Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
Our Open House Weekend is this coming Saturday and Sunday. Check the schedule so you can join us for all the services and each of the events, and be sure to bring lots of guests with you to one of those services or events.
Our Calendar
Fasting Days
Wednesday, October 16, Friday, October 18
Daily Services
Monday, October 14-Friday, October 18: Orthros 5am; Vespers 5pm
Orthros 5am;
Vespers 5pm
Wednesday, October 16
The Fall Theological Seminar 7pm at the parish house, in Georgetown, and in Harker Heights; we will be discussing Chapter 9, pgs 81-97
Thursday, October 17
Choir Practice 7pm
Saturday, October 19
St Thomas School 4pm Dr. Mark Cherry from St Edward’s University will be speaking on Living as a Traditional Christian in a Post-Christian Age
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, October 20
Sixth Sunday of St Luke
Orthros 8am
Church School 8:15am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
Stewardship Visits Noon If your name is Wood, Whalen, Wilson, Vaughan, Treckman, Thurston, Stewart, Speckhard, Seidler, Peacock, Parsons, Morgan, Moralez, Mirabella, Martinit, Martin, Maisano, Latta, Krenek, Kelly, Jones, Hatfield, Haskins, Hardin, Goecker, Gockley, Ghirmai, Easley, Easley, Easley, Easley, Dubina, Crown, Comer, Coleman, Cloud, Chandler, Cabeza De Vaca, Brown, Brown, Bodnarchuk, Bliss, Benson, Bell, Bays, Bassari, Baron, Babina, Azares, Andrews, or Abbott then please head over to the parish house right after you pick up your Fellowship Hour Food
This Week at St. Thomas School
Chapter 10: The Paschal Cycle
How do we know what the truth is? Converts, inquirers, “cradle” Orthodox and many other camps of people want to know the answer to this question during these confusing times, especially when it’s about religion or politics. Metropolitan Hilarion gives a kind of pericope (verses that are cut out to form a unified thought, Greek) that connect to this question and the themes spoken of in the liturgical texts of the Paschal Cycle.
In the first section, he starts with the resurrection of Christ. The great litany in the Paschal Canon of St. John of Damascus says, “This is the day of resurrection. Let us be illumined, O people.” How can we become “illumined?” Because Christ was buried and resurrected, the open door to illumination is how He lived his life on earth. His death and resurrection not only freed us as individuals from “corruption,” but the whole world can be saved. Since our bodies are made of the same elements as the universe, when we become incorrupt and illumined, likewise the universe is saved and enlightened through Jesus Christ.
The second section discusses the Sundays from Pascha up to Pentecost that are called Antipascha (in place of Pascha, Greek). They include The Sunday of Thomas, The Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women, The Sunday of the Pool of Siloam, The Sunday of the Samaritan Woman and The Sunday of the Blind Man. All of these feasts speak of our need of spiritual healing and renewal as a “springtime of our souls” (Pentecostarion. Orthros. Ode 1, Sunday of Thomas). Unlike other Christian groups, the Orthodox Church doesn’t need to manufacture revivals or call councils for an aggiornamento (an organizational bringing up to date) in order to let a more modern mindset help us cope with a changing world. The Church has already experienced the Holy Spirit blowing fire on the Apostles and we have already left the royal doors open during the entire week of Pascha, which represents the tomb of Christ that renews our souls. The Holy Spirit can blow freshly on our lives every year during the Antipascha. All of these feasts in the Paschal cycle and Antipascha Sundays show us that the Way of Christ is to be purified, illumined, and glorified with Him. As a burial rite we hymn on Great Friday at Orthros, “O thou who puttest on light like a garment.” We too want to put on this light after we’ve been healed like the Samaritan woman and the Blind Man.
The next feast, The Ascension of the Lord, teaches us that Christ was glorified when he ascended to His Father, and that He will return glorified. So too, we must become glorified in Jesus Christ. The cloud that appears when Jesus Christ ascended to heaven is not some kind of explainable weather pattern or hyper-abstract, psychological cloud, but it is the real glorification of God the Father through Jesus Christ in Holy Spirit. There are many more hymns, stichera, and troparia that reference “Light,” “illumination” and other enlightening realities in this chapter.
Pentecost shows us that the Holy Spirit “illumines our souls” and “guides into all truth.” The Pentecostarion of the Sunday of Thomas says, “The queen of hours with splendor openly ministers to this light-bearing day.” When the Holy Spirit was given to the Apostles, political and racial divisions were nullified, and all nations were brought into spiritual unity through the Holy Spirit. Truth cannot exist outside of this reality and experience. The Holy Trinity is “the one indivisible light who is known in three hypostases.” When people in the Church are purified, illumined and glorified, there we will find the truth through the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the only infallible source of goodness, truth, and beauty. Come join us this Saturday at 4:00p.m. to find out how to walk the ancient Way of Jesus Christ.
Coming Up
This week our sister parish in Pflugerville, Holy Protection, will celebrate its patronal feast. The community is located at 1701 Peridot Rd. Pflugerville, TX 78660. The services will be held on Sunday, October 13, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m, and on Monday, October 14, at 9:30 a.m, the Divine Liturgy will be followed by a cross procession, blessing of waters, and trapeza.
Stewardship Visits have begun. These visits are the key to our Annual Budget Campaign. Here’s everything you need to know about this year’s process:
Look over the proposed budget that is attached to this newsletter. Then, on your assigned Sunday (see the schedule that’s printed below), show up at the presentation the Finance Committee will make in the common room of the parish house. At that presentation, the Finance Folks will highlight certain aspects of the budget and answer any questions you might have; they will also pass out the 2020 Commitment Cards.
You can fill the card out and give it to one of the Finance Folks after the presentation. You can fill the card out and place it in the Offering Bowl. You can fill the card out and give it to the priest. But we need you to be as specific as you can because we actually plan off of the information that you will put on that card. Also, this year, we are asking everyone to write their contact information on the card, so that we can make sure that our membership roster is up to date (street address; email address; phone numbers).
Once we receive the card, you will receive a thank you note via email. In the past, the priest has written all of those notes by hand, but he has developed a tremor in his right hand (nothing to worry about; he’s just getting old), so his hand writing has deteriorated. However, he will be sending you the thank you note via email. The purpose of the note is three-fold: to thank you for your generosity to our community, to confirm that we have recorded your commitment accurately, and to share with you the new sign-in information for the membership section of the website, which now changes each year.
If you miss your assigned presentation, you are welcome to attend one of the other sessions or one of the make-up sessions (again, check the schedule below). Nevertheless, we need all commitment cards to be returned by Sunday, November 17; that way the Finance Folks can adjust the budget in any way that might be needed. And when it comes to getting those cards returned, we are pretty relentless: In fact, we will send you a very polite and very discrete email each week until you turn in the card or until you say, “Go away. Leave me alone.”
Of course, we want everyone to fill out a card because having a card on file means you will continue to be an official member of St John’s. As an official member, you will continue to receive this amazing weekly newsletter, you will have ongoing access to the membership section of the website, and you will be eligible to vote in the Annual Community Meeting which happens each February.
Four times a year, the Finance Folks will send you a quarterly statement of your giving, and you will receive an annual statement at the end of the year. If you have questions about the budget or your statements, you can always ask the priest or any of the Finance Folks, but no one will ever, under any circumstances, pressure you about your giving.
Our next Open House Weekend, which will be on Saturday, October 19, and Sunday, October 20. Our speaker at St Thomas School on October 19 will be Dr. Mark Cherry; Mark is a member of St. Elias and a professor of philosophy and ethics at St. Edwards University. He will be talking at 4pm about the intersection of faith and politics—which is what we are also talking about in our Fall Theological Seminar—and, since that is sure to be of interest to lots and lots of folks, we are hoping that you will invite your friends and family members to join us for his talk or for one of the services throughout that weekend.
Of course, with each of our Open House Weekends, we not only invite a guest to an event or a service, but we also attend all of the services and events on Saturday and Sunday. That means we commit to showing up at St Thomas School and Great Vespers on Saturday, and Orthros, Church School, Divine Liturgy, and Fellowship Hour on Sunday because we want to make a good impression on folks; we want them to see Holy Orthodoxy at its best.
To help publicize the weekend, attached to this newsletter is a flyer that you can send to your friends and family and neighbors and co-workers; there is also a version that can be used on social media. To be sure, the best way to encourage folks to join us on October 19-20 is to speak to them in person, but we also want to reach as many people as we can, so go ahead and share the flyer with all your contacts.
For the past three years, Baker Galloway has been studying with world-renowned iconographer Aidan Hart in the Prince’s Program for The Traditional Arts in Great Britain. Baker will finish the program this fall, and, on Sunday, October 27, he will share with us the icons and images that he produced over the last three years. The display will be over at the parish house, and we will all be able to view it during Fellowship Hour, so watch this newsletter for more details.
We will be celebrating the Feast of St Raphael of Brooklyn on Saturday, November 2. We will serve Orthros at 7am and Divine Liturgy at 9am on that morning. St Raphael’s icon is on display in our nave; that image also holds a relic of this Syrian saint who was the first Orthodox bishop to be consecrated in North America. St Raphael is also known as The Good Shepherd of the Lost Sheep in America, so there is no better saint to intercede for our friends and loved ones who are not yet part of the Church or who have fallen away from the Church. Plan on joining us to add your prayers to those of this holy hierarch.
Our Moment of Grace and Courtesy
After Fellowship Hour, please remember to return all your plates and coffee cups to the kitchen in the Long Hall. The folks who serve on our Fellowship Hour Teams will have a much easier day if they do not also have to try and round up each of the plates and cups that we leave out on the picnic tables or in all the different rooms of the parish house.
I’m praying for each of you as you invite your friends and family members and coworkers and neighbors to join us this weekend, and I’m looking forward to meeting all of our guests.
an unworthy priest
aidan