Video Messages from Fr. Timothy

May 5, 2020: Streaming from Home

May 1, 2020: We Are Being Home Schooled!

Doors Closed - Church Open!

Paschal Message from Fr. Timothy

Holy Saturday Message from Fr. Timothy

Holy Friday Message from Fr. Timothy

Holy Thursday Message from Fr. Timothy

Holy Wednesday Message from Fr. Timothy

Holy Tuesday Message from Fr. Timothy

Holy Monday Message from Fr. Timothy

Message from April 10, 2020

April 10, 2020

Beloved in Christ,

As we begin this Holy Week - confined to our homes - please know that we are united in a most real way through our joint prayers and our continued concern for the well being and health of our St. George parish family. Beginning this afternoon, our services will be live-streamed with His Grace Bishop John presiding. We are invited to ‘join’ Bishop John in offering these most sacred prayers and services.

Today, we received some up-dated guidelines from Metropolitan Joseph that included the following directive;

We should not offer hours for the faithful to visit the churches and light candles until further notice. We now know that the virus can remain airborne in closed spaces for long periods of time. For the safety of all involved this needs to stop until things calm down. Bottom line, churches are closed except for the people (maximum of 5) conducting the services until further notice.

In compliance with this sound advice we are, as of now, closing the church to all visitors. Please light candles before your home icons and offer your prayers together as a family from your ‘home church’ while following the services on-line.

Since we cannot physically be together for Holy Week we encourage you to follow the links below as excellent resource for how to have “Holy Week at Home” (English Version or Arabic Version). Also, please attend the services from home via our Facebook page.

God Bless and preserve you during this awesome and Holy Week,
with Love and Prayers, Fr Timothy

All services will be livestreamed through the parish Facebook page
and also posted on our website at http://www.stgeorgeofboston.org/livestream

 

Message from Fr. Timothy - April 8

“And when midnight comes
All creatures and all flesh will fall silent
On hearing spring put forth its rumor
That just as soon as there is better weather
Death itself can be overcome
Through the power of the Resurrection.”

From the poem “Holy Week” by Boris Pasternak

Beloved In Christ,

This year’s Holy Week and Pascha will undoubtedly be unlike any other we have experienced. The anticipation of the Resurrection is customarily accompanied by us assembling as a parish for the divine services, for common prayer, processions, reception of the sacraments, washing of feet, veneration of the cross and holy icons, candles, palms, flowers, died eggs, a common meal and the joyous exchange of the Paschal greeting ‘Christ Is Risen” and so much more. No, this year we do not feel this common experience of anticipation and celebration in exactly the same way. In this sense we may be more like the apostles and disciples on that first Easter, they were not gathered in church together singing and celebrating Christ’s victory over death, instead they were locked in at home in fear of the outside world. And the Risen Christ came to them bringing His peace.

This year we will offer our prayers ‘together’ while remaining safe in our own homes. Our ‘cyber-church’ allows us to come together via internet and to ‘participate’ in the services we love so much. We have scheduled a full cycle of divine services beginning this Friday evening with the commemoration of St. Lazarus and continuing thru our Paschal Divine Liturgy on Easter Sunday morning. Please join us from the St. George Website (http://www.stgeorgeofboston.org/livestream) or the parish Facebook page, a schedule of times is listed below.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I too will be ‘joining’ you from home as I am on precautionary self-confinement for the next two weeks. His Grace Bishop John has graciously volunteered to serve our community by offering all the regular services and we are most grateful for this special blessing. Please note that the celebration of these services in the church building is limited to a maximum of five persons only. Only Bishop John, one server, two chanters and one audio/video operator will be permitted at church, please respect this necessary precaution --and stay at home. All of the evening services are scheduled for 5pm in consideration of the curfew in place in Boston.

Let us all pray fervently for one another during this Holy Week as together we anticipate the good news that, “death itself can be overcome through the power of the Resurrection”

– God Bless and be safe,
With Love and Prayers, Fr Timothy

Message from Fr. Timothy - March 27

Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, 
 
We pray that all of our St. George parish family is safe and well as we adjust to this new COVID-19 lifestyle. Our Lenten rhythm was abruptly interrupted after two short weeks as we implemented the extraordinary precautions advised by our public health experts in hopes of stemming this pandemic. 
 
At the advise of our Metropolitan +JOSEPH, our liturgical services are limited to Friday and Sunday with only clergy and chanters participating. In the absence of the faithful assembling at church as usual, we are ‘live-streaming’ our services on-line and asking you to join us from your ‘home church’ and offer these meaningful prayers and Liturgies together. As of now, we do not know what our Holy Week and Pascha will look like – quite possible it will remain as is – in which case we will not diminish our fervor, expectation and joy. Though separated physically we remain strongly united in mind, spirit and soul as together we offer our heartfelt prayers for each other and our precious and God protected St. George family. 
 
Fran, Douglas, Angelo and myself are ‘working from home’ [your home; St George Church] we are here each day tending to the needs of the community as best we can, please remember us in your prayers. We are keeping in touch with each other via phone and social media. The weekly bulletin and monthly Messenger are published on-line and mailings are prepared, sorted and sent out keeping us in communication with each other. Important meetings; Ways and Means and Parish Council for example are now convened on-line via ZOOM. The church remains open each day for you to stop by and light a candle, receive confession or communion and to offer your prayers. 
 
Anticipating our commemoration of Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Pascha we encourage you to offer prayers as usual for ‘the health of’ and ‘in memory of’ our family members, friends and those suffering from this pandemic here and around the world. You can also make an offering for special Liturgical items that we typically need during this Holy Season; altar bread, wine, flowers, paschal candles, anointing oil, incense, palms and Easter eggs. You can submit your special intentions for prayers and offerings at the secure link  to the right – please do so by April 8th so we can publish in the bulletin.  
 
As we approach Holy Week, we pray you remain safe and stay well as we remember each other in our prayers. 
With Love and Blessings,
Fr. Timothy

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