The devil approaches the God-man with temptations.
Who among men is free of them?

He who goes according to the will of the evil one does not experience attacks, but is simply turned more and more toward evil. As soon as one begins to come to himself and intends to begin a new life according to God’s will, immediately the entire satanic realm enters into action: they hasten to scatter good thoughts and the intentions of the repentant one in any way they can.

If they do not manage to turn him aside, they attempt to hinder his good repentance and confession; if they do not manage to do that, they contrive to sow tares amidst the fruits of repentance and disrupt his labors of cleansing the heart.

If they do not succeed in suggesting evil they attempt to distort the truth; if they are repulsed inwardly they attack outwardly, and so on until the end of one’s life. They do not even let one die in peace; even after death they pursue the soul, until it escapes the aerial space where they hover and congregate.

You ask, “What should we do? It is hopeless and terrifying!”

For a believer there is nothing terrifying here, because near a God-fearing man demons only busy themselves, but they do not have any power over him. A sober man of prayer shoots arrows against them, and they stay far away from him, not daring to approach, and fearing the defeat which they have already experienced.

If they succeed in something, it is due to our blundering. We slacken our attention, or allow ourselves to be distracted by their phantoms, and they immediately come and disturb us more boldly.

If you do not come to your senses in time they will whirl you about; but if a soul does come to its senses they again recoil and spy from afar to see whether it is possible to approach again somehow.

So be sober, watch, and pray—and the enemies will do nothing to you.Book Thoughts for Each Day of the Year

+ St. Theophan the Recluse (Thoughts for Each Day of the Year: According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God)

The 2021 Great Lenten schedule is available now at this link:

GREAT LENT 2021 SCHEDULE
On Wednesday evenings after the Presanctified Divine Liturgy Fr. Joseph will lead a book discussion on the book “Great Lent – Journey to Pascha” by Fr. Alexander Schmemann. Those who would like to participate in this discussion group are asked to email confirmation to info@stvladimiraammi.org not later than March 10, 2021. It is necessary to order the appropriate number of books, thus the need for a deadline.

All are welcome at St. Vladimir's! Please join us this Sunday! More information can be found at this link, and we encourage you to share this with family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers!

DIVINE SERVICES FOR SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2021
Due to the pandemic we have guidelines that must be followed. Please find those here:

HELP US KEEP THE PARISH OPEN DURING THE PANDEMIC
Services in the barn (mostly Sunday Liturgies) do not require sign up. All other services (which are held inside the church building) do - including Saturday evening Vigil and the Sunday 8:00 a.m. Divine Liturgy. Sign up here:

DIVINE SERVICES WEEK OF FEBRUARY 22, 2021

Please join us Friday at 6:00 p.m. and Saturday at 8:00 a.m. for the commemoration of the Venerable Auxentius. If you cannot come to the Evening Services or Liturgy please try to join us on one of our live streams.

FIND ST. VLADIMIR LIVE STREAMS
All are welcome! The services will be inside the church, so we ask that you sign up. This allows us to understand the number of people that will attend since we have limited, physically distanced spaces inside the temple. The link to the sign up sheet can be found on our parish home page. If you have any trouble finding that please email: info@stvladimriaami.org.

LEARN MORE - ENGLISH

LEARN MORE - RUSSIAN

Our parish annual meeting will be moved to May 3/16, 2021, according to a unanimous vote by the Parish Council. We hope that we will be able to hold this meeting outside. This will be the Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women, which means our St. John Brotherhood will be preparing the meal, and that is always a very good meal! Please plan to join us on May 16 for the parish annual meeting. Materials in preparation for the annual meeting will be sent during Great Lent in plenty of time for all to review and prepare for the meeting.

The church has two furnaces actually, and thank God for that. When the one in the back (west end) of the church failed, the other one was able to pick up the heating slack and keep the pipes from bursting and from any other damage to the church. The old furnace was replaced this last week and if you’d like to help offset this cost please contact our treasurer, Mikhail Fisenkov, at treasurer@stvladimiraami.org.

Those who are tithing are probably thinking: why are we asking for help? If everyone is tithing we shouldn’t have to ask the parish for this type of help. That is correct! But not everyone has established a tithe. That is OK - we are not mad. :) But this is what each of us should be striving for: to answer this spiritual question (because tithing is not a financial question – it is a spiritual one). So please have a look at this page, where you can learn more about how and why, we as Orthodox Christians, should make this decision long before we come to church on Sunday morning - and please contact Fr. Gregory or any of our Parish Council members with questions:

TREASURER CORNER

It took us a little while to figure this all out, but the biggest problem we have in the barn right now is that it is TOO WARM! Yesterday it was about 60F in the barn. Not a tropical paradise, but pretty comfortable. We saw people taking off their coats! So - if you are staying away from the services in the winter worship space because it is too cold please know - you’re working with old information! Come join us this Sunday and every Sunday at 10 a.m. in the W3 (warm winter worship) space!

If you have sinned, acknowledge the sin and repent. God will forgive the sin and once again give you a new heart…and a new spirit (Ez. 36:26). There is no other way: Either do not sin, or repent.

+ St. Theophan The Recluse (The Path to Salvation: A Manual of Spiritual Transformation)

Please join us for a live broadcast of today's Vigil beginning at 6:00 p.m. at the following link:
AUDIO LIVE STREAM
VIDEO LIVE STREAM
Please remember - the stream only broadcasts live services. If you would like to listen to previously recorded and edited services please visit our sound blog:
SOUND OF THE PARISH BLOG
If you would like to view past services please visit our YouTube page:

ST. VLADIMIR YOUTUBE CHANNEL

During Great Lent at all weekday services and on many Saturdays (beginning even before Great Lent with the first Soul Saturday on March 6) the departed are specially commemorated. You can arrange commemoration of your friends and loved ones by visiting our special page in this regard here:

PRAYER REQUESTS
There is lots of good information there and you should read that at some point. If you don’t have time to do that please visit our on-line form to submit names (under the commemoration of the departed you can choose “Great Lent 2021: All Weekday Services + Soul Saturdays”). If you are in a financial position to make a donation for commemorating your loved ones you can do that here – if you aren’t this is not a problem as the Church does not charge for prayer, but is thankful for donations in this regard of course:

DONATE