November 2018 BLESSED MATRONA OF MOSCOW 680
Prayer rule The basis of an Orthodox Christian s life is fasting and prayer. Prayer "is a conversation of one s soul with God." Just like any conversation, it is impossible to listen to one side all the time, and in prayer it is sometimes useful to stop and listen to the Lord s answer to our prayer! The church, praying daily "for all and for everything," established a personal, individual prayer rule for everyone. The composition of this rule depends on one s spiritual age (maturity), living conditions, and human capabilities. The prayer book offers us morning and evening prayers, available to everyone. They are addressed to the Lord, the Mother of God, and to one s Guardian Angel. With the blessing of the confessor, the prayers of one s chosen saints can be included in one s private rule. If there is no opportunity to read morning prayers in front of one s icons in a quiet atmosphere, then it is better to read them on the way rather than not to read them at all. In any case, one should not have breakfast before the Our Father prayer is read. If a person is sick or very tired, then the evening rule can be read earlier in the evening, rather than sometime immediately before bed. Then before going to bed, you should read only the prayer of St. John of Damascus " O Master, Lover of mankind, is this bed to be my coffin..." and following prayers. A very important part of morning prayers is the reading of one s commemoration book. It is important to pray for the peace and health of the ruling bishop, one s spiritual father, parents, relatives, godparents and godchildren, and for all people who are in some way connected with us. If someone cannot reconcile with another person, even though it s not his or her fault, they are obliged to remember the "one who hates" and sincerely wish them well. The personal (private) rule of many Orthodox includes the reading of the Gospel and the Book of Psalms. The Optina monks blessed many people to read one chapter a day from the Gospel, in order, and two chapters from the Apostolic Epistles. In this case, one of the last seven chapters of the Apocalypse was read per day. Then the reading of the Gospel and the Apostle ended at the same time, and a new cycle of readings began. The spiritual rule is established by one s spiritual father, and it is his jurisdiction to change it - to reduce or increase it. Once a rule has been established, it should become a law of life, and each violation should be considered as an exceptional case and one should tell their confessor about it and receive an explanation for it. The main content of the prayer rule is to attune the soul of a Christian to frequent communion with God, to awaken penitential thoughts, to cleanse the heart from sinful affliction. That s why, after carefully following the rule, we learn, according to the Apostle, to pray in the Spirit at all times with all perseverance in your prayers for all the saints (Eph. 6, 18). PARISH LIFE: Important dates: November 11 th ANNUAL SLAVIC FESTIVAL November 21 st ENTRY OF VIRGIN MARY INTO THE TEMPLE (Gregorian calendar) November 22 nd American Thanksgiving Day December 4 th ENTRY OF VIRGIN MARY INTO THE TEMPLE (Julian calendar) December 25 th NATIVITY OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST (Gregorian calendar)
From the desk of Fr Nazari Dear Brothers and Sisters, Taking this opportunity, I would like to greet you one more time with the feast of the Protection of the Theotokos which we celebrated in October. Even though October was not busy with liturgical celebrations and, maybe even on the contrary, our liturgical calendar was very light, it was a very busy month for our parish community: renovation of men s restroom was finished, some minor repairs were done in the church bookstore and the progressing museum portion, and the largest project was the refinishing of the hardwood floors in our Temple. It took lots of effort on the part of our Parish Council, Sisterhood and some private individuals who offered their time to help in preparation of the Temple before and after renovation. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your assistance, and I also want to thank the anonymous donor who sponsored renovation of the floor. May God bless you all and your families! We are striving towards examples set for us by the words of the Holy Gospel: Well done, good and faithful servant: you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things: enter into the joy of your Lord. Dear Brothers and Sisters, In the process of preparation of this major improvement of our Temple, when we took our icons off the church walls we discovered that the walls are in immediate need of repair in the older portion of the church building: major damage to the original plaster was detected. We would like to begin renovation of this as soon as possible, but due to the lack of funds in our budget we cannot begin the necessary work. On behalf of the Parish Council I appeal to your generosity. At the present time we are in the process of collecting quotes, but even from preliminary first sight appraisal, this kind of project will cost at least $25,000. We will inform you of the exact cost as soon as it becomes available, but already at this time - especially with our financial year coming to an end - I m asking you to consider and make generous donations toward this important cause. It is not accidental that I mention the end of the financial year. By this, I want to remind all of you that your donations towards our parish are tax deductible, and while we are helping our parish, we also can take advantage of income tax write-offs. Please help us and join the ranks of the good and faithful servants of our Lord. On October 21 st, together with the visit of our beloved hierarch Archbishop Benjamin, we received another great treasure for our parish the icon of the Blessed Matrona with her holy relics. This beautiful icon was donated to us by Mrs. Natalya Gold and her family. We thank the Gold family for their generosity, we thank our friends in Russia who helped us with acquiring this masterpiece and also the relics. By the prayers of the Blessed Matrona, may God grant you many prosperous years! Now about upcoming events. The biggest event of November other than liturgical services is our annual fundraiser, the Slavic Festival. This is a great event which brings not only financial support but first and foremost gives a greater exposure to our parish, it s spiritual and cultural heritage. Lots of guests from other parishes and the neighboring community are expected to visit us on this day. The preparation of this event is very labor intensive. Subdeacon Andrey Aristov is chairman of the Slavic Festival Committee, and started work several months ago to prepare a very detailed program for this year s festival. We are asking all parishioners to help us in the preparation, set up and take down processes. Help us make our event successful. Last but not least, as you know after the retirement of Oziel Paz we were challenged with the task of finding a new custodian. I m glad to let you know that we were lucky to find a suitable candidate, and on behalf of our parish I d like you to welcome Angela Aydirkhanov to our community, and we wish her success in her work. I thank all of you for your prayers and greetings on the occasion of my name day, and I pray the Almighty God that by His blessing and our joint labors, our parish will spiritually flourish, grow in quality and quantity, and prosper! God bless you all. Archpriest Nazari Polataiko Sisterhood news The dishwasher in the kitchen was repaired and updated. A special pump was installed. We are now able to have the correct amount of soap and rinse chemicals added automatically at every wash cycle. We are pleased that we did not have to replace the washing machine because the cost is very expensive. All the 9 Persian rugs in the Church were sent out to be professionally cleaned. They were returned after the floor was refinished. The ladies are working hard to vary the luncheon menus on Sundays. We appreciate all the tasty food donations our friends and members have brought to supplement the fare. Thank you one and all. Irene Gregory Christmas Bazaar/Bake Sale/Luncheon These will be held on Sunday, December 9 th, in the Church Hall. We are looking for donations of homemade baked goods for the Bake Sale, Christmas and other items for the Bazaar and luncheon and dessert treats. Please see Tanya Timohovich regarding the Bazaar, Ann Chach regarding the Bake Sale and Alla Bobrov for luncheon and dessert items. They are in the Church Hall after liturgies. We hope everyone can participate and get in the Christmas spirit! Please see the flyer in next month s Bulletin. Fundraising Committee Saturday School Classes will be held as usual according to the schedule on Saturdays from 10am till 3pm. Please find more information on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/russian- SaturdaySchool/ Irina Usova, Coordinator
BAPTISMS: FUNERALS: Helen Daskivich.......September 22 nd Many years! Raymond M. Barp Jr........October 6 th Memory eternal! Prayer Request list: Irene Gregory, Marina Dobis, Alexander, Maria, Elena, Theodore, Ann Brown, Marie (Lynn) McEntire The Parish Council Would Like to Thank the Following Persons for their BUILDING Fund and CENTENNIAL Fund Contributions Elena and Slava Pollack in memory of S.A. Pollack... 5,000 Tanya Simon in memory of Tamara Krupenkin... 1,000 Tanya Simon in memory of Raymond Barp... 1,000 Anonymous... 1,000 John Sessoyeff in memory of Sara Vounov... 300 Zoya Dyer for panikhida room repair... 100 John Sessoyeff in memory of Irene Leonoff... 100 John Sessoyeff in memory of Tamara Krupenkin... 100 NOVEMBER 2018 1 Thu 10:00am Divine Liturgy St. John of Kronstadt 3 Sat 10:00am 5:00pm Panikhida Vigil Demetrius Saturday (Julian calendar) 4 Sun 10:00am Divine Liturgy 23 rd SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 6 Tue 7:00pm Akathist before the icon of Our Most Holy Lady Theotokos Rescuer of the Perishing 8 Thu 10:00am Divine Liturgy Gt.martyr Demetruis 10 Sat 5:00pm Vigil 11 Sun 10:00am Divine Liturgy ANNUAL SLAVIC FESTIVAL 24 th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 13 Tue 7:00pm Akathist before the icon of Our Most Holy Lady Theotokos Rescuer of the Perishing 17 Sat 5:00pm Vigil 18 Sun 10:00am Divine Liturgy 25 th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 20 Tue 7:00pm Vigil ENTRY OF VIRGIN MARY INTO THE TEMPLE 21 Wed 10:00am Divine Liturgy (Gregorian calendar) 22 Thu 10:00am Thanksgiving Moleben American Thanksgiving Day 24 Sat 5:00pm Vigil 25 Sun 10:00am Divine Liturgy 26 th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 27 Tue 7:00pm Akathist before the icon of Our Most Holy Lady Theotokos Rescuer of the Perishing 29 Thu 10:00am Divine Liturgy Holy Apostle & Evangelist Matthew
DECEMBER 2018 1 Sat 5:00pm Vigil 2 Sun 10:00am Divine Liturgy 27TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 4 Tue 10:00am Divine Liturgy ENTRY OF VIRGIN MARY INTO THE TEMPLE (Julian calendar) 7:00pm Akathist before the icon of Our Most Holy Lady Theotokos Rescuer of the Perishing 7 Fri 10:00am Divine Liturgy Greatmartyr Catherine 8 Sat 5:00pm Vigil 9 Sun 10:00am Divine Liturgy 28TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 11 Tue 7:00pm Akathist before the icon of Our Most Holy Lady Theotokos Rescuer of the Perishing 13 Thu 10:00am Divine Liturgy Holy Apostle Andrew the First-called 15 Sat 5:00pm Vigil 16 Sun 10:00am Divine Liturgy 29ST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 17 Mon 10:00am Divine Liturgy Greatmartyr Barbara 18 Tue 7:00pm Vigil St. Nicholas the Wonderworker 19 Wed 10:00am Divine Liturgy 22 Sat 5:00pm Vigil 23 Sun 10:00am Divine Liturgy 30TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 24 Mon 10:00am Royal Hours 7:00pm VIGIL NATIVITY OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR 25 Tue 10:00am DIVINE LITURGY JESUS CHRIST (Gregorian calendar) 29 Sat 5:00pm Vigil 30 Sun 10:00am Divine Liturgy 31ST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 31 Mon 7:00pm New Year s Eve Moleben OUR PARISH RUSSIAN LANGUAGE SCHOOL IS ENROLLING NEW ADULT STUDENTS. FOR APPLICATIONS PLEASE CONTACT IRINA USOVA at +1 (323) 413-7877. PLEASE CHECK OUR UPDATED SCHEDULE ON OUR WEBSITE WWW.HVMLA.ORG