Weekly Newsletter for the week Friday, December 11, through Thursday, December 17, 2009
THIS WEEKEND
NATIVITY FAST - The Nativity Fast continues, in preparation for the Great Feast of the Nativity of Christ on December 25. On Wednesdays during the fast there is a Paraklesis service at 6:30 pm, and Fridays an Akathist to our Sweetest Lord Jesus at 7:00 pm.
Saturday
LESSONS AND CAROLS - The Fellowship of St. John the Divine cordially invites you to a service of prayers, scripture readings and Christmas Carols - Western Rite Evensong with Lessons and Carols - this Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 5:00 pm.
A festive Lenten Pot Luck Supper will follow - last names A-P please bring a main dish or salad, Q-Z please bring dessert. For more information, contact Dr. Tiffany Conroy at trattus1@gmail.com
Sunday
PAGEANT DRESS REHEARSAL - Children who will be participating in the Christmas Pageant on December 20 are requested to stay upstairs after Liturgy for a Dress Rehearsal.
WOMEN'S CLUB CHRISTMAS OUTING - Join us for the Reagle Players' 40th Anniversary Season Christmas Show: "It's Christmas Time!" with featured singer Sarah Pfisterer, leading Broadway entertainer, this Sunday, December 13, 2009 at 4:00 pm in Waltham, MA. See MaryEllen Mabardy if questions, or call 781-729-6303. Information about the show can be found at http://www.reagleplayers.com/current.html
NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS
ENVELOPES AND CALENDARS - 2010 Offering Envelopes are ready for pickup outside the Church Office. Look for your names carefully in alphabetical order. Remember: if you have chosen to pay periodically, you have not been assigned weekly envelopes. If you wish to change your payment arrangements, call Marilyn Robbat in the Church Office at 617-547-1234 Tuesday - Friday. Church Calendars are also available for pickup - one per family, please.
PARISH COUNCIL - The next meeting of the Parish Council will be Wednesday, December 16, at 7:30 pm.
ORDER OF ST. IGNATIUS - Save the date for the St. Ignatius Holiday Gathering Sunday, January 31, 2010. Mother Alexandra, Abbess of the Convent of St. Thekla at the Antiochian Village will be our special guest. Invitation to follow.
REMINDERS
PARISH COUNCIL ELECTION - Ballots have been mailed out to all eligible parishioners, and must be received at St. Mary's no later than Tuesday, December 15, 2009.
CHURCH RESTORATION PROJECT - We are about to embark on another phase of restoration of the church. This next phase, which will focus on the exterior of the church including work on the foundation, roofing, siding, and exterior trim, will begin in Spring 2010. More details to follow - please see Raymond Sayeg or Mary Winstanley O'Connor about contributing to this restoration project.
FOOD FOR HUNGRY PEOPLE - Canned Food Drive continues through December 27, 2009. Bring in canned goods to the Church and place them in the large, blue plastic containers outside the Church Office. They will be distributed to local food pantries in our area. 42 pounds of food will feed a family of four for three days, and 37 million people in America need our help!
OPPORTUNITIES FOR SERVICE
There are a number of ways you can help the Church, your fellow worshippers and those in need. Consider serving in one of these ways:
PARTICIPATION
Liturgical Service - Each Sunday, members of the congregation are needed to read the Epistle and assist during Communion by holding the Communion Cloths and Holy Bread Baskets. All Orthodox Christians in the Parish are welcome and encouraged to participate. We usually need one Epistle reader and six people to hold cloths and baskets. If you would like to read the Epistle or assist during Communion, please contact Jeff Wasilko, 781-820-0882, jeffw@smoe.org.
Coffee Hour - People are needed every week to provide coffee, juice and cookies, or more if desired, and set it up Sunday morning. To sign up for an available Sunday, please put your name on the signup sheet on the bulletin board outside the Hall or call Marilyn Robbat in the Parish Office and she will write your name in. If you need any help with figuring out what to bring or do, check the list below the signup sheet (also printed in the Bulletin), or ask Marilyn at secretary@stmaryorthodoxchurch.org or 617-547-1234.
VOLUNTEERING
Holy Resurrection Open Doors - The Holy Resurrection Open Door Meal Ministry in Allston needs volunteers every Monday evening (there is a special need in the summer). The official hours of the project are 4:30 pm-7:30 pm, but it is fine to come anytime and leave any time. Best times would be 5:30-5:45 to 7:15-7:30 pm. You can serve meals, coffee and tea to the people who arrive for dinner (6-7 pm) or just stay behind the scenes doing set-up and clean-up. It is a very rewarding, hands-on, face-to-face way to serve the community with (mostly) other Orthodox Christians-we even chant the Our Father together before the meal begins. Church info can be found at http://hrocboston.org. Questions? Please contact Liz Straghalis at liztutella@gmail.com phone 617-974-5005, or Tiffany Conroy at trattus1@gmail.com.
St Paul's Food Pantry - Two to four volunteers help each week in the food pantry at St Paul 's Roman Catholic Church in Harvard Square , Saturday mornings from 9:30-11:45. If you are interested in helping, please contact Christian Alcala at cmalcala1989@yahoo.com, or (617) 876-5684.
DONATIONS
Food and Clothing - The Food for Hungry People canned food drive continues through December 27, 2009 - see Reminders, above. Bring in canned goods to the Church and place them in the large, blue plastic containers outside the Church Office.
- Holy Resurrection in Allston takes donations of non-perishable food items and clothing to distribute at the Open Door Ministry on Monday evenings. You can bring your donations by on Monday nights between 4:30 pm and 7:30 pm or contact Tiffany Conroy, trattus1@gmail.com, for more information.
- St. Paul 's Food Pantry in Harvard Square , where volunteers from St. Mary help every Saturday, depends upon regular donations of canned and packaged foods. To help, contact Christian Alcala at cmalcala1989@yahoo.com, or (617) 876-5684.
Monetary Contributions - The Agape Canister Program is an Orthodox non-profit development program of the Orthodox Christian Mission Center . It is dedicated to meeting the needs of children, families, and communities throughout the world, regardless of race, color, or creed. All funds collected by the Agape Canister Program are earmarked for medical care and clinics, water wells, agricultural development, food and clothing, support personnel (e.g. doctors, nurses, teachers), the construction of schools, and the education of indigenous people in their own communities. Please contribute each Sunday - A clear plastic box is on the Bengarri.
"As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me," says our Lord.
THIS WEEK'S VOLUNTEERS
FOOD PANTRY
December 12: Volunteers are needed. If you are interested in helping, please contact Christian Alcala at cmalcala1989@yahoo.com, or (617) 876-5684.
LITURGICAL SERVICE
Sunday, December 13: Volunteers are needed. If you would like to assist during Communion by holding the Communion Cloths and Holy Bread Baskets, please contact Jeff Wasilko, 781-820-0882, jeffw@smoe.org.
COFFEE HOUR
Sunday, December 13: The Bernardi Family
LITURGICAL SCHEDULE FOR THIS WEEK
Friday, December 11: Akathist 7:00 pm
Saturday, December 12: Western Rite Evensong with Lessons and Carols 5:00 pm, followed by Lenten Pot Luck Supper
Sunday, December 13: Orthros 8:45 am; Divine Liturgy 10:00 am; Church School lesson 9; Christmas Pageant dress rehearsal during coffee hour
SCRIPTURE READINGS for December 13:
Epistle: St. Paul's Letter to the Colossians 3:4-11
BRETHREN, when Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you ... Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.
Gospel: Luke 14:16-24; Matthew 22:14
The Lord said this parable: "A man once gave a great banquet, and invited many; and at the time of the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, 'Come; for all is now ready.' But they all alike began to make excuses. ... And the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. For many are called, but few are chosen.'"
Wednesday, December 16: Paraclesis 6:30 pm
LOOKING AHEAD
Friday, December 18: Akathist 7:00 pm
Saturday, December 19: Great Vespers 5:00
Sunday, December 20: Orthros 8:45 am; Divine Liturgy 10:00 am; Church School Christmas Pageant and Festivities
Wednesday, December 23: Paraclesis 6:30 pm
Thursday, December 24: Royal Hours for the Nativity 9:00 am, Vesperal Liturgy of St. Basil 11:00 am; Orthros 6:30 pm, Divine Liturgy for the Nativity 8:00 pm
Friday, December 25, Feast of the Nativity of our Lord: No services at St. Mary
Saturday, December 26: No Vespers at St. Mary
INSIGHT
A true Christian is made by faith and love of Christ. Our sins do not in the least hinder our Christianity, according to the word of the Savior Himself. He said: "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance; there is more joy in heaven over one who repents than over ninety and nine just ones." Likewise concerning the sinful woman who touched His feet, He said to the Pharisee Simon, "to one who has love, a great debt is forgiven, but from one who has no love, even a small debt will be demanded." From these judgments a Christian should bring himself to hope and joy, and not in the least accept the torment of despair. Here one needs the shield of faith.
- St. Herman of Alaska
Sin, to one who loves God, is nothing other than an arrow from the enemy in battle. The true Christian is a warrior fighting his way through the regiments of the unseen enemy to his heavenly homeland. According to the word of the Apostle, our homeland is in heaven; and about the warrior he says: "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." (Eph. 6: 12)
- St. Herman of Alaska
The vain desires of this world separate us from our homeland; love of them and habit clothe our soul as if in a hideous garment. We who travel on the journey of this life and call on God to help us, ought to divest ourselves of this garment and clothe ourselves in new desires, in a new love of the age to come, and thereby receive knowledge of how near or how far we are from our heavenly homeland.
- St. Herman of Alaska
A terrible accident has a power to awaken us to the realization of the existence of various calamities and dangers surrounding us, from which the Providence of God preserves us. At the same time it convincingly persuades us to acknowledge our own infirmity and weakness and to seek the Father's protection and His most powerful defense, which affirms us in the Wisdom and the Word of God, which came down from above by the will of the Heavenly Father under a curtain of flesh like ours, woven by the Divine Might from the Immaculate Virgin, for our salvation. He became man and taught us to pray that we be not led into temptation. This reminds us from what Father we have our existence, and this in turn should make us seek our heavenly Fatherland and our eternal inheritance.
- St. Herman of Alaska
[St. Herman asked:] "... can there be anything better, higher above everything, more surpassing everything and in general more worthy of love, than our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who created us, perfectly adorned us, gave life to all, supports all, nourishes and loves all, who Himself is love and more excellent than all men? Should not a person then love God high above all and desire and seek Him more than all else?" When they all glibly claimed to love God, he responded, "And I, a sinner, have tried to love God for more than forty years, and I cannot say that I perfectly love Him."