Saturday, Mar. 11 – 3rd All Souls Saturday
8:30 AM Divine Liturgy & Panachida
5:00 PM Santa Paula Outreach Divine Liturgy
Sunday, Mar. 12 – 3rd Sunday of the Great Fast – Veneration of the Cross
8:30 AM Matins
9:30 AM Divine Liturgy
Monday, Mar. 13 – Translation of the Relics of the Patriarch Nicephorus
5:30 PM Akathist* for those suffering Addictions & Mental Illness
Wednesday, Mar. 15 – Agapius and Others, Martyrs (Mid-Lent)
6:30 PM Presanctified Divine Liturgy
7:45 PM Firepit Social
Friday, Mar. 17 – Alexis, Man of God, Venerable
6:00 PM Santa Paula Outreach Presanctified Divine Liturgy
Saturday, Mar. 18 – 4th All Souls Saturday
8:30 AM Divine Liturgy & Panachida
5:00 PM Santa Paula Outreach Divine Liturgy
6:30 PM Reader Vespers
Sunday, Mar. 19 – 4th Sunday of the Great Fast – St. John Clemacus
8:30 AM Matins
9:30 AM Divine Liturgy
*Add first names to this prayer service by emailing niemirick@gmail.com
St. Mary’s: Sundays 8:45 AM or by appointment
Santa Paula: Saturdays 4:15 PM or by appointment
(Please resubmit or submit names to admin@ByzantineLA.com)
The Carlin Family, Michael Hefferon, Shirley Kunze, Michael Mina, Peter Mina, Fr, John Mina, Mila Mina, Lana Zimmerman, Patrick Zimmerman, Shannon O’Neill, Fern Bonowicz, All the sick and suffering of St. Mary’s
Collection: $3,851.00; Online: $180.00; Santa Paula: $492.00; Candles: $12.00; Church Improvements: $1,425.00; Santa Paula Improvements: $25.00; Special Gift: $50.00; Reimbursement: $694.46
Total: $6,729.46 / Attendance – PSM: 82; VCO: 75
What does it mean to take up your cross? It means the willing acceptance, at the hand of Providence, of every means of healing, bitter though it may be, that is offered. Do great catastrophes fall on you? Be obedient to God’s will, as Noah was. Is sacrifice demanded of you? Give yourself into God’s hands with the same faith as Abram had when he went to sacrifice his son. Is your property ruined? Do your children die suddenly? Suffer it all with patience, cleaving to God in your heart, as Job did. Do your friends forsake you, and you find yourself surrounded by enemies? Bear it all without grumbling, and with faith that God’s help is at hand, as the apostles did.
–St. Nikolai Velimirovich
Today is “Shot in the Arm Sunday” – a day on which the Church encourages us to keep up our practice of the Fast by displaying the Precious, Holy & Lifegiving Cross. We look at the Holy Cross and remember what the Great Fast is all about: recalling God’s gift of Himself for us.
We do not focus on Christ’s sufferings today as we do in Holy Week. Instead, we look at the effect of His saving death. Every day this week the Church prays the following: “The angel’s fiery sword will no longer guard the gate of Paradise for the cross of the Lord has put it out wondrously. The power of Death has been broken, the victory of Hades wiped out and You, my Savior, have stood up and called out to all those bound in hell: ‘Come now; enter into Paradise.’”
We express our faith in the joyful victory of Christ over Death by surrounding the cross with flowers. In many churches people take one of these flowers home and put it in their icon corner as a reminder of Christ’s triumph. We are no longer captive to the power of Death which has been defeated by the cross.
-From God With Us Online’s Guide to the Great Fast
“Whoever will lose his life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will save it.” A vocation is a cross, a way to lose our lives for the Lord and His Gospel by giving life to the world in a life of prayer and devotion to the holy mysteries of the Church. The Lord may be showing you that holy orders or the religious life is something to consider. Contact the Vocations Office at 206-329-9219 or email: vocations@ephx.org
The February 2023 edition of GCU magazine is available in the back of the church.
Saturday, March 11 –
