Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
The first Saturday of Souls for 2023 is this coming Saturday, February 18. On that day, Orthros will be offered at 6am and Divine Liturgy will be offered at 8am. The St Joanna Burial Society will also be on hand to serve refreshments, display caskets that are available to order, and sell end-of-life paperwork packets and related reading material. The group will also be able to explain how you can obtain burial plots at Cedar Park Cemetery. The other Saturdays of Souls will be held on March 11 and March 18 and June 3, so if you are unable to join us for the services on the 18 th , please plan on one of those other dates.
This year and going forward, we’re going to be encouraging everyone in the parish to learn how to bake prosphora! To help with that long-term project, we will be offering a Prosphora Baking Class this coming Saturday, 18 February from 10:30am-1pm. The class will meet in the kitchen of the Long Hall; it will be taught by Mary K. and other bakers; all supplies will be provided, and a light lunch will be served. What a deal! If you would like to get a head start on this new spiritual discipline, please contact Mary.
Special Thanks to everyone who made our Annual Community Meeting such a success. We want to
express our gratitude to those parish council members who are cycling off the council this year, and we also want to welcome the new council members—and assure them of our prayers.
Our Calendar
Fasting
Wednesday, February 15, and Friday, February 17
Daily Services
Monday, February 13- Friday, February 17
Orthros 5am
Vespers 5pm
Seth Hart will be at the online chanter’s stand offering the First, Third, Sixth, and Ninth Hours this week on ZOOM. The schedule is below:
1st hour: 6:45 a.m.
3rd hour: 8:45 a.m.
6th hour: 11:45 a.m.
9th hour: 3:45 p.m.
The login information is available in the emailed version of the newsletter.
St. John Trapeza Readings
Fr. Andrew, Seth Heart, and Matthew Groh and many other folks continue to broadcast daily readings from spiritual books online. They are currently reading Commentary on the Apocalypse, Andrew of Caesarea.
The schedule is as follows: Monday to Friday at 12:00 p.m.
If you would like to listen in, use the link to join the Telegram group shared in the emailed version of the newsletter.
Tuesday, February 14
Orthodoxy 101 at 7:00 p.m.
Topic: Orthodoxy 101
Please see the emailed version of the newsletter for login information.
Thursday, February 16
Bible Study 7pm
Topic: St. John the Forerunner - Bible Study
Please see the emailed version of the newsletter for login information.
Saturday, February 18
Orthros 6am
Divine Liturgy 8am
St. Thomas School at 4:00 p.m.
Great Vespers at 6:00 p.m.
Sunday, February 19 Sunday of The Last Judgment
Orthros 8am
Church School 8:15am
Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
Youth Church School Following Fellowship Hour
St. Thomas School
On Saturday, February 18, Chris Speckhard will lead the discussion of Chapter Twenty four in Volume Two, “The Apostolicity of the Church” https://theforerunner.squarespace.com/blog/2021/5/9/orthodox-
christianity-vol-iii-ch-2 . In order to participate online, send an email to
remote.meetings@theforerunner.orgn order to participate online, by this coming Thursday, February 16. You will also need to keep your camera on during the session.
coming up
Great Lent
Now that the Triodion has begun, it’s important that we begin planning for Great Lent: How will we fast? Do we need to get a blessing to modify the fast? Which weekday Lenten services will we attend? Which of the Saturdays of Souls will we attend? What will we use for spiritual reading? How will we increase our giving and help out others? Those are questions that we need to address—and answer—in the next few weeks.
Sunday, February 26, will be a busy day. It is the fourth Sunday of the month, so it will be Reception Sunday; that’s when we make folks catechumens and when we perform baptisms and christmations. That Sunday is also the Sunday of Forgiveness, so, following Fellowship Hour, we will gather back in the nave for Vespers and the Annual Service of Mutual Forgiveness. Please do your best to join us for the entire day.
Great Lent begins on Monday, February 27. That week, there are Lenten services each night at 7pm: On Monday, February 27, Tuesday, February 28, and Thursday, March 2 Great Compline with the Canon of St Andrew will be served.
On Wednesday, March 1, we will offer the first Pre-Sanctified Liturgy, and on Friday, March 3, we will serve the first Akathist to the Mother of God. Please plan on joining us as often as you can.
OUR MOMENT OF GRACE AND COURTESY
When you approach the chalice to receive the holy gifts, please get as close to the priest or deacon as you can. The cloth should be well under your chin, and the priest or deacon should not have to extend
their arm in order to place the gifts in your mouth; this will help prevent the gifts from being spilled.
Things That Make Priests Happy
Blessing Matt and Valerie G. on their fourteenth anniversary; talking hockey with Fredrick L.;
visiting with Ella M. about hair color; listening to Sara H. and Tawni M. practicing for the Akathist;
hanging out with the choir (man, do they eat well); spotting a mockingbird on a cold morning.
Attached to this week’s edition of The Happy Priest is a letter from the Patriarchal Vicar, Metropolitan
Antoninos, about the earthquake in Syria.
an unworthy priest,
aidan
The Happy Priest is a publication of Life At A Dead Run Media, which is a subsidiary of One Take Productions. Our IT Guy is Father Deacon Gerasimos Juliano; our Webmasters are Lily Halsey and Seth Hart; our Keeper of Lists is Father Andrew Wilson; our Roving Reporter is William Miller; our spy balloons are all shaped like giraffes, and our Spiritual Advisor is Elder Galaction of the Holy Mountain.