MANY YEARS to the newlyweds, Caleb and Rachel Tkach (nee Kocourek). They were wed yesterday afternoon by Fr Paul at St Mary’s Cathedral (OCA).

MEMORY ETERNAL. Kathy Lytle, a former parishioner of St Herman’s before she and her daughter, Anna, moved to Oklahoma City, fell asleep in the LORD yesterday morning.

NEWLY BLESSED WATERS of THEOPHANY will remain in the center of the Nave through next Sunday, Jan 19. After the Divine Liturgy next Sunday, the newly blessed waters will be poured into the container in the northeast corner of the nave.

HOME BLESSINGS. Fr Paul will begin blessing homes next Saturday. Let him know if you would like your home included in his rounds. Be sure to fill a jar with newly blessed waters from the Church on the Feast. Fr Paul will use these waters to bless your home.

PARISH COUNCIL meets this Tuesday, Jan 14, at 7 pm.

ALL-PARISH ANNUAL MEETING will be held on Sunday, Feb 2, after an abbreviated coffee hour. This is a business meeting of the parish, and so it is sacred business. We therefore hold our annual meetings upstairs in the nave. Annual reports, election of officers for the parish council, and election of a delegate to the All American Council held this summer in Phoenix, in July, will be the main items on the agenda.

DONATIONS TO THE DMD [Dakotas Mission District] can now be made online. Use the ‘Donate Online’ button at the bottom of the Diocesan website’s Home Page, or copy in your browser this URL:

https://domoca.org/donate-online/ Once there, fill out the form, and in the designation field, write DMD. Our diocesan treasurer will allocate the donated funds appropriately.

ST HERMAN’S PARISH SCHOOL of Orthodox Theology will focus this spring semester of the Myrrhbearing Women on Church History, following Fr John Strickland’s four volume series on the ‘Rise and Fall of What the West Once Was,’ together with Aristeides Papadakis’ ‘The Christian East and the Rise of the Papacy,’ and select titles on the history of the OCA. Those wishing to participate in the class (probably on Monday evenings), meet with Fr Paul this morning at the end of coffee hour upstairs in the nave. We’ll talk about format, schedule for the class, and other pertinent matters.

HIS EMINENCE, Archbishop Daniel visits us on Sunday, Feb 16 (the Sunday of our famous Chili Cook-off!), together with our Diocesan Vice-Chancellor, Fr Esteban Vasquez. They will speak on the ‘Vision of the Church Hidden in the Canons’ as guest lecturers of our Parish School of Orthodox Theology on Monday, Feb 17, from 7 – 9 pm. All are welcome to come to that class.

A CANDLE-MAKING WORKSHOP is being offered by Avery Peterson on Saturday, February 1, at 10 am in the basement of St. Herman's as part of our preparation for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Feb 2. The workshop will include a lecture on the Winter Feasts, the use of candles in the Church, and basic candle making techniques, followed by an opportunity for participants to make candles of their own. We will also be making candles for the Feast to be blessed and handed out to the faithful at the Vigil that evening and at the Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning. There is no fee for participating in the class; but to defray the cost of materials for the class, participants may consider a suggested donation of $15. We will be working with hot water and hot wax. Prudence, therefore, would not have parents bringing their children to the class with them.

OUR FIRST QUARTER CHARITY is ZOE, an Orthodox ministry for unwed mothers, centered in Cleveland, OH.

At that moment in the divine womb [qeia mhtra], the Holy Font, we receive the perfectly free gift of divine grace. And when we later cover over it – though we ought not to – by misusing these earthly things and worrying over mundane cares and the beguiling mist of the passions, we can still repent and fulfill the divine commandments, and thus return to that supernatural radiance and be restored to gaze on it in all its brilliance; this vision is revealed to each person according to the measure of his diligence in the faith, and even prior to that, by the LORD Jesus Christ’s help and good pleasure. In no way can we add to this grace; it is revealed to us and manifests itself in proportion to our labor in the commandments. Rather, it adds to our faith till we all come to the unity of the faith, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ [Eph 4.13]. Therefore anything that we have to offer after we have been regenerated in Him has already been given to us by Him, and it was already lying hidden within us.

St Kallistos & Ignatios Xanthopoulos. An Exact Rule and Method 6, Philokalia V, [Published by Virgin Mary of Australia and Oceania 2020] pp. 25-26