August 2014 - Holy Mother of God Greek Orthodox Church

August 2014¨1645 Phillips Road, Tallahassee, Florida 32308 ¨ (850) 878-0747 ¨ Rev. Fr. Robert J. O’Loughlin¨ http://www.hmog.org
Transfiguring Our Lives with God ~ A Message from Fr. Robert
In the course of our lives, when we are having difficulty, and we
are facing obstacles, our tendency is to put it all on our shoulders.
From time to time as we encounter difficulties in our lives, we may
ask God for His help. He is always present and watching when we
undergo our trials and tribulations, but He is also always leading
us to a greater trust in Him. And if we let Him, He will continue to
lead us to a stronger faith. Through prayer and discernment we
can learn to be silent and transfigure ourselves to gather our
thoughts and listen for God.
We can be recharged when connected to God through prayer. Fr.
Thomas Hopko reminds us that prayer should be done secretly,
briefly, regularly, without many words, with trust in God that He
hears us. Secretly means humbly, not trying to appear righteous
before others. Regularly means daily and its better to pray a few minutes each day than
longer but not as frequent. When we begin or come home from a long day at work or
school, we can take a few moments and allow time to be silent with God.
The Divine Liturgy can be a time that we spend time alone with God as a community
and allow ourselves to grow spiritually. When we gather as community, it is for us to be
united, as the Liturgy says “with one heart and one mind”. Our faith can be constantly
tested in today’s world. Society can influence how our growth in our faith, can be down
on the priority list. We can easily lose tract of the priorities in today’s world that wants
us to put God and the Church on the back burner. In today’s world there is a need for
silence so that we can hear and act upon God’s will for us. He knows what our circumstances are and knows the pain we feel and experience in the storms of our lives.
Christ wants to come to us as we go through our journey in this life and to be our
strength. We can prepare and transfigure ourselves by focusing on being alone with
God in our prayer lives and worshiping and praising Him during good and tough times.
Also, as we do this, we can be attentive to others and instead of just worrying about
what’s around us, we can seek those who are in need and assist them.
May you and your families continue to have a blessed Summer,
~~ Fr. Robert
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If an emergency or special need
should arise, please contact Fr. Rob
immediately at 850-559-8184.
Next Spaghetti
Dinner:
Our next ECHO Sundays are August 3 and September 7th. Please drop off your non-perishable food donations into the bins located in the Hellenic Center and
Patmos Hall.
Friday, September 5th
Congratulations….Dimitri Sgouros and Canli Wang who were
married on Saturday, May 17th ; Nicholas Mayernick and Rachel
Culpepper who were joined in the Sacrament of Marriage on Saturday, June 7th and Zachary Joanos and Lucia Tipa who were married
on Saturday, June 14th.
May the Lord bless all three couples with great faith, peace and
love! Na sas zison!
Congratulations to Norman and Cynthia McMillan on the baptism of their child, Lochlan (Basil) on June 21st and to the Godparent, Sharolyn Tsamoutales.
Congratulations... Bo and
Leslie Marcevski on the 40
Day blessing of Maxim
May your memory be eternal…
A 3-year Memorial, in loving memory of Alex Costa, beloved husband of Barbara Costa and beloved father of Victoria, Katherine and
Alexandra was held on Sunday, June 29th. May his memory be eternal.
On Sunday, July 27th, a Memorial Service was held in loving memory of Katina (10 years) and Vasilios (32 years) Coukoulis, beloved
parents of Amy Cox and John Coukoulis. May their memory be eternal.
August 23rd
September 6
Pastitsio
th
th
September 12 & 13
Koulourakia
th
Galatoboureko
September 25th, 26th, & 27th
Baklava
October 4th
Kourambiedes
Preparations for the festival are underway. Please come and assist with the festival cooking which begins
the end of June. Even if all you can give is a small amount of time it is greatly appreciated. Thank you to
Koula and Andrew Poulos for taking the time out of their busy schedules to pick up the festival pecans from
Valdosta. Also a big thank you to all of you for your assistance over the years. We look forward to a successful 2014 Festival! Catherine Branch, Harriett Kanelidis, Jeff Phipps, and Richard Allen.
Orthros 9:30 am
&
Divine Liturgy
10:30 am
25
24 Orthros 9:30 am &
Divine Liturgy
10:30 am
Registration
Youth Ministry
+
+
+
Holy
f
27
20
Paraklesis
6 pm
+
+
+
Divine Liturgy
9 am
Paraklesis
6 pm
Transfiguration
13
6
Wed
+
+
28
21
Great Vespers of the
Dormition of the
Theotokos
6 pm
Followed by
refreshmnents in the
Hellenic center
14
7
Thu
08/03 - Mathes*/Branch/Gorb(c)
08/10 - Perrigan*/Poulos/Mathes(c)
08/17 - Manias*/Eudy/Koikos(c)
08/24 - Joanos*/Perrigan/Branch(c)
08/31 - Poulos*/Gorb/Manias(c)
09/07 - Koikos*/Eudy/Joanos(c)
Pangari Schedule for August
*Denotes a 9:30 start time
Choir Practice
6 pm
26
Choir Practice
6 pm
19
Choir Practice
6 pm
+
Choir Practice
6 pm
12
5
Tue
f
Paraklesis
6 pm
+
+
+
+
Beheading of St.
John the Baptist
Divine Liturgy
9 am
29
22
Dormition of the
Theotokos
Divine Liturgy
9 am
15
8
1
Fri
5 pm
Great Vespers
30
23
5 pm
Great Vespers
5 pm
Great Vespers
16
9
2
Sat
s
+
= Father Away
= Dairy & eggs
allowed
= Fish Allowed
= Wine and Oil
allowed
= Strict Fast
Calendar Symbol Key
AUGUST
2014
31 Orthros 9:30 am &
Divine Liturgy
10:30 am
18
Parish Council
Meeting
5:30 pm
11
4
Mon
17 Orthros 9:30 am &
Divine Liturgy
10:30 am
10 Orthros 9:30 am
&
Divine Liturgy
10:30 am
3
Sun
Page 3
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Youth Ministry Registration
Registration for Church School, GOYA, JOY, OCF, and Greek Dancing will be held
following the
Divine Liturgy on:
Sunday, August 31st and September 7th
In the Hellenic Center.
We look forward to our first GOYA meeting of the new ecclesiastical year. This ministry provides
teenagers time for fellowship, growth in faith, and opportunities for outreach. For more information, contact Presvytera Joy at 850-597-8034 or flrjjk@yahoo.com.
GOYAns honoring
fathers on Fathers Day
Thanks to high school GOYAns, James Perrigan, Krista O’Loughlin and Jimmy
Branch for painting our new youth room.
GREEK DANCING
Thanks to Junior Hellenic Dancers Anne
Leftheris and Cassidy Branch (instructed by
Krista O’Loughlin), for their beautiful Greek
Dance performance for Centre Pointe Rehab and Katie Camechis.
The OCF (Orthodox Christian Fellowship) is the official collegiate campus ministry program under the Assembly of Orthodox Bishops of North
and Central America. The mission of OCF is to support fellowships on
college campuses, whose members experience and witness to the
Orhodox Christian Church though community life, prayer and service to
others and study of the Faith. We look forward to welcoming new and
returning students.
Holy Mother of God
Community Outreach
Our community continues to make a difference and help fight hunger as we team up with Second
Harvest which is a facility that supports numerous agencies in the Big Bend area.For more information please contact:
Fr. Rob @850-559-8184 or Presv. Joy @850-320-1101
Page 5
Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ
Celebrated August 6th
Our Lord had spoken to His disciples many times not only concerning His
Passion, Cross, and Death, but also concerning the coming persecutions
and afflictions that they themselves would endure. Since all these evils were
near at hand, but the enjoyment of good things which they hoped to receive
in their stead was yet to come, our Savior desired to give them full assurance, evidently and
openly, concerning that glory which is prepared for those who endure to the end. Therefore,
fulfilling that which He had promised shortly before, that "there be some standing here which
shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in His Kingdom" (Matt. 16:28), He
took His three foremost disciples and ascended Mount Tabor, where He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as the light. Suddenly,
together with this dread and marvelous effulgence of light, there appeared those pinnacles of
the Prophets, Moses and Elias, who spoke with the Lord Jesus concerning His saving Passion
which was about to take place. Standing before Him as reverent servants, they showed that
He is the Lord of both the living and the dead, for Moses came forth from Hades, having died
many centuries before, and Elias, as it were from heaven, whither he had been taken up while
yet alive. After a little while a radiant cloud overshadowed them and out of the cloud they
heard that same voice which had been heard at the Jordan at the Baptism of Christ, testifying
to the Divinity of Jesus and saying: "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well-pleased; hear
ye Him" (Matt. 17: 5).
Such are the marvels, truly worthy of God, celebrated in this present feast, which is an image
and prefiguring of the future state of the righteous, whose splendor the Lord spoke of, saying:
"Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun" (Matt. 13:43). It is because of this that the
Kontakion of this Feast is said daily (when there is not a great feast) in the Service of the Typica in perpetual commemoration of the glory that will be the lot of the Saints. According to tradition, the Lord's Transfiguration came to pass forty days before His Crucifixion; this is why
the Transfiguration is celebrated forty days before the Exaltation of the Cross .
AHEPA News
A meeting is scheduled for Sunday August 17th following the Divine Liturgy in Patmos Hall. It
would be nice to see all members back.
Keeping with our tradition, we plan to sponsor a Luncheon on Sunday, September 14 in observance for the Elevation of the Cross and beginning the new school year.
Wishing everyone a wonderful summer.
Mike Burmester, President
2015 Ecclesiastical Calendars
If you would like to Sponsor the 2015 Ecclesiastical Calendar, please call the church
office, 850-878-0747, as soon as possible. Thank you.
Page 6
For August 2014
Email: hmogphil@comcast.net
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Holy Mother of God Philoptochos Society of Tallahassee, Florida
September Starts A Brand New Year!
Philoptochos Membership Brunch: (To Be Announced)
Next Meeting: September (To Be Announced)
Our board will be meeting soon to finish up on our plans for this coming year, and you
will be seeing announcements in the Sunday Handouts and the September Monthly Bulletin.
It’s hard to believe that August is already here and the beginning of school for so many is
just around the corner, but much has been accomplished by our Church over the summer. Many of our Philoptochos members have been busy helping in the preparations for
our Greek Food Festival coming up October 24 & 25, and we are well on our way!
Our Philoptochos Chapter would like to invite those of you who are interested in becoming members to come, learn and find joy in the work you will be doing as you become a
part of this exciting philanthropic arm of our Church.
We want to make Philoptochos more fulfilling and rewarding for both the giver and the receiver. Our example can inspire and excite those who are to follow in the future. This is a
challenge worth taking by all of us.
Philoptochos
will be having a
“Greek Night” on Friday, September 19th,
6:30 pm at the Jackson Street corridor in Thomasville, Georgia for the FLAUNT 2014: Pop
It Up! This is held during the entire month of September and is filled with shopping at the
Jackson Street corridor and music, food, and murals. More details to follow. Please plan to
join us in supporting the Thomasville Center for the Arts and City of Thomasville, Office of
Main Street & Tourism, in partnership with Hurst Boiler Company, and sharing our food and
culture in our beloved and lovely neighboring city, Thomasville, Georgia.
Page 7
Keynote Address of Archbishop Demetrios
at the Opening of the
42nd Biennial Clergy-Laity Congress
Monday, July 7, 2014 (Excerpts)
Beloved brothers and sisters members of the present 42nd Clergy-Laity Congress as representatives of our dynamic parishes, I greet you warmly and I have the great honor and joy to welcome you and convey to you the
wholehearted paternal blessings and deep love of His All Holiness our Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
He is with us in spirit offering to Christ his patriarchal prayers for abundant blessings from Christ upon our
Assembly.
It was not long ago that the word "family" evoked a particular image in the minds of most Americans. In this
mental picture we saw a man and a woman, not just living together but joined legally and in most cases
through a religious ceremony, in a lifelong bond of marital commitment and deep mutual love. We saw children, usually more than one or two, who belonged to both their parents by birth or adoption. For many of us
also, that family portrait included one or more members of the previous generation, a grandmother and/or
grandfather who lived in the home of their adult son or daughter, rather than in a retirement community or a
nursing home.
Today, there is a movement in our society to change and redraw this portrait completely. We hear about the
"modern family," which in essence means everything and anything. It seems that in many cases any two people who share an address are to be considered a family, whether or not they are married or have children together. So, the family is under heavy pressure, because its very sense of identity and uniqueness is being
eroded by this huge change in public sentiment. If everybody and everything is a family, then nobody is truly
a family in any meaningful sense.
Today's family is under pressure in another way, too. The demands of the modern life weaken the bonds between family members, between parents and children, between siblings, between grandparents and grandchildren. Economic concerns take both parents out of the home and into the workplace for more and more
hours each day, each week. Falling birthrates mean that children no longer find playmates easily in their
own family and neighborhoods, so that organized sports and activities away from home are becoming the
norm. Children's athletics are becoming a focal point, taking children out of their homes for more and more
hours each week. How many of our families find their Sunday mornings dominated by activities other than
worship in the Church and Sunday School!
The real work of parenting – which is to say, of developing character, religious convictions and life-skills in
children – falls to coaches and teachers. Add to that, the dominion of all screens in the contemporary lives of
people: television screens, computer screens, iPads and iPods, tablets and smartphones. The modern culture seems to be a culture of the "face in a box" at all times of day and night. People no longer look into the
faces of one another; they stare at the various screens, mesmerized and transfixed. And how about the replacement of face to face dialog and communication with texting!
Studying the above mentioned conditions, we can understand why we have today in America, but also in
many other countries, the high and appalling rate of divorces – almost 50% - the same sex marriage, and the
one parent children – more than 20 million such children in America. Then, it is not unreasonable that the
modern world finds itself asking not only "What is a family," but even "Why is a family?"
When St. Paul said to the Ephesians, I bow my knees before God the Father from Whom every family in heaven and on earth is named (Eph. 3:14-15), he added that he did that in order to pray for them. Pray that
Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith and that they being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend and to know the love of Christ which surpassed knowledge, and that they may be filled with
all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:17-19).
This is an astonishing statement, indeed. The great Apostle Paul started with the solemn assertion that the
family has its direct origin in God, Who even gave to the family its name. Then, he proceeded with the prayer
that Christ dwells in the hearts of the members of the family and helps them to know His love which surpasses every knowledge. But, St. Paul finally, still on his knees before God the Father, closed his prayer with a
petition that the members of the Christian families may be filled with the fullness of God.
Holy Mother of God Greek Orthodox Church
1645 Phillips Road
Tallahassee, Florida 32308
Return Service Requested
Holy Mother of God
Greek Orthodox Church
1645 Phillips Road
Tallahassee, FL 32308
Office: 850-878-0747
Hall: 850-877-2501
Fr. Rob’s Cell:
850-559-8184
Website: www.hmog.org
The Dormition of our Most Holy
Lady the Theotokos and Ever
Virgin Mary
Celebrated
August 15th
Email Addresses:
Father Rob:
fr.robert@comcast.net
Church Secretary:
hmog@comcast.net
Secretary Hours:
Mon./Wed./Fri. 9am-2pm