Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
Our parish feast day, The Nativity of the Forerunner, is this coming Saturday, June 24. On Friday, June 23, we will serve Great Vespers at 7pm, and then on the morning of the feast, we will serve Orthros at 6am and Divine Liturgy at 8am. Come join us as we thank our patron and protector for his intercessions—and, this year, at the conclusion of Great Vespers on Friday, we will have our first ever Beating of the Bounds. We will process around our property in thanksgiving for the beautiful land with which we have been blessed, so, if you’ve never been on the back two and a half acres of our five acre lot, here’s you’re chance!
Our Calendar
Fasting Days
The Apostles’ Fast continues. This fasting season runs through the Feast of Sts Peter and Paul on Thursday, June 29. During this time, we observe the traditional fasting discipline on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (no meat, dairy products, oil, wine, or hard liquor), with a blessing for fish, wine and olive oil on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. If you need to modify the fast in any way, please be sure and get a blessing from your spiritual father.
Daily Services
Monday, June 19 to Friday, June 23
Orthros 5am
Vespers 5pm
But check the schedule for this week’s festal services.
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.
Fr. Andrew, Seth Hart, and Matthew Groh and many other folks continue to broadcast daily readings from spiritual books online. They are currently reading Commentary on Psalm 118 by St Theophan the Recluse. The schedule is as follows: M-F at 12pm.
Please see the emailed version of the newsletter for the link to join the Trapeza Readings on Discord.
Tuesday, June 20
Orthodoxy 101 7pm
You can access the group on Discord.
Wednesday, June 21
The Akathist to the Apostles 7pm
Thursday, June 22
The Bible Study, Old Testament Edition 7pm
You can access this group on Discord
Friday, June 23
Great Vespers 7pm
Saturday, June 24
The Feast of the Nativity of St John the Forerunner
Orthros 6am
Divine Liturgy 8am followed by Beating the Bounds
St Thomas School 4pm
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, June 25 The Third Sunday of St Matthew
Orthros 8am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
st. thomas school
On Saturday June 24, Seth Hart will lead the discussion on Chapter 5 of Volume III, “Liturgical Vestments of the Clergy”. 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, June 15, to reserve your spot.
The st. joanna burial society
Memorial Services
How many of you knew the departed parishioners we pray for at the end of Sunday’s Divine Liturgies? Probably not many, since our parish has grown so much over the last several years. In an effort to help us all connect more fully to these people who are, in death, still a meaningful part of our community, we will be publishing information (and photos, if available) of them as a link included in The Happy Priest, as well as on the #myrrhbearers-info channel on the St. John Discord page. Today’s memorial service was for Alexey E., father of parishioner Elena C.; get to know a little bit about him in the emailed version of the newsletter.
We hope that you take a minute to read these, and continue to pray for the departed brothers and sisters of our church family.
Requests for Myrrhbearer Services
Since most of us are converts, there can often be a spiritual void when a family member departs this life. The Myrrhbearers offer three potential ways to help us fill this void: a week-long reading of the Psalter at the time of death, a clergy-led Akathist Service in church, and a stone in the Memorial Garden. There are specific guidelines for these, which can be found on the Myrrhbearers home page: https://www.theforerunner.org/st-jo. Please remember that memorial stone requests must go through the Myrrhbearers.
coming up
During The Apostles’ Fast, we always serve The Akathist to the Apostles on Wednesday evenings. This past week, the clergy were out of town at the Parish Life Conference, so be sure and join us this coming Wednesday, June 21, at 7pm when we will offer the Akathist. This service is an especially good time to intercede for those who are not yet part of the Church or who have fallen away from the Faith.
This coming Sunday, June 25, we will have our next Safety and Security Rehearsal. This rehearsal will be for a severe weather event. Basically, what we will be doing is evacuating The Long Hall and The Parish House as we have done in the past, but we will also add a ‘duck and cover’ component to the exercise—which, to put it in Orthodox terms, just means that we will all make a prostration before we get up and move to the Rally Signs--but we will also have plenty of additional information about the event as the date gets closer.
The Apostles’ Fast comes to an end with the Feast of the Patrons and Protectors of our Patriarchate, Sts Peter and Paul. On Wednesday, June 28, we will offer Great Vespers at 7pm, and then on Thursday, June 29, the day of the feast, we will serve Orthros at 6am and Divine Liturgy at 8am. Please join us as we honor the Princes of the Apostles and ask for their prayers.
OUR MOMENT OF GRACE AND COURTESY
Our icons will last much, much longer if we will only touch or kiss the outer frame when we reverence the image. In other words, we should not touch or kiss the painting itself. 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.
Things That Make Priests Happy
Blessing Ethan and Sophia Y. on their 1st anniversary; running into the Julianos at the Parish Life Conference; finding out that Jared H. is getting pretty good at changing diapers; discussing Father Deacon Michael’s Kelvin rating; eating some Father’s Day cake and arguing with Tatiana S. ; meeting Michael C.'s YWAM friends and introducing them to Johanna K.; discovering that the mowers had not been able to get to the Black Eyed Susans that grow along the drainage ditch I walk by every morning.
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 Becky Burdock, when it’s time for a Chocolate Break, our sasquatch, Stan, rings the gong that hangs above the factory floor, and our Spiritual Advisor is Elder Galaction of the Holy Mountain.