Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

            Greetings and blessings to all on this day in which we celebrate the Nativity of St John the Baptist. We had a beautiful and quiet Liturgy this morning in his honor. Our Lord referred to St John the Baptist as ‘the greatest among those born of a woman’… high praise indeed! The entirety of St John’s life was a signpost pointing us to Jesus Christ. This morning I shared the following homily by Metropolitan Simon (Novikov) of Ryazan: Sermon on the Nativity of John the Forerunner / OrthoChristian.Com,

            This week we are in the final days of the Apostles’ Fast… the feast day of Sts Peter & Paul will be celebrated on Friday and Saturday of this coming week.

            On Saturday, July 5^th, many of our parishioners were blessed to participate in the celebrations for our holy hierarch and wonderworker St John of Shanghai and San Francisco. St John was truly a man of Apostolic fervor, impact, and grace. The Cathedral was packed with the faithful who had come from all over to stand in respect and devotion for our beloved archpastor. One of our parishioners counted 29 people from St Herman’s at the celebrations. That makes me very happy that so many of you were able to be there, to honor St John, and to receive the abundant blessings bestowed by him.

Our Bible Study continues the Gospel of St John. Class is held via Zoom on Wednesday evening at 7pm. The link is: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89738164102.

            Catechism class will be held Thursday at 6pm. These classes are open to all and cover a variety of topics about the faith. The Zoom link is: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81421729353

            As noted above, on Friday we will begin commemorating the Holy Apostles Peter & Paul. Vigil will begin at 6pm. Liturgy for the holy Apostles will be on Saturday morning at 9am.

            Saturday at 2pm we will have our ‘in person’ class in the Church Hall. We are continuing to be edified by the book ‘Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives’ by Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica.  All are welcome to join us!

God bless you and be with you!

Fr Martin