Weekly Newsletter for the week of Friday, November 9, 2007 through Thursday, November 15, 2007
Friday, November 9, 2007 through Thursday, November 15, 2007
THIS WEEKEND
CHURCH SCHOOL - There will be church school this Sunday, November 11. (Last week's Update erroneously said there would not.)
TEEN SOYO SPAGHETTI DINNER - This Sunday, following Liturgy, the teens invite you to a Spaghetti Dinner featuring Spaghetti, Meatballs (just before the fast!), Salad, Bread, Dessert and Coffee/Beverage. Your goodwill donation will be much appreciated.
WHAT IS FSJD? - Come to the Fellowship of St. John the Divine meeting this Sunday after the Spaghetti Dinner downstairs in the Church hall. We'll sit together during lunch--get your food, find our tables and after we eat we will have a 20-minute meeting (give or take), where we will discuss current and upcoming events, opportunities for fellowship and service, as well as new ideas for future projects and events.
All current members and everyone who is interested in learning more about the Fellowship are encouraged to join us. Activity in the FSJD is open to all adults in the St. Mary's community, college-age and up (young adults and not-so-young adults, single, married, etc.). You don't have to be Orthodox, nor do you have to be a member of the parish--you just need to be interested in meeting new people while helping out with parish activities and curious about service projects benefiting the wider community.
PAGEANT REHEARSAL - The first rehearsal of the Church School Christmas pageant will take place this Sunday, after lunch, in the Church. All Sunday School children are encouraged to participate. Call Charlie Marge 781-863-5015 or Paul Nahass 617-547-9065 if you have any questions.
COME SEE THE MESSIAH - Join friends from St. Mary's for the Handel and Haydn Society's annual performance of Handel's Messiah, on Sunday afternoon, December 2, at 3:00 p.m. Group rates for second balcony tickets are just $20. We will carpool to Symphony Hall after Liturgy and have lunch together before the concert. Good seats go fast - please contact Melissa Nassiff at 508 877-7483 or email mnassiff@gmail.com by this Sunday, November 11, to reserve a ticket with the group.
BENEFIT DINNER FOR AL-KAFAAT - His Eminence Metropolitan PHILIP and the churches of the Diocese of Worcester and New England invite you to a benefit dinner to support the work of the Al-Kafaat Foundation (www.al-kafaat.org), one of the leading vocational rehabilitation facilities in the Middle East, on Sunday, November 11, 2007 at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church, 55 Emmonsdale Road, West Roxbury , MA . Cocktails at 5:00 p.m.; Dinner at 6:00 p.m. Donation is $100 per person. For tickets, please see Marilyn Robbat or call St. George at 617.323.0323. Please make your checks payable to the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese, earmarked "Al-Kafaat"
NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS
CHRISTMAS PARTY - The Order of St. Ignatius of Antioch invites you to a Diocesan Christmas party on Sunday, December 2, 2007 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. at St. John Church , Dedham , MA . All are welcome. The cost is $20.00 per person, and your donation will benefit the Al-Kafaat Foundation. Make checks payable to The Order of St. Ignatius. RSVP no later than Monday, November 26, 2007. For further information, contact Christine Bezreh 781-449-1230 or stignatius@stjohnd.org
PARISH CHRISTMAS CARD - Save yourself time! Let us do the work and have all proceeds benefit Antiochian Women Project 2007/2008: Retired Clergy Fund! Let the Women's Club send a lovely Christmas Card on your behalf to our parishioners. You will receive this card with the names of parishioners, like yourself, who are wishing a Blessed Nativity and a Merry Christmas to all. Please use the form in the Bulletin or mail your request to MaryEllen Mabardy, St. Mary Church - Women's Club, 8 Inman St. , Cambridge , MA 02139 . Deadline is Sunday, December 9.
REMINDERS
NATIVITY FAST - The Nativity Fast, the period of six weeks anticipating the Nativity of Christ, begins Thursday, November 15. (It is traditional in the United States to make an exception for Thanksgiving.) This month there will be an Akathist service on Fridays, November 16 and 30, and a Paraclesis service on Tuesday, November 27.
BAKE SALE - The Women's Club presents its Annual Thanksgiving Charity Bake Sale on Sunday, November 18, 2007. All proceeds will benefit the Convent of Saidnaya, northwest of Damascus in Syria . Plan on purchasing all your holiday breads, pies, goodies, Syrian pastries and much more! Call Renay DiFiore 617-327-6361, if you can help bake and/or donate.
DONATE FOOD - As we enter the season that focuses on giving thanks and giving gifts, don't forget those who have too little. Please bring cans, jars, and boxes of food and place them in the container outside the Church Office.
> From now through December, our Teens will weigh the canned goods and give them to the CEOC Food Pantry at 11 Inman St. for distribution, as part of the World Food Day project sponsored by the Archdiocese.
> Other packaged food (pasta and rice, boxes of macaroni and cheese, peanut butter, jelly, boxes of cereal, parmalat milk, etc.) will be given to St. Paul 's Food Pantry in Harvard Square , where volunteers from St. Mary help every Saturday.
Please be generous - it takes 42 pounds of food to feed a family of four for 3 days.
SOUP KITCHEN - Three or four St. Mary's volunteers are needed to help each week at the Open Doors Meal Ministry at Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church in Allston, Mondays any time between 4:00 p.m. and 7:30. Contact Liz Tutella at 617-974-5005 or ETutella@sovereignbank.com.
FOOD PANTRY - Two to four St. Mary's volunteers are needed to help each week in the food pantry at St. Paul 's RC Church in Harvard Square . Contact Christian Alcala at cmalcala1989@yahoo.com or 617-876-5684.
OCMC MISSION OPPORTUNITIES - Short-term Orthodox Mission opportunities through the Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC) are being finalized for 2008. Mission Teams will travel abroad for 2-4 weeks witnessing the Gospel of Christ through education in Alaska , Albania , Kenya , South Africa , and Tanzania ; youth ministry in Guatemala , Romania , and Uganda ; construction in Alaska and Tanzania ; and healthcare in Ethiopia , Romania , and Uganda . Please share in a journey of faith by volunteering to serve on an OCMC Orthodox Mission Team. To download an application, please visit www.ocmc.org/teams.php?page=122.
MISSION SUPPORT - St. Mary's encourages its members to take an active role in mission projects sponsored by the Archdiocese. If you will be doing so, and require financial assistance from the parish, please note the Policy Statement regarding eligibility and the procedure for requesting assistance, printed in the Sunday bulletin. Note especially that requests should be made 60 days in advance of the trip.
INSIGHT
Let us likewise deal kindly, let us persuade our adversaries of that which is to their profit, "let us worship and lament before the Lord our Maker." For we would not overthrow, but rather heal; we lay no ambush for them, but warn them as in duty bound. Kindliness often bends those whom neither force nor argument will avail to overcome. Again, our Lord cured with oil and wine the man who, going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves; having forborne to treat him with the harsh remedies of the Law or the sternness of Prophecy.
- St. Ambrose of Milan
He that loves Me, says the Lord, will keep My Commandments; and "this is My commandment, that you love one another." He therefore who does not love his neighbor does not keep the commandment. Nor is he that does not keep the commandment able to love the Lord.
- St. Maximos the Confessor
Rejoice at every opportunity of showing kindness to your neighbor as a true Christian who strives to store up as many good works as possible, especially the treasures of love. Do not rejoice when others show you kindness and love - consider yourself unworthy of it; but rejoice when an occasion presents itself for you to show love. Show love simply, without any deviation into cunning thoughts, without any trivial, worldly, covetous calculations, remembering that love is God Himself. Remember that He sees all your ways, sees all the thoughts and movements of your heart.
- Saint John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ
Do not ask for love from your neighbor, for if you ask and he does not respond, you will be troubled. Instead show your love for your neighbor and you will be at rest, and so will bring your neighbor to love.
- St. Dorotheos of Gaza
LITURGICAL SCHEDULE FOR THIS WEEK
Saturday, November 10: Great Vespers 5:00 p.m.
Sunday, November 11: Orthros 8:45 a.m., Divine Liturgy 10 a.m.
Pageant rehearsal; Church school will meet
SCRIPTURE READINGS for November 11:
Epistle: St. Paul 's Second Letter to the Corinthians 4:6-15 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. (The entire reading may be found at http://www.goarch.org/en/chapel/lectionary.asp?type=epistle&code=322&event=285
Gospel: Luke 10:25-37 [A lawyer] said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho , and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. ... But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, ..." (The entire reading may be found at http://www.goarch.org/en/chapel/lectionary.asp?type=gospel&code=217&event=978&DL=EN )
Thursday, November 15: Nativity Fast Begins
Friday, November 16: Akathist to our Sweetest Lord Jesus 7:00 p.m.
LOOKING AHEAD
Saturday, November 17: Great Vespers 5:00 p.m.
Sunday, November 18: Orthros 8:45 a.m., Divine Liturgy 10 a.m.
Saturday, November 24: No Vespers at St. Mary (Thanksgiving weekend)
Sunday, November 25: No Church School
Tuesday, November 27: Paraclesis 6:00 p.m.
Friday, November 30: Akathist to our Sweetest Lord Jesus 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, December 8: Lessons and Carols
VOLUNTEER SCHEDULES
FOOD PANTRY
Two to four volunteers help each week in the food pantry at St. Paul 's RC Church in Harvard Square , Saturday mornings from 9:30-11:45. If you are willing to help, contact Christian Alcala at cmalcala1989@yahoo.com or (617) 876-5684.
November 10: John Rodriguez and Lan Hu
LITURGICAL SERVICE
The Epistle each Sunday is read by a member of the congregation, and six members of the congregation hold the cloth and Holy Bread baskets during Communion. If you would like to help with these services, please contact Jeff Wasilko at jeffw@smoe.org or 781-820-0882.
November 11: Epistle - Tatiana Kish
Communion Assistance - Rachel Smith, Amelia Perkins, John Rodriguez, Melissa Nassiff
COFFEE HOUR
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 in the Office 617-547-1234 and she'll write your name in.
November 11: Teen SOYO Spaghetti Dinner