St Paul Newsletter

	St. Paul Assyrian- Chaldean Catholic Church Newsletter 13050 Vanowen St. North Hollywood, CA 91605 (Tel: 818-765-3665) *(Year Two, Issue One, Number 2)* Nuhra (Light)ܐܪܗــــــــــــ Second Biannual St. Peter Diocese Youth Convention As some of you know the 2nd Youth Convention of St. Peter Diocese will be held here, in St. Paul Church from July 20-23. There is alreadya committee formed, under taking this task to prepare and execute the convention. I don’t think one could emphasize more on the importance of this unique gathering and the role that it could play in our community, especially for our YOUTH. I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that every one is somehow connected to this matter. Either as a parent, relative, teacher, or any other, you know someone is going (or has gone) through this period of his/her life. Also our community, St. Paul parishioners, should look into the future of this church and its welfare, which lies on the shoulder of those who are considered our youth today. Though large number of our community either chose or was forced to leave their ancestral homeland and end up here, it’s our children that find themselves in a position where they have to cope with two distinct cultures. We teach them our values, but they deal with the other culture every minute is their daily life. As the western society goes through changes, and generation X now has given its place to generation Y, one could not deny the vices of this society. If you pay attention to news periodically, you hear about teen problems such as school dropouts, drug experience, pregnancy, and so forth. For those families that have been living here these problems are known and coping with and solving them in some cases are possible. Yet to our immigrant community most of these problems were unheard of, and it comes as a shock to any family dealing with any of them. The Youth Convention is a place where our youth gather in a healthy environment and discuss such problems with each other, listen to speeches by experts in these fields and try to find the solution through the Word of God. This is for our children and our community and all of us MUST do our share. One CANNOT do this alone and we ask for your help. Register your children (age 15 thru 30) for the convention, talk to Fr. Noel to see how you could help and please help us with your financial support (tax deductible) to better implement this convention. Please think not about today and yourself, but tomorrow and our community. God Bless You All. Announcements: Event Calendar: Feb. 27th: Beginning of Lent Fridays at 7:00PM: Procession of The Cross March 3rd: Bible Study March 5th: Youth Bible Study What did happen last month? As most of you have noticed Fr. Noel was not here during the last month. He went to Iraq for a visit and here is a brief description on this journey. Journey to Homeland In January I had an opportunity to visit my beloved homeland Iraq and for one month I was able to share life’s hardship and difficulties with my Iraqi brothers and sisters there. The purpose of my visit was not to ensure security for America, stop car bombs or stop the kidnappings of innocent people, which I wish I could. Neither I was there to bring all political parties that won in the last election together to form the new parliament for the benefit of the Iraqi people and their country. But, like other monks of our Holy Church who made this trip, I was in Iraq to participate in the selection of the Abbot, whom, Thank God, was selected soon after my arrival and was immediately thrust with his rightful responsibilities. My trip to Iraq was also to fulfill the new Canon Law of the Chaldean Order of Rabban Hormezid, which requires that every five year the Superior General- the Abbot- and four advisors be elected, and all members of Monastery must attend. Otherwise they must submit their reason in writing for approval from the Synod. So it is my duty, as a member of the Order to join my monk brethren of this important Synod, in prayers and meditation for one week to discuss our contributions that we could offer our Holy Church and Monastery of today. We also discussed some decision that the new Abbot and his advisors can follow in their service to the community in the next five years. It is noteworthy to mention here that the Chaldean Order has six monasteries in Iraq; Dera Dầệ Rabban Hormezid (7th century), Mountain Beth Aadtre (Alqosh), Dera Dầệ Btholta, monastery of our Lady of Fields (Alqosh 1858) where novices reside, Dera Dầệ Mar Gewargis (Nineveh) for students studying in public schools, Dera Dầệ Mar Antoneeus ( Baghdad, 1960) for monks to continue their studies in philosophy or theology and at a university, Dera Dầệ Mar Yousip (Rome 1979) for monks to continue their higher education, Dera Dầệ Mar Gewargis (Perris, CA 2004), as well as orphanages of Mar Yousip (Alqosh). Finally on behalf of all my monk brethren I would like to than the parishioners of St. Paul who sent with me their generous donation to my home monastery. Along with all of my monk brethren, I always remember all of you in my prayers and I am grateful for your strong faith in our Lord. Fr. Noel Gorgis An Article from Youth Below is another article from Vivian and Brenda Yosif Benyamin Friendship For this article, we chose a subject that may or may not be interesting for some of us, however, we believe that it is somewhat necessary to concentrate on the subject, friendship. We will open up our discussion with some question such as: How can you tell if you have true friends? Why do your friends sometimes leave you out? Why are some friends are two-faced (hypocritical)? In order to answer these question first we have to know what the word friend means. Friend is someone who tells you the truth especially when you do not want to hear it. Maybe it is more important to be a friend than to have one. How can you be a friend? To be a good friend you need to follow these steps; Love unconditionally (Proverbs 17:17) Be available for advice (Proverbs 27:9) Speak the truth (Proverbs 27:5 – 6) and Be loyal (Proverbs 16:28). Now that we know what the word friend means and how can you be a good friend, we are now able to answer those question. At last, keep in mind that Jesus chose you to be his friend. “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God” Advertisement: As we announced it in our last newsletter, we’re accepting your advertisement. This is a service for our parishioners in order to help each other. In order to place your ad here please contact Sam Yadegar by E-mail (sam.yadegar@cpfilms.com ) or call Fr. Noel at church. I would like to mention that this Newsletter is posted on the WWW on the website of St. Peter Diocese (www.kaldu.org ) which is viewed worldwide!

St. Paul Assyrian- Chaldean Catholic Church
Newsletter

13050 Vanowen St. North Hollywood, CA 91605 (Tel: 818-765-3665)
(Year Two, Issue One, Number 2)

Nuhra (Light)ܐܪܗــــــــــــ

Second Biannual St. Peter Diocese Youth Convention

As some of you know the 2nd Youth Convention of St. Peter Diocese will be held here, in St. Paul Church from July 20-23. There is alreadya committee formed, under taking this task to prepare and execute the convention.
I don’t think one could emphasize more on the importance of this unique gathering and the role that it could play in our community, especially for our YOUTH. I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that every one is somehow connected to this matter. Either as a parent, relative, teacher, or any other, you know someone is going (or has gone) through this period of his/her life. Also our community, St. Paul parishioners, should look into the future of this church and its welfare, which lies on the shoulder of those who are considered our youth today.
Though large number of our community either chose or was forced to leave their ancestral homeland and end up here, it’s our children that find themselves in a position where they have to cope with two distinct cultures. We teach them our values, but they deal with the other culture every minute is their daily life.
As the western society goes through changes, and generation X now has given its place to generation Y, one could not deny the vices of this society. If you pay attention to news periodically, you hear about teen problems such as school dropouts, drug experience, pregnancy, and so forth.
For those families that have been living here these problems are known and coping with and solving them in some cases are possible. Yet to our immigrant community most of these problems were unheard of, and it comes as a shock to any family dealing with any of them.
The Youth Convention is a place where our youth gather in a healthy environment and discuss such problems with each other, listen to speeches by experts in these fields and try to find the solution through the Word of God.
This is for our children and our community and all of us MUST do our share. One CANNOT do this alone and we ask for your help. Register your children (age 15 thru 30) for the convention, talk to Fr. Noel to see how you could help and please help us with your financial support (tax deductible) to better implement this convention. Please think not about today and yourself, but tomorrow and our community.
God Bless You All.

Announcements:

Event Calendar:
Feb. 27th: Beginning of Lent
Fridays at 7:00PM: Procession of The Cross
March 3rd: Bible Study
March 5th: Youth Bible Study

What did happen last month?

As most of you have noticed Fr. Noel was not here during the last month. He went to Iraq for a visit and here is a brief description on this journey.

Journey to Homeland
In January I had an opportunity to visit my beloved homeland Iraq and for one month I was able to share life’s hardship and difficulties with my Iraqi brothers and sisters there. The purpose of my visit was not to ensure security for America, stop car bombs or stop the kidnappings of innocent people, which I wish I could. Neither I was there to bring all political parties that won in the last election together to form the new parliament for the benefit of the Iraqi people and their country. But, like other monks of our Holy Church who made this trip, I was in Iraq to participate in the selection of the Abbot, whom, Thank God, was selected soon after my arrival and was immediately thrust with his rightful responsibilities.
My trip to Iraq was also to fulfill the new Canon Law of the Chaldean Order of Rabban Hormezid, which requires that every five year the Superior General- the Abbot- and four advisors be elected, and all members of
Monastery must attend. Otherwise they must submit their reason in writing for approval from the Synod. So it is my duty, as a member of the Order to join my monk brethren of this important Synod, in prayers and meditation for one week to discuss our contributions that we could offer our Holy Church and Monastery of today. We also discussed some decision that the new Abbot and his advisors can follow in their service to the community in the next five years.

It is noteworthy to mention here that the Chaldean Order has six monasteries in Iraq; Dera Dầệ Rabban Hormezid (7th century), Mountain Beth Aadtre (Alqosh), Dera Dầệ Btholta, monastery of our Lady of Fields (Alqosh 1858) where novices reside, Dera Dầệ Mar Gewargis (Nineveh) for students studying in public schools, Dera Dầệ Mar Antoneeus ( Baghdad, 1960) for monks to continue their studies in philosophy or theology and at a university, Dera Dầệ Mar Yousip (Rome 1979) for monks to continue their higher education, Dera Dầệ Mar Gewargis (Perris, CA 2004), as well as orphanages of Mar Yousip (Alqosh).
Finally on behalf of all my monk brethren I would like to than the parishioners of St. Paul who sent with me their generous donation to my home monastery. Along with all of my monk brethren, I always remember all of you in my prayers and I am grateful for your strong faith in our Lord. Fr. Noel Gorgis
An Article from Youth
Below is another article from Vivian and Brenda Yosif Benyamin

Friendship

For this article, we chose a subject that may or may not be interesting for some of us, however, we believe that it is somewhat necessary to concentrate on the subject, friendship.
We will open up our discussion with some question such as:
How can you tell if you have true friends?
Why do your friends sometimes leave you out?
Why are some friends are two-faced (hypocritical)?
In order to answer these question first we have to know what the word friend means. Friend is someone who tells you the truth especially when you do not want to hear it. Maybe it is more important to be a friend than to have one. How can you be a friend? To be a good friend you need to follow these steps;
Love unconditionally (Proverbs 17:17)
Be available for advice (Proverbs 27:9)
Speak the truth (Proverbs 27:5 – 6) and
Be loyal (Proverbs 16:28).
Now that we know what the word friend means and how can you be a good friend, we are now able to answer those question. At last, keep in mind that Jesus chose you to be his friend.
“Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God”

Advertisement:

As we announced it in our last newsletter, we’re accepting your advertisement. This is a service for our parishioners in order to help each other. In order to place your ad here please contact Sam Yadegar by E-mail (sam.yadegar@cpfilms.com ) or call Fr. Noel at church. I would like to mention that this Newsletter is posted on the WWW on the website of St. Peter Diocese (www.kaldu.org ) which is viewed worldwide!