WITH JOY WE ENROLLED INTO THE CATECHUMENATE Reese Thompson, and Richard and Olya Oleynik before the Vigil yesterday afternoon.

TODAY, the First Sunday of Great Lent, is called the Triumph of Orthodoxy. We celebrate today the restoration of icons as essential to biblical worship that is in Spirit and in Truth. This took place in 843 AD after a century of iconoclasm. Iconoclasm is a heresy because it denies the Incarnation. Icons are essential because they proclaim what the Bible is all about: the mystery of the Incarnation and of salvation as theosis: God became man [by nature] that man might become God [by grace]. Christ Himself is the Icon of the invisible God. Man is the icon created in the Icon of God, Jesus Christ. The Icon is the Really Real [Heb 10.1]. Deny the Icon and step onto the path of nihilism.

PROCESSION OF ICONS. Bring your favorite icon with you from home this morning for the procession of icons at the end of the Divine Liturgy. After the second ‘Blessed be the Name of the LORD…’, after the Prayer Before the Ambo, Fr Paul and the Acolytes will go on procession with icons. Everyone else stay in place, holding your icon. When Fr Paul and the Acolytes have completed the first circuit back at the ambon where they started, then everyone, beginning with the choir, can fall in behind the choir, carrying their icons. At the west end of the Nave, Fr Paul will stop. Everyone else continue up the middle of the nave to form an aisle of icons. Fr Paul will pass through the aisle censing the icons you are holding, and censing you who are each one an ‘icon’ of the Icon, who is Christ. This will be a kind of rehearsal for Pascha Night!

CONFESSIONS. To be a member ‘in good standing’ in the OCA, one must give one’s confession at least once a year. Great Lent is a good time to fulfill that statute. But, because there are so many of us and only one priest, we are allowing10 minutes for confessions in order to fit everyone in who needs to give confession. Therefore, please strive to give a concise confession. If a longer time is needed, arrangements are happily made but we may need to look outside of Great Lent. To facilitate an even distribution of confessions through Great Lent, so that they are finished by Lazarus Saturday – Fr Paul does not want to hear confessions in Holy Week! – a sign-up sheet to reserve a time for confession is posted on the bulletin board downstairs.

THE LITURGY OF ST BASIL THE GREAT is served these Sundays of Great Lent.

MEOCCA SUNDAY LENTEN VESPERS. On the Sundays of Great Lent, we serve Lenten Sunday Vespers at different MEOCCA parishes throughout the Twin Cities. They begin at 5 pm. The singing of the prayers at these services is led by the MEOCCA Choir. Singers are welcome to sing in the MEOCCA Choir. Come to the rehearsal that will begin an hour before the service at the host parish. The schedule of Lenten Sunday Vespers services, and the parish hosting them each Sunday, is posted on the bulletin board downstairs and on our website calendar.

CATECHISM CLASS is held next on Saturday, Mar 14. Catechumens, please remember that the Adult Ed on Sunday morning is an extension of the Catechism classes. All our classes are livestreamed and recorded on our Facebook page. You do not need to be a subscriber of FB to view the livestream. The recorded livestream is held for viewing on FB for 30 days. Within that time, we upload the recording to our YouTube channel. Catechumens, if you are unable to attend the catechism classes in person, please be sure to view the livestream and/or the recordings.

A YOUNG ADULT LIBRARY is being put together by Corinne here at St Herman’s. Donations to help us purchase books geared to young adults for this library are welcome!

ST HERMAN’S LIBRARY has been reshelved and is open for business!

A LENTEN RETREAT is hosted by St Mary’s Cathedral, Fri evening, Mar 13 through Sunday, Mar 15. Fr John Parker, Dean and Chief Operating Officer of St Tikhon’s Orthodox Seminary in South Canaan, PA.

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME returns 2 am next Sunday, March 8!

Only to the humble does the LORD reveal Himself in the Holy Spirit. If we do not humble ourselves, we shall not see God. Humility is the light in which we may behold the Light which is God, as the Psalmist sant: ‘In Thy light shall we see light.’

There is a wide difference between the simplest man who has come to know the LORD by the Holy Spirit and even a very great man ignorant of the grace of the Holy Spirit.

There is a big distinction between merely believing that God exists, in seeing Him in nature or in the Scriptures, and knowing the LORD by the Holy Spirit.

The spirit of the man who has come to know God by the Holy Spirit burns day and night with love of God, and his soul can form no earthly attachment.

The soul that has not experienced the sweetness of the Holy Spirit rejoices in worldly vanity and praise, or in riches or power; but the LORD is the only desire of the soul that has come to know the LORD by the Holy Spirit, and worldly riches and fame count for nothing with her.

Archimandrite Sophrony, Wisdom from Mt Athos.

 The Writings of Staretz Silouan [1866-1938]