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PEACE AND GRACE, PARISHIONERS!
St. James the Mangled, commemorated on 6 December/27 Hathor
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"If we truly think of Christ as our source of holiness, we shall refrain from anything wicked or impure in thought or act and thus show ourselves to be worthy bearers of His name. For the quality of holiness is shown not by what we say, but by what we do in life."
+St. Gregory of Nyssa, commemorated on 5 December/26 Hathor
FOR YOUR EDIFICATION
"The Angel of the Lord and the Burning Bush" by Fr. Moses Samaan
SERVANTS' DAY AND RECEPTION OF FR. ANDREW ON DEC. 10TH
On December 10th, our parish has been invited to join with St. Paul American Coptic Orthodox Church in Tustin for their servants' spiritual day. It will begin at 8 a.m. with Liturgy at St. Paul's (3002 Dow Ave Suite, #140, Tustin, CA 92780), followed by talks by Fr. Andrew, Fr. Antony, and Fr. Kyrillos. The spiritual day will continue until Vespers. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. If you plan to attend the servants' spiritual day, please RSVP to Mary so we can let St. Paul's servants know how many additional people to prepare food for.
Vespers will begin at 6 p.m., and will include the service to receive Fr. Andrew upon his return from his time in Egypt. All parishioners are encouraged to attend Vespers in support of Fr. Andrew. We will not be praying Vespers at St. Basil's on Saturday the 10th.
SERVICES & EVENTS THIS WEEK
Wednesday: FOCUS service: 3:00 p.m. - 8 p.m. (come anytime!)
Thursday: UCSD Coptic Club: 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Friday: Divine Liturgy: 6:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.
St. Basil Fellowship: 8:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.
Saturday: Vespers AT ST. PAUL'S IN TUSTIN w/reception of Fr. Andrew: 6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Sunday: Divine Liturgy: 8:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
FOCUS SAN DIEGO
Each Wednesday, volunteers from all of the Orthodox parishes in San Diego county work together through FOCUS at God's Extended Hand to help provide meals for the hungry. God's Extended Hand has been providing food and shelter to people in downtown San Diego since 1924 at 1625 Island Ave., San Diego, CA 92101. Teenagers and young adults from all parishes are asked to volunteer the 1st Wednesday of every month, and all the congregants of St. Basil's are asked to serve on the 3rd and 4th Wednesdays of the month; for months that have a 5th Wednesday, FOCUS asks all parishes to volunteer on that day. Help is needed with preparing and cooking the food from 3:00-6:00pm and serving the food and cleaning up from 6:20-7:00pm. Children are welcome to help their parents serve. Please stop by for any amount of time you can serve each week! If you have any questions, please contact Mary Jensen.
SAN DIEGO COPTIC CLUB
The San Diego Coptic Club is a fellowship for the college-aged youth of San Diego and hosts weekly spiritual meetings and social events. The meetings take place every week on Thursday evenings at 7 pm, alternating between spiritual meetings at the UC San Diego campus in La Jolla and social events which are held at a variety of places, like the beach, bowling, and many more! Coptic Club provides a fellowship to help youth grow in the love of Christ together and have a bond of unity in His name during a critical time of their lives. If you have questions or to join their mailing list, please reach out to Mariam Guirguis and David Kneiber.
NATIVITY FEAST CHURCH DINNER
God willing, on Sunday, January 8th, St. Basil's will be hosting a dinner and celebration for the Feast of the Nativity. We would like our youth to have the opportunity to share their gifts and talents with their church family, so all youth are invited to participate and share their musical, artistic, and other gifts. If you or your children are interested in participating, or you can contribute food, please let Fr. Antony know.
NATIVITY FAST
November 25th marked the first day of the "Little Fast," also known as the Nativity Fast. It's also sometimes called "the Winter Lent". Fasting is not just about changing ingredients; it should be a real spiritual discipline with goals. Technically, all the faithful are supposed to be fasting the fast if they wish to partake of Eucharist. At the same time, I know that I am not everyone's spiritual father, and I know that there are limitations to people fasting that need to be considered. I encourage each of you to take the discipline seriously and to consult with your spiritual father for an appropriate prescription for your fasting period, as well as what spiritual disciplines to partake of during this blessed time. If you want to sit with me to talk about it, no problem! We can arrange a program for each to follow. We'll be discussing the fast during the Sermons and possibly take on a book study for this period. May the Lord bless this fast for all of us and let it be a source of fruit to all of us. -Abouna Antony
WEBSITE & HYMNS
We encourage all congregants to take some time to check out the parish website.
All are also encouraged to listen to the liturgical hymns as they are chanted at St. Basil, which can be found here.
FOOD & CLEAN-UP
To sign up to bring food for the agape meal on Sundays, please see the bulletin board at church or contact Erene Hanna. We need as many volunteers as possible to keep the church clean on Sundays after the Divine Liturgy. Please consider this important expression of stewardship.