This year, with the blessing of His Grace Bishop Peter, we will celebrate the beautiful Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts throughout Great Lent on Wednesday evenings. Matins begins at 3:00 p.m. Liturgy will begin at approximately 6:30 p.m. Following each of these services our St. Xenia Sisterhood will organize a light Lenten dinner. Please contact our Head Sister, Ksenia Nikulshina (headsister@stvladimiraami.org or see her in church) if you would like to help with the dinner. We have excellent Lenten recipes to share if you’d like to try something new! Please join us for these remarkably beautiful and meaningful Lenten evening services and for mid-week fellowship with your parish family at the meal afterwards!

Wednesday, March 11
Wednesday, March 18
Thursday, March 26 – NOTE THIS IS A THURSDAY
Wednesday, April 1

The Liturgical Fast for those communing begins after breakfast for the 6:30 p.m. services. In other words, you may eat breakfast, but eat or drink nothing further after that. Parents should use their best judgment regarding their children, as always. Those who confessed on the weekend prior to the Wednesday Presanctified need not confess again on/before Wednesday.

PLEASE NOTE! There are MANY other Presanctified Liturgies throughout Great Lent that begin with Matins at 8:00 a.m. and Liturgy about 11:30 a.m. - mostly on Fridays. Please consult the schedule of services on our web site for more details.

In order to better share the sounds of our parish (Divine Services, Lectures, Sermons, etc.) we have created a new blog entitled "Sound of the Parish". You can find the blog here:

http://soundoftheparish.blogspot.com/

Please take a moment to sign up for email updates on the right side of the browser window of the blog. That way each time we post a new sound file you will be alerted via email. Those who follow us on Twitter will also receive a notification of each posted file. Please join us on "Sound of the Parish"!

Please find a link below to an excellent synopsis on Theosis - the teaching that we, fallen as we are, have access to the Energies of God and that these are, for us, transformative. Moreover, that this transformation is both needed and to be desired. This is the authentic Orthodox Christian teaching that St. Gregory Palamas defended against the attacks of innovators such as Barlaam, Acindynus, and others. Those who have questions are urged to reach out to Fr. Gregory or Fr. Michael. At this link you will find the booklet on Theosis in English, Russian, and several other languages.

http://orthodoxinfo.com/general/theosis.aspx

Today the Holy Church marks the feast of the first and second findings of the head of St. John the Baptist. At St. Vladimir's we will mark this feast with Matins, Great Lenten Hours, Typika, and the Presanctified Liturgy beginning at 8:00 a.m. (Liturgy begins at about 11:00 a.m.). Please join us as your personal schedule allows! Read more about the feast below.

English:

http://oca.org/saints/lives/2015/02/24/ ... holy-glori

Russian:

http://days.pravoslavie.ru/Life/life504.htm

1. Our Teen Youth Group meets at Fr. Gregory's place in Saline tomorrow from 3:00-5:00 p.m. The topic is: “Teenage Lent – What!?”. Lenten snacks are on offer, as are board games after the discussion. Young folks are urged to come with other discussion questions. We will also discuss the Monarch Butterfly Garden for the summer and a radio program our teens can produce. And we will be talking about our summer Davydovo trip to help at the special needs camp there too! More on that at this address (Google Translate if need be):

http://davydovo-hram.ru/osobiy-lager

2. TIME CHANGES TONIGHT!!! If you don't “spring forward” one hour before you go to sleep (move your clocks one hour ahead) you will be late for Divine Liturgy tomorrow. And we know no one wants that! :)

3. Tomorrow's lecture covers the topic of the ministry of our Brotherhood and the ministry of our Sisterhood in our parish. You THINK you know all they do. You don't – but you will if you attend the lecture during our weekly parish meal!

SEE YOU TOMORROW AT ST. VLADIMIR'S!

We ask parents to please keep an eye on their children during the Divine Services as regards playing with the sand in the candle stands and with candles. Those that work hard to clean the church every week have to work even harder because of the sand all over the floor and all over the pannykhhida table, as well as lots of drips of wax on the floor. We love kids at St. Vladimir's and we always will! But we ask that parents exercise some oversight in this regard. Thank you!

Please see this IMPORTANT letter from the 2015 Sponsorship Committee and Festival Chairs:

http://www.stvladimiraami.org/pamphlets ... nt2015.pdf

This letter makes it clear: WE NEED YOUR HELP! Please respond as requested. With your help our 2015 festival can and will be the best ever!

The Holy Church appoints several special Saturdays throughout the year on which we especially commemorate our departed friends and loved ones. At St. Vladimir’s we will serve the following memorial services on the following dates this Great Lent:

February 14: Divine Liturgy 8:00 a.m. (Vespers and Matins for the departed the evening prior at 6:00 p.m.)
March 7: Divine Liturgy 8:00 a.m. (Matins for the departed the evening prior at 6:00 p.m.)
March 14: Divine Liturgy 9:00 a.m. (Matins for the departed the evening prior at 6:00 p.m.) - All English Cycle
March 21: Divine Liturgy 8:00 a.m. (Matins for the departed the evening prior at 6:00 p.m.)

Please join us for those services that you are able to and for those you are not: please assure the commemoration of your friends and loved ones at the services by emailing their names (please distinguish between Orthodox and non-Orthodox departed) to info@stvladimiraami.org or by otherwise contacting Fr. Gregory.

Those with special needs, especially families with special needs children, are most welcome at St. Vladimir's! What this means is that sometimes there is a little noise or commotion during the Divine Services – but this is simply part of being a welcoming community. However, we have to back up our words with actions! So please, EVERYONE, reach out to your friends with special needs children and invite them to St. Vladimir's. But not just that – when they visit we all – each and every one of us – need to be tolerant, helpful, loving, and supportive. It is wrong and just not possible for us to alienate those with special needs children. WE MUST WELCOME THEM WARMLY! Please contact Fr. Gregory with questions, concerns, or to join our greeter ministry. We need your help to make St. Vladimir's a welcoming place for ALL!

We have a special web page at St. Vladimir's that is set up to facilitate commemoration of our friends and loved ones at the Divine Liturgy – THIS IS THE SINGLE BEST WAY TO PRAY FOR THEM. The page can be found a this address:

http://stvladimiraami.org/commemoration ... ions.shtml

There are several ways listed on that page to assure that your friends and loved ones are being prayed for at the Divine Services at St. Vladimir's. Another is to use this Google Doc to send us their names:

http://goo.gl/forms/SLnBZ9OupT

Names are commemorated at the Divine Liturgy, General Pannykhidas, and other appropriate Divine Services. It is our pleasure to provide this service to our parish family and friends.

THERE ARE SEVERAL SPECIAL SATURDAYS OF COMMEMORATION DURING GREAT LENT. Please be sure to provide the names of your friends and loved ones to be commemorated at these special Liturgies. The next one of these is Saturday, March 7. Please see Fr. Gregory with questions in this regard.