Update for the week Friday, August 9 through Thursday, August 15, 2013
THIS WEEK
DORMITION FAST – The Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, August 15, is our Patronal feast day. The Dormition fast began Thursday, August 1, and continues through Wednesday, August 14, the eve of the Feast.
PARACLESIS - Join us for Paraclesis Services at 6:30 pm on Friday, August 9, and Monday, August 12. The Dormition Paraclesis is a service of prayer for the welfare of the living, addressed to the Most Holy Theotokos, whose intercessions are sought through the chanting of a supplicatory canon and other hymns. If you would like to add some names of living loved ones to the Paraclesis prayer list, please e-mail Fr. Antony, frawhj@gmail.com.
VESPERS - There will be a service of Great Vespers at St. Mary this Saturday, August 10, at 5:00 pm
NEW SKETE PILGRIMAGE - The Monastic Communities of New Skete Monastery in Cambridge, New York (www.newskete.org), invite you to their Annual Pilgrimage on Saturday, August 10, 2013, between 8:30am - 6:00pm. The day will include church services, church tours, a photo exhibit, and a healing service with anointing as well as talks by the monastics on Monastic Life and Iconography and by Chapel Community members on their relationship with the monastery. This year’s guest speaker will be Art Historian, William Hood. His talk is entitled, "Praying with Two Eyes: Icons in the Christian Life." A event flier can be found here: http://www.newskete.org/pdfs/2013Pilgrimage%20SchedulePosterAccommodationsFINAL.pdf
SUMMER HOURS – During July and August, Sunday services start half an hour earlier than usual: Orthros starts at 8:15 am, and Divine Liturgy 9:30 am.
PATRONAL FEAST DAY – The Dormition of the Blessed Theotokos will be celebrated on the eve of the feast, Wednesday, August 14. Vespers will begin at 4:15 pm, Orthros with Lamentations at 5:30 pm, and Festal Divine Liturgy at 7:00 pm. Join us for a Mexican Fiesta Dinner afterward, offered by the Arnold, Deligeorges, Hughes, Marge, Nahass, Sayeg, and Smith families – $5.00 for adults, children 12 and under free.
NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS
PROJECT MEXICO – On Thursday August 8th, St. Mary’s Project Mexico Group heads for Rosarito, Mexico, where they will be building a house for a Mexican family. They will be joining a group from St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Salem and a group from Saskatchewan, Canada. Our group includes: Kera, Tatiana, Andrew and Alex Dalton; Thomas Marge; Tenbit Mitiku; and Maedot Kassa. Please pray for their homebuilding success and safe travels.
EARLY CLOSING – The Church office will be closed on Thursday and Friday, August 15-16. The deadline for the August 18 Bulletin will be 11:00 am on Wednesday, August 14.
TEEN SOYO – There will be a kick-off party for the teens on Saturday, August 17th. The Bargoots have graciously offered to host at their home in Hull. We will have a BBQ lunch and head to the beach for the afternoon. All teens (grades 9-12) and their parents are welcome to join. Please contact Hannah Oakley or Greg Hakim for more details at 843-283-3873 or hoakley18@gmail.com .
VACATION CHURCH SCHOOL – St. George Orthodox Church, West Roxbury will be hosting a Vacation Church School from Monday, August 19 through Thursday, August 22 for pre-school through 5th grade. Registration donation is $15 for one child; $20 for two children; $25 for three children. Check the Church bulletin board downstairs for more information and registration forms, or contact John Abud at 617-323-0323 or abudjohn@gmail.com.
CHURCH SCHOOL – The Church School is still looking for a few teachers, assistants and substitutes for the 2013-2014 school year. Teachers are provided with all the materials they will need. If you are interested, please see Barbara Shoop or contact her in the Church office (617-547-1234 or secretary@stmaryorthodoxchurch.org) as soon as possible.
Church School registration (age 3 and up) will be Sunday, September 8, and Church School classes start Sunday, September 15, 2013.
There will be a Church School Teachers/Assistants/Substitutes meeting immediately following Registration on September 8. Please plan on attending this very important meeting.
SONIA’S RUN –The 5th annual Sonia’s 5K Run/Walk at St. George Church, West Roxbury, will be held on Saturday, September 21, beginning at 9:00 am. All proceeds will benefit Sonia’s dream of finding a permanent home for Theophany school. For more information see http://theophanyschool.org/ways-to-help/sonias-run
FR. ANTONY’S 20th ANNIVERSARY - Be with us on Saturday and Sunday, October 5 & 6, 2013, as His Grace, Bishop John joins us to celebrate Fr. Antony’s first 20 years at St. Mary!
On Saturday, October 5, Great Vespers at 5:00 pm will be followed by a Banquet with Bishop John in the Church Hall. Tickets – Adults: $50.00 per person includes dinner, beer, wine & entertainment; Children under 18: $25.00 per person. (All proceeds will be used to send our children to Antiochian Village in July, 2014). No tickets will be sold at the door – for reservations please see Marc Patacchiola or Deno Takles or call Mary Winstanley O’Connor at 617-523-1010. Prepaid tables of 8 may be reserved in advance.
Sunday, October 6: Orthros at 8:45 am; Hierarchical Divine Liturgy at 10:00 am, followed by a Coffee Hour.
We are looking for Sponsors for the Banquet: Platinum $2000, Gold $1000, And Silver $500. To date we have $4500 in sponsors and are looking for an additional $2000 in Sponsorships. See Mary Winstanley-O’Connor if you are interested in being a Sponsor for this joyous event.
REMINDERS
BIBLE STUDY – The Bible Study at St. Mary, sponsored by the Fellowship of St. John the Divine, meets every other Thursday and is based on a lecture series originally broadcast on Ancient Faith Radio. Join us at 7:00 pm on Thursday, August 22, in the church library. For more information contact Marianna Sayeg (mksayeg@gmail.com) or Fr. Antony (frawhj@gmail.com). New members are always welcome!
GREETERS NEEDED – We’re still looking for Summer Greeters – please help out! Volunteers are needed for August 18 and September 1. As a Greeter, you will welcome people into the Church and help to direct visitors upstairs to the Liturgy, as well as keeping an eye on the Vestibule, Hallways and Entrance ways during Church. Arrive at Church 15 minutes before Liturgy. Greeting time ends when Communion starts. Please contact Buddy Mabardy at 781-729-6303 or e-mail: buddy@cjmabardy.com. Summer might be a great time for you to start participating in this Ministry!
FSJD MEETING – The next Fellowship of St. John the Divine meeting will be Sunday, August 25 in the church hall during coffee hour. We will welcome our new Vice President, Diana Yousef, and review the new calendar for many of St. Mary's 2013-2014 events and activities. Please contact our President, Julie Wasilko (julie31415pi@gmail.com), with any questions or suggestions. All are welcome.
PILGRIMAGE – The annual St. Thekla pilgrimage at the Antiochian Village has been expanded this year to include supplication to St. Raphael, who is buried on the grounds of the Village. The Pilgrimage will be September 20-22, 2013; registration is due by September 1. For information and registration form see http://www.antiochian.org/sites/antiochian.org/files/2013_brochure.pdf
MARRIAGE SEMINAR WITH BISHOP JOHN – St. Mary will host the first evening of a two-day marriage seminar to be held Friday and Saturday, September 13-14. Evening Divine Liturgy at St. Mary on Friday at 6:30 pm will be followed by the first session, which will last approximately an hour and a half. A light dinner will be provided. The second session will be held at the Chancery in Westborough on Saturday morning from 10:00 am to 3:30, with lunch provided. Everyone, married or unmarried, is welcome and encouraged to attend and learn about the Orthodox approach to marriage. To register, contact Fr. Antony at frawhj@gmail.com. A fee of $25.00 is required to cover the cost of food.
ROOM OR APARTMENT WANTED: (1) A visiting parishioner, Sarah Chiu, is looking for a room/apt to rent for 1-2 years while she is studying in the area. She has two cats. She can be contacted at 207-229-1886 or clssarah@gmail.com.
(2) A Master’s student at Holy Cross, Katherine Mowers, is looking for a room to rent for the academic year. She can be reached at 202-276-5311 or Katherine000@gmail.com.
STREAMING VIDEO – St. Mary’s Church services are broadcast live each week through an internet video stream. If you can't attend a service in person or want to share this ministry with a friend or loved one, the live stream can be viewed at www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org/live during regularly scheduled service times (see the schedule of services below or online). If you have questions or comments about this ministry please contact us at live@stmaryorthodoxchurch.org
PARKING RESTRICTIONS – Please do not park in the Church parking lot if you need to leave quickly after church. Cars parked there will be staying until the end of coffee hour.
Additionally, do not park beyond the sign that prohibits parking at the corner of Inman Street and Bishop Allen Drive. (An orange cone will be placed in that No Parking area.) It is difficult for large vehicles to turn the corner if cars are parked there. Failure to heed this warning may result in the City preventing parishioners from parking on Inman Street. Your cooperation is appreciated.
And remember, there is no parishioner parking in the church parking lot Monday through Friday until after 6:00 pm.
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:
BE A GREETER – If you do not sing in the choir, or chant, serve in the Altar or at the Bengarri, and are not a Church School teacher, please consider serving the Church as a Greeter! Greeters arrive 15 minutes before Liturgy, get a Greeter Name Tag from the Bengarri, pin it on and greet visitors/parishioners at the Church Entrance and direct them upstairs to the Church, or to the cloakroom or restrooms. Greeting time ends when Communion starts. Send your name and e-mail address to Buddy Mabardy: buddymabardy@cjmabardy.com or phone him 781-729-6303.
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 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 new 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.
PRISON MINISTRY – If you would like to find out more about Prison Ministry at St. Mary’s Church, please subscribe to our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/group/ocpm-concord.
Also - please donate unwanted past issues of Orthodox magazines such as The Word, OCMC or other periodicals to our prison ministry to hand out to inmates. Please remove any personal mailing address for security purposes and give them to Mitrophan Chin.
Our own Deacon Jeff Smith can be heard in a recent interview with Ancient Faith Radio
at http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/features/prison_ministry_awareness_sunday1
VIDEO EDITING – Volunteers are wanted to assist with video editing of sermons and lectures.
We are looking for volunteers to assist with some basic video editing to post the sermons and lectures from St. Mary's online. If you have experience with digital video editing, please let Jamil Samara or Erick Straghalis know you are interested - email live@stmaryorthodoxchurch.org.
PHOTOGRAPHERS AND GRAPHIC DESIGNERS – Are you a photographer or a graphic designer? Would you be willing to share your talents with St. Mary Church and her ministries? We are looking for you to help photograph the divine services and events and to design promotional material for events and programs at our parish. Please contact Jamil Samara at webmaster@stmaryorthodoxchurch.org with any questions, and to let him know that you are interested in getting more involved.
"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
Greeter: Bob Kowalik
Coffee Hour: FSJD
LITURGICAL SCHEDULE FOR THIS WEEK
Friday, August 9: Paraclesis for the Dormition 6:30 pm
Saturday, August 10: Great Vespers 5:00 pm
Sunday, August 11: Orthros 8:15 AM, Divine Liturgy 9:30 am
SCRIPTURE READINGS for Sunday, August 11:
Epistle: St. Paul's Letter to the Romans 15:1-7
Brethren, we who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves; let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to edify him. For Christ did not please himself; but, as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproached thee fell on me… Welcome one another, therefore, as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
Gospel: Matthew 9:27-35
At that time, as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, "Have mercy on us, Son of David." When he entered the house, the blind men came to him; and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They said to him, "Yes, Lord." Then he touched their eyes, saying, "According to your faith be it done to you." And their eyes were opened. … And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people.
Monday, August 12: Paraclesis for the Dormition 6:30 p.m
Wednesday, August 14: Vigil for the Dormition of the Theotokos (our Patronal Feast) - Vespers 4:15 pm, Orthros with Lamentations 5:30 pm, Festal Divine Liturgy 7:00 pm, with Mexican Fiesta dinner following
LOOKING AHEAD
Saturday, August 17: Great Vespers 5:00 pm
Sunday, August 18: Orthros 8:15 AM, Divine Liturgy 9:30 am
Saturday, August 24: Great Vespers 5:00 pm
Sunday, August 25: Orthros 8:15 AM, Divine Liturgy 9:30 am
Saturday, August 31: No Vespers at St. Mary
Sunday, September 1: Regular Worship Schedule Resumes – Orthros 8:45 am, Divine Liturgy 10:00 am
Sunday, September 8: Church School registration, followed by meeting for teachers, assistants & substitutes
Sunday, September 15: Church School classes begin
REFLECTIONS
[In the Theotokos] in a peculiar way, we see the Word of God spoken by Paul who says “My power is made manifest in weakness.” We can see this frail virgin of Israel, this frail girl, defeating sin in her, defeating hell, defeating everything by the power of God which is in her. And this is why at moments like persecutions, when indeed the power of God is made manifest in nothing but weakness, the Blessed Virgin stands out so miraculously, so powerfully in our eyes. If she could defeat earth and hell then we have in her a tower of strength and one who can intercede and save, and we mark the fact that in her there is no discrepancy with the will of God, that she is in perfect harmony with Him, by using the formula of prayer which we use only for God and for her, “Save us.” We don’t say “Pray for us.”
- Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, Beginning to Pray
Oh Lord, I am weak. Thou knowest this. In fear I seek the way to Thee. Despise me not. Forsake me not in my fall. Draw near even unto me, who am of no account, yet I thirst after Thee. Take up Thine abode in me and do Thou Thyself perform in me all that Thou hast commanded of us. Make me Thine for ever and ever, in love unshakeable.
- Archimandrite Sophrony of Essex
Some people, intent on severe disciplinary precepts, admonish us to rebuke the restless and not to give what is holy to dogs, to consider a despiser of the church as a heathen, to cut off from the unified structure of the body the member who causes a scandal. These may so disturb the peace of the church that they try prematurely to separate out the wheat from the chaff before the proper time, and blinded by this pretext, they themselves then become separated from the unity of Christ.
- St. Augustine, Faith and Works
Do not compare yourself with weaker men but rather apply yourself to fulfilling the commandment of love. For by comparing yourself with the weak you will fall into the pit of conceit, but by applying yourself to the commandment of love you will reach the height of humility. If you totally fulfill the command to love your neighbor, you will feel no bitterness or resentment against him whatever he does. If this is not the case, then the reason why you fight against your brother is clearly because you seek after transitory things and prefer them to the commandment of love.
- St. Maximus the Confessor
Some, I know not why (for I have not learned to pry conceitedly into the gifts of God) are by nature, I might say, prone to temperance, or stillness, or purity, or modesty, or meekness, or contrition. But others, although almost their own nature itself resists them in this, to the best of their power force themselves; and though they occasionally suffer defeat yet, as men struggling with nature, they are in my opinion higher than the former.
- St. John Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 26, Section 28-29