Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
This coming Sunday, July 21, we will have our Annual Blessing of Automobiles. That’s the Sunday closest to St Elias’ Day, and since St Elias ascended into heaven in a fiery chariot, we’re going to bless all of our cars and trucks on that Sunday. When we get our homes and apartments blessed, we always make sure they are picked up and cleaned up, and we should do the same thing for our vehicles. At the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy on the 21, we will process through the parking lots and bless each of the cars and trucks parked there, so let’s make sure that they are all sparkling and clean.
Our Calendar
Fasting Days
Wednesday, July 17, and Friday, July 19
Daily Services
We will offer Daily Vespers each day this week at 5pm; Orthros will return soon; thanks to everyone for their patience.
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 Ethics of Beauty”. The schedule is as follows: M-F at 12pm.
Also, our online team will now be reading the Daily Synaxarion on Discord. Just look for this channel: #synaxarion
Tuesday, July 16
Festal Choir Rehearsal 7pm
Orthodoxy 101 7pm; you can also access the group on Discord
Wednesday, July 17
Parish Council Meeting 7pm
Saints and Sorbet 7pm Home of Nathalie M.
Thursday, July 18
Liturgy Choir Rehearsal 7pm
The Bible Study, Old Testament Edition 7pm; you can access this group on Discord
Friday, July 19
Youth Event 7pm
Saturday, July 20
St Thomas School 4pm
Youth 4pm
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, July 21
4th Sunday of St Matthew
Orthros 8am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
Tuesday, July 23
Orthodoxy 101 7pm; you can also access the group on Discord
Even Chanter Team 7pm
St Thomas School
On Saturday, July 20, St Thomas School will be hosting our next Catechumen Cohort Check-In. This session is designed for all the catechumens, their sponsors, and for everyone is in interested in becoming a catechumen or a sponsor. We will be looking at the calendar together, answering everyone’s questions, and generally just getting a read on how everyone is progressing on their journey to full reception in the Church. Please plan on joining us at 4pm in the Parish House.
Coming Up
Nathalie M. is hosting a women’s book study in her home. It is called Saints and Sorbets: Seven Holy Women, and details about the next session are in the email edition of the newsletter. This week the group will be talking about St. Kassiani, but everyone is invited to join the group to discuss and learn of and from these Seven Holy women’s lives including: St. Ia, St. Nino, St. Piama, St. Margaret, & St. Casilda de Toledo.
This coming Friday evening, July 19, the youth will meet from 7-9pm in The Parish House for pizza, drinks & dessert and a viewing of a short film about the life of Saint Seraphim. July 19 is the day the Church commemorates the transfer of the Relics of Saint Seraphim back into the Church. After dinner and the movie we will pray the Akathist to Saint Seraphim together in the Nave to end our time together. If you plan on joining please RSVP to Valerie G. so she knows how much food to provide and send your teen with $5 or send $5 via PayPal or Venmo (details in the email edition of the newsletter).
Our next Safety and Security Rehearsal will be for an active shooter event. It will be held on Sunday, July 28, and what we will do is pretty much exactly what we do during our Severe Weather Rehearsal: we will all get down on the floor for 15 seconds, and then we will exit the building in the ways that we normally do and proceed to the rally signs on either end of the property. The only thing that will be different about this rehearsal is that, at the beginning, one of the ushers will say, the word “Gun” in a loud voice, three times. However, we will announce the rehearsal and talk about it briefly before it happens, so it will not be a surprise. This sort of rehearsal may seem more dramatic than the other rehearsals we have throughout the year, but, statistically, we are much more likely to encounter a severe weather event or a medical emergency than an active shooter. Nevertheless, we want to be as prepared as possible for all eventualities, so if you have any questions, please check with our parish council chair or with one of our priests.
On Thursday, August 1, we will begin the Dormition Fast. During this Fast, which runs through Wednesday, August 14th , the eve of the great feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, we observe the traditional fasting discipline (no meat, poultry, fish, milk, cheese, eggs, wine and olive oil) Monday through Friday with a blessing for wine and olive oil on Saturday and Sunday, and for fish, wine and olive oil on the great feast of the Transfiguration on Tuesday, August 6th. If you need to modify the fast in any way, please check with your spiritual father.
During the Dormition Fast, we offer The Paraclesis to the Mother of God just about each week night between August 1 and August 13. That means, this year, there will be eight opportunities to participate in this lovely service, and that means all of us should be able to be present at least once during the fast. So please look at the website calendar and then look at your calendar and make plans to join us as we ask the Most Holy Theotokos for her intercessions.
Before the Feast of the Dormition on Thursday, August 15, the Archdiocese expects all of us to make our confession. In our parish, that Holy Mystery is offered on Saturday evenings after Great Vespers or just about any other time by special appointment.
Church School Registration
It is time for church school registration for the 2024-25 school year!! As a reminder, children need to be at least 3 years of age by September 1, 2024 and potty trained to register for Level 1, 6 years of age to register for Level 2, and 9 years of age to register for Level 3. SOYO (youth) is for ages 13-18. If you have any questions about CGS (Levels 1-3), feel free to reach out to Sandi A. If you have any questions about SOYO, you can reach out to Father Aidan or Father Andrew. The new CGS calendar will be posted to our parish website shortly but please note that we have an exciting new change!! CGS will now be offered at its regular time (8:15 a.m.-9:30 a.m. Sunday morning) for the first three Sundays of each month. We are so pleased to be able to offer a third Sunday of church school to our children and look forward to spending more time with them. The link for church school registration is in the email edition of the newsletter.
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.
Capital Campaign Countdown Column
Whatever is obtained as a result of long and persistent prayer will remain.
-St John Climacus
We are now just eight weeks away from our three year pledge campaign that will begin on the Feast of St Eanswythe, August 31. If you would like to learn more about the project, please read through the FAQ that is attached to this newsletter, but, to help us prepare for this historic effort, this week’s Countdown Column comes to us from Father Deacon Michael Coleman.
Seven centuries before Christ, in the city of Nineveh, an exiled Hebrew man named Tobit (accompanied by his son) had his sight restored and his money returned with the help of an unnamed companion. Meaning to pay this unknown person half of all his gain, Tobit and his son were shocked when this person revealed himself as one of the seven holy angels who present the prayers of the saints before God’s throne – the archangel Raphael! This angelic being then disclosed to them the connections among prayer, righteous deeds, and almsgiving, saying:
“Praise God and give thanks to him; exalt him and give thanks to him in the presence of all the living for what he has done for you. It is good to praise God and to exalt his name, worthily declaring the works of God. Do not be slow to give him thanks.” (Tobit 12:6b-10) As we St John parishioners embark upon the journey of funding and building our new temple, it is helpful to remember why we are planning to give our money and time to such a long-term endeavor: we are contributing to a specific location with a specific building, set aside for the praising of God, giving thanks (which is the meaning of the word “Eucharist”), “for what he has done for you.” (v6)
The angel Raphael continues: “Prayer is good when accompanied by fasting, almsgiving, and righteousness. A little with righteousness is better than much with wrongdoing. It is better to give alms than to treasure up gold. For almsgiving delivers from death, and it will purge away every sin. Those who perform deeds of charity and of righteousness will have fulness of life; but those who commit sin are the enemies of their own lives. (v8-10) Notice the angel explains that the prayer of our praise must be accompanied by fasting, almsgiving, and righteous deeds. Our St John community loves to pray, in Church, at home, with the hymns and the psalms. We reach out to each other with many thoughtful deeds of love. Now, at the start of our funding giving journey, we are called to give of our monies and our time “to purge away every sin” and to be “deliver[ed] from death.”
We are building a new temple to “praise God for all he has done for us” and, with righteous deeds and prayers, to “purge away every sin, delivering from death.” When we open our hearts to give generously, our sinful, selfish passions begin to melt away. Our hearts grow larger, and we begin to praise God more, to love our brothers more, and to rise above our sins to lay hold of that death-destroying life that Christ has for us.
Deacon Michael Coleman
an unworthy priest
aidan