"O Forerunner, thou hast proved to be truly even more venerable than the Prophets, since thou wast granted to baptize in running waters Him who was proclaimed."

In This Issue

• Informative

• Father's Letter

• President's Message

• Fish Fry Fundraiser for Yano Pournaras

• A Letter from Vasilios and Renee Pournaras

• Interview with Pittsburgh Steeler Troy Polamalu

• Sacrament Fee Schedule

Click Here to view the calendar

PANGARI
Sept. 6   - George Moustakis
Sept. 13 - Sam Stathos
Sept. 20 - Nick Katsanos
Sept. 27 - George Spirakis

COFFEE HOUR
Sept. 6   - Presbytera Mary Spirakis and Anastasia Spirakis
Sept. 13 - Cathy Stathos
Sept. 20 - Angie Spyralatos and Penny Vlandis
Sept. 27 - Greek Festival

PROSFORON
Sept. 6   - Veatriki Vrantsis
Sept. 13 - Lisa Harman
Sept. 20 - Dena Platingos
Sept. 27 - Mary Vaughan

SUNDAY GREETERS
Sept. 6   - Chris & Amy Castanes
Sept. 13 - Teodora Rotis & Stella Mislitchi
Sept. 20 - Lou & Lorraine Kachulis
Sept. 27 - Loretta Siotka & Mary Vaughan

MEALS ON WHEELS
Sept. 7  - Elaine Karavan/Anna Kouis
Sept. 8  - Linda Moustakis/Dena Platingos
Sept. 9  - (Ed) Timothy & Mary Vaughan
Sept. 10 - Kalla Szostek/Maria Veselinovich
Sept. 11 - Demitrios Tselides/Dot Radomsky

If you are unable to attend on the day you are assigned, please contact Linda Moustakis at 238-1473 as soon as possible.

THEE HOLY NOOK Offers imported Greek items including hand painted ceramic tiles and jewelry boxes, greeting cards, beautiful icon bracelets, pure olive oil soap, Greek coffee, "brikia" and delicious halva, as well as "A Voyage in Greek Cooking," St. John's parish cookbook. Please stop by, or you may contact Adrianne Finn at 903-1901. If you don't see what you're looking for, ask a Board member.

LADIES PHILOPTOCHOS Will hold their September Board meeting on Tuesday, September 1st at 12 Noon, followed by the General Meeting at at 1:00 p.m. at the fellowship hall coffee room.

DAUGHTERS OF PENELOPE will hold their next meeting on Wednesday, September 9th, at 1PM in the Fellowship Hall Coffee Room. All members please attend!

On Weds, September 16th Philoptochos celebrates the Feastday of Saint Euphemia the Great Martyr and patron saint of the Metropolis Philoptochos. All Philoptochos members and their guests are invited to a luncheon at Luigi's Trattoria on 61st Avenue N. at noon. PLEASE CALL MARIA @ 910-579-1624 TO MAKE YOUR RESERVATION.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! To John & Stephani Engonidis, who welcomed daughter Chrissi on July 27th. Chrissi weighed 6 lbs 14 oz, and was 19" long.
 

CASA: CITIZENS AGAINST SPOUSE ABUSE

Violence Breaks Up Families... and Ruins Lives

Due the economy, CASA funding has been cut. The safe houses are in need of groceries-- especially food cards from any grocery store, in any amount, will be greatly appreciated. Please keep bringing your unwanted items to church. The CASA thrift store will sell items the victims cannot use in order to pay for housing and other expenses for the abused. Thank you for your generosity.

BELATED CONGRATULATIONS to Alexander Rogers, who graduated from the College of Charleston in June with a degree in Biology.

WANTED - Your photos
We would like your pictures from our upcoming Greek Festival and other church events to be included in our monthly newsletter and on our parish website.
If you have digital photos you would like to share, please e-mail them to Donna Tripp at office@stjohn-mb.org

2009 Archangel Michael Award
Congratulations to this year's nominees:

Linda Moustakis

Dorothy Radomsky

Friends of St. Paraskevi …
This is an invitation and a challenge to young women between the ages of 20 to 45 – those who work during the day and cannot attend afternoon meetings and events of the Ladies Philoptochos Society – to form your own circle and find a local charity or charities to support in the name of Saint Paraskevi.

This will be an opportunity to "do your own thing."

If you are interested in forming such a circle of friends, please contact Loretta Siotka at 399-8955.

September 2009

Dearest friends and parishioners,

As we know very well, September brings with it the beginning of the school year, the beginning of fall athletics, and also the beginning of our own youth catechetical and Greek School programs. Our weekly program for our youth is a very vital and exciting event in the life of our community. I cannot stress enough how crucial it is to involve your children in this program. In addition to attendance at the Divine Services, and the fostering of an authentic Orthodox Christian upbringing in the home by the parents, it is imperative for the children to have formal Orthodox Christian catechism. The truth is that if our children are not taught the sacred truths of Orthodox Christianity, they will be unable to live them out, and will be more likely to stray from the saving ark of the Church and embrace some other confession or sect.

In addition, I want to stress how important it is for us to preserve and teach our children (and ourselves) to read and write the Greek language. Though our community is very "pan-Orthodox" in its makeup (what a blessing it is!), we cannot deny the link between Orthodox Christianity and Hellenism. We cannot deny the importance of the Greek language throughout history. For those of you that are of Greek heritage, this becomes even more of an opportunity to help ensure the passing on of our most blessed culture and language to the next generation of Greek Orthodox Christians.

In closing I would like to remind you that in addition to the above things, September 1st marks the beginning of the Ecclesiastical year for Orthodox Christians. It is a time to renew our commitment to living an Orthodox Christian life within the Church. This begins in the home with our daily spiritual life, but continues in the church building as we celebrate the Divine Liturgy together with all of the Saints and angelic powers.

I wish you a blessed "new year"!

In Christ,


Fr. Konstantine Eleftherakis

Dear Parishioners,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped and bought tickets for the fundraiser for Yano Pournaras. Dinner went very well, and everyone seemed to enjoy the fish. Thank you to all those who donated food and their time to help in this event. Our prayers go out to the family.

I again would like to inform everyone with school age children that Catechism, Greek school and dance are right around the corner. Orthodox Family Night will begin on Wednesday, September 9th at 4:30 PM. The schedule may be found on the Church web site. Registration forms are available at the Pangari, from the office, and can also be printed from the parish web site. Should you need any further information, please contact the office or myself.

Please keep in mind that the Festival is this month. As always, volunteers will be needed throughout the week as well as the four days of the festival. The dates this year are September 24-27. Please mark those dates on your calendar. A signup board should be going up soon. As always, let us pray for a successful festival. Baking for the festival will begin this month, as well as the other foods that are prepped prior to the festival. Please check with the chairs of those departments for dates and times.

As you are aware by now, the General Assembly as well as the Parish Council has approved a usage fee for the Church. A copy of that schedule is in this monthly newsletter. Please review it, and if there are any questions, please take the time to call me so we can discuss it.

As always, should someone not be able to afford this fee, some other arrangements can be made. This fee will be on a case-by-case basis. This is not meant to offend anyone, or keep anyone from a sacrament. It is being implemented to help with the costs of using the Church.

As always, I wish everyone well, much health and love in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Respectfully,

George N. Spirakis,
Parish Council President

Thank you to all of our parishioners who supported this event!

General and Cosmetic Dentistry
Billy J. Pournaras, DMD
August 24, 2009

Dearest Parish Council,

I cannot express how grateful my wife and I are for the "Fish Fry for Yano" which was hosted by you and certain members of the community. Since we are unable to attend Church due to Yano's illness, it was a blessing to see so many familiar faces. I was humbled by all the volunteers and members of the Community who showed up to support Yano.

Life for us has taken a dramatic turn, and we are deeply committed to our son's
survival. We are constantly researching new clinical trials and different treatments that might help Yano be a part of that 30% that does survive this atrocious disease. The costs will be astronomical, so every little bit helps, and I cannot thank you enough for all that you did for Yano's benefit. The food was delicious, the atmosphere great, and the turnout was good as well.

To all those that showed up and helped, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
It's times like these that you hope the Community can pull together and help, and ours did, and for that, thank you. Yano keeps asking me when he can come back home, and my answer is always "when God makes you well." The statistics are against us, but we have Faith on our side. I truly believe God will perform a miracle with Yano, and that he was chosen to bear this cross for a reason.

I look forward to the day that I can bring Yano back to Church and enjoy time with him again as every dad does with his son. He looks forward to thanking you in person, and most importantly, to coming home.

Best wishes, and God bless you all for giving of your time for Yano's sake.

Sincerely,
Vasilios & Renee Pournaras

Troy with his wife, Theodora, and their newborn son Paisios, named after Elder Paisios of Mount Athos

The Mane Man
By Gina Mazza
Pittsburgh Magazine   August 2009

On this sunny So-Cal day, Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu graciously postpones his morning workout to ruminate about not just football - but life and what's most important in it. I narrow our chat to three topics.

Football is a given: How was this year's Super Bowl experience versus XL? Tomlin versus Cowher? Goals for the coming season? Fatherhood is new in Polamalu's life since the birth of his son, Paisios, named after a beloved contemporary Greek Orthodox monastic, Elder Paisios, on Oct. 31, 2008. Has daddy-dom been life-changing? Will he encourage his son to play professional sports? How's that beautiful new mom doing? And last but not least: Faith. In order to properly meet Polamalu where he lives, this is the requisite, the grounding force that gives meaning to everything he does, every play he makes. Polamalu's evident gratitude to the one who made him is marbled throughout our talk - from his training regime to his travels to Mount Athos, a monastic site in Greece, a place he calls "heaven on earth." While he has a reputation for being one of the NFL's fiercest players, Polamalu would prefer "Tasmanian angel" over "Tasmanian devil" because his ball game is about glorifying God. "Football is part of my life but not life itself," he says. "Football doesn't define me. It's what I do [and] how I carry out my faith."

Whether shooting a Coke Zero commercial or running up the sand hills on Manhattan Beach to train - which he's probably off to do after this interview - Polamalu, 27, is refreshingly modest and introspective, choosing his words as precisely as he picks his spots on the gridiron. He's intense when the occasion calls for it, and reveals with ease the depth of his character while philosophizing about matters outside the huddle. At the same time, there's a lightness about Polamalu that gives you the impression that he's not taking himself or his high-profile lifestyle too seriously. Even after the Steelers gave him the biggest contract in team history, more than $30 million, extending him through 2011, nothing major has changed in the Polamalus' lives. They're still in the same house. He still trains with the same trainer. The number of commercial endorsements has increased as his popularity has soared, but Polamalu is cautious not to let this encroach on family time. The Polamalus live simply and quietly.

On Fatherhood
Q - Has becoming a father changed your life?

A - I think becoming a parent encourages people to change their lives, but even before I was a father, I had an interest in bettering myself as a husband and as a person. The intensity is greater when you have a child, but I've always tried to be conscious of myself. In that sense, not much has changed in how I view my life. Obviously there's another member of our family. The cool thing is that I'm able to bring my son when I work out, so training takes a lot longer!

Q - Eight months old and already training?

A - Yeah, he sits and watches me. I think it's important for a child to see his parents work. One day, God willing, he'll be able to see a nice house, a nice car, good food - things that I didn't have growing up. It's important for him to realize that these things are obtained first of all through the grace of God but also through hard work. I come from [a childhood] where I would put every condiment imaginable on my cheeseburger just so I could feel more full. There's value in that struggle. Parents don't want their kids to experience that, but honestly I want my kid to experience that. I think parents have a tendency to give their kids everything they didn't have. In turn, they grow up lacking important qualities - like courage and perseverance. If you grow up with any type of wealth or anything that is just given to you, you [may] lack these qualities. But first of all, it's most important for Paisios to have a spiritual foundation.

Q - You view your parental role as being a role model spiritually as well?
A - As a parent, I don't want to talk out of both sides of my mouth; I don't want to act a certain way and be another way. Not everybody has a material struggle, but everyone has a spiritual struggle. So with my son, it's important for him to first understand the spiritual struggle and, as a result of that, know how to [deal with] the physical struggles that he has in his life - whether it's dealing with not enough or too much of something.

Q - So it's a matter of being an example?
A - I think talking is overrated. Anybody in the world can talk about doing anything. The hardest thing is to do it. It's important for my son to understand, for example, why we pray, why we go to church. It's important for him to grow up in an atmosphere of watching us do it, to understand that nothing is given to you in life. Everything must be worked at in order to be obtained - whether it's something material or its salvation.

Q - If Paisios had the calling to become an Orthodox priest and not a fullback, you'd be elated?
A - Of course. Obviously the [athletic] pedigree is there in my family and my wife's [and] people give me a hard time: "Troy, man, what if your son's not a good athlete, or he grows up and he's not big?" But I say, "How big do you need to be in order to be a priest?"

Q - You're not saying, "I want my son to grow up and be an athlete."
A - No, not at all. I would like him to play sports because there are important lessons to be learned through sports - those qualities of perseverance, courage, hard work and ethics.

Q - How is your wife, Theodora, adjusting to being a mom?
A - Oh, she's the best. It's given me a whole new perspective on my wife. Obviously, she's had a lot of responsibility in dealing with me and my inadequacies. But now, to watch her wake up every night and feed him . . . you know, as a mother, you kind of give up your whole life. Obviously, I'm able to still do what I do. I play football. I do things that surround football. I get to train.

Q - Some dads are naturals and others don't know how to react once the baby is home. Do you feel comfortable in this role?
A - Oh yeah. I want to feed him, play with him, do all those fun dad things. We go swimming in the ocean. He's crawling, but he's not surfing yet.

Q - Do you do diapers?
A - Oh, I hand him off to Grandma for that.

Q - What is your greatest wish for your child?
A - Without a question, my greatest wish would be for him to understand the spiritual struggle and to be a pious Orthodox Christian. That's what I want for myself, as well. Sometimes parents want their children to be what they never were. And that's one thing that I am gracious for Paisios to have: that he's able to grow up in the Orthodox church around monastics and priests that I was never able to experience as a kid - to grasp that, not take it for granted and really culture that.

Q - Do you and Theodora still find time to garden, even with your new addition?
A - Yes, we're growing tomatoes, broccoli, sunflower seeds, oregano, basil, sage, peppermint.

On Faith
Q - How would you define the spiritual struggle you referred to earlier?
A - It's the struggle of good and evil, and with that comes the struggle with greed, jealousy, materialism, sexual morality, pride, all these types of struggles that we face every day, in every second of the day.

Q - Your faith continues to evolve. In the past few years, you formally converted to Greek Orthodox. Where do you worship?
A - My wife and I go often to a Greek Orthodox monastery in Saxonburg [Nativity of the Theotokos], a monastery in Arizona, and several parishes in Pittsburgh. We like the monastery because it's most serene there and we can talk to the monastics. To see their daily struggles really fascinates me.

Q - What intrigues you about the monastic life?
A - For me, faith is to be simple in this way. If anybody believes in God and believes in the Holy Bible, how can you be in any grey area? I'm talking about myself here, how can "I" think one way and do another way? To me, Christianity is very black and white. Either you take it serious or you don't take it serious at all. The monks' example to me is that they take salvation seriously in every facet of their lives. This is a model for me as a Christian and for my family on how to live our lives.

Q - Can you give an example of what inspires you?
A - There are so many, and I don't mean to imply that everybody needs to live like a monk in order to be saved. For the Greek Orthodox monks, examples would be: they wear beards to cover their face so they're not vain; they don't have mirrors because they don't want to look at themselves from being vain; they wear black because black is humility; they seldom talk because they don't want to be proud or arrogant; they keep their eyes down because they don't want their eyes to wander; they pray constantly. The struggle between good and evil is very materialized with them. A lot of people have an understanding of this but it's really just an oral proclamation that there is good and evil. To the monks, it's hard as rock. It's something they grasp daily. This is what I see in them and it amazes me: they've taken their struggle so seriously and in turn there's so much grace in it. When you sit down with these monks, so much peace and love exudes from them.

Q - Their faith is their passion. It makes me wonder if some day you might have that same calling.
A - I don't think that everyone is meant to be a monastic. There are people who are meant to be married and those who are meant to be monastics. However, they are examples to us of how to live a pious life.

Q - On my own spiritual path, I've felt at times that there's a certain allure to that serene, sequestered lifestyle.
A - Yes, but I think it's an understatement to say that their struggle is more intensified because their path is more intensified. There are tons of stories about these monks who have physical battles with these demons that fight them. It's like, oh my goodness. In turn, they live in God's grace so much that you think, no way, how can they have such angelic lives? Like the monks on Mt. Athos in Greece - this place is heaven on earth, there's so much grace there. For 1,500 years, this place has been devoted solely to Christian spirituality. It's untouched. Not even women are allowed there.

Q - This is the place you visited two summers ago while on a pilgrimage?
A - Yes. There's an amazing monk who lives in Arizona - Abbot Ephraim, my spiritual father. He's the epitome of Mt. Athos brought to America.

Q - What's the most important thing you've learned from him so far?
A - That you cannot have an experience of God without humility.
 

Gina Mazza, a Pittsburgh-based journalist and regular contributor to Pittsburgh magazine, is the author of Everything Matters, Nothing Matters: For Women Who Dare to Live With Exquisite Calm, Euporic Creativity and Divine Clarity (St. Lynn's Press, 2008). She can be reached at inspire@zoominternet.net