Welcome
Welcome, and thank you for visiting St. Mary Orthodox Church online. We hope that our website highlights the wide variety of worship, fellowship, ministery and education opportunities available. Please feel free to read more about our church on this site, or come join with us in prayer. We would love to greet you and share with you our love for Jesus Christ and for you, our neighbor.
Sunday, March 8, 2026
files/Bulletin-March-8th.pdf (3452kb)
files/Mar-08-2026-Bilingual-READ.rtf (221kb)
God Knows What We Need
Every prayer directed to God in faith is answered. This does not mean that what is asked is always given, for God knows better than the person who prays what is good for him. For this reason, the spiritual teachers of the Church have warned man against being too long and insistent in his concrete demands of the Lord. God knows best what is needed, and in order to prove this to His servants, He may at times yield to their insistent demands and give what they want, but should not have, in order to show them quite clearly that they should have trusted in His wisdom. Thus, it is always best to be silent and brief in prayer, and not too specifically demanding. It is always best to pray: “Give what is needed, O Lord. Thy will be done.”
"How many times have I prayed for what seemed a good thing for me, and not leaving it to God to do, as He knows best, what is useful for me. But having obtained what I begged for, I found myself in distress because I had not asked for it to be, rather, according to God’s will . . ." (+Saint Nilus of Sinai)
-Fr. Thomas Hopko (The Orthodox Faith: Prayer)
NOTES...
- Attached to this email is The Weekly Bulletin and Metropolitan Saba's Teaching.
- This Sunday, our Ladies Society will host their 2nd Lenten Lunch (Soup and Salad) to benefit the 'Endowment for "Widowed Clergy Wives." Donation $10.00 for adults; Free-Will Offering for 12 years and under. Thank you for supporting our Antiochian Women Project.
- This Sunday, beginning at 12:30 PM, "Day in the Park" for all the children of our church at South Olive Park. Bring towels, a change of clothes, outdoor toys and sports equipment, and food to share.
- Join us in Prayer this coming week at Saint Mary's:
Sunday, March 8th: 2nd Sunday of Great Lent
- Confessions from 8:30 to 8:50 AM
- Matins at 8:50 AM; Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil at 10:00 AM
Monday, March 9th
- Confessions from 6:30 to 7:00 PM
- Great Compline Service at 7:00 PM
Wednesday, March 11th
- Confessions from 6:30 to 7:00 PM
- Presanctified Liturgy at 7:00 PM
Friday, March 13th
- Confessions from 6:30 to 7:00 PM
- Little Compline with the 3rd Akathist (Supplication) Hymn at 7:00 PM.
**NO Vespers Service this Saturday, March 7th.
- Do not forget to set your clocks ahead one hour before you go to sleep on Saturday evening.
With love in Christ,
Fr. Peter
Sunday, March 1, 2026
files/Bulletin-March-1st.pdf (2646kb)
files/The-Orthodox-Liturgy.pdf (74kb)
The Image of God
Have you ever wondered why the priest censes both the icons and the people during the services? Simply, when offering incense, the priest censes all the holy images in the church—the altar table, the icons and the people. You might be thinking, “I understand censing the icons. They depict images of holiness. But what about the people? We aren’t holy like the images in the icons.” When we read the story of creation in Genesis, God creates light, heaven, earth, seas, plants, the sun, the moon, the stars and animals. As He does this, God looks at what He has created and beholds that it is good. However, He creates man different from anything else He created. He created man in His own image. In Genesis 1:26, we read “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’” In Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him. Male and female He created them.” The Greek word for “image” is “eikon” from which we get the word “icon.” In other words, let us make man into a holy image of God.
In the church, we venerate icons. We are careful with them. Why? Because they are images of holiness and are to be treated with respect and devotion. Imagine if we take the same care of one another that we did with the icons in our church. If we reverenced one another. If we deal with one another with respect. We are all created by God as icons of His holiness. Thus, we should act this way, and treat one another this way. The reason why the priest is censing the holy icons as well as the people is that we are all called to be images of holiness, reflections of God—the icons who represent the saints (those who have achieved holiness) and the people (the ones who are striving to be holy).
Notes...
- Attached to this week's email is The Weekly Bulletin and Metropolitan Saba's teaching.
- This coming Sunday (March 1st) is "Sunday of Orthodoxy." It is tradition that a Procession of Icons is held at the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy in commemoration of the restoration of Icons in the 9th Century. Those who wish may bring an icon from home and participate in the procession that will take place after Communion.
- The next five Monday's, a 'Lenten Talk' will be given immediately following the Great Compline Service (7:00 PM), focusing on how to use the time of Great Lent for spiritual growth. Please join us for the service and lenten talk.
Pray with us this coming week at Saint Mary's:
Saturday, February 28th:
-No Vespers Service at Saint Mary. Join us for "Orthodoxy Vespers" at Saint Mark Greek Orthodox Church, Boca Raton, beginning at 5:00 PM.
Sunday, March 1st - First Sunday of Great Lent:
-Confessions from 8:30 to 8:50 AM; Matins at 8:50 AM; Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great at 10:00 AM, followed by the Procession of Icons. -Trisagion (Memorial) Service for the repose of Steve Johnson (1 Year), Scott Johnson (1 Year) and Demetra Galazoudis (1 Year).
Monday, March 2nd:
-Confessions from 6:30 to 7:00 PM.
-Great Compline Service at 7:00 PM.
Wednesday, March 4th:
-Confessions from 6:30 to 7:00 PM.
-Presanctified Liturgy at 7:00 PM.
Friday, March 6th:
-Confessions from 6:30 to 7:00 PM.
-Little Compline with the Akathist Hymn at 7:00PM.
"God gave people the word "love" so that they could call their relationship to Him by this name. When people misuse this word to refer to their relationship with earthly things, it loses its meaning." +Saint Nicholas of Serbia
With love in Christ,
Fr. Peter
