Dear brethren,

We pray that the Lord gives us all a spiritual blessing in this lent period with growth in our personal relationship with Him. Our holy fathers taught us that this time of the year is our spiritual gathering, that we may store spiritual exercises and good deeds to put us a step forward and continue on this for the rest of the year. As much as we sow in this time we will definitely reap.

It is beneficial to revise the Sunday Gospel readings which lay down a complete spiritual plan for us. A good exercise would be to correlate the daily readings with the Sunday gospel.

v Preparatory Sunday (Math 6: 1-18): preparing for this fasting trip: do all for the name of Jesus, not for self or for others to see you as you pray, fast or give to the needy.

v First Sunday: treasures (Math 6: 19-33): do not worry, if your are rich your real treasure is in heaven, if you are poor God will provide.

v Sunday of temptation (Mat 4: 1-11): Satin wants to doubt God’s love to us, but we should trust that He has defeated Satin for us.

v Sunday of prodigal son (Luke 15: 11-32): even if I sin and fall, I’m still His son and this will never change.

v Sunday of the Samaritan woman (John 4: 1-42): all who drink of the world’s water will thirst again and will never be fulfilled, only Christ can fulfill us.

v Sunday of the paralytic (John 5: 1-18): experiences of faith make us closer to God as we cry on to Him, we know Him at a deeper level.

v Sunday of blind man (John 9: 1-41): healing our inner sight to know God truthfully.

v Palm Sunday: the beginning of the Holy Week and bearing the cross with Him.

v Resurrection: “if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Rom 8: 17).

Hereunder is the schedule of the liturgies in our church during the Holy Lent:

v Wednesday:            10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

v Friday:                     3:30 – 6:30 p.m.

We have attached the liturgy timetable for our neighboring churches during the Holy Lent so that everyone can choose a suitable mass according to their schedules.

We would like to remind you of our annual celebration of the feast of His Holiness Pope Kyrollos VI on Saturday March 7^th at 7:30 p.m. during the vesper prayers.

Asking you to remember the church, its priest, servants and all its services always in your prayers, and may the blessings of St. Mary and St. Mercurius, and the blessings of this Holy Lent be with us always Amen.

Fr. Youssef Halim

Belleville, February 26, 2009

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