Today marks the feast of the Protection of the Mother of God. This is the patronal feast day of our Diocesan Cathedral in Des Plaines/Chicago, IL and thus there will be no services at St. Vladimir's today. Please join us in wishing a blessed feast day to our brothers and sisters at the Cathedral in Chicago, as well as those in our other diocesan parishes celebrating their feast days today as well. Below please find a short explanation of the feast.

English:

http://oca.org/saints/lives/2014/10/01/ ... d-and-ever

Russian:

http://days.pravoslavie.ru/Life/life1638.htm

Following the Divine Liturgy on Sunday, October 12 we will have a short memorial for the departed in commemoration of the one-year anniversary of the repose of our parish's first Starosta, Milivoje Radulovic. Please plan to join us and if you cannot – please especially remember Milo in your prayers on the anniversary of his repose.

Please join us for our planned adult discussion group meetings at 7:00 p.m. on the following dates:

September 12, 2014
October 30, 2014
November 21, 2014
December 19, 2014

Lenten snacks and sweets will be offered at the meetings (except for October 30, which is not a fast day). All meetings will take place at Fr. Gregory's home in Saline, MI. Topics will be determined in advance and suggestions are welcome to Fr. Gregory at ogrisha@stvladimiraami.org – please join us! At the request of some of our parish family we will include more catechetical information in our discussions. These will not be catechism classes by any means, but there are ways to learn more about our faith while discussing contemporary issues and we will do our best to make these discussions both interesting and informative. All are welcome – invite friends!

Today marks the civil holiday of Labor Day. On this day we remember those who fought for workers' rights in America and founded the first labor unions to protect workers and organize to collectively negotiate with management to increase workers' pay, increase safety in the work place, and other similar labor advances. Although no doubt there is much debate among our parish family members about the efficacy of unions in our days this is not the point of this post. Rather, it is informative for us to understand that the nascent labor movement practically got its start here in Michigan in the auto plants of Flint and Detroit. There is no doubt that workers' rights – especially safety – were sorely lacking in those days. As Orthodox Christians we thank God for the life He has given us. We must be lovers of labor and work diligently and sincerely as a Christian duty. This is not to say we should accept abuse – not by any means. But the Lord has kindly arranged the world that we would work for our daily bread. Let us thank God that He has given us this order, and that he has provided us the opportunity to work and to support our families in peace here in America. We are people of hope, people of love, and people of thankfulness. We have much to thank God for as regards our ability to work safely here in America. Today is a day that allows us to concentrate on that thankfulness. Let us take a moment today to do that and not forget that this is not just a day off of work, but a day to thank God for His love and mercy towards us.

Our parish family member, Dmitri Apostolou, offers tutoring in math and science subjects via the organization he has co-founded called “Teaching the World”. Tutoring is free, but donations are accepted to support one scholarship awarded to a student at Washtenaw Community College each semester. Dimitri accepts students from 3:00-5:30 p.m. Mondays. Please contact him for more information: (734)-355-6981, or email: DimitriPA<AT>gmail.com.