Looking Ahead at Special Events:

• Saturday, July 20: Forty Day Panikhida, Robert Osborne, 7:15 pm.

• Saturday, July 27: General Confession, 5 pm.

• Sunday, July 28: Council Meeting after Liturgy.

• Thursday, August 1: Start of Dormition Fast.

• Monday, August 5: Great Vespers, 7 pm for Transfiguration.

• Tuesday, August 6: Liturgy, 10 am for Transfiguration.

• Friday, August 9: Liturgy, 10 am for Feast of St. Herman. 

• Wednesday, August 14: Great Vespers, 7 pm for Dormition.

• Thursday, August 15: Liturgy, 10 am for Dormition.

• Saturday, August 24: General Confession, 5 pm.

• Sunday, August 25: Council Meeting after Liturgy.

Feasts of Blessings:

As a sign of Christ’s sanctification of creation through the Incarnation, it is customary for Orthodox Christians to bring various items to the Church for a blessing throughout the year. For instance:

On August 5 and 6, the Eve and the Day of Transfiguration, we bring baskets of fruit and vegetables to be blessed.

As Fr. Thomas Hopko explains: “The blessing of grapes, as well as other fruits and vegetables on this day, is the most beautiful and adequate sign of the final transfiguration of all things in Christ. It signifies the ultimate flowering and fruitfulness of all creation in the paradise of God’s unending Kingdom of Life, where all will be transformed by the glory of the Lord.”

In days gone by, some parishes even in America would make Communion wine from the grapes blessed on this feast.  This was a short-lived but successful practice years ago, in one local DFW Church.

On August 14 and 15, on the Eve and Day of Dormition, we bring for a blessing, vases or bouquets of flowers, as well as diverse herbs and seeds.

According to custom, flowers and herbs are blessed on Dormition in remembrance of the flowers and sweet aroma that the Apostles found in the tomb of Mary, days after her burial and her being taken up into Heaven. In various cultures, parishes would make incense for services from the actual flowers and herbs. Undoubtedly this remains the practice in many areas of the world to this day, where parishioners possess such skills.