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1 THE SHEPHERD • OCTOBER 2021 • SAINT SPYRIDON GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH OF SAN DIEGO FROM THE DESK OF FATHER ANDREW www.theshepherdnews.com The Shepherd Newsletter My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, On Wednesday, October 18th the church (you and I) will remember and celebrate the feast day in honor of Saint Luke the Apostle, Evangelist and Gospel writer. With the month of Octo- ber upon us the Church will begin to read the Gospel of St. Luke within the Divine Liturgy throughout the month of October until basi- cally the end January 2022. Because St. Luke is such an in uential Saint of the Church and we will be listening to his Gospel for the next several months, a few words about him may prove to be helpful. Saint Luke comes to us from the ancient city of Antioch, Syria. He was an educated man of the times and a physician. He was also an eloquent orator and an artist. He is in fact the patron saint of physicians and artists. roughout his many missionary journeys, St. Luke healed many people who came to him for help. He is also responsible for the icon he painted of the holy eotokos. It is the icon we hear about from the end of the Paraklesis service chanted during the “Fif- teen Days of August.” Even though St. Luke was a skilled physician, a creative artist and an excellent orator he is also known as an historian. He is responsible for giving to the world not only his Gospel account but also the New Testament book of Acts (of the Apostles). St. Luke wrote the Gos- pel account as he heard it from St. Paul and the other Apostles but his account from Acts was from his own experience. From these two books the Church drew, and still draws, much in the way She expresses Herself. Saint Luke devoted much of his life serving Christ and His Church. He died a peaceful death in Ephesus at the age of eighty-four and his relics were transferred to the City of Constantinople around the (5th) century. “An appraisal of the contributions to Christi- anity by St. Luke cannot be measured by the number of words he wrote, the many mis- sionary miles he traveled, or the number of years he spent in exclusive dedication to Jesus Christ.” From the rst chapter and the third verse of Saint Luke’s Gospel we hear him ad- dress someone called Θεόφιλος translated “lover/friend of God.” …it seemed good to me to write an orderly account for you, the most excellent eophilos, that you may know the truth… (Luke 1:3; 4). Likewise, if we claim to love God/Christ then St. Luke is addressing us as well and it is in- cumbent upon us to press upon Him to hear the word of God (Luke 5:1). As the crowd (the assembly) of believers did so then, we too, coming out of the pandemic, must press upon Him to hear His word , now more than ever. As they assembled and became the Ek- klesia (the Church) we too must assemble and become the Church, in our respective areas. Upon assembling, it is time for all of us to return to our respective parishes as the body of Christ on earth (Eph. 1:22;23; Col.1:24) to hear the word of God through the reading of the Epistle and Gospel lessons within the context of the Divine Liturgy (the assembly) as the body of Jesus Christ. Why? For every one who calls upon the Lord will be saved. But how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent? So, faith comes by what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ (or the word) (Romans 10:13-17). All this brings us back to the importance of devoting ourselves (once again) to the cele- bration of the Divine Services of the Church continues 3 IN THIS ISSUE FR. ANDREW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 1 PRESIDENT OF THE PARISH COUNCIL, WOMEN OF THE WORD . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 2 DIVINE SERVICES, NEWS FROM THE LOFT, DEATHS, MEMORIALS, STEWARDSHIP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 3 GREEK LANGUAGE SCHOOL, COLLEGE CONNECTION, SUNDAY SCHOOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 4 GOYA NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 5 PHILOPTOCHOS NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 7 BOOKSTORE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 9 PARISH CALENDAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 10 CONTACT INFORMATION. . . . . . . . . . . p. 12 The Shepherd The official newsletter publication for the parish of Saint Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church of San Diego I S S U E 3 0 5 • O C TO B E R 2 0 2 1