Saint Catherine Greek Orthodox Church
Publish Date: 2025-08-24
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Saint Catherine Greek Orthodox Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • (561) 833-6387
  • Fax:
  • (561) 833-6391
  • Street Address:

  • 110 Southern Blvd.

  • West Palm Beach, FL 33405


Contact Information




Services Schedule

Sunday Services:

  8:45 am     Orthros

10:00 am     Divine Liturgy

 

Sunday School Classes: 

11:15 am     After Holy Communion


Past Bulletins


This Week and Upcoming Events

 Christ is in our midst!  He is and ever shall be!

 Our services are streamed live on the internet.
at our Saint Catherine website - www.stcatherine-wpb.org
 

Join us for Orthodox Divine Liturgy every Sunday at 10:00 a.m.

Light a candle and offer a prayer at Saint Catherine (click above).
The online form sends the names of your family and friends
direct to Father Chrysostom at the altar;prayers are offered
during the Proskomidi in preparation for the Divine Liturgy! 

 

August 24, 2025

Eutyches the Hieromartyr
& Disciple of St. John the Theologian

Cosmas of Aetolia, Equal to the Apostles

The Translation of the Relics of Dionysios of Zakynthos, Bishop of Aegina

The Translation of the Holy Relics of Saint Peter, Metropolitan of Moscow

 

Links to the service text:  Links to the service texts are through the Digital Chant Stand of our Archdiocese.  For optimal viewing select the "GR-EN Text/Music" link for Matins (Orthros) and Divine Liturgy. Apps may be downloaded for your phone or tablet. Link to the Digital Chant Stand 

Holy Communion:  Holy Communion is reserved for baptized and chrismated Orthodox Christians only.  If you are interested in becoming an Orthodox Christian, please contact Father Chrysostom Mitchell at (561) 320-1224 or [email protected].

Coffee and Fellowship:  Please join us for coffee and fellowship in the Hellenic Cultural Center immediately following the Divine Liturgy.
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The Reverend Father Neilos Beverly from the Metropolis of New Jersey and of St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Bethesda, MD will be celebrating the Divine Liturgy with us today and next Sunday.
Please join us in welcoming him to our parish.

This Week

Sunday, August 24     11th Sunday of Matthew
     8:45 am  Orthros / 10:00 am  Divine Liturgy
     Sunday School Begins & Blessing of the Backpacks
     GOYA Meeting

Monday, August 25
     7:00 pm  Choir Practice

Thursday, August 28
     6:30 pm  Parish Council Meeting

Friday, August 29     Beheading of St. John the Baptist
     9:00 am  Orthros / 10:00 am  Liturgy

Next Week and Highlights of Upcoming Services and Events

Sunday, August 31     12th Sunday of Matthew
     8:45 am  Orthros / 10:00 am  Divine Liturgy
     Philoptochos Fanouropita Sunday


Monday, September 1     The Indiction
     9:00 am  Orthros / 10:00 am  Liturgy
     Beginning of the Ecclesiastical Year

Wednesday, September 3
   10:30 am  Mommy & Me

Friday, September 5
    5:30 pm  Greek School Agiasmos

Saturday, September 6
    7:00 am-2:00 pm  DOP Garage Sale



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Stewardship: 

As of August 10th
we have received $179,748 in Stewardship donations.

Together, let us maintain this blessed momentum of continued giving and Stewardship in all forms: Time, Talent & Treasure!
Thoughtfully consider volunteering your time, sharing your talents, becoming involved with one of our many ministries here at Saint Catherine or giving back in your own special way.

  Become a Steward today!

DONATE online
https://www.stcatherine-wpb.org/stewardship
stcatherine-wpb.org

The Donate buttons here and on our website
lead to our online giving site.
Again, thank you for your support!

Youth Safety Resources:  We’re committed to connecting young people with Jesus Christ. To do that, we need to create ministry environments that are safe and health. For more on how you can help, please visit our Youth Safety website: goarch.org/safety.

Church Services Streamed:  Many of our Divine Liturgies have been recorded and can be viewed at www.youtube.com.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel; you will be notified when we begin a live stream.

Saint Catherine Greek Orthodox Church (Services from 2020 until now)

Saint Catherine Greek Orthodox Church (Selected services from 2015-2019)

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Gospel and Epistle Readings

Matins Gospel Reading

Eleventh Orthros Gospel
The Reading is from John 21:14-25

At that time, Jesus revealed himself to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. And he said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs." A second time he said to him, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep." He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go." (This he said to show by what death he was to glorify God.) And after this he said to him, "Follow me." Peter turned and saw following them the disciple whom Jesus loved, who had lain close to his breast at the supper and had said, "Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?" When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, "Lord, what about this man?" Jesus said to him, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!" The saying spread abroad among the brethren that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?" This is the disciple who is bearing witness to these things, and who has written these things; and we know that his testimony is true. But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.


Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. Second Tone. Psalm 117.14,18.
The Lord is my strength and my song.
Verse: The Lord has chastened me sorely.

The reading is from St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 9:2-12.

Brethren, you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. This is my defense to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to our food and drink? Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a wife, as the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Who tends a flock without getting some of the milk? Do I say this on human authority? Does not the law say the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain." Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of a share in the crop. If we have sown spiritual good among you, is it too much if we reap your material benefits? If others share this rightful claim upon you, do not we still more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.


Gospel Reading

11th Sunday of Matthew
The Reading is from Matthew 18:23-35

The Lord said this parable: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the reckoning, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents; and as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, 'Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.' And out of pity for him the lord of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But that same servant, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat he said, 'Pay what you owe.' So his fellow servant fell down and besought him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you.' He refused and went and put him in prison till he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you besought me; and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?' And in anger his lord delivered him to the torturers, till he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart."


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Memorials and Trisagions

Chrismations

Carl Bradford Cramer and his sponsor, Matthew Mirones

Xanthie Mangum and her sponsor, Vicki Sarides

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Saints and Feasts

August 24

11th Sunday of Matthew


August 24

Eutyches the Hieromartyr & Disciple of St. John the Theologian

Saint Eutyches was a disciple of Saint John the Theologian and a fellow laborer of the holy Apostle Paul. He preached the Gospel in many places, pulled down the idols' temples, and suffered imprisonments and many torments at the hands of the idolaters. He finally reposed in peace in deep old age in his native city of Sebastia, near Tarsus.


August 24

Cosmas of Aetolia, Equal to the Apostles

Our holy Father Cosmas was from the town of Mega Dendron (Great Tree) of Aetolia. At the age of twenty, he went to study at the school of the Monastery of Vatopedi on the Holy Mountain. Later, he came to the Athonite Monastery of Philotheou where he was tonsured. With the blessing of his abbot, he departed for Constantinople where he learned the art of rhetoric, and thereafter, he began to preach throughout all the regions of northern Greece, the Ionian Islands, but especially in Albania, for the Christian people there were in great ignorance because of the oppression and cruelty of the Moslems. Finally, in 1776, after having greatly strengthened and enlightened the faithful, working many signs and wonders all the while, he was falsely accused by the leaders of the Jewish people and was executed by strangulation by the Moslem Turks in Albania.


August 24

The Translation of the Relics of Dionysios of Zakynthos, Bishop of Aegina

 

When Saint Dionysios died in 1622 A.D., his last wish was that he be buried in the Church of Saint George on the Strofades Islands where he lived as a monk. Three years after his interment there his body was found to be incorrupt. In 1717 his body was transferred from the Strofades Islands back to his home island of Zakynthos where it resides to this day.


August 24

The Translation of the Holy Relics of Saint Peter, Metropolitan of Moscow

On this day we also commemorate the translation of the holy relics of Saint Peter, Metropolitan of Moscow, which took place in the year 1646.

Our holy and wonderworking Father Peter, Metropolitan of Moscow, was born in Volhynia, tonsured a monk at twelve years of age, and later ordained a priest. He lived in solitude for a time in a desert place north of Lvov and founded the Holy Transfiguration Monastery; afterwards he was sent to Constantinople, where the holy Patriarch Athanasius consecrated him Metropolitan of Kiev in 1308, and he returned to Vladimir, where the Metropolitans of Kiev had their residence at that time (see Saint Jonas on June 15). In 1325, he moved to Moscow, where he founded the Dormition Cathedral, and after his repose in December 21, 1326, was buried there. He was also an iconographer, and two of his icons, the Dormition and the Petrovskaya, are found in the Dormition Cathedral (see Oct. 5).


August 25

Titus the Apostle of the 70

Saint Titus was a Greek by race, and an idolater. But having believed in Christ through the Apostle Paul, he became Paul's disciple and follower and labored with him greatly in the preaching of the Gospel. When Paul ordained him Bishop of Crete, he later wrote to him the Epistle which bears his name. Having shepherded in an apostolic manner the flock that had been entrusted to him, and being full of days, he reposed in peace, some ninety-four years of age.


August 25

Return of the Body of Bartholomew the Glorious Apostle

Concerning the Apostle Bartholomew, see June 11


August 25

Holy Father John of Karpathos


August 26

Adrian & Natalia the Martyrs & their 33 Companion Martyrs in Nicomedea

The holy Martyrs Adrian and Natalie confessed the Christian Faith during the reign of Maximian, in Nicomedia, in the year 298. Adrian was a pagan; witnessing the valor of the Martyrs, and the fervent faith with which they suffered their torments, he also declared himself a Christian and was imprisoned. When this was told to his wife Natalie, who was secretly a believer, she visited him in prison and encouraged him in his sufferings. Saint Adrian's hands and feet were placed on an anvil and broken off with a hammer; he died in his torments. His blessed wife recovered part of his holy relics and took it to Argyropolis near Byzantium, and reposed in peace soon after.


August 26

Our Righteous Father Joseph


August 26

Icon of the Mother of God of Vladimir

In all probability, the icon of the Mother of God of Vladimir was painted in Constantinople. In the twelfth century, Patriarch Luke Chrysoberges sent it to Kiev to Great Prince Yuri Dolgruky. The icon was kept in the convent at Vyshgorod, whence the holy Prince Andrew of Bogoliubovo brought it to Vladimir. The icon is one of the most venerated in Russia, having been carried by princes in military campaigns, prayed before by rulers for the welfare of the people, and flocked to by the faithful of all walks of life. At the election of the metropolitans and patriarchs, the names of the candidates were placed before this holy icon, and after prayer, the lot chosen; Patriarch Tikhon the Confessor was elected this way. The icon is celebrated also on June 23 and May 21, the last feast being established to commemorate the deliverance of Moscow in 1521 from the onslaught of the Tartar Khan Makhmet-Girei.


August 27

Poimen the Great

Saint Pimen was from Egypt and shone forth in the ascetical life in Scete in the fourth century; he was renowned for his discretion. Many of his sayings and deeds are preserved in the Paradise of the Fathers and the Sayings of the Fathers.


August 27

Phanourios the Great Martyr & Newly Appeared of Rhodes

Little is known of the holy Martyr Phanurius, except that which is depicted concerning his martyrdom on his holy icon, which was discovered in the year 1500 among the ruins of an ancient church on Rhodes, when the Moslems ruled there. Thus he is called "the Newly Revealed." The faithful pray to Saint Phanurius especially to help them recover things that have been lost, and because he has answered their prayers so often, the custom has arisen of baking a Phaneropita ("Phanurius-Cake") as a thanks-offering.


August 28

Moses the Black of Scete

Saint Moses, who is also called Moses the Black, was a slave, but because of his evil life, his master cast him out, and he became a ruthless thief, dissolute in all his ways. Later, however, coming to repentance, he converted, and took up the monastic life under Saint Isidore of Scete. He gave himself over to prayer and the mortification of the carnal mind with such diligence that he later became a priest of exemplary virtue. He was revered by all for his lofty ascetical life and for his great humility. Once the Fathers in Scete asked Moses to come to an assembly to judge the fault of a certain brother, but he refused. When they insisted, he took a basket which had a hole in it, filled it with sand, and carried it on his shoulders. When the Fathers saw him coming they asked him what the basket might mean. He answered, "My sins run out behind me, and I do not see them, and I am come this day to judge failings which are not mine." When a barbarian tribe was coming to Scete, Moses, conscious that he himself had slain other men when he was a thief, awaited them and was willingly slain by them with six other monks, at the end of the fourth century. He was a contemporary of Saint Arsenius the Great (see May 8).


August 28

Job of Pochaev

Saint Job of Pochaev was born about 1551 in southwest Galicia of a pious Orthodox family. In his tenth year the Saint departed for the Ugornitsky Monastery of our Saviour in the Carpathian Mountains. Tonsured after two years, he was ordained hieromonk about 1580. Renowned for his meekness and humility, Job was invited by the great zealot for Holy Orthodoxy in the Carpatho-Russia, Prince Constantine Ostrozhky, to be Abbot of the Monastery of the Cross in Dubno. In his zeal for the preservation and propagation of the Orthodox Faith, and to counteract the propaganda of the Uniates, he printed and widely disseminated Orthodox spiritual and liturgical books. About 1600 he removed to the Mountain of Pochaev where at insistence of the brethren, he became Abbot of the Monastery of the Dormition of the Theotokos, which he enlarged and made to flourish. Through his labours, a large printing works was founded at Pochaev and greatly assisted in the nurture of the Orthodox faithful in that region. His monastery became the center of the Orthodox Church in western Ukraine. The Saint reposed, having taken the schema with the name of John, in 1651, at the advanced age of one hundred.


August 28

Synaxis of the Kiev Cave Fathers

On this day, we celebrate the Synaxis of the Kiev Cave Fathers who were laid to rest in the Far Caves of Saint Theodosius in Kiev (see also Sept. 22-28).


August 29

Beheading of the Holy and Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John

The divine Baptist, the Prophet born of a Prophet, the seal of all the Prophets and beginning of the Apostles, the mediator between the Old and New Covenants, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, the God-sent Messenger of the incarnate Messiah, the forerunner of Christ's coming into the world (Esaias 40: 3; Mal. 3: 1); who by many miracles was both conceived and born; who was filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb; who came forth like another Elias the Zealot, whose life in the wilderness and divine zeal for God's Law he imitated: this divine Prophet, after he had preached the baptism of repentance according to God's command; had taught men of low rank and high how they must order their lives; had admonished those whom he baptized and had filled them with the fear of God, teaching them that no one is able to escape the wrath to come if he do not works worthy of repentance; had, through such preaching, prepared their hearts to receive the evangelical teachings of the Savior; and finally, after he had pointed out to the people the very Savior, and said, "Behold the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of the world" (Luke 3:2-18; John 1: 29-36), after all this, John sealed with his own blood the truth of his words and was made a sacred victim for the divine Law at the hands of a transgressor.

This was Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Galilee, the son of Herod the Great. This man had a lawful wife, the daughter of Arethas (or Aretas), the King of Arabia (that is, Arabia Petraea, which had the famous Nabatean stone city of Petra as its capital. This is the Aretas mentioned by Saint Paul in II Cor. 11:32). Without any cause, and against every commandment of the Law, he put her away and took to himself Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, to whom Herodias had borne a daughter, Salome. He would not desist from this unlawful union even when John, the preacher of repentance, the bold and austere accuser of the lawless, censured him and told him, "It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife" (Mark 6: 18). Thus Herod, besides his other unholy acts, added yet this, that he apprehended John and shut him in prison; and perhaps he would have killed him straightway, had he not feared the people, who had extreme reverence for John. Certainly, in the beginning, he himself had great reverence for this just and holy man. But finally, being pierced with the sting of a mad lust for the woman Herodias, he laid his defiled hands on the teacher of purity on the very day he was celebrating his birthday. When Salome, Herodias' daughter, had danced in order to please him and those who were supping with him, he promised her -- with an oath more foolish than any foolishness -- that he would give her anything she asked, even unto the half of his kingdom. And she, consulting with her mother, straightway asked for the head of John the Baptist in a charger. Hence this transgressor of the Law, preferring his lawless oath above the precepts of the Law, fulfilled this godless promise and filled his loathsome banquet with the blood of the Prophet. So it was that that all-venerable head, revered by the Angels, was given as a prize for an abominable dance, and became the plaything of the dissolute daughter of a debauched mother. As for the body of the divine Baptist, it was taken up by his disciples and placed in a tomb (Mark 6: 21 - 29). Concerning the finding of his holy head, see February 24 and May 25.


August 30

Apodosis of the Feast of the Forerunner


August 30

Alexander, John, and Paul the New, Patriarchs of Constantinople

Saint Alexander was sent to the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea as the delegate of Saint Metrophanes, Bishop of Constantinople (see June 4), to whose throne he succeeded in the year 325. When Arius had deceitfully professed allegiance to the Council of Nicaea, Saint Alexander, knowing his guile, refused to receive him into communion; Arius' powerful partisans threatened that they would use force to bring Arius into the communion of the Church the following day. Saint Alexander prayed fervently that God might spare the Church; and as Arius was in a privy place relieving nature, his bowels gushed forth with an effusion of blood, and the arch-heresiarch died the death of Judas. Saint Alexander was Bishop from 325 until 337, when he was succeeded by Saint Paul the Confessor, who died a martyr's death at the hands of the Arians (see Nov. 6). The Saint John commemorated here appears to be the one who was Patriarch during the years 562-577, surnamed Scholasticus, who is also commemorated on February 21. He was from Antioch, where he had been a lawyer (scholasticus); he was made presbyter, then was sent to Constantinople as representative (apocrisiarius) of the Patriarch of Antioch, and was appointed Patriarch of Constantinople by the Emperor Justinian. Saint Paul was Bishop of Constantinople during the years 687 - 693, in the reign of Emperor Justinian II, and presided over the Quinisext Council in 692.


August 30

The Synaxis of the Holy Hierarchs of Serbia

The Synaxis of the Holy Hierarchs of Serbia: The Saints commemorated on this day are: Sabbas, First Archbishop and enlightener of Serbia (see Jan. 14); Arsenius, his successor, a great hierarch and wonderworker; Sabbas II, son of Saint Stephen, the first-crowned King of Serbia; Nicodemus, Abott of Hilandar, later Archbishop of Serbia; Joannicius, Archbishop, later Patriarch from 1346 to 1349; Patriarch Ephraim, an ascetic, who crowned Prince Lazarus, and later left the patriarchate to live in solitude; Spyridon, Ephraim's successor, who reposed in 1388; Macarius, who printed many church books in Serbia and abroad, was very zealous in renovating and adoring churches, and reposed in 1574; Gabriel, Archbishop, who took part in the Church Council of Moscow during the patriarchate of Nicon, for which the Turks accused him of treason and hanged him in Prusa in the year 1656. Also commemorated are Eustathius, James, Daniel, Sabbas III, Gregory, Cyril (Patriarch), John, Maximus, and Nicon. Many of them labored in asceticism on the Holy Mountain, and all were "good and faithful servants, good labourers in the vineyard of the Lord".


August 30

The Holy New Martyrs of Serbia


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Wisdom of the Fathers

Do we forgive our neighbors their trespasses? God also forgives us in His mercy. Do we refuse to forgive? God, too, will refuse to forgive us. As we treat our neighbors, so also does God treat us. The forgiveness, then, of your sins or unforgiveness, and hence also your salvation or destruction, depend on you yourself, man. For without forgiveness of sins there is no salvation.
St. Tikhon of Zadonsk
Unknown, 18th century

Wherefore then did He not do this, nor forgive the debt before the account? Desiring to teach him, from how many obligations He is delivering him, that in this way at least he might become more mild towards his fellow servant .... He gave more than he asked, remission and forgiveness of the entire debt.
St. John Chrysostom
Homily 61 on Matthew 18, 4th Century

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Saint Catherine News and Events

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Metropolis of Atlanta News

My Beloved Ones,

This week’s Gospel begins just after our Lord comes down from Mount Tabor. There was the peaceful moment when He instructed Peter, James, and John to tell no one of His Transfiguration until after His Resurrection. Now, however, at the bottom of the mountain, there is great noise. Christ finds a crowd waiting for Him, and a man falls at His feet, saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; for often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him” (Matthew 17:15-16). Moments after speaking to Moses and Elijah, Christ is upset with the lack of faith all around Him: from the remaining nine Disciples, from the boy’s father, and from those the crowd.

It is for this reason that He says, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me” (Matthew 17:17). After He miraculously heals the boy, Jesus is privately approached by the Disciples who ask, “Why could we not cast it out? (Matthew 17:19). Jesus is very clear with them: “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. But this kind never comes out except by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:20-21).

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, let us consider the Feast of a servant of God who shows this kind of faith. I am, of course, speaking of the Theotokos & Ever-Virgin Mary. When the Archangel Gabriel announced God’s intention to make her part of His plan for the salvation of the world, Mary showed faith, and accepted God’s Will. Despite her uncertainty, she put away her doubts through faith. And just as a mountain moving is a great mystery to our natural world, the mystery of the Virgin Birth was accomplished, and so was our salvation, through Christ’s Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection.

After our Lord entrusted the care of His mother to John the Beloved Disciple, the Theotokos followed John to Ephesus, before returning to serve the Jerusalem Church. Now, as then, the Archangel Gabriel returned to tell her that her time was close at hand. Unlike so many weak and sinful human beings who fear death, armed with her great faith, the Theotokos was instead full of joy, knowing that she would live again with her Son and her God. When she returned home from praying at the Mount of Olives, the power of the Holy Spirit brought to her all the Apostles, who were preaching throughout the world. Mary consoled them, praying for the peace of the world, and offered her spirit to God, just as she had offered her life.

Even after her Dormition, we are offered more examples of faith. Just as he had been absent after the Resurrection, Saint Thomas was not present with the other Apostles at the time of the Dormition. By the time he arrived, three days have passed since her falling asleep. Remembering our Lord’s words to him: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe”, Thomas does not doubt again (John 20:28). Instead, through faith, he asked to be taken to her tomb in the Garden of Gethsemane. However, when the tomb was opened, the Apostles discovered that before she was taken to Heaven, she had been resurrected.

My beloved ones, as we prepare to celebrate this great feast (and so honor all our Marias, Despinas, Panagiotes and Panagiotas) may we continue to pray and fast, so that as true Christians, we may have that small grain of faith needed—not just to move mountains, but live out the Gospel through works of charity, hope, and love. Χρόνια Πολλά!

+SEVASTIANOS
 Metropolitan of Atlanta

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Archdiocese News

Green Patriarch: Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the protection of the environment

08/19/2025

The world has recently witnessed alarming environmental degradation—with climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and the pollution of natural resources—accompanied by a widening gap between rich and poor and the ongoing failure to implement ecologically sound and sustainable policies. Yet for nearly four decades now, one religious leader has discerned the signs of the times and called people's attention to this social and ecological situation. 


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