Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

            What a great blessing we experienced this weekend with the visit of Mother of God in her Kursk Root Icon. I was so happy to see so many in the church and the service was just beautiful with everyone praying together before our shared Mother and Intercessor before the Lord. I pray that the grace which visited us this past weekend will remain in your hearts and that your prayers will find swift transportation before our Lord as you prayed before this wondrous icon.

            I share with you a short three-minute video of the Kursk Icon’s initial return to Russia about 15 years ago. The icon is brought out of the plane by Patriarch Kyril and behind him is our previous first hierarch, Metropolitan Hilarion of blessed memory. Check out the thousands of people processing through the streets in honor of this historic and wonderworking icon. Speaking to some of the clergy that accompanied the icon on this trip to Russia, they mentioned in awe how people stood in line for 8 to 10 hours in all kinds of weather to have a few seconds to venerate her. We are SO blessed to be able to have the icon come to our little parish! Here is the video: Kursk Root Icon Procession

            I will be traveling down to my former parish in LA this week to perform a baptism there for some old parishioners of mine. That being the case, we will not have our usual Wednesday evening Bible Study this week.

Catechism, led by Fr Andrew, will be at 6pm on Thursday evening. The Zoom link is: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81421729353

Our Saturday afternoon class at 2pm in the Church Hall will take place this coming Saturday. We are continuing with the ‘Layman’s Guide to the Ladder of Divine Ascent’.

Fr Andrew and I are still making the rounds of Theophany house blessings. Please contact Fr Andrew (agliga4@gmail.com 408-250-0486) or me (frmartinp@gmail.com 714-408-6456) to schedule a visit to bless your home.

May God bless you… I wish you a wonderful week,

Fr Martin