Brothers and Sisters,
Happy Feast!
It’s hard to believe, but this coming Sunday, we will reach the half-way point in Great Lent! So this is a good time to step back and think about how things are going: Have we been fasting to the level of our ability? Have we made our confession? Have we participated in one of the weekday Lenten Services—or in one of the Saturdays of Souls? Have we increased our giving? Is there any way we could be more helpful to the folks around us? The good news is that we still have plenty of time to make progress in all of those areas!
Our Calendar
Fasting Days
The traditional fasting discipline is that we go without meat (beef, pork, chicken, and fish with backbones), dairy products, oil, wine, and hard liquor through Pascha, Sunday, May 5 (there is a blessing for fish, wine, and oil on Saturdays and Sundays). If you need to modify that discipline in any way, please speak with your spiritual father as soon as possible.
Daily Services
Monday, Apr 1 - Friday, Apr 5
Orthros 5 am
Vespers 5 pm
Except Wed Apr 3: Pre-Sanctified Liturgy
(Please remember that if you plan on attending the in-person services, it’s always a good idea to check the day before and make sure the regular schedule will be observed)
Fr. Andrew, Seth Hart, and Matthew Groh and many other folks continue to broadcast daily readings from spiritual books online. They are now reading “The Ethic of Beauty." The schedule is M-F at 12pm.
Also, our online team will now be reading the Daily Synaxarion on the #synaxarion channel.
Monday, April 1
Great Compline 7 pm
Tuesday, April 2
Orthodoxy 101 7pm; this group will meet in the narthex of the Long Hall; you can also access the group on Discord
Wednesday, April 3
Pre-Sanctified Liturgy 7 pm
Thursday, April 4
Bible Study, New Testament Edition on Discord
Friday, April 5
The Akathist Hymn 7 pm
Saturday, April 6
The Saturday of Souls
Orthros 6 am
Divine Liturgy 8 am
St Thomas School 4 pm
Great Vespers 6 pm
Sunday, April 7
The Sunday of The Cross
Orthros 8 am
Church School 8:15 am
Divine Liturgy 10 am
Fellowship Hour Noon - Potluck
St. Thomas School
On Saturday, April 6, we will have our third Practical Saturday Class of 2024. Father Aidan will lead the discussion on Saints and Their Names. We will be talking about how folks become saints, how to get to know the saints, what these holy people can do for us, and what we should look for in a patron saint. It will be an In-Person Only Session, so plan on joining us in the parish house at 4pm.
Pascha Flowers
Please help us adorn the bier, nave and narthex for Pascha weekend by contributing to the Flower Fund. Simply log into your Realm account, go to Giving>Give>Fund>Flower Fund, and select the amount of your donation. This is a beautiful way to honor both Christ's entombment and Resurrection!
Coming Up
The next Saturday of Souls will be this Saturday, April 6, and we will also offer those services on June 22. On those Saturdays, we pray for our departed friends and loved ones, but we also prepare for our departure from this life, and our Burial Society can help us with a lot of those practical details. Members of the society will be present this Saturday, along with a representative from Beck Funeral Home, and they can answer all your questions and help get you started on that process that so very many of us just try to postpone (a light breakfast will also be provided). If you will be attending any of the weekday services, please add your departed loved ones' names to the yellow Memorial Binder on the narthex table, or bring a printout of those names to the Saturday service by 7:30 AM (for the 8:00 AM Divine Liturgy) and hand it to one of the priests at the chanter stand. Since there are four Saturdays of Souls, our hope is that all of us will attend the Divine Services on at least one of those days, so if you haven’t yet been able to participate, please join us this coming Saturday or make plans to do that in June
The archdiocese expects all of us to make our confession prior to Pascha. Here in our parish, we do not offer the Mystery of Holy Confession during Holy Week, so that means we now have four weeks to get that done. Of course, a month seems like a long time, but it will go by very quickly, so we need to plan ahead. Holy Confession is available on Saturday evenings after Great Vespers or just about any other time with a specific appointment (our priests do not hear immediate-request-on-the-spot confessions).
Our Moment of Grace and Courtesy
It’s time to start reviewing our annual Paschal Moments of Grace and Courtesy. Here’s the first one:
During the Paschal Services on Saturday night/Sunday morning, if young children need to sleep, then they must be A) in the parish house with a family member or friend, or B) held in the arms or on the lap of a family member in the nave. Please do not, under any circumstances, allow your children to sleep on the floor of the nave, the narthex, the cry room, or the kitchen. This is not safe, and our ushers have been instructed to remind parents and grandparents that children are not allowed to sleep in these locations. Also, please remember that if your children are going to sleep in the parish house, there must be a family member with them at all times; they are not to be left alone for any reason.
An unworthy priest,
aidan