St. Catherine’s

Newsletter November, 2017

Assumption Greek

Orthodox Church

Preparing Meals for

Feed My Starving Children

By Sophia Szubert

This past Saturday, thirty gracious volunteers from our church community donated their time to pack food at Feed My Starving Children in Aurora. FMSC is a non-profit Christian organi-zation that packs and ships nutritionally com-plete meals to malnourished children in under-developed countries. Their work is solely based on volunteers. Without them, the mira-cles they perform would not be possible. The meals that are packed are shipped to 60 impov-erished countries all over the world. A large portion of these countries are located in Africa where 1 in 3 children are malnourished. In just 2 hours, we packed enough meals to feed 103 children for an entire year. Not only was this opportunity rewarding, but it was also EX-TREMELY fun! Every group in our session was cheering, laughing, and singing and danc-ing to music. Children and adults of all ages participated and everyone had a job to do, whether it was scooping food into bags, weigh-ing the meals, or labeling the boxes. After we cleaned up our stations, everyone stood around the packed boxes and a lovely girl from anoth-er group led us all in a prayer to ensure the safety of the food’s travels and the health of the children as well as our own health and safety. Overall, the experience was amazing. If you would like to volunteer at FMSC, you can reserve a session at either location (Schaumburg or Aurora). It’s the perfect op-portunity to give back to the community this giving season!

ST. CATHERINE’S NEWSLETTER

Ask Father……….. By Fr. Dimitri Burikas In every issue of the St. Catherine Newsletter, I will be answering questions from you, the youth of our parish. If you have a question, leave it in the

“Ask Father” box after Divine Liturgy on Sunday. Maybe you will see your question in the next issue of the newsletter!

Why can’t women be priests? – Anonymous

This is a subject that requires a complicated answer, but I’ll try to keep it brief. Theologically speaking, there is no reason why a woman cannot be a priest. Rather, what I have found in my research is that the main reason that our Church does not ordain women priests is simply that it never has. You see, we believe that throughout our Church’s life, we have been guided by the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit. That means that for 2,000 years, the Holy Spirit – God Himself – has guided us to have priests who are men. If God was guiding us to change, we would not be able

to avoid it. But that undeniable call for change has simply not come.

Does this mean that God or the Church hate women or somehow think they are less than men? Absolutely not. Remember that the ulti-mate goal of being an Orthodox Christian is not to be a priest. In fact, very few men become priests, either. The goal of being a Christian is to be transformed by God and become like God. All people, women and men, are called to be saved. In the Kingdom of Heaven, St. Paul says, there will be

no difference between male and female.

Furthermore, we have many examples of holy women who have served the Church in many different ways: as evangelists and missionaries (St. Thekla and St. Nina), as rulers (St. Theodora), hymn writers (St. Kassiane), theologians (St. Makrina), defenders of the faith (St. Catherine), preachers, teachers, iconographers, martyrs, saints, etc. The greatest example we have is our Mother and protector, the Virgin Mary, whom our Church holds as the greatest among the saints and an example to all Christians for the true Christian life. So instead of focusing on the one thing that God has not called women to do in the life of our Church, we should focus on all of the great things women can and do all the time and support

more women to participate in the work of the Church in whatever way they are called by God.

Meet Maki Gilroy! By Jayne Jurasek I would like to introduce you to one of our new SCS teachers, Maki Gilroy. He teaches the 11/12th grade high school class. I had a chance to sit down with Maki (well, virtually) and here's the scoop: What is your favorite memory of Sunday School at Assumption? I have so many fond memories of Sunday School that it's hard to pick just one. Performing music with my sisters for the Christmas pageant is now a memory I cherish very much. I enjoyed winning Jolly Ranchers for answering Old Testament trivia questions in the Maniatis' class. Where did you go to school college, and what did you study? I went to Notre Dame for college and majored in theology and premedical sci-ences. I was blessed to study God's world from a theological and scientific perspective. What are you doing now--plans to work or continue studies? I'm currently completing post-baccalaureate courses at Dominican University with plans to apply to medical school in the future. What is a favorite church holiday or service? Why? The Transfiguration on August 6th has become my favorite Feast Day because it helps me understand the ultimate Christian goal of theosis. The Transfiguration reveals the lofty ending God has in store for His Creation. What do you like about teaching SCS?

Teaching SCS allows me to continue my own learning while, hopefully, showing my students how much there is to explore about our Orthodox Faith. Along with that, I have found planning lessons has required me to refine and synthesize my own thoughts about topics, making for a truly rewarding experience each Sunday. What are your hobbies? What do you do for fun? When I'm not studying, I enjoy cooking and reading about theology, philosophy and science. I especially like learning about cosmology and the funda-mental science that describes our universe. Occasionally, I play hockey with friends also. Who is your favorite Chicago sports team? I love hockey, so the Blackhawks have always been my favorite!

It has been a joy to teach our oldest SCS students, who are all preparing for their next step in life after high school. We have young men and women with diverse talents, and each student brings a unique perspective into our class discussion. Oth-er than the weekly goal of reviewing the Gospel together, the curriculum has some flexibility. This makes each Sunday a chance to explore something new about Or-thodoxy. It is my hope that we can continue to have lessons on subjects that inter-

est the students and help them better understand their faith.

One of the subjects we have discussed in the first few weeks is Orthodox eschatolo-gy. This is an area of theology that deals with questions related to what happens after death and how the world will come to its end. More recently, we have out-lined the major parts of the Divine Liturgy and explained their symbolism and signifi-cance. During our very first class session, we completed an introductory “gallery walk”. This activity had students walk around the room and take a second to reflect on various quotes and icons that I had attached to the walls. I asked them to jot down the first thoughts or questions that came to mind, and afterwards we ana-lyzed the themes present. I have included a few of the quotes and icons I used for the activity. Take a look at them and see what thoughts pop into your head! Teach-

er: Philip “Maki” Gilroy

“The best icon of God is the Human Person”- Paul Evdokimov

“God became man so that men might become gods” – St. Athanasios

“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in; aim at earth and you get neither”-

CS Lewis

SCS 11/12th Grade

ASSUMPTION GREEK ORT HODOX CHURCH Page 3

The Real St. Nicholas

by Fr. Dimitri Burikas

Now that Christmastime is coming up, we will be seeing and hearing a lot about a certain jolly old man dressed in a red suit delivering toys to good girls and boys. What we know about Santa Claus, a.k.a. St. Nicholas (Santa Claus means St. Nicholas in German), makes him sound like a myth, a fairytale, or even a cartoon character. But Santa Claus, the one we see on television and at the store, is very

different than the St. Nicholas the Orthodox Church knows and loves.

First of all, St. Nicholas was a real person. He was born in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) probably around 270 AD to Christian parents. St. Nicholas who loved God with all of his existence. When he was born, he used to fast from milk on Wednesdays and Fridays. Growing up as a young boy, his favorite activities

were going to church and reading the Bible.

Second of all, St. Nicholas really was very good at giving gifts to people who needed them. The famous story, and how St. Nicholas got his reputation, has to do with a poor man who had three daughters. At that time, for a woman to get married, her family had to give money to her future husband to use to take care of her during her life. The problem was, this man didn’t have enough money for any of his daughters to get married. Even worse, he couldn’t afford to take care of them anymore either. He was even thinking about selling his daughters into slavery

so that he could survive.

The saint found out about this poor family’s situation and decided to do something to help. At night, he disguised him-self and went to the little house where the family live. Seeing that a window was open, he tossed a bag of gold coins inside and immediately left. When the family woke up, they found the coins, and the father used them so that his first daughter could get

married. St. Nicholas repeated this two more times, and saved the poor family from ruin!

Later on, St. Nicholas became a bishop. The people loved St. Nicholas because of the kindness and love he showed to them. In 325, was went to the first-ever Ecumenical Council (an Ecumeni-cal Council was a huge meeting of bishops that made important decisions for the Church). At this council was a priest named Arius. Arius was teaching people that Jesus was not God! At the council,

Arius got up and began to say all of his crazy teachings.

St. Nicholas had heard enough. He got up and slapped Arius in the face. It is against the rules for a bishop to strike any-one, so St. Nicholas was stripped of his rank of bishop for a time. That night, several of the other bishops had a vision of Christ and the Virgin Mary giving St. Nicholas his bishop robes and the Gospel back. They took it as a sign, and the next day, the council restored

St. Nicholas.

This great saint is known for working many miracles, espe-cially for sailors (he is the patron saint of sailors). Once, there was a boat with sailors traveling through a terrible storm. It looked like they weren’t going to be able to save the ship and that the sailor would probably die as well. Suddenly, they saw a vision of an old bishop out over the water. The storm calmed, and the ship safely

made it to its destination.

In our Church, there is a saying that “God is glorious in His saints.” This is very true in the life of St. Nicholas, who in every way glorified God in his life. He is an inspiration to us as Christians living today to be brave and bold in our faith and to care for our fellow humans to the best of our abilities. He shows us that when we get in a bad spot, we can count on God and

the saints to help us. Most of all, he shows us that the best life is a life lived in Christ.

May God bless all of us through the intercessions of St. Nicholas!

INFO

The St. Catherine’s Newsletter was created in 2007

by a Sunday School student. It serves to inform,

educate, and entertain the children of the Assump-

tion Greek Orthodox Church community. All are

welcome and encouraged to contribute to the news-

letter. If you are interested in writing an article,

sending in a self written piece of work, or just for

more information… PLEASE CONTACT:

Very Rev. Fr. Timothy Bakakos —

FrTimothy@assumptionchicago.org or Dr. Evie Maggos— demags@aol.com

Assumption Greek Orthodox Church

601 S. Central Avenue

Chicago, IL 60644

Phone: 773-626-3113

Fax: 773-626-3141

HOURS

MATINS — 8 :30 AM

DIVINE LITURGY—

9:45 AM

We’re on the web!

www.assumptionchicago.org

COMING UP…..

St. Catherine Vespers and

Feast Day Nov. 24/25

Light the Tree and

Decorate the Hall

Saturday, Dec. 9, 6:00 p.m.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING Artwork by Amelia

Little Lambs is in its third month this November. We hope to offer a space where the children of Panagia not yet old enough for Sunday School classes can play together. We gather together in the St. Catherine's chapel after Divine Lit-urgy every Sunday. The little ones can crawl around, have a snack, play with blocks, complete some puzzles, or com-pete an art project. Small snacks are offered. Parents are welcome to stay and play or drop off their child. Parents are also always welcome to offer suggestions. We look forward to seeing you soon. Teacher: Dave Diehl

SCS Little Lambs