Your Eminence, beloved brother in Christ and co-celebrant Archbishop Spyridon of America,
Your Eminences and Your Graces, holy brothers and co-celebrants,
Beloved children in the Lord of our Modesty,

Today we celebrate many feasts and for this reason, we rejoice.  We celebrate the Resurrection, because it is Sunday.  Every Sunday is dedicated to His Resurrection, lest we forget that death has been conquered.
We celebrate the memory of the much-beloved Saint Dimitrios, the Great Martyr and Myrrh-Streamer, because it is the 26th day of October.  He was martyred for his faith in Christ in Thessaloniki, and from that time on, he lives and works miracles, proclaiming the truth of the message of every Sunday, that death has been trampled down.
We celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, which was founded in 1922 by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
And today, at this holy gathering, we celebrate with brilliant joy, the meeting of a spiritual father, with his most beloved spiritual sons and daughters.  Let this Sunday shine with the glory of the Resurrection.  Let our faces shine with joy in our hearts.  Let the whole Orthodox Church be filled with the light from above.
We are shepherds and flocks bound together by love.  We are Orthodox Christians from the ends of the earth and from the far reaches of history.  We are of earth and we are from the heavens.  We are the living and those who have fallen asleep.  We are the royal priesthood, the Holy Nation, who give thanks, glorify, praise and beseech our God, together with the Angelic Powers in attendance, because God has saved us and saved all the world.
We embrace all of you: friends and enemies, saints and sinners, friends and strangers, the living and the dead.  For we are united, and, we are all brothers and sisters.  For those who may have pain or bitterness in their heart, we pray for you, that you may come to peace before the exalted heavenly Throne of the Holy Trinity.  His love is limitless for all of creation and for every human person.   Receive His light and dance with a joyful spirit.  Live with joy!  Radiate joy!  Be filled with peace!  Spread peace throughout the world!
Beloved, we are approaching the Eternal One.  We are entering into Eternity.  We are exceeding the limits of life.  We are trampling down death.  And Christ is becoming all in all.  Christ is our light!  Christ is our joy!  Christ is our peace!  Christ is our love!  Christ is our everything!  And we are His friends and His brothers and sisters, with the same blood and the same flesh of Christ and the same inheritance of His Kingdom.
This is our faith!  These are our feasts!  This is our resounding joy!
At this magnificent Divine Co-celebration, at the very moment we raise the Precious Gifts and cry out: “Thine own from Thine own, we offer unto Thee, on behalf of all and for all,” we offer up to God our Father, the entire Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, in all its fullness, from the day of its establishment in 1922, until today.  All of us have been baptized again, by being immersed in the precious Blood of His Only-begotten Son, when all the particles of the living and the dead we reverently placed in the Holy Chalice.
And now, we fulfill another holy obligation,
Let us send up a universal memorial prayer to Him, Who is the Resurrection, the Life and the blessed repose of all His departed servants, for the sake of all of our loved ones no longer with us.
And first among them, let us remember our ever-memorable predecessor, our father and brother, the Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios, whose name-day is today.  Even if his earthly tabernacle rests with his ever-memorable predecessors in the Patriarchal Cemetery of the Holy Monastery of the Life-giving Fountain in Baloukli, we are deeply moved, for we feel his holy spirit in this place, blessing us and strengthening us.
And rightly so.  In 1990, he made his official visit to this Holy Archdiocese.  He was ill and heavy laden, not only from the long voyage, but from his Patriarchal burdens.  But the blessed Patriarch Dimitrios, through his love for you, through his devotion to you, through his genuine faith in you, found the strength to come to his spiritual children and bring them a spiritual rebirth.
You received your Patriarch then, as loving children receive their father, with an enthusiastic love.  Remember his sweet and gentle face, which beamed with light with his characteristic pure and reverent smile.  Coming to knowing you, the Orthodox people of America, was the crowning experience of his life.  He loved you.  He marveled at you.  When we walked among you with him at that time, we were afraid lest your overwhelming love and emotion for him should have led our “Patriarch of the People” to ask one final favor from God, to “Now let Thy servant depart in peace, O Master, according to Thy word.”  Yes, our beloved brethren and children, “in peace” did our beloved Patriarch Dimitrios fall asleep in the Lord, during the night hours of October 2, 1991 in his beloved City.
During that visit, Patriarch Dimitrios graced all of his children here with his Patriarchal blessing.  His right hand was a fountain of grace.  Whoever kissed his hand, received the blessing of God.  The secret of his spiritual life was his deep humility.  On the outside, he glowed with meekness and love, but on the inside, he was filled with a great and astounding power.
Today, Patriarch Dimitrios would be moved, not only for these words of memory, but because he is first among all those we remember at this holy mnimosynon.  As he always considered his highest responsibility to be of service to his fellow man, he would want us to commemorate as well, all of the forebears, founders, and benefactors of this Holy Archdiocese of America.
Therefore, let us offer this holy mnimosynon for the repose of all the faithful members of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, clergy and lay, who have served us these past seventy five years.  Their life, their offering, and especially their sacrifice, are our firm and unshakable foundation in the Lord.
As it is today, so shall it ever be, that the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America constitutes a sure and certain pledge of loving, fraternal unity.  This sacred Ark shall always be sustained by the Mother Church, just as it is adorned by the precious labors, sweat and sacrifices of your fathers and mothers.
May their memory, and mat the memory of Patriarch Dimitrios be eternal.  Amen.