Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
This weekend we will celebrate the Great Feast of Pentecost. Saturday, June 7, will be the final Saturday of Souls for 2025; we will offer Orthros at 6am and Divine Liturgy at 8am (if you have not yet been able to pray for your departed family members and friends, please be sure to join us!). Great Vespers will be served at 6pm that evening, and then, on Sunday, June 8, we will offer Orthros at 8am, Divine Liturgy at 10am, the Pentecost Picnic at noon, and then Kneeling Vespers will be served no later than 1pm. Pentecost is one of the highlights of the Liturgical Year, so plan on being a part of it all.
Our Calendar
Fasting Days
Wednesday, June 4, and Friday, June 6
Daily Services
Monday, June 2-Friday, June 6; Orthros 5am; Vespers 5pm (but check the schedule for the festal services; it’s always a good idea to check the day before and make sure nothing has come up to change the regular schedule). However, Fr. Andrew, Seth Hart, and many other folks continue to broadcast daily readings from spiritual books online. They are now reading “The Orthodox Faith” by St John of Damascus. The schedule is as follows: M-F at 12pm.
In addition to the daily Synaxarion readings posted in the #synaxarion channel on Discord, the online team is now posting daily Bible Readings that will allow you to read through the Bible in a year. These readings are posted in the #bible-365 channel.
Tuesday June 3
Inquirer’s 101 7pm; you can also access the group on Discord
Thursday, June 5
The Bible Study, Old Testament Edition
Saturday, June 7 Saturday of Souls
Orthros 6am
Divine Liturgy 8am
St Thomas School 4pm
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, June 8 The Great Feast of Pentecost
Orthros 8am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Pentecost Picnic Noon
Kneeling Vespers No Later Than 1pm
Coming Up
This year, the Annual Parish Life Conference will meet in Norman, Oklahoma, from Wednesday, June 11, through Saturday, June 14. It’s a great time to meet folks and find out what is going on in our diocese and archdiocese. For all the information, check this link.
This year, The Apostles' Fast will run from Monday, June 16, through Saturday, June 28. During this season, we observe the regular fasting discipline (no meat, dairy products, most kinds of fish, oil, wine, and hard liquor) on Wednesdays and Fridays, with a blessing for wine and oil on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Fish, wine, and oil are permitted on Saturday and Sunday and on our parish feast day. If you need to adjust the fast in any way, please check with your spiritual father.
During the Apostles' Fast, it is the custom in our parish to offer The Akathist to the Apostles each Wednesday evening. During this service, we pray for those who are not yet part of the Church and for those who have fallen away from the Faith. This year, we will be offering the service twice, on Wednesday, June 18, and Wednesday, June 25. All of us can make at least one of those services, and all of us should do so, since all of us know folks who are not yet part of the Church or who have fallen away from the Faith.
This year, our parish feast day, June 24, falls on a Tuesday. We’ll serve Great Vespers at 7pm on Monday, June 23, and then on Tuesday morning we will offer Orthros at 5am and Divine Liturgy at 7am. However, on the previous Sunday, June 22, we will observe the Annual Beating of the Bounds with the ever-popular King Herod Pinata and St John’s Honey and Locusts, and, this year, we will be adding dancing to our celebration, so plan on joining us throughout the first three days of that week.
Our Moment of Grace and Courtesy
Our icons will last much, much longer if we will only touch or kiss the outer frame of the image. So, when you are reverencing the icons on the iconostasis or the front wall of the nave, just touch or kiss the image along the red line that runs along the outer frame--our grandchildren and great grandchildren will thank you.
an unworthy priest
aidan