Dear ones at St. Luke's,

Christ is in our midst!

Tomorrow is Lazarus Saturday, Sunday is Palm Sunday, and then Holy Week is already here!

For our parish's complete 2007 Schedule of Holy Week and Pascha Services, please visit the calendar page on our St. Luke's website by simply clicking on the following link:

http://www.stlukesoc.org/parishlife/calendar/index.html

As you know, our Teen SOYO has always been instrumental in making the Holy Friday Vigil at the Tomb of Christ come to a spiritually beneficial fruition. This year is no different. We need teens and adults to sign-up to participate in the readings throughout the night. The Vigil will begin at 9pm on Friday night and last until 8am on Holy Saturday morning. The first two hours (from 9-11pm) have already been reserved for our younger children (under age 13) to read at the Tomb. Please see Pal Lengyel-Leahu regarding the first two hours.

The Holy Friday Vigil Sign-up Sheet will be available in the Narthex beginning with this evening's Little Compline Service. Please sign up and reserve your time slot/s as soon as possible!

For more helpful information about the Holy Friday Vigil, you can visit our Antiochian Archdiocese website at the following link: http://www.antiochian.org/great_friday_vigil

And, I will cut and paste (below) the Guidelines for Readers throughout the Holy Friday Vigil. These are also posted for easy reference in the Narthex.

With much love in Christ,

Fr. Michael

Guidelines for the Readers

THE ORDER OF THE READINGS: The order of Readings during the Holy Vigil is as follows: 1) The Lamentations 2) The Psalms 3) The Holy Gospels of St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke and St. John 4) The Acts of the Apostles. Repeat.

FOUR READERS EACH HOUR: Let's try to have at least four readers signed-up for every hour of the Holy Vigil throughout the night. Each reader is then be responsible to read for 15 minutes. You are welcome to sign up for more than one hour.

ARRIVE ON TIME: If, for example, you signed up to read from 2am-4am, please be here at 2am. The readers who were scheduled to finish at 2am will be expecting your arrival (so they may go home) and to continue the reading from where they've ended.

BY SIGNING UP TO READ DURING A PARTICULAR TIME, YOU'VE MADE A COMMITMENT TO BE HERE DURING THAT TIME, NOT SOME OTHER TIME: If, for example, you signed up to read from 6am-7am, but then suddenly decide that you will read from 9pm-10pm... two things happen. First, you take time away from those who made the commitment to be here from 9pm-10pm, forcing them to stay later in order to read. And second, you leave an empty time slot from 6am-7am, where you originally made a commitment to read, forcing someone else to unexpectedly cover you.

NO IDLE TALK IN THE CHURCH: Standing before tomb of God crucified in the flesh, our very Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we read in the utmost awe and reverence. If any other talking must occur, it may be proper to take place in the Fellowship Hall.

THIS IS NOT A SLEEP OVER/PARTY NIGHT: We must behave with holy reverence throughout the night, in anticipation of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

"Be ashamed when you sin, don't be ashamed when you repent.

There are two things: sin and repentance. Sin is the wound; repentance is the medicine. Sin is followed by shame; repentance is followed by boldness.

But Satan has overturned this order and given boldness to sin and shame to repentance."

+St. John Chrysostom

Dear ones in Christ at St. Luke's,

With heavy heart, I am writing you with the sad news that our beloved sister in Christ, Vida Shaer, fell asleep in the Lord this Tuesday evening, following a protracted and valliant struggle against cancer. May her memory be eternal! Our love and prayers are of course with her husband, Nadeem, her children, Helena and Jake, her parents and all her family.

The funeral service for Vida will take place at St. Luke's this Saturday, March 17th at 11am. Her burial will follow at Memory Garden Memorial Park in Brea. See http://www.memorygarden.com for their address and map. Afterwards, we will return to St. Luke's for the Meal of Mercy.

The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, donations in loving memory of Vida can be made to St. Luke's.

Vida will be greatly missed. In her, God blessed us with such a wonderful example, an icon, of a faithful and virtuous Christian woman.

May her memory be eternal!

Dear ones at St. Luke's: I've just received the following update on a recent development at the Martha and Mary House. It is so inspirational and such a blessing, that I wanted to share it with all the faithful at St. Luke's. After you've read the following letter, you'll know why I entitled this communication "Through the prayers of our holy fathers..."!

We've had a fascinating development at Martha and Mary House that I thought you would find interesting. One of the recurring challenges has been finding a good way to transport everyone at MMH together in one vehicle, especially at times when the house is operating at full capacity. Since Sarah has gotten to know the service manager at the local Toyota dealership over recent years, she sought some advice from him about what sort of moderately-priced used van might make sense for MMH. She also sought the prayers of many, including St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco, to whom she is very devoted. Likewise, the dealership service manger agreed to pray on the matter, even though he cautioned that he "was not very much of a churchgoer".

Recently Sarah became aware of a particular used van, and sought the service manager's advice. He felt strongly that the vehicle in question was not appropriate -- probably due to concerns about reliability. His counsel was to look for a used Toyota Siena, a full-sized van. However, the estimated price seemed out of range.

Based on the "Siena" advice, Sarah earnestly sought the help of St. John of Shanghai. The result was a phone call she received shortly thereafter. A couple in X county called MMH to say that they had a perfectly good, low-mileage Toyota Siena van, and that they would be happy to donate it to MMH if there were any need for such a vehicle!

A wonderful turn of events, and a testament to the prayers of all, including our saintly forbearers.