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SUNDAY,
November 15th, 2020 –Seventh Sunday of Luke
·
8:30 am
-Matins/Orthros
Click
this link to Orthros/Matins Gospel Reading
9:30 am -
Divine Liturgy.
Click
this link to Epistle Reading
Click this link to Holy Gospel Reading
·
There will be NO 12:00 pm Paraklesis to
Saint Nectarios.
·
The
General Assembly Meeting will be held this day, November 15th,2020. The
quorum requires 123 members. If there is no quorum, the next meeting
will be on November 22nd, 2020. The meeting will take place under the
tent and patio, unless Los Angeles County allows indoor meetings or
services. Meeting will be held following Divine Liturgy service.
Reading
LUKE 10:25-37 – THE GOOD
SAMARITAN
The Gospel:
25And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and
tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
26He said to him, “What is written in the law?
What is your reading of it?”
27So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your
strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’”
28And He said to him, “You have answered
rightly; do this and you will live.”
29But he, wanting to justify himself, said to
Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man
went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who
stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him
half dead. † 31Now
by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he
passed by on the other side. † 32Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came
and looked, and passed by on the other side. 33But a certain Samaritan, as
he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had
compassion.† 34So
he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he
set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of
him.† 35On the next day, when he
departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said
to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come
again, I will repay you.’ 36So which of these three do you think was neighbor to
him who fell among the thieves?”
37And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
Source: Bible, Crimson Publishing. The Orthodox
study bible (updated Old and New testament) (Kindle Locations
73850-73851). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.
Summary
In the
course of a discussion about what it means to love one's neighbor,
Jesus tells a parable about a man, as a Jew, in need who
receives compassionate care from a person who was supposed to be his
enemy, a Samaritan.
Analysis
The
context in which Jesus tells this parable is important for
understanding what the parable itself means. The Gospel's narrator
reveals that the legal expert talking to Jesus is attempting "to
justify himself" when he asks Jesus, "And who is my
neighbor?" His intention, therefore, is to limit the understanding
of who rightly can be considered his neighbor, to limit the range of
people whom he must love. The parable responds by expanding the notion
of who qualifies as a person's neighbor.
The parable itself is a story of great compassion coming from an
unlikely source. Jesus certainly presents the injured man as a Jew,
yet leaders among his own people--the priest and the Levite--refuse
to help him. These two passersby are religious figures, and their
associations with the Jerusalem temple make them connected to the heart
of Jewish identity and piety. The Samaritan who appears on the scene is
out of place in Judea, on a road between Jerusalem (Jerusalem
is the place of peace symbolic of communion with God) and Jericho (Jericho
was renowned as a place of sin (Luke 19:1). Because most
Samaritans and Jews held deep-seated
resentments against the other group, the compassion and actions of
the Samaritan in the parable are surprising. He reflects the lengths to
which love will go. He treats the injured man not as an enemy but as a
neighbor, as one of his own.
The conclusion of the story is also important. Jesus does
not ask the legal expert to identify who in the parable is his neighbor,
as if that is what this man really needs to discover. Jesus asks him to
identify who in the parable is "a neighbor to the man who fell
into the hands of the robbers." The point is that the parable and
Jesus' concluding question force the lawyer to consider the nature of
neighborly activity. Jesus directs him to see neighborliness in the
actions of the Samaritan and not to speculate about what might qualify
a person to be considered someone else's neighbor. Since a Samaritan is
the parable's model character, the legal expert conversing with Jesus
must learn about genuine love from the example of a person he
would regard as his enemy. Jesus has reframed the question that
prompted the parable in the first place; instead of identifying who
counts as a neighbor to be loved, Jesus indicates that a person
truly acts as a neighbor through loving. The legal expert wants
to know who deserves his love. Jesus replies by showing how authentic
love will seek out, even in the unlikeliest of places, neighbors to
receive compassion and care.
Source
Link: https://www.enterthebible.org/resourcelink.aspx?rid=145
Resurrectional Apolytikion
Mode pl. 2.
When the angelic powers
appeared at Your grave, the soldiers guarding it feared
and became as dead. And
standing by the sepulcher was Mary who was seeking Your
immaculate body. You devastated
Hades, not afflicted by it. You went to meet the virgin,
and granted eternal
life. You resurrected from the dead. O Lord, glory to You.
Ἀπολυτίκιον
Ἀναστάσιμον.
Ἦχος πλ. βʹ.
Ἀγγελικαὶ Δυνάμεις ἐπὶ
τὸ μνῆμά
σου, καὶ οἱ φυλάσσοντες
ἀπενεκρώθησαν,
καὶ ἵστατο Μαρία ἐν
τῷ τάφῳ,
ζητοῦσα τὸ ἄχραντόν
σου σῶμα.
Ἐσκύλευσας
τὸν
ᾍδην, μὴ
πειρασθεὶς
ὑπ' αὐτοῦ,
ὑπήντησας
τῇ Παρθένῳ,
δωρούμενος
τὴν ζωήν,
ὁ
ἀναστὰς
ἐκ τῶν
νεκρῶν, Κύριε δόξα
σοι.
Resurrectional Kontakion
When the Life-bestower
Christ God had resurrected with His vivifying hand, from the
dismal caverns, all the
dead from eternity, He freely bestowed resurrection on the substance of
our mortal humanity. For He is the Savior of all, resurrection and
life, and the God of all things.
Κοντάκιον Ἀναστάσιμον.
Τῇ ζωαρχικῇ
παλάμῃ τοὺς τεθνεῶτας,
ἐκ τῶν
ζοφερῶν κευθμώνων
ὁ Ζωοδότης,
ἀναστήσας
ἅπαντας Χριστὸς ὁ
Θεός, τὴν
ἀνάστασιν
ἑβράβευσε,
τῷ βροτείῳ
φυράματι·
ὑπάρχει γὰρ πάντων
Σωτήρ, ἀνάστασις
καὶ ζωή,
καὶ Θεὸς
τοῦ παντός.
WEDNESDAY, November 18th, 2020
·
There will be NO 7:00 pm -Paraklesis
Service to Saint Nectarios.
NOVEMBER 21st, 2020 – ENTRANCE
OF THE THEOTOKOS
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SATURDAY,
November 21st, 2020 – The Entrance of the Theotokos
into the Temple
·
8:00 am
-Matins/Orthros
Click
this link to Orthros/Matins Gospel Reading
9:00 am
- Divine Liturgy.
Click
this link to Epistle Reading
Click this link to Holy Gospel Reading
Reading
Luke 10:38-42, 11:27-28 Mary and Martha
The
Gospel:
38Now it happened as they
went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named
Martha welcomed Him into her house. † 39And she had a sister called
Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. 40But Martha was distracted
with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not
care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore, tell her
to help me.”
41And Jesus answered and said
to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many
things. 42But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part,
which will not be taken away from her.”
27And it happened, as He
spoke these things, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her
voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the
breasts which nursed You!” †
28But He said, “More than
that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
Source: Bible, Crimson Publishing. The Orthodox
study bible (updated Old and New testament) (Kindle Locations
73850-73851). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.
Analysis:
10: 38-42 Mary and Martha both loved
Jesus. On this occasion they were both serving him. But Martha
thought Mary’s style of serving was inferior to hers. She didn’t
realize that in her desire to serve, she was actually neglecting her
guest. Are you so busy doing things for Jesus that you’re not
spending any time with him? Don’t let your service become self-serving.
Jesus did not blame Martha for being concerned about household
chores. He was only asking her to set priorities. Service to Christ
can degenerate into mere busywork that is totally devoid of devotion
to God.
11: 27-28 Jesus was speaking to
people who put extremely high value on family ties. Their genealogies
were important guarantees that they were part of God’s chosen people.
A man’s value came from his ancestors, and a woman’s value came from
the sons she bore. Jesus’ response to the woman meant that a person’s
obedience to God is more important than his or her place on the
family tree. Consistent obedience is more important than the honor of
bearing a respected son.
Source: Tyndale. NIV Life Application Study
Bible, Second Edition (p. 7470). Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Kindle Edition.
Reading About the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple
The Entrance
of the Theotokos into the Temple,
also called The Presentation, is one of the Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church, celebrated on November 21. Among those Orthodox Christians who use the
"Old" (Julian) calendar as their Church calendar, the date of this feast
corresponds to December 4 in the secular calendar.
According to Tradition, the Theotokos was
taken – presented – by her parents Joachim and Anna into the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem as a three
year old young girl, where she lived and served as a Temple virgin
until her betrothal to Saint Joseph. One of the earliest sources of this tradition is the
non- canonical Protoevangelion of James, also called
the Infancy Gospel of James.
Mary was solemnly
received by the temple community which was headed by the priest Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. She was led to the holy place to become herself the
"holy of holies" of God, the living sanctuary and temple of
the Divine child who was to be born in her. The Church also sees this
feast as a feast which marks the end of the physical temple in
Jerusalem as the dwelling place of God.
Source link: https://orthodoxwiki.org/Entrance_of_the_Theotokos
Apolytikion of Entry of the Theotokos
Fourth Tone
Today is the prelude
of God's pleasure and the proclamation of man's salvation. The Virgin
is clearly made manifest in the temple of God and foretells Christ to
all. Let us also cry out to her with mighty voice, "Hail,
fulfillment of the Creator's dispensation."
Kontakion of Entry of the Theotokos
Fourth Tone
Today, the most pure temple of the Savior, the precious
bridal chamber and Virgin, the sacred treasure of God, enters the
house of the Lord, bringing the grace of the Divine Spirit. The
Angels of God praise her. She is the heavenly tabernacle.
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