The Lord has entrusted us with the Pearl of Great Price – the Orthodox Faith. Are we hiding this? Are we keeping it for ourselves? Or are we following the example of the Apostles and working actively to spread our saving faith? If you had the cure for a bodily disease like cancer you would never keep that to yourself – it is obvious that this would be unethical and sinful. But we have the cure for DEATH! And sadly – we mostly keep it to ourselves. And that is even more unethical and sinful that hiding the cure for any bodily disease. Share your faith. Invite a friend, loved one, or neighbor to the Divine Services this coming weekend – and assure them that you will be there to welcome them to St. Vladimir’s. If we would all do this – if we would make just a minimal effort to invite others – we would need to seriously rethink the size of the new church we plan to build because it would be way TOO SMALL. Let’s do that. Let’s make all our plans useless because there are just too many people in our parish family! Success only comes before work in the dictionary – let us get to work spreading our Orthodox Faith by simply inviting others to join us at St. Vladimir’s!

Alpha House is the shelter in Washtenaw County for homeless families. And it is not far from St. Vladimir’s! We volunteer at Alpha House regularly – providing brunch to the residents there – and this is a great opportunity to help others in need – to live the Matthew 25 instructions of our Lord in a real way. Please contact out Alpha House Volunteer Coordinator, Addie Lanterman, at 231-690-3194 or addielanterman@gmail.com with questions or to volunteer. Learn more about Alpha House volunteering at the links below.

SEVEN THINGS ALPHA HOUSE VOLUNTEERS SHOULD KNOW

GUIDELINES TO BRUNCH AT ALPHA HOUSE
Below are the St. Vladimir's brunch dates for 2019, all Sundays:

February 3
March 24
March 31 (yes, this is two weeks in a row)
May 5
June 23
July 14
August 11
September 1
October 6
November 3
December 8

We are pleased to offer plots in our parish cemetery for sale. To learn more please review the Regulations, Rules, and License Agreement at this link:

REGULATIONS, RULES, LICENSE AGREEMENT
You can see the plot map of those spaces available at this link:

LATEST PLOT MAP WITH SPACES AVAILABLE
Please note that parish members receive a discount on the cost of cemetery plots. To learn more about parish membership please visit this link:

ST. VLADIMIR PARISH MEMBERSHIP FORM
Questions or more information: cemetery@stvladimiraami.org

We present here a short educational offering for both children and adults on the upcoming Sunday's principle Gospel reading so that all can better prepare for the Divine Services. Parents are asked to review the children’s portion with their children. It is very important for us to attend the Divine Services on Sundays and whenever else we are able, but in addition it is our spiritual responsibility to educate ourselves and our families in the faith. It is our hope that this mid-week offering will be an aid in this regard. Please contact Fr. Gregory with questions or suggestions.

For Adults: from the writings of Blessed Theophylact

For Children: from the Antiochian Archdiocese (various age groups)

Learning Orthodoxy is a class for adults who wish to learn more about the Orthodox faith. This class is open and accessible to all who wish to come, whether they are an Orthodox Christian or someone curious about Orthodox Christianity. Each week we will present a lesson followed by questions and answers. We will meet on Wednesday evenings following the Akathist for the Ill. The akathist begins at 6:00 p.m. and the class will begin at 7:00 p.m. Please contact Reader Colin Bower at cmbower10@gmail.com for questions!

CLASS SCHEDULE & SYLLABUS

NOTE THAT VIGIL IS AT 6:00 P.M. AS USUAL, BUT LITURGY STARTS AN HOUR EARLIER AT 9:00 A.M.

INVITE FRIENDS! ALL ARE WELCOME!!!

Most of us use Amazon. Why not do that shopping on Amazon Smile (smile.amazon.com) and choose “St Vladimir Russian Orthodox Church” (Location: Dexter, MI) as your charity? This is EXACTLY the same web site as amazon.com, but a portion of every dollar you spend goes to support St. Vladimir’s. It is EASY, QUICK, and PAINLESS. Click HERE to start using Amazon Smile and Support St. Vladimir’s – Thank You!

“To deny oneself means to give up one’s bad habits; to root out of the heart all that ties us to the world; not to cherish bad thoughts or desires; to suppress every evil thought; not to desire to do anything out of self love, but to do everything out of love for God.”

+ St. Innocent of Alaska

"This is the cause of all evils: the ignorance of the Scriptures. We go into battle without arms, and how ought we to come off safe?" -St. John Chrysostom, Homily IX on Colossians.

In order to help increase the general knowledge of scripture in our parish family we present here for your edification the scripture readings for the coming week. At least one Gospel Reading and one Epistle reading are assigned for each day of the year (although during Great Lent the readings are from the Old Testament). Hearing or reading only those readings appointed for Sunday merely scratches the surface of the great spiritual wealth that the scriptures provide us. Some of the readings are easily understandable – others are less so. As Orthodox Christians we do not make private interpretation of scripture, but rather consult the fathers of the Church for their explanations to aid us in our understanding. Those wishing to have access to such explanations are asked to contact Fr. Gregory or inquire in the kiosk for further reading in this regard. Bibles may also be acquired in the kiosk.

Monday: Ephesians 4:25-32 & Luke 6:24-30
Tuesday: Ephesians 5:20-26 & Luke 6:37-45
Wednesday: Ephesians 5:25-33 & Luke 6:46-7:1
Thursday: Ephesians 5:33-6:9 & Luke 7:17-30
Friday: Ephesians 6:18-24 & Luke 7:31-35
Saturday: I Corinthians 15:39-45 & Luke 5:27-32

Please find below several very nice articles on how to read the scripture from an Orthodox point of view.

By St. Justin (Popovich):

http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/phronema/bible_how.aspx

By Bishop Kalistos (Ware):

http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/phronema/ware_howto.aspx

This short article explains to us not just HOW to read the scriptures, but also what our goal should be in reading the scriptures. A short read and well worth it:

http://www.chrysostompress.org/reading_scripture.html

As noted in the article above we need God's help and blessing to read and understand the scriptures correctly. What better way to entreat God's help in this regard than through prayer? Please find the prayer before reading the scriptures here:

http://www.chrysostompress.org/prayer_b ... pture.html

Our weekly bulletin, "Sunday Reading", has been posted at the following link:

http://www.stvladimiraami.org/SundayRea ... eading.pdf