Four Evangelists Orthodox Church, Bel Air, Maryland

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Great Lent Begins

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O Lord and Master of my life! Take from me the spirit of sloth, faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother; For Thou art blessed unto ages of ages. Amen

Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephrem the Syrian

Today, along with all Orthodox Christians world-wide, we began the journey of Great Lent with the Rite of Forgiveness at the end of Vespers. (In many parishes it is common to celebrate a portion of “Forgiveness Vespers”, along with the Rite of Forgiveness, after the Sunday Liturgy as opposed to the evening proper).

As the choir sang selected hymns from the Paschal Canon – hymns we won’t hear again until Great and Holy Pascha – the faithful, one-by-one, asked each other for mutual forgiveness (cf. Gospel of St. Matthew 6:14-15) and the altar vestments were changed to purple to reflect the penitential mood of the season.

We wish everyone a fruitful and joyous Lent as we turn anew to seek the Lord.

Rite of Forgiveness (Beginning of Great Lent)
Forgiveness Vespers before the Rite of Forgiveness
Rite of Forgiveness (Beginning of Great Lent)
Choir singing during the Rite of Forgiveness

Great Lent (Clean Week Services)

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Open to me the doors of repentance O Lifegiver; for my spirit rises early to pray towards Thy Holy Temple, bearing the temple of my body all defiled. But in Thy Compassion purify me by the loving kindness of Thy Mercy…

Great Lent is almost upon us. Please join us as we begin this season with the Rite of Forgiveness this Sunday, March 10, immediately following the Divine Liturgy. Lent begins with forgiveness. Our forgiveness begins with forgiveness. (If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses – Gospel of St. Matthew 6:14). During this time the choir will be singing hymns from the Paschal Canon, reminding us and pointing us toward the goal of Lent, repentance, and fasting – the Resurrection of Our Lord and our communion with and in Him.

On Monday and Tuesday of this week (Clean week) we will pray the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete, a canon of repentance prayerfully sung during the first week and then again during the fifth week of Lent. Please don’t miss this wonderful opportunity to start Lent “in the right direction”, so to speak.

Regarding the Great Canon, Fr. Alexander Schmemann in his wonderful book Great Lent: Journey to Pascha says the following:

At the commencement of Lent, as its inauguration, as the “pitch” which is to begin the entire “melody,” we find the great penitential Canon of St. Andrew of Crete. Divided into four parts, it is read at Great Compline on the evenings of the first four days of Lent. It can best be described as a penitential lamentation conveying to us the scope and depth of sin, shaking the soul with despair, repentance, and hope. With a unique art, St. Andrew interwove the great biblical themes – Adam and Eve, Paradise and Fall, the Patriarchs, Noah and the Flood, David, the Promised Land, and ultimately Christ and the Church – with confession of sin and repentance. The events of sacred history are revealed as events of my life, God’s acts in the past as acts aimed at me and my salvation, the tragedy of sin and betrayal as my personal tragedy. My life is shown to me as part of the great and all-embracing fight between God and the powers of darkness which rebel against Him.

On Wednesday and on the following Wednesdays until Holy Week, we will celebrate the Liturgy of the Presancrified Gifts. This solemn and ancient service is an evening Liturgy that is held in order to sustain our lenten effort by our participation in Holy Communion. A light Lenten potluck supper will follow.

We hope you can join us.

An updated copy of our schedule of services for Lent, Passion Week, and Pascha can be found here.

2019 Great Lent Schedule
2019 Great Lent, Passion Week, and Holy Pascha

2019 Great Lent, Passion Week, and Holy Pascha Schedule

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“And though every day a man lives may rightly be a day of repentance, yet is it in these days more becoming, more appropriate, to confess our sins, to fast, and to give alms to the poor; since in these days you may wash clean the sins of the whole year.” – St. John Chrysostom

Please join us for the services listed below during this coming Great Lent, Passion Week, and Holy Pascha. A printable copy can be found here. Hard copies will also be available in the March newsletter made available in the narthex. Please check the calendar for changes.

 

Sunday, March 10 – Sunday of the Expulsion of Adam from Paradise (Cheesefare) w/ Rite of Forgiveness immediately after Liturgy

Monday, March 11 – 7PM Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete

Tuesday, March 12 – 7PM Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete

Wednesday, March 13 – 7PM Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts followed by Lenten Potluck Supper

Sunday, March 17 – Sunday of Orthodoxy Procession with Icons and Rite of Orthodoxy immediately after Liturgy

Wednesday, March 20 – 7PM Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts followed by Lenten Potluck Supper

Sunday, March 24 – Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas

Sunday, March 24 – 6PM Vigil for the Feast of the Annunciation of the Theotokos

Wednesday, March 27 – 7PM Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts followed by Lenten Potluck Supper

Sunday, March 31 – Sunday of the Holy Cross

Wednesday, April 3 – 7PM Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts followed by Lenten Potluck Supper

Sunday, April 7 – Sunday of St. John of the Ladder

Wednesday, April 10 – 7PM Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts followed by Lenten Potluck Supper

Thursday, April 11 – 7PM Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete 

Sunday, April 14 – Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt

Wednesday, April 17 – 7PM Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts followed by Lenten Potluck Supper

Palm Sunday, April 21 – Blessing of Willows and Palms at end of Liturgy

Holy Wednesday, April 24 – 7PM Service of Holy Unction

Holy Thursday, April 25 – 7PM Passion Gospels Service

Great & Holy Friday April 26 – 2PM Vespers of the Cross   

Great & Holy Friday, April 26 – 7PM Jerusalem Matins with Procession

Great & Holy Saturday, April 27 – 10AM Vesperal Liturgy of St. Basil the Great

Great & Holy Saturday, April 27 – 11:30PM Rush Service

Great & Holy Pascha, April 28 – 12AM Procession and Paschal Matins, Festal Divine Liturgy, Blessing of Pascha Baskets, Agape Feast

2019 Bible Bowl

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Bible Bowl

The 12th Annual Pan-Orthodox Bible Bowl will be held on Saturday, February 9th, 2019 at St. Mary Antiochian Orthodox Church in Hunt Valley, MD. The competition begins at 2:00PM. Following the competition, Great Vespers will be served at 5:00PM with an awards ceremony concluding the evening. Come watch and encourage our youth and all the youth of the Church schools as they participate in this annual event!

Book Study

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Please join us this evening at 8:00PM as we begin our new weekly book study. We will be going through Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy: Finding the Way to Christ in a Complicated Religious Landscape by Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick, pastor of St. Paul Orthodox Church of Emmaus, Pennsylvania. We hope to see you there! Please see Fr. Gregory with any questions.

Festal Liturgy for the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple

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Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos, full of grace! / From you shone the Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God. / Enlightening those who sat in darkness! / Rejoice, and be glad, O righteous elder; / You accepted in your arms the Redeemer of our souls, / Who grants us the Resurrection.

Please join us at 9:00AM on Saturday, February 2, as we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple. The blessing of candles will follow.

The Feast of Presentation of Out Lord (also commonly called the Meeting of Our Lord) is one of the 12 Great Feasts of the Church. Commemorated is the presentation of Jesus into the Temple by Mary and Joseph 40 days after Our Lord’s Nativity.

In the Gospel of St. Luke 2:22-35, Mary and Joseph took the infant Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem. There he was received by the elder Simeon, who held Jesus and prayed, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel.” At this Mary and Joseph marveled.

The celebration of the Meeting of the Lord in the church is not merely a historical commemoration. Inspired by the same Holy Spirit as Simeon, and led by the same Spirit into the Church of the Messiah, the members of the Church also can claim their own “meeting” with the Lord, and so also can witness that they too can “depart in peace” since their eyes have seen the salvation of God in the person of his Christ. (Fr. Thomas Hopko, The Orthodox Faith – Vol. 2)

The Feast of the Presentation is the last feast of the Nativity cycle. It has a forefeast of one day and an afterfeast of seven days. This feast is also unique among the feasts of the Church in that is simultaneously a feast of Our Lord and the Theotokos. Also customary in both Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions is to bless candles on this day, hence the name Candlemas.

Visit the Meeting of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the Temple article from the Orthodox Church in America website to learn more about this Feast Day.

Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple