We present here a short educational offering for both children and adults on the upcoming Sunday's principle Gospel reading so that all can better prepare for the Divine Services. Parents are asked to review the children’s portion with their children. It is very important for us to attend the Divine Services on Sundays and whenever else we are able, but in addition it is our spiritual responsibility to educate ourselves and our families in the faith. It is our hope that this mid-week offering will be an aid in this regard. Please contact Fr. Gregory with questions or suggestions.

For Adults: from the writings of Blessed Theophylact

For Children: from the Antiochian Archdiocese (various age groups)

When God revealed himself, he united himself with our mortal nature in order to deify humanity through this close relation with deity. Since this is so, through his flesh, constituted by bread and wine, he implants himself in all believers.

+ St. Gregory of Nyssa

Please join us for a live broadcast of today's Divine Services beginning at 11:15 p.m. at the following link:

http://www.stvladimiraami.org:8000/liturgy.mp3

Please remember - the stream only broadcasts live services. If you would like to listen to previously recorded and edited services please visit our sound blog:

http://soundoftheparish.blogspot.com/

Please join us for our celebration of the Lord's Glorious Resurrection TONIGHT at St. Vladimir's! The schedule of services is:

9:00 p.m. Reading of the Acts of the Apostles
11:15 p.m. Paschal Midnight Office
12:00 a.m. Paschal Procession, Matins and Divine Liturgy

Following the Divine Liturgy: Parish Family Breakfast.

DON’T FORGET: NO LITURGY AT 10:00 A.M. ON PASCHA!
And don't forget our Paschal Vespers and Matins on SUNDAY at 2:00 p.m.!!!

Fr. Gregory, Matushka Elizabeth, Maria, Michael, and Natalia invite all St. Vladimir’s family and friends to their Paschal Open House on Bright Monday, April 29 beginning at 6:00 p.m. at their home in Saline. Please join them as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord! Don’t know where Fr. Gregory & family live? Email info@stvladimiraami.org or text 734-475-4590 (but don't email or text when you leave your house - that is too late - do so now)!

Today is Holy Friday, or Good Friday as it is often called in the west. Today is the most solemn of days – the strictest fasting day in the entire year. Beginning today at 9:00 a.m. we essentially live in the parish church, going home from time to time to rest. The schedule of services for this day is:

9:00 a.m. Royal Hours for Pascha
1:00 p.m. Vespers for Holy Saturday (Brining forth of the Burial Icon of Christ for Veneration of the Faithful)
6:00 p.m. Matins for Holy Saturday (Burial Service of Christ with Lamentations and Procession)

Please join us as your personal schedule allows – please join us not less than once today. We have many services so that everyone can attend at least some of the services. Please don't miss this day – it is important. Important for all of us as we keep watch with the Myrrh Bearing Women, Joseph, and Nicodemus as our Lord is taken down from the Cross, Buried, and begins His ascent into Hell, the captives of which have already anticipated their emancipation based on the preaching of St. John the Baptist there. When we are present in the parish church for the Divine Services we are mystical present at the actual historical/theological events that we commemorate. It is good to be with Christ in His glory on Pascha, but also important to be with Him on this most sober day of the year.

Please note that Great Lent began this year on March 11. Let us recall that fasting is a tool given to us by God to aid us spiritually. For some it is easy to fast, for others it is difficult. However, what is most important is that we make a sincere effort to follow the fast. Why? Simply because the fast helps us to see our sins by helping us to focus spiritually. Eating “light” foods, or perhaps rather, abstaining from “heavy” foods such as meats and cheeses, allows us to be less focused on our stomachs and more focused on our souls, and of course, in this season when we undergo our journey to the Resurrection of our Lord we dearly wish to improve ourselves spiritually that we might meet the risen Christ better than we were when we began Great Lent. St. John Chrysostom writes that we abstain from meats that we might abstain from our sins. This nicely sums up the reason the Holy Church, as a loving mother, gives us the gift of fasting. Pascha is April 28 – may these last few days of fasting help you to prepare for the Feast of Feasts and the Day of Days!

Paschal baskets will be blessed at St. Vladimir's following the Divine Liturgy on Holy Saturday as well as every subsequent Divine Service of Bright Week. It is most traditional for baskets to be blessed after the Divine Liturgy on Pascha itself, but we realize that this does not work for everyone's schedule, and thus we offer an early opportunity (after the Holy Saturday Divine Liturgy) and later opportunities (after every Divine Service of Bright Week). If you basket is blessed on Holy Saturday after Liturgy you agree that you will not partake of the non-Lenten foods until after the Divine Liturgy on Pascha night, for the fast does not end at midnight, but after the Divine Liturgy!

The full service schedule for Holy Week & Bright Week at St. Vladimir’s is available now at this link:

Holy Week & Bright Week Schedule
Please take time now to reserve in your personal schedule those services you attend every year. Then choose one more and add that one too! And if you are not a regular participant in the Holy Thursday evening services you really should be. On April 25 at 6:00 p.m. we will, God willing, execute one of the most beautiful and meaningful services of the year. Our choir works very hard to prepare for this service and we hope sincerely that NO ONE will miss this opportunity for us to be mystically present at the events surrounding the crucifixion of our Lord. There is nowhere else we should be on this evening but standing at the cross of the Lord – even as the disciples flee in fear. Do not join them! Join us at the cross of Christ by participating in this beautiful Divine Service!

When God became known to us in the flesh, He neither received the passions of human nature, nor did the Virgin Mary suffer pain, nor was the Holy Spirit diminished in any way, nor was the power of the Most High set aside in any manner, and all this was because all was accomplished by the Holy Spirit. thus the power of the Most High was not abased, and the child was born with no damage whatsoever to the mother’s virginity.

+ St. Gregory of Nyssa