Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
Have you been reading through The Akathist for A New Temple every week? The Fund Raising Campaign starts this fall, and those prayers are going to be the foundation of everything we do. If you’ve been having trouble finding the time to pray the Akathist, there is a recording of it on Discord, and, on Fridays at noon, instead of the normal reading, the Trapeza Group offers the Akathist together.
Our Calendar
Fasting Days
Wednesday, July 5, and Friday, July 7. If you need to modify the fast, please check with your spiritual father.
Daily Services
Monday, July 3 to Friday, July 7
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, July 4
Orthodoxy 101 will not meet this week due to the holiday; the group will resume on Tuesday, July 11
Thursday, July 6
The Bible Study, Old Testament Edition 7 pm ( You can access this group on Discord)
Saturday, July 8
St. Thomas School 4pm
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, July 9
The Fifth Sunday of St Matthew
Orthros 8am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
Akathist to the Mother of God of the Inexhaustible Spring Following Fellowship Hour
st. thomas school
On Saturday July 8, Jared Henderson will be leading discussion on Chapter 6 of Volume III, “Early Church Painting”. 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, July 6, to reserve your spot.
Membership update
This past Sunday, we made Alexandra and Stephen L. and their sons, Alexander and Christian, catechumens; Connor and Jessica M. and their children, Judah and Emory, were also made catechumens. Please let all these folks know that you will be praying for them as they prepare for full reception into the Church. Chris and Erin F. , along with their children, Knox, Sola, and Millie, are Orthodox Christians who are originally from Austin. They’ve been living in Virginia for the last few years, but they are back in Texas and they have joined St John’s. Please welcome them.
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. On Sunday, July 9th, our memorial service after the Divine Liturgy will be for George Tereshkovich. Please take a moment to read about him, so that we can all connect more closely to this member of our church family, and that our prayers for him will have that much more meaning.
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.
Upcoming Visits
The Myrrhbearers will be visiting the grave of our departed sister in Christ, Carol Lockett, next Saturday at 10 AM in Brenham, TX. Carol was a vital and colorful member of our church family, and the donor of a major portion of our church library. Her memorial service and bio will be forthcoming later this summer, but if you would like to join the Myrrhbearers to pray at her grave, please contact Ed Cleland at ed.cleland@gmail.com.
coming up
On Sunday, July 16, we will have our first Blessing of Automobiles. That’s the Sunday closest to St Elias’ Day, and since St Elias ascended into heaven in a fiery chariot, we’re going to bless all of our cars and trucks on that Sunday. When we get our homes and apartments blessed, we always make sure they are picked up and cleaned up, and we should do the same thing for our vehicles. At the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy on the 16 th , we will process through the parking lots and bless each of the cars and trucks parked there, so let’s make sure that they are all sparkling and clean.
The first-ever St. John Festal Choir will be offering a concert after the Festal Liturgy on The Feast of TheTransfiguration, August 6th! Our Festal Choir is made up of our Liturgy Choir plus others in the parishwho love to sing...and it’s a pretty big group! After you reverence the Cross on that Sunday, get your food and chill a bit, we’ll ring a bell to let you know the choir concert is starting in the nave within 10 minutes! We’re excited to sing these beautiful hymns for all of you! That day, we will also end Fellowship Hour all together in the nave: we’ll get a chance to learn the words to the Yellow Rose of St. John and We GiveThanks To Thee so we can sing and pray along with the choir every week.
OUR MOMENT OF GRACE AND COURTESY
When you are out in the narthex, please remember that the doors separating the nave and the narthex are far from sound-proof. So, if your child is being especially noisy or if you need to speak with someone about a matter that just can't wait, you may need to move into the kitchen or out on to the porch. Also, please remember that since it's possible to see all the way from one end of the building to the other, even when you are out in the narthex, you should be focused on what is happening in the nave. So, for example, if the priest turns around from the altar to give a blessing, you should be ready to respond appropriately; you shouldn't be visiting with friends or talking on your phone.
Things That Make Priests Happy
Baptizing Heath, Kat, Gideon, Ariella, Evangeline, and Barrett H. , along with Lilye P. and Zaida S.; chrismating Rachel and Collier W.; hearing that Sarah S. is in the market for holiday sweaters; admiring Steve G.’s sport coat; talking about work with Autumn L. ; blessing the C.’s new truck; learning about Mandarin nick names from Jared H.; almost getting to see the owl that Elena C. saw on the parish house fence.
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 Jane Arden, all of our Executive Desk Sets feature the Fulgor Nocturnus Fountain Pen, and our Spiritual Advisor is Elder Galaction of the Holy Mountain.