Don't miss our annual Paschal Egg Hunt for kids up to 8 years old this Sunday after the Divine Liturgy. The weather is a little sketchy, but it is Michigan - who really knows? In case of rain the Egg Hunt will be held next Sunday, April 26. Please join us!

Our College Age/Young Adult group meets this Sunday at 6:00 p.m. at Fr. Gregory's place in Saline - please join us! RSVP ASAP. We will be barbecuing. If you are coming and you don't do meat let us know as soon as you can so we can find something else for you.

Topic of for our discussion: "Pentecost - it isn't just one of the Great Feasts". In fact it is 50 days. How do we live them? How is this time different than the rest of the year? How do we stay focused after the "let down" that comes at the end of Great Lent? Join us to find out!

See you Sunday - let us know you are coming! Spread the word! Invite friends! If you don't know where Fr. Gregory lives send a note to info@stvladimiraami.org and we'll let you in on the secret. :)

Today and every Bright Friday the Holy Church celebrates the Lifegiving Spring of the Theotokos. Please read the interesting story about this spring and the many churches that were built over it and destroyed over history at the links below.

English:

http://oca.org/saints/lives/2015/04/17/ ... her-of-god

Russian:

http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/613717.html

Please don't forget that we have added one additional cycle of Paschal Divine Services for this Bright Week and that cycle starts tonight at 10:30 p.m. We will serve Vespers and Matins first, which will take us just about to 12:00 a.m. We will then move right into the Paschal Divine Liturgy. These midnight services are so beautiful and really quite different in tenor than the daytime services. And we don't serve them often. So please join us tonight!

Have you listened to this week's The Path? Take a moment now and check it out! The link is below - join us!

http://soundoftheparish.blogspot.com/20 ... -week.html

Please find the Paschal Epistle of Metropolitan Hilarion of New York, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, at the links below.

English:

http://russianorthodoxchurch.ws/synod/e ... istle.html

Russian:

http://russianorthodoxchurch.ws/synod/2 ... istle.html

We have added one additional cycle of Paschal Divine Services to our schedule for this week. On Thursday evening we will begin Paschal Vespers at 10:30 p.m. followed by Matins and Divine Liturgy. Thus, the Liturgy will begin just about midnight. Please join us as your schedule allows. Chirst is Risen!

Please find the Paschal Epistle of His Holiness, Patriarch Kyrill, at the links below.

Christ is Risen!

English:

https://mospat.ru/en/2015/04/11/news117689/

Russian:

https://mospat.ru/ru/2015/04/11/news117689/

Please note that Great Lent began this year on February 23. During Great Lent we abstain from meat and dairy products including fish (although fish is allowed on Palm Sunday – April 5). Let us recall that fasting is a tool given to us by God to aid us spiritually. For some it is easy to fast, for others it is difficult. However, what is most important is that we make a sincere effort to follow the fast. Why? Simply because the fast helps us to see our sins by helping us to focus spiritually. Eating “light” foods, or perhaps rather, abstaining from “heavy” foods such as meats and cheeses, allows us to be less focused on our stomachs and more focused on our souls, and of course, in this season when we undergo our journey to the Resurrection of our Lord we dearly wish to improve ourselves spiritually that we might meet the risen Christ better than we were when we began Great Lent. St. John Chrysostom writes that we abstain from meats that we might abstain from our sins. This nicely sums up the reason the Holy Church, as a loving mother, gives us the gift of fasting. Pascha is April 12 – may God grant us all a spiritually profitable Great Lent!

Fr. Gregory, Matushka Elizabeth, Maria, Michael, and Natalia invite all St. Vladimir’s family and friends to their Paschal Open House on Bright Monday, April 13 beginning at 6:00 p.m. at their home in Saline. Please join them as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord!