Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
Great Lent has begun, so please read through all the material in this edition of The Happy Priest. We want you to be able to take full advantage of all that the season has to offer.
Our Calendar
The Fast
During the first week of the Fast (known as Pure Week or Clean Week) it is traditional to keep a total fast until after the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts on Wednesday, but those who intend to do a total fast should check first with their physician and their spiritual father. During the rest of the Fast we abstain from meat, poultry, eggs, dairy, fish, wine, and olive oil Monday through Friday, with katalysis (a blessing) for wine and olive oil on Saturday and Sunday. If you need to modify the fast in any way, please check with your spiritual father.
Daily Services
Monday, March 2-Friday, March 6
Orthros 5am;
Vespers 5pm
(But check the schedule for the Lenten services, and please don’t forget that since life in our parish community can be pretty busy, sometimes the starting times for the daily services has to be shifted. So, if you know ahead of time that you will be attending a particular service, it’s always a good idea to send Father Aidan a note to confirm when the service will actually begin.)
Monday, March 2
Great Compline with the Canon of St Andrew 7pm
Tuesday, March 3
Great Compline with the Canon of St Andrew 7pm
Wednesday, March 4
Pre-Sanctified Liturgy 7pm (please note that there will not be a daily vespers on this day)
Thursday, March 5
Choir Practice 7pm
Great Compline with the Canon of St Andrew 7pm
Friday, March 8
Akathist to the Mother of God 7pm
Saturday, March 9
St Thomas School 4pm
Rebekah Galloway will lead the discussion on pgs 16-42 of Chapter 1 of Volume 1Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, March 10
The Sunday of Orthodoxy
Orthros 8am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Weather permitting, we will process with the Icons at the conclusion of the Divine LiturgyFellowship Hour Noon
Akathist to the Mother of God of the Inexhaustible Cup Noon
This Week at St Thomas School
Early Christianity (Part 2, pp 26-42)
In this second half of the first chapter, Metropolitan Hilarion examine the first three centuries of Christianity following the Apostles. It is marked by three significant events: the irregular persecution of Christians, philosophical and theological combat with the Pagans, and heresy from within the Church.
The early persecutions of Christians were from the Jewish rulers who saw Christians as seeking to overthrow the long Jewish traditions and laws. Saul (Paul), of course, was perhaps the most famous early persecutor. The earliest martyrs (e.g., Stephan and James, the brother of John) were killed by Jewish leaders. Because of this Jewish persecution, Christians fled from Jerusalem and Christianity spread rapidly to other parts of the Roman empire.
The Roman Caesars quickly saw the danger of Christianity. Roman leadership saw Christians as a “secret, superstitious sect that was harmful to society.” Because the early Church closed its doors to the unbaptized during the Eucharist (“The doors, the doors”), pagans imagined all sorts of abominations occurring within the Liturgy—the Eucharist itself was understood by many to be an act of cannibalism. Further, Romans generally accused Christians of being atheist, since they denied the deity of Caesar. Persecution of the Christians was often ghastly in its brutality.
Not all persecution was from the motive to protect Roman society…the first Roman persecution, begun in A.D. 64, was by Emperor Nero who sought to divert suspicion away from himself for a devastating fire that ravaged Rome.
All changed under Emperor Constantine. In A.D.313, as a result of a purported vision of God, the Emperor Constantine (and Licinius) issued the Edict of Milan ending the persecution of Christians by the State.
During and immediately following the persecutions, the Church was also engaged in philosophical and theological battle with the pagan culture. Early writers worked to find a way to convey the truths of Christianity, born in a Middle Eastern culture, to the minds of those trained in classical Hellenistic thought. Clement of Alexander saw Greek philosophy as a “divine gift” and as but one stream leading to Truth.
The third prong of attack against the early church was heresy from within. Most prominent during this early period were the heresies of:
Montanism—focusing o the primacy of the New Testament writings, particularly of Paul, and of the writings of Monanus and his two young prophetesses.
Sabellianism—a teaching by Roman priest Sabellius that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were manifestations over time of the one person of God.
Manichaeism—this teaching from Persia was founded by Mani who believed that there was an eternal struggle between God and the devil.
Out of all of this arose the literature with which we are familiar: the Gospels and other New Testament writings; apocrypha, writings that were not considered scriptural but often was very helpful; apologetics, the writings in defense of Christianity against heresy and paganism; and other writings of the Fathers who sought to better understand Christianity itself.
Coming Up
There are two more Saturday of Souls between now and Pascha. On those Saturdays we serve Orthros at 7am and Divine Liturgy at 9am. The Memorial Book is available in the narthex, so please legibly print the names of the folks that you wish to commemorate in the section for the particular Saturday when you will be in attendance. Those Saturdays fall on March 14 and March 21, and our goal is for everyone in the parish to make at least one of those services.
The expectation of our archdiocese is that each of us will make our confession before Pascha. In our parish, we do not offer that Holy Mystery during Holy Week, so that means we have until Friday, April 10 to fulfill that obligation. Confession is offered each Saturday evening following Great Vespers and just about any other time by specific appointment, so let’s be sure and get that done during the next nine weeks.
During Great Lent we always try to do some spiritual reading, so why not get a head start on the Pascha Book Study and read through the book that we will be using during that six week discussion? The book is called The New Media Epidemic; it’s by a French Orthodox scholar, Jean Claude Larchet. It’s a fairly short book, so you can read a couple of pages a day during Great Lent and be ready to join the book study when it kicks off on Wednesday, April 22. The book is available at Christ the Lightgiver Bookstore, so pick up a copy in the next week or so.
One of the most beautiful feasts of the Mother of God falls during Great Lent. It’s the Feast of the Annunciation, and we will begin that cycle of services with Great Vespers on Tuesday, March 24, at 7pm. We will continue the services on March 25, the day of the feast, with Orthros at 4:30am and Divine Liturgy at 6:30am. Plan on joining us as we honor the Most Holy Theotokos.
Our Moment of Grace and Courtesy
When you are attending services at night, please be aware that when you park directly in front of the building, if you keep your head lights on, those beams shine directly into the nave. So the sooner you can turn off your head lights, the less distracting it will be for everyone in the nave.
Our parish goal is to make one of the Lenten services each week. That will require planning ahead and creative strategizing, but the blessings will be worth it, so please know that I’m looking forward to praying with you all.
an unworthy priest
aidan