CHURCH SERVICES: SEPTEMBER 2008
Sunday Matins: 9:00 am
Sunday Divine Liturgy: 10:00 am
Saturday Vespers: 6:00pm
Sept. 8 - Nativity of Theotokos Liturgy 9:30
Sept. 14 - Feast of the Holy Cross (with a Teaching Liturgy)
Sept. 17 - St. Sophia Liturgy, 9:30
Sept. 26 - St. John the Theologian Liturgy, 9:30
CHURCH GRECIAN FESTIVAL
Saturday, Sept. 6 11:00 - 9:00pm
Sunday, Sept. 7 11:00 - 6:00pm
Come and Experience Greece for a Day!!!
SUNDAY SCHOOL Begins Sept. 14
FIESTA JOY Celebration - Sept. 20, 6:00pm
My dear beloved family of God,
“We will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.” (Psalm 145:7)
Celebrating is a fundamental characteristic of the Christian life. We live in the light of our Lord’s Resurrection and His victory over Satan, sin and death itself. Of course, the final victory over evil won’t be complete until the Second Coming of Christ. Yet, we can still rejoice and celebrate here and now because we know that His ultimate victory will indeed come! Therefore, armed with this faith and knowledge of our Lord’s triumph, our lives should always be filled with eternal joy!
There are many ways celebrating and expressing the joy of our Lord. As we begin a new ecclesiastical Year on September 1, we are reminded of the many liturgical feasts and fasts which complete our Church calendar. This month of September holds several important moments when we can celebrate, including the Nativity of the Theotokos on Sept. 8 and the Elevation of the Holy Cross on Sept. 14.
I hope we always remember that the highest form of celebration comes when we gather before the Throne of God and worship Him as the Almighty Lord in the Divine Liturgy. He invites us to come to His heavenly banquet table and receive the life-giving mysteries of Holy Communion! What a privilege it is to participate in a heavenly celebration with the angels and all God’s chosen ones at such a feast!
A more earthly form of celebration, though, can come through our times of gathering together as a loving Church Family. Whenever we gather in the name of our Lord, we know that He is there with us, and thus, we can celebrate! A very special time to witness our Church Family celebrating is at our annual Church Festival. Our Festival is a wonderful time of Christian fellowship and stewardship. We come together to eat and drink, to dance and discuss, to work and offer a witness of love to our surrounding community.
What a joy it is to see our entire Church Family come out and help make our Festival such a success year after year. Each year, visitors will comment about what a wonderful day of celebration our Festival is! And the many people who offer their time and talents, especially the Festival Committee which has been offering their time since February, are a great example of being “good and faithful stewards” to their beloved Church.
I want to encourage everyone who has any connection to our Sts. Constantine and Helen Church Family to please come out on September 6-7 and support our festival. Support it first of all by volunteering and working on these two busy days. You can look on page 3 for people to contact about working at our festival. Support our Festival as well by encouraging your family, friends and neighbors to come and enjoy the celebration here!
During this past summer, our Church Family has had other special moments of celebration. You can look on page 14 of September's The Light to see pictures of our FIESTA Vacation Church Camp. This week of faith, fun and fellowship is always a highlight for the children of our Church. We had 40 children, from our Church Family as well as from our local community, and about 10 teenagers participate. We thank Presbytera Faith and her entire staff, as well as all the parents for helping make this another memorable summer camp for our children!
Another type of celebration occurred during our Project Mexico mission. at September's The Light, page 4, for a reflection. Thank God, our 15 member team truly got to celebrate in another country and across cultures. We had the joy of helping a needy family, encouraging the orphan boys at the St. Innocent Orphanage, sharing in fellowship with 180 Orthodox Christians from around the country, and then, of course, being enriched and blessed by the Mexicans themselves.
When it comes to celebrating and rejoicing in the name of the Lord, sometimes it is important for the followers of Jesus to learn exactly what this means, especially in a liturgical setting. Our Orthodox Christian faith is like a priceless treasure chest; and yet to open this treasure chest and discover the riches within, one needs guidance and help.
Thus, as we begin our new Church year, I want to remind our parishioners to please take advantage of the many opportunities to learn how to “celebrate in the Lord.” For example, on Sunday, Sept. 14 we will have a Teaching Liturgy, where I will stop the Liturgy at different times and explain exactly what is happening. I will also remind the worshippers how they can participate more and thus, get more out of the service.
We will also begin our weekly Bible Study on Wednesdays. This is a great opportunity to read the Holy Scriptures and better understand what the Word of God teaches us. This year, I will try to run each six week Bible Study series, so that if someone wants to only make a commitment to come for six weeks, and then take a break, they can do so.
I hope to start a few other types of small study groups. For example, I would love to have a men’s group, or a women’s group, or some other particular group. In these groups, we could read a book together or in some other way focus on particular topics relevant to those group. If you have any ideas, or want to be a part of such a group, please come and talk with me.
For our youth and children, we will begin our regular Sunday School Program on September 14. Please try to bring your children regularly to Church at the start of the Divine Liturgy at 10:00am. Something special that we will begin this year, as a part of our Sunday School Program, is to develop a Youth Choir. One of our newer parishioners and a musician herself, Niki Beaudry, has offered to try and teach our youth church hymns and songs. We hope and envision that this youth choir will participate and sing regularly in our Divine Liturgy, and thus get our children more involved in celebrating and worshipping the Lord!
As we enter into the Fall season, our adult Choir will once again start up and begin singing in the Liturgy. We would love to see some more parishioners join the Choir and offer their voices in praising the Lord. If you have an interest and God has blessed you with a melodious voice, please seriously consider taking part in our Choir!
One final Church group that will start up its Fall season is the women’s Philoptochos. They will kick off their new year with a Pizza and Salad Dinner at Titi’s Townline Restaurant on Monday, Sept. 15. We hope that all the women of our Church will come and participate in this philanthropic arm of the Church.
With love in our Lord Jesus Christ,
+Luke
