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SAINT NICHOLAS GREEK ORTHODOX CATHEDRAL 1607 West Union Boulevard Bethlehem, PA 18018 ORTHODOX Witness VOLUME 31 ISSUE 336 MARCH 2019 TABLE OF CONTENTS Church Information 2 father nick’s notes 3 Homily on the Anunciation 4 METROPOLIS NEWS LETTER 7 Calendar 8 ASCESIS IN OUR LIFE 9 PARISH COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES 11 GREEK SCHOOL NEWS 13 THE CRUCIFIED CHRISTIAN 14 COMMUNITY NEWS 16 A ST. NICHOLAS GREEK ORTHODOX CATHEDRAL PUBLICATION 1607 WEST UNION BOULEVARD – BETHLEHEM, PA 18018 PHONE: 610-867-1327, FAX: 610-867-9487, KITCHEN: 610-867-5459

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Under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, His Eminence Demetrios Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, and His Eminence Metropolitan Savas of Pittsburgh. The mission of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church is to keep and proclaim, pure and undefiled, the Orthodox Christian Faith and traditions in conformity with the doctrine, canons, worship, discipline, and customs of the Church.

Fr. Nicholas Palis, Protopresbyter (Proistamenos ) Dean 610-440-0995 Fr. Nicholas Kossis Protopresbyter 610-694-0948 Fr. Alexander Petrides, Presbyter 610-867-1327 Mrs. Despina Kotsatos, Secretary 610-867-1327 OFFICE HOURS: Monday-Friday 9:00 πμ – 12:00 μμ

1:00 μμ -5:00 μμ SUNDAY SERVICES Orthros 7:15 AM Divine Liturgy 1 Greek 8:30 AM Divine Liturgy 2 English 10:15 AM WEEKDAY SERVICES Orthros 8:00 AM Divine Liturgy 9:00 am THURSDAY Paraclesis 6:00 PM SATURDAY Great Vespers 7:00 PM Please see the calendar in the web page for weekday services

CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS BUILDING ENDOWMENT TRUST Alex Alex John Andronis John Diacogiannis Manny Economedes George Glaros ACADEMY ST. NICHOLAS Debbie Hrousis CHOIR Director Dr. James Chiadis Organist Nicos Elias : GREEK SCHOOL : Theodore Evangelou MOMS & TOTS: Presvytera Stephanie Petrides GOYA/YAL Fr. Alexandros Petrides MISSIONS Coordinator : Nitsa Vasiliadis Secretary: Eleni Pippis PHILOPTOCHOS : Georgia Dimitriadis SENIOR CITIZENS: Mary Moukoulis SUNDAY SCHOOL Thalia Schmidt, Stratoniki Hahalis

WEBSITE: www.stnicholas.org

EMAIL: secretary@stnicholas.org Name of Publication: Orthodox Witness Issue 03 March 2019

PARISH COUNCIL 2019 Argeros William Dectis Peter President Barbounis Anna Economou Dimitri Fliakos Valante Garcia Joel,, Giambilis Demetrios, Hristofas Kostas, Treasurer Hrousis Costas Vice President Lioudis George Secretary, Mouhlas George, Pappas Dionysios Quintana Joshua Tatalias Helen Tatalias V. Emmanuel

DEADLINE FOR PUBLICATIONS WEEKLY BULLETIN – PLEASE SUBMIT

ANNOUNCEMENTS to church office by Thursday. MONTHLY BOOKLET– Please submit announcements to church office by the 15th of the prior month. Please Note – All articles are subjected to approval and editing.

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Father Nick’s Notes

March 2019 Dear Parishioners and Friends, On March 11th, we begin Great Lent, when we intensify all our normal spiritual asceses. Especially our prayer, fasting and charity. To help us in our struggle with prayer, our Church has compunctionate services every evening of Great Lent. To give us strength for our struggle our Church offers us communion twice a week with Presanctified Liturgies on Wednesday nights and Friday mornings. To help us with charity our Church hands out mission boxes, which we can fill with change, to help Orthodox Missions throughout the world. To edify us during Lent our Church is hosting several Retreats. I hope that we all take advantage of all these wonderful opportunities our Chruch provides us. On Saturday March 9th, our Church is holding a Parenting Retreat with Dr. Phillip Mamalakis, Professor of Pastoral Care at our Seminary, from 10:30 - 4 PM following the Saturday of Souls Liturgy. This promises to be a wonderful event that I hope many of you can attend. On Sunday March 17th the Pan Orthodox Vespers will be held at 4 PM at St. Phillip's Antiochian Orthodox Church, in Souderton, PA followed by a Lenten Meal. I hope many of you can go. On Saturday March 30th, we are having a Lenten Retreat with Presvytera Rene Ritsi whose husband has been the Director of the OCMC and she works in the Teams Department of the Orthodox Christian Mission Center. On Sunday March 24th we will hold one Liturgy and afterwards our Greek School and Romeic School children will have a wonderful presentation for Greek Independence and the Annunciation. I hope you can all attend. The articles in this bulletin are “Homily on the Annunciation of the exceedingly pure Lady Theotokos and Ever-virgin Mary" by Saint Gregory Palamas, The crucified Christian" by Archimandrite Spyridon Petrou and "Ascesis in our life" by Archimandrite Barnabas Yiangou, translated from the Magazines “Peiraike Ecclesia".

I pray that these articles along with all the opportunities Great Lent affords us, will help us come closer to God, and will benefit us greatly!

With much love,

In Christ, Fr. Nicholas Palis

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Homily on the Annunciation of the exceedingly pure Lady Theotokos and Ever-virgin Mary

By Saint Gregory Palamas The event we are celebrating today clearly proves that this mystery is incomprehensible, not only for humans but also for angels and archangels. The archangel announced the conception to the Virgin. While when she was seeking the manner she told him, ‘how will this occur to me, since I do not know a man?’ The archangel not being able to interpret the manner in any way, took refuge also in God, saying “the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you”. Just as, in other words, if someone were asking Moses, how a man is constructed from the earth, how bones and nerves and flesh, from dirt, how senses from senseless matter, how again a human, from the rib of Adam, how the bone was spread out and divided, united and combined, how from the bone, innards and various juices and all the other things came forth? So just as, if someone were asking Moses these things, he would not say anything more than that it is God who took dirt from the ground and formed Adam, and one of the ribs of Adam, and He constructed Eve, so that he would be saying, on the one hand, who the creator is, but the manner in which these things happened, he would not be saying it. Thus also Gabriel said that the Holy Spirit and the power of the Most High will construct the seedless offspring, however he did not say how. If, furthermore, when he previously commemorated Elizabeth, that she conceived in her old age although she was barren, he did not have anything more to say except that nothing is impossible for God, how could he say the manner in the case of her who conceived and gave birth virginally? What is said by the archangel to the Virgin has also something more however, which contains a greater mystery. “The Holy Spirit,” he says, “will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” Why? Because also what is born is not a prophet nor simply a human, like Adam, but He will be called the son of the Most High, savior and deliverer of the human race and eternal king. […] So God sends the archangel to the Virgin and He makes her His mother with merely the address, even though she remains a virgin, because, of course, if He were conceived from a sperm, He would not be a new man nor would He be sinless and savior of sinners, because the movement of the flesh for birth, since it remains unsubmitted to the mind, which is set to rule our functions, is not found completely outside of sin. So for this reason, David also was saying, “in iniquities was I conceived and with sins my mother bore me”. So if the conception of God were of sperm, he would not be a new man nor a ruler of the new and unaging life at all. If he were of the old portion and inheritance of that transgression, he could not bear in himself the fullness of the incorrupt godhead and to make his flesh inexhaustible sanctification, so as to wash away the defilement of the forefathers with abounding power, and to suffice for sanctification to all the descendants . So, for this reason, neither an angel nor a human but the Lord himself came and saved us, who was conceived and incarnated in the womb of the Virgin and he remained unaltered God. While he had to have the Virgin as a witness of the seedless conception, and a colleague in all the things that would be performed by economy. Which are these? The ascent to Bethlehem, where the annunciation would be held and the glorified offspring. The approaching the altar, where the infant is witnessed as Lord of life and death by Symeon and Anna. The flight to Egypt before Herod and the return from Egypt according to the sacred prophecies and the other things which it is not easy

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for me to enumerate now. For this reason, Joseph was taken up as betrothed and the angels sent to the virgin, betrothed to a man named Joseph. While the phrase “from the home and tribe of David” you will understand to be for both. Because both the Virgin as well as Joseph preferred their generation in David. […] But also in another manner again, the All-holy one is Lady worthily, as prevailing over everything, because she conceived in virginity and gave birth divinely to the by nature master of all. Also, of course, she is Lady, not only as being free from slavery and a partaker of divine lordship, but also as a source and root of the freedom of the race, and furthermore after the ineffable and joyous birth. Because she who married a man is probably overcome rather than a lady, and furthermore after the very sad and painful birth, according to that cursed to Eve “you will give birth to children with sadness, you will be dependent on your husband and he will rule over you”. In order to free from her that curse of the human race, the virgin mother receives the joy and the blessing through the angel. Because it says, after the angel entered in, he told the Virgin “rejoice Thou full of Grace, the Lord is with you, you are blessed among women”. The archangel does not preannounce the future saying, the Lord is with you, but he announces whatever he was then seeing invisibly being performed. And perceiving that she is the place of divine and human gifts and adorned with all the gifts of the divine Spirit, he literally addresses her full of grace, seeing that she already received indwelling him, in whom are found all the treasures of all these things and foreseeing that painless pregnancy and birthgiving which would take place without pains, he addresses to her the “rejoice” and verified that she is the only blessed one and blessedly glorified among women. Because according to the excess of glory of the mother of God Virgin, there exists no other woman glorified, and if they were glorified. But the Virgin, as she saw and feared that maybe some deceptive angel, who deceives the thoughtless women, according to the example of Eve, did not accept the greeting without examination. And not yet knowing clearly the association with God that he was evangelizing, she was disturbed, it says, with his word, firmly insisting in virginity, and she was pondering “what type of greeting this is”. So for this reason, the archangel immediately dissolved the god-loving fear of the graceful Virgin, telling her. “Do not fear Mary. Because you obtained the grace of God”. What grace? That which is possible only to him who is able to do the impossible things, and was preserved before the centuries in you alone. “Behold you shall conceive a child”. While hearing conception, he says, do not think of any taking away of virginity, do not be distressed and disturbed about this. Because this “behold you will conceive”, being said then to her who was a virgin, indicated henceforth the conception as a fellow traveler with virginity. “So behold you will conceive and give birth to a son”. In other words, remaining as you are today and preserving your virginity untouched, you will conceive an embryo and will give birth to the son of the Most High. Isaiah foreseeing this also many years before, was saying: “Behold the Virgin will conceive and will give birth to a son”. While the graceful Virgin, as soon as she heard from the archangel the so exceptional and divine words, that the Lord is with you, and behold you will conceive and give birth to a son, she says, how will this occur to me? Because I do not have relations with a man”. But because even though you are imparting to me a very spiritual message higher than flesh and the passions, on the other hand, you are mentioning to me a conception in the womb and a pregnancy and birth giving, while adding about the conception also the behold. So how will this occur to me? Because, she says, I do not have relations with a man. While the Virgin says this, not out of disbelief, but because she was seeking to learn, to the degree possible, how the matter is. So for this reason also, the archangel tells her, the Holy Spirit will

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come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So for this reason also, the holy one who will be born will be called Son of God.” Holy, of course, are you, he says, and full of grace, O Virgin. While the Holy Spirit again will come upon you, who will prepare and make the divine work in you with a higher addition of sanctification. And the power of the Most High will overshadow you, which simultaneously will strengthen you also through the overshadowing in you, and that conjoining with yourself will form humanity, so that what is born will be holy, the Son of God and the power of the Most High, formed in a human manner. Because furthermore, behold also Elizabeth, your relative, who spent her whole life barren, now with the will of God in old age strangely, is bearing a child, because nothing is impossible for God. So what does the graceful Virgin do regarding these things, who is divine and unparalleled in prudence? Again she runs to God and addresses Him with a prayer, telling the archangel. If, as you say, the Holy Spirit comes to me, in order to cleanse me more and strengthen me to accept the saving embryo, if the power of the Most High overshadows me who will form in me, in a human manner, him who bears the form of God and will create a seedless pregnancy, if the one who is born will be holy and the Son of God and God and eternal king, of course, nothing is impossible for God, “behold I, the maidservant of the Lord, let it be according to your word”. And the angel left from there, after he left in her womb the maker of the universe, joined together with the body, and after with this union, which he served, he caused the salvation of the world.

(Translated from Peiraike Ecclesia Magazine February 2018, Vol. 301, pp. 6-7)

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March 2019

THURSDAY THURSDAY THURSDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

2 11 AM Romaic Adults 1 PM Ellinomatheia

3 MEATFARE 7 :15 AM Orthros 8:30 AM D. Liturgy 9:45 AM Sun. School 10:15 AM D. Liturgy 4:00 PM Oratorical Fest.

4 4:45PM Greek Scho 5 PM Bible Study 6 PM Bible Study 6:15 PM Greek Dance 8:00 PM Prem. Prep

5 6 PM OCF

6 6 PM Paraclesis 7 PM Orthodox Study

7 8 8 PM Men’s Basketball

9 8 AM Orthros/ Liturgy (Saturday of Souls) 10 AM Parenting Retreat 7:00 PM Great Vespers

10 Daylight Savings CHEESEFARE 7:15 AM Orthros 8:30 AM D. Liturgy 9:45 AM Sun. School 10:15 AM D. Liturgy 6:00 PM Vespers

1112: 00 PM Sen Cit 4:45PM Greek School 5 PM Bible Study 6 PM Great Compline & Canon of St. Andrew

12 6 PM Great Compline & Canon of St. Andrew

13 5:45 PM Presanctified Liturgy

14 3 PM Academy Adv. Bd 6 PM Great Compline & Canon of St. Andrew

15 8 AM Presanctified Liturgy 7 PM Salutations

16 8 AM Orthros/Liturgy (Saturday of Souls) 11 AM Romaic Adults 1 PM Ellinomatheia 7:00 PM Great Vspers

17ORTHODOXY SUN 7:45AM Orthros 9:00 AM Di Liturgy 10:15 AM Procession I 4:00 PM Orth. Vespers (St. Phillips)

18 4:45PM Greek School 5 PM Bible Study 6 PM Great Compline 7 PM Parish Council

19 Clergy Retreat

Antiochian Village 6 PM OCF 7 PM Great Compline

20 Clergy Retreat

Antiochian Village 5:45 PM Presanctified Liturgy

21 Clergy Retreat

Antiochian Village 7 PM Great Compline

22 8 AM Presanctified Liturgy 7 PM Salutations

23 9 AM JOY Retreat Reading 11 AM Romaic Adults 1 PM Ellinomatheia 7:00 PM Great Vespers 24GREGORY

PALAMAS 7:45AM Orthros 9:00 AM Di Liturgy Greek School Program 7 PM Vespers (Easton)

25 8 AM Orthros/Liturgy (Annunciation)

26 7 PM Great Compline

27 5:45 PM Presanctified Liturgy

28 7 PM Great Compline

29 8 AM Presanctified Liturgy 7 PM Salutations

30 11 AM Romaic Adults 1 PM Ellinomatheia 12 PM Lenten Retreat 7:00 PM Great Vespers

31VENERATION CROSS 7:45AM Orthros 9:00 AM Di Liturgy 10:15 AM Procession

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Ascesis in our life By Archimandrite Barnabas Yiangou

Great Lent is a period of spiritual reflection and ascesis. The central axis is the Cross as an attitude and suggestion of life. The word concerning ascesis to most people is heard at least indifferently, if not bothersomely, because, on the one hand, our culture encourages the good time and comfort as the purpose of life and cause for happiness. On the other hand, instead of this, due to the social and financial crisis, most people are in misfortune and prefer to hear something pleasant and consoling. They want someone to help them to find some solution to their impasses and if not, at least to not give theoretical Sermons to them, and furthermore, concerning ascesis, when their own life henceforth, by necessity is ascetical. Oddly however, the voluntary and with knowledge, ascesis is the consolation and the solution to the distress of the involuntary and forced ascesis. Ascesis in our Orthodox tradition is not a “body killing” disposition or the denial of life and joy, but an internal exercise to find the meaning of life, to taste joy. Ascesis primarily means that I find my own self, whether I am in misfortune or am in good fortune. Whether we're rich or poor, whether healthy or sick, whether sinners or righteous, before us there is a huge question: “Who am I? Why do I exist? Why should death exist and how do I surpass it?” Asces is my effort to take my life seriously. That I not hide behind my misfortune or my happiness and that I stand before these questions of life, so that I don't spend the time of my life in vain. Whatever occurs in our life, are opportunities of God’s providence for our activation in this direction. The first ascesis is repentance. That we change minds, our way of thought, that we change the way of sailing. That we not see God as enemy. That we trust Him as our closest friend, the we present our being to Him without hypocrisies and makeup, simply and genuinely. That we be seeking Him, that we wish to make up with Him, that we restore our relationship. Repentance is not our exoneration, which means a closing in to our own self, but our reconciliation with God. The experience of His love, which is stronger than every wickedness and crime, illumines the eternal questions of life. Our communion with Him and the sense of His love, defeats every other personal quandary, because it is the most stunning surprise which a person can taste. Repentance is the only capability of joy and ascesis in the Orthodox Church. It is the path of joy. A person who lives in his misery, in his gloominess, means that he did not make a beginning of repentance. He is closed in his thoughts, in his gilts, in his anxieties, in his insecurity. Ascesis means that we leave aside every thought and internal confusion, every personal factor, and that we leave ourselves to God's philanthropy. We crucify everything our own, in order for the divine, the joy of God to resurrect in us. The second ascesis after the vertical axis, which is our relationship with God, is the horizontal axis, which is our relationship with our neighbor, in other words, our people, acquaintances, and people we don't know. Thus, horizontal and vertical, the cross is completed, which is the source and cause of life. The most basic cause which throws man into loneliness and makes his communication difficult is egocentrism. This makes him see the others as competitors on all levels of life. Ascesis is the ascesis of repentance, but also of love. The love which Christ grants, I impart it, I share it with my brother. How does this happen practically? I begin to accept that the other person also is equally as important as I. I gave him room; I learned to listen to him. I'm simple and genuine, without pretense

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and hypocrisy. Salvation is for a person to be able to live whole and integrally, in true communion with other people. We will not be asked about our ascetical achievements, fasts and our prostrations. We will be asked how much we were able to come out of our selfishness and our individualism and to share these things which God gave us with our fellow man or if we remained alone, turned to selfishness and our egocentrism. If, in other words, we became true persons, who lived in communion with the neighbor or if we remained tragic individuals. Saint Maximus says: “Those people who live individually and comprise an isolated nature, will be destroyed and will be lost, just like the unbelievers and the evil believers. Only love and true communion surpasses the breakup of human nature”. While Saints Silouan noted: “if a person sees in his brother, the presence of the Holy Spirit, it means that he himself also has great grace. If one however, hates his brother, it means that he himself also is possessed by a wicked spirit”. The other person, my wife, my husband, the good hearted, the grouchy, each one, is my Christ. The content of ascesis is that I accept each person like Christ. Sociability is the content of ecclesiastical life and means the rejection of selfish loneliness. God is approached in relation to our brother. “Wherever there are two or three gathered in My name, I am among them,” says the Lord. It is unacceptable as Christians in the world for us to be rude, hard hearted, self seeking, indiscreet, full of condemnation, miserableness and misery, without inspiration, sensitivity. Spirituality is judged with the ability of peaceful coexistence, sharing, understanding and getting along, for us to simply be getting on well with everyone and finding it with everyone, especially with those closest to us. That people rejoice with us, that they want to be near us, that they be comforted. If you wish, today keep only this. In other words, let us place as a goal during this Lent, that we pay attention to our brother, that we give him value and honor, and first the people of our family. This will sweeten us and will bring prayer, sweetness and joy to our soul. That I be entering into the position of the other person, that I be lenient, that I not want to change him. From the moment I censure the other person’s life of or I become his teacher, who, in pointing out to him how he can be corrected, we immediately become enemies, he closes himself into his own self and loses every communication. The other person will change, when he himself wants to and turns to God. My own acceptance of him gives the best presuppositions for something like that. Love presupposes patience. Anthony the Great says it very beautifully: “From the neighbor is life and death. For if we gain the brother, we gain God, while if we scandalize the brother, we sin to Christ.” And even if we see someone sinning before us, we should cover him. So the ascesis of repentance and of love is a journey and experience of joy. Of a joy that becomes consolation for every human impasse. Our Church witnesses this way, because it is not an association of good and perfect people, but a community of persons who are related lovingly in the body of Christ. They are daily exercising themselves in the two loves, of God and of neighbor, and thus they honor and love their own self. We are finishing with a proto Christian apophthegm: “unus Christianus, nullus Christianus, in other words, “one Christian, no Christian”.

(Translated from Peiraike Ecclesia Magazine February 2018, Vol. 301, pp. (10-11)

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ST. NICHOLAS GREEK ORTHODOX CATHEDRAL PARISH COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES

MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2019

1. OPENING PRAYER & SPIRITUAL THOUGHTS � Fr. Nicholas Palis gave the opening prayer. � Fr. Nicholas Palis reviewed the proper times for congregation and council to approach the alter to light

candles.

2. REPORTS OF PRIESTS � FR. NICHOLAS PALIS REPORTS:

Father Palis informed council that he will be taking vacation Feb 18-23rd. A light above the alter is out and needs replacement. Scheduled House Blessings are almost completed. Nitsa Vasiliadis is planning an OCMC speaker for March 10th, Missions Sunday.

� FR. ALEXANDROS PETRIDES REPORTS: - Adult Greek Dance: Meets weekly on Mondays. - TOTS & HOPE: 18 mothers at last Mom’s Night - JOY: Next event Feb 10 - GOYA: Many upcoming events! Snowtubing, relationship talk, Super Bowl Party, BeeTreat... - GOYA Basketball: Boys and Girls teams going to Pittsburgh for tournament in late February. - OCF: Meetings resume February. - Greek School: Three Hierarchs Program (Feb 2) and Greek Dance (Feb 9) - Parenting Retreat with Dr. Philip Mamalakis on - Youth Safety: 15 Complete, 19 Mostly Complete, 3 Incomplete.

3. ROLL CALL & ACTION ON EXCUSES FOR ABSENCE

� PRESENT: Father Nicholas Palis, Father Alexandros Petrides, Peter Dectis, Dimitri Economou, Joel Garcia, Valante Fliakos, Jimmy Giambilis, Kosta Hristofas, Costas Hrousis, George Lioudis, George Mouhlas, Joshua Quintana, Dionysios Pappas, Ellen Tatalias, Manny Tatalias

� ABSENT: William Argeros

4. RECEPTION OF PETITIONS & COMMUNICATIONS � There were no reports of petitions or communications.

5. MEETING MINUTES

� Valante Fliakos made a motion to approve the December meeting minutes, seconded by Kosta Hristofas. The motion passed unanimously.

� Dionysios Pappas made a motion to approve the Minuttes of January’s Nomination and Election of Officers meeting, seconded by Valante Fliakos. The motion passed unanimously.

6. STEWARDSHIP � Kosta Hristofas provided the stewardship report. As of December 31, 2018, Stewardship for 2018 is

$245755.50 (104.57%) out of a budgeted $235,000.00. 7. TREASURER'S REPORT

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� Kosta Hristofas reported that for the month of December, our income was $65,061.00, and our expenses were $65,301.95. The net income was $240.95. George Mouhlas made a motion to approve the Treasurer's Report, seconded by Joel Garcia. The motion passed unanimously.

8. SPECIAL REPORTS / STANDING COMMITTEES / OLD BUSINESS

� Special Projects: Walk through history is progressing. � Building & Grounds: Dome Iconography inspection and repair is being scheduled. � Theodoridis Scholarship: Valante Fliakos gave us an update on the progress. � New Year's Eve Dance: Valante Fliakos reported that the dance was successful and that it netted

approximately $280 profit for the church. � Fr. Alexandros Petrides discussed confusion as to the Greek School’s Budgets. A liaison will be selected

from council to work with Greek School and resolve confusion. � Oath of Office and Election of Officers was completed on Sunday, January 13, 2019. All absent council

members were administered the oath prior to this meeting. � Parish Council selected Anna Barbounis to fill the Council Position vacated by Mario Lazarou’s

resignation. � Committee assignments were made and the importance of Council to chair committees was stressed.

9. NEW BUSINESS

� Council’s Pangari Coverage and attendance to Church Services was discussed. � Committee assignments were discussed. � St. Photios Nominees were discussed, Executive and Clergy will review candidates. � Shortage of Cantors was discussed. Dennis Pappas made a motion to offer Basili Sitaras a stipend of

$100/week to be a full time Cantor for our church. Valante Fliakos seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

� Insurance Company surveyed our property and recommended repairs to sidewalk and potholes in asphalt. Building and Grounds committee will review options.

� February General Assembly: Sunday, February 17, 2019 @ 11:00 a.m. � Next Parish Council Meeting: Monday, February 11, 2019 � Fr. Alexandros Petrides reported that the Academy is planning a 20th anniversary Banquet to be held at

the Palace on November 2nd � Fr. Alexandros Petrides also reported that the Pan Orthodox Clergy Brotherhood is considering an

Orthodox Day School. Further info to follow. 10. CLOSING PRAYER

� Motion to adjourn by George Mouhlas, seconded by Jimmy Giambilis. The motion passed unanimously. Fr. Alexandros Petrides gave the closing prayer.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED: Fr. Nicholas Palis George Lioudis Peter Dectis Protopresbyter Secretary President

MARCH 2019

March comes in like a …..

Cat in the Hat!

Dr. Seuss week is everyone’s

favorite! Not only do we

celebrate reading and all

our favorite books, we also

have mystery guest readers

and fun events throughout the week. The kids (and teachers!) get

the chance to show off their silly sides and be wacky all week!

Please be on the look out for the schedule of special silly days for

your child’s class!

March also brings about the beginning of our journey to

Pascha! Lent begins on March

11. We will be discussing all the

events leading up to and

including the crucifixion and

resurrection of Christ. While

we encourage kindness all year

long, Lent offers a special

opportunity for us to

concentrate on this aspect of

our lives. Lenten Kindness

calendars and prayers will be

going home soon and we hope

you enjoy using them with your

children as much as we do at

school!

Faith in Action has come to an end for the year! Thank you

so much for all your support, participation and generosity.

Through your kindness we were able to help so many community

members and teach the students about caring for your neighbors!

Dates to Remember!

Please mark your calendar for these upcoming SNA events!

3/4-3/8: Read Across America Week

3/14: PTO Meeting after drop off

3/15: Gertrude Hawk Orders Due

3/25-3/29: Scholastic Book Fair

3/26: Grandparents’ Day, 11 AM: T/Th 2’s & 3’s, 5’s and K

3/27: Grandparents’ Day, 11 AM: M/W 2’s, 3’s, 4’s

3/28-3/29: Conferences: NOON Dismissal - NO Lunch or PM Extended Care

Book Fair Sign Ups!

The Scholastic Book Fair is a

a huge fundraising

opportunity and will be open

3/25-3/29. We earn credits to

use for books and supplies!

Please come shop to support

the Academy. See Mrs.

Hrousis if you are available to

volunteer and help out!

NEWS& NOTES

MARCH 2019

S anSt. N ic

holas

Academy W

alk For Education 2019

Learning is our

super power!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BE A HERO! The 2019 Walk for Education will be on

May 18, 2019! Please mark your calendars

and plan to join us for a ‘super’ time!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Know a St. Nicholas Academy Alumni? Please ask them if it is ok to share their info with us and return this form! We want to make sure we include as many former St.

Nicholas Academy students as possible in our 20th Anniversary celebration! We will be looking for old photos and trying to catch

up with our kids to see where they are now! Thank you for your help!

Family Name:_______________________________________________________

Name of former student:_______________________________________________

Email:_____________________________________________________________

Phone:____________________________________________________________

Mailing Address:_____________________________________________________

St. Nicholas Academy was founded in 1999. That means that this fall we will celebrate our 20th Anniversary! My how time flies when you are having fun! Over the years we have seen so many children pass through our doors and we would love to have

them celebrate with us! In honor of this special event we are going to have a 20th Anniversary Banquet Fundraiser on the evening of Saturday, November 2, 2019. Please save the date to join us. Tell your family and friends- all are welcome to join us! We would also like to reach as many alumni as possible! Please fill out the form below if you know any alumni that we can

reach out to and invite! More details, including times and ticket pricing to follow!

Walk Packets including t-shirt order forms, sponsor forms, and donation collection sheets will be sent home in your

child’s folder. please let mrs. Hrousis or Miss julia know if you have any questions or need extra copies of any forms! Start thinking about businesses you can ask to sponsor! this is

the biggest fundraiser of the year and provides the funding for so much that we do and need!

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The crucified Christian By Archimandrite Spyridon Petrou

The Cross is the chief symbol of the love of God but also a Christian’s way of life.

Everything that a Christian should desire and everything that he should do, his ethos and attitude of life, before everything that surrounds him, even towards his own self, all these things appear in an icon or in a symbol: the Cross of Christ.

Do you wish to learn what God did for you? Look at the Cross. Do you wish to learn what God is seeking from you? Look at the Cross again. Every good that Christ gave us, He gave it to us after He was first crucified. Thus we also, every good, every joy, we will obtain through the Cross. But the crucifictory way of life is essentially the imitation of Christ and the taste of Christ.

Christ said that unique thing: “whosoever wishes to follow behind me let him deny himself and let him take up his cross and follow me”. This means that you are not able to say or to think that you are following Christ, if you are not curing your cross! And furthermore, if you are not carrying it with joy. The cross is not a punishment which Christ imposed for our sins. The cross, in other words, the crucifictory way of life, is the only way for us to leave behind whatever separates us from God, for us to be able, undistracted, to follow Him up to the Kingdom of the Heavens. The cross consequently is not evaluated based on the factors of this life. In this life, the cross means toil, mourning, struggling, patience. It is natural that these things would not please us. The cross however, is simultaneously also the future of man's elevation to heaven, and this has value. The value of the Cross is, in other words, eschatological. The end will justify all the previous things. The Resurrection will illumine all the darknesses, it will open the tombs, it will wipe out the pain, the tear, the sigh. The Cross initially, and the Resurrection in the end, are two views of the same coin, the beginning and the end of a Christian’s life.

No matter how strange it seems to us, our Lord Jesus Christ loved His Cross and equally loves our own crosses, when we carry them with faith in Him. Whoever is carrying his cross patiently and with faith in the Crucified God will not be put to shamed. On the contrary, the life of whoever of avoids his cross, will conclude daily into a disastrous failure. The cross of the Christian is temporary because the Resurrection awaits him. The cross of the person who refuses to follow Christ is eternal, because hell awaits him. So for this reason, the Apostle Paul was saying, it is to one’s advantage to choose the Cross of Christ in his life: “for the sufferings of the present time are not worthy of the future glory”. No one escapes the cross. But everywhere there is pain, affliction and in the end death. The matter is for the person to think correctly and to choose correctly. To choose that cross which leads to God, to the eternal light, and not the cross which leads far from God, to eternal darkness.

The necessity of the Cross shows from the fact that Christ, after His Resurrection, speaking to His two disciples, Luke and Cleopas, about His passion told them that He Himself had to suffer, for the world to be saved! Furthermore, in order to convince them, He began analyzing the Scriptures to them, in other words, the Old Testament, where He had told all these things through the prophets. Let's recall a few of those things that the prophets said:

Christ will be betrayed from one familiar to Him (David), for 30 silver coins (Zacharias). He will be slapped in the face (Isaiah). He will be whipped and they will place a crown of thorns on Him (Isaiah). His crucifiers will distribute His garments between them and for one they will cast lots (David). That the day of His crucifixion will be neither day nor night, because darkness will occur,

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whereas it will be noontime (Zechariah). The Lord will be quenched with gall and vinegar (David), He will be numbered with the iniquitous (Isaiah). His crucifiers will move their heads mockingly (David). He will be buried in a carved tomb (Isaiah) which will be sealed with a rock (Jeremiah). That He will become the stone upon which the Jews will trip (Isaiah). Finally, that He will bring the captives out of Hades (Zachariah).

Without a doubt, all the previous things were fulfilled with amazing precision! This, of course, means certain things. First, that Christ is the expected and awaited Messiah through the preaching of the prophets. Second, that the passion of Christ was necessary for our salvation. Third, that it was voluntary for the Godman. Fourth and most important: Just as all the prophecies of the Old Testament were fulfilled in an amazing manner, thus all the other promises of Christ to man will be fulfilled also. So for this reason, the informed and conscientious Christian has absolute trust, that in following Christ in his personal Golgotha, he will be proven to be the one who gained in the story. Christ said “blessed are those crying now for you shall laugh”. Who are those “crying?” Those “crying” are essentially the crucified Christians. It is they who will “laugh”, in other words, they will be rejoicing eternally in the Kingdom of God. From this viewpoint the Christian resembles a smart “merchant”. He gives a few things; he gains many things. He loses a few of the temporal things; he gains all the eternal ones. And his joy, for this exchange, is really great!

The question now which aptly is posed is? What, I wonder, does a crucified Christian mean? What does, I’m carrying the cross of Christ, mean? In general speaking, we would say that:

The Cross means that you be trying, with all your powers, to be keeping the will of God in each case.

The Cross means that you are strongly fighting all your passions without yielding and without cessation.

The Cross means that you be struggling to sincerely love your enemy, since Christ also longs for his salvation.

The Cross means that you are forbearing your every affliction with fortitude, awaiting God’s help with trust.

The Cross means that you be trying to make the meaning of your life, not the positions that temporal enjoyments have, if they have it, but the virtues which really give value to man.

The Cross means that you prefer to be sacrificing yourself for the others, and not the others to be sacrificing themselves for you.

The Cross means that you be using the goods of this life to enjoy God and not to “use” God, in order to enjoy the goods of this life.

The Cross means that you be ready to sacrifice everything for the love of God. The Cross means that you give in, forgive, benefactor, pray, rejoice, humble yourself, obey, love

and thank God in every moment of your life. The Cross means, finally, that you be struggling to feel in you, that which the blessed Apostle

Paul was feeling when he said: “It is no longer I who is living, rather it is Christ living in me”! This is what the cross means. This is the crucified Christian! (Translated from Peiraike Ecclesia Magazine February 2018, Vol. 301,

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COMMUNITY NEWS / UPCOMING EVENTS COMMUNITY SOCIAL EVENTS WEDDINGS BIRTHS! BAPTISMS DEATHS IT IS WITH GREAT SORROW THAT WE WRITE TO INFORM YOU of the falling asleep of Frieda Anamisakis. Viewing - Monday, Feb 25, 10 am. Funeral - 11am at St Nicholas Cathedral. SENIOR CITIZENS THE SENIOR CITIZENS MEETINGS EVERY SECOND MONDAY of the month, at 12:00 pm in Cambanes Hall. Everyone is welcome aged 50 years and older. The next meeting is Monday March 11 @ 12:00 pm CHRISTOS ATHANASIOU 2019 MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP Awarded to a boy and a girl going to college this year or already in college. The scholarship is for $2,500 each. Please submit the St. Nicholas Common Application, mark it "Chris Athanasiou Memorial Scholarship", and turn in to the main office. 2019 GRADUATING SENIORS OF FREEDOM AND LIBERTY HIGH SCHOOLS: are invited to be considered for the Bethlehem Daughters of Penelope "Good Citizenship Award." Submit your name and a list of your activities and other contributions of good citizenship to Mary Moukoulis (via Church Office) before May 1st. Applicants must be children of Greek descendants, graduating F.H.S. or L.H.S. in June 2019 . DAUGHTERS OF PENELOPE PAEON CHAPTER #253 Scholarship 2019

The Bethlehem Daughters of Penelope will offer 2 - $1500 scholarship to a qualified high school graduate contemplating college or to an undergraduate enrolled in college. The recipient must be a related child or grandchild of a Daughter of Penelope (Paeon Chapter #253) or an Ahepan (Homer Chapter #65) or be a Maid of Athena or a Son of Pericles (Lehigh Valley Chapter).