χριστουγέννων μετά Θ.
Λειτουργίας του Μ. Βασιλείου Τετάρτη 25 Δεκεμβρίου - 7:00-9:30 π.μ.: Όρθρος & Θεία Λειτουργία των Χριστουγέννων
Τρίτη 31 Δεκεμβρίου - 6:00 μ.μ.: Εσπερινός Εορτής Μεγάλου Βασιλείου Τετάρτη 1 Ιανουαρίου - 8:30-11:00 π.μ. : Όρθρος, Θεία Λειτουργία Μ. Βασιλείου, Δοξολογία Νέου Έτους & κοπή Βασιλόπιτας
Παρασκευή 4 Ιανουαρίου- 9:00-10:30 π.μ. : Μεγάλες Ώρες Θεοφανίων Κυριακή 5 Ιανουαρίου- 8:00-11:00 π.μ. : Όρθρος, Θ. Λειτουργία προ των Φώτων & Αγιασμός των Υδάτων • 6:00 μ.μ. :Μέγας Εσπερινός των Θεοφανίων Δευτέρα 6 Ιανουαρίου- 8:45-11:30 π.μ. : Όρθρος, Θ. Λειτουργία των Φώτων & Μέγας Αγιασμός των Υδάτων 6:00 μ.μ.: Εσπερινός Εορτής Τιμίου Προδρόμου
Τρίτη 7 Ιανουαρίου- 8:00 π.μ. : Όρθρος, Θ. Λειτουργία Συνάξεως Τιμίου Προδρόμου
CHRISTMAS PROGRAM 2019-2020
Saturday, December 21st: At Riverside at 10:30 a.m. & at St. John’s at 12:00 p.m. Cemetery visits for prayers for the departed Sunday, December 22nd - 8:45-11:15 a.m.: Orthros & Divine Liturgy of Sunday before Christmas • 4:00 p.m.: Christmas Holy Unction
Tuesday, December 24th – 9:00 a.m.: Great Hours of Christmas • 4:30-6:00 p.m.: Great Vespers of Christmas & D. Liturgy of St.
Basil the Great Wednesday, December 25th - 7:00-9:30 a.m.: Orthros & Divine Liturgy of Christmas
Tuesday, December 31st - 6:00 p.m.: Vespers of the Feast of Saint Basil Wednesday, January 1st – 8:30--11:00 a.m.: Orthros & D. Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, New Year Doxology & Vasilopita Cutting
Friday, January 4th – 9:00-10:30 a.m.: Great Hours of Theophany Sunday, January 5th – 8:00-11:00 a.m.: Orthros, Divine Liturgy of Theophany & Blessing of the Waters • 6:00 p.m.: Great Vespers of Theophany Sunday, January 6th – 8:45-11:30 a.m.: Orthros & D. Liturgy of Theophany & Great Blessing of Waters • 6:00 p.m.: Vespers for the Feast of St. John the Baptist
Tuesday, January 7th – 8:00 a.m.: Orthros & D. Liturgy for St. John the Baptist
ON CHRISTMAS
life of Jesus and felt a sense of déjà vu: doesn't this remind you of...? Surely this is the same as...?
Bit by bit, they connected up the details of the stories with a rich pattern of events and images and ideas in Hebrew Scripture. Utterly unexpected pregnancies – like Abraham's wife Sarah, or Hannah, mother of the prophet Samuel. A birth in Bethlehem, where Jacob's wife died in bringing to birth the last of the ancestors of Israel, where an impoverished young widow from an enemy country was welcomed and made at home, to become the grandmother of the great hero King David. Shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem where young David had looked after his father's flock before being called to be shepherd of the whole kingdom. A star like the one foreseen by the ancient prophet Balaam as a sign of Israel's victory; foreigners bringing gifts of gold and incense, as the psalm describes foreign potentates bringing tribute to King Solomon. A murderous attack on the children of God's people by a Godless tyrant, a desperate flight and an exile
'This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through the prophet'. Phrases like this echo like a refrain through the nativity stories in the Gospels – and indeed the stories of Jesus' trial and death as well. The stories of Jesus' birth and death were, from the very first, stories about how God had kept his promise. The earliest Christians looked at the records and memories of what had happened in and around the
in Egypt. The plain event at the center of it all, the birth of a child in a jobbing handyman's family, is surrounded with so many echoes and allusions that it seems like the climax of an immense series of great happenings; like the final statement in a musical work of some theme that has been coming through again and again, more and more strongly, in the earlier bars. The last triumphant movement in God's symphony.
The story of Jesus is the story of a God who keeps promises. As St Paul wrote to the Corinthians, 'however many the promises God made, the Yes to them all is in him'. God shows himself to be the same God he always was. He brings hope out of hopelessness – out of the barrenness of unhappy childless women like Sarah and Hannah. He takes strangers and makes them at home; he brings his greatest gifts out of those moments when the barriers are down between insiders and outsiders. He draws people from the ends of the earth to wonder – not this time at the glory of Solomon but at the miracle of his presence among the humble and outcast. He identifies with those, especially children, who are the innocent and helpless victims of insane pride and fear. He walks into exile with those he loves and leads them home again.
This is the God he has shown himself to be; and he has promised that he will go on being the same God. 'I am who I am' he tells us; and 'I, the Lord, do not change', and 'I will not fail you or forsake you.' When we are faithless, he is faithful; when we seek to escape or even to betray, he does not change. In what is perhaps the most unforgettable image in the whole of Hebrew Scripture, God says that he has 'branded' or 'engraved' us on the palms of his hands (Is.49.16). He has determined that he will not be who he is without us. And in this moment of climax and fulfillment, in this last movement of the symphony, he shows in the most decisive way possible that he will not be without us; he binds his divine life to human nature. Never again can he be spoken of except in connection with this human life that begins in the stable at Bethlehem.
From one point of view, then, a story of triumphant persistence. Nothing has shaken God's decision to be with those he has loved and called, and now nothing ever will. Nothing, as St Paul again says, can separate us from what is laid bare in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. And yet from another point of view, it is a story of unimaginable cost and apparent tragedy. For if God has chosen to be with us in this way, he is associated with our weaknesses, humiliated by our betrayals, exposed and vulnerable to our casual decisions to take our custom elsewhere. In the book of the prophet Hosea, we see this depicted in harrowing terms as the marriage of a faithful man to an unfaithful woman, a marriage which the man refuses to accept is over. I suspect that a good many of us have seen cases of a faithful woman sticking obstinately to an unfaithful man. In human terms, such faithfulness is likely to look naïve, foolish or just pointless self-punishing. But God, it seems, knows that whatever limitation and humiliation our human freedom lays on him, we cannot live without him; and he accepts everything for the sake of our well-being.
Christmas is about the unshakeable solidarity of God's love with us, not only in our suffering but in our rebellion and betrayal as well. One mediaeval Greek theologian, deliberately out to shock, described as God's 'manic passion', God's 'obsession'; μανικός έρως.
…'This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken'; this was the 'Yes' to all the promises. And what God showed himself to be in Hebrew Scripture, what he showed himself to be in the life and death of the Lord Jesus, this is what he has promised to be today and tomorrow and forever. He cannot betray his own nature, and so he cannot betray us. And by the gift of the Spirit, we are given strength, in all contexts, to let his faithful love flow through us, for the fulfillment of more and more human lives according to his eternal purpose and unshakeable love.
From a 2010 Christmas Sermon by Rowan Williams
KIERKEGAARD’S FABLE OF A KING WHO FELL IN LOVE WITH A MAID
A king fell in love with a poor maid. The king wanted to marry her. When asked, “How shall I declare my love?” his counselors answered, “Your majesty has only to appear in all the glory of your royal raiment before the maid’s humble dwelling and she will instantly fall at your feet and be yours.” But it was precisely that which troubled the king. He wanted her glorification, not his. In return for his love he wanted hers, freely given. Finally, the king realized love’s truth, that freedom for the beloved demanded equality with the beloved. So late one night, after all the counselors of the palace had retired, he slipped out a side door and appeared before the maid’s cottage dressed as a servant to confess his love for her. Clearly, the fable is a Christmas story. God chose to express His love for us humans by becoming one like us. We are called to obey, not God’s power, but God’s love. God wants not submission to his power, but in return for his love, our own.
WE NEED TO LOOK FOR JESUS IN UNLIKELY PLACES AND PERSONS During the Christmas season we, like the Magi, must give our most precious gift, our lives to Jesus. We will learn to discover Him in the most unlikely places and in the most distasteful people – in those who are suffering or in distress, poverty or fear. The message of Christmas is that we can truly find Jesus if we look in the right places – in the streets, in slums, in asylums, in orphanages, in nursing homes – starting in our own homes, workplaces and town. We need to look for Him in people that we might otherwise ignore: the homeless, the sick, the addict, the unpleasant person, the rebel, or the person of different culture and lifestyle from us. True Christmas is about celebrating the coming of God among the poor, the homeless and the disadvantaged with a message of hope and liberation for these sufferers in our world. It is about our responsibility to be part of that liberating process. It is about working to remove the shameful blot of poverty, discrimination and exploitation that is the lot of too many in our environment of prosperity. God challenges us to be like the shepherds who overcame their fear in order to seek out Jesus, or like the Wise Men who traveled a long distance to find Him. Then we will have the true experience of Christmas – the joy of the Savior. We need to allow the Savior to be reborn in our lives.
Let us remember the famous lines of Alexander Pope: “What do I profit if Jesus is born in thousands of cribs all over the world during this Christmas, but is not born in my heart?” Let us allow Him to be reborn in our lives during Christmas 2019 and every day of the New Year 2020.
THE TRADITION OF THE HOUSE BLESSING
It is part of our traditions, as Greek Orthodox, to invite the priest to bless our home with holy water within a few weeks following the feast of Theophany.
All who reside in the household should make every effort to be present for the Blessing. In anticipation of the arrival of the Priest to the house, a candle, hand-censer and incense in the family’s icon corner should be prepared.
Upon the arrival of the Priest, he is to be greeted by all family members, each of whom asks the Priest’s blessing and reverences his right hand and the Cross.
In order to schedule a house blessing, please call the office of the church or fill the “House Blessing” form that you can find at the pagari (Candle-counter).
