The Parish Council of Holy Transfiguration is calling for a Special Parish Assembly to be held on Sunday, June 26, 2011 in the Parish Life Center immediately following the Divine Liturgy. The main purpose of this Assembly is to discuss two items of urgency as shown in the Agenda below. We need your participation in this decision making process. Please encourage other parishioners to join us, as well.

The AGENDA for the June 26, 2006 Assembly is as follows:

AGENDA

1.   Opening Prayer

2.   Election of Chairperson

3.   Father George’s Message

4.   Proposal to adjust Iconography Contract

5.   Proposal to purchase New Pews for the Sanctuary

6.  Closing Prayer and Adjournment

Eligible to vote are all Stewards of the Parish. We encourage people to submit their Stewardship Form so that they will become eligible to vote. If you have any questions, please contact the church office.

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This is a time of celebration and rejoicing as we experience once again the miracle of miracles which heals our fallen human nature, the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Rejoice and be glad in this day! Glory be to the Risen Lord!

Fr. Panayiotis

As we enter the Great Fast, I would like for us to ponder at the value of fasting. Fasting in an opportunity to reflect on our lives as we remember the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross for us as we approach Holy Week.

Recently a young man who decided this year to try to fast from meat throughout the whole Lent for the first time in his life explained his decision this way: “I will do this for Christ. If He died for me, this is a small thing to do for Him.”

Fasting is, of course, a spiritual exercise. As we exercise our ability to control what we eat we also cultivate our ability to control our sinful urges and develop our virtues. We need to beautify the “Image of God” in us. Our ultimate goal is to attain perfection in the “likeness of God”.

Here is a comment from one of the great fathers of the Church, St. John Chrysostom, who advises his hearers to fast:

“We do not become like God by eating and drinking and adorning ourselves.  For God does not eat or drink or adorn Himself.  We would become like God by exercising justice, by showing loving-kindness, by being useful, meek and merciful to others and by seeking every virtue.  For eating and drinking is common even with the irrational beasts and we differ nothing in that with them.  Where, then, does our superiority come?  From the fact that we have been made in the image of God and his likeness.” St. John Chrysostom, In illud: Domine; non est in homine, PG 56, IV, 159

Wishing you a Blessed & Holy Great Lent,

Fr. Panayiotis

Theme: The Spiritual Life of Children Sunday, March 6, at 12:30 pm (after Divine Liturgy) in the downstairs Classroom of the Parish Life Center.

The presentation will draw on the “Attachment Theory” of John Bowlby, the pedagogy of Maria Montessori, and the experience and questions of participants in order to investigate the challenges of raising our children in freedom and love for the living Christ, which is at the heart of Orthodoxy, in contrast with conformity to a rule-based ideology that oppresses the spirit of the person.

May God Bless you and protect you always,

Fr. Panayiotis

Fr. Panayiotis

As we anticipate the New Year 2011, I take this opportunity to wish you and your families many blessings from above for the new year.

You are always in my prayers at every Divine Liturgy.

May God grant to you all earthly gifts, health and prosperity, but may He also inscribe you in the Book of Life in His Heavenly Kingdom.

Love, always,

Fr. Panayiotis

The world has not been the same since then. A new view of human life has dawned upon us. The concept of God humbling Himself and becoming one of us has captured the minds and hearts of human beings for 2000 years. We needed that feeling of love from our Creator! We needed to know He is so close to us. We needed to see His sacrifice for the betterment of our fallen humanity. Glory be to His Holy Name!