Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
Thanks to everyone who helped make Metropolitan SABA welcome: the music folks, the food folks, the parking folks, the flower folks, the throne-moving folks, the usher folks, the photo folks, the money folks, the sound folks, the bookstore folks, and the clean-up folks.
This coming Saturday, March 14, is the final Lenten Saturdays of Souls for this year. There will be a final Saturdays of Souls on May 30, the day before the Great Feast of Pentecost. If you have not yet been able to join us for the services and intercede for your departed friends and family members, please plan on joining us on one of those Saturdays.
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). If you need to modify that discipline in any way, please speak with your spiritual father as soon as possible.
Daily Services
Monday, March 9-Friday, March 13: 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 9
Great Compline 7pm
Tuesday, March 10
The Inquirer’s Class 7pm
Wednesday, March 11
Pre-Sanctified Liturgy 7pm
Friday, March 13
The Akathist Hymn 7pm
Saturday, March 14 Saturday of Souls
Orthros 6am
Divine Liturgy 8am
St Thomas School 4pm
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, March 15 The Sunday of the Cross
Orthros 7:30am We will make a number of people catechumens between Orthros and the Liturgy; please arrive early to participate in this important service.
Church School 8:15am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
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 four 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).
On 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 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 first Paschal Moment of Grace and Courtesy:
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