Great Lent Has Begun

This Sunday, our parish community celebrated the first Sunday of Great Lent – the Sunday of Orthodoxy – with a procession with icons, recalling the triumph of holy images over the iconoclasts in the Early Church. (Photos from our procession may be seen here.)

During the entirety of Great Lent, the Presanctified Liturgy will be celebrated every Wednesday night at 7pm. Confessions may be heard before this service, and may also be heard following Vespers on Saturday evenings. Please speak with Fr. John if you would like to arrange a confession at an alternate time.

To assist in our Lenten effort, the Sisterhood of our daughter parish, St. John the Theologian (Shirley, NY) has organized a Lenten Retreat at the Orthodox Monastery of All Saints (Calverton, NY). It will be held Saturday, March 26, 2011, from 9:00am to 3:30pm. Reservations are requested; you may contact Elaine DelGigante at 631-846-4739 for more information.

Finally, it is with great sadness that we learned that Mark Guyer’s mother, Mary, reposed in the Lord on Sunday, March 6, 2011. Please remember her, Mark, and the Guyer family in your prayers. Grant rest eternal in blessed repose, O Lord, to the soul of the newly-departed handmaiden of God, Mary, and make her memory to be eternal!

Mother Raphaela Leads Retreat

As pilgrims on life’s journey, we are occasionally aware – sometimes by surprise – of Christ’s presence in our midst. Other times, we become aware only when reflecting back to an extraordinary experience. So it was with our retreat, “Living and Growing in Christ,” lead by the Abbess of Holy Myrrhbearers Monastery, Mother Raphaela.

Continue reading Mother Raphaela Leads Retreat

Pre-Lenten Retreat

Mother Raphaela, Abbess of Holy Myrrhbearers Monastery in Otego, NY, will be visiting our parish this weekend. On Saturday, she will lead the parish in a Pre-Lenten Retreat, titled Living and Growing With Christ.

The order of the day is as follows:

  • 9:00 AM Welcome and Sign-in
  • 10:00 AM Morning Prayer: The Third Hour
  • 10:45 AM First Session
  • 12:30 PM Lunch (included in registration cost)
  • 1:30 PM Second Session
  • 3:00 PM Break
  • 3:15 PM Final Session
  • 5:00 PM Vespers (please note, Vespers will not be served at its usual time of 7:00 PM)

A suggested donation of $15 will be collected at the door.  This will defray the cost of the lunch and transporting Mother Raphaela.  Any extra funds will benefit the parish.

If you are planning on attending, please let us know by registering.  You can do so by contacting Virginia Jerosh at vginjon56@aol.com, or by phone at 631-271-4209 — please do not delay!  While we will accept unregistered parishioners at the door, we need to know the number of participants, particularly to prepare the day’s lunch and refreshments.

Please join us for what promises to be a spiritually profitable and well-spent day.

Concert of Georgian Music by St. Nino’s Choir

An unforgettable, unrepeatable and unbelievable moment. The sense that you had seen, or heard, or touched something ineffable, unknowable, something transcendent. It was truly a moment in which, with a heartbreaking honesty, you felt that you had directly experienced the mercy of God. It was sacramental in every sense of the word. It reminded us of what music, liturgy, art, life, culture and history are all about: the overwhelming sense of thanksgiving to God for all that we have received and for all that we have not received. A completely uncompromised and unqualified thank you to life, life as an expression of an intimate and immediate communion with God Almighty. Amen.

Continue reading Concert of Georgian Music by St. Nino’s Choir