Update for the week Friday, November 18, through Thursday, November 24, 2011
THIS WEEKEND
BAKE SALE– The Women’s Club will hold a Thanksgiving Charity Bake Sale on Sunday, November 20. All proceeds will benefit the Convent of Saidnaya in Syria. If you can help bake something, please contact Beverly Mabbett at 781-391-6530. Plan on purchasing all your holiday breads, cakes, Arabic pastries, etc.!
PARISH COUNCIL ELECTIONS - Anyone interested in being elected to the Parish Council please see Fr. Antony or Mary Winstanley O’Connor this Sunday, November 20, 2011.
SUNDAY EVENING – There will be a service of Festal Vespers with Artoklesia this Sunday evening, November 20, in celebration of the Feast of the Presentation of the Theotokos in the Temple.
FAMILY VESPERS and CONFESSION - All Church School families are invited to attend Vespers on Sunday evening, November 20. (Note change - originally scheduled for Saturday.) Pizza will follow in the church hall, and Fr. Antony will be hearing Confessions. Salad and dessert contributions are appreciated. Families are encouraged to bring a canned food item to contribute to the church’s Food for the Hungry People Drive.
NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS
BULLETIN DEADLINE - The Church Office will be closed on Friday, November 25, for Thanksgiving Holiday. Early Deadline for the November 27 Sunday Bulletin will be Wednesday, November 23, at 10:00 am.
WOMEN’S CLUB DINNER - The Women’s Club Annual Christmas Dinner will be on Monday, December 5, at Joe’s American Bar & Grill , Rte. 1, Dedham at 7 p.m. All are welcome. Please call Priscilla Goss @ 781-762-1527 or Marilyn in the Church Office 617-547-1234 before Monday, November 28 if you are planning to attend.
LESSONS AND CAROLS with POTLUCK - The Fellowship of St. John the Divine cordially invites you to Western Rite Evensong with Lessons and Carols - a service of prayers, scripture readings and Christmas Carols - on Saturday, December 17, 2011, at 5:00 pm. The service will be followed by a Festive Lenten Pot Luck Supper. People whose last name begins with A – P please bring a Main Dish or Salad; people whose last name begin with Q – Z please bring Dessert. Drinks will be provided. For more information, contact Tiffany Conroy at trattus1@gmail.com or Natasha Smith at nasmith05@rcn.com.
SYRIAN LEBANESE WOMEN’S CLUB – The Syrian Lebanese Women’s Club of Greater Boston will hold its Annual Holiday Party at St. John’s, Dedham, on Saturday, December 17, from noon to 3:00 pm. Donation: $25. All proceeds to benefit Scholarship Program. RSVP by November 24 to Camille Florio 781-344-8469.
NATIVITY PAGEANT – This year the Church School’s Nativity Pageant and Festivities will be held on Sunday, December 18, 2011.
REMINDERS
NATIVITY FAST - The Nativity Fast, also known as the season of Advent, began Tuesday, November 15. This is the forty days of fasting and prayer in preparation for the Great Feast of the Nativity of Christ. Every Wednesday during this period there will be a Paraklesis service at 6:30 pm.
N.G. BERAM AWARDS BANQUET – The N.G. Beram Veterans Association’s Scholastic Achievement & Distinguished Service Awards Banquet will be held next Saturday, November 26, 2011, from 12:30-5:00 pm at the Holiday Inn in Dedham. For adbook information seewww.stjohnd.org/ngberamor call 781-784-3341.
DOGS NEED A HOME – Two German Shepherd dogs need a new home, because their owner is about to join the New Skete Monastery and can’t take them with him. Yugi is a 9-year-old male, and Esra a 12-year-old female. Both are well trained and love children and dogs (but not cats). No cost. If you can help, please call Roy Tobin at 207-251-1466.
ST. MARY PARISH CHRISTMAS CARD – Save yourself time, and let us do the work - let the Women’s Club send a lovely Christmas Card on your behalf to our parishioners. You will receive this card with the names of parishioners, like yourself, who are wishing a Blessed Nativity and a Merry Christmas to all. Use the form in the Sunday Bulletin or send a note, with your check in any amount, to St. Mary Church - Women’s Club, 8 Inman St., Cambridge, MA 02139. All proceeds benefit the Antiochian Women Project for 2011-2012: The Convent of St. Thekla. Deadline: Sunday, December 4, 2011
YOUTH EQUIPPED TO SERVE – YES, a program of FOCUS North America, is coming to Boston Friday through Sunday, December 16-18. For more info and to register go to www.yesnorthamerica.org. If you have any questions you can contact Katrina Bitar, Program Director, at Katrina@focusna.org
FELLOWSHIP OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE – Please consider joining the Fellowship! It’s a great way to meet new people and feel like an integral part of our Parish life. We do not hold regular meetings, but we work together on a variety of projects and events. For example, after coffee hour every Sunday we all pitch in to put away tables and chairs. You can join our members’ email news list by contacting Melissa Nassiff at mnassiff@gmail.com. Also, check us out on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/FSJD1
CANNED FOOD DRIVE – The annual FOOD FOR HUNGRY PEOPLE Canned Food Drive will be held October through December, 2011. Bring in your canned goods to the Church and place them in the large, blue plastic containers outside the Church Office – they will be distributed to local food pantries in our area. 42 pounds of food will feed a family of four for 3 days - since 1984 we have collected over 3,281,200 pounds of food!
PARISH LIFE CONFERENCE – Next year’s Parish Life Conference will be held at The Cliff House, Ogunquit, Maine, June 21-24, 2012. Amazing Room Rate: $149 (Regularly $310) Reservations open October 15: Call 207-361-1000 or visit their website www.CliffHouseMaine.com/attendees User Name: PARISH Password: pa986B
REGULAR REMINDERS
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.
DONATE VIA eGIVE– Did you know that you can make your donations to St. Mary through eGive, and have no more envelopes or checks to worry about? If you have not yet set up an account, you can do it at www.egive-usa.com, or contact Charlie Marge (marge@alum.mit.edu) for help. The Recipient Organization is “St. Mary’s Orthodox Church.”
PROTECT YOUR VALUABLES – Please do not leave valuables unattended in the Church Hall or Coat Room.
FIRST IN, LAST OUT – Please do not park in the small lot behind the church unless you intend to stay through the end of coffee hour. The only way out is the single lane driveway. Please pull all the way in to the parking space, and please do notblock the driveway – if the lot is full, you can park on the street or in the lot at the corner of Prospect Street and Bishop Allen Drive.
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 - The Parish Council is continuing the
Greeter Program, similar to other churches, to greet and aid
parishioners, guests and visitors into the Church each Sunday. 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, arriving at Church
at 9:45 am. Greeting time ends when Communion starts. We need volunteers.
If you would like to be a Greeter, a Sign-Up Sheet is posted on the
Church Bulletin Board. If you have any questions, please contact Buddy
by e-mail buddy@cjmabardy.comor call him at 781-729-6303. “I was a stranger, and you invited me in………” (Matthew 25:35)
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 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.orgor 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
"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: Andrew Bargoot
LITURGICAL SERVICE: TBD
COFFEE HOUR: Women’s ClubThanksgivingBake Sale
LITURGICAL SCHEDULE FOR THIS WEEK
Saturday, November 19: Great Vespers 5:00 pm
Sunday, November 20: Orthros 8:45 am, Divine Liturgy 10:00 am; Church School lesson 9;
Family and Festal Vespers with Artoklasia for the Feast of the Presentation of the Theotokos in the Temple; 5:00 pm
SCRIPTURE READINGS for November 20:
Epistle: St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians 2:4-10
… For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not
your own doing, it is the gift of God: not because of works, lest any
man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in
them.
Gospel: Luke 12:16-21
The Lord said this parable: "The land of a rich man brought forth
plentifully… 'you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your
ease, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your
soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will
they be?' So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich
toward God."
Wednesday, November 23: Paraklesis service 6:30 pm
LOOKING AHEAD
Saturday, November 26: No Vespers at St. Mary
Sunday, November 27: No Church School (Thanksgiving weekend)
Wednesday, November 30: Paraklesis service 6:30 pm
Saturday, December 3: Great Vespers 5:00 pm
Sunday, December 4: Orthros 8:45 am, Divine Liturgy 10:00 am; Church School’s St. Barbara and St. Nicholas festivities
Wednesday, December 7: Paraklesis service 6:30 pm
INSIGHT
The more you love money, the more securely you close the Kingdom of God.
- Saint Basil the Great
But how can those who are tethered to their inheritance be following
Christ? And those who are weighed down by earthly desires be seeking
heaven and aspiring to the heights above? They think of themselves as
owners, whereas it is they rather who are owned: enslaved as they are to
their own property, they are not the masters of their money but its
slaves. The Apostle was pointing to our times and to these very men when
he said: "For they that will become rich, fall into temptation and into
snares and into many hurtful desires, which drown a man into perdition
and destruction. For the desire of money is the root of all evil; which
some coveting have erred from the faith, and have entangled themselves
in many sorrows." (1 Timothy 6:9-10)
- St. Cyprian of Carthage, The Lapsed
Some people with possessions possess them dispassionately, and so when
deprived of them they are not dismayed but are like those who accepted
the seizure of their goods with joy (cf. Hebrews 10:34). Others
possess with passion, so that when they are in danger of being
dispossessed they become utterly dejected, like the rich man in the
Gospel who went away full of sorrow (cf. Matthew 19:22); and if
they actually are dispossessed, they remain dejected until they die.
Dispossession, then, reveals whether a man's inner state is
dispassionate or dominated by passion.
- St. Maximos the Confessor
If a man does not keep himself from covetousness, he shall be defiled by idolatry, and shall be judged as one of the heathen.
- The Epistle Of Polycarp To The Philippians
The one who knows God will follow the Lord's footsteps, bearing the
cross of the Savior. It is said, "The world is crucified to him and he
to the world." The Lord says, "He who loses his life will save it." …
Dying to ourselves means being content with the necessities of life.
When we want more than these necessities it is easy to sin.
-- St. Clement of Alexandria