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Peace and grace, parishioners!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Each person, in their thoughts, must engage in the struggle against evil so that Christ may shine in the heart."

+St. Macarius the Great, commemorated on 16 January/8 Tobe

FOR YOUR EDIFICATION

"St. Basil and the Beauty of Creation"

THANKS FOR A BLESSED RETREAT!

By the grace of God, we concluded our first annual retreat yesterday. I cannot articulate how joyous and happy I was by the participation and love that was shown by all who were in attendance. The laughter, the games, the talent, the mingling and the discussions were immensely edifying and profitable. For those who were not able to attend, please try and make sure that you can on the next occasion. I thank again the four who put so much time into getting all of this together with such short notice on behalf of us all. It was an immense success, and your labour of love was not unnoticed. May the Lord recompense you here and in the age to come, and may the Lord keep us all of one another as well. - Abouna Antony

SERVICES & EVENTS THIS WEEK

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

Blessing of the Waters and Liturgy for Theophany: 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Thursday: UCSD Coptic Club: 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Saturday: Vespers & Midnight Praise: 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

 Adult Education Class: 6:45 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. (Ask Abouna! Q&A)

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.

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.