Guide to: CHRISTMAS 2018

Darkness must pass. A new day will come.

And when the sun shines

it will shine out the clearer.

J. R. R. Tolkien

MY DEAR PARENTS, Christmas, the feast of the Nativity of our Lord, is a time of the year that every heart is in search of something different, beyond the normal… the routine; in search of something extraordinary, not of this world; “magic” as we often describe it.

By this we mean, happiness, peace, warmth and excitement in our heart. The vast majority of us, alas, will find only anxiety and worries.

The “magic” is beyond our grasp only because we try to find it elsewhere, where it is not, while it is in front of us. The “magic” is not really magic but rather Divine blessing, a gift from God.

It is the Traditions that we have from immemorial times as Greek Orthodox people. These Traditions strengthened the faith and enriched the life of generations upon generations of our ancestors.

As we approach Christmas I invite you to regenerate within your families this life-giving

Traditions; Come to Church on Christmas morning, as a family; don’t let the feast bypass you while you are getting ready to celebrate it; this, unconsciously, leaves emptiness in your hearts…and emptiness brings anxiety and pain.

I look forward to celebrating together with you and your beloved families, these most heartfelt Feasts. In Christ Born, Fr. Nicholas

Christmas Carols: Saturday, Dec. 22 & 23, anytime between 4:30-8:00 p.m. Christmas Eve, Monday, December 24 5:00 PM – Christmas Eve Liturgy; an opportunity to receive Christ and celebrate His Birthday for people who are heading out for Christmas Eve parties and may not be able come to Church on Christmas morning.

Christmas Day, Tuesday, December 25 7:00 AM – Christmas Orthros & around 8:00 a.m. Christmas Liturgy (finishing around 9:30 a.m.). This is the Birth-Day of our Lord. By tradition the service starts very early in the morning and finishes at dawn. It is an amazing experience, to wake up early on Christmas day and from the frostiness and coldness of the day arrive to the sweet warmness of the Christmas Church! Our service is not very early (as tradition has it) but not very late either (to keep as close to our tradition).

New Year Carols: Saturday, Dec. 29 & 30, anytime between 4:30-8:00 p.m.

New Year, Tueday, January 1 9:30 AM – Divine Liturgy of St. Basil,

to celebrate his feast and start with the Lord’s blessing of the New Year. At the end of the service,

around 11:00, we will cut the Vasilopita!

Theophany, Sunday, January 6 The Great Feast of Lights, the Day we bless

the waters and through them the whole creation, including ourselves.

9:00 AM – Divine Liturgy ● 10:30 AM Great Blessing of the Waters

2018 ΚΑΛΑΝΤΑ/CAROLS Σαββατοκύριακο 22 & 23 Δεκεμβρίου:

κάλαντα των ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥΓΕΝΝΩΝ

& τo Σαββατοκύριακο 29 & 30 Δεκεμβρίου:

κάλαντα της ΠΡΩΤΟΧΡΟΝΙΑΣ.

Παρακαλούμε ανοίξτε τα σπίτια σας στα παιδιά

και την ωραία παράδοση των καλάντων.

Weekend, December 22nd & 23rd: Christmas Carols &

Weekend, December 29th & 30th: New Year Carols

Calling all members of St. George Church Adults, Children - Young or Old!!! There is no better way to get

into the spirit of the Holidays than sharing the joy of Christmas

with our community – it truly is something to celebrate!

Please join us in spreading Christmas cheer and sign up for a

Caroling route on Christmas or New Year’s weekend!

Please Join Us For The CHRISTMAS HOLY UNCTION ΕΥΧΕΛΑΙΟ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥΓΕΝΩΝ

on Friday, December 21ST @ 6:00 p.m.

ΠΡΟΓΡΑΜΜΑ ΔΩΔΕΚΑΗΜΕΡΟΥ 2018-2019

Παρασκευή 21 Δεκεμβρίου – 6:00 μ.μ.:

Ιερό Ευχέλαιο Χριστουγέννων

Σάββατο 22 Δεκεμβρίου: 10:30 π.μ. Riverside & 12:00 μ.μ. στο St.

John’s. Επίσκεψη στα Κοιμητήρια για Τρισάγια

Κυριακή 23 Δεκεμβρίου - 8:45 -11:15 π.μ.:

Όρθρος και Θ. Λειτουργία Κυριακής προ της Χριστού Γεννήσεως

Δευτέρα 24 Δεκεμβρίου – 9:00 π.μ.: Μεγάλες Ώρες Χριστουγέννων

• 5:00-6:15 μ.μ.: Μέγας Εσπερινός Χριστουγέννων μετά Θ.

Λειτουργίας του Μ. Βασιλείου

Τρίτη 25 Δεκεμβρίου - 7:00-9:30 π.μ.:

Όρθρος & Θεία Λειτουργία των Χριστουγέννων

Δευτέρα 31 Δεκεμβρίου - 6:00 μ.μ.:

Εσπερινός Εορτής Μεγάλου Βασιλείου

Τρίτη 1 Ιανουαρίου - 8:30-11:00 π.μ. :

Όρθρος, Θεία Λειτουργία Μ. Βασιλείου,

Δοξολογία Νέου Έτους & κοπή Βασιλόπιτας

Παρασκευή 4 Ιανουαρίου- 9:00-10:30 π.μ. :

Μεγάλες Ώρες Θεοφανίων

Σάββατο 5 Ιανουαρίου- 8:00-11:00 π.μ. :

Όρθρος, Θ. Λειτουργία προ των Φώτων & Αγιασμός των

Υδάτων

6:00 μ.μ. :Μέγας Εσπερινός των Θεοφανίων

Κυριακή 6 Ιανουαρίου- 8:45-11:30 π.μ. :

Όρθρος, Θ. Λειτουργία των Φώτων & Μέγας Αγιασμός των

Υδάτων

• 6:00 μ.μ.: Εσπερινός Εορτής Τιμίου Προδρόμου

Δευτέρα 7 Ιανουαρίου- 8:00 π.μ. :

Όρθρος, Θ. Λειτουργία Συνάξεως Τιμίου Προδρόμου

CHRISTMAS PROGRAM 2018-2019

Friday, December 21st - 6:00 p.m.:

Christmas Holy Unction

Saturday, December 22nd: At Riverside at 10:30 a.m. & at St. John’s at

12:00 p.m. Cemetery visits for prayers for the departed

Sunday, December 23rd - 8:45-11:15 a.m.:

Orthros & Divine Liturgy of Sunday before Christmas

Monday, December 24th – 9:00 a.m.: Great Hours of Christmas

• 5:00-6:15 p.m.: Great Vespers of Christmas & D. Liturgy of St.

Basil the Great

Tuesday, December 25th - 7:00-9:30 a.m.:

Orthros & Divine Liturgy of Christmas

Monday, December 31st - 6:00 p.m.:

Vespers of the Feast of Saint Basil

Tuesday, January 1st – 8:30--11:00 a.m.:

Orthros & D. Liturgy of St. Basil the Great,

New Year Doxology & Vasilopita Cutting

Friday, January 4th – 9:00-10:30 a.m.:

Great Hours of Theophany

Saturday, January 5th – 8:00-11:00 a.m.:

Orthros, Divine Liturgy of Theophany & Blessing of the Waters

6:00 p.m.: Great Vespers of Theophany

Sunday, January 6th – 8:45-11:30 a.m.:

Orthros & D. Liturgy of Theophany & Great Blessing of Waters

• 6:00 p.m.: Vespers for the Feast of St. John the Baptist

Monday, January 7th – 8:00 a.m.:

Orthros & D. Liturgy for St. John the Baptist

On Christmas

For many, Christianity is just a beautiful dream. It’s a world in

which everyday reality goes a bit blurred. It’s nostalgic, cozy, and

comforting. But real Christianity isn’t like that at all. Take

Christmas, for instance: a season of nostalgia, of carols and candles

and firelight and happy children. But that misses the point

completely. Christmas is not a reminder that the world is really

quite a nice old place. It reminds us that the world is a shockingly

bad old place, where wickedness flourishes unchecked, where

children are murdered, where civilized countries make a lot of

money by selling weapons to uncivilized ones so they can blow

each other apart. Christmas is God lighting a candle; and you don’t

light a candle that’s already full of sunlight. You light a candle in a

room that’s so murky that the candle, when lit, reveals just how

bad things really are. The light shines in the darkness, says St John,

and the darkness has not overcome it.” (2)

When we realize once again that our God is the one who loves us

into new life, then we will really know how to celebrate. True

celebration, in turn, sustains true humanness. As we glimpse the

living God, we are transformed into his likeness.

So, it isn’t surprising that those who are grasped by this gospel

have built cathedrals. People who have forgotten who God is

produce concrete jungles and cardboard cities. People who

remember or rediscover who God is build cathedrals to his glory,

and homes where the poor are cared for; we have both in our city,

and they belong together, in celebration and healing. People in our

contemporary society are cramped and stifled, fed on a diet of

ugliness and noise. They are hungry for beauty, for light, for music.

In celebrating and maintaining a wonderful cathedral, we are not a

sub-branch of the ‘heritage industry.’ We are telling real people

about a real God: we are saying that there is a different way to be

human, a way in which worship and mystery and silence and light

and space all play their proper part.

By N. T Wright

ABOUT CHRISTMAS… The Gospel stories about the birth of

Jesus are not a simple retelling of the

events that took place then, at the

stable in Bethlehem. In his commentaries

on the birth of Jesus, the renowned

scripture scholar, Raymond Brown,

highlights that these narratives were

written long after Jesus had already been

crucified and had risen from the dead

and that they are colored by what his

death and resurrection mean. At one

level, they are as much stories about

Jesus’ passion and death as they are

about his birth.

When the Gospel writers looked

back at the birth of Jesus through the

prism of the resurrection they saw in his

birth already the pattern for both his

active ministry and his death and

resurrection: God comes into the world and some believe and

accept him and others hate and reject him. For some, his person

gives meaning, for others it causes confusion and anger. There is an

adult message about Christ in Christmas and the meaning of

Christmas is to be understood as much by looking at the cross as by

looking at the crib. Hardly the stuff of our Christmas lights, carols,

cribs, and Santa.

And yet, these too have their place. Karl Rahner, not naïve to what

Raymond Brown asserts, argues that, even so, Christmas is still

about happiness and the simple joy of children captures the

meaning of Christmas more accurately than any adult cynicism. At

Christmas, Rahner contends, God gives us a special permission to

be happy: “Do not be afraid to be happy, for ever since I [God]

wept, joy is the standard of living that is really more suitable than

the anxiety and grief of those who think they have no hope. … I no

longer go away from the world, even if you do not see me now. … I

am there. It is Christmas. Light the candles. They have more right

to exist than all the darkness. It is Christmas. Christmas that last

forever.” At Christmas, the crib trumps the cross, even as the cross

does not fully disappear.

How do the cross and the crib fit together? Does Calvary cast a

permanent shadow on Bethlehem? Should Christmas disturb us

more than console us? Is our simple joy at Christmas somehow

missing the real point?

No. Joy is the meaning of Christmas. Our carols have it right. At

Christmas, God gives us a special permission to be happy, though

that must be carefully understood. There is no innate contradiction

between joy and suffering, between being happy and undergoing

all the pain that life hands us. Joy is not to be identified with

pleasure and with the absence of suffering in our lives. Genuine joy

is a constant that remains with us throughout all of our experiences

in life, including our pain and suffering. Jesus promised us “a joy

that no one can take away from you”. Clearly that means

something that doesn’t disappear because we get sick, have a loved

one die, are betrayed by a spouse, lose our job, are rejected by a

friend, are subject to physical pain, or are enduring emotional

distress. None of us will escape pain and suffering. Joy must be

able to co-exist with these. Indeed, it is meant to grow deeper

through the experiences of pain and suffering. We are meant to be

women and men of joy, even as we live in pain. That’s a coloring,

taken from their understanding of Jesus’ death and resurrection,

which the Gospel writers insert into their narratives about his birth.

But, of course, that is not what children see when they get caught up

in the excitement of Christmas and when they look at the Christ-child

in the crib. Their joy is still innocent, healthily protected by their

naiveté, still awaiting disillusion, but real nonetheless. The naïve joy

of a child is real and the temptation to rewrite and recolor it in light

of the disillusionment of later years is wrong. What was real was real.

The fond memories we have of anticipating and celebrating

Christmas as children are not invalidated when Santa has been

deconstructed. Christmas invites us still, as John Shea poetically puts

it, “to plunge headlong into the pudding.” And despite all the

disillusionment within our adult lives, Christmas still offers us,

depressed adults, that wonderful invitation.

Even when we no longer believe in Santa, and all the cribs, lights,

carols, cards, colorful wrapping-paper, and gifts of Christmas no

longer bring the same thrill, the same invitation still remains:

Christmas invites us to be happy, and that demands of us an

elemental asceticism, a fasting from adult cynicism, a discipline of

joy that can hold the cross and the crib together so as to be able to

live in a joy that no one, and no tragedy, can take from us. This will

allow us, at Christmas, like children, to plunge headlong into the

pudding. Christmas gives, both children and adults, permission to

be happy.

By Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI

THE TRADITION OF THE HOUSE BLESSING

It is part of our traditions, as Greek Orthodox, to invite the priest to

bless our home with holy water within a few weeks following the feast

of Theophany.

All who reside in the household should make every effort to be present

for the Blessing. In anticipation of the arrival of the Priest to the house,

a candle, hand-censer and incense in the family’s icon corner should be

prepared.

Upon the arrival of the Priest, he is to be greeted by all family members,

each of whom asks the Priest’s blessing and reverences his right hand

and the Cross.

In order to schedule a house blessing, please call the office of the

church or fill the “House Blessing” form that you can find at the

pagari (Candle-counter).

SAINT GEORGE GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH Office/Mailing Address: 238 West Rocks Road, Norwalk, CT 06851

Phone: (203)849-0611 Email: Fr.Nick@stgeorgect.org www.stgeorgect.org