Brothers and Sisters,
Happy Feast!
This coming Sunday, June 11, we will be hosting Williamson County Children’s Advocacy Center for a presentation during Fellowship Hour over in The Parish House. We offer this presentation every other year, and we really encourage everyone to attend. The session will cover recognizing the signs and symptoms of child abuse, responding to concerns and disclosures of abuse with appropriate questions, understanding the legal implications of being a mandated reporter and lastly, building resilient youth within our community. Check with Joe Wright for additional information on this important opportunity.
Our Calendar
Fasting Days
The week after Pentecost is fast-free (Wha-Hoo!)
Daily Services
Monday, June 5 -Friday, June 9
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.
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 6
Orthodoxy 101 7pm
You can access the group on Discord.
Thursday, June 8
The Bible Study, Old Testament Edition 7pm
You can access this group on Discord
Saturday, June 10
St Thomas School 4pm
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, June 11 All Saints
Orthros 8am
Divine Liturgy 10am
st. thomas school
On Saturday June 10, Father Andrew Wilson will lead the discussion on Chapter 3 of Volume III, “Russian Church Architecture”. 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 8, to reserve your spot
coming up
The week after Pentecost is fast-free (Wha-Hoo!), but the following week, we will begin The Apostles’ Fast. It will run from Monday, June 12 through the Feast of Sts Peter and Paul on Thursday, June 29. During this fasting season, 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 plan ahead and get a blessing from your spiritual father.
During The Apostles’ Fast, we always serve The Akathist to the Apostles on Wednesday evenings. This year, the clergy will be out of town at the Parish Life Conference on the first Wednesday of the fast, so mark your calendars for Wednesday, June 21 at 7pm when we will offer the Akathist, and Wednesday, June 28 at 7pm when we will serve Great Vespers for the Feast of Sts Peter and Paul.
Our parish feast day, The Nativity of the Forerunner, also falls during The Apostles’ Fast, on Saturday, June 24. On Thursday, 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!
On 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--butut we will also have plenty of additional information about the event as the date gets closer.
OUR MOMENT OF GRACE AND COURTESY
It's easy to get distracted during the Divine Liturgy, but three of the most important moments in the service are when we say our 'Amens' during the Consecration of the Holy Gifts. That's not just a fancy way of saying 'OK'; that's our opportunity to affirm and to seal what has just taken place on the altar. Amen is also one of the titles of our Lord and Master. So, when it's time to say, 'Amen', 'Amen', and the triple 'Amen', we should do so with excitement and joy and enough volume to flatten the flame on the altar candles.
Things That Make Priests Happy
Reading the prayers for Theodore H. (CUTE!); celebrating the Great Feast of Pentecost; discussing Italian music videos with Sandi A. and South Korean pizza with Kyle D. ; offering the services for Justin the Philosopher; congratulating Anna D. on her new teaching job and Will H. on his new substack; walking on the path that Wesley S. and his Manly Men carved out on the back acres of our property; appreciating the fact that I get to concelebrate with a priest who can catch a reference to Birnam Wood; watching a long lizard shoot across the parish house porch and a big skunk waddle across the playground.
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 William Boot, June 7 is when we observe Dress Like Lumpy Rutherford Day, and our Spiritual Advisor is Elder Galaction of the Holy Mountain.