Brothers and Sisters,
Happy Feast!
We will celebrate the Great Feast of Theophany on January 5th and 6th. Tomorrow, Monday, January 5th, we will offer Orthros at 5am, The Royal Hours at 9am, and the Vesperal Liturgy with the First Blessing of the Waters at noon. On Tuesday, January 6, we will serve Orthros at 5am and the Divine Liturgy with the Great Blessing of the Waters at 7am. Please plan on participating in these festal services as often as you can.
The 2026 House Blessing Schedule is included in the email version of this week’s newsletter. At this point, we are not able to make any changes to the schedule, but, if for some reason, your appointed day or time does not work, just let one of our priests know, and we will put you on the Make-Up List, which will be published after the regular schedule has been completed.
Fasting Days
The Eve of Theophany, Monday, January 5, is a strict fast day, and then the normal Wednesday and Friday fast resumes this week; on those days we forego meat, daily products, fish with backbone, oil, wine, and hard liquor. If you need to modify our fasting, please check with one of our priests.
Daily Services
Monday, January 5-Tuesday, January 6: Orthros 5am; Vespers 5pm; (due to House Blessings, there will be no daily vespers on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday of this week, and no Orthros on Friday; also please check the festal schedule and please note that 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 Made For Union by Father George Dokos; they will soon begin Hymns of Paradise by St Ephrem the Syrian. 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, January 5
Royal Hours 9am
Vesperal Liturgy with First Blessing of the Waters Noon
Tuesday, January 6 The Great Feast of Theophany
Orthros 5am
Divine Liturgy with Second Blessing of the Waters 7am
The Inquirer’s Class 7pm
Saturday, January 10
St Thomas School 4pm
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, January 11 The Sunday After Theophany
Orthros 8am
Church School 8:15am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
Coming Up
His Eminence, Metropolitan SABA, will be at our parish on Saturday, January 24, and when he’s here, he will ordain Seth H. to the Holy Diaconate. We’ll let you know about specific times as soon as all that’s confirmed, but, right now, please let the future Father Deacon Seraphim and Shamassy Elizabeth know that you will be praying for them, and please reserve the morning of January 24 for that once in a lifetime event.
Abortion is the great evil of our time, and each year, in January, we offer The Service for the Victims of Abortion. The victims include not only the unborn children who have died, but the men and women who are participant in those deaths, the siblings who never had a chance to meet their sisters and brothers, and our entire culture that has been denied the perspectives and insights and contributions of those we did not allow to be born. In addition to praying for all those folks, we will also be collecting supplies (Baby hygiene products; Diapers size 4, 5, 6; Baby healthcare kits; Sippy cups; Wide neck baby bottles; Baby outfits size 3-6 months) for the Wilco Women’s Center (formerly the Williamson County Pregnancy Center). Please join us at 7pm on Friday, January 30.
The reports for our Annual Meeting on Sunday, February 8, are now available. Please read through them in the weeks ahead. It’s a great way to find out about all the great things that are going on in our parish. You can find the reports in the announcement channel on Discord.
Our Moment of Grace and Courtesy
Let’s remember to stay out of the construction area—and that includes all of us: children, adults, children accompanied by adults. We are all drawn to big machines, and we all want to see the changes on the property, but it is a dangerous space, and none of us are authorized to be back there.
This Week’s Recommended Baby Name
Since we have so many babies, all of us at One Take Productions thought it would be helpful if we highlighted a saints’ name each week to help with the process of name selection. So, straight out of the Synaxarion, this week’s Certified Orthodox Baby Name is Sylvester.
an unworthy priest
aidan