St. Mary e-Newsletter for Thursday, July 2, 2020

PRAYER AND WORSHIP

Every Sunday Orthros is at 8:45am, followed by Divine Liturgy at 10:00am. Both services are live-streamed - please join us by clicking the live broadcasts button on the church website:  http://www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org. They can also be seen at facebook.com/stmarycambridge  or youtube.com/stmarycambridge or https://bit.ly/stmarylive  If you LIKE St. Mary on Facebook you’ll get advance notice of live-streamed services.
After Divine Liturgy every Sunday the Young Adult Ministry invites you to a virtual coffee hour. Please use this link to join it: https://zoom.us/j/392596633
Password: 0815

Monday–Saturday Morning Prayer on Zoom with James & Brooke Wilcox, who write: “We simply read the Trisagion Prayers, a Psalm, the NT reading for the day, we honor the Theotokos and the Saints of the day, and then say a prayer ‘waking from sleep,’ followed by prayers for the sick and the reposed (with names given from Orthodox parishioners and friends). And finally we close with ‘The Angel Cried.’ 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

 Every Tuesday at 6:30pm (note new time), Paraklesis to the Theotokos will be held in the church through the end of July. The Paraklesis service is traditionally sung during times of great distress.
   This is the text for the service:
http://ww1.antiochian.org/sites/default/files/paraklesis_little-with_music.pdf 
   To attend in person, you must register on EventBrite. There are 20 distinct pew spots for family units/households.  Each household only needs 1 ticket.  The site will automatically suggest the closest pew. To change the selection, go to the map, deselect the ticket chosen and click on the pew number you would like instead. 
Arrive between 6:15pm  and 6:45pm.

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’.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Great Vespers
On Saturday, July 18, we will celebrate Great Vespers for the Holy Fathers at 5:00pm.  The Sacred Music Institute, run by our Department of Sacred Music, will be joining us via livestream, and an EventBrite link will be available for those who would like to attend in person.
 
Plea from Fr. Antony
A parishioner is still in dire need of a room or an apartment, having recently lost his. If you have one or know of anyone who has one, please call Fr. Antony as soon as possible: 781-507-5938 or email frawhj@aol.com

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.

Virtual Summer Camp
Antiochian Village is having a new kind of summer camp this year: virtual camp! Here’s the link for general information about the 8-week free virtual summer camp program:  https://avcamp.org/sample-page/virtual-camp-2020/

REFLECTION  

Love in its nature makes a human being like God, as far as is possible for a human being. The soul is intoxicated by the effects of it. Its characteristics are a fountain of faith, an abyss of patience, an ocean of humility. … Therefore the one who loves God also loves his brother or sister. Indeed, the second love is the proof of the first.
   - St. John of the Ladder
 
The source of false religion is the inability to rejoice, or, rather, the refusal of joy, whereas joy is absolutely essential because it is without any doubt the fruit of God's presence. One cannot know that God exists and not rejoice.
   - Fr. Alexander Schmemann,  The Journals
 
Surely [peace] is nothing else but a loving disposition towards one's neighbor. Now what is held to be the opposite of love? It is hate and wrath, anger and envy, harboring resentment as well as hypocrisy and the calamity of war. Do you see for how many different diseases this single word is an antidote? For peace is equally opposed to every one of the things mentioned, and wipes out these evils by its own presence. Just as illness vanishes when health supervenes, and as no darkness is left when light begins to shine, so also when peace appears, all the passions connected with its opposite are eliminated.
   - St. Gregory of Nyssa 
 
We actively manifest love in forbearance and patience towards our neighbor, in genuinely desiring his good, and in the right use of material things.
   - St. Maximos the Confessor
 
Zeal is not reckoned among men to be a form of wisdom, but one of the illnesses of the soul, namely narrow-mindedness and deep ignorance. The beginning of divine wisdom is clemency and gentleness, which arise from greatness of soul and the bearing of infirmities of men.
   - St. Isaac of Nineveh
 
Rejoice at every opportunity of showing kindness to your neighbor as a true Christian who strives to store up as many good works as possible, especially the treasures of love. Do not rejoice when others show you kindness and love - consider yourself unworthy of it; but rejoice when an occasion presents itself for you to show love.
   - Saint John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ  
 
O, how often people perish from a false assurance of their honesty and righteousness! They perish because they trust in their own goodness, and do not think about the spirit of Christianity at all or the help of the Holy Spirit, just when they are in extreme need of His help. And as the Holy Spirit is given only to those who ask and seek, and such people not only fail to ask and seek Him but do not even consider it necessary, therefore He is not given them and consequently they remain in error and perish.
   - St. Innocent of Alaska, Indication of the Way into the Kingdom of Heaven
 
Faith, like active prayer, is a grace. For prayer, when activated by love through the power of the Spirit, renders true faith manifest - the faith that reveals the life of Jesus.
   - St. Gregory of Sinai, The Philokalia
 
It is for this reason that the Savior says, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God": for He is hidden in the hearts of those who believe in Him. They shall see Him and the riches that are in Him when they have purified themselves through love and self-control; and the greater the purity the more they will see.
   - St. Maximus the Confessor, Fourth Century on Love