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2 THE SHEPHERD • OCTOBER 2025 • SAINT SPYRIDON GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH OF SAN DIEGO Dear Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Years ago, I often enjoyed friendly conver- sations with an Irish friend and co-worker who was a devout Roman Catholic. In one of those conversations, he confided that his brother had converted to Orthodoxy be- cause of the “smells and bells.” By that, he meant the use of the censer in our Divine Liturgy—something that had been limited in the Roman Catholic Mass following the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s. His remark stayed with me, prompting re- flection on the Greek Orthodox Divine Lit- urgy and the ways it engages all of our sens- es. We see the censer and its rising smoke as the clergy swing it throughout the service. We hear the soft chime of the twelve bells attached to its chains. We breathe in the fra- grance of the incense, lifting our hearts in prayer. Our senses are also embraced by the beauty of iconography surrounding the sanctuary and by the sound of chanting and hymns offered with our prayers to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Visitors to our parish often remark on how moving and beautiful the chanting and hymns are—a special gift that lingers in their memory. As the Psalm- ist writes: “Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; speak of all His wondrous works” (Psalm 105:2). This year, the National Forum of Greek Or- thodox Church Musicians celebrates Nation- al Church Music Sunday on October 5, 2025. On this day, let us express our heartfelt grat- itude to our chanters and choir members, whose voices enrich every service, especial- ly during the profound days of Great and Holy Week. In particular, we thank Kathy Meck for her many years of devoted service as choir director, and for her extraordinary leadership in guiding and organizing our youth choir. Not only do they compete in the annual Folk Dance and Choral Festival, but they also join our choir on Sundays, making it truly intergenerational. Finally, we are all called to participate in the Divine Liturgy. So, if you’ve ever thought of yourself as a “secret church musician,” let your voice be heard! Sing the responses from your pew and join your voice with the choir. As Kathy has often said, she hears the con- gregation singing—and she loves it. In Christ’s Love and Service, Anthony Kyriakidis Parish Council President FROM THE PARISH COUNCIL PRESIDENT BACK TO SCHOOL FOR WOW! On Saturday, September 13, twenty-three women gathered for our first one-Saturday- a-month in-person women’s Bible study, Women of the Word. We are so grateful for the overwhelmingly positive response—so positive, in fact, that we needed to find a bigger room! We will now be meeting in the Lower Education Building on the second Saturday of each month. In the introductory session, we took a close look at the scope of our book, Seeing the Gospel: An Interpretive Guide to Orthodox Icons and noted that the chapters we will study each month mirror quite closely the Church calendar through Pascha. We had a warm time of introducing ourselves to one another by sharing about an icon that has been meaningful to us — a child- hood icon, the first one that we obtained for ourselves, or one that has a special con- nection to our hearts. It was a lovely way to begin to know one another, and our group has a lovely span of age groups—each decade is well repre- sented! Also, we have chosen the Righteous Mary and Martha of Bethany, Sisters of Lazarus, as the patron saints of our group. The guiding scripture of WOW, James 1:22, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only,” has always been our mission and motto. We believe Saints Mary and Martha exemplify being both hearers and doers of the Word. They believed in Christ as the Son of God even before He raised their brother Saint Lazarus from the dead. After the murder of the holy Archdeacon Stephen, a persecution against the Jerusalem Church broke out, and Righ- teous Lazarus was cast out of Jerusalem. The holy sisters then assisted their brother in the proclaiming of the Gospel in various lands. The sisters are commemorated on the Sun- day of the Myrrh-bearing Women and on June 9. We welcome women who would still like to be part of the study to join us on Saturday, October 11 from 10:30 to 12:15 in our Low- er Education Building home. Please contact Kay Harkins at kayharkins@mac.com for in- formation and to register. WOMEN WORD OF THE BOOKSTORE What is prayer? Prayer is doxology, praise, thanksgiving, confession, supplication, and intercession to God. Or as St. Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia teaches: “Turn your mind towards the Lord continually. Learn to love prayer, converse with the Lord. What counts above all is love, passionate love for the Lord, for Christ the Bridegroom. Become worthy of Christ’s love. In order not to live in darkness, turn on the switch of prayer so that divine light may flood your soul. Christ will appear in the depths of your being. There, in the deep- est and most inward part, is the Kingdom of God.” To assist with our prayer life and developing a habit of prayer, our Orthodox Christian faith has comprised selections of morning and evening prayers, prayers during the day, at mealtimes, for family and friends, confes- sional prayers and prayers to our most Holy Theotokos, the Saints, and our guardian an- gels. These prayers can be found in a variety of prayer books stocked in the bookstore. Please take a look for: My Orthodox Prayer Book, A Pocket Prayer Book, My Daily Or- thodox Prayer Book, The Psalter, and When You Pray to name a few. There is also a selec- tion for children too: I Pray Today, We Pray, Goodnight Jesus, and A Child’s Guide to Prayer. May these traditional prayers help all of us Orthodox Christians continue to grow in the life of prayer; hence growing closer to our Lord. Many blessings, Stephanie Mourafetis, Mary Mastorakos, Pat Tsopanoglou, Francesca Captain, Hitomi Shue, and Kaylin Marino