Sunday December 4, 2005

+ Sunday, June 24^th 2007 +

4^th Sunday after Holy Pentecost

& The Nativity of the Holy Forerunner and Baptist John

Tone: 3 + Eothinion: 4

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

“From the womb, John, thou hast been shown forth as Prophet and Forerunner of Christ, leaping and greatly rejoicing in the womb of thy mother at beholding the Queen come to the handmaid and bearing Him who is outside time, begotten without mother of the Father, and who rises up before thee who hast proceeded from barrenness, according to the promise made to the elder. Intercede for Him to have mercy for our souls.”

(From the Vespers Service of the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist)

Today’s Scripture Readings:

v Epistle: Romans 13:11-14:4

v Holy Gospel: St. Luke 1:1-25; 57-68; 76; 80

Next Sunday’s Scripture Readings:

v Epistle: 1 Corinthians 12:28-31, 13:1-8

v Holy Gospel: St. Matthew 8:28-34; 9:1

“We who eagerly honor thee are unable, O Prophet, Forerunner of the presence of Christ, to extol thee as it is meet to do; for by thy noble and solemn nativity the barrenness of thy mother was undone, and the tongue of thy father was loosened, and to the world was proclaimed the Incarnation of the Son of God”.

(Apolytikion for the Nativity of St. John the Baptist in Tone 4)

Modesty & Dignity in Church

As the summer months approach and the weather warms, please remember that dress in Church should always be dignified and modest. This applies to all services, although it is permissible to dress more casually at Daily and Saturday Vesper services, especially when coming from work or other places. The general style of dress should be dignified and appropriate for the worship of God. The basic principles are clean, decent, and modest.

In particular, a woman's dress in church should be modest. Sleeveless dresses and tops, low cut tops, short miniskirts, tight fitting outfits, and boldly colored and patterned clothes don't make sense in church. The idea is NOT to draw unusual attention to one's self.

Men’s dress should be dignified; if not coat and tie, long sleeves should at least be worn, and closed shoes. Shorts, jogging shoes, and athletic gear are never appropriate for either men or women. Warm weather is not an excuse for inappropriate dress. Skimpy outfits and backyard wear are hardly necessary for comfort in a modern air-conditioned Church.

From the Writings of St. John Kronstadt:

"Do not believe your flesh when it grows weak and refuses to serve you, on the pretence of not being sufficiently strengthened by food. This is a delusion. Overcome it; pray fervently, and you will see that the weakness of your body was false, imaginary, not real: you will see in truth that 'not in bread alone does man live, but in every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' Do not put your trust in bread."

* Announcements *

v Every Saturday – Great Vespers at 6:00 p.m.

v Every Sunday – Matins at 8:45 a.m. & Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m.

ü Church Beautification

“Blessed are those who love the beauty of Thy House, O Lord”

Our Iconographer may unfortunately be retiring in the near future and we are looking to finish (while we still can) the empty area over the Choir Loft with a beautiful new set of icons. Some icons left for selection are:

v The Holy Hymnographers & Antiochian Saints (For Example: St. Andrew of Crete, St. Joseph of Damascus, St. Isaac the Syrian, St. Symeon the Stylite, Sts. Peter & Paul holding the Church of Antioch in their hands, Sts. Sergios & Bachos the Unmercenary Healers. OR any other Orthodox Saint you would like to honor and have depicted on the walls of our Cathedral.

If you are interested in donating any icons, please contact Fr. Ghattas in the office or speak to him after the Divine Liturgy.

ü Registration for the 54^th Annual Parish Life Conference

This year, the 54^th Annual Parish Life Conference will be hosted by St. Elias Orthodox Church in Syracuse, New York, on June 28^th – July 1^st. Registration forms are available in the Cathedral Office for anybody who is interested in attending.

ü Registration for the 48^th Antiochian Archdiocese Convention

The 48^th Antiochian Archdiocese Convention will be hosted by St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Montreal, Quebec on July 23^rd – July 29^th. Registration forms are available in the Cathedral Office for anybody who is interested in attending.

ü Fellowship of St. John the Divine

Weekly Meeting every Tuesday from 7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. SHARP! Please be on time. A Bible Study/Religious Discussion will take place in the Church School Building (1^st Floor). Please give us your email address if you are not receiving our weekly online newsletter.

ü Teen SOYO

Next meeting on Wednesday June 27^th 2007 from 7:30 p.m. – 8:45 p.m. SHARP! in the Church School Building. Please be on time. Please give us your email address if you are not receiving our online newsletter.

ü Order of St. Ignatius of Antioch

On Tuesday, July 24^th during the Archdiocese Convention, the Order of St. Ignatius of Antioch is holding its meeting from 11:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. Following the meeting, the Order is hosting a dinner beginning at 7:00 p.m. All members are invited to reserve at their earliest convenience. We are hopeful to induct at least 30 new members into the Order at this convention. Many are already confirmed at this date and because of this, a personal invitation is extended to each one of them, with their spouses, so that they may enjoy the camaraderie of the evening. The hosts for the evening (Yola & Theo Kersheh) will be calling each of these ‘confirmed to be inducted’ new members to extend a personal invitation. Any parishioners who would like to be inducted during the Convention and have not yet reserved their places for the dinner are asked to speak with Fr. Ghattas ‘ASAP’ so arrangements for your invitations can be made prior to the Convention.

+ St. Elias Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral +

(2975 Riverside Drive – Ottawa)

Cathedral Office: 700 Ridgewood Ave

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1V 6N1

Telephone: (613) 738-2222, Fax: (613) 737-4392

Email: info@steliascathedral.com, Website: www.steliascathedral.com

The Rt. Rev. Bishop ALEXANDER

Bishop of Ottawa, Eastern Canada and Upstate New York

The Very Rev. Father Ghattas Hajal – Dean

Rev. Father Mark Arsenios Wyatt – Assistant Priest

The Very Rev. Father Daniel Matheson – Emeritus

LOOKING FOR HELPERS FOR FOOD PREPARATION

It is that time of year when we begin our food preparations for our guests at the Lebanese Festival who wait year after year for our delicious dishes prepared by the ladies of our parish.

We need every helping hand to assist in the food preparations. Men are also more than welcome as we always need strong helping hands too!!!

Please contact May Hanna at 613.884.3626 or Sofia Chalhoub at 613.769.7674.

SWEETS

Last year many of you prepared sweets in your home and donated them to the Festival. These were delicious and your help was truly appreciated. We hope that many of you will also be interested to share your sweets with our guests.

Please contact May Hanna at 613.884.3626 or Sofia Chalhoub at 613.769.7674 if you are interested.

Please pass this announcement around.

CALENDER

Monday, July 9, 2007 Chicken

Tuesday, July 10, 2007 Chicken

Wednesday, July 11, 2007 Chicken

At St. Elias Centre (Kitchen) Starting at 3:00 pm

Note: if anyone can come before 3:00 pm please contact May Hanna at

884-3626

LOOKING FOR HELPERS FOR FOOD PREPARATION

It is that time of year when we begin our food preparations for our guests at the Lebanese Festival who wait year after year for our delicious dishes prepared by the ladies of our parish.

We need every helping hand to assist in the food preparations. Men are also more than welcome as we always need strong helping hands too!!!

Please contact May Hanna at 613.884.3626 or Sofia Chalhoub at 613.769.7674.

SWEETS

Please contact May Hanna at 613.884.3626 or Sofia Chalhoub at 613.769.7674 if you are interested.

Please pass this announcement around.

CALENDER

Monday, July 9, 2007 Chicken

Tuesday, July 10, 2007 Chicken

Wednesday, July 11, 2007 Chicken

At St. Elias Centre (Kitchen)

Note: if anyone can come before 3:00 pm please contact May Hanna at

884-3626

Explanation of the Nicene Creed – Part 3

(Taken from: Orthodox Faith - Volume 1 - Doctrine)

One God, the Father Almighty

The fundamental faith of the Christian Church is in the one true and living God. “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one God; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be placed upon your heart, and you shall teach them to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise…” (Deuteronomy 6:4-8)

These words from the Law of Moses are quoted by Christ as the first and greatest commandment (Mark 12:29). They follow upon the listing of the Ten Commandments which begin, “I am the Lord your God… you shall have no other gods besides me.” (Deuteronomy 5:6-7). The one Lord and God of Israel revealed to man the mystery of His name. And Moses said… “…if they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses. “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said “say to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, Say to the people of Israel, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God if Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent Me to you: this is My name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generation.’” (Exodus 3:13-15)

God’s name is Yahweh which means I AM WHO I AM; or I AM WHAT I AM; or I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE; or simply I AM. He is the true and living God, the only God. He is faithful and true to His people. He reveals to them His divine and holy Word. He gives to them His divine and Holy Spirit. He is called Adonai: the Lord; and His holy name of Yahweh is never mentioned by the people because of its awesome sacredness. Only the high priest, and only once a year, and only in the holy of holies of the Jerusalem Temple dared to utter the divine name of Yahweh. On all other occasions Yahweh is addressed as the Almighty Lord, as the Most High God, as the Lord God of Hosts. According to the Scriptures and the experience of the saints of both the Old and New Testaments, Yahweh is absolutely holy. This means literally that He is absolutely different and unlike anything or anyone else that exists. (Holy literally means totally separated, different, other.)

According to the Biblical-Orthodox tradition, even to say that “God exists” must be qualified by the affirmation that He is so unique and so perfect that His existence cannot be compared to any other. In this sense God is “above existence” or “above being.” Thus, there would be great reluctance according to Orthodox doctrine to say that God “is” as everything else “is” or that God is simply the “supreme being” in the same chain of “being” as everything else that is. In this same sense the Orthodox doctrine holds that God’s unity or oneness is also not merely equivalent to the mathematical or philosophical concept of “one”; nor is His life, goodness, wisdom, and all powers and virtues ascribed to Him merely equivalent to any idea, even the greatest idea, which man can have about such reality.

However, having warned about an overly-clear or overly-positivistic concept or idea of God, the Orthodox Church – on the basis of the living experience of God in the saints-still makes the following affirmations: God may certainly be said to exist perfectly and absolutely as the one who is perfect and absolute life, goodness, truth, love, wisdom, knowledge, unity, purity, joy, simplicity; the perfection and super perfection of everything that man knows as holy, true, and good. It is this very God who is confessed formally in the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom as “…God, ineffable, inconceivable, invisible, incomprehensible, ever-existing and eternally the same.”

It is this God, the Yahweh of Israel, Whom Jesus Christ has claimed to be His Father. God Almighty is known as “Father” through His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus taught man to call the Almighty Lord God of Hosts by the title of Father. Before Jesus no one dared to pray to God with the intimate name of Father. It was Jesus who said, “Pray then like this: Our Father who art in heaven…”

Jesus could call God Father because He is God’s Only-Begotten Son. Christians can call God Father because through Christ they receive the Holy Spirit and become themselves sons of God.

For when the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the Law, to redeem those under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as sons (or, so that we all might be made sons). And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying “Abba! Father!” So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir (of the Kingdom of God). (Galatians 4:4-7; the Christmas Epistle reading in the Orthodox Church).

Thus no man is naturally a son of God and no man can easily call God Father. We can only do so because of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so we say in the Orthodox Divine Liturgy:

And make us worthy, O Master, that with boldness and without condemnation, we may dare to call upon Thee, the Heavenly God as Father and to say: Our Father, who art in heaven…