Thursday, August 14th, we will celebrate the Divine Liturgy in celebration and commemoration of the Virgin Mary! All faithful, and visitors, are encouraged to attend the Divine Services, beginning at 5:00 pm, as we venerate the Mother of God!
May our Lord and Savior heal us as we approach with the fear of God, faith, and love, during the celebration of His All-Holy Mother!
The 2008 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America’s Clergy - Laity Congress uttered a profound
and urgent theme: “Gather My People Home.” The impact of this theme is felt when we under-
stand the ‘who,’ ‘how,’ and ‘what’ involved. Let’s examine this simple, yet powerful theme one
word at a time. . .
“MY” – it is inferred in this statement that God Himself is the speaker (reference Zephaniah 3:20), therefore, ‘my’ is a reference to God.
“PEOPLE”– grammatically, the people referred to are God’s people, not a segmented, or selected group of individuals, but all of mankind.
“HOME” – eschatologically this refers to the Kingdom of God (reference John 14:2), and in the present time in which we live, it refers to the Church (reference 1 Timothy 3:15), which is a
manifestation and experience of the heavenly Kingdom on earth, through the sacraments.
“GATHER” – Initiating this theme is the verb ‘gather,’ which commands an action to take place. The action is to go out and bring together God’s people by leading them to His Church.
“My People Home” is relatively easy to understand, however, the true dynamism of the statement is found in the initial verb, ‘Gather.’ In this statement, God is commanding whoever hears the statement. Therefore, the thousands in attendance at the Clergy-Laity Congress, together with the hundreds of Basilian readers, the thousands of Saint Basil website viewers, and all those who have read scripture have been commanded by God Himself to “gather,”— go out and inspire others to come to the House of the Lord…Church!
His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios highlighted four distinct groupings of God’s people who need special attention in our effort of gathering:
1) Non-Practicing Orthodox Christians
2) Those who intermarried into the Orthodox Christian Church and are not engaged.
3) Youth
4) The Un-Churched; those who do not attend any church and have no particular religious affiliation
Think for a moment…do you know anyone in any of these four categories?…perhaps even yourself? Now think of yourself as an instrument and tool of God, whose purpose is to “gather God’s people to Church.”
There are many aspects of community life at Saint Basil’s, which you may use to (re)introduce one of God’s children to His Home: Saint Basil Family Night, Bible Study, Catechism Classes, 20’s/30’s, 40’s/50’s, Youth Programs to name of a few — not to mention the Divine Liturgy itself!
As a community of faithful, let us not simply allow this theme application to the 2008 Archdiocese Clergy-Laity Congress, but let us apply it to the life of the Saint Basil community and the life of each and every one of us as individual Christian pilgrims!
God has commanded you, will you respond?
+Fr Luke Palumbis
I recently attended our 2008 Archdiocese Clergy-Laity Congress in Washington D.C. The event was successful, and provided many avenues for growth in the Christian sense - both as communities and individuals. However, the most exciting part of the congress, in my opinion, was the opening address by His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios. In his opening address, aimed at exploring the congress theme: ‘Gather My People Home,” His Eminence made a powerful statement about the modern Church in America: “The Church is no longer an immigrant church, or an ecclesiastical entity of the diaspora — it is firmly rooted in American soil.” I was pleased to hear our ArchShepherd addressing dynamics of the present day Church in our country of the United States of America.
I am curious to hear your thoughts as readers of this blog. After receiving some of your comments, I will compile a report of reader’s thoughts in a future blog…all anonymous of course.
May our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ bless us on our Christian pilgrimage of illuminating the world around us with the Light of God!
For more information about this event and registration Download The Registration Form.
If you have additional questions, please contact Tournament Director, John Tsirelas, 209-969-6755; or the Church Office, 209-478-7564
Return registration form with payment to:
St. Basil Greek Orthodox Church
920 W. March Lane
Stockton, CA 95207
“O Holy God, Who created man from the dust and fashioned woman from his rib
and joined her to him as a helpmate, for it so pleased Your Majesty that man should not be alone on the earth. Do You now, O Master, send down Your hand from your holy dwelling-place and join this your servant (Bridegroom) and this Your servant (Bride) for by You woman is brought into union with man. Join them together in harmony, crown them in one flesh, grant to them the enjoyment of fair children.”— From the Orthodox Christian Wedding Service
Healthy marriages must have commitment and connections between the spouses, ultimately bringing offerings of love that we as people can offer to one another. The connection typically leads to the commitment — and seemingly many believe this commitment, after some form of religious or civil ceremony, produces a marriage. Although this process appears convenient, it ultimately builds upon a foundation which is weak in nature, as it was produced by man. Unfortunately this has been witnessed time and time again, with a lamentable divorce rate of almost 50% in the United States alone!
Christians view this process as temporary; this process leads us toward marriage, and is termed as engagement. Christian marriage is something beyond this process, as it is something beyond what we can build alone and offer to one another. Marriage is only established by God Himself, and it is a great mystery as God, through His Church, joins two people together — placing their souls in union with one
another for all of eternity. Despite legislation or any false sense of egotism, this is something that man can not establish. The foundation is strong, without fault, as it is built by God. God establishes this union only when He may be present and bless all aspects of the union; spiritual, emotional, and physical. After this foundation is built by establishing a marriage, the man and woman build their unified life together, with God’s help, as He heals any faulty building through the couple’s commitment to a process of forgiveness and repentance.
Perhaps if individuals understood this Christian experience of marriage, sad statistics of divorce would begin to be undone with healthy experiences of marriage. When a marriage is reduced to simply the commitment that two people offer to one another, then when the terms of that commitment are no longer exciting, the marriage may easily be abandoned. However, when a marriage is understood and experienced as a mystery that God has established for all of eternity; something beyond human capacity to regulate and control — we become participants in something divine, not easily abandoned.
Please include in your daily prayers all those in the union of marriage, asking the Lord to strengthen the understanding and experience of that which God has established. To God be all Glory!!!
+ Fr. Luke Palumbis
In an effort to continually serve God’s people through both efficient and effective mediums, Saint Basil’s has established multi-media, internet ministries. Currently, we offer our parish website, www.gosaintbasil.org, podcasts, and blogs. We are currently developing audio classes that will be made available through our website and podcast.
We are interested to hear your thoughts… Are you an Orthodox Christian? …are you not? Where are you from? What would you like to hear about through these multi-media forums to assist you on the pilgrimage of Christian living? Please respond with your thoughts by e-mailing Father Luke at, frluke@gosaintbasil.org.
Please keep the ministry of Saint Basil Greek Orthodox Christian Church in your prayers, as you are in ours!
Starting Sunday June 15, 2008, Orthros will begin at 8:00am and the Divine Liturgy will begin at 9:00am. Please note the change on your calendars.
Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen!
Watching our preschool children play in the festival grounds last week, I witnessed one
boy crying as he sat hunched over by himself, off to the side of all the action. After a
brief moment, two other boys approached him, inviting him to play with them on tri-
cycles—quickly all three were laughing and playing together. This boy’s entire day
changed because he was invited to play with his classmates!
A man from Lebanon recently shared with me his love for the people of Cyprus.
Numerous times, while under foreign attack, the citizens of Lebanon have been forced
to flee, many to the island of Cyprus. This gentleman was one of those individuals, and
he told me that he will always feel at home, and a great sense of love for Cyprus
because the people were so welcoming!
The Patriarch Abraham received three visitors, which were a manifestation of the Holy
Trinity, and he immediately pleaded with them, so that he might have the opportunity to
extend to them his hospitality. Abraham not only stepped forward to offer hospitality,
he also approached his wife Sarah, so that she too might offer hospitality to their visitors.
After being welcomed with such an invitation and authentic hospitality, the Lord
blessed Abraham and Sarah with a child!
God is standing in front of you with His arms outstretched, waiting for you to step into
His embrace, and the experience of His perfect love. As you step closer toward His
embrace, the warmth of His outstretched arms closing in around you will produce such
comfort that it invokes a security beyond measure.
A profound beauty of Christ’s Church is that all have been invited and are welcomed to
enter, in order to experience His embrace. Once any individual steps into the front
doors of the narthex, they place themselves into the position of approaching God’s
embrace, the beginning of this embrace is experienced when the community
members welcome, and offer hospitality to the one stepping into God’s house. As
Christians, a blessed responsibility has been given to us all — to be ministers of God’s
love by being inviting, welcoming, and offering hospitality to all those who ap-
proach an experience of Christ’s Church.
As we welcome visitors and one another at Saint Basil’s, let us pray that our Lord will
one day welcome us into His Heavenly Kingdom! To God be the Glory!!!
+ Fr. Luke Palumbis
