Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
Holy Week begins this coming Saturday, April 8. In addition to the Divine Services, you can also participate in the Tomb Vigil on Friday night/Saturday morning, April 14/15, and you can read the gospels in a language other than English at Agape Vespers on Sunday afternoon, April 16. Here are the links to sign-up for those activities:
Paschal Tomb Vigil 2023
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0945A4AF23A1FDC61-paschal
Agape Vespers Gospel Reading 2023
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0945A4AF23A1FDC61-agape
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, April 16 (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, April 3 - Friday, April 7
Orthros 5am
Vespers 5pm
Seth Hart and friends will be at the online chanter’s stand offering the First, Third, Sixth, and Ninth Hours this week.:
1st hour: 6:45 a.m.
3rd hour: 8:45 a.m.
6th hour: 11:45 a.m.
9th hour: 3:45 p.m.
Join the Daily Hours on Discord.
St. John Trapeza Readings
Fr. Andrew, Seth Hart, and Matthew Groh and many other folks continue to broadcast daily readings from spiritual books online. They are currently reading The Commonitory by St Vincent of Lerins. The schedule is M-F at 12pm.
The schedule is Monday to Friday at 12:00 p.m. Please see the emailed version of the newsletter for the link to join the Trapeza Readings on Discord.
Lenten Services
Monday, April 3 Great Compline 7pm
Wednesday, April 5 Small Compline with Canon of St Andrew and The Life of St Mary of Egypt 7pm
Tuesday, April 4
Orthodoxy 101 7pm This group will meet in the narthex of The Long Hall
You can also access the group on Discord
Thursday, April 6
The Bible Study 7pm
You can access this group on Discord
Saturday, April 8 Lazarus Saturday
Orthros 6am
Divine Liturgy 8am
St Thomas School 4pm
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, April 9 Palm Sunday
Orthros 8am
Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
Akathist to the Mother of God of the Inexhaustible Cup 1pm
Bridegroom Orthros 6pm
Monday, April 10 Great and Holy Monday
Pre-Sanctified Liturgy 6am
Bridegroom Orthros 7pm
Tuesday, April 11 Great and Holy Tuesday
Pre-Sanctified Liturgy 6am
Bridegroom Orthros 7pm
Wednesday, April 12 Great and Holy Wednesday
Pre-Sanctified Liturgy 6am
Service of Holy Unction 7pm
Thursday, April 13 Great and Holy Thursday
Vesperal Liturgy 6am
Service of the Twelve Gospels 7pm
Friday, April 14 Great and Holy Friday
Royal Hours 9am
Descent from the Cross Vespers Noon
Service of Lamentations 7pm
Saturday, April 15 Great and Holy Saturday
Vesperal Liturgy 8am
Midnight Office, Paschal Orthros and Divine Liturgy 11pm
Sunday, April 15 Great and Holy Pascha
Agape Vespers 2pm
Paschal Picnic 3pm
Holy Week Processional Music
Holy Week is full of processions and full of music. If you would like to sing while you process, our Choir Director, Karen Morgan, has provided us with some links so we can all learn the music: Palm Sunday procession music (Hosanna In The Highest): PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WrXAFQSWKYQpZQ4slIHs_B_bgOEVnMMn/view?usp=share_link Audio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vs1GoeDxIxoha3XufGrdmlUdtBv3EU-R/view?usp=share_link Pascha procession music (To Thy Resurrection): PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ioLMwb0llKksh4rKFaCwpALGONW-m16Y/view?usp=share_link Audio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vfIRe6CmOJE6DqpoH0IyL5o8Gqs9GXPt/view?usp=share_link
St. Thomas School
On Saturday, April 8, Father Deacon Michael will lead the discussion on Chapter 29 of Volume I, “The Universal Resurrection”. Online access is available on Discord; like to participate online, you still need to sign-up ahead of time. Just send an email to remote.meetings@theforerunner.org by Thursday, April 6, to reserve your spot.
coming up
The Archdiocese expects all of us to make our confession before Pascha. In our parish, confession is offered on Saturday evenings after Great Vespers or just about any other time by appointment, but we do not hear confessions during Holy Week. That means this coming Saturday Lazarus Saturday, April 8, will be the last opportunity to participate in that Holy Mystery until Bright Week, so please plan ahead.
And speaking of planning ahead, let’s not forget The Pascha Book Study! The study will begin on Bright Wednesday, April 19, and it will meet each Wednesday night at 7pm through May 17. This year’s study will be structured just like the Fall Theological Seminar; we will have a series of presentations that will focus on our new temple, but we will also be talking about men’s issues and women’s issues and how, as women and men, we will interact with one another in our new temple. Please plan on joining us, either in person or on Discord, for what promises to be a very important time in the life of our community.
One of the really fun features of life at St John’s during the Paschal Season is our Annual Talent Show. This year, the show will be on Sunday, April 30 th , so if you play a musical instrument or do magic tricks or sing or tell stories or jokes or dance—or, really, do anything that brings joy to others—please consider participating in the show. If you have questions or need some specific equipment, please check with Rigel Thurston, but go ahead and sign up for your slot with this link: https://forms.gle/dJ37Trzm5eiCfbLv7
And to keep the fun going all throughout the Paschal Season, on the Sundays following the Talent Show, we’re going to have live music during Fellowship Hour. We want to feature all the musicians in our community, so if you are part of a group or play an instrument or want to put together a group just for this program, talk to Rigel Thurston or use this link to get on the schedule: https://forms.gle/EdcAtJidfBW9nAjT9
We’ve already started getting ready for the next steps in our Building Program, and the way we’re doing that is through Prayer and Fellowship. When it comes to prayer, we’re asking everyone to purchase a copy of The Temple Akathist and to offer that service at home once a week. Copies are available at Christ the Lightgiver Bookstore. And while you’re picking up your copy of that service, if you don’t already have an icon of St Eanswythe of Folkestone, please get one of those, as well. St Eanswythe has been, for many years, the Patroness of our Building Program, and she’s the focus of our fellowship efforts—because what we want everyone to do is invite some friends over once a month to share a meal and to offer The Temple Akathist and then to post a photo of that fun on Discord.
OUR MOMENT OF GRACE AND COURTESY
Here are some very important things to remember as we head into Holy Week:
1. 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 with a family friend; they must be supervised by a family member, and they should never be left alone for any reason.
2. Pre-school children should not be given lighted candles. Battery operated candles are available at craft stores, and that is what pre-school children should use. Parents and grandparents should use their best judgment when it comes to allowing elementary-age children to hold a lighted candle. This is not only a safety issue (hot wax can cause bad burns; hair and clothing can blaze up quickly and unexpectedly); it also takes a great deal of work to remove wax from the carpet. Again, our ushers have been instructed to remind parents that very young children should not be given lighted candles.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Please leave your food in your vehicle until after the Pascha services have ended. Once we have all reverenced the cross and received our red eggs, 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.
Things That Make Priests Happy
Blessing James and Gabby T. on their fifth anniversary; complimenting Jordan C. on his new glasses; talking with Abby D.’s friend about horses and math and camels and Who Got To Texas First; seeing a photo of Dino M. and his sister; using the new candle trays; watching the trees in the wind.
an unworthy priest,
aidan
The Happy Priest is a publication of Life At A Dead Run Media, which is a subsidiary of One Take Productions. Our IT Guy is Christian Perez; our Webmasters are Lily Halsey and Seth Hart; our Keeper of Lists is Father Andrew Wilson; our Roving Reporter is J.K.L. Berens, all our jet packs use micro-turbines (they’re less noisy, so it’s easier to place an order at a drive-thru window), and our Spiritual Advisor is Elder Galaction of the Holy Mountain.