February 16th, 2025
Always a Spiritual Focus, First
February 16th, 2025
Always a Spiritual Focus, First
Dearest Parish Family Members,
I really love this coming Sunday’s Gospel lesson, commemorating the Parable of the Prodigal Son—because it really does strike a chord with all of us, how circumstances in our lives can cause us to fall away and become lost at times, and the great effort it may take for us to find our way back to any semblance of good order and good life.
For the prodigal son, it took deprivation to get him to “come to himself.” And that’s a great phrase: the idea of “coming to ourselves.” Perhaps in modern terminology, we could even say we experience a “wake-up call.” How many times have we found ourselves in our lives running headlong into a wake-up call, something that jolts us and causes us to quickly change things?
I’ve had many wake-up calls in my life. Maybe all of us have. This is why I appreciate this Sunday’s commemoration of the Prodigal Son. We have all been that person, at one time or another.
Our Church helps us to remember this good lesson, by showcasing this Parable in Church each year.
What can we do to always remind ourselves of this value, to “come to ourselves” more frequently? Perhaps, by evaluating ourselves more often, by making a checklist of how we are doing, of reminding ourselves how our decisions may affect other people in our lives. Perhaps, in this way, we can check ourselves to make sure we are either on the right track or need to diverge and get back on a better track.
The Prodigal Son caused reactions not only in his own life, but also in the lives of those he left behind: his father and his brother, both with repercussions, one with anger and one with longing. Perhaps, a good lesson from this is to always evaluate how our choices and actions may inadvertently affect people around us, in our families, in our workspaces.
My best appreciation of this Gospel passage is to realise how we all may fall away to some degree from living our faith, from considering other people. I just feel inspired when I can see more people checking in and coming to attend our faith services, to strengthen ourselves and each other by “corporate prayer,” which is joining the body of Christ together, strengthening each other as well as ourselves.
In the way the prodigal son’s father greeted him in his return amazes me—his relief at his safe return, his embrace back into the family. To me, it’s a great allegory to how God himself relieves us and embraces us back again, so we may never wander lost again. It’s a good reminder that we can always come back stronger for our loss, stronger for our wanderings and sometimes bitter experiences.
I hope many of you reading this may be able to join us on Friday night for our parish family’s Valentine’s Dinner and glendi. I especially hope to see more of you all attending and strengthening our Sunday worship Divine Liturgy. You can be stronger with us, as we are stronger with you, too.
Faithfully, Father Samaras
1st Morning Gospel
Sunday of the Prodigal Son. On February 16th, 2025, we commemorate the holy Martyrs Pamphilos, Valens, Paul, Seleucos, Porphyrios, Julian, Theodoulos, Elias, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Samuel, and Daniel; and the holy Martyrs in Martyropolis; and also devout Saint Marouthas, who rebuilt the city and named it after the Martyrs; our devout father Flavian; our father among the saints Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople. And today, we remember the parable of the Prodigal Son from the holy Gospel, which the most divine Fathers placed second in the Triodion.
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2024 PARISH COUNCIL
President - Theo Christ
Vice President – Yvonne Anastasiou
Secretary – Dina Mastoras
Parish Council Member - Evdokia Sofos
Parish Council Member - Dialecti Voudouris
Parish Council Member - Anastassios Mentis
Parish Council Member – Paula Refolo
Parish Council Member - Theodore Vougiouklakis
Parish Council Member - Mike Anastasiou