Great Vespers with Litiya for the Meeting of the Lord in the temple.   

Meeting of the Lord Into the Temple - Followed by Blessing of Candles -

Blessing of Candles following Divine Liturgy.

Great Vespers for Sunday Divine Liturgy - Tomorrow is the third Sunday before Great Lent and is called the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. This is a parable that describes the actions of two sons. One stayed with his father and the other asked for his inheritance, received it and left to live a wasteful life. When his inheritance was gone and he was in need, he was given a job feeding swine. When he remembered that his father’s servants were treated well and with respect, he decided to go home. When he was still far off, his father was told that he was coming home. The father was so happy, he arranged for a welcoming feast and ran off to greet the son. The other son was saddened by the festivities since he had always obeyed his father. But the father, gently and with great love, told him that he would always be with him but that now his brother who was dead is alive again. What does this parable teach us? GOD’S FORGIVENESS. Read Luke 15:11-32.

Divine Liturgy - Prodigal Son.

Memorial Saturday - The second Sunday before Great Lent is called Meat Fare Sunday or Sunday of the Last Judgment. This is the signal for all those who fast from meat until Easter to begin the meat fast. On Saturday morning, the first Memorial Saturday of this year takes place with a Divine Liturgy. Be sure to give Father your list of departed loved ones to be remembered at this service and at all the Memorial Saturday services that follow throughout the year.

The second Sunday before Lent is called Meat Fare Sunday or Sunday of the Last Judgment. This is the signal for all those who fast from meat until Easter to begin the meat fast. On Saturday morning, the first Memorial Saturday of this year takes place with a Divine Liturgy. Be sure to give Father your list of departed loved ones to be remembered at this service and at all the Memorial Saturday services that follow throughout the year.

General Confession following Great Vespers. 

Divine Liturgy - Today is called Meat Fare Sunday or Sunday of the Last Judgment. This is the signal for all those who fast from meat until Easter to begin the meat fast. Read Matthew 25:31-46. Here is an account of the universal judgment. The needy are the intimate brethren of Christ. When you help “the least of these” you help Christ. Jesus identifies Himself with the poor and the outcast and invites all who are filled with love for others to join Him in His glory by helping those in need. The standard of judgment is uncalculated mercy toward the needy. The works produced by faith are very important, for a saving faith produces righteous works. It is possible to fool ourselves about whether we truly believe, but what we do reflects our true inner state so that we will need no other evidence before God’s court.

Annual Meeting.

Enlightener Deadline - Be sure to give Barbara articles for the Enlightener before this day.

Great Vespers for Sunday Divine Liturgy - The Sunday of Forgiveness is the Sunday before the beginning of Great Lent. This Sunday is also known as Cheese Fare Sunday and reminds those who are fasting from dairy products that dairy is not eaten today and throughout the Great Lent until the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Read Matthew 6:14-21. Jesus directs each of us to pray for the Father’s forgiveness of all, and for all of us to forgive each other. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12). We request God to be to us as we are to our neighbors. Jesus insists on mutual forgiveness between people as a precondition of God’s forgiveness. Those who do not forgive are not forgiven. This teaching is repeated by Jesus in the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matt. 18:23-35), which ends with the same words.

Divine Liturgy - Forgiveness Sunday - The Sunday of Forgiveness is the Sunday before the beginning of Great Lent. This Sunday is also known as Cheese Fare Sunday and reminds those who are fasting from dairy products that dairy is not eaten today and throughout the Great Lent until the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Read Matthew 6:14-21. Jesus directs each of us to pray for the Father’s forgiveness of all, and for all of us to forgive each other. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12). We request God to be to us as we are to our neighbors. Jesus insists on mutual forgiveness between people as a precondition of God’s forgiveness. Those who do not forgive ae not forgiven. This teaching is repeated by Jesus in the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matt. 18:23-35), which ends with the same words.

Maslanitsa

Forgiveness Vespers following the Maslaitsa - Let us begin the fast with joy! Let us prepare ourselves for spiritual efforts! Let us cleanse our soul and cleanse our flesh! Let us abstain from every passion as we abstain from food! Let us rejoice in virtues of the spirit and fulfill them in love! That we all may see the passion of Christ our God, and rejoice in spirit at the Pascha! (Stikera of Repentance)

Great Lent begins.

Today we begin the great penitential Canon of St. Andrew of Crete, a lamentation telling us the depth and despair of sin. It will be read at Great Compline on the evenings of the first four days of Lent.

Now is the time when we re-evaluate our life in the light of our faith, and this requires a very real effort and discipline. Christ says that a narrow path leads to the kingdom of God but our desire should be so great and so sincere, that we are willing to go down that narrow path to be a part of His kingdom.

The culture in which we live and which shapes our world view excludes the concept of sin. The purpose of the Great Canon is to reveal sin to us and to lead us to repentance. And to help us understand that sin is the deviation of our love from God.

Lent is the recovery by man of his faith, and also the recovery of the divine meaning of his life. We rediscover the sacred depth of life because we rediscover God Himself by our prayers, our fasting, by attending as many church services as possible.

On the first Saturday of Great Lent, we commemorate St. Theodore of Tyre. St. Theodore was a soldier in the city of Alasium in the 4th century. He was commanded to offer sacrifice to idols yet he confessed his faith in Christ instead. He was charged with setting a fire in a pagan temple and was thrown into prison and condemned to death by burning. He climbed onto the bonfire and with prayer gave up his holy soul to God. It is said that the fire did not consume his body. Fifty years after his death, the emperor Julian the Apostate, wanting to commit an outrage upon Christians, commanded the city-commander of Constantinople during the first week of Great Lent to sprinkle all the food provisions in the market-places with the blood of idol-sacrifices. Saint Theodore, having appeared in a dream to Archbishop Eudoxios, ordered him to inform all the Christians, that no one should buy anything at the market-places, but rather to eat cooked wheat with honey – kolivo ( kut’ya or sochivo). In memory of this occurrence the Orthodox Church annually makes celebration of the holy GreatMartyr Theodore of Tyre on Saturday of the first week of Great Lent.

St.Theodore Saturday -:Divine Liturgy - Blessing of Kolivo.

Blessing of Kolivo - The righteous one shall rejoice in the Lord and shall set his hope upon Him. Verse: Hear my voice, O God, when I pray unto Thee! (Prokeimenon, Tone 7 St. Theodore and Forerunner)

On the first Sunday of Great Lent, the “Triumph of Orthodoxy” is celebrated, which was established by the Empress Theodora in 842 A.D. in memory of the restoration of the veneration of the holy icons. On a holy icon we reverently behold the holy faces which, like the Word of God, lift up our mind to God and His saints, and inflame our heart with love for our Creator and Savior.

Divine Liturgy - Sunday of Orthodoxy.

Trustees' Meeting

Confession tomorrow before pre-sanctified liturgy - 6:00 p.m. - “Turn not away Thy face from Thy servant for I am afflicted! Hear me speedily, attend to my soul and deliver it!”

“Now the heavenly powers do serve invisibly with us. Lo, the King of Glory enters. Lo, the mystical sacrifice, is upborne, fulfilled. Let us draw near with faith and love and become communicants of life eternal. Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia.” The spirituality and beauty of this hymn filled with “bright sadness” is beyond words.