We rejoice to welcome Penelope Irene, daughter of Mark and Thaomy Neuhoff, into Christ’s holy Orthodox Church. Penelope’s Baptism and Chrismation took place during the morning Mass on January 19.
At the annual Parish Meeting, Sharon Green and Nathaniel Green were elected to the Parish Council, and Karl Tsuji was appointed as Treasurer (a position he holds for life!). The Parish Council is responsible for the “nuts and bolts” side of church life – building maintenance, heating and air conditioning, finances, etc. This coming year, the Council will be engaged in plans for the next stage of our remodeling, making the parish hall arrangement more conducive to our needs and ADA-compliant. All meetings of the Council are open to any parishioner who would like to attend.
At the annual national March for Life on January 24, Bishop THOMAS represented our archdiocese. St. Gregory’s hosted several students from St. Vladimir’s Seminary, who were also here for that event and were with us for Saturday Vespers and Liturgy on Sunday (and slept on our parish hall floor!).
February 2 is the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple, also known as the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Candlemas. It is from the Gospel for this feast that we get the Nunc Dimittis (“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace”) which we sing at every Vespers service and the name Candlemas is applied to the feast because it is at this service that candles to be used in church throughout the year are blessed, distributed, and carried in procession. Writing about the fact that in ancient times, the month of February had been dedicated to the god Pluto and that towns, cities and households were purified by offerings to the household gods in that month, St. Bede (673-735) tells us:
But the Christian religion appropriately altered this custom of purification, since in the same month, on the feast of Saint Mary, all the people, with their priests and ministers and hymns sung in melodious voice, proceeded through the churches and through appropriate locations in the city, and they carried in their hands burning candles… not, of course for the purification of the earthly empire, but in perpetual memory of the kingdom of heaven, when, according to the parable of the wise virgins, all the elect will soon come to meet their bridegroom and king, while the lamps of their good actions blaze, and they will enter with him into the nuptials of the eternal city. [From Bede’s On Time, as quoted in On the Liturgy by Amalar of Metz (775-850)]
Although the small size of our chapel means that only the clergy and altar servers will form the procession, we will continue this more than thirteen hundred year-old tradition at St. Gregory’s on this feast day.
Read the complete February newsletter here.