CHURCH SERVICES: FEBRUARY
Saturday Vespers: 6:00pm
Sunday Matins: 9:00 am
SUNDAY DIVINE LITURGY: 10:00 am
Sunday School: 10:00 am
Feb 2 - 9:30 Liturgy - Presentation of the Lord
Feb 10 - 9:30 Liturgy - St. Harallambos
Feb 13 - 9:30 Liturgy for 2nd Saturday of Souls
Feb 20 - 9:30 Liturgy for 3rd Saturday of Souls
LENTEN SERVICES:
Feb 14 - 6:30pm Forgiveness Vespers
Feb 15 - CLEAN MONDAY (the beginning of Great Lent)
6:30pm Great Compline Service
Feb 17 - 6:00pm PreSanctified Liturgy, Lenten Study Series and Pot-Luck Dinner
Feb 19 - 6:30pm 1st Salutation Service to Virgin Mary
Feb 24 - 6:00pm Pre-Sanctified Liturgy, Lenten Study Series and Pot-Luck Dinner
Feb 26 - 6:30pm 2nd Salutations Service to the Virgin Mary
Other Events:
Feb 3 - Presentation "The Mission in Albania" by OCMC Missionary Pamela Barksdale
Feb 14 - Godparents and Grandparents Sunday Luncheon and Magic Show for Children following the Divine Liturgy
LENTEN STUDY SERIES:
Each Wednesday during Lent.
6:00pm - 7:00pm Pre-Sanctified Liturgy
7:00pm - 7:30pm Lenten Study Series
7:30pm - 8:00pm Pot-Luck Lenten Meal
Feb 17 - The Art of Prayer
Feb 24 - The Art of Repentance
March 3 - Denial of Self and Fulfillment of God
March 10 - Holy Wisdom: Sweeter than Honey
March 17 - The Ladder of Divine Ascent
March 24 - Our Journey Towards Victory
LENTEN RETREAT:
March 6 - 9:30am - 1:00pm
"The Holy Canons: What They Are and How They Help Us Grow Closer to God"
with Dr. Lewis Patsavos, Professor of Canon Law at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology.
Feb 23 - 5:00pm Service at Soup Kitchen
My Dear and Beloved Family of God,
“Return to me with all your heart, with fasting… and with mourning… Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing… Blow the trumpet… sanctify a fast… gather the people.” (Joel 2:12-16)
Great Lent, which begins on February 15th, is first and foremost a time of returning home, turning back to God, and remembering our roots, our spiritual roots. Great Lent, when properly understood, is a journey back to the original beauty in which God created each of us.
Yet, how do we return home? How do we come back to God? What do we need to do?
Throughout Holy Scriptures, God teaches us that to return to Him means to repent. We need to come to our senses, see how and where we have fallen away from the path of God, confess our sins and shortcomings, and turn back to Him and His ways. Yet this journey of repentance is a difficult one. Many of us don’t know how to repent, or even for what to repent.
This is where our sacred tradition offers us some tools to help us in our journey of repentance. As the Prophet Joel says in the above passage, one of the first tools of repentance is fasting . Throughout the Old Testament, and into the New Testament, we see the people of God fasting.
Now fasting may not seem like a vogue or modern thing to do, unless of course, we call it a diet and do it for aesthetic purposes. And yet, throughout the Bible and Church history, we see that fasting has always played an important role in one’s spiritual discipline and development. Please take the time to read the article “Understanding Fasting” on page 6 to learn the purpose and value of fasting. Then, make a decision to fast during this Lenten season.
The Church challenges us to fast by not eating meat and dairy products for 40 days. It isn’t easy, but it’s not suppose to be easy. Our physical effort and struggle will help us in our spiritual battle. Don’t simply ignore the challenge of the fast. Fasting has always played an important role in one’s spiritual development, and Great Lent is the time to fast.
The Prophet Joel tells us that along with fasting, we are to mourn . By this, he means that we should mourn for our sins and the sins of the world. Great Lent is a time when we should reflect upon our lives. Think about where we have sinned; where we have fallen short of God’s calling; where we have not fulfilled our divine potential as children of God. We all have sinned in our actions and words and thoughts. We have sinned not only by our actions, but also by our inactions and indifference and laziness. Great Lent is a time when we take a sincere and honest look at ourselves, and then boldly confess before God our sins and shortcomings.
A part of mourning for our sins will include confession. All Orthodox Christians should use the time of Lent as a time to prepare for and go to the Sacrament of Holy Confession. Many Orthodox Christians in America don’t even realize that Confession is actually a sacrament in our Church.
Many have never been to confession even once in their lives. And yet, the Church firmly teaches that we receive a special grace when we stand before an icon of Christ, with a priest as our witness and as our doctor, confessing our sins and transgressions. Remember, repentance implies a deep sense of mourning for our sins, and the Sacrament of Confession helps us in this mourning process.
The Prophet Joel doesn’t only tell us to fast and mourn and repent, but he reminds us that all we do, we do for a loving, merciful and gracious God. Our Lord is not an angry, vengeful, punishing God. He unconditionally and unabashedly loves each one of us, no matter how we have fallen short in our lives.
All that we do - through fasting, mourning, repentance, prayer and almsgiving - we do not to appease an angry God, but we do to soften our own hearts and souls so that we can receive and understand the divine and immense love of God.
The purpose of this physical and spiritual journey of Great Lent is first and foremost a journey of discovery - discovering how much God loves each one of us and His entire world. We are called to enter into His world of divine love. When we lay aside the sin that clings so closely to us, and allow ourselves to be filled with His divine love, then we can perceive the world in an entirely different manner. We don’t allow the corruption and evil of this world to create skepticism and cynicism within us. No. Instead, divine love dwells in us and allows us to see all things in a new way. Life takes on a joyous, wondrous and beautiful tone.
My deepest prayer for all of us is that this Lenten season will be a special season when we all take a serious journey away from our fallen nature, and into the bliss of the kingdom of God.
With deep love and affection
in Christ our Lord,
+Luke
