WITH JOY WE RECEIVED Kyle Baker (St Paisios), Anna Savitt (St Anna, Mother of the Theotokos), Ben Hanson (Thomas the Apostle), and Caleb Gilbertson (St Joseph the Hesychast) into the Church through Holy Baptism and Chrismation yesterday morning. We will honor our new Church members at the coffee hour this morning following the Divine Liturgy.

WE RECEIVE Rob Kerr through Baptism and Chrismation, and Alexa Zhulin through Chrismation, at the Divine Liturgy next Saturday, Apr 27. The service begins at 9 am. We receive Rob through Baptism and Chrismation, and Alexa through Chrismation, at the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom on Lazarus Saturday at 9 am, Apr 27.

MEOCCA LENTEN SUNDAY VESPERS are held at St Stefan’s Romanian Orthodox Church in South St Paul this afternoon at 5 pm. The MEOCCA Choir will sing. All are welcome to sing in the MEOCCA Choir Simply come to the rehearsal this afternoon at 355 pm, in the choir loft of St Stefan’s Romanian.

GREAT LENT ENDS next Saturday, Lazarus Saturday, and we pass over into Great and Holy Week with the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom on Palm Sunday. Note that there is no Church School or Synaxis with Fr Paul next Sunday morning. The Divine Liturgy next Sunday begins at 9 am.

LAZARUS SATURDAY is next Saturday, Apr 27. Following the Divine Liturgy at 9 am, when we receive Rob and Alexa into the Church, we serve a pancake breakfast, and then we all come together to give our temple a thorough Spring Cleaning.  

PALM SUNDAY is next Sunday. The Divine Liturgy begins at 9 am. There is no Church School or Sunday Morning Synaxis with Fr Paul next Sunday. On Palm Sunday afternoon, we host the MEOCCA Bridegroom Matins and 5 pm. Following the Bridegroom Matins, we will serve our guests a fish dinner. It is a glorious weekend filled with the anticipation of the beauty of the LORD’s Pascha. Plan to be part of it as much as you possibly can!

SIGN-UPS for Coffee Hour next Sunday after the Divine Liturgy – which will be a potluck – and for the fish dinner we will serve our guests after the Bridegroom Matins next Sunday afternoon, are posted on the bulletin board downstairs. We’ll need lots of help for lots of different jobs.

PREPARATIONS FOR GREAT AND HOLY WEEK.

Flowers for Pascha. Donations towards flowers to adorn the LORD’s Tomb and the Church for Pascha may be given in memory of departed loved ones. Give your donation to Marisa and the names of departed loved ones to Fr Paul. With our flower donations, we also fund flowers for Christmas.

Vigil at the Tomb begins after the Vespers service on Great and Holy Friday afternoon, and continues through the night and all day to Paschal Nocturns at 1130 pm Pascha Night. Look for sign-up sheet to indicate your desire to participate in the Vigil.

15 OT Readings at the Vesperal Divine Liturgy on Holy Saturday (N.B. at 11 am this year). Indicate your desire to be one of the readers to Peter, and Peter (and I) will assign readers to each OT reading. Men, Fr Paul asks that male readers wear a dress shirt and tie, nice pants and dress shoes to show proper reverence to the reading of Holy Scripture!

Pascha Night. At the end of the Divine Liturgy early Pascha morning (about 230 am), we pass out red-dyed hard-boiled eggs, provided by the faithful. A basket will be placed at the foot of the ambon for the faithful to place about a dozen eggs, and we’ll pass them out to each of the worshippers before we head downstairs to bless our ‘Easter’ baskets, containing all the foods we’ve been fasting from.

NEW SIGNS for our Temple building are in production. We hope to have them installed by this Friday, April 26, in time for Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday. There are two new signs, both banner style. One will be installed above the front doors; the other will be installed on the bell tower side that faces directly the street.

FOR REASONS OF SAFETY and also to maintain as much as possible a reverent quietude to honor the Church’s worship, the parish council asks that no unsupervised children be allowed to go up into the balcony (children have been observed to hold an attraction for the railing, and also the wood floor amplifies the noise of their active feet and reverberates throughout the nave!). Parents, as much as possible, keep your children in the worship service, and teach them to pray with us quietly and reverently ‘in the fear of God, with faith and love.’

St Macarios the Egyptian.

Homily 27.20

Not the moment, however, that he hears the word of God, does a man come to be of the good side. If hearing made him of the good side at once, there would no longer be conflicts, or critical battles or a race. Without further ado, if only he had heard, he would have come into peace and to perfect measures. But the facts are otherwise. You take away the man’s free will, if you say so, and deny the existence of the opposite power, wrestling with the mind.

What we say is this, that the man who hears the word comes to compunction, and after that, grace purposely withdraws, for the man’s good, and he enters into training and the discipline of battle, and engages in a struggle and contest with Satan, and only after a long race and contest carries off the prizes of victory, and becomes a Christian. If merely hearing made a man to belong without more ado to the good, then all the theatre-people and the whoremongers will go into the kingdom and the life. No one will give them this without effort and striving, because it is a straight and narrow way. By this rough way we have to travel, and to endure, and bear affliction, and so to enter into life.