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

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Rev. Fr. John Mahfouz
Parish Priest
frjohn@saint-matthew.net

Fr John Mahfouz is the Priest and pastor of St. Matthew Orthodox Christian Church. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, California into an Eastern Orthodox Christian family of Palestinian and Egyptian decent. Baptized at St. Nicholas Orthodox Christian Cathedral in Los Angeles, Fr. John grew up serving there as an Altar Server, Sunday School Teacher, Summer Camp Counselor and Administration, and other ministries. After finishing his undergraduate degree in Chemistry at the University of California in Riverside, and working for 3 years as a Sleep Disorder Technician, Fr John was sent by the Church to attended Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Seminary in Boston, Massachusetts, where he received his Master of Divinity. Following seminary Fr John was sent to Lebanon to study at the Patriarchal School of Theology: Institute of St. John of Damascus. It was then that he met his dear wife Khouria Lina in Latakia, Syria. They were married and moved to San Diego where Fr. John worked as the Director of Student Life and Housing at the newly established St. Katherine College. In 2013 Fr. John was ordained to the Holy Diaconate at St. Anthony the Great Orthodox Church in San Diego. In 2014 he was assigned as the Assistant to the Priest of Saints Peter & Paul Orthodox Christian Church in Salt Lake City,  Utah, and in 2015 he was ordained to the Holy Priesthood at Ss. Peter and Paul. In 2017 he was assigned and sent to be the Priest of St. Matthew Orthodox Christian Church in Torrance, California. Fr. John and Kh. Lina have 5 beautiful children and are expecting their 6th. Fr John especially has a heart for youth ministry and serves on the Deanery committee of Youth Ministry.


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Dn. Barsoum Barsoum
Deacon
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Today's Commemorations
Theodore the Sanctified, Holy Martyr Peter of Blachernae, Nicholas the Mystic, Patriarch of Constantinople, New Martyr Nicholas of Metsovos (1617), Alexandros, Archbishop of Jerusalem, Brendan the Navigator
Today's Scripture Readings
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 15:35-41
IN THOSE DAYS, Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also. And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, 'Come, let us return and visit the brethren in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.' And Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work. And there arose a sharp contention, so that they separated from each other; Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of the Lord. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.
JOHN 10:27-38
The Lord said to the Jews who came to him, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one. The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of these do you stone me?" The Jews answered him, "It is not for a good work that we stone you but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God." Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, you are gods?' If he called them gods to whom the word of God came (and scripture cannot be broken), do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming, ' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe my works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.
Today's Thought

When a blind man gradually recovers his sight and notices the appearance of a man and bit by bit ascertains what he is (cf. Mk. 8:24-25), it is not the features that undergo transformation or take a new shape. Rather, as the vision of that man's eyes becomes clearer, he sees his features. It is as though they wholly imprint themselves on his vision and penetrate through it, impressing and engraving themselves, as on a tablet, on the mind and memory of the soul. Even so You Yourself, O Lord, became visible to me when You, by the clear light of the Holy Spirit, had entirely cleansed my mind. – St. Symeon the New Theologion