Holy Bread

Tonight at our Bible Study we shall examine the History, the Tradition, the Symbolisms, as well as the Preparing and the Offering to the Church of the Holy Bread.

The Holy Bread, the so-called Prosforo in Greek, it is an ancient Tradition that we keep strictly and reverently in the Orthodox Church. The altar bread represents Jesus Who is the Bread of Life. It is baked by someone in the congregation and brought to the priest for each celebration of the Divine Liturgy.

Bread is used not only to represent Jesus Who is the Bread of Life, of which if any man eat he shall never hunger, but also to express the offering of our life to God. The Greek word for Altar bread is Prosforo, which means "an offering to God." Bread represents life because it is a staff of life. Once consumed it becomes part of us, i.e., our flesh and bones. Thus, in bringing the loaf of bread to God, we are offering our life to Him as a gift of our love.

The priest accepts the gift and places it on the holy altar. This act represents God accepting our gift. It now passes into His possession. God is so pleased with the gift of our life that He transforms it through the Holy Spirit and gives it back to us as His precious Body for Holy Communion. We give ourselves to God and He, in turn gives Himself to us. We come to the liturgy not just to receive Christ but also to give ourselves to Christ.

Standing on steel

The title of this post was inspired by the first picture, showing Roy the foreman.

A lot of work was being done today in regard to placing the reinforcement.

The first pipes were also visible today. These will facilitate the water supply into the Sanctuary.

Steel on the floor

The floor is from today being visibly filled with steel (reinforcement).

Many workers (we counted 12) are working hard on the site.

Andy, the Project Manager, had tasted today freshly home made Greek cookies.

We would invite and welcome his comments.

Photo of the week - 9

This week's photo shows the thin cement on the floor and the reinforcement being put in place.

A visit from Greece

A family from Greece visited our Community last July and attended our Patronal Festival.

They were very pleased to see and experience the progress of our Community.

When they went back home (in Corinth) they wrote an article about our Community and published it in a local paper. The Greek speaking (and reading) friends of our blog will certainly enjoy reading it.

Wood and Steel

Various workers have been operating in our site today.

Carpenters cutting wood; thus projecting an excellent smell in the atmosphere.

Steel workers organising the reinforcement.

Feast of Saint Thekla

Today we commemorate the memory of Saint Thekla. Thus, we had a Divine Liturgy at our Church and many people came to honour this Protomartyr Saint.

This Saint was from the city of Iconium. When she was eighteen years of age, she was instructed in the Faith of Christ and the hope of the resurrection by the Apostle Paul, whom also she followed, forsaking her betrothed and espousing a life of virginity for the sake of the Heavenly Bridegroom. Having preached Christ in various cities and suffered many things, she reposed in Seleucia of Cilicia at the age of 90.

The building works have continued today at our site.

We have really been amazed by the hard working attitude of all engineers and workers of John Doyle Company.

Reinforcement

A new stage of the building works has just began being developing today.

It is the putting of reinforcement into place.

Soon we will be able to see the actual footprint of the Church.

Foundation Stone

The Foundation Stone, a bottle with Holy Water from Cyprus, as well as the case with the soils from various places in Greece, Cyprus and the Holy Land were finally put today in the place where the Holy Altar will be build.

The Parish Priest Fr. Anastasios D. Salapatas, the Chairman of the Community Youth Dept. Panayiotis Argyrou and the member of the Youth Demetrios Salapatas, assisted by the Project Manager Andy Hogan, were the protagonists of this final act.

Cement was placed on the top, thus sealing the hole with the Foundation Stone and the other sacred elements.

Outline of the sanctuary walls

The first traditional element of the new Church was made visible today.

It is two out of the three semi circles of the sanctuary walls.

Almost the whole of the new Church floor has now been cemented.

Photo of the week - 8

In this week's photo we start seeing some concrete on the floor.

Outline of the new Church

What we had in front of us for the last weeks was demolishing the old Church and many materials from that operation filling our site.

Obviously the pilling has taken place and been completed.

But this is an operation that is mainly done underneath and doesn’t show so much above the earth level.

Now, with the concrete blinding as well as with the raft slab edge shutter we’ve began to see the actual outline of the new Church.

This is certainly very exciting. Soon we’ll be able to see the whole of the outline, like the plan on the paper. We can’t wait.

St. Sophia’s Day

Today we had a Holy Service in the morning, as we commemorate in our Church Tradition 4 martyrs, St. Sophia and her daughters Faith, Hope and Love.

These Saints were from Italy and contested for the Christian Faith about the year 126 AD, during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. Faith was twelve years old, Hope, ten, and Love, nine; each was tormented and then beheaded, from the eldest to the youngest. Their mother Sophia mourned at their grave for three days, where she also fell asleep in peace; because of her courageous endurance in the face of her daughters' sufferings, she is also counted a martyr. The name Sophia means "wisdom" in Greek; as for her daughters' names, Faith, Hope, and Love (Charity), they are Pistis, Elpis, and Agape in Greek, and Vera, Nadezhda, and Lyubov in Russian.

Removal of the pilling mat continued today at our building site.

Concrete Blinding

Less noisy work today. Nice! Especially if you live next to the building site!

The pilling mat is being removed in stages.

Then the engineers start preparing the surface of the earth and put 50mm concrete blinding on it.

This will be a good base for the reinforcement, which is to be put on the top of the concrete blinding sometime next week.