St. Mary e-Newsletter for Thursday, July 16, 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, Paraklesis to the Theotokos will be held in the church through the end of July. The text for the service can be found here:
http://ww1.antiochian.org/sites/default/files/paraklesis_little-with_music.pdf

To attend in person, you must register on EventBrite.
For 7/21: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/paraclesis-to-the-theotokos-tickets-113124161412
For 7/28: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/paraclesis-to-the-theotokos-tickets-113124452282
Password for all dates is 0815

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

On Saturday, July 18, we will celebrate Great Vespers for the Holy Fathers in the church at 5:00pm. The Sacred Music Institute, run by the Antiochian Department of Sacred Music, will be joining us via livestream. For those who would like to attend in person, note the new EventBrite link:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/great-vespers-for-the-holy-fathers-tickets-113125619774 (Password 0815)

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

Icon Webinar
On Saturday, July 18, from 1:00-2:00pm, the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, MA will present a Zoom webinar on “Icons in the Time of Trouble.” Have you ever wondered what people did with icons during fires, wars, invasions, and pandemics? Join iconographer Lydia Lynette Hull as she explores this topic. Cost for nonmembers is $5 – limited to 100 participants. To register, go to https://museumofrussianicons.charityproud.org/EventRegistration/Index/3978
A link to the Zoom webinar will be sent to each registered participant on the morning of the program.

Dormition
Our Patronal Feast Day is the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, on August 15. The church prepares for this every year with a Dormition Fast, which begins on Saturday, August 1 and continues through Friday, August 14.
+ There will be a Paraclesis for the Dormition on Friday, August 7 at 6:30pm, and another on Wednesday, August 12
+ Join us finally for a Vigil for the Dormition on Friday, August 14, the eve of the Feast, with Vespers at 4:15 pm; Orthros at 5:30pm; and Festal Divine Liturgy at 7:00 pm.

Transfiguration
On Thursday, August 6, the church commemorates the Transfiguration of our Lord. The evening before that, on Wednesday August 5, we will celebrate with Vesperal Liturgy at 6:30pm.

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.

REFLECTION

A “man who is factious” is divisive, quarrelsome, creating factions

What does it mean, "that they be careful to maintain good works"? That they wait not for those who are in want to come to them, but that they seek out those who need their assistance. In this way the considerate man shows his concern, and with great zeal will he perform this duty. For in doing good actions, it is not those who receive the kindness that are benefited, so much as those who do it that make gain and profit, for it gives them confidence towards God. But in the other case, there is no end of contention: therefore he calls the heretic incorrigible. For just as neglecting those for whom there is a hope of conversion is slothfulness, so bestowing pains upon those who are diseased past remedy is the extreme of folly and madness; for we render them more bold. … For almsgiving is the mother of love, of that love which is the characteristic of Christianity, which is greater than all miracles, by which the disciples of Christ are manifested. It is the medicine of our sins, the cleansing of the filth of our souls, the ladder fixed to heaven; it binds together the body of Christ.
- St. John Chrysostom, Homily 6 on Titus

Look at all the earth supplies in summer and in autumn! Every Christian … ought to imitate God's bountifulness. Let your table be open to everybody, like the table of the Lord. The avaricious is God's enemy."
- St. John of Kronstadt