St. Mary e-Newsletter for Thursday, July 30, 2020
PRAYER AND WORSHIP
Every Sunday Orthros is at 8:45am, followed by Divine Liturgy at 10:00am. Members of St. Mary’s laity may attend services in rotation, with appropriate physical distancing throughout the nave. The list of voting members is now divided in thirds, and each third will receive a telephone invitation on a Tuesday afternoon to attend on the following Sunday; your response is requested by noon the following Friday.
After Divine Liturgy every Sunday the Young Adult Ministry invites you to a virtual coffee hour. Do you miss sitting at your favorite coffee hour table? Join the zoom call where you will be split into breakout rooms of smaller groups. After a few minutes your group will change, sort of like mingling with different people at coffee hour. Please use this link to join it: https://zoom.us/j/392596633
Password: 0815
Monday–Saturday you can join Morning Prayers on Zoom with James & Brooke Wilcox, who write: “We say the Trisagion Prayers, a Psalm, and the NT reading for the day, we honor the Theotokos, and include liturgical material which honors the saints for each day, in addition to incorporating festal hymns proper to each liturgical season. We’ve even come to adopt Patron Saints for our newly formed house chapel – Sts. Antony and Anastasia. And thanks to the power of the internet and the influence of other participants, we now have people joining us each morning from Arizona, Pennsylvania, Florida, New York City and other portions of Massachusetts as well. And we are always happy to add more! If anyone would like to join, we start at 8:45 each morning, Monday through Saturday, and go for about 15 minutes.” The link to join is: https://zoom.us/j/377381275.
Password: 28052020
Thursday evenings at 7:00pm there is an Adult Education program (“Orthodoxy 102”) with Subdeacon James: https://zoom.us/j/92020118216
Password: 0611
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’.
Dormition Fast
Our Patronal Feast Day is the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, on August 15. The church prepares for this every year with a Dormition Fast, which begins THIS SATURDAY, August 1 and continues through Friday, August 14.
There will be a Paraclesis for the Dormition at 6:30pm on Friday, August 7, and another on Wednesday, August 12.
Eventbrite link for Friday 8/7: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/paraclesis-to-the-theotokos-tickets-114551444454
Eventbrite link for Wednesday 8/12: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/paraclesis-to-the-theotokos-tickets-114552056284
Join us finally for the Vigil for the Dormition on Friday, August 14, the eve of the Feast, with Vespers at 4:15 pm; Orthros at 5:30pm; and Festal Divine Liturgy at 7:00 pm.
Transfiguration
Next Thursday, August 6, the church commemorates the Transfiguration of our Lord. The evening before that, on Wednesday August 5, we will celebrate with Vesperal Liturgy at 6:30pm.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
New Mask Procedure
From now on masks are to be worn throughout the service, including while seated in the pew. The mask should not have a valve (which may make breathing a little easier, but also makes exchange of germs easier).
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. 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 with kind concern.
REFLECTION
Fasting is the change of every part of our life, because the sacrifice of the fast is not the abstinence but the distancing from sins. Therefore, whoever limits the fast to the deprivation of food, he is the one who, in reality, abhors and ridicules the fast. Are you fasting? Show me your fast with your works. Which works? If you see someone who is poor, show him mercy. If you see an enemy, reconcile with him. If you see a friend who is becoming successful, do not be jealous of him! If you see a beautiful woman on the street, pass her by. …
Do not let only your mouth fast, but also the eye and the ear and the feet and the hands and all the members of our bodies. Let the hands fast, by being free of avarice. Let the feet fast, by ceasing to run after sin. Let the eyes fast, by disciplining them not to glance at that which is sinful. Let the ear fast, by not listening to evil talk and gossip. Let the mouth fast from foul words and unjust criticism. For what good is it if we abstain from birds and fishes, but bite and devour our brothers? May He who came to the world to save sinners strengthen us to complete the fast with humility, have mercy on us and save us.
- Saint John Chrysostom
Let us be satisfied simply with what sustains our present life, not with what pampers it. Let us pray to God for this, as we have been taught, so that we may keep our souls unenslaved and absolutely free from domination by any of the visible things loved for the sake of the body. Let us show that we eat for the sake of living, and not be guilty of living for the sake of eating. The first is a sign of intelligence, the second proof of its absence.
- St. Maximus the Confessor