Update for the week Thursday, July 17, through Thursday, July 24
THIS WEEK
BIBLE STUDY – Come join us this evening (Thursday, July 17), at 7:00 pm in the church library as we continue our study of Exodus. Listen to the podcasts at http://orthodoxbiblestudy.info/genesis-part-7/ and http://orthodoxbiblestudy.info/exodus-part-8/. The Bible Study at St. Mary, sponsored by the Fellowship of St. John the Divine, meets every other Thursday, and is based on a course originally broadcast on Ancient Faith Radio, entitled Search the Scriptures. For more information contact Marianna Sayeg (mksayeg@gmail.com) or Fr. Antony (frawhj@gmail.com ). New members are always welcome.
TANGLEWOOD OUTING – Join your music-loving friends from St. Mary’s as we carpool out to Tanglewood after Liturgy this Sunday, July 20. We’ll picnic on the lawn and listen to music by Beethoven and others, with violinist Joshua Bell and new BSO conductor Andris Nelsons. For more information see http://www.bso.org/Performance/Detail/60929. (Rain date August 10: http://www.bso.org/Performance/Detail/60938.)The concert starts at 2:30; lawn tickets are $21.00 (pay at the door). Bring lawn chairs if you want them, and picnic food for yourself and to share. For more information and to let us know you're coming, especially if you'll ne ed a ride, contact Melissa Nassiff by email (mnassiff@gmail.com) or phone (508 877-7483).
PAPPAS PATRISTICS INSTITUTE SUMMER PROGRAM - The Pappas Patristics Institute is pleased to announce its eighth annual week-long Summer Patristic Studies Program at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, MA, Sunday through Friday, July 20-25, 2014. This week-long program is a unique opportunity to study and discuss classic texts of the early Church through small group-study and brief lectures. The intended audience for the program includes theology and religious studies students at the masters and undergraduate levels, along with clergy, lay people, and undergraduates with an interest in learning more about the Church Fathers. Course offerings include "Exploring the Ancient Baptismal Liturgies" taught by our own Teva Regule, Doctoral Candidate at Boston College. For more information, or to register, please send an email to the Pappas Patristic Institute at pappaspatristic@comcast.net at your earliest convenience. You will then be sent a registration form. Complete information found here: http://www.hchc.edu/assets/files/patristics/2014_SumInst_AnnouncmentProgram_140503.pdf
NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS
NEW SKETE PILGRIMAGE - The Monastic Communities of New Skete Monastery in Cambridge, New York (www.newskete.org), invite you to their Annual Pilgrimage on Saturday, August 9, 2014, between 8:30am - 6:00pm. The day will include Church Services, Church Tours, a Photo Exhibit, and a Healing Service with Anointing as well as talks by the monastics on Monastic Life and Iconography and by Chapel Community members on their relationship with the monastery. This year’s guest speaker will be Sr. Vassa Larin. She is a noted liturgical scholar and is now known popularly from her YouTube videos, "Coffee with Sr. Vassa." Her talk is entitled, "Mystery and History: Two Pillars of Tradition." A event flier can be found here: http://www.newskete.org/pdfs/2014%20Pilgrimage%20Schedule%20Poster%20FINAL.pdf
In the past, a crew from Boston has usually gone out to help with the logistics of the day. If you would like to do so (and also stay at the monastery), please contact Teva Regule at teva@mit.edu by July 27.
PARISH COUNCIL - The next Parish Council meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday, August 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the church.
HIS EMINENCE AT CLERGY SYMPOSIUM – The 18th Biennial Antiochian Archdiocesan Clergy Symposium, sponsored by the Antiochian House of Studies, is taking place at the Heritage and Learning Center at the Antiochian Village in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, from July 14-18, 2014. This is the newly-elected Metropolitan Joseph's first opportunity to greet all of the clergy of the Archdiocese. For more information see http://www.antiochian.org/ Some of the talks are available on the Ancient Faith Radio website: http://www.ancientfaith.com/specials/antiochian_archdiocese_2014_clergy
REMINDERS
ROOM NEEDED – Lianour Barakat, a Syrian student from the Antiochian Orthodox church in Mezze, Damascus, will be a graduate student at Northeastern this fall and is looking for a room or roommates in the Boston area. Please feel free to contact Lianour at 857-389-4313 or by e-mail: lia.barakat@gmail.com .
VACATION CHURCH SCHOOL - St. George West Roxbury will offer Vacation Church School 2014, Monday through Thursday, July 28-31, from 9:00 am-noon each day. Join them for lessons about the major feasts of the church, crafts, and fun; Preschool through grade 5. Cost is $20 for 1 child, $30 for 2 children, $40 for 3 children. Registration was due by Sunday, July 13. Download a registration form at http://www.stgeorgeofboston.org/ministries/vcs. For more information contact John Abud at abudjohn@gmail.com.
ICON WORKSHOP - St. Michael’s Orthodox Church, Woonsocket, RI, is offering an intense six day course Monday through Saturday, August 11-16, where the student will create an icon. Tuition $450. Class size limited to 10 students. For complete info and registration: archangelicons@verizon.net or 412-527-5359.
DORMITION OF THE THEOTOKOS – Friday, August 15 is the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, our feast day at St. Mary's. Watch for information on how we'll celebrate this year. And meanwhile, you can listen to not one but two new CDs:
(1) An audio CD of the hymns of Great Vespers, the Lamentations, and the Orthros hymns for the Feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, chanted by Dr. Sam N. Cohlmia, Protopsaltis of the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America at St. George Cathedral in Wichita, KS. This CD is available for $15.00 by contacting Dr. Cohlmia at samcohlmia@yahoo.com
(2) Full of Grace: Great Vespers for the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, chanted by the St Vladimir’s Seminary Chorale – which includes St. Mary alums Brooke Wilcox, Sophia Stratakis Huling and Danielle Miller, among others. Cost is $18; for full information and to order, see http://www.svspress.com/full-of-grace-great-vespers-for-the-feast-of-the-dormition-of-the-theotokos/
HELP PROVIDE A WARM WELCOME – Two things we do every week - all through the summer too! - to welcome visitors and newcomers, and to strengthen the bonds of fellowship with all who worship at St. Mary, are: 1.) Greet everyone who enters the church, and 2.) Provide coffee hour after Liturgy. We need more help with both of these ministries. To become a greeter please contact Buddy Mabardy at 781-729-6303 or email at Buddy@cjmabardy.com ; to provide a coffee hour please sign up on the sheet downstairs on the bulletin board or contact Barbara in the office at 617-547-1234 or secretary@stmaryorthodoxchurch.org .
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.
Also - please donate unwanted Orthodox books, icon cards, and magazines to our prison ministry to share with inmates. Please remove any personal mailing address for security purposes and give them to Mitrophan Chin. Note: Our inmates are specifically interested in the recent June 2014 issue of The Word magazine, as they recognize Fr Antony, Bp John and couple of parishioners in one of the photos taken at St Mary's. They recollect with fondness the hierarchical Orthodox baptismal service performed a couple of years ago, for the first time in a Massachusetts correctional facility, for one of the inmates (Michael in baptism), and still remember the chanters Abraham and Thecla.
CHURCH SCHOOL TEACHERS NEEDED – If you are interested in teaching Church School next year, or being an assistant or substitute teacher, please contact Barbara Shoop at Barbara@dsaarchitects.com. Being a Church School teacher can be a very rewarding and exciting opportunity. Teachers are provided with all the materials they will need.
LITURGICAL SCHEDULE FOR THIS WEEK
Saturday, July 19: No Vespers at St. Mary
Sunday, July 20: Summer hours - Orthros: 8:15 am, and Liturgy: 9:30 am , followed by Tanglewood outing
Scripture Readings for Sunday, July 20:
Epistle: St. James' Universal Letter 5:10-20
... Is any one among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects. ... My brethren, if any one among you wanders from the truth and some one brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
Gospel: Matthew 9:1-8
... And behold, they brought to him a paralytic, lying on his bed; and when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven." “...But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins" he then said to the paralytic -- "Rise, take up your bed and go home." And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.
LOOKING AHEAD
Thursday, July 31: Bible Study
Friday, August 1: Dormition fast begins (continuing until August 14)
Tuesday, August 5: Vespers/Divine Liturgy for the Feast of the Transfiguration 6:30 pm
Wednesday, August 6: Paraclesis for the Dormition 6:30 pm
Saturday, August 9: No Vespers at St. Mary
Wednesday, August 13: Paraclesis for the Dormition 6:30 pm
Thursday, August 14, Vigil for the Dormition of the Theotokos (Patronal Feast): Vespers 4:15 pm, Orthros with Lamentations 5:30, Festal Divine Liturgy 7:00 pm
Saturday, August 23: No Vespers at St. Mary
Sunday, August 24: Last Sunday of summer hours
Sunday, August 31: Last day of Summer Hours
REFLECTION
It is quite evident that the apostles and many saints worked miracles and wonders. This was in accordance with what the Lord Himself had commanded when He said, 'Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, expel the demons. You have freely received. Give freely.' (Matthew 10:8)
- St. John Cassian, Conferences
... no one can rest his hope on his own prayers, and every one who prays asks the whole Church for intercession, not as if he had doubts of the intercession of Christ, the one Advocate, but in the assurance that the whole Church ever prays for all her members. All the angels pray for us, the apostles, martyrs, and patriarchs, and above them all, the Mother of our Lord, and this holy unity is the true life of the Church.
- Alexei Khomiakov, The Church is One
All the stars in the heavens could be more easily counted than all the miracles worked on earth by prayer.
- St. Nicholai of Zica
Oftentimes Thy hand, O my Lord, has made the sick whole, for it is the healer in secret of their diseases, and the fount of their life. Exceeding gently, the finger of Thy justice, in love and compassion, touches the wounds of him that is to be healed.
- St. Ephraim the Syrian
Each person must bear the weaknesses of others. Who is perfect? Who can boast that he has kept his heart undefiled? Hence, we are all sick, and whoever condemns his brother does not perceive that he himself is sick, because a sick person does not condemn another sick person.
Love, endure, overlook, do not get angry, do not flare up, forgive one another, so that you resemble our Christ and are counted worthy to be near Him in His Kingdom. My children, avoid condemnation - it is a very great sin. God is greatly saddened when we condemn and loathe people. Let us concern ourselves only with our own faults - for these we should feel pain. Let us condemn ourselves and then we shall find mercy and grace from God.
- Elder Ephraim of Philotheou