COVID-19 CATECHESIS
SAINT GEORGE OF SAN FRANCISCO
An   ALMSGIVING    Opportunity
to help those impacted by Covid-19

Reflections and Daily Inspiration
When you have been insulted, cursed, or persecuted by someone, do not think of what has happened to you, but of what will come from it, and you will see that your insulter has become the cause of many benefits to you, not only in this age, but in that which is to come. 

- St. Mark the Ascetic, Homilies
TODAY'S RECOMMENDATION
Commencement Week 2020: Closing Remarks & Benediction
by bishop Gregory of Nyssa

Metropolitan Gregory closes out our commencement celebrations with his words of encouragement and a prayer for the Class of 2020. Metropolitan Gregory of Nyssa is the Primate of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of North America and Assembly of Bishops Liaison for Orthodox Christian Fellowship
FROM THE NEWS
St. Iakovos Retreat Center to Lodge COVID-19
First Responders Required to Quarantine

The St. Iakovos Retreat Center, a ministry of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago, will temporarily convert its facilities into a quarantine site for COVID-19 first responders.

Beginning on Monday, May 4th, health care workers, EMT personnel, firefighters, and law enforcement officers exposed to the COVID-19 virus can access the Retreat Center facilities for the required 14-day quarantine period free of charge. The Retreat Center recently announced it closed its doors to groups, camps, and retreats as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.
SAINT OF THE DAY

 MAY 11 / APRIL 28
The Holy Apostles Jason and Sosipater, of the Seventy, and their companions

The first two were of the Seventy Apostles and the latter was the daughter of a king from the island of Corfu. Jason and Sosipater are mentioned by St. Paul and he calls them his kinsmen (Romans 16:21). Jason was born in Tarsus, as was the Apostle Paul, and Sosipater was born in Achaea. The first was appointed Bishop of Tarsus by the apostle and the other was ap- pointed Bishop of Iconium. Traveling about and preaching the Gospel, these two apostles arrived on the island of Corfu, where they succeeded in building a church to the honor of St. Stephen the Protomartyr and in win- ning over some heathens to the Church. The king of the island threw them both into prison, where seven thieves were also imprisoned. Their names were Saturninus, Jakischolus, Faustianus, Januarius, Marsalius, Euphrasius and Mammius. The apostles converted these seven to the Christian Faith, turning these wolves into lambs. Upon hearing this, the king ordered that these seven be put to death in boiling pitch. Thus they received wreaths of martyrdom. Later, while the king was torturing the apostles, his daughter, the virgin Cercyra, watched the suffering of these men of God from the window. Learning for what reason they were being tortured, she declared herself a Christian and distributed all of her jewels to the poor. The king became enraged at his daughter and shut her in a special prison. Since he was unable to dissuade her from Christ by this imprisonment, he ordered that the prison be burned. The prison burned, but the virgin remained alive. Upon seeing this miracle, many people were baptized. The infuriated king then ordered his daughter to be tied to a tree and slain with arrows. Those who believed in Christ fled from the terrible king to the nearest island and hid themselves.

The king pursued them by boat in order to apprehend them, but the boat sank into the sea, and thus the unrighteous one perished as once did pharaoh. The new king embraced the Christian Faith and was baptized, receiving the name Sebastian. Jason and Sosipater freely preached the Gospel and strengthened the Church of God in Corfu unto deep old age. There they ended their earthly lives and took up their habitation in the mansions of the Lord.