February 27, 2022 - Divine Liturgy

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] us [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] i again in peace let us pray to the lord [Music] help us save us have mercy on us and keep us o god in your grace remembering our most holy pure blessed and glorious lady the theotokos and ever virgin mary with all the saints let us commend ourselves and one another and our whole life to christ our god [Music] for you are a good and loving god and to you we give the glory father son and holy spirit now and always and to the ages of ages [Music] please rise now and join with us as we sing our entrance him this morning found at the bottom of the first page in your hymnals in the third tone efreneso tauranya [Music] sacramento [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] sofia see [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] m [Music] l [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] me [Music] [Music] allah [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] is ah [Music] [Music] i [Music] ah [Music] please be seated turn on the mic too let us be attentive the reading is from paul's first letter to the corinthians wisdom let us be attentive brethren food will not command us to god we are no worse off if we do not eat and know better off if we do only take care least this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak for if anyone sees you a man of knowledge at table in an idol's temple might he not be encouraged if his conscience is weak to eat food offered to idols and so by your knowledge this weak man is destroyed the brother for whom christ died thus sinning against your brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak you sin against christ therefore if food is a cause of my brother's falling i will never eat meat at least i cause my brother to fall i am not free am i not an apostle have i not seen jesus our lord are not you my workmanship in the lord if to others i am not an apostle at least i am to you for you are the seal of my apostleship in the lord [Music] wisdom let us stand and hear the holy gospel peace be with all [Music] the reading is from the holy gospel according to saint matthew let us be attentive [Music] [Music] the lord said when the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him then he will sit on his glorious throne before him will be gathered all the nations and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats and he will place the sheep at his right hand but the goats at the left then the king will say to those at his right hand come o blessed of my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world for i was hungry and you gave me food i was thirsty and you gave me drink i was a stranger and you welcomed me i was naked and you clothed me i was sick and you visited me i was in prison and you came to me then the righteous will answer him lord when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink and when did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you and when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you and the kingdom the king will answer them truly i say to you as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren you did it to me then he will say to those at his left hand depart from me you cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels for i was hungry and you gave me no food i was thirsty and you gave me no drink i was a stranger and you did not welcome me naked and you did not clothe me sick and in prison and you did not visit me then they also will answer lord when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you then he will answer them truly i say to you as you did it not to one of the least of these you did it not to me and they will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life [Music] [Music] please be seated you guys can stay inside but don't touch me let me out let's mark twain was said to have said the bible something like the bible really bothers me he said not necessarily the parts that i don't understand but the parts that i do understand those are that's what bothers me and today if mark twain he probably had read this passage in our gospel reading today probably bothered him a lot because jesus tells his disciples that that in heaven and in his kingdom there are set kind of parameters there are um established norms that exist and everybody will be judged according to the norms that god and christ his son set forth all of us all of us and he gives the example of course of of um telling the disciples that the ones that follow what he tells them and what and who takes care of the people who are hungry or thirsty or sick or in prison and people make an effort towards those people he'll reward and place them at his right hand and he calls them sheep the sheep are the good guys but then of course the people who don't do anything for anybody else never feed them never give them you know uh president had a grandmother just a wonderful lady uh and uh and whenever she would tell a story she sometimes she would tell us you know that she would go visit somebody at their house now when i knew her she was really old and she didn't move around very well but this was in her younger days and she would i don't know why because maybe she said it a lot she said she oh we went to go visit so and so and we went into their house and then she would say in greece she wouldn't even give us a glass of water so just remember to give a glass of water when somebody visits you the least you can do otherwise you'll make a big impression well the goats the bad ones do the same thing to god they make an impression on him because he doesn't he doesn't want to be concerned with and he does not want to reward those people who see somebody hungry and don't give him any food thirsty and water and any of those things so those are the parameters that jesus sets up today in our gospel for all of us because he tells us that at some point we will be judged by god we don't need to do any of the judging but god will so the main point of our gospel today is to emphasize the standard by which the final judgment to all of us done by god will be done now today we heard about feeding the hungry and giving a drink to the to the thirsty and and welcoming strangers but in the new testament there are several other things that god really expects of us the things we heard today of course he expects but also he expects and this says at other places in the new testament he expressed he expects us to be steadfast in our faith in god steadfast in other words you're baptized you grow you go to school you grow up you get a job you get married this and that and in throughout that whole life is there woven a thread that has god in it throughout your life that means god is important to you no matter what happens in your life the one of the saddest things i see is is people say oh you know well you know i got so sick and god didn't make me better so there must not be any god oh come on that's all you expect for god to be some kind of a magician that's all what you expect from god so steadfast faith in god is another thing that's emphasized together with what we heard in our gospel for us to be accepted by him at the great judgment also faith and allegiance to christ his son so we believe in god but then we have to be faithful and and listen to jesus christ and to all of the things that he said and we're reminded at least on sunday morning when we come we were reminded of what jesus said and he said them for a reason because they're important and for us to be identified as christians we need to to pay attention to what jesus said and to do those things as well and then of course in the in the new testament is very clear in several passages in order to be saved in order to be to get to heaven you have to be baptized that means baptize the christians very clear in the bible very clear and then finally there is an expectation for us to live a life in the church there is that expectation oh father you know i'm so busy i work so hard all week and i just don't have the the energy i don't have the time i'm so busy this and that well make the time because god expects us to have a life in the church he established the church for a reason for all of us to gather together you know when we're gathered like this it's much more powerful spiritually than when we sit by ourselves and say oh god please help me much more powerful you know why because when we gather on sunday morning we're caught up in a different place this holy place here the church this morning and every time we gather together transports us to a different place spiritually a place where there is only god i mean that is incredible go to school and you get all kinds of you know weird stuff going on go to the work more weird stuff visit with your family all kinds of problems all those things happen to us all the time but in church the only thing that happens to us is that we find our pla ourselves in a place where there is just god even the key relation that we say on sunday morning lord have mercy has the word lord in it and asks him to have mercy on us everything here deals with god and i if you're like me and this is one of the reasons why i became a priest if you're in a place where there's only god to me it just lifts me up it lifts me up it makes me stand straight and hold my head high because i am devoting myself to god and that makes me feel like a different person it's a wonderful thing now today's gospel highlighted good works feeding the hungry and and welcoming strangers etc it highlights good works done not from a sense of obligation please don't go out now and say gee i gotta go and give some food to the homeless guy and i gotta give somebody who's thirsty i gotta visit somebody don't go out of here today thinking that when you think like that it's out of a sense of obligation and god doesn't want a sense of obligation from us he wants what's our what is our heart so then when we do things from the heart and when we help those who are truly in need from our heart it's because we really want it it's part of us it's who we we are and we want to do that for someone else not because we're checking off a list of things we live our christian life my friends not from a sense of obligation but from a sense of doing everything that we do from the heart because that's where god can communicate with us amen okay close the door quietly and stand up please rise now and continue with us in the divine liturgy on page 12 in your liturgy books again we bow before you and pray to you o good and loving god hear our supplication cleanse our souls and bodies from every defilement of flesh and spirit and grant that we may stand before your holy altar without blame or condemnation grant also god progress in life faith and spiritual discernment to the faithful who pray with us so that they may always worship you with reverence and love partake of your holy mysteries without blame or condemnation and become worthy of our of your heavenly kingdom [Music] [Music] know okay [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] more [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Laughter] [Music] may the lord our god remember you all in his kingdom now and always and to the ages of ages [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] we continue now on page 15 in your liturgy books or [Music] so [Music] that this whole day may be perfect holy peaceful and without sin let us ask the lord [Music] for an angel of peace a faithful guide a guardian of our souls and bodies let us ask the lord [Music] for forgiveness of our sins and offenses let us ask the lord [Music] for all that is good and profitable for our souls and peace in the world let us ask the lord [Music] that we may live out our lives in peace and repentance let us ask the lord [Music] [Applause] [Music] for a christian end to our lives peaceful free of shame and suffering and for a good defense before the dread judgment seat of christ let us out [Music] remembering our most holy pure blessed and glorious lady the theotokos and ever virgin mary with all the saints let us commend ourselves and one another and our whole life to christ our god [Music] through the mercies of your only begotten son with whom you are blessed together with your all holy good and life-giving spirit now and always and to the ages of ages [Music] be with all [Music] let us love one another that we may with one mind confess [Music] the doors the doors in wisdom let us be attentive please refer now to the pamphlets found in your pews and join in reading the creed i believe in one god father almighty creator of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible and in one lord jesus christ the only begotten son of god begotten of the father before all ages light of light true god of true god begotten not created of one essence with the father through whom all things were made who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate of the holy spirit and the virgin mary and became man he was crucified for us under pontius pilate and suffered and was buried and he rose on the third day according to the scriptures he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the father and he will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead his kingdoms shall have no end and in wantly spirit the lord the creator of life who proceeds from the father who together with the father and the son is worshiped and glorified who spoke through the prophets in one holy catholic and apostolic church i confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins i look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come amen [Music] this [Music] the grace of our lord jesus christ the love of god the father and the communion of the holy spirit be with allah [Applause] [Music] let us lift up our hearts [Music] let us give thanks to the lord [Music] it is fitting and right to sing of you to bless you to praise you to give thanks to you and to worship you in all places under your dominion for you are god beyond describing beyond comprehending neither to be seen nor conceived forever existing forever the same you and your only begotten son and your holy spirit you brought us out into being out of nothingness and when we had fallen raised us up again leaving nothing undone until you could lead us to heaven and grant us your future kingdom for all these things we thank you and your only begotten son and your holy spirit for all these blessings both known and unknown manifest or hidden that have been bestowed on us we thank you also for this liturgy which you have deemed worthy to accept from our hands even though you are surrounded by thousands of archangels and tens of thousands of angels by the cherubim and the seraphim six winged many eyes soaring on their wings [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] take it this is my body which is broken for you for the remission of sin [Music] likewise after supper he took the cup saying drink of this all of you this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sin [Music] [Music] um once again we offer you this spiritual worship without the shedding of blood and we ask praying and treat you send down your holy spirit upon us and upon these gifts here offered and make this bread the precious body of your christ and that which is in this cup the precious blood of your christ amen changing them by your holy spirit i mean i mean [Music] oh [Music] r [Music] him [Music] [Music] is [Music] asleep [Music] [Music] [Music] in all pieces [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] among the first lord remember archbishop yarasimos grant that he may serve your holy churches in peace keep him safe honorable and in health for many years rightly teaching the word of your truth also remember lord those whom each of us has in mind and all your people they're safekeeping remember lord those who toil and do good works in your holy churches who are mindful of the poor and upon us all send down your mercy and grant that with one voice and one heart we may glorify and praise your most exalted and majestic name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit now and always and to the ages of ages and may the mercies of our great god and savior jesus christ be with all [Music] they formed [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] make us worthy to partake of your heavenly and awesome mysteries at this sacred and spiritual table with a clear conscience for the remission of sins forgiveness of transgressions communion of the holy spirit inheritance of the kingdom of heaven confidence before you not for judgment or condemnation [Music] our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who dress pass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for yours is the kingdom the power and the glory father son and holy spirit now and always and to the ages of ages peace be with all [Music] let us bow our heads to the lord [Music] will you then master order what lies ahead according to each one's needs sail with those that see accompany the wayfarers heal the sick as physician of our souls and bodies by the grace mercy and love for us of your only begotten son with whom you are blessed together with your all holy good and life-giving spirit now and always and to the ages of ages [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] and [Music] [Music] please turn the page to page 29 now in your liturgy books and join in reading the communion prayers i believe o lord and i confess that you are truly the christ the son of the living god who did come into the world to save sinners of whom i am the first i also believe that this is your sacred body and this your precious blood therefore i pray to you have mercy upon me and forgive my transgressions voluntary and involuntary in word and deed both known and unknown and make me worthy to partake of your sacred mysteries for the remission of sins and life eternal amen behold i approach for holy communion o creator burn me not as i partake for you are fire which burns the unworthy wherefore do you cleanse me from every stain now those of you have prepared to receive holy communion i ask that you come down now the center aisle to receive [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] with the fear of god with faith and with love draw near the servant of god your us receives the precious body and blood of our lord and savior jesus christ for the mission of sins and life everlasting [Music] our lord and savior jesus christ for their mission sins and life everlasting the servant of god mark receives the precious body and blood of our lord and savior jesus christ for the remission of sins and life everlasting the handmaid of god maria receives the precious body and blood of our lord and savior jesus christ for their mission of sins and life everlasting [Music] the precious body and blood of our lord and savior jesus christ for the remission of sick [Music] [Music] there you go the handmaid of god maria receives a precious body and blood of our lord and savior jesus christ for the mission of sins and life everlasting the handmaid of god mary receives the precious body and blood of our lord and savior jesus christ for their mission of sins and life of the the servant of last elijah receives the precious body and blood of our lord and savior jesus christ for the remission of sins and life everlasting the handmaid of god nicole receives the precious body and blood of our lord and savior jesus christ for the remission of sins and life everlasting the habit of god sophia receives the precious body and blood of our lord and savior jesus christ for the remission of sins and life everlasting the servant of god george receives the precious body and blood of our lord and savior jesus christ the handmaid of god olivia receives the precious body and blood of our lord and savior jesus christ for the remission of sins [Music] receives a precious body and of blood lord and savior jesus christ for the remission of sins and life everlasting the servant of god richard demetrious receives the precious body and blood of our lord and savior jesus christ for the remission of sins and life everlasting christ scuba [Music] [Music] catherine receives the precious body and blood of our lord and savior jesus christ for the remission of sins and life everlasting the servant of god fed eccles who sees the precious body and blood of our lord and savior jesus christ for the remission of sins and life everlasting the servant of god gregory receives the precious body and blood of our lord and savior jesus christ for the remission of sins and life everlasting the servant of god noah receives the precious body and blood of our lord and savior jesus christ for the remission of sins and life everlasting [Music] [Music] oh lord save your people and bless your inheritance [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] be exalted oh god above the heavens and let your glory be over all the earth if [Music] [Music] let us be attentive having received the divine holy pure immortal life giving and awesome mysteries of christ let us give fitting thanks to the lord help us save us have mercy on us and keep us o god in your grace having asked that this whole day may be perfect holy peaceful and free of sin let us commend ourselves and one another and our whole life to christ our god [Applause] we thank you loving master benefactor of our souls that this day you have again you have once again made us worthy of your heavenly and immortal mysteries make straight our path keep us firmly in all of you guard our lives keep us steady in our way through the prayers of the glorious they'll talk us on ever virgin mary and of all your saints for you are our sanctification and to you we give the glory father son and holy spirit now and always and to the ages of ages let us depart in peace let us pray to the lord [Music] lord bless those who praise you and sanctify those who trust in you save your people and bless your inheritance protect the whole body of your church sanctify those who love the beauty of your house glorify them in return by your divine power and do not forsake us who put our hope in you grant peace to your world to your churches to the clergy to those in public service to the armed forces and to all your people for every good and perfect gift is from above coming from you the father of lights and to you we give glory thanksgiving and worship father son and holy spirit now and always and to the ages of ages [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes [Applause] [Music] oh may god bless you and keep you please be seated very good voice very good okay i mean hi no on march 2nd which is coming up this next week the um and today actually too because we do it in advance the the altar flame the memorial flame on the holy altar table was lit in memory of leonidas culos 40 years since his passing and was offered by his his wife fran culos and we pray that god rests his soul okay okay there will be a philotogos meeting today um board meeting or general board meeting board meeting for fillopticos today i'll be there too um and then hopefully everybody got their their newsletter uh and we we wrote in there some information about great lent the services that we're going to be having um and a couple of special presentations in the hall during coffee hour of a spiritual nature nature um brief but but kind of enjoyable i think for us all um so keep keep in touch with that to keep in tune with that um yesterday we had our first memorial saturday apsico salvatore next saturday we will not have one i'll be out of town unfortunately but we will have the third one a week after okay so a great lent is starting pretty soon it begins on march 7th that's pure monday cathedral and and great lent is when we start fasting for 40 days if we can and i suggest that perhaps we can if you just try a little bit at a time so that's good it's a it's a spiritual exercise let's put it that way um and hopefully you saw in the in the um email blast that we sent out last week that there's a a new movie called a man of god coming out it's going to be shown in sacramento on march 21st and in elk grove as well it's about the life story of saint nichtarios who is a 20th century saint he i think he died in 1921 and was made a saint in the 60s i think he is the patron saint of cancer victims but more importantly this movie which is professionally done has is a very important message to tell and that is we can see what happens when a man devotes his whole life to god and that's exactly what saint nicht adults did even in the face of terrible terrible persecution by other greek orthodox clergy okay and that's why he's one of my favorite i have his icon hanging over my desk because he's such an inspiration even though clergy will turn against you you still have to stay true to god and do your best for god and that exemplifies that um he exemplifies that in a wonderful wonderful way that's march 21st you can go online and i i did this um i bought a ticket for president and i um at the elk grove uh movie theater on big horn i don't know what the name of it is um and what's that laguna 16. um and so we ordered our tickets and we're going to be there i understand a couple other parishioners have already this will be the first movie that i will be in the movie theater seeing since they started putting lazy boy chairs and how long it's a long time ago so i've never been in a lazy boy in a theater so i'm looking forward to that and well of course the movie too is going to be excellent okay so i'll keep publishing this and i think there's even a link i put did i put a link i did i did put a link so you can you can click that and get your tickets too okay now we we are just getting over the coronavirus um pandemic and um and there were a lot of cautions being taken and a lot of people were concerned of course and for good reason um and for that reason there was a question as to whether or not fdf was going to be held this year the folk dance festival that's held every february on president's weekend nobody knew if they were going to have it or not well it turned out that phoenix i mean the arizona the state of arizona was not as as severely impacted as other areas so they lightened their restrictions and the fdf committee um decided to have the folk dance festival um in phoenix this year uh um instead of usually southern california a lot of groups did not go because they were concerned about the coronavirus and and the omicron and everything like that they were concerned so they did not a lot of groups didn't as a matter of fact from the reports i heard back from people who went say there was about 50 percent less groups and 50 percent less less people this year um than than normal years but but our children here at our church thought it was important to get together not only with each other but to get together with other children their age and of the same faith and even background um to to kind of have some kind of um in greek we say epi some kind of contact with other with other children of the same age and so they decided to organize their group and their directors anastasia panagakos and paul leonis decided to go too and they went last week so we're so happy to welcome them back i see them i think just about all of them here today in church so nice to see your faces i watched you on on my cell phone and i thought it was just great the only bad thing was that one point where the guy didn't play the last song but that's okay they they didn't count it against you i understand so that's good as a matter of fact they did so well i think i want to call all of them up so whether they periphania dancers and their directors please come forward now and stand on the steps here in front because i want to read to you what they did and what they accomplished because it's a little complicated for me because i don't know all the lingo and all the categories and all that so i'll once they come up here i'll read this to you and you can understand exactly what happened yeah everybody put your medals on you notice they're putting metals on that means that something happened how you doing good let's come on up here go ahead and put your metal on oh you didn't bring you didn't some of us forgot them at home but they did get him well why don't we step up on the top okay and then and then a bunch of you come on this side over here there we are beautiful all the way over all the way over all the way over on the top step let's put them on everybody on the top step oh that's nice that's great great this these are the children of ouri perryfonia dancers these are the ones that performed a very handsome and pretty group of kids i should say kids that if you're like me have known them ever since they were in greek we call pizza which are little small children and they've grown up to be such wonderful young adults so i want to read this to you because this is important i periphania represented saint catherine in the 45th annual greek folk dance and choral festival in phoenix arizona they were they won third place for dancing in the advanced junior category let's hear it for the third place i think the green one so that's the green one it's got dancers on one side and the fdf insignia on the other so that's the green but they're wearing two of them so pay attention here they won third place for dancing in the advanced junior category and a special achievement award for the precision and style of their of their tatava tatavianos dance i'm not even constantly neapolitan but i pronounced it which is the the the orange one right and that one [Applause] it is okay just says yeah okay so this this one says founders on there so it's a special award for only one dance that they did exceedingly well which i think is um i've never heard of that before but i think it's kind of wonderful all right now here's another part that's very that i'm just proud of these kids jasper raise your hand jasper sophia right next to him and zoe right here um zoe getze jasper not panagakos it's erkins erkins whoops and sophia luisos applied for thousand dollar scholarships is it for college yeah college scholarships uh they applied to the fdf's scholarship committee and they were awarded each one of them a thousand dollars for college so and they uh and they um they also posed for a photo with uh um archbishop el pido foros of america who was there and metropolitan yurasimos i think i saw those online wasn't it i think i saw that online the group wants to thank the saint catherine community for their long and generous support by the way um what did we do a luncheon a luncheon i think we raised about 900 at that luncheon from us to give to them for their toward their um their registration fee which was like 395 some unbelievable number um and then we got um some other individual donations but we also got a grant from the annunciation what was the other do we do another fundraiser crab feed oh they waited tables at our crab feed and so we asked the people to give them a tip you know the people they give them a thousand dollars in tips so that was great [Applause] the dance pro the dance program will take a break during lent but stay tuned for more information in late april about the summer dance program for children's children four and up and the summer dance program is what what we do to prepare to perform at the festival okay yeah the little ones will be in in after easter okay everybody take your mask off does it look better if i stand here in the back in the back in the back i was covering somebody because there we go okay well there we go okay boys scooch in yeah maybe paul and anastasia come on in come on in sofia there we go i'll stand next to the tall boys wait a minute okay facebook thank you it thank you boys and girls congratulations let's hear it for him if eddiefania dances god bless you boys and girls okay have a seat have a seat that's great so proud of them all right and i think that's it don't forget a philotogos board meeting and then we invite you to come and join us for some refreshments at our coffee hour next door in our sakopla sauce please please come down the side aisle now to receive your auntidor efrene [Music] you

Channel: Saint Katherine Greek Orthodox Church - Elk Grove

Views: 83

Keywords: Greek Orthodox, Orthodox Christian, Divine Liturgy

Id: VrJPk3l1Zmc

Length: 78min 0sec (4680 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 27 2022