Weekly Newsletter for the week Friday, June 8, 2007 through Thursday, June 14, 2007
NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS
LITURGICAL SERVICE - NEW CONTACT - 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. Six people are needed each week-two to hold the cloth of the left chalice and two for the right chalice and two for the bread baskets on either side. If you would like to read the Epistle or assist during the Communion, contact Jeff Wasilko by email (jeffw@smoe.org) or phone (781-820-0882), and/or use the sign-up sheet on the Bengarri.
Many thanks to Maria McDowell, who inaugurated this Liturgical Services ministry and served as its coordinator for the last couple of years.
5th ANNUAL TANGLEWOOD OUTING - Join your music-loving friends from St. Mary's as we carpool out to Tanglewood after Liturgy on Sunday, July 8. We'll picnic on the lawn and listen to the Boston Symphony Orchestra playing music by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev. (For more information see http://www.bso.org/bso/mods/perf_detail.jsp?pid=24300117 ) The concert starts at 2:30; lawn tickets are just $18. Bring picnic food for yourself and to share, or buy it on the way. For more information and to sign up, especially if you'll need a ride, contact Melissa Nassiff by email (mnassiff@gmail.com) or phone (508 877-7483).
HOUSING REQUEST - A female Harvard student (granddaughter of a former parishioner) needs a room to rent from the last week of June until mid August. It must be in the Cambridge area on a bus line. Call the Church Office or see Fr. Antony if you can help.
REMINDERS
APOSTLES' FAST - the Apostles Fast began Monday, June 4 and continues until the Feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, June 29.
ORTHODOX YOUTH OUTREACH - OYO (a ministry of the MAC Teen SOYO) will sponsor a mission trip to Providence , RI , this weekend, June 8 - 10. This is a weekend trip open to participants nationwide. John Mahfouz will be leading the weekend. Registration information is on the OYO web site: http://www.orthodoxyouthoutreach.net/
COMBINED CHOIR FESTIVAL - The combined choirs of the diocese will sing on Saturday, June 30, at 3:30 p.m. at the Parish Life Conference. Attention Choir Members: If you didn't attend last week's rehearsal, it is imperative that you attend this week on Wednesday, June 13 at St. George West Roxbury 7:30 p.m.
GRECIAN FESTIVAL - Ss. Constantine & Helen Church, Cambridge , will hold an Outdoor Grecian Festival on Friday through Sunday, June 15 - 17, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Free Admission. Rain or Shine!
PARISH LIFE CONFERENCE - The 2007 Diocesan Parish Life Conference will be June 28 through July 1, at the Radisson Hotel in Plymouth , MA . Theme: Missions and Outreach. His Grace Bishop ANTOUN will be the presiding Hierarch, and Fr. Michael Keiser will be the keynote speaker, speaking on Missions and Evangelism. All proceeds will go toward establishing a Mission Endowment Fund for our Diocese. To see the schedule of events and register for the conference, click on www.WorcesterDiocese.net - you can register either online or on paper. To register for the hotel call 508-747-4900. If you have any questions, email conference@worcesterdiocese.net or ask our own Paul Nahass (pnahass@comcast.net) or Michael Marge (Michael_Marge@yahoo.com), co-chairmen.
CHURCH CLOSED - The church offices will be closed, and no services will be held at St. Mary's, during the Parish Life Conference, Thursday, June 28 through Sunday, July 1.
ARCHDIOCESE CONVENTION - The 48th Antiochian Archdiocese Convention will be held in Montreal , Canada , July 23 - 29, 2007, hosted by St. Nicholas Church of Montreal. Download registrations forms and/or register online at www.stnicholasmtl.org
WOMEN'S BOOK CLUB - This summer Women's Club members (and anyone else who'd like to join us) will be reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini. The author of The Kite Runner takes his storytelling powers to the next level with this instant classic. Following the lives of two Afghan women over 30 years, this beautiful, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting novel will sweep you away. We'll be discussing it in September - start your summer reading now!
YOU ARE NEEDED - The services of the Church continue all year round, and volunteers continue to be needed throughout the summer!
Coffee Hour - If you've never given a coffee hour before, now's a good time to start. It's never difficult, but it's even easier in the summer. 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. Plenty of help is available if you need it.
Epistle and Communion - Members of the congregation read the Epistle every Sunday, and 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.
Tables and Chairs - Someone needs to take the lead after coffee hour and get everyone to help put away the tables and chairs. Many people are quite willing to help, but someone needs to get the ball rolling each week. To volunteer, please contact Abra Greene at abrayanti@gmail.com
INSIGHT
In creating man God implanted in him something Divine - a certain thought, like a spark, having both light and warmth, a thought which illumines the mind and shows what is good and what bad. This is called conscience and it is a natural law. By following this law - conscience - the patriarchs and all the saints pleased God, even before the law was written. But when, through the fall, man covered up and trampled down conscience, there arose the need of written law, of the holy Prophets, of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, to uncover and raise it up, to rekindle this buried spark by the keeping of His holy commandments.
- St. Abba Dorotheos
He who gives alms in imitation of God does not discriminate between the wicked and the virtuous, the just and the unjust, when providing for men's bodily needs.
- St. Maximos the Confessor
It is not dutiful observance that keeps us from sin, but something far greater: it is love. And this love is not something which we develop by our own powers alone. It is a sublime gift of the divine mercy, and the fact that we live in the realization of this mercy and this gift is the greatest source of growth for our love and for our holiness. This gift, this mercy, this unbounded love of God for us has been lavished upon us as a result of Christ's victory. To taste this love is to share in His victory. To realize our freedom, to exult in our liberation from death, from sin and from the Law, is to sing the Alleluia which truly glorifies God in this world and the world to come.
- Thomas Merton, Seasons of Celebration
Beware of limiting the good of fasting to mere abstinence from meats. Real fasting is alienation from evil. "Loose the bands of wickedness." Forgive your neighbor the mischief he has done you. Forgive him his trespasses against you. Do not "fast for strife and debate." You do not devour flesh, but you devour your brother. You abstain from wine, but you indulge in outrages. You wait for evening before you take food, but you spend the day in the law courts. Woe to those who are "drunken, but not with wine." Anger is the intoxication of the soul, and makes it out of its wits like wine.
- St. Basil the Great, Homilies on the Holy Spirit
LITURGICAL SCHEDULE FOR THIS WEEK
Saturday, June 9: Great Vespers 5:00 P.M.
Sunday, June 10: Orthros 8:45 a.m.; Divine Liturgy 10:00 a.m.
SCRIPTURE READINGS for June 10:
Epistle: St. Paul 's Letter to the Romans 2:10-16 For God shows no partiality. All who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. (The entire reading may be found at http://www.goarch.org/en/chapel/lectionary.asp?type=epistle&code=278&event=1068
Gospel: Matthew 4:18-23 As Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." (The entire reading may be found at http://www.goarch.org/en/chapel/lectionary.asp?type=gospel&code=64&event=1068&DL=EN )
LOOKING AHEAD
Saturday, June 16: Great Vespers 5:00 P.M.
Sunday, June 17: Orthros 8:45 a.m.; Divine Liturgy 10:00 a.m.
Thursday, June 28, through Sunday, July 1: Parish Life Conference - No services at St. Mary's, church offices closed
Sunday, July 8: Summer hours begin - Orthros 8:15 a.m.; Divine Liturgy 9:30 a.m.
Saturday, July 28: No Great Vespers at St. Mary's (Fr. Antony at Archdiocese Convention)
Saturdays, August 4 and 11: No Great Vespers at St. Mary's (Fr. Antony serving at Antiochian Village )
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.
June 9: Sandra Kondratiuk and Christian Alcala
EPISTLE READERS
The Epistle each Sunday is read by a member of the congregation. If you would like to be one of the readers, please contact Jeff Wasilko at jeffw@smoe.org or 781-820-0882.
June 10: Scott Miller
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.
June 10: The Hughes family
TABLES AND CHAIRS
These volunteers will take the lead each week in getting the tables and chairs put away and the floor swept after Coffee Hour. Please help them - the more people there are doing it, the easier it is for all. To volunteer, please contact Abra Greene at abrayanti@gmail.com
June 10: