Sixteen of us celebrated the feast today at Divine Liturgy and thereafter shared a delicious festal agape. Last night, twenty-five persons gathered for Great Vespers and the Blessing of Water. Splashing water on each person’s head after they drank from the font and venerated the Holy Gospels, I recalled many joyous past occasions at this feast. Water anointing seems to bring out a more playful, or perhaps a surprised reaction, on the part of the recipient, as opposed to oil anointing. Here is a feast where getting wet – at least in a very small way – is clearly part of the event. Continue reading Christ is Baptized! In the Jordan!
Feast of the Circumcision of Christ and the Feast of St. Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia
“The mystery of Thy dispensation, O Christ our God, has been accomplished and perfected as far as was in our power; for we have seen the type of Thy Resurrection; we have been filed with Thine unending life; we have enjoyed Thine inexhaustible food; which in the world to come be well-pleased to vouchsafe to us all, through the grace of Thine Eternal Father, and Thine holy and good and life-creating Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.”
We celebrated the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil today, with a small group of faithful gathered. The civil new year is upon us, but our thoughts are drawn to the liturgy and its hymnography, the words of which we hear during Great Lent and just a few other times each year. How blessed it is that we can come together and begin the year in this fashion. “All of creation rejoices in you, O Full of Grace, the assembly of angels and the race of men. O sanctified temple and spiritual paradise, the glory of virgins, from whom God was incarnate and became a child — our God before the ages. He made your body into a throne, and your womb He made more spacious than the heavens. All of creation rejoices with you, O Full of Grace. Glory to you!”
The world focuses on the passage of time, the notable events of the past year, and the hopes and expectations of what is to come in 2011. Rather than be sentimental about the past year, we would do well to consider the present moment, and how we are to share in the mystery of Our Lord’s Resurrection…the coming year can be of immense importance to us if we enter into this mystery. The barrier to this is not our serendipitous fortune but only our willingness to see ourselves as we truly are, and to repent.
Christ is Born! Glorify Him!
The Nativity of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ
We greet you warmly in the joy of our Lord’s Nativity. We hope that, having sojourned through the Nativity Fast, you and your families will have a joyful and spiritually enlivening feast. Continue reading Christ is Born! Glorify Him!
Our Website, Redesigned
Welcome to our new website! We have completed testing of the new design, which has been in the works for quite some time, as part of our Website Redevelopment Project. A few of you joked that our former website (promising that “A new website is coming soon…”) went on like that a bit too long…
But! All delays aside, our new website is here, and we hope it will become a great asset to our parish community. It is far more robust than any previous version of our website, implementing the latest technology from around the Internet. If you’re interested in the specifics, here is an overview:
Baptism of Avah Terraciano
On Saturday, May 22, 2010, the parish celebrated the Baptism of the infant Avah Terraciano. Avah is now among the first fourth-generation parishioners here at St. Andrew’s; Continue reading Baptism of Avah Terraciano