The Last of Lent: Lent is quickly drawing to a close. One more week and we will be at the doorstep of Holy Week. I want to encourage you to make the most of the short time that remains for your healing and growth in divine grace. While everyone who comes at the 11th Hour is welcomed and loved, as your spiritual father, I implore you to step up your participation in the divine services, to prioritize your life in Christ in His Church above all else. Come to Wednesday’s last Presanctified Liturgy, plan to attend next Saturday’s raising of Lazarus. Together, we “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness,” knowing that “all these things will be added” to us (Matt. 6:33), as our Lord promises. The spiritual ‘hospital’ of Lent and Holy Week only come around once a year; don’t let this important next week pass you by without using it for spiritual gain and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in you and through you.
Holy Week: I also encourage you to take time off work and school so that you can participate in as much of Holy Week as possible. You will not be disappointed if you do so! Christ lovingly leads us on a deifying journey through His Church and the divine services to His voluntary Passion, burial, and triumphant resurrection on the third day, so that you and I, dying with Christ, may likewise be raised with Him at His glorious resurrection. The journey begins this Saturday with the raising of Lazarus, continues with Palm Sunday and Christ’s triumphant but humble entry into Jerusalem, riding on an ass, and then propels us into the lessons that Christ would have us focus on in the Bridegroom services as His passion approaches. Please don’t miss this opportunity to be changed, to grow, to break old patterns, to be raised with Christ!
This week at Holy Archangels:
- Wed., April 9, 6:30 pm, PRESANCTIFIED LITURGY, Lenten potluck, St. John’s Boathouse
- Saturday, April 12, 10 a.m., Divine Liturgy of LAZARUS SATURDAY
- Saturday, April 12 , 6:00 p.m., Great Vespers Confessions following
- Sunday, April 13, 9:30 Hours, 10 a.m., Divine Liturgy for PALM SUNDAY.
Save the Dates:
- April 13-20th HOLY WEEK BEGINS (Please see handout at Entrance Table)!
$5,000 Matching Grant Update
We’ve been offered a $5,000 matching grant by an anonymous donor, the goal of which we must reach by Pascha. Please forward the weekly email to friends and family to help us spread the word to meet this challenge! Non-pledged donations will go to help meet this goal. We are almost there.
Prayer Requests:
- That God may grow our Mission “in spirit and in numbers…”
- For God’s financial provision for our Mission and ACM;
- For our Mission that we may find a Choir Director;
- Archpriest George, Archpriest Michael, Priest John, Dcn. Basil, Rdr. John, Benedict, Colette, Mary, Carol, Katherine, James, Daniel, Sarah, Seraphim, Patricia, George, Anne, the Church in Georgia and Romania as they address the relativism of the West, speaking the truth in love, our suffering Orthodox brethren in Syria, a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine.
Troparion (Resurrection) Tone 8
You descended from on high, O Merciful One!
You accepted the three day burial to free us from our sufferings!//
O Lord, our Life and Resurrection, glory to You!
Troparion (St Mary of Egypt) Tone 8
The image of God was truly preserved in you, O Mother,
for you took up the Cross and followed Christ.
By so doing, you taught us to disregard the flesh for it passes away;
but to care instead for the soul, for it is immortal.//
Therefore your spirit, O holy Mother Mary, rejoices with the angels.
Troparion (Holy Archangels) Tone 4
Commanders of the heavenly hosts, // we who are unworthy beseech you:
by your prayers encompass us beneath the wings of your immaterial glory,
and faithfully preserve us who fall down and cry to you://
“Deliver us from all harm, for you are the Commanders of the Powers on high!”
Kontakion (Resurrection) Tone 8
By rising from the tomb, You raised the dead and resurrected Adam.
Eve exults in Your Resurrection,
and the world celebrates Your rising from the dead, O greatly Merciful One!
Kontakion (St Mary of Egypt) Tone 3
Having been a sinful woman,
you became through repentance a bride of Christ.
Having attained angelic life,
you defeated demons with the weapon of the Cross.//
Therefore O most glorious Mary, you are a bride of the Kingdom.
Kontakion (Holy Archangels) Tone 2
Commanders of God’s armies // and ministers of the divine glory,
princes of the bodiless Angels // and guides of mankind;
ask for what is good for us, and for great mercy,// Supreme Commanders of the Bodiless Hosts.
