News

Photos from the First Sunday of Great Lent (Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy)

17 March 2019 at 15:00

This is the Faith of the Apostles.
This is the Faith of the Fathers.
This is the Faith of the Orthodox.
This is the Faith which has established the Universe.
Commemoration of the Restoration of the Holy Icons

On Sunday, March 17, after the Divine Liturgy, we celebrated the Triumph of Orthodoxy with the Commemoration of the Restoration of the Holy Icons. Below are a few photos from our small procession with icons and the reading of excerpts from the Affirmation of Faith of the Seventh Ecumenical Council.

Procession with icons on the Sunday of Orthodoxy

First Sunday of Great Lent (Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy)

15 March 2019 at 10:45

This Sunday, March 17th, is the first Sunday of Great Lent and the commemoration of the Triumph of Orthodoxy (see below). If you would like to take part in the small procession with icons after the Liturgy, please bring an icon from home. Children and adults alike are invited! The Rite of Orthodoxy will also be held after the Liturgy.

The readings for this Sunday are: John 20:19-31 (9th Matins Gospel), Hebrews 11:24-26, 32-12:2 (Epistle), and John 1:43-51 (Gospel).

What is the Sunday of Orthodoxy?

The Sunday of Orthodoxy is the first Sunday of Great Lent. The dominant theme of this Sunday since 843 has been that of the victory of the icons. In that year the iconoclastic controversy, which had raged on and off since 726, was finally laid to rest, and icons and their veneration were restored on the first Sunday in Lent. Ever since, this Sunday has been commemorated as the “Triumph of Orthodoxy.”
From the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America website article Sunday of Orthodoxy

See also the modern day classic Homily on the Triumph of Orthodoxy from Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and Enlightener of North America, delivered in 1903 on the Sunday of Orthodoxy at the Cathedral Church in San Francisco.

New Sunday Service Time

15 March 2019 at 06:00

Mark your calendars! Please note that beginning this coming Sunday, March 17, 2019, the first Sunday of Great Lent, the new start time for the Divine Liturgy will be 9:00AM. The Prayers of the Hours will begin at 8:45AM. Please check the parish calendar for details, changes, or additions.

2019 Pascha Card

13 March 2019 at 10:59

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!

It won’t be long until we will greet each other with this joyous phrase. In sharing the greeting and joy of this glorious Feast, we are sending a Pascha (Easter) card to the friends and families of our parish. To add your name(s) or to remember the name(s) of your departed loved ones on our Pascha card, we humbly ask for a small donation as we attempt this outreach. Our card will also contain a schedule of our Pascha services along with a greeting letter from Fr. Gregory.

If you wish to have your name(s) included on our card, please complete and return the attached form to Fr. Gregory or Alex Krowzow (or mail it to the listed address) no later than April 1, 2019. Checks may be made out to Four Evangelists Orthodox Church. All proceeds will benefit our parish.

Great Lent Begins

10 March 2019 at 19:00

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

Great Lent (Clean Week Services)

8 March 2019 at 14:00

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.