Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

            Today is the Apodosis (the leavetaking) of the Nativity of the Theotokos. It has been a beautiful festal season – full of the hope of our salvation as we celebrate the birth of the one who will give birth to Christ our God. Tomorrow is the forefeast of the Exaltation of the Cross – which we will celebrate Tuesday evening with Vigil at 6pm and then on Wednesday we will have the Liturgy for the feast at 7am. You can read some background on this blessed feast and on the services for it here: Exaltation of the Cross / OrthoChristian.Com

            Please note the special information about this coming weekend. Celebrations for the 30^th anniversary of the uncovering of the relics of St John of San Francisco will be taking place Friday evening and Saturday morning at the Cathedral in San Francisco. You can find the full schedule of events here: CELEBRATING THE 30th ANNIVERSARY OF THE OPENING OF THE RELICS OF ST. JOHN | Western American Diocese (wadiocese.com) 

            On Saturday, September 30^th, we will not have services at St Herman’s that evening at 4pm. There will be no Vigil service that evening in Sunnyvale. I do hope that as many of you as possible will be able to make it to SF to participate in celebrations for St John.

            As announced yesterday, because we will not have the Vigil service and because Fr Andrew will be the only priest serving at St Herman’s on Sunday – all those who had confession this past weekend or who will have confession for the feast of the Cross this week, do not need to confess again before receiving Communion next Sunday. Please be courteous to not overburden Fr Andrew Sunday morning so he can prepare to start the Liturgy on time.

            Wednesday evening at 7pm we will continue our Bible Study class. We are continuing our studies of the book of Hebrews. All are invited to join us. The Zoom link is: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86032564645?pwd=WUNyM2l4WldLZGZweDhGOS9PZWFXQT09

Thursday evening at 6pm we will have our Catechism class. The Zoom link is: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88911535838?pwd=U1V2MmkxeStmbEZ6OWkyeDlFand4Zz09

Again, since we will be up in San Francisco next Saturday, our usual Saturday class will be canceled.

I’ll end today with a link to an account of the uncovering of the relics of St John which also includes a film about the services of his glorification. Opening of the Relics, and Glorification of St. John Maximovitch / OrthoChristian.Com

May God bless you!

Fr Martin