Transfiguring Our Lives with God ~ A Message from Fr. Robert

Transcription

1 August Phillips Road, Tallahassee, Florida (850) Rev. Fr. Robert J. O Loughlin 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 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

2 Page 2 If an emergency or special need should arise, please contact Fr. Rob immediately at 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. Next Spaghetti Dinner: 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 23 rd September 6 th September 12 th & 13 th September 25th, 26th, & 27th October 4th Pastitsio Koulourakia Galatoboureko Baklava 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.

3 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 3 Orthros 9:30 am & Page Orthros 9:30 am & 17 Orthros 9:30 am & 24 Orthros 9:30 am & 31 Orthros 9:30 am & Youth Ministry Registration Parish Council Meeting 5:30 pm Choir Practice Choir Practice Choir Practice Choir Practice 6 f Holy Transfiguration 9 am Paraklesis Paraklesis Pangari Schedule for August *Denotes a 9:30 start time 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) Great Vespers of the Dormition of the Theotokos Followed by refreshmnents in the Hellenic center Paraklesis 15 f Dormition of the Theotokos 9 am Beheading of St. John the Baptist 9 am Great Vespers 5 pm Great Vespers 5 pm Great Vespers 5 pm Calendar Symbol Key + = Strict Fast = Wine and Oil allowed = Dairy & eggs allowed = Father Away AUGUST 2014 s = Fish Allowed

4 Page 4 Youth Ministry Registration Registration for Church School, GOYA, JOY, OCF, and Greek Dancing will be held following the 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 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. or Presv.

5 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 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, , as soon as possible. Thank you.

6 Page 6 For August hmogphil@comcast.net Visit us also On 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.

7 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 42 nd 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.

8 Holy Mother of God Greek Orthodox Church 1645 Phillips Road Tallahassee, Florida Return Service Requested Holy Mother of God Greek Orthodox Church 1645 Phillips Road Tallahassee, FL Office: Hall: Fr. Rob s Cell: The Dormition of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever Virgin Mary Celebrated August 15th Website: Addresses: Father Rob: fr.robert@comcast.net Church Secretary: hmog@comcast.net Secretary Hours: Mon./Wed./Fri. 9am-2pm