Welcome to our Greek Festival! In a short while the Divine Liturgy will finish and you will be able to partake of some of the tastiest food in the Twin Cities. Gyro sandwiches, lamb and chicken dinners, Greek salad, and one of my favorites: souvlaki. My mouth is watering just talking about them.

   Twenty or thirty years ago, if someone wanted to learn how to prepare a meal, they would probably ask a host for a recipe, get yiayia and theia to show them, or buy a recipe book. We can still do these today, although yiayia and theia might leave out a key ingredient to preserve the secret recipe.

   How many of us were invited to a summer gathering at a friends or neighbor?s house? Perhaps, we hosted such an event at our own home. What did we do to prepare for the event? Probably we cleaned the house, made food or told certain guests what type of food to bring to share.

   I and my family had the great blessing to travel to Colorado this past week for a nephew?s wedding and a vacation in the mountains. Being there, and especially during our ascent to the summit of Pikes Peak at 14,000 feet, I could not help but marvel at the gift of God?s creation.

   If anyone is reading the news headlines lately, you have probably noticed a lot of talk about marriage. Talk like the adulterous affair between the famous actor and former governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger and his long-time housemaid.

(Negativism/Legalism/Hypocrisy of Jewish Leaders- carrying mat on Sabbath)

   A conscientious wife tried hard to please her overly critical husband. He was the most cantankerous at breakfast. If she prepared scrambled eggs, he wanted poached.

                (Based on ?The Message of Sunday Gospel Readings? vol.2 by Coniaris (p.43-47))

   ?God is dead!? This is the infamous proclamation of the 19^th century German philosopher Friedrich

   How many of us have witnessed or experience a vicious circle? A vicious circle is like an endless cycle of negative experiences that compound and aggravate each other creating there own perpetual motion.

   How many of us took a nap in order to stay up late for tonight?s service? How many of us needed some extra sleep after the extra worship services of Holy Week? I imagine there has been a little extra sleeping going on and there will be more siestas tomorrow afternoon.

   How many of us are rudely awakened by an alarm every morning for work? Those darn things are designed to make the most annoying noises to rest us out of our blissful sleep, pull us out of bed and get our day rolling.

   How many of us have climbed a ladder to get up on the roof of our home or to trim branches from a tree in our yard? When I was younger, I used to race up and down ladders for painting and tree trimming.

   During the winter months some have experienced and we all have seen the flu and various common colds, both mild and severe, among our people.

   Let?s try a little experiment today. I would like all of us to be silent for 30 seconds starting now. I?ll time it. Now it should not have been relatively easy to not talk at this time because we?re used listening to the sermon.

   At last week?s parish assembly meeting, a request was made to see a plan for growing the parish. It is a good suggestion for we should always being thinking about how we can grow, both personally and corporately as a community.

   I want everyone to think of a table, a chair or a stool. Ok, how many legs does it have? Does the chair have two legs? Does the table have three legs? More than likely, the image everyone has contains a chair, table or stool with four legs. Why? Because it?s more stable and sturdy.