Today:  Classes, Brunch, Blood Pressure Screening

Monday:  7:15 pm New Testament Theology Class

Tuesday:  6:00 pm Vespers & Confessions

Wednesday:  6:00 pm Presanctified & Confessions

Thursday:  6:00 pm Vespers & Confessions

Friday:  6:00 pm Presanctified & Confessions; Akathist to the Theotokos

Saturday:  5:00 pm Final Catechumen Class; 6:00 pm Vespers; 7:00 pm Presentation on The Ethiopian Orthodox Church

Sunday:  8:30 am Matins; 9:30 am Divine Liturgy, Classes, Brunch

Looking Ahead:
• Wednesday, April 8:  6:30 pm Presanctified at St. George Church

• Friday, April 10:  Final opportunity for Confession before Pascha

• Saturday, April 11:  9:30 am Lazarus Saturday Divine Liturgy followed by Parish-Wide Paschal Spring Cleaning Work-Party

Please note:
For the Paschal Banquet, we are asking that you not bring hard liquor or distilled alcohol beverages to be consumed at church.  Wine, beer, kvass, hard cider, etc., are fine — if consumed responsibly and in moderation.  Please leave vodka, slivovich, arak, rakia, tuica, ouzo, scotch, etc., at home (or at least un-opened if you include it in your Paschal Basket.)  Thanks.

THANKS (and blessings) to all who have made your Lenten confession early this year.  If 2-3 people could come each evening, it will go well for all.

Don’t forget Matthew 25 is our Lenten Theme.  Seek out ways to make it happen in your life and in your family.  One way is to take a Food for the Hungry box and deposit the day’s spare coins and change at each evening meal during Lent.  Bring the box back on Palm Sunday.

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From a homily by Pope St. Leo the Great (+461)

In John’s gospel the Lord says: By this love you have for one another, everyone will know you are my disciples. In a letter by John we read: My dear people, let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love.

So the faithful should look into themselves and carefully examine their minds and the impulses of their hearts. If they find some of the fruits of love stored in their hearts then they must not doubt God’s presence within them. And to make themselves more and more able to receive so great a guest they should do more and more works of durable mercy and kindness. After all, if God is love, charity should know no limit, for God himself cannot be confined within limits.

What is the appropriate time for performing works of charity? My beloved children, any time is the right time, but these days of Lent provide a special encouragement. Those who want to be present at the Lord’s Passover in holiness of mind and body should seek above all to win this grace. Charity contains all other virtues and covers a multitude of sins.

As we prepare to celebrate that greatest of all mysteries, by which the blood of Jesus Christ destroyed our sins, let us first of all make ready the sacrificial offerings — that is, our works of mercy. What God in his goodness has already given to us, let us give it to those who have sinned against us.

And to the poor also, and to those who are afflicted in various ways, let us show a more open-handed generosity so that God may be thanked through many voices and the needy may be fed as a result of our fasting. No act of devotion on the part of the faithful gives God more pleasure than the support that is lavished on his poor. Where God finds charity with its loving concern, there he recognizes the reflection of his own fatherly care.

Do not be put off giving by a lack of resources. A generous spirit is itself great wealth, and there can be no shortage of material for generosity where it is Christ who feeds and Christ who is fed. His hand is present in all this activity: his hand, which multiplies the bread by breaking it and increases it by giving it away.

When you give alms, do not be anxious but full of happiness. The greatest treasure will go to the one who has kept the least for himself. The holy apostle Paul tells us: He who provides seed for the sower will give bread for food, provide you with more seed, and increase the harvest of your goodness, in Christ Jesus our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

Today:  8:30 am Matins; 9:30 am Liturgy, Classes, Brunch

Monday:  7:15 pm New Testament Class

Tuesday:  6:00 pm Vespers, Litia & Confessions

Wednesday:  6:30 pm Annunciation Hierarchial Vesperal Liturgy @ Annunciation Church

Thursday:  6:00 pm Vespers & Confessions

Friday:  6:00 pm Presanctified & Confessions

Saturday:  5:00 pm Catechumen Class — Liturgical Music w/ Tracey; 6:00 pm Vespers (There will be NO confessions following Vespers)

Sunday:  8:45 am Baptism; 9:30 am Liturgy, Classes, Brunch & Blood Pressure Testing

THANKS (and blessings) to all who have made your Lenten confession early this year.  If 2-3 people could come each evening, it will go well for all.

Don’t forget Matthew 25 is our Lenten Theme.  Seek out ways to make it happen in your life and in your family.  One way is to take a Food for the Hungry box and deposit the day’s spare coins and change at each evening meal during Lent.  Bring the box back on Palm Sunday.

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And He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”  (Genesis 22:2)

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.  (John 3:16)

And walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.  (Ephesians 5:2)

Marc Chagall: Sacrifice of Isaac

Today:  8:30 am Matins; 9:30 am Divine Liturgy; Classes; Brunch: Stewardship Team; Parish Council; St. Francis Dining Hall (3:00 pm)

Monday:  7:15 pm New Testament Theology Class

Tuesday:  6:00 pm Vespers & Confessions

Wednesday:  6:00 pm Liturgy of the Presanctified & Confessions

Thursday:  6:00 pm Vespers & Confessions; 7:00 pm Choir Rehearsal

Friday:  6:00 pm Liturgy of the Presanctified & Confessions; Pot-Luck & Friday Fellowship

Saturday:  3:00 pm Church School Lenten Fair (for want of a more appropriate name); 5:00 pm Catechumen Class; 6:00 pm Vespers & Confessions

Sunday: 8:30 am Matins; 9:30 am Divine Liturgy; Classes; Brunch

THANKS (and blessings) to all who have made your Lenten confession early this year.  If 2-3 people could come each evening, it will go well for all.

Thanks as well to the team that helped with our Lenten Quiet Day of Recollection and who provided the opportunity for over 20 participants to step out of the regular frenetic pace of life and literally “retreat” for a time.  Blessings to all who were able to take advantage of this occasion.

Don’t forget Matthew 25 is our Lenten Theme.  Seek out ways to make it happen in your life and in your family.  One way is to take a Food for the Hungry box and deposit the day’s spare coins and change at each evening meal during Lent.  Bring the box back on Palm Sunday.

Today:  8:30 am Matins; 9:30 am Liturgy, Brunch

Monday:  7:15 New Testament Theology Class

Tuesday:  6:00 pm Vespers & Confessions

Wednesday:  6:30 pm Presanctified @ St. John the Baptist

Thursday:  6:00 pm Vespers, Confessions, Choir

Friday:  6:00 pm Presanctified, Pot-Luck Supper (& Friday Fellowship)

Saturday:  9:30 am Divine Liturgy (St. Benedict), followed by a Lenten Quiet Day of Recollection for the parish (see below); 5:00 pm Catechumenate; 6:00 pm Vespers & Confessions

Sunday:  8:30 am Matins; 9:30 am Liturgy, Classes, Brunch, Parish Council

Thank You to all who showed up yesterday for the SOLV / AmeriCorps / Girl Scout / Boy Scout / SNOC Grounds Work Party.  A GREAT turnout.  We NOW know that sin and ivy are only all too similar…you can’t eradicate of either of them all alone.

On that note — THANKS (and blessings) to all who have made your Lenten confession early this year.  If 2-3 people could come each evening, it will go well for all.

Don’t forget Matthew 25 is our Lenten Theme.  Seek out ways to make it happen in your life and in your family.

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Lenten Quiet Day of Recollection
(for the whole St. Nicholas parish community)

Saturday, March 14 (feast of St. Benedict) — 9:30 am – 1:00 pm
Divine Liturgy
Brunch — followed by periods of
Lectio, Quietude, Prayer & concluding with the Noon-day Office

“You will not see anyone who is really striving after his advancement
who is not given to spiritual reading.” — St. Athanasius

Today:  Matins, Liturgy, Enrollment into the Catechumenate, Rite of Forgiveness, Brunch

Monday:  7:00 pm Canon of St. Andrew of Crete & Confessions

Tuesday:  6:00 pm Vespers, Quietude & Confessions

Wednesday:  6:00 pm Liturgy of the Presanctified & Confessions

Thursday:  7:00 pm Canon of St. Andrew of Crete & Confessions

Friday:  6:00 pm Liturgy of the Presanctified, Confessions, Pot-Luck

Saturday:  9:00 am to noon SNOC / SOLV joint Grounds Work Party (planting / ivy removal); 5:00 pm Catechumenate; 5:30 Choir; 6:00 pm Vespers, Panikhida & Confessions

Sunday:  8:30 am Matins; 9:30 am Liturgy, Classes, Brunch (also: Pan-Orthodox Celebration of the Triumph of the Orthodox Faith at Holy Trinity @ 10:00 am)

Saturday, March 14:  9:30 am Divine Liturgy (St. Benedict) & Lenten Quiet Day of Recollection (until 1:00 pm)

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As with the above ivy removal work party, please plan to take care of your spiritual invasives and make your Lenten confession EARLY during the season.  There are plenty of opportunities following Divine Services (i.e., nearly every night) during the Great Fast.

I shall put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; it will bruise your head and you will strike its heel. (Gen. 3:15)

“The knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosened by Mary’s obedience. The bonds fastened by the virgin Eve through disbelief were untied by the Virgin Mary through faith…. The one lying in wait for the serpent’s head is the one who was born in the likeness of Adam from the woman, the Virgin.”  – St. Irenaeus of Lyons (+202) Against the Heresies,3:22

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From a sermon of St. Leo of Rome (+461): Sermon 6 on Quadragesima, 1-2

During these days which remind us more vividly of the mystery of humanity’s salvation and of the paschal celebration soon to come, we are bidden to purify ourselves more carefully by way of preparation.

In the paschal celebration the whole Church experiences the forgiveness of sins.  For, though baptism is the chief instrument in humanity’s renewal, there is also a daily renewal from the corruption inherent in mortality, and everyone, however advanced, is called to be a better person.  All of us must strive forever with a greater purity against the day of our salvation.  To this end we follow with care and devotion the apostolic custom of a forty-day fast in which we abstain not simply from bodily food but primarily from all evildoing.

For such a holy fast there can be no better companion than almsgiving.  But we must note that “almsgiving” or “mercy” here includes the many pious actions which make possible a familial equality among the faithful, whatever be the disparities between them in worldly wealth.  For in the love of God and humanity one is always free to will the good.  The angles sang: Glory to God in the highest and peace to people of good will, and he who is loving compassion on those in need is blessed not only in the virtue of benevolence but in the possession of peace as well.

There are, then, all kinds of pious works which make it possible for all true Christians — not only the rich and well-off, but the average person and even the poor — to engage in almsgiving.  Those who are less able to give material things can rival their richer neighbors in good will and love.