Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
This coming Wednesday, March 25, we will celebrate The Feast of the Annunciation. We will serve Great Vespers at 7pm on Tuesday, March 24, and, on the day of the feast, we will offer Orthros at 5am and Divine Liturgy at 7am. Please plan on joining us for these lovely services.
This coming Sunday, March 29, is a Fifth Sunday. On those Sundays, we always have a potluck at Fellowship Hour, and, over the years, we've discovered that those work a whole lot better if we all bring some food. So, bring your best Lenten dishes with a little to share on the 29th.
Also, this coming Sunday, we will have our first Safety and Security Rehearsal of the year. This will be for a medical emergency, and it will feature a new ‘traffic pattern’ for our evacuation of the Long Hall. Everyone standing forward of the banners on the north and south walls will exit the building out of one of the two doors at the front of the nave and walk to the rally sign at the end of the old parking lot; everyone standing behind the banners will exit the building through the front door and walk to the rally sign at the end of the new parking lot.
Fasting Days
We are keeping the traditional fasting discipline in which we go without meat (beef, pork, chicken, and fish with backbones), dairy products, oil, wine, and hard liquor through Pascha, Sunday, April 12 (there is a blessing for fish, wine, and oil on Saturdays and Sundays and for the Feast of the Anunciation). If you need to modify that discipline in any way, please speak with your spiritual father as soon as possible.
Daily Services
Monday, March 23-Friday, March 27: Orthros 5am; Vespers 5pm (please also check the schedule of Lenten 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 Hymn of Entry by Archimandrite Vasileios. 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.
Monday, March 23
Small Compline with the Canon of St Andrew 7pm
Tuesday, March 24
Great Vespers 7pm
The Inquirer’s Class to begin after Vespers
The Parish Council 7pm
Wednesday, March 25 The Feast of the Annunciation
Orthros 5am
Divine Liturgy 7am
Friday, March 27
The Final Akathist Hymn 7pm
Saturday, March 28
St Thomas School 4pm
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, March 29 The Fifth Sunday of Great Lent
Orthros 8am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Potluck Noon
Financial Update
Thanks to the mercy of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and thanks to your generosity, we ended February with a surplus of $4700, which means we have a surplus on the year of just over $7,000. We will need $41,000 each month to meet our budget goals, so please keep that in mind as we move further into spring and summer.
Coming Up
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 just three weeks to get that done. Of course, that 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).
The St Olga’s Women’s Group has been collecting donations to make Blessing Bags for folks we encounter on the street, at the stoplight, in the parking lot, or wherever God leads. This is also a wonderful opportunity for children a way to give alms during Great Lent. If you or your company want to donate - contact Marla P. to have her remove the donated item from the list and note it will be provided by you and yours. (Also- if you have an idea for something you want to donate- let us know. We will aim for batches of 100 bags. So far, the group has close to 100 bags but considering how many households our parish has, it seems 200- 300 would be reasonable too! We will assemble at St John’s on Saturday March 28 at 1 pm. Further details are available on the Discord bulletin board and St Olga Women’s general board.
This year, the Pascha Book Study will run from Wednesday, April 15-Wednesday, May 13. Dr Benedict H. will lead the discussion about Paul Kingsnorth's popular book Against the Machine. The group will be in-person only; it will meet in the parish house at 7pm. The bookstore has plenty of copies of the text, so pick one up soon.
Our Moment of Grace and Courtesy
It’s time to start getting ready for the Feast of Feasts, so here is our next Paschal Moment of Grace and Courtesy:
Please remember to bring extra food for the Paschal Feast early Sunday morning. Godparents, if this is your godchild's first Pascha, please teach them about the feast and encourage them to bring food and join in. If you have friends who have been visiting the parish, but aren't yet catechumens, please let them know about the feast so they can participate.
Please do not bring food that requires cooking or warming up or extensive preparation; there simply isn't room for that in our kitchen. Also, if you bring food that requires refrigeration, you also need to bring an ice chest; there simply isn't room in our refrigerators.
Please leave your food in your vehicle until after the Pascha services have ended. Once we have all reverenced the cross, there will be plenty of time to get the food and get organized; however, we simply won't have room for all the food during the services.
an unworthy priest
aidan