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

 Come and Celebrate with Us! 

Sunday March 24th at 10 AM

Great Vesper Saturday March 23rd at 5 PM

1st Sunday of Great Lent: Sunday of Orthodoxy

Originally, the Prophets Moses, Aaron, and Samuel were commemorated on this Sunday. The Alleluia verses appointed for today’s Liturgy reflect this older usage.  Today we commemorate the “Triumph of Orthodoxy,” the restoration of the holy icons in the reign of the holy Empress Theodora (February 11).

 

Troparion — Tone 2

We venerate Your most pure image, O Good One,

and ask forgiveness of our transgressions, O Christ God.

Of Your own will You were pleased to ascend the Cross in the flesh

to deliver Your creatures from bondage to the enemy.

Therefore with thanksgiving we cry aloud to You:

You have filled all with joy, O our Savior,

by coming to save the world.

 

Kontakion — Tone 8

No one could describe the Word of the Father;

but when He took flesh from you, O Theotokos,

He accepted to be described,

and restored the fallen image to its former beauty.

We confess and proclaim our salvation in word and images. 

 

Bring an icon to church today and participate in our celebration

 

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!

From the Lenten Triodion:

 The Meaning of the Great Fast  

 

     ‘We waited, and at last our expectations were fulfilled’, writes  the Serbian Bishop Nikolai of Ochrid, describing the Easter service  at Jerusalem. ‘When the Patriarch sang “Christ is risen”, a heavy  burden fell from our souls. We felt as if we also had been raised  from the dead.  All at once, from all around, the same cry resounded  like the noise of many waters. “Christ is risen” sang the Greeks, the  Russians, the Arabs, the Serbs, the Copts, the Armenians, the  Ethiopians — one after another, each in his own tongue, in his own  melody. . . . Coming out from the service at dawn, we began to regard  everything in the light of the glory of Christ’s Resurrection,  and all appeared different from what it had yesterday; everything  seemed better, more expressive, more glorious. Only in the light of  the Resurrection does life receive meaning.’ 1

 

     This sense of resurrection joy, so vividly described by Bishop  Nikolai, forms the foundation of all the worship of the Orthodox  Church; it is the one and only basis for our Christian life and hope.  Yet, in order for us to experience the full power of this Paschal rejoicing,each of us needs to pass through a time of preparation. ’We waited,’ says Bishop Nikolai, ‘and at last our expectations were fulfilled.’  Without this waiting, without this expectant preparation, the deeper meaning of the Easter celebration will be lost

 

1 Bishop Nikolai (Velimirovich), Missionary Letters: abbreviated from the translation in The Journal o f the Fellowship o f  St. Alban and St. Sergius, no. 24 (19 34 ), pp. 26 -7.

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

 

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

"Remember our higher calling as human beings"

March 10, 2024


"It is God 's desire make us whole and human"

February 25, 2024


From the Lenten Triodion

 

The True Nature of Fasting

      What do we find, then, in this book of preparation that we term the Lenten Triodion?  It can most briefly be described as the book of the fast.  Just as the children of Israel ate the ‘bread of affliction’ (Deut. 1 6:3) in preparation for the Passover, so Christians prepare themselves for the celebration of the New Passover by observing a fast.      

     But what is meant by this word ‘fast’ (nisteia)? Here the utmost care is needed, so as to preserve a proper balance between the outward and the inward.  On the outward level fasting involves physical abstinence from food and drink, and without such exterior abstinence a full and true fast cannot be kept; yet the rules about eating and drinking must never be treated as an end in themselves, for ascetic fasting has always an inward and unseen purpose. 

     Man is a unity of body and soul, ‘a living creature fashioned from natures visible and invisible’, in the words of the Triodion;3 and our ascetic fasting should therefore involve both these natures at once.  The tendency to over-emphasize external rules about food in a legalistic way, and the opposite tendency to scorn these rules as outdated and unnecessary, are both alike to be deplored as a betrayal of true Orthodoxy. In both cases the proper balance between the outward and the inward has been impaired.

 

3 Vespers for Saturday of the Dead

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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