March 2010 Newsletter

Liturgical Notes

Great Lent is the theme of the March calendar The first Sunday of this month is set aside for the Veneration of the Holy Cross. This is mid-Lent and the church puts forth the Holy Cross to encourage us in our continuing Lenten spiritual struggle. If we desire spiritual growth and to set aside those things which control our lives(anger, lust, greed, gluttony, etc.) we must be prepared to crucify these passions through prayer and fasting. What better time for this than Great Lent. The third week of March is the week of the Great Canon of St Andrew. The canon is read in conjunction with the matins service on Wednesday night, March 17. The next morning there will be a Presanctified Liturgy at 9:00AM. The last Sunday of March 28 is Palm Sunday, the day the Church celebrates the Entry of our Lord Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. Sunday evening begins Holy Week wherein the Church follows the earthly sufferings of our Lord prior to His Crucifixion, Burial, and glorious Resurrection. The schedule for the Holy Week services:

HOLY WEEK SCHEDULE

Palm Sunday Bridegroom Matins 6:30PM

Holy Monday Bridegroom Matins 6:30PM

Holy Tuesday Presanctified Liturgy 9:00AM

Bridegroom Matins 6:30PM

Holy Wednesday Holy Unction 7:00PM

Holy Thursday Vespers/Liturgy 9:00AM

Matins-Twelve Gospels 7:00PM

Holy Friday Royal Hours 8:00AM

Vespers 2:00PM

Matins-Lamentations 7:00PM

Holy Saturday Vespers/Liturgy 10:00AM

Midnight Office 11:30PM

Pascha Matins 12:00AM

Divine Liturgy Follows Matins

Agape Vespers 2:00PM

Parish Notes

In the recent business meeting members requested information on the needs of the parish church. The church needs a processional cross and fans set and a tabernacle which holds the presanctified gifts upon the altar. These items can be purchased for $800.00-$1,000.00 each. There was a request to get an estimated cost for the Archangel icon for the deacon's doors on the iconostasis. Two 14”X30” full figure icons will cost $998.00 for both. These will be done by the same iconographers that did the holy doors. Thanks to Lubov Harrison the tower decoration is greatly enhanced. Maria Brendel and her mother, Lubov, are preparing new vestments for the stands in the church. All these gifts are greatly appreciated. We will need a volunteer to be responsible for the decoration of the church interior for Pascha(obtaining flowers,etc.) Anyone interested in doing this please let Father George know. The parish needs to have a general cleanup day prior to Pascha so another volunteer is requested to take charge of the organization for this work day.

Several of our members and associates have special days this month:

Ricky Harrison March 3 Birthday

Lubov Harrison March 10 Birthday

Janet Gawrieh March 10 Birthday

Olexandra Shevchenko March 16 Birthday

Maria Iakovleva March 21 Namesday/Birthday

God grant them many years!

From the fathers

“We waited and at last our expectations were fulfilled.” said St. Nikolai about the Paschal service in Jerusalem. Without this waiting, without the expectant preparation, the deeper meaning of the Paschal celebration will be lost. So it is that before the festival of Pascha there has developed a long preparatory season of repentance and fasting... Balancing the seven weeks of Lent and Holy Week, there follows after Pascha a corresponding season of fifty days of thanksgiving, concluding with Pentecost.

On the outward level fasting involves physical abstinence from food and drink, and without such exterior abstinence a full and true fast cannot be dept; yet the rules about eating and drinking must never be treated as an end in themselves, for ascetic fasting has always an inward and unseen purpose. Man is a unity body and soul, 'a living creature fashioned from natures visible and invisible', in the words of the Triodion; and our ascetic fasting should therefore involve both these natures at once. The tendency to over-emphasize external rules about food in a legalistic way, and the opposite tendency to scorn these rules as outdated and unnecessary, are both alike to be deplored as a betrayal of true Orthodoxy. In both cases the proper balance between the outward and the inward has been impaired. from The Lenten Triodion.

FEBRUARY 2010 NEWSLETTER

Liturgical Notes

The calendar month of February has several significant events. The Church continues with the preparatory Sundays of Great Lent and on Feb 7(Jan 25 OS) the fasting of Great Lent is introduced with Meat-fare Sunday. Following this Sunday we eliminate meat products from our diets. This week leads us to Cheese-fare Sunday on Feb 14(Feb1 OS). This Sunday is also Forgiveness Sunday. On this Sunday we perform the Forgiveness Vespers service. During this service the faithful forgive each other their offenses and sins so that all begin Great Lent in a forgiven state.

Feb 14 is also the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord. This feast-day commemorates the bringing of the Christ Child into the temple by His parents. This was to satisfy the Old Testament Law by which a first born male child is dedicated to the service of God after a forty day purification period following a birth. We still do this today when we perform the churching of the mother and child forty days after a childbirth The Lord's presence in the temple in accordance with the Law showed that Christ, the giver of the Law, fulfilled every part of the Law.

Great Lent is a time of preparation of the faithful prior to the Feast of the Resurrection, Pascha. It is a time for each person to reflect upon their lives and look at how we fulfill God's commandments in our daily life. Our daily life in the world should conform to the spiritual ideals that the Lord has given us.

If, upon self-examination we fall short, then we repent and beg for God's strength to be worthy of being called His son, a Christian. During this period we deny ourselves certain foods and by practicing this self discipline we teach our bodies and minds to be obedient to our soul's direction. Most often our minds and bodies are like wild horses led about by every whim and desire of our passions. In this period and in every fasting period, it is equally important to fast not only from food but from the passions of anger, greed, gluttony, lust, etc. All these things control us most of the time rather than we controlling them. A person cannot be truly free until he is free of the chains of the passions. During this period we increase our prayers by adding the Prayer of St Ephraim to our daily rule with physical prostrations. We fall before the Lord begging forgiveness for the times when we get entrapped by our passions. In the Orthodox Church Great Lent is our time of revival. May God grant us the ability to make a new beginning and stick to it throughout this period.

Parish Notes

During the weeks of Great Lent the Church rubrics specify that Presanctified Liturgies are served during the week days. The Communion Hosts for these liturgies are sanctified on the preceding Sunday hence the name “presanctified” This Lenten liturgy is very beautiful and if you have not experienced this liturgy you should make all effort to attend. The parish will alternate the weekly Presanctified Liturgy between mornings at 9:00AM and evenings the next week at 6:30PM. Those who attend the evening liturgies should fast from 12:00PM in preparation for receiving Communion. The prayers for preparation are the same as required at other times.

With the warmer weather approaching we will try to complete the remaining projects of roofing the church and the new floor in St John's Hall. The Diocese is planning to use our parish facilities for a monastic retreat during the last week of February. Fr George will keep all posted as to the progress of these plans as they develop. Fr John Whiteford from St Jonah of Manchuria Orthodox Church in Houston, TX is in charge of the planning.

Several members and friends of the parish have special days this month:

William Brendel Birthday Feb 2

Ksenia Couch Namesday Feb 5(Jan 23 OS)

Ksenia Fitzgerald Namesday Feb 5(Jan 23 OS)

Maria Iakoleva Birthday Feb 21

Theodore Morcan Namesday Feb 21(Feb 8 OS)

Theodora(Dorina) Morcan Namesday Feb24(Feb 11 OS)

Nikolai Gaffney Birthday Feb 27

May God grant them many, many years!

From the fathers

“Preserve your inner peace at all costs and do not trade it for anything in this world.”

St Isaac the Syrian

“We must be prepared to accept the will of God. The Lord permits all sorts of things to happen to us contrary to our will, for if we always have it our way, we will not be prepared for the Kingdom of Heaven. Neither heaven nor earth will receive those who are self-willed. God has a Divine plan for each one of us, and we must submit to His plan. We must accept life as it is given to us, without asking, “Why me?” We must know that nothing on earth or in heaven ever happens without the will of God or His permission. We must not become too engrossed with our hardships but concentrate on preserving our inner peace. Even when we are praying for something, we are trying to force our will instead of accepting God's. All hardships and sorrows that God sends us are necessary for us, but we do not understand this when we are young. When we are older, then we understand that this the way God shows His love for us.

You must strive to have peace in your homes. Peace starts with each one of us. When we have peace in us, we spread it around to others. You can see for yourself that there are very few humble and meek souls on the earth-but also that they are truly blessed. They will not be offended if you insult them in any way. Whatever way you treat them, they are quiet and peaceful and they are truly sorrowed because you are in such spiritual torment.” Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives-The Life and Teachings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

January 2010 News

Liturgical Notes

The calendar month of January contains two of the twelve major feast days. The first of these is the Nativity of our Lord Jesus on Jan 7(Dec25). It is fitting that the Lord's coming into the world should be close to the darkest time of the year. This is the time when the days begin to lengthen again following the winter solstice. The world had reached its darkest spiritual state at the time of the Lord's incarnation, the time when the Light of Christ comes into the world to dispell the darkness. This year the parish will begin the celebration with the reading of the Royal hours on Jan 6 (Dec24) followed by the Vespers of Nativity and the Nativity Vigil service in the evening. Divine Liturgy will be served at 9:00AM on Jan 7(Dec 25). This will give our little choir a much needed break after so many services on the Eve of Nativity. The days and the week following Nativity are fast free to continue the celebration for the after feast period.

On January 14 (Jan 1) the church celebrates the Circumcision of our Lord on the eighth day following His birth. This is also the feast day of St. Basil the Great, the renowned father of the Church.

On Jan 19(Jan6) the feast of Theophany commemorates the baptism of our Lord in the River Jordan by St John the Baptist. The Incarnate God enters into His creation to undo the damage done by Adam and Eve's sin in Paradise. Adam was given stewardship over creation so when Adam fell so did the creation. Our Lord Jesus blesses the water of the Jordan by His entry and He renews the basic element of creation. At this time the Holy Trinity makes an appearance to mankind hence the name of the feast, Theophany. The Church blesses water at this time and this water is used to bless the homes of parishioners for the new year.

On Sunday, Jan 24 the Church begins to move toward the period of Great Lent by celebrating the first of the three preparatory Sundays, the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee. As the Publican was proud about his fasting, the Church declares a fast-free week following this Sunday. This is to show us that fasting from food is not the only kind of fasting that is required during Great Lent. We should struggle to fast from our sinful tendencies: vanity, pride, anger, judgment, etc.

Parish Notes

Following the Feast of Theophany Fr George will be scheduling the blessings of homes. We will try to complete these blessings by Feb 7, Meat fare Sunday. Those parishioners wishing to have their homes blessed during this period should contact Fr George to schedule a time. There should be a place prepared in each home to place the Icon of Theophany during the blessing and appropriate church type clothing should be worn during the blessing of the homes.

The annual parish business meeting is scheduled for Sunday, Jan 31, following the meal in the church hall. Please note this date on your personal calendars and plan to attend. There will be an agenda published for members' preparation prior to this meeting.

Several members of the parish have special days this month.

Anna Bennett Birthday Jan 5

Maria Minter Birthday/Namesday Jan 8

Theodore Morcan Birthday Jan 8

Juliana Bennett Namesday Jan 15

Seraphim Fitzgerald Namesday Jan 15

Tatiana Stone Namesday Jan 25

Tatiana Skoumbourdis Namesday Jan 25

Ekaterina Morcan Birthday Jan 28

Athanasia Vasakis Birthday Jan 29

Anthony Khudoley Namesday Jan 30

God grant them many, many years!

From the Fathers

St. John Chrysostom teaches us that all evil comes first from ourselves and only secondly from the devil. If we keep our minds vigilant and our hearts strong in the Faith, the devil has no access to us. The devil only acts on our own evil thoughts and wishes. When we are angry or envious, or when we have violent feelings toward someone, often or over a long period, we ourselves open the window of our heart to the demons. Then they feed our sins and nurture them, and we cannot get rid of them easily. Sometimes we wallow in a certain sin for such a long time that it becomes second nature to us. In this case only God can save u;s, both from our own selves and from the claws of the demons.

The transition from this life into eternity is a very difficult one. Before we pass on into eternity, we can pray, but afterwards we cannot do anything for ourselves—only our loved ones can help us with their prayers. In whatever state the Lord finds us at the hour of our death, He will judge us according to it.

That is why we must pray for our loved ones who have departed this life; this is what they need from us most. The Lord hears our prayers when we pray from the heart, even though we are great sinners. The Lord is always looking into our hearts, and if we turn to Him from the heart, He will be there. He will hear our prayers even though we are very sinful, but He also expects us to repent while there is still time. Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives, The Life and Teachings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica.