SUNDAY MORNING:
8:50 AM - Matins/Orthros
10:00 AM - Divine Liturgy
Sunday School Following Holy Communion
Fellowship Hour after the conclusion of Divine Liturgy in the Hall
Sunday, December 24th
Sunday Before Nativity
9:00am Matins 10:00am Divine Liturgy
Weekly Calendar:
Sun, Dec. 24: Sunday Before the Nativity (Wine & Oil Allowed)
9:00am Orthros 10:00am Divine Liturgy
5:00pm Great Vespers of Christmas
Mon, Dec. 25: The Nativity of Christ (Fast Free)
9:00am Orthros 10:00am Divine Liturgy
Tues, Dec. 26: Synaxis of the Holy Theotokos (Fast Free)
Wed, Dec. 27: St. Stephen the Protomartyr (Fast Free)
Thurs, Dec. 28: 20,000 Martyrs of Nicomedia(Fast Free)
Fri, Dec. 29: The Holy Innocents(Fast Free)
Sat, Dec. 30: St. Anysia the Martyr of Thessaloniki (Fast Free)
5:00pm – Great Vespers
Sun, Dec. 31: Sunday After the Nativity of Christ (Fast Free)
9:00am Orthros 10:00am Divine Liturgy
Christmas, New Year, & Theophany Services
Sun. Dec. 24 – Orthros & Divine Liturgy (9am, 10am)
Sun. Dec. 24 – Great Vespers of Christmas (5pm)
Mon. Dec. 25 – Orthros & Divine Liturgy of Christmas (9am, 10am)
Mon. Jan. 1 – Orthros & Divine Liturgy of Christmas (9am, 10am)
Fri. Jan. 5– Royal Hours of Theophany & Vesperal Divine Liturgy (9am)
Sat. Jan. 6 – Orthros, Divine Liturgy of Theophany, & Great Blessing of the Waters (9am, 10am)
River Blessing – Sat. Jan. 6th (12:30pm @ the Ivy Club)
Our River Blessing will take place at the Ivy Club (5102 N. Galena Rd., Peoria Heights) following Divine Liturgy on Sat. Jan. 6th at 12:30pm. Light refreshments will be provided.
Holiday Dinner – Sat. Jan. 6th (5pm Appetizers, 6pm Dinner)
Our Holiday Dinner will take place on Sat. Jan. 6th at Grecian Gardens (Chilicothe, IL) at 5pm for Appetizers and 6pm Dinner. In order to make your reservation and pay in advance, please either reach out to Tatiana Chaikin at 630-706-1775 or use the following QR code:
The Way Catechism Class – Wednesdays 6pm – 7pm (via Zoom)
No class this week.
Bible Study – Thursdays 7pm – 8pm (via Zoom)
No Bible Study this week.
Sunday School – Sundays following Holy Communion
No Sunday School this week.
On the Sunday that occurs on or immediately after the eighteenth of this month, we celebrate all those who from ages past have been well-pleasing to God, beginning from Adam even unto Joseph the Betrothed of the Most Holy Theotokos, according to genealogy, as the Evangelist Luke hath recorded historically (Luke 3:23-38); we also commemorate the Prophets and Prophetesses, and especially the Prophet Daniel and the Holy Three Children.
This Martyr was the daughter of most distinguished and noble parents named Philip and Claudia. Philip, a Prefect of Rome, moved to Alexandria with his family. In Alexandria, Eugenia had the occasion to learn the Christian Faith, in particular when she encountered the Epistles of Saint Paul, the reading of which filled her with compunction and showed her clearly the vanity of the world. Secretly taking two of her servants, Protas and Hyacinth, she departed from Alexandria by night. Disguised as a man, she called herself Eugene while pretending to be a eunuch, and departed with her servants and took up the monastic life in a monastery of men. Her parents mourned for her, but could not find her. After Saint Eugenia had laboured for some time in the monastic life, a certain woman named Melanthia, thinking Eugenia to be a monk, conceived lust and constrained Eugenia to comply with her desire; when Eugenia refused, Melanthia slandered Eugenia to the Prefect as having done insult to her honour. Eugenia was brought before the Prefect, her own father Philip, and revealed to him both that she was innocent of the accusations, and that she was his own daughter. Through this, Philip became a Christian; he was afterwards beheaded at Alexandria. Eugenia was taken back to Rome with Protas and Hyacinth. All three of them ended their life in martyrdom in the years of Commodus, who reigned from 180 to 192.
Sunday before Nativity
The Reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Hebrews 11:9-10; 32-40
BRETHREN, by faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city which has foundation, whose builder and maker is God.
And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets - who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated - of whom the world was not worthy - wandering over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
And all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
Sunday before Nativity
The Reading is from Matthew 1:1-25
The book of the Genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, and Aram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king.
And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa, and Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amon, and Amon the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel" (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife, but knew her not until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus.