Saint Mary Magdalene Orthodox Church
Proclaiming & Living the Holy Orthodox Faith in Central California

Sunday March 31

 St Gregory Palamas

2nd Sunday of Great Lent

     Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica, was born in the year 1296 in Constantinople. Saint Gregory’s father became a prominent dignitiary at the court of Andronicus II Paleologos (1282-1328), but he soon died, and Andronicus himself took part in the raising and education of the fatherless boy. Endowed with fine abilities and great diligence, Gregory mastered all the subjects which then comprised the full course of medieval higher education. The emperor hoped that the youth would devote himself to government work. But Gregory, barely twenty years old, withdrew to Mount Athos in the year 1316 (other sources say 1318) and became a novice in the Vatopedi monastery under the guidance of the monastic Elder Saint Nicodemus of Vatopedi (July 11). There he was tonsured and began on the path of asceticism. A year later, the holy Evangelist John the Theologian appeared to him in a vision and promised him his spiritual protection. Gregory’s mother and sisters also became monastics.

     After the demise of the Elder Nicodemus, Saint Gregory spent eight years of spiritual struggle under the guidance of the Elder Nicephorus, and after the latter’s death, Gregory transferred to the Lavra of Saint Athanasius (July 5). Here he served in the trapeza, and then became a church singer. But after three years, he resettled in the small skete of Glossia, striving for a greater degree of spiritual perfection. The head of this monastery began to teach the young man the method of unceasing prayer and mental activity, which had been cultivated by monastics, beginning with the great desert ascetics of the fourth century: Evagrius Pontikos and Saint Macarius of Egypt (January 19).  

Read the rest of the article HERE

   

Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts

 

Dont' Miss these Wonderful Lenten Services

Wednesday March 27 @ 6:00pm

Friday March 29 @ 10:00am

 

Learn about the Liturgy of the

Presanctified Gifts HERE

 

COME!  WORSHIP WITH US!

Saturday at 5pm - Great Vespers service

Sunday at 10am Divine Liturgy service 

Sunday Divine Liturgy is followed by a

Fellowship Luncheon in the Church Hall

Everyone is welcome!

Fasting: Guiding Principal from the Church Fathers

... it is important not to overlook the physical requirements of lasting, it is even more important not to overlook its inward significance. Fasting is not a mere matter of diet. It is moral as well as physical. True fasting is to be converted in heart and w ill; it is to return to God, to come home like the Prodigal to our Father*s house. In the words of St. John Chrysostom, it means ‘abstinence not only from food but from sins’ . ‘The fast’ , he insists, ‘should be kept not by the mouth alone but also by the eye, the ear, the feet, llie hands and all the members of the body’ : the eye must abstain from impure sights, the ear from malicious gossip, the hands from acts of injustice.6 It is useless to fast from food, protests St. Basil, and yet to indulge in cruel criticism and slander: ‘ You do not eat meat, but you devour your brother’ .7 The same point is made in the Triodion, especially during the first week of Lent: As we fast from food, let us abstain also from every passion. . . . 

Let us observe a fast acceptable and pleasing to the Lord.

True fasting is to put away all evil,

To control the tongue, to forbear from anger,

To abstain from lust, slander, falsehood and perjury.

If we renounce these things, then is our fasting true and acceptable to God.

Let us keep the Fast not only by refraining from food,

But by becoming strangers to all the bodily passions.8

 

8 Vespers for Sunday evening (Sunday of Forgiveness);Vespers for Monday and Tuesday in the first week.

What in the world is an Orthodox Christian?  

Click HERE for a brief explanation!

Click HERE for a more complete explanation!

Catechism classes 

 

Saturdays @ 3:30 - 4:30pm

WEEKLY SCHEDULE

WITH TOPICS

AND READING ASSIGNMENTS

PART1  HERE:

PART 2 HERE:

An Introduction to the

Orthodox Christian Church

Adapted from: John Meyendorff. The Orthodox Church

Sesquicentennial Commemorative Logo

Illumine our hearts, O Master, Lover of mankind, with the pure light of Your divine knowledge.  Open the eyes of our mind to the understanding of Your gospel teachings.  Instill also in us the fear of Your blessed commandments, that trampling all carnal desires, we may enter upon a spiritual manner of living, both thinking and doing such things that are well-pleasing to You,

Challenge #1

Read all Four Gospels during Lent 

Reading Schedule HERE

 

Challenge #2: 

Read  Four Books from the

Old Testament Books  during Lent 

Reading Schedule HERE

Brotherhood of St. John

April dates TBA

Dinner  meeting @ Church Fellowship Hall

Open to all men of the church

 

Myrrhbearers

April dates TBA

Breakfast @ Church Fellowship Hall

 

Flower Calendar

January thru June 

Open to all women of the church

Readings about Orthodoxy

Ancient - Authentic - Alive

Glossary of Orthodox Terms

Extensive and excellent guide to 

Orthodox Christian vocabulary

by the Orthodox Church of the Mother of God 

An Invitation to Worship

Adult Education 

Open to all comers!

Wednesdays @ 6pm

Reading of the next book begins soon!

Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis

 

Church Office Hours  

PLEASE CALL FOR CURRENT SCHEDULE

 

(209) 812-6232

Use this time for private prayer

or volunteer your time to our parish   

Visitors Welcome!

What is confession? Why is it necessary?

Confession - Not a novel but a battle

"Our Lenten Journey: Forgiveness and Spiritual Renewal"

March 17, 2024


 

FORGIVING OTHERS

 

“If you are about to offer your gift to God at the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar, go at once and make peace with your brother, and then come back and offer your gift to God” (Mt. 5:23-24).

“When you stand and pray, forgive anything you have against anyone, so that your Father in heaven will forgive the wrongs you have done” (Mk. 11:25).

In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus taught His fol­lowers to pray: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Mt. 6:12, RSV).

“Get rid of all bitterness, passion, and anger. No more shouting or insults, no more hateful feelings of any kind. Instead, be kind and tender hearted to one another, and forgive one another, as God has forgiven you through Christ” (Eph. 4:31-32).

"Remember our higher calling as human beings"

March 10, 2024


Fasting and Prayer

Fasting, then, is valueless or even harmful when not combined with prayer. In the Gospels the devil is cast out, not by fasting alone, but by ‘prayer and fasting’ (Matt. 17:21; Mark 9:29); and of the early Christians it is said, not simply that they fasted, but that they fasted and prayed’ (Acts 13:3; compare 14:23).

In both the Old and the New Testament fasting is seen, not as an end in itself, but as an aid to more intense and living prayer, as a preparation for decisive action or for direct encounter with God. Thus our Lord’s forty-day fast in the wilderness was the immediate preparation for His public ministry (Matt. 4:1-11 ).

When Moses fasted on Mount Sinai (Exod. 34:28) and Elijah on Mount Horeb (3 Kings 19:8-12), the fast was in both cases linked with a theophany. The same connection between fasting and the vision of God is evident in the case of St. Peter (Acts 10:9-17). He ‘went up on the housetop to pray about the sixth hour, and he became very hungry and wanted to eat’ ; and it was in this state that he fell into a trance and heard the divine voice. Such is always the purpose of ascetic fasting - to enable us, as prayer’ .

 10 Matins for Tuesday in the first week.  

WRITINGS OF SAINT NECTARIOS OF AEGINA

Prayer.

TRUE PRAYER is undistracted, prolonged, performed with a contrite heart an alert intellect. The vehicle of prayer is everywhere humility, and prayer is a manifestation of humility. For being conscious our own weakness, we invoke the power of GOD.

PRAYER unites one with GOD, being a divine conversation and spiritual communion with the Being that is most beautiful and highest.

PRAYER IS FORGETTING EARTHLY THINGS, AN ASCENT TO HEAVEN.

THROUGH PRAYER WE FLEE TO GOD.

PRAYER is truly a heavenly armor, and is alone can keep safe those who have dedicated themselves to God. Prayer is the common medicine for purifying ourselves from the passions, for hindering sin and curing our faults. Prayer is an inexhaustible treasure, an unruffled harbor, the foundation of serenity, the root and mother of myriad's of blessings.

from Selected Passages From the Writings of Orthodox Saints, Compiled by Father Demetrios Serfes.

Saint John of the Ladder

“Repentance, that is the return to God, is the renewal of our baptism, the renewal of our pact with God, our promise to reform our lives. It’s a time during which we can acquire humility, which is peace, peace with God, with ourselves, with the whole of the created world. Repentance is born of hope, that is when we reject despair. And those who repent are the very people who deserve a guilty verdict- and yet leave the court without shame, since repentance is our peace with God.  And this is achieved through a life which is worthy of us, far removed from the sins which we committed in the past. Repentance is the cleansing of our conscience. It involves a complete liberation from sorrow and pain”.

Great Lent is a new beginning. Great Lent is a period of repentance, a time of renewal, and a reconciliation and joyful time for both us and for God. 

The fourth Sunday of Lent (April 14) is dedicated to Saint John of the Ladder

From the Lenten Triodion

‘Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. . . . glorify God with your body’ (1 Cor. 6 : 19-20).

     But it needs also to be said that fasting, as traditionally practiced in the Church, has always been difficult and has always involved hardship. Many of our contemporaries are willing to fast for reasons of health or beauty, in order to lose weight; cannot we Christians do as much for the sake of the heavenly Kingdom?

     Why should the self-denial gladly accepted by previous generations of Orthodox prove such an intolerable burden to their successors today? Once St. Seraphim of Sarov was asked why the miracles of grace, so abundantly manifest in the past, were no longer apparent in his own day, and to this he replied: Only one thing is lacking - a firm resolve’. 4

     The primary aim of fasting is to make us conscious of our dependence upon God. If practiced seriously, the Lenten abstinence from food - particularly in the opening days — involves a considerable measure of real hunger, and also a feeling of tiredness and physical exhaustion.

     The purpose of this is to lead us in turn to a sense of inward brokenness and contrition; to bring us, that is, to the point where we appreciate the full force of Christ’s statement, ‘Without Me you can do nothing’ (John 15 : 5).

4 See V. Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church (London, 1957), p. 216.

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