St. Mary e-Newsletter for Thursday, June 4, 2020
PRAYER AND WORSHIP
Note: Attendance at services other than Sunday Orthros and Divine Liturgy is open to anyone on a first come first served basis using the online ticket agent ‘Eventbrite’. The tickets are free but you must reserve a pew and there are only 20 designated. As on Sunday, a single ticket may be applied to a household.
All services are also live-streamed - click the Live Broadcasts button on the church website: http://www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org. They can also be seen at facebook.com/stmarycambridge and youtube.com/stmarycambridge and https://bit.ly/stmarylive If you LIKE St. Mary on Facebook you’ll get advance notice of live-streamed services.
Saturday, June 6 – Vespers of Pentecost (live streamed) at 5:00pm, followed by Young Adults fellowship.
Every Sunday - Orthros is at 8:45am, followed by Divine Liturgy at 10:00am. Both services are live-streamed. After Divine Liturgy every Sunday the Young Adult Ministry invites you to a virtual coffee hour. Please use this link to join it: https://zoom.us/j/392596633
Password: 0815
Monday–Saturday - Morning Prayer at 8:45am on Zoom with James & Brooke Wilcox, who write: We simply read the Trisagion Prayers, a Psalm, the NT reading for the day, we honor the Theotokos and the Saints of the day, and then say a prayer “Waking from Sleep”; followed by prayers for the sick and the reposed (with names given from Orthodox parishioners and friends). And finally we close with “The Angel Cried.” If you would like to join us, we start at 8:45 each morning, and go for about 10-12 minutes. The link to join is:
https://zoom.us/j/377381275.
Password: 28052020
Every other Tuesday, at 7:30pm - The Young Adults invite everyone in our church community to a virtual Paraklesis to the Theotokos over Zoom. The Paraklesis is a service traditionally sung during times of great distress. The next Paraklesis service is scheduled for Tuesday, June 16.
We use the text linked here, and we hope to see you all there! (You don’t have to be a great singer to participate!) http://ww1.antiochian.org/sites/default/files/paraklesis_little-with_music.pdf
After we offer our prayers we will continue the Zoom call to check in with one another and see what other virtual events/support we can offer one another during this time.
Please use this link to join us https://zoom.us/j/515766020
Password: 069988
Thursday evenings - At 7:00pm there is an Adult Education program with Subdeacon James: https://zoom.us/j/972855097
Password: 04192020
Also, you can pray the liturgical services at home - The Archdiocese has published online instructions for reader services (services without a priest present). You can find them at the Online Liturgical Guide. Look at the list of services on the right side of the page and click on the ones marked ‘Reader Service’.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
If You Haven’t Yet, Please Take Our Live Broadcasting Survey
We are asking that every parishioner take the following survey about our Live Broadcasting ministry. Your feedback is essential to help us improve what we are offering, both those who are tuning in and those who are not! It should take you less than 10 minutes to complete. To get started, please go to: https://forms.gle/RxYxq76znb1a3Usz5
Interesting Webinar
The Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton MA will be offering a special webinar on Sunday, June 7 from 1:00-2:00pm entitled “Sacred Space, Sacred Time.” In this talk, docent Dennis Sardella will explore how entering an Orthodox church is not simply to enter into a building, but an invitation to move from the time and space of our daily lives into an encounter with the transfigured and redeemed time of the Heavenly Kingdom, and the ways in which the structure, internal layout, and ornamentation work in concert to support this. The lecture is free, but advance registration is required: https://www.museumofrussianicons.org/event/lecture-sacred-space
An email link to the Zoom conference will be sent to the address that you use to register, on the morning of the event.
People Helping People
A number of parishioners have made known their desire to help people who need assistance. The church office is keeping a list of volunteers. As of this writing we have 8 volunteers. Call the office if you would like your name added to the list of volunteers. There can’t be too many.
If you know of anyone who needs any sort of help call the church office (617) 547-1234 to make the connection. Remember, many people are ashamed/afraid to ask for help. Keep your eyes and ears open and ask about needs in a kind way.
REFLECTION
In the Church's annual liturgical cycle, Pentecost is "the last and great day." It is the celebration by the Church of the coming of the Holy Spirit as the end - the achievement and fulfillment - of the entire history of salvation. For the same reason, however, it is also the celebration of the beginning: it is the "birthday" of the Church as the presence among us of the Holy Spirit, of the new life in Christ, of grace, knowledge, adoption to God and holiness.
[The Kneeling Prayers] is our first kneeling since Easter. It signifies that after these fifty days of Paschal joy and fulness, of experiencing the Kingdom of God, the Church now is about to begin her pilgrimage through time and history. It is evening again, and the night approaches, during which temptations and failures await us, when, more than anything else, we need Divine help, that presence and power of the Holy Spirit, who has already revealed to us the joyful End, who now will help us in our effort towards fulfillment and salvation.
All this is revealed in the three prayers which the celebrant reads now as we all kneel and listen to him. In the first prayer, we bring to God our repentance, our increased appeal for forgiveness of sins, the first condition for entering into the Kingdom of God.
In the second prayer, we ask the Holy Spirit to help us, to teach us to pray and to follow the true path in the dark and difficult night of our earthly existence. Finally, in the third prayer, we remember all those who have achieved their earthly journey, but who are united with us in the eternal God of Love.
The joy of Easter has been completed and we again have to wait for the dawn of the Eternal Day. Yet, knowing our weakness, humbling ourselves by kneeling, we also know the joy and the power of the Holy Spirit who has come. We know that God is with us, that in Him is our victory.
Thus is completed the feast of Pentecost and we enter "the ordinary time" of the year. Yet, every Sunday now will be called "after Pentecost" - and this means that it is from the power and light of these fifty days that we shall receive our own power, the Divine help in our daily struggle.
- Father Alexander Schmemann, http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsLife.asp?FSID=45