St. Matthew Orthodox Christian Church
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese
Torrance, CA

Log in | Create Account
Learning Opportunities

1st Sunday of the Month Parish Teaching

  • Following the Divine Liturgy on the first Sunday of each month Fr. John gives a teaching to the community during the Agape Meal. All are welcome.

Weekly Bible Studies

  • A study of the scriptures in light of the anceint commentators takes us to a deeper relationship with Christ and understanding of the Christian faith. Currently Bible Studies are on Friday mornings from 7am yill 

Introduction to Orthodox Christianity and Catechism

  • Instruction about Orthodox Christianity and the Catechism process takes place on an individual/family bases with Fr. John. After meeting, a schedule will be establised for meeting regularly.
  • Please feel free to contact Fr. John if you have particular questions or to discuss the process of becoming an Orthodox Christian.

Great Lent Wednesday Night Teaching

  • During the Lenten season a teaching will be offered on Wednesday night during the Agape Meal which takes place immediately following the Presanctified Liturgy.
Activities & Minitries

Hot Meals for the Homeless
Hot Meals For The Homeless is an opportunity to help others in need.
Held on the 2nd Saturday of every month, members of various churches come together to provide lunches and a hot meal for those in need. As the economy slows, more people will be in need of a meal, just to get them through the week.
Come prepare sandwiches, or serve food, or make a dish for those less fortunate than ourselves. The meal is from 9:30 am to 1:00 pm, so come help, even if just for an hour.
The meal is served Saturday morning at Walteria United Methodist Church in south Torrance.
3646 Newton Street, Torrance
For more information, e-mail JoAnn or Jim Ramirez at songoku2@verizon.net

Agape Meal Teams rotate in the offering of the Agape meal following the Divine Liturgy on Sundays. Contact the Church office if you would like to be added to a meal team. 

The Ladies of St. Matthew is a fun and vibrant group that conducts many activities throughout the year. Bake sales, church meals, party planning and support are just some of what they do. Contact the church office for the time and location of their next meeting!

The Sunday School Ministry takes on the important task of teaching our youth, from new borns to High Schoolers, the ancient Christian faith and how to live into the calling of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sunday School gathers on Sundays immediately following Holy Communion until 12 noon.

Our Men's Fellowship Group meets on the second to last Tuesday of each month at 6:30pm. Following a potluck dinner the group gathers to read about and discuss subjects of importance to Christian men. Contact the church office for more details and locations.

Our Women's Fellowship Group meets on the last Tuesday of each month at 6:30pm. Following a potluck dinner the group gathers to read about and discuss subjects of importance to Christian women. Contact the church office for more details and locations.

Our Senior's Fellowship (50+) meets monthly at a local resturant for fellowship and teaching. Check the Church google calendar for upcoming gathers.

Arabic Orthodox Education is an opportunity to learn the beauty and depth of the Orthodox Christian faith in the Arabic language. The group meets once a month at a different home and enjoys dinner, fellowship, teaching, and discussion.

 

House Blessings
 
With the Feast of Theophany, Christ's baptism in the Jordan, we celebrate the coming of Christ into this world to sanctify ALL of creation. As such, it is customary and essential, to arrange for the priest to bless your home / apt / business / dorm room, etc with holy water. Contact Fr. John directly to make arrangements. Here is some information to help you prepare:

Before the Priest arrives, prepare by cleaning your home/business and opening and lighting all the rooms. Have the following items ready for the house blessing: 

  • Icon of Christ
  • Candle
  • Small bowl half full of water to which the Priest will add the "Jordan" Holy Water.
  • Incense burner
  • Incense
  • Charcoal
  • A sprig of basil leaves (available at the grocery store.) or other fragrant greenery that the priest can use to bless your home.
  • A list of the Living and Departed in the family you wish the priest to pray for in the blessing

Many of these items can be purchased in the church bookstore. If you don't know how to use the incense at home, this is a great time for the priest to help you learn! (If having these items (Censer, basil, etc.) is not possible, the priest will have these in his blessing bag).

Place the items on a small table in your icon corner.

Upon the arrival of the Priest, he is to be greeted by all of the family members, each of whom asks the Priest’s blessing and kisses his right hand. The priest will begin the short prayer service, bless with the incense,and say the Theophany blessing prayer. Then, using the basil sprig dipped in water as a sprinkler, he will go to each room, lead by a family member holding a candle, and sprinkle holy water on all 4 sides, blessing the home with the grace of the Holy Spirit which also protects you from evil spirits. After blessing the home, all gather back at the table for the final prayers, dismissal, and blessing of each person in the family. 

Save some of the holy water in a bottle in your ikonostasi (home altar) and pour the remainder on plants. Although ideal, all family members do not need to be present for the house blessing. House Blessings are a yearly tradition. It is customary, although not required, for the head of the household to discreetly present the Priest with an envelope containing an honorarium and a list of the Living and Departed for whom the family requests his prayers during the New Year.

The goal is to bless every dwelling of the faithful by March 1st. (While you are free to invite the priest (and his family if you like) for a meal after the blessing, by NO means is this necessary. We can just simply come and bless, have a cup of tea (or not), spend a little time, and leave at your convenience.

If several families live in close proximity to each other, it is helpful to coordinate with each other to have the priest come and bless multiple homes at one time then, if you would like (but not necessary), all gather together for a potluck meal afterwards. 

Call, Text or Email Fr. John

Today's Commemorations
Basil the Holy Martyr Bishop of Amasea, Glaphyra the Righteous, Justa the Nun
Today's Scripture Readings
ISAIAH 66:10-24
Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her; that you may suck and be satisfied with her consoling breasts; that you may drink deeply with delight from the abundance of her glory." For thus says the LORD: "Behold, I will extend prosperity to her like a river, and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall suck, you shall be carried upon her hip, and dandled upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice; your bones shall flourish like the grass; and it shall be known that the hand of the LORD is with his servants, and his indignation is against his enemies. "For behold, the LORD will come in fire, and his chariots like the stormwind, to render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire will the LORD execute judgment, and by his sword, upon all flesh; and those slain by the LORD shall be many. "Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one in the midst, eating swine's flesh and the abomination and mice, shall come to an end together, says the LORD. "For I know their works and their thoughts, and I am coming to gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and shall see my glory, and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Put, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands afar off, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the nations. And they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as an offering to the LORD, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, just as the Israelites bring their cereal offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD. And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the LORD. "For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, says the LORD; so shall your descendants and your name remain. From new moon to new moon, and from sabbath to sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the LORD. "And they shall go forth and look on the dead bodies of the men that have rebelled against me; for their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.
GENESIS 49:33-50:26
When Jacob finished charging his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed, and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people. Then Joseph fell on his father's face, and wept over him, and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel; forty days were required for it, for so many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days. And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, My father made me swear, saying, 'I am about to die: in my tomb which I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me.' Now therefore let me go up, I pray you, and bury my father; then I will return." And Pharaoh answered, "Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear." So Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's household; only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen; it was a very great company. When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and sorrowful lamentation; and he made a mourning for his father seven days. When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, "This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians." Therefore the place was named Abelmizraim; it is beyond the Jordan. Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them; for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite, to possess as a burying place. After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil which we did to him." So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father gave this command before he died, 'Say to Joseph, Forgive, I pray you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.' And now, we pray you, forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him, and said, "Behold, we are your servants." But Joseph said to them, "Fear not, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones." Thus he reassured them and comforted them. So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's house; and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years. And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation; the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were born upon Joseph's knees. And Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die; but God will visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." Then Joseph took an oath of the sons of Israel, saying, "God will visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here." So Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
PROVERBS 31:8-31
Open your mouth for the dumb, for the rights of all who are left desolate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, maintain the rights of the poor and needy. A good wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands. She is like the ships of the merchant, she brings her food from afar. She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and tasks for her maidens. She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. She girds her loins with strength and makes her arms strong. She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night. She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle. She opens her hand to the poor, and reaches out her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet. She makes herself coverings; her clothing is fine linen and purple. Her husband is known in the gates, when he sits among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers girdles to the merchant. Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: "Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all." Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.
Today's Thought

The commemoration of Christ's saving Passion is at hand, and the new, great spiritual Passover, which is the reward for dispassion and the prelude of the world to come. Lazarus proclaims it in advance by coming back from the depths of Hades and rising from the dead on the fourth day just by voice and command of God, Who has power over life and death (cf. Jn. 11:1-45). St. Gregory Palamas