Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

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1 VOLUME 26 NUMBER 12 December 2017 Dearest Spiritual Ohana, I wish all of you heartfelt joy as we come to celebrate our Lord s Glorious Nativity. This Great Feast of our Lord expresses God s mouthdropping Love and Mercy for all of humankind! I say mouth-dropping in that Almighty God has done for us the most wondrous acts which our minds cannot even begin to comprehend. God the Father through offering us His Only-Begotten Son has stooped so low for us humans, in His humility, that He would take on our human flesh through His Incarnation. All this He has done out of His Love immense care for us. Plus our Lord Who created everything including the entire Universe, the world we live in and all of us has become an infant child requiring the upraising by human parents, learning how to speak and go through every human challenge as we have to, even to endure death for our sakes so that we may have life and have it abundantly, into all eternity! By taking on our human flesh, Jesus Christ has become the standard and the way for us human beings to strive and grow towards. Almighty God shows us His Glory through His Extreme Humility! When we greet each other with, Christ is born!...glorify Him!, we acknowledge His greatness and we rejoice in all He has done for us, Christ is Born! Glorify Him! 1 at least in word. But how can we even adequately begin to glorify Him in response to all He has accomplished for us? Well, we can never truly and adequately glorify Him for all He has done for us, for nothing we can ever do will ever be sufficient. However, St. John Kronstadt offers these pearls of wisdom and guidelines on how we can move in the right direction to glorify our Lord. Here is what St. John has to say: What, then, O, brethren, is required of us in order that we might avail ourselves of all the grace brought unto us from on high by the coming to earth of the Son of God? What is necessary, first of all, is faith in the Son of God, in the Gospel as the salvation-bestowing heavenly teaching; a true repentance of sins and the correction of life and of heart; communion in prayer and in the mysteries [sacraments]; the knowledge and fulfillment of Christ s commandments. Also necessary are the virtues: Christian humility, alms-giving, continence, purity and chastity, simplicity and goodness of heart. Let us, then, O brothers and sisters, bring these virtues as a gift to the One Who was born for the sake of our salvation let us bring them in place of the gold, frankincense and myrrh which the Magi brought Him, as to One Who is King, God, and Man, come to die for us. This, from us, shall be the (Continued on page 2)

2 restriction as a means in and of itself. It is about bringing proper focus and perspective into our lives. It is a time to focus on God s Immense Love, Mercy and Glory, not that we shouldn t always be doing this. We practice the fast so that we experience the True Joy of Christmas, which is to know and experience in our lives God s Greatness and the salvation He offers to all of humankind. The trimmings of Christmas such as gifts, decorations, feasting and parties are only meant to be secondary and supplementary in our lives during this Holy Season, secondary to our fulfillment through God s Presence in our lives, not the focus. The trimmings of themselves will leave us sentimental and happy only momentarily, but God will truly satisfy our deepest needs when we include Him foremost in our celebration of Christmas in a most everlastingly satisfying way. So the focus of this Season is to make room primarily in the manger of our hearts to allow the Lord to enter and dwell in them. (Continued from page 1) most-pleasing form of sacrifice to God and to the Infant Jesus Christ. + St. John of Kronstadt, Sermon on the Nativity of Jesus Christ In the Holy Season leading up to Christmas, the world is filled with partying, decorating and is in a shopping frenzy to provide the perfect gifts for our loved ones, while simultaneously the Church is in the midst of a fast from November 15th thru December 24th, suddenly breaking into feasting on December 25th, the Feast of the Nativity, then continues feasting without fasting thru January 4th of the incoming year. Unlike the Fast of Great Lent, the Advent Fast leading to Christmas has as its focus the theme of anticipation. The duration of the fast is an easier fast when compared with Great Lent, by the mere fact that there are lots of days where we are allowed to have fish, except for Wednesdays and Fridays. As we approach the end of the Christmas Fast the fast turns strict, for the most part, from December 13th thru December 24th. There is a reason and logic to the Christmas Fast. And it isn t to practice mere dietary Shorelines is published Monthly by: Saints Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Pacific 930 Lunalilo Street Honolulu, Hawaii Phone : (808) Fax : (808) office@greekorthodoxhawaii.org Parish Web Site: Regular Office Hours: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday thru Friday Rev. Father Alexander M. Leong fralexanderleong@yahoo.com May the Joy of our Lord s Nativity remain with you always, especially now in this Holy Season! With Love in Christ, +Fr. Alexander Church Staff Katherine Pasieta Amanda Jackson - Office Coordinator Philoptochos Board office@greekorthodoxhawaii.org Anita Akel, President; Anita Higashi, 1st Erica Jansen - Bookkeeper Vice President; Eres Eddy, 2nd Vice 2017 Parish Council President; Ludmyla Solyar,Treasurer; pc@greekorthodoxhawaii.org Julie Ličina, Recording Secretary; Maria Naval, President Valentina Varovaya, Corr. Secretary; Trish Kiladis, Vice President Alma Chu, Advisor Roni Katsikas, Treasurer Choir-Chanters Christina Dimitrion, Secretary Orest Saikevych, Music Director John Kiladis, Cleopatra Kritikos, Gregory Malick, Protopsaltis Nicholas Kyriakakis, Parish Ministries Dimitri Nicholas & Andrew Tujios. Stelio Scordilis, Aloha Youth Choir; Sunday School Director T.B.A., Bookstore; Dianna Graves, Presbytera Nicole Leong Greek Dance Groups; Stelio Scordilis, Sunday School Teachers Greek School; Julie Ličina Web Master; Shawn Chu, Alice Malick, Greg Malick, Anita Higashi, Facebook Maria Naval, Dimitri Nicholas, & 2

3 LITURGICAL LIFE OF OUR PARISH WEEKDAY SERVICES IN DECEMBER ST. BARBARA THE GREAT MARTYR Mon. 12/4 Orthros/Liturgy 8:30/9:30 am ST. NICHOLAS OF MYRA Wed. 12/6 Orthros/Liturgy 8:30/9:30 am ST. SPYRIDON OF TRIMYTHUS Tue. 12/12 Orthros/Liturgy 8:30/9:30 am ST. ELEFTHERIOS THE PRIEST MARTYR Thu. 12/15 Orthros/Liturgy 8:30/9:30 am MAUI SERVICES Sat. 12/23 Liturgy 10:30 am NATIVITY OF OUR LORD Mon. 12/25 Orthros/Liturgy 8:30/9:30 am ST. STEPHEN THE 1ST MARTYR Wed. 12/27 Orthros/Liturgy 8:30/9:30 am December Parish Council Teams 12/03 Tina 12/10 Cleo 12/17 Trish 12/24 Roni 12/31 Maria Please remember in your prayers Dina Giannakopoulos Paul Kelley Suzanne Keyser Julie Licina Alice Marie Malick George Missias John Mitsis and all those needing our prayers. Announcements Adult Religious Education Understanding the Divine Liturgy Sundays 12 to 12:45 p.m. Sunday, January 21st (tentative) Introduction to the Order of Services Leading Up to the Divine Liturgy Did you know that when you shop at AmazonSmile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of eligible smile.amazon.com purchases to our church?! It s so easy! All you have to do is shop via Happy shopping! Learn Greek! Beginners Sunday 2:00 3:00 PM Thursday 5:30 6:30 PM Intermediate Sunday 12:00 1:00 PM Advanced Monday 6:00 8:00 PM 3

4 Parish Christmas Card If you wish to be listed on our Parish Christmas Card, please print your name below and return to the church office by December 4th. Please consider including a donation to offset the cost of printing and postage for the card. MAHALO! Please print. Your name will appear as written here. Share your news! Announcements that you would like to see in the January issue of Shorelines should be submitted to the church office by December 15th. Weekly Bulletin announcements should be submitted by noon on Thursday for the upcoming Sunday. office@greekorthodoxhawaii.org Our Vision To be a beacon of Orthodoxy in the Pacific and proclaim the Gospel of Christ to all people in accordance with the Orthodox Faith Our Mission To proclaim the Gospel of Christ to all people in accordance with the Orthodox Faith. To sanctify and minister to the spiritual growth and needs of the faithful through liturgical worship and spiritual programs. To safeguard and keep the traditions, values, and faith of the Orthodox Church pure and undefiled. Call: Or drop by with a copy of your announcement. Maui Orthodox Christian Mission reminds those who attend services on Maui to visit or call to verify services. or look for other activities that may be posted. 4

5 Aloha Parents, Grandparents, Uncles and Aunties, We are in the middle of the Nativity Fast, yet I enjoy this special time of the year. Joyous, beautiful Christmas songs and pretty decorations are all around us. Most of these are secular things, but they still bring me delight. I hope you are also preparing yourself and family to celebrate Christmas with joy and peace. I found a very useful article about Christmas that I would like to share with you. It is called, Christmas 101: An Orthodox Christian Understanding by an Orthodox Mom, Sylvia Leontaritis. You can find it visiting the site below. christmas -101-an-orthodox-christian- understanding/ There will be a Christmas Pageant following the Divine Liturgy on Sunday, December 10. Please come and enjoy the Pageant our students are presenting to you! Nisiotes and Nisiopeda Dance Groups are planning on a Fundraiser "GLENDI" Saturday, January 20, 2018 in the social hall from 6 PM - 9:30 PM. It will be a "Celebration" when we return from FDF 2018 for taking two Dance Groups to FDF for competition for the FIRST time. We would like to have a Greek Dinner Fundraiser and serve Lamb or Moussaka. As you know, lamb is expensive, so the price for dinner reflects that. We will have appetizers, Greek Dinner, dessert, entertainment with the dance group and Bouzouki (our own Dimitrios Nicholas), door prizes, and maybe more! Tickets are $30 per person, $15 for children ages 6-10, and no charge for 5 and under. ONLY 100 TICK- ETS WILL BE SOLD. You can buy tickets from Dimitrios, Keiko, Sharon, Christiana, Dianna, Maria/Marc Naval, Jean/Curtis Pe'ahi, Nick Kyriakakis, Presbytera Nicole, and Eres. As you all know we have many great chefs in our church community, but I am not one of those. We all know the Eddy Family are great chefs! The Eddys will be our chefs for the evening, and we thank them in advance! Please no outside food or drinks, as this is a fundraiser for the Dance Groups to defray our expenses to San Francisco for FDF Dianna Graves, Dance Group News In Christ, Pres. Nicole Leong, Sunday School Director Dance Ministry Director 5

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7 C O F F E E H O U R Each individual/family is requested to sponsor a coffee hour one Sunday per year. Sign up on the calendar posted outside the Social Hall or contact Suzanne A. or Frances R. Instructions/tips for sponsoring a coffee hour are available in a 3-ring binder in a cupboard in the hall. The Ladies of Philoptochos appreciate any donations of coffee supplies, including paper supplies to help defray some of the coffee hour expenses. If you are hesitant to prepare and serve a coffee hour yourself, consider making a monetary donation. Please do not bring non-lenten food including cake & ice cream during fasting periods. Thank you to our November Sunday Coffee Hour sponsors! 11/05 Hallonquist and Cooper 11/12 Dance Group 11/19 Parish Council 11/26 Malick 7

8 St. Isaac the Syrian: This Nativity night... This Nativity night bestowed peace on the whole world; So let no one threaten; This is the night of the Most Gentle One Let no one be cruel; This is the night of the Humble One Let no one be proud. Now is the day of joy Let us not revenge; Now is the day of Good Will Let us not be mean. In this Day of Peace Let us not be conquered by anger. Today the Bountiful impoverished Himself for our sake; So, rich one, invite the poor to your table. Today we receive a Gift for which we did not ask; So let us give alms to those who implore and beg us. This present Day cast open the heavenly doors to our prayers; Let us open our door to those who ask our forgiveness. Today the DIVINE BEING took upon Himself the seal of our humanity, In order for humanity to be decorated by the Seal of DIVINITY. Our next Prayer Group Meeting will be announced in upcoming Sunday Bulletins. Stay tuned for more information and upcoming dates! 8