Church Phone: (781) 585-8907

Church Email: stmarkofephesuskingstonma@gmail.com

Administrator and Dean: Archpriest Vasily Lickwar 

Parish Council President: Catherine Condrick 

Divine Liturgy: 2nd and 4th Sunday of every month. Divine Liturgy begins at 10:00 AM; please arrive at the church between 9:30 and 10:00 AM. 

St. Mark of Ephesus is blessed with a small, but actively participating congregation. We are a warm, family-oriented body of faithful believers and our members are of all age groups and we embrace many cultural and ethnic backgrounds. The parish conducts a regular and traditional cycle of Orthodox liturgical worship throughout the course of the year. The St. Mark parish participates regularly in several community charitable ministries such as on-going charities to aid local shelters, grocery collections for our on-going food pantry, and visiting the ill and shut-ins in our community. All these inititatives are supported by the free-will offerings and volunteer assistance of the parishioners. 

Sunday, November 29 - Martyr Paramon and 370 Martyrs in Bithynia - The Holy Martyr Paramon and the 370 Martyrs with him suffered for their faith in Christ in the year 250 during the rule of the emperor Decius (249-251). The governor of the Eastern regions, Aquianus, had locked up 370 Christians in prison, urging them to abjure Christ and instead offer sacrifice to idols.

If you would like to read further about Martyr Paramon and 370 Martyrs in Bithynia, please click on the following link: 

www.oca.org/saints/lives/2020/11/29/103442-martyr-paramon-and-370-martyrs-in-bithynia

Sunday Scripture Readings: Mark 16:9-20, Ephesians 4:1-6, Luke 13:10-17

The next Divine Liturgy at St. Mark will take place on Sunday, December 13, 2020 at 10:00 AM

All are welcome to attend Divine Liturgy at St. Mark. If you wish to attend, please email us and we will send you an attendance form to fill out prior to Sunday services. Masks are mandatory and if you are ill we ask that you stay home until you are well. You may email us at stmarkofephesuskingstonma@gmail.com

Children's Holiday Fund: This Christmas season we are participating once again in the annual Children's Holiday Fund through the Plymouth Area Coalition for the Homeless. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to help families in great need to make this Christmas special for their children. Information regarding this event has been sent through the post to all members of the St. Mark community. The deadline to contribute is on Monday, December 7, 2020.

Food Pantry: We will resume collecting food items for distribution to the needy via a local food pantry. Please leave the items you wish to contribute in the special collection box located in the nave of the church. It is important that we continue to care for the needy, especially during these uncertain and difficult times.

Parish Council Meeting: TBA

Please remember in your prayers: the ill and shut-in: Longinus, Gregory, Marya, Gina, Alban, Eleanor, Antony, Diana, Eguenia, George, Alexandra, Daniel, Maura, Edwin, Martha, Paul, Andrei, Katherine, Elizabeth, Kiril, Marina, Anastasia, Peter, Nicholas, Norma, Alexandra, Peter; the kidnapped hierarchs Metropolitan Paul (Boulos Yazigi) & Archbishop John (Yohanna Ibrahim); the suffering Christians of Egypt and Syria; those who suffer from terrorist attacks, fires, storms, floods, earthquakes, pestilences and for an end of the present pandemic; Departed: newly departed Diana, Wayne, Martha, Katie, Anastasia, Sergei, Alexander, Vladimir, Igor, Lybov, Peter, Theo, Anna, Catherine, George, Mary, Bessie, Demetri, Sophia

A New Message for Hope and Encouragement:

Morning Prayer of the Last Elders of Optina: O Lord, grant that I may meet all that this coming day brings to me with spiritual tranqulity. Grant that I may fully surrender myself to thy holy will. At every hour of this day, direct and support me in all things. Whatever news may reach me in the course of the day, teach me to accept it with a calm soul and the firm conviction that all is subject to thy holy will. Guide my thoughs and feelings in all my words and actions. In all unexpected occurences, let me not forget that all is sent down from thee. Grant me to deal in a straightforward and wise manner with every member of my family, neither embarrasing nor saddening anyone. O Lord, grant me power to endure the fatique of the coming day and all the events that will take place during it. Guide my will and teach me to pray, to believe, to hope, to be patient, to forgive, and to love. Amen

Seek God, Such is the unalterable rule of all spiritual advancement. Nothing comes without effort. The help of God is always ready and always near, but it is only given to those who seek and work, and only to those who put their own powers to the test, then cry out with all their heart: Lord, help us. So long as you hold on to even a little hope of achieving something by your own powers, the Lord does not interfere. It is as though He says, "You hope to succeed by yourself - very well, go on trying. But, however long you try, you will achieve nothing." May the Lord give you a contrite spirit, a humble and contrite heart. - St. Theophan

"Our whole environment - our education from earliest childhood, the struggle for survival - teaches us self-respect. But if any of us can put himself in the place of the publican - and may God help us all to feel that way - let him rejoice, for he is the stray sheep, that lost piece of silver, for the sake of which Christ came; his salvation causes more joy in heaven than that of a hundred just souls." - From "The Diary of a Russian Priest" by Alexander Elchaninov

Psalm 137 - In our exile from God:

By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres. For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!" How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither! Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy! Remember, O Lord, against the Edmomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, "Raze it, Raze it! Down to its foundations!" O daughter of Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall he be who requites you with what you have done to us! Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!

(Note: in translation the "little ones" refers to the small temptations, the petty demons, the little sins, seemingly so innocent, insignificant and harmless, must be dashed upon the Rock of Christ. Otherwise they grow big and become strong and destroy the heedless and negligent with their lethal power. - Fr. Thomas Hopko "The Lenten Spring"