SS.

kosmas & damianos Orthodox Church (goa)

703 W. Center Street, Rochester, MN (507) 282-1529 http://www.rochesterorthodoxchurch.org

office@rochesterorthodoxchurch.org Rev. Fr. Mark Muoz, Proistamenos

/APOLYTIKIA FOR TODAY

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From on high didst Thou descend, O Compassionate One; to
burial of three days hast Thou submitted that Thou mightest
free us from our passions. O our Life and Resurrection, Lord,
glory be to Thee.
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You justified the forefathers in faith, and through them
betrothed yourself, aforetime, to the Church taken from out of
the Gentiles. The saints boast in glory. For from their seed, there exists a noble crop, who is she
who without seed has given You birth. By their intercessions, O Christ our God, save our souls.
/KONTAKION FOR TODAY

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On this day the Virgin comes to a cave to give birth to God the Word ineffable, Who was before
all the ages. Dance for joy, O earth, on hearing the gladsome tidings; with the Angels and the
shepherds now glorify Him Who is willing to be gazed on as a young Child Who before the ages
is God.

11th Sunday of luke/ Sunday of the holy forefathers of christ

Daniel the Stylite of Constantinople, Luke the New Stylite of Chalcedon, Holy Martyrs Ascepsia and Aethal
Holy Martyrs Miracus and Barsabas, Leontios the Righteous of Monemvasia, The Glorious King Nikephoros Phokas

December 11th, 2016

*NATIVITY FAST*

Todays scripture readings

Epistle reading

St. Paul's Letter to the Colossians 3:4-11

Prokeimenon. Mode 4.
Daniel 3.26,27
Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers.
Verse: For you are just in all you have done.

BRETHREN, when Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and
covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming upon the sons
of disobedience. In these you once walked, when you lived in them. But now put them all away;
anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing
that you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is
being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there cannot be Greek and Jew,
circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.
Gospel pericope

The Lord said this parable: "A man once gave a great banquet, and invited many; and at the
time of the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, 'Come; for all is
now ready.' But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a
field, and I go out and see it; I pray you, have me excused.' And another said, 'I have bought
five yoke of oxen, and I must go to examine them; I pray you, have me excused.' And another
said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.' So the servant came and reported this
to his master. Then the householder in anger said to his servant, 'Go out quickly to the streets
and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame.' And the servant
said, 'Sir, what you commanded has been done, and there is still room.' And the master said to
the servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house
may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. For
many are called, but few are chosen.'"

Announcements
TODAY: WE WELCOME A VERY SPECIAL VISITOR TO OUR FELLOWSHIP HOUR THIS
MORNING! PARENTS PLEASE BRING YOUR CHILDREN FOR A TREAT!
Mon. Dec. 12th: ST. SPYRIDON THE WONDERWORKER, Orthros/Divine Liturgy 8:30am
Mon. Dec. 12th: Orthodoxy & Heterodoxy Adult Rel Ed. Class, 6pm
Wed. Dec. 14th: GOYA Faith Night, 7pm
Sat. Dec. 17th: ST. DIONYSIOS OF ZAKYNTHOS, Orthros/Divine Liturgy 8:30am
Sat. Dec. 17th: Christmas Carolimng @ St. Marys Hospital, 1:00pm
Stewardship Materials: We would like to inform all parishioners that this upcoming week will be
sending out all the Stewardship Pledge Cards and follow up emails. Please be on the lookout for these
important documents!
Christmas at the Rochester Womens Shelter: Please help the St. Philothei team provide much needed
gifts to the Womens Shelter for Christmas. Some of the items will be given directly to the guests at the
Shelter, and other items are for the Shelter to provide better care for those in need. Please bring all
donations to the church by Dec. 14th or give your donations to a St. Philothei team member: Erline
Holman or Calli Kelly. Your donations will be delivered along with the weekend meals to the Shelter on
Dec. 15th. Items needed: Hats, mittens/gloves, scarves (guests), pillows twin sized blankets/sheets, size 5
diapers (for the Shelter).
Christmas Toy Drive: Every year our parish will partner with the Salvation Army to provide Christmas
presents for those families in need. Please bring your unwrapped gifts for either teenagers or young
children ages 0-3yrs, clothing or toys are preferred. Place gifts in the large Christmas box located in the
narthex of the church starting today through Sunday. Dec. 18th. FYI, gifts will be secured in locked office
during the week to prevent the disappearance of some gifts. Thank you for participating in this
important drive!
HOW TO RECEIVE HOLY COMMUNIONOnly

Orthodox Christians in good standing are encouraged to receive Holy

Communion frequently, provided they have prepared themselves spiritually, mentally and physically. They must be on time for the
Divine Liturgy, and be in a Christ-like, humble state of mind. They should be in a confession relationship with their priest or spiritual
father, have observed the fasts of the Church, and they should have self-examined their conscience. On the day of receiving Holy
Communion, it is not proper to eat or drink anything before coming to church. When you approach to receive Holy Communion,
state your Christian (baptismal) name clearly, and hold the red communion cloth to your chin. After receiving, wipe your lips on the
cloth, step back carefully, hand the cloth to the next person and make the sign of the Cross as you step away. Please do not be
in a rush while communing! Please take special care not to bump the Holy Chalice.

Pearls from the Desert

In death the soul that has come to know God through the Holy Spirit
experiences a measure of dread when the angels bring her before the
Lord, since while living in the world she was guilty of sin. But when the
soul beholds the Lord, she rejoices in His meek and merciful
countenance, and the Lord in the abundance of His gentleness and love
remembereth not her sins. One glance at the Lord, and love of Him will
take up its abode in the soul, and from love of God and the sweetness of
the Holy Spirit she will be completely transformed. -St. Silouan the
Athonite
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Christmas Toy Drive

This year our parish will partner with the Salvation Army
to provide Christmas presents for those families in need.
Please
bring your unwrapped gifts for either teenagers or young children ages 0-3yrs, clothing or toys
are preferred. Place gifts in the large Christmas box located in the narthex of the church. The
last of day for drop off will be Sunday. Dec. 18th. Fyi, gifts will be secured in locked office
during the week in order to prevent the disappearance of some gifts. Thank you for
participating in this important drive!
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Are you able to lend a helping hand?: Our parish has a Priest
Discretionary Fund which Father uses to help those individuals that come
to him with legitimate needs both from within and outside the parish
family. Cash is rarely distributed; rather gift cards to local grocery stores,
gas stations, and retail stores are procured based on the circumstances and
the individual need. We rely on private donations from parishioners to
keep this account flush with funds. The Holiday Season is the only time of
the year where a general plea for this cause is made. Please consider
making a donation with checks payable to Holy Anargyroi with
Discretionary Fund in the memo. THANK YOU in advance!

Todays liturgical commemorations

1. The Venerable Daniel the Stylite
Daniel was born in the village of Bethara near the city of Samosata in Mesopotamia of Christian parents,
Elias and Martha. Through her tearful prayers, his barren mother received him from God, and as an only
son he was dedicated to God from early childhood. Daniel embraced the monastic rank at the age of
twelve, visited Simeon the Stylite, and was blessed by him. Desirous of solitude, Daniel left the
monastery and withdrew to an abandoned pagan temple on the shore of the Black Sea. There he endured
countless assaults from demons, but he conquered them all by perseverance, prayer and the sign of the
Cross. Afterward he climbed up on a pillar. There he remained until his death, enduring both heat and
cold, and attacks from both men and demons. Many disciples gathered around his pillar, and he directed
them to eternal life by his example and his words. God rewarded His faithful servant with abundant grace
while in this life, and he performed many miracles beneficial to men and prophesied future events. People
from all parts crowded beneath his pillar, seeking help and counsel from the saint of God. Emperors and
patriarchs as well as ordinary people came to him. Emperor Leo the Great brought his foreign guests,
princes and nobles, and showed them St. Daniel on the pillar, saying to them: ``Behold, the wonder in my
kingdom!'' Daniel foretold the day of his own death, instructed his disciples as a father to his sons, and
took leave of them. At the time of his death, his disciples beheld angels, prophets, apostles and martyrs
above his pillar. Having lived for eighty years, this holy angelic man entered into rest and took up his
habitation in the Kingdom of Christ in the year 489.
2. The Venerable Luke the Stylite
Luke lived in Constantinople at the time of Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus. As a soldier, he
participated in the war against the Bulgarians, in which he witnessed the death of many thousands of
people, and from that war he emerged alive and unharmed. Seeing the finger of God in his deliverance,
Luke scorned the vanity of the world and withdrew to a pillar near Chalcedon. There he lived a life of
asceticism for forty-five years, cleansing his soul of all sinful desires and thoughts. Pleasing God, he
entered into rest sometime between the years 970 and 980 and took up his habitation in a better life.
3. The Venerable Nicon the Dry
As a monk in the Monastery of the Kiev Caves, he was enslaved by the Tartars. He lived for three years in
captivity: shackled, tortured and mocked. When his kinsmen brought the money to ransom him from his master, he
refused, saying: ``If the Lord had wanted me to be free, He would not have delivered me into the hands of these
lawless men.'' Once he told his master that Christ would free him in three days. The Tartar thought that this meant
that his slave was going to escape, so he severed his tendons below the knees. However, on the third day, Nicon was
indeed instantly carried to Kiev by an invisible hand. After a period of time, the Tartar came to Kiev and recognized
Nicon, his former slave. He repented and was baptized. The former master became the servant and disciple of his
former slave. Nicon was called ``the Dry'' because of the great austerity of his bodily fasting, and he was a great
clairvoyant and miracle-worker. He entered peacefully into rest in the Lord on December 11, 1101.

Guidelines for the

Nativity Fast
We are well aware that our Holy Church provides the
faithful with a period of spiritual preparation in
anticipation of the Lords Holy Nativity. This period
begins on November 15th every year with the
commencement of the Nativity Fast. As this fast is a modified one I thought it
helpful to remind us all exactly what is prescribed:
From Nov. 15th-Dec. 12th (St. Spyridon) the following is observed:
Fish/wine/oil are allowed every day except Wednesdays and Fridays which are
observed as strict fast days (no meat, fish, dairy, wine, oil).
From Dec. 12th-Dec. 25th the following is observed:
A strict fast is observed every day except Saturdays and Sundays.
From. Dec. 25th-Jan. 4th: NO FASTING ON ANY DAY!

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Parish Council Results for 2017

The following three stewards have been elected during last Sundays Parish
Council elections and will be sworn in as soon as the results are finalized by
the Metropolis! Congratulations!!!

Ben Johnson
Jason Meier
Jacob Petersen

On the Sunday that occurs on or immediately after the

eleventh of this month, we commemorate Christ's
forefathers according to the flesh, both those that came
before the Law, and those that lived after the giving of the
Law.
Special commemoration is made of the Patriarch
Abraham, to whom the promise was first given, when God
said to him, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be
blessed" (Gen. 22:18). This promise was given some two
thousand years before Christ, when Abraham was
seventy-five years of age. God called him and commanded
him to forsake his country, parents, and kinsmen, and to
depart to the land of the Canaanites. When he arrived there, God told him, "I will give
this land to thy seed" (Gen. 12:7); for this cause, that land was called the "Promised
Land," which later became the country of the Hebrew people, and which is also called
Palestine by the historians. There, after the passage of twenty-four years, Abraham
received God's law concerning circumcision. In the one hundredth year of his life, when
Sarah was in her ninetieth year, they became the parents of Isaac. Having lived 175
years altogether, he reposed in peace, a venerable elder full of days.
Today, let us the faithful acclaim
all the Fathers before the Law:
Abraham, the friend of God,
Isaac, born of the promise,
Jacob and the twelve Patriarchs,
honoring with these the gentle David,
and Daniel, the Prophet of Desires,
and the three Youths who changed the furnace into dew.
Let us ask forgiveness of Christ our God,
Who is glorified in His saints!
- Doxastikon from Vespers of the Forefathers

St. Spyridon is
celebrated tomorrow
The island of Cyprus was both the birthplace
and the place where this glorious saint
served the Church. Spyridon was born of
simple parents, farmers, and he remained
simple and humble until his death. He
married in his youth and had children, but
when his wife died he devoted himself
completely to the service of God. Because of
his exceptional piety, he was chosen as
bishop of the city of Tremithus. Yet even as
a bishop he did not change his simple way of
living, handling his livestock and cultivating
his land himself. He used very little of the
fruits of his labor for himself; instead, he
distributed a greater share to the needy. He
manifested great miracles by God's power: he brought down rain in time of drought,
stopped the flow of a river, raised several people from the dead, healed Emperor
Constantius of a grave illness, saw and heard angels of God, foresaw future events,
discerned the secrets of men's hearts, converted many to the true Faith, and did much
else. He took part in the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea [325], and he brought
many heretics back to Orthodoxy by his simple and clear expositions of the Faith as
well as by his mighty miracles. He was so simply dressed that once, when he wanted
to enter the imperial court at the invitation of the emperor, a soldier, thinking that he
was a beggar, struck him on the face. Meek and guileless, Spyridon turned the other
cheek to him. He glorified God through many miracles, and was of benefit, not only to
many individuals but also to the whole Church of God. He entered into rest in the
Lord in the year 348. His miracle-working relics rest on the island of Corfu, and even
today they glorify God with many miracles.