Today’s Readings:
Epistle: Hebrews 6:13-20
Gospel: Mark 9:17-31
Schedule of Services:
-Wednesday, March 29th, Pre-sanctified Liturgy at 6:30pm.
-Thursday, March 30th, Canon of St. Andrew for St. Mary of Egypt at 6pm.
-Saturday, April 1st, Great Vespers at 4pm.
-Sunday, April 2nd, Divine Liturgy at 10am. Hours begin at 9:40am.
Announcements:
-Please note that there will be Pre-sanctified Liturgy this Wednesday and the Canon of St. Andrew on Thursday with the reading of the Life of St. Mary of Egypt. St. Mary of Egypt is a symbol for all of us, a symbol of true repentance, and her life reveals the depth of the love and mercy of God. We are all encouraged to make it to this important service as part of our Lenten journey.
-Please be reminded that it is the practice of the Orthodox Church to make a private confession before Pascha. Confession is a reorientation of our mind and heart to walk and live in God’s forgiving love and a grace that renews our baptism to start anew in our life in Christ. Fr. Tristan will be available before and after every Vespers on Saturday evenings, and before any Pre-sanctified Liturgy. If this does not work for you, please call and schedule a time. We are asked to go to confession before the start of Holy Week, so kindly plan ahead. Furthermore, as we have all unanimously agreed upon as a parish in our acceptance of what it means to be a communicant in our local church, as stated in our by-laws, if one does, indeed, already have a Father Confessor outside of the parish, please let the parish priest, Fr. Tristan, know and seek to receive his blessing, since you are under his immediate care as members of this parish.
-Please stay after church for an Education Session. This will be the last one until May.
-On the 4th Sunday of April, the week after Pascha, Matushka Mary will hold a Church School lesson for the children.
Prayers for:
Departed: Archpriest Daniel
Living: Steven, Paul, Melissa, Helen, John, Stephen, Michele, Janet, Teresa, Irina, Alla, Ira, Victor, the child of God, Gideon; the servant of God, Brendan; Metropolitan Onuphry and the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church; the suffering people and innocent victims of the Ukrainian/Russian war and those being persecuted; the suffering people of Yemen, Syria and Turkey, and Palestine.
Words for the Day:
God hears and fulfills the prayer of a man who fulfills His commandments. "Hear God in His commandments," says St. John Chrysostom, "So that He might hear you in your prayers." A man who keeps the commandments of God is always wise, patient, and sincere in his prayers. Mystery of prayer consists in the keeping of God's commandments.
(St. Justin Popovich, Explanation of I John, 3:22)
Give your intentions in prayer to God, Who knows everyone, even before our birth. And do not ask that everything will be according to your will, because a man does not know what is profitable for him. But say to God: Let Thy will be done! For He does everything for our benefit.
(St. Gennadius of Constantinople, The Golden Chain, 47)
Everyone who asks something of God and does not receive it doubtless does not receive it for one of these reasons: either because they ask before the time, or they ask unworthily, or out of vainglory, or because if they received what they asked they would become proud or fall into negligence.
(St. John of the Ladder, Ladder, 26.60)
Next Week’s Readings:
Epistle: Hebrews 9:11-14. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all
into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify[b] for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Gospel: Mark 10:32-45. And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.” And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”