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PEACE AND GRACE, PARISHIONERS!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"God asks little, but He gives much."

+St. John Chrysostom

 

FOR YOUR EDIFICATION

"Love Became Man" by Fr. Antony Paul

 

KIAHK PRAISES & AGAPE MEAL

On Saturdays during the month of Kiahk, we will be praying the Kiahk midnight praises immediately following Vespers. In order to allow families to stay and participate without impacting bedtime for the kids, we will begin with the first several canticles and then break for a time of fellowship and a light meal together. For those who are able to stay, after the meal, we will resume Tasbeha. To bring food and snacks for the meals, please reach out to Silvia Guirguis.

 

CHURCH RETREAT

God willing, our parish will be holding a retreat over the holiday weekend, January 13-15. We are excited to share in a weekend filled with fellowship, edifying talks, and fun activities. More details are coming soon, but mark the weekend on your calendars now! We want our entire church family to participate, so if finances are an impediment to joining us on the retreat, please speak with Abouna Antony.

 

SERVICES & EVENTS THIS WEEK

Wednesday: FOCUS service: 3:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. (come any time!)

Thursday: San Diego Coptic Club: 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Friday: St. Katherine's Fellowship: 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Saturday: Vespers, Kiahk Praises, and Agape Meal: 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 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.