Old Cathedral Schedule of Divine Services for February 2025
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
Let us begin by thanking Almighty God for blessing us, once again, with celebrating in the past month the radiant Feasts of His Nativity and Theophany! The Divine Services flew by peacefully, calmly and prayerfully for the glory of God and the spiritual benefit for all who attended and prayed. The clergy of the Old Cathedral would especially wish to thank all those who laboured to prepare our ‘Hallowed Halls”for the feasts: Altarservers, Choir, Sisterhood, cleaners, candle-desk, donators and all those who willingly gave time and energy for the glory of God! May our Merciful Lord richly reward all of you for your love of His Church!
On Sunday, 2 February, the Church commemorates one of Her monastic luminaries, the Ven. Euthymius the Great. St. Euthymius was born in the latter part of the 4th century and died at the age of 97. Born to a pious Christian family in Armenia in his youth he accepted monastic tonsure and in his 30th year withdrew into solitude outside the Tharan Lavra in the Holy Land. He was unable to seek the solitude he desired no matter how much he hid from those seeking spiritual counsel. In his many years he became an instructor of monastics, miracle worker, founder of a monastery, enlightener of the Saracens, a companion to angels and a promulgator of Orthodoxy against heresies. It is thanks to St. Euthymius that many monastics accepted the decisions of the Third and Fourth Ecumenical Councils. For his firm adherence to Orthodoxy, against heresy, and many miracles, brought about by his ascetical life, the Church granted him the title “Great”. It is a great mercy that preparing for the Great Fast we can take inspiration from the life of the Ven. Euthymius the Great in realizing what potential we have when we fast and remain obedient to the Holy Mother Church.
Saturday All-Night Vigil 5 PM
Sunday Hours & Divine Liturgy 9 AM
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On Wednesday, 5 February, we at the Old Cathedral will be blessed with the presence of the Mother of God in Her miraculous image the Kursk-Root Icon. The Kursk-Root Icon, also known as the “Hodigetria of the Russian Diaspora”, was found in 1259, in a forest, at the root of a tree by a hunter. When the hunter picked up the Icon a spring began gushing from that spot. To this day that spring is still flowing. During the Soviet era, the Soviet authorities tried to cap the spring with a concrete plug to stop pilgrims to the holy-site, but instead of stopping the flow of water, it increased! The Kursk-Root Icon has been intertwined with the history of Russia throughout the centuries – saints, hierarchs, tsars, emperors, generals, noblemen, common folk and peasants all have come to pray before the Kursk-Root image. Many miracles were performed by the intercession of the Mother of God through the Icon, not only healings, but defeats of entire armies and turning points in history. During the chaotic years of the Russian Revolution and Civil War, the Kursk-Root Icon was stolen by the Bolsheviks; however, the Mother of God deemed it necessary that the Icon be found and accompany the White Army Forces and all those opposed to the godless Bolshevik regime. The Icon, together with the White Army and all who could evacuate, left Russia in 1920 (the icon did not return to Russia until 2009 briefly). The Kursk-Root Icon followed the Russian diaspora throughout the world. Since the Fall of Communism the Icon has traveled to bless and intercede for the Orthodox faithful in almost every country in the world. Since the 1950s, when not traveling, the Icon resides at the Synod of Bishops in Manhattan, New York at the Cathedral of the “Sign” of the Mother of God.
Please, make sure to be prompt for Divine Services when the Kursk-Root Icon is here at the Old Cathedral. We ask, as a common courtesy to your fellow worshippers, not to dwell before the icon long. Many people wish to venerate the Mother of God’s miraculous image, and many of them have life struggles that can only be resolved by the divine intercessions of the Mother of God just as you do. So, please be mindful and compassionate of others in church. It is very proper for you to make two prostrations at the waist while making the sign of the cross, venerate the image quickly, step aside for others and make another prostration at the waist with the sign of the cross. Then after your third prostration at the waist step farther aside, pray and put up candles making room for others. Please, do not blaspheme by making the Kursk-Root Icon a curiosity for your personal examination as you venerate, but remember it is a mercy of God bestowed to us by the love of the Theotokos for her Son and His Creation.
Tuesday Molebien with Akathist Before the Kursk-Root Icon 7 PM
Wednesday Hours & Divine Liturgy 7:30 AM
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On Thursday, 6 February, the Church commemorates a saint whose ascetical labors knew no physical limitations, and as such, she petitions for us before the Throne of God with constant fervor. The Blessed Ksenia of Petersburg was born circa 1730. At the age of 26 she lost her dashing bon vivant husband suddenly to alcoholic excess, and she took upon herself the heavy mantle of fool-for-Christ for the redemption of his soul. Following her husbands death she gave away her possessions, donned her deceased husbands army coat, answered only to her husband’s name, wandered the streets of St. Petersburg as a vagrant, and yet in her wanderings there was a spark of holiness that people over time began to notice. At first she was ridiculed and mocked, and she accepted these cruelties with humbleness, and then as years progressed people noticed the acts of generosity and charity that would occur after a visit from Ksenia. People began to follow her and noticed she would hide and pray outside the city, she would help build churches during the night, she would give away alms given to her and then people noticed her penchant for prophecy and miracles. In 1803, after 45 years of wandering labors for Christ, Ksenia reposed, and her grave at the Smolensk Cemetery in St. Petersburg almost immediately became a place of pilgrimage. In 1902 a chapel was erected over her grave and people began to chip away at the chapel and treasure those chips as sacred relics. During the Soviet period, access to her chapel grave was closed off by walls and fences overgrown with vegetation; however, her memory lived on and the faithful would write, or affix, messages on the walls and fences for “Ksenia”. In 1978 Ksenia of Petersburg was glorified by ROCOR and in Russia she was glorified in 1988 by the Moscow Patriarchate. It is a pious custom, for those who are in dire need of St. Ksenia’s petitions before Christ, to serve a panihida for her departed husband Andrei. St. Ksenia accepted her heavy cross of fool-for-Christ for the salvation of her husband, and it is only fitting for those who need her help to assist her in achieving the Kingdom of Heaven for her beloved spouse.
Thursday Hours & Divine Liturgy 9 AM
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On Sunday, 9 February, the Russian Church solemnly commemorates the memory of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church. With the occupation of the Russian lands by the Bolshevik atheistic regime, in 1917, terror settled over the lands of the former Russian Empire. The Bolsheviks, immediately upon gaining power, with due marxist diligence, identified many elements of the Russian populace as “enemies of the proletariat”. Thousands of clergy and monastics, and millions of millions of Orthodox faithful experienced the harshness of punitive punishments at the hands of the Bolsheviks. Those Christians who did not die from the bullet, rope or blade were killed in the camps, cold, starvation or exile. On the 25 January/ 7 February 1918, the 70 year-old Metropolitan of Kiev, Vladimir, was the first Orthodox hierarch executed by the Bolsheviks. St. Vladimir, after being dragged out in the middle of the night from his monastic cell in just his undercassock, was executed by a haphazard Red Army firing squad at the walls of the Kievan Caves Lavra before the eyes of his brother monks. In 1981, when our Russian Orthodox Church Abroad glorified the New Martyrs, the Sunday closest to 25 January/7 February was chosen as the date to commemorate all the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church. However, the blood of the New Martyrs and Confessors did not extinguish the flame of Orthodoxy in Russia, but instead fueled it into a bright fiery torch. In 2007 many Orthodox hierarchs observed that the glorification of the New Martyrs (both by the Russian Church in Russia -1992 and Russian Church Abroad – 1981) served as a bridge that united the two halves of one Church separated by this modern age’s disposition to secularism and violence.
On this day we also fully enter into the Lenten Triodion as this is also the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee. On matins of this Sunday we begin to sing “Open unto me the doors of repentance, O Life-giver”, and we pray that God will open our hearts so that we can sincerely bring our sacrifice of repentance to Him during the Great Fast so that we may be witnesses of His Glorious Resurrection!
Saturday All-Night Vigil 5 PM
Sunday Hours & Divine Liturgy 9 AM
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On Wednesday, 12 February, the Church honors the memory of the Three Holy Great Ecumenical Teachers and Hierarchs: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom. In the year 1084 this feast was established to quell the divisions, and arguments within the Church of who of the three was the greater contributor to the Faith. By tradition, this is the feast of those who study theology and seminarians, since these great hierarchs were not only holy in life, but were bestowers of knowledge through there countless writings. In fact, it is their rich liturgical life that gave them not only holiness but wisdom and discernment – the path to success for every theologian, seminarian and cleric.
Wednesday Hours & Divine Liturgy 9 AM
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On Saturday, 15 February – Meeting of our Lord in the Temple. Christ, in His extreme humility, fulfilled the Law of Moses by being brought to the the Temple in Jerusalem as a babe and offering sacrifice on the 40th day of His birth. The sacrifice was offered for the purification of the mother; however, the Mother of God was in no need of purification. This feast for us is a lesson in humility. For He who created Moses fulfilled that law that was created for adherence to Him. It is on this day that Prayer of St. Simeon gains special meaning for St Symeon uttered this prayer on this feast: Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart…, and prophesied to the Mother of God the impending sufferings or Her Beloved Son for the sake of the world.
On this feast candles are blessed at matins and taken home as a symbol of the light of Christ in the world. For after the 40th day, by Mosaic Law, a child was no longer sheltered from the world, but was allowed to experience and take part in it. Therefore, after the 40th day the light of Christ began to shine before men.
In the evening we will gather again to pay homage to God in His saint who was beacon of light in the pagan Empire of Japan – the Holy Hierarch Equal-to-the-Apostles Nicholas of Japan, St. Symeon the God-bearer and the Holy Prophetess Anna .
Friday All-Night Vigil 5pm
Saturday Hours & Divine Liturgy 9 AM
Saturday Evening All-Night Vigil 5PM
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On Sunday, 16 February, the Church offers to us the parable of the Prodigal Son as a way to help us understand God’s relationship with man. The prodigal son (who scorned his father, family and comfort only to live a life of debauchery and filth in a foreign land) was welcomed back with open arms by his father once the son admitted his wrong. This parable for us is a beautiful example of how our own Heavenly Father will welcome us back into His home, as His sons and daughters, once we admit our wrongs before Him. As we are bombarded by temptations during the Great Fast, let us find new strength and hope by remembering this parable – no matter how much we stray, God will always be ready to accept us back as long as we are ready to return to Him.
In addition, we commemorate St. Nicholas of Japan. Born in 1836 in Smolensk to the family of a deacon, St. Nicholas, upon completion of his studies at St. Petersburg Theological Academy, was sent as a consulate priest to the diplomatic mission of the Russian Empire to the Empire of Japan in 1861. He quickly learned the Japanese language, and acquired, through education, the cultural nuances of Japanese society, and eventually became the Bishop of Japan. During the Russo-Japanese War St. Nicholas, an ardent patriot of the Russia, stayed in Japan and went into seclusion; however, he ordered the clergy of Japan to pray for the Japanese authorities and military. He was known as a gifted diplomat (having earned notoriety and respect of Emperor Meiji), a talented translator (he translated the New Testament, several books of the Bible and Divine Liturgy to Japanese) and established a seminary and school for the youth. In 1912 he reposed in Tokyo in the midst of his flock for which he toiled for 51 years. For all his endeavors for Christ’s Church he is esteemed with the title ‘Equal-to-the-Apostles” (just as St. Vladimir, St. Nina and Sts. Cyril and Methodius). For the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia this is a special day because our First-Hierarch – Metropolitan Nicholas’, heavenly patron is St. Nicholas of Japan.
Sunday Hours & Divine Liturgy 9 AM
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Saturday, 22 February, is the universal soul Meat-fare Saturday that dates back to the first century of Christianity. In the Synaxarion for this day (The Lenten Triodion) it says that the holy fathers established, having received it from the holy Apostles, that on this day all people from the ages who have reposed in faith and piety should be commemorated. This day was chosen because Meat-fare week reminds us of the future Last Judgment. On the eve of this day, Saturday, as if preceding the Last Judgment, the Church prays especially for all of its reposed children, begging the Lord to have mercy on them and make them partakers of blessed eternal life. – Hieromonk Job (Gumerov)
Saturday Hours & Divine Liturgy 9 AM
All-Night Vigil 5 PM
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On Sunday, 23 February, the Church commemorates the Second Coming and Dread Judgement of Christ. The Church, in Her great mercy, reminds us that the period of the Great Fast is for so much more than a brief abstinence from pleasure for the preparation of Christ’s Resurrection. It is a period for us to contemplate on how well prepared we are to meet Christ when He returns to deliver the rewards for a virtuous life or the punishments for a wasted life. This Sunday is also to remind us that no matter how well we abstain from earthly pleasures during the Great Fast, how many services we attend, what good acts we perform, etc., if we do these things without Christ in our hearts (or with haughtiness that hurts our neighbour) then we will face retribution from the Fair Judge. On a more temporal theme, this is also called Meat-fare Sunday since this is the last day to partake of meat products (beef, pork, poultry, wild game) before the Great Fast begins. The week is also fast-free so all other food products (dairy, eggs, oil, wine are permissible) but of course not too excess.
Sunday Hours & Divine Liturgy 9 AM
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On Tuesday, 25 February,the Church commemorates the arrival to Moscow in 1648 the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God. Commissioned by the future Patriarch Nikon, a copy of the Icon was brought from Mt. Athos to Moscow. This copy of the Iveron Icon later became famous for being kept in the chapel at the Resurrectional Gate (which is the entrance to Red Square). It was the custom of all who came to Moscow: Patriarch, Emperor, metropolitans, bishops, clergy, officers, soldiers, nobles, merchants, peasants – any class of Russian society, to first venerate the image of Iveron Icon and then to go on to your business. Thousands of candles burned before this sacred image, commoners rubbed shoulders with the Emperor, clergy, nobles, and convicted felons as they venerated this miraculous image. In 1929 the Iveron Chapel that housed the Icon for over 250 years was destroyed by the Bolsheviks. Some say the Icon was saved from destruction and is now kept in the Sokolniki Church in Moscow, yet others say that this is not the icon from the chapel. The fate of this miracle working Icon is unclear. However, the chapel, the Iveron Icon, the many candles and the throng of people left their mark on the works of Tolstoy, Bunin and H.G. Wells. In 1993 the chapel with the Icon was restored, and once again plays a significant role in the spiritual lives of the Russian Orthodox
In addition, on this day St. Alexis Metropolitan of Moscow is commemorated. St. Alexis was the guardian of the youth Holy Prince Dimitri Donskoy, friend of St. Sergius of Radonezh, establisher of monasteries, promoter of monastic communal piety, strengthener Orthodoxy in the Lands of the Rus and heavenly patron of two Patriarchs of Moscow.
May the Holy Theotokos and St. Alexei be our protectors and intercessors as we begin our spiritual journey in the Great Fast!
Tuesday Hours & Divine Liturgy 9 AM
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We are blessed to have 2 fast-free weeks this month 10-15 February and 24 February -1 March. The Church, in its mercy, prompts us to clean out larders so that we will have fewer temptations from food during the fast and focus more on the state of our souls. Please, take advantage of this fast-free week: eat, drink, be merry, but not to excess.
On the 28th of February the Orthodox Church commemorates St. Kyrill the Teacher, brother of St. Methodius, this is the Saint’s Day of our rector and Ruling-bishop – Archbishop Kyrill. Please, on this day take a moment and pray for our Archbishop that God grant him health, wisdom and patience as he leads his God-entrusted flock.
As always, dear brothers and sisters, if you require molebiens, panihidas, confessions, any other special prayers or blessings or would just like to talk please do not hesitate to contact the clergy of Old Cathedral.
In Christ,
Hieromonk Peter