Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
This coming Saturday, April 12, marks the beginning of Holy Week. It is Lazarus Saturday, and we will be offering Orthros at 7am and Divine Liturgy at 9am. Saturday evening we will serve Great Vespers for Palm Sunday at the regular time, but that will also be the final opportunity to make your confession before Pascha, so let’s start this Holiest of Weeks off in the best way possible: by attending the Divine Services and by participating in the Mystery of Holy Confession.
Our Calendar
Fasting Days
During Great Lent, the full fast calls on us to go without meat, dairy products, fish with backbones, oil, wine, and hard liquor. There is a blessing for fish, wine, and oil on certain feast days (Palm Sunday, for example). Women who are pregnant or nursing, children who are still growing, and folks who have specific medial requirements are not expected or encouraged to keep the full fast, but all of us can fast in some way. Please check with your sponsor or spiritual father if you need to adjust the fast.
Daily Services
Monday April 7-Friday, April 11: Orthros 5am; Vespers 5pm (there won’t be any daily vespers on Wednesday because of the Pre-Sanctified Liturgy, and it’s always a good idea to check the day before and make sure nothing has come up to change the regular schedule).
However, Fr. Andrew, Seth Hart, and many other folks continue to broadcast daily readings from spiritual books online. They are now reading “The Orthodox Faith” by St John of Damascus. The schedule is as follows: M-F at 12pm.
In addition to the daily Synaxarion readings posted in the #synaxarion channel on Discord, the online team is now posting daily Bible Readings that will allow you to read through the Bible in a year. These readings are posted in the #bible-365 channel.
Monday, April 7
Great Compline 7pm
Tuesday April 8
Inquirer’s 101 7pm; you can also access the group on Discord
Wednesday, April 9
Pre-Sanctified Liturgy 7pm
Thursday, April 10
The Bible Study, Old Testament Edition 7pm; you can access this group on Discord
Saturday, April 12
Lazarus Saturday
Orthros 7am
Divine Liturgy 9am
St Thomas School 4pm
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, April 13
Palm Sunday
Orthros 7:30am
Church School 8:15am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
Bridegroom Orthros 6pm
Great and Holy Monday, April 14
Pre-Sanctified Liturgy 6am
Bridegroom Orthros 7pm
Great and Holy Tuesday April 15
Pre-Sanctified Liturgy 6am
Bridegroom Orthros 7pm
Great and Holy Wednesday, April 16
Pre-Sanctified Liturgy 6am
Service of Holy Unction 7pm
Great and Holy Thursday, April 17
The Vesperal Liturgy of St Basil 6am
The Service of the Twelve Gospels 7pm
Great and Holy Friday, April 18
Royal Hours 9am
Descent from the Cross Vespers Noon
The Service of Lamentations 7pm
Great and Holy Saturday, April 19
Vesperal Divine Liturgy 8am
Paschal Services 11pm
The Great and Holy Pascha, Sunday, April 20
Agape Vespers 2pm
Paschal Picnic 3pm
Anniversary / Memorial Blessings
You can use the links in the email version of the newsletter to sign up for anniversary blessings and memorial services that will be offered in 2025. Please note that things have changed for 2025 to accommodate our growing parish (i.e. some were not able to get on the schedule for anniversary blessings in 2024 because all of the slots were taken).
Memorial Services, will now occur at the end of Great Vespers on Saturday, and they may only be offered for Orthodox Christians who have departed this life. If your departed loved one was not an Orthodox Christian, visit this page on our website to learn about and request an Akathist for the Departed rather than signing up for a memorial service.
Anniversary Blessings may be requested for the first wedding anniversary and every fifth anniversary thereafter (i.e. 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, etc.). They may only be offered if one of the married couple is an Orthodox Christian. Approach the solea immediately after the hymn “Blessed be the Name of the Lord” at the end of the Divine Liturgy. If you have marriage crowns, bring them with you as you come forward. Those celebrating anniversaries that are not eligible to sign up, are invited to come forward during the “Birthdays, Anniversaries, and Namedays” segment of the announcements after the Divine Liturgy.
Coming Up
We always decorate the Nave with flowers for Pascha. That effort generally costs between $500-$800. If you would like to contribute towards that effort and make our celebration that much more beautiful, look for the special Pascha Contribution Basket in the narthex.
On Great and Holy Friday night, it is customary to serve a Tomb Vigil in the Nave. The vigil will begin right after the Service of Lamentations and run up to the beginning of the Vesperal Divine Liturgy at 8am on the morning of Great and Holy Saturday. Participants sign up for one hour time slots during which they read out loud from the New Testament. Due to security reasons, we’re not able to serve the vigil unless all the time slots are filled, so, if you would like to take part in this service, please follow the link in the email version of the newsletter and sign up as soon as possible.
At the service of Agape Vespers, it is customary to read the Gospel Passage in many different languages. Everyone is welcome to participate, but you need to sign up ahead of time. Just follow the link in the email version of the newsletter.
The Pascha Book Study begins on Wednesday, April 23. This year, we will be using a short book called The Passions of the Soul. That book is available at Christ the Lightgiver, so why not pick up a copy so you’ll be ready to go when the book study begins on the Wednesday of Bright Week. Benedict H. will be leading the Pascha Book Study, and here’s what he has to say about the book and the event: “For the Pascha Book Study, we’ll be studying Rowan Williams’ Passions of the Soul. Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, is one of the premier Western scholars of the Eastern spiritual tradition. With Williams’ help, we’ll investigate what the fathers can teach us about the passions and how we can overcome them.”
Our Moment of Grace and Courtesy
As part of our Preparations for Pascha here are all of the Annual Paschal Moments of Grace and Courtesy that deal with food:
Please remember to bring extra food for the Paschal Feast early Sunday morning. Godparents, if this is your godchild's first Pascha, please teach them about the feast and encourage them to bring food and join in. If you have friends who have been visiting the parish but aren't yet catechumens, please let them know about the feast so they can participate.
Please do not bring food that requires cooking or warming up or extensive preparation; there simply isn't room for that in our kitchen. Also, if you bring food that requires refrigeration, you also need to bring an ice chest; there simply isn't room in our refrigerators.
Please leave your food in your vehicle until after the Pascha services have ended. Once we have all reverenced the cross, there will be plenty of time to get the food and get organized; however, we simply won't have room for all the food during the services.
an unworthy priest
aidan