Wisdom
What then, is prayer? Prayer is the raising of the mind and heart to God in praise and thanksgiving to Him and in supplication for the good things that we need, both spiritual and physical. Prayers are spiritual because they are originally born in the (human) spirit and ripen there by the Grace of the Holy Spirit. In their origin they (i.e. prayers, psalms, hymns, etc.) were purely spiritual and only afterwards came to be clothed in words and so assumed an oral form.
†St. Theophan the Recluse
Our prayer reflects our attitude towards God. He who is careless of salvation has a different attitude toward God from him who has abandoned sin and is zealous for virtue but has not yet entered within himself and works for the Lord only outwardly. Finally, he who has entered within and carries the Lord within himself, standing before Him, has yet another attitude. The first man is negligent in prayer, just as he is negligent in life, and he prays in church and at home merely according to the established custom, without attention or feeling. The second man reads many prayers and goes often to church, trying at the same time to keep his attention from wandering and to experience feelings in accordance with the prayers which are read, although he is seldom successful. The third man, wholly concentrated within, stands with his mind before God, and prays to Him in his heart without distraction, without long verbal prayers, even when standing for a long time at prayer in his home or in church…. Every prayer must come from the heart and any other prayer is no prayer at all. Prayer-book prayers, your own prayers and very short prayers, all must issue forth from the heart to God, seen before you.
†St. Theophun the Recluse
When you pray, try to let the prayer reach your heart; in other words, it is necessary that your heart should feel what you are talking about in your prayer, that it should wish for the blessing for which you are asking…. Observe, during prayer, whether your heart is in accord with that which you are saying.
†St. John of Kronstadt
As a bird without wings, as a soldier without arms, so is a Christian without prayer.
†St. Tikhon of Zadonsk
Upcoming EventsNext week His Eminence, Archbishop Mark will be with us. We will have a potluck - please bring some good fixin’s - Juliana Peck will help coordinate; let’s aim for a good balance of greens, meats, sides, and sweets. If you can prepare an ethnic speciality, please consider doing so.
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Juliana Peck will conduct a workshop on Saturday, Oct. 16 from 3:30 - 4:30 PM. All choir members are expected to attend, and anyone else interested is also welcome.
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St. Michael’s will be open from 9:30 a.m. until Noon this coming Wednesday (29th). Father will be available for counsel, confession, to pray for you or any requests you have, or feel free pray silently on your own. If you need to meet with me at a different time, contact me.
Other AnnouncementsThank you to all who have so willingly supported the renovations at the rectory and even contributed towards it. We are thrilled with the results; it is starting to feel like home.
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If you do a search for our parish on Google, you’ll find us and see we have 9 Reviews and a 4.4 star rating. Let’s improve that! I did my part… I hope everyone here loves our parish; so please go leave a 5 star rating and say a few words about our parish family.
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Sunday School (K - 12) launched last week. It begins around 11:30 AM - listen for the bell at that time.
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We are looking for non-perishable items, as nutritious and as minimally processed as possible. We would like to include items that are easy to open and require little or no preparation for those who might not have fully operational kitchens, (No junk food or highly processed foods please.)
Here are a few suggestions, but certainly donations are not limited to this list:
• Clif Bars/ Energy or Protein Bars
• Canned soups with easy open tops (eg Amy's Organic)
• Soups in boxes with plastic lids (eg Pacific)
• Various soups in paper cups with easy tear-off tops
• Salmon, tuna, or chicken in cans*
• Brown rice
• Dried peas or lentils
• Canned tomatoes, beans, jars of pasta sauce
• Whole grain and gluten free pasta
• Other healthy options
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We had two prayer lists being maintained (the bulletin and what was used at services were separate lists) and are now down to one - the one on the back of the bulletin. If your name or the name of a loved one was inadvertently dropped, please let me know.
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Things are still in progress at the rectory and my office is literally boxed & piled up at the moment. I have a tentative Daily Vespers on the calendar for next week - that will not happen. I’m going to aim for October. Having said that, it would be nice to have a few people willing and able to chant the service. The plan is to do them at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesdays. If you are interested, even if you have no experience, let me know. I’ll work with you to help prepare you for when we do start.
Reader Schedule
| Date | 3rd Hour | 6th Hour | Epistle |
| Oct 3 | Wojciechowski | Vojacsek | Carey |
| Oct 10 | Lewis | George | Lewis |
| Oct 17 | D'Orazio | Wojciechowski | Wales |
Service Schedule
| Date | Coffee Hour | Service Duty | Church Cleaners |
| Sep 26 | J. Peck / Shatley | Hojnicki / Najemy | N. Carey |
| Oct 3 | Whalen | Telep / Baldychev | Baldychev / Shatley / Sylvest |
| Oct 10 | Grishin / Pacienza | Bunitsky / Morjana | Sulpizi |
| Oct 17 | Wojciechowski / D'Orazio | Riley / Riley | Riley |
News from the Orthodox Church in America
OCA youth gathered at the 19th All American Council in 2018.
1 Sep 2021 at 9:06am
27 Aug 2021 at 10:26am