INSIDE THIS ISSUE Fr. Nick s Net

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1 News & Events HOLY TRINITY GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH STEUBENVILLE, OHIO MARCH, 2017 VOLUME IX ISSUE 3 INSIDE THIS ISSUE Fr. Nick s Net Parish News & Events From the Inter-NET Around the World Pg. 2 Pg. 3 Pg. 5 Pg. 6 ALSO INCLUDED IN THIS ISSUE: March Calendar Syrian Relief Dinner Flyer Easter Flower Donation Flyer THE MISSION OF THE HOLY TRINITY GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH OF STEUBENVILLE, OHIO, IS TO BE DISCIPLES OF JESUS CHRIST BY SHARING THE JOY OF THE ORTHODOX FAITH THROUGH LOVE, COMPASSION AND CHARITY FOR ALL. / 1 The Net July /August 2015

2 Fr. Nick s Net The Net is the Monthly Newsletter of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church PARISH INFORMATION PARISH PRIEST: FR. NICHOLAS M. HALKIAS PHONE: (740) HOME: (724) FRNICK@HOLYTRINITYSTB.ORG ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT: KARIN EWING OFFICE@HOLYTRINITYSTB.ORG PARISH ADDRESS: 300 SOUTH FOURTH STREET P.O. BOX 788 STEUBENVILLE, OH PHONE: (740) FAX: (740) OFFICE@HOLYTRINITYSTB.ORG WEB: Holy Trinity Church is a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Pittsburgh (pittsburgh.goarch.org) and Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America ( under the Spiritual Jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople ( PARISH MINISTRIES Tony Mougianis Marianne Balakos Pete Caleodis Rikki Kamarados Don Kronstein Joanne McCraley Maria Matzorkis George Berris John Josai PARISH COUNCIL President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Asst. Treasurer Asst. Treasurer Steve Pahides Connie Shea Tina Van Dijk Philoptochos... Rikki Kamarados Religious Education... Stewardship... GOYA... Rikki Kamarados JOY... Maria Matzorkis HOPE... Maria Matzorkis Choir... Pete Caleodis Library / Bookstore... Louise Kronstein Senior Citizens... Barbara Lee Maragos Chian Society... John Kamarados Pan-Icarian Brotherhood... Stacey Kotsanis AHEPA... Tommy Kotsanis March, 2017 Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Christ is in our midst! He is and ever shall be! Great Lent has started! Wohoo!!! It s such a wonderful time, it is hard to stay calm. I know that many people hear Great Lent and say, Ugh Fasting! No meat for 40 days! (Actually, it s more than that if you count Holy Week as well. And it s more than just no meat, if you follow the fast of the church.) Indeed, if we are unwilling to sacrifice our desire for certain foods, then Great Lent is going to be a time spent either begrudgingly offering a fast or completely denying the grace it is capable of offering to our lives. Focusing on the Lenten Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian is a big part of the Lenten journey. His prayer, that we repeat throughout the Lenten season, goes like this: O Lord and Master of my life, do not give me the spirit of laziness and meddling, the lust for power and idle talk. Instead, grant me, your servant, the spirit of prudence, humility, patience and love. Yes, Lord and King, give me the power to see my own faults and not to judge my brother. For you are blessed unto the ages of ages. Amen. There is much to be said about the different vices that we asking God to deliver us from in the first part of this prayer. And there is even more to be said about the virtues in the second part of the prayer; those that we are asking to replace the deadly vices. And even the third part of the prayer, which speaks to focusing on one s own faults and not looking at others, is crucial to making any real change in our own lives. But the first part of this prayer is the most vital part. O Lord and Master of my life Why is this opening line the most important part of this prayer? In a results driven world, some might say, Who cares why someone is trying to get better as long as they follow through with it, right? That might be true for some. And for others, selfmotivation is the only motivation. But for us, we are not as interested in the results as we are in making sure that reason for our results is proper. We say that the Jesus is our Lord and the Master of our lives for a number of reasons. First, it is because we must recognize that He has made and created us. If so, then no one will know better than He what we were designed and made for. We can guess, but many will tell you that in their lives they guessed incorrectly. Secondly, saying that He is Lord and Master of our lives relinquishes the ultimate control over our choices and decisions to those that please Him first. We spend so much time deciding what is right using our own compasses. But if our own compass hasn t been calibrated to God s True North, then our directions will definitely be off for ourselves and for others. Saying O Lord and Master of my life ultimately means that we are not lords or masters of anything in our lives. We are done thinking that we know better. We are done trying to fashion ourselves, because our work has led us to incompletion and some ugly vices. We are becoming completely putty, and we are asking the true Artist to shape us as virtuous as He would have us. This Lent, may Jesus truly be our Lord and Master, and may our decisions of time, fasting and prayer reflect His lordship and mastery over our lives. God bless you all!! 2 The Net March

3 News & Events WORSHIP SCHEDULE Sunday Worship... March Our regular schedule for Sunday Worship is that Orthros will begin at 9:00 A.M. and Divine Liturgy will begin at 10:00 A.M. Wednesday Paraklesis Services... March Paraklesis Services will be offered every Wednesday evening at 6:00 P.M. unless otherwise stated. For the month of March, because of Great Lent, the Paraklesis services will be replaced by Presanctified Liturgies. MARCH These are the services for the month of March. Please check your schedules and plan to attend. Wednesday, March 1 6:00 P.M. Presanctified Liturgy Friday, March 3 6:30 P.M. 1st Salutations Saturday, March 4... Saturday of Souls 8:30 A.M. Orthros 9:30 A.M. Liturgy Sunday, March 5... Sunday of Orthodoxy 4:00 P.M. Lenten Vespers - Martins Ferry Friday, March 10 6:00 P.M. 2nd Salutations Sunday, March St. Gregory Palamas 4:00 P.M. Lenten Vespers - HT Steubenville Tuesday, March 14 4:00 P.M. Confession Wednesday, March 15 6:00 P.M. Presanctified Liturgy Friday, March 17 7:00 P.M. 3rd Salutations - Weirton, WV Sunday, March Veneration of the Holy Cross 4:00 P.M. Lenten Vespers - Barton Wednesday, March 22 6:00 P.M. Presanctified Liturgy Thursday, March 23 11:00 A.M. Confession Friday, March Eve of Annunciation 6:00 P.M. Great Vespers w/ 4th Salutations Saturday, March Annunciation 8:30 A.M. Orthros 9:30 A.M. Liturgy Sunday, March St. John Climacus 5:00 P.M. Lenten Vespers - Serbian Wednesday, March 29 6:00 P.M. Presanctified Liturgy Thursday, March 30 6:00 P.M. Great Canon of St. Andrew HAPPY BIRTHDAY The following people will be celebrating their birthday in the month of March: Scott Caleodis 3-01 Gregory Matzorkis 3-20 Despina Vounousakis 3-02 Joanne McCraley 3-20 Ralph Zende 3-04 Christian Kirsch 3-24 Angela Mastros 3-06 Michael Petrides 3-24 Aimee Simpson 3-07 John Synodinos 3-25 Eleftheria Klouvas 3-07 Marco Maragos 3-26 Melissa Vostatek 3-12 George Panagis 3-27 Pana Mastros 3-14 Andrew Matzorkis 3-28 Michael Jacobs 3-14 James Balouris 3-29 Maria Terezis 3-19 Jerome Pappas 3-29 Marcus Markakis 3-20 If your name was not listed and you had a birthday during this month, please contact the office and we will be happy to place it on our roster for next year. PASCHAL TAXIMATA The Taximata are available for the 2017 Lenten, Holy Week and Paschal Season. Please contact Kallope Diniaco to reserve your sponsored donation for this year. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION BIBLE STUDY... March 22 The Bible Study group normally holds it meetings on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month at 10:00 A.M. Please check the monthly calendar and weekly bulletins for times and changes. THEOLOGY ON TAP & OPA... March 10 & 24 Theology on Tap is our Men s and Women s study group. For the month of March (and due to the large number of participants), Theology on Tap & OPA will meet after our Salutations Services at 6:00 PM at our parish of Holy Trinity. We are working on a new study series called a Journey to Fullness. You don t need to be Orthodox to come. Hope to see you there! 3 The Net March 2017

4 News & Events 4 The Net March 2017 PARISH GROUPS AHEPA...March 21 The AHEPA Society will meet this month on March 21, at the Puerto Vallarta in Steubenville at 5:30 P.M. CHOIR... TBA Rehearsals are held whenever possible and the times vary. Anyone who would be interested in joining the Choir is welcome to do so. Please contact Pete Caleodis if you are interested in joining. Thank You. PARISH COUNCIL... March 14 Parish Council meetings are held the 2nd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 P.M. at the church unless otherwise stated. PHILOPTOCHOS... March 2 The Philoptochos Ladies will have their monthly meeting on Thursday, March 2, at 12 Noon here at Holy Trinity. It will be our Annual Festival Shower. Some of the items needed are dish detergent, paper towels, micro bar towels, scrubbing pads, and Brillo pads. Hope to see you all there! THEOLOGY ON TAP / OPA NIGHT The Theology on Tap and OPA (Men s and Women s) Groups will meet yet again on March 10 & 24, 2017, after Friday Services at 6:00 P.M. to take the next step in our Journey to Fullness! This program has been developed and produced by Fr. Barnabas Powell of St. Raphael, Nicholas & Irene Greek Orthodox Parish in Cumming, GA, and is a wonderful tool for guiding the faithful to a deeper understanding of their faith in Christ. We will be meeting to continue this journey on Friday, March 10 & 24, 2017, at Holy Trinity Church. Please take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to deepen our faith in Christ! GOYA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT Dear Parishioners of the HOLY SAINTS communities, It seems like yesterday that we sent you our first letter requesting your help in our project of sponsoring a Metropolis basketball tournament. Our first request for help was in soliciting your ads for our program booklet. Needless to say, your response was overwhelming and we were very fortunate in compiling a very successful booklet. Our second request was for the manpower that would most certainly play a very important role in executing the many activities that had to be planned for the weekend. Again, your response was overwhelming and for this we are most grateful. To begin to thank everyone individually would almost be impossible as we would fear that if even just a single name would be left off we would feel embarrassed and hurt. Therefore we would like to group everyone together and thank- the chairpersons, the clergy, and to the many scorekeepers, timekeepers, cooks, bakers, shoppers, donators, hostesses, registration helpers, decorators and anyone that we may have missed. It was truly incredible the number of compliments offered by the visiting teams about how well organized our tournament was and that they hope to be chosen to return to Steubenville for another tournament in the future. We, of course, owe this to all of our helpers. Thank you all and God Bless you, The members and parents of the HOLY SAINTS GOYA AND BASKETBALL TEAMS FESTIVAL BAKING Festival baking is in full swing. Anyone who is able to help would be greatly appreciated. We will be baking the following dates: Wednesday, March 1 baklava Tuesday, March 7 baklava Thursday, March 9 baklava Monday, March 13 de-stem grape leaves Tuesday, March 14 roll grape leaves Thursday, March 16 roll grape leaves Monday, March 20 de-stem grape leaves Tuesday, March 21 roll grape leaves Thursday, March 23 roll grape leaves Tuesday, March 28 Kataifi FISH FEST The Ladies Philoptochos Society will be having their fish fest. This month the sale will be on Friday March 3 from 3:30 P.M. to 6:30 P.M. Please help support these ladies in this endeavor. Also on this day there will be pastries available for sale. JANUARY FINANCIALS December weekly income $ December weekly expense $

5 From the Inter-NET DIALOGUE WITH AN ATHONITE ELDER ON FASTING A fragrant-smelled saint-walked land. Strewn from end to end with the relics of the saints. A meeting place of the descendants of Adam with their forgotten Creator. Here man is trying, he is struggling. God is constantly being offered. The same with man. Athos is a Holy Altar, a place of sacrifice. You move forward and the soul breathes. Every meeting is a spiritual education. You throw your nets and fish for spiritual food from the seas of paradise. Bless Elder. "The Lord bless you, my joy." Are you on Mount Athos for many years? "I've been here for sixty years, but what is sixty years to God; it is a breath. Elder, I would like you to tell me a few things about fasting. "In order to say something you must experience it, you must live it. Only one who was born near the sea or is a seaman can speak of the sea. But I will be obedient to your will and tell you what the Fathers said who were friends of fasting." Elder, is fasting the aim? "Fasting is not the aim, but the means towards it. See, it was your aim to come to Mount Athos, it was your destination. The boat which brought you was the means by which you arrived. Such is fasting; it is one of the means given to us by the love of God to crave for Him. God is our destination." When did fasting appear? "Fasting is commingled with humanity. In Paradise it was given to man by God, says Basil the Great." But why did God give fasting? To reduce man? "No, in order to free him! The Sacred Chrysostom writes that when God created man He took him and placed him in the hands of fasting, which is an affectionate mother and excellent teacher. He entrusted it for his salvation. Though fasting is a teacher, it does not limit but it cultivates man." Is fasting necessary, Elder? "Chrysostom will again reply to you: 'If fasting was necessary in Paradise, it is much more necessary outside of Paradise. If medicine was useful before an injury, it is much more useful after an injury.' Do you understand?" What? "Fasting was given in Paradise as a precaution to not fall. Since man fell it is given therapeutically." Then what is the purpose of fasting? "Fasting withers evil desires, says Saint Maximus the Confessor; and Saint Symeon the New Theologian says it softens our hearts. Through fasting every good work is accomplished and perfected, says Saint Gregory Palamas. For all these reasons Sacred Chrysostom confesses his love for fasting: 'I love fasting, because it is the mother of wisdom and the well of philosophical acts.'" How should we fast? "Fasting is a means and spiritual tool which is not limited to food, but the entire man must participate in it psychosomatically. Listen to what [St.] John Chrysostom says: 'Do you fast? Give me proof of it by your works. If you see a poor man, take pity on him. If you see a friend being honored, do not envy him. Do not let only your mouth fast, but also the eye and the ear and the feet and the hands and all the members of our bodies. Let the hands fast, by being free of greed. Let the feet fast, by ceasing to run after sin. Let the eyes fast, by disciplining them not to glare at that which is sinful. Let the ear fast, by not listening to evil talk and gossip. Let the mouth fast from foul words and unjust criticism. For what good is it if we abstain from birds and fish, but bite and devour our brothers?'" How do we bite and devour our brothers? "With slander and criticism, which proceed from the lack of love for our brother." Thank you, Elder. You have benefited me much. "May we thank God for enlightening our saints." Your prayers. "Go in goodness, and may the Grace of God cover you, the Panagia protect you, and the saints accompany you. And don't forget that fasting is primarily to hunger for God!" -Excerpted from The Net March 2017

6 Around the World NOMINATION OF BULGARIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH FOR NOBEL PRIZE By: The Sofia Globe staff - Feb 16, 2017 The nomination of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church for the Nobel Peace Prize for its role in preventing the deportation of Bulgarian Jews to Nazi death camps during the Holocaust was the main topic of talks on February 16 between the church s Patriarch Neofit and Jewish community leaders. In 1943, senior Bulgarian Orthodox Church clerics played notable roles in successfully resisting the deportation of Bulgarian Jews to meet the fate of the more than six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust by Hitler s regime. Jews living in Israel have proposed the nomination of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church for the Nobel Prize. Alexander Oscar, head of the Shalom Organisation of the Jews in Bulgaria, told Patriarch Neofit: We are here to declare our clear desire to make prominent the work that the Bulgarian Orthodox Church did in the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews during World War 2, among the general public both in Bulgaria and abroad, and to express our immense gratitude for the daring unprecedented act by the Holy Synod of the time. The meeting, also attended by Sofia Cohen, head of Bulgaria s Central Israeli Spiritual Council, Sofia Synagogue Chief Rabbi Yoel Ifra and Foreign Ministry officials, came a few weeks after Patriarch Neofit held talks with Israel s ambassador in Sofia, Irit Lilian. Israeli ambassador Irit Lilian and Bulgarian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Neofit during their February 2017 talks. At those talks, on February 1, Lilian said that the State of Israel welcomed the nomination of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church for the Nobel Peace Prize. Such a distinction would be a strong message that humankind needed today. The work done by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the mobilisation of the Bulgarian community in defence of the country s Jewish community during World War 2 played a decisive role in relations between Israel and Bulgaria, she said. Speaking at the February 16 meeting with Jewish community leaders, Patriarch Neofit said that the predecessors as church leaders had been guided by Christian principles in committing a deed that connected the Israeli and Bulgarian people and would continue to connect them in the future. A statement after the meeting said during the talks, it was pointed out that no other church in the world as an entire institution and in such a uniform way had firmly and categorically stated its position in defence of the Jews, not only in words but also in specific actions. Oscar said: We are responsible to the world for it to know about this unique case of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Shalom has proposed that Vidin Metropolitan Neofit, deputy chairman of the Holy Synod from 1930 to 1944, should be named among the Righteous of the Nations by Yad Vashem for his role in the prevention of the deportation of the Bulgarian Jews. Twenty Bulgarians have the title Righteous Among the Nations, including Bulgarian Orthodox Church Exarch Stefan, Plovdiv Metropolitan Kiril (later head of the Holy Synod) and the deputy speaker of the National Assembly in 1943, Dimitar Peshev. -Taken from 6 The Net March

7 The NET-Minders The Parish of Holy Trinity would like to thank the following benefactors for making this Monthly Newsletter possible: Place your AD Here Place your AD Here In Loving Memory Of Nicholas Mougianis Place your AD Here 7 The Net March 2017

8 Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church P.O. Box South Fourth Street Steubenville, OH NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE P A I D STEUBENVILLE, OH PERMIT NO. 83 Submissions for THE NET are to be submitted by the 20 th of each month About the Icon on the Cover THE LADDER OF THE DIVINE ASCENT (ST. JOHN CLIMACUS) St. John Climacus is named after the famous book that he wrote in the 7th century that deeply describes thirty steps of ascent from earth to Heaven for both the monastics and the Faithful where Christ awaits to receive us with joy. This icon is a replica of a 12th c. masterpiece from St. Catherine s Monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai, the site of the Burning Bush where Moses heard a Heavenly voice guiding him to bring the Hebrew nation out of Egypt. The little black figure of demons in this icon shoot their arrows, or stab with their forks, or pull with their hooks the monks seen here trying to climb towards Christ Who is waiting above. Some monks are still climbing, and some monks are falling down into the pit of Hades below. These monks represent all monks and laity who make efforts to climb above a selfish and merely worldly life on earth. The book that St. John wrote is one of the greatest classics of spiritual life and is still read each year in Orthodox monasteries. -Excerpted from: