Shrove Tuesday, March 1:

4-5 PM, Confessions heard in Church

5-6 PM, Men Prepare the Pancake Supper

6 PM Pancake Supper

Ash Wednesday, March 2: 

12 Noon – Blessing & Imposition of Ashes, Penitential Office, Mass

7 PM – Imposition of Ashes, A Commination (1549) and Penitential Office, Mass

Thursday, March 3:

12 Noon – (Feria) Mass in commemoration of St. Vartan and the 1000 Martyrs of the Battle of Avarayr. 

This feast is celebrated on the Thursday prior to Great Lent in the Armenian Church (their Lent begins on a Sunday and roughly corresponds to our day after Ash Wednesday). While the Armenian Church did refuse to sign the Creed of Chalcedon in 451 A.D. and cut itself off from the rest of Christendom as a result, much of the reason that they were not present at Chalcedon (and had no part in those deliberations and had to rely on secondhand reports) was because they were being invaded by the Persian Empire. Thus these martyrs stand at the brink of the schism between Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian Christianity. Yet they died to keep Armenia Christian when the Persian Empire wanted to invade them so they would return to Zoroastrianism. In Lent we learn to be better Christian Soldiers. So it is fitting that the day after Ash Wednesday we recall the death of Christian warriors in battle felled and pray for Christian unity through Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving.  

Friday, March 4 – Saturday March 5: Lenten Retreat in Roanoke. Sign up here if you haven’t!

The following week we will begin our Lenten Program on Wednesdays at 7 PM and Stations of the Cross (especially for children but all are welcome) on Fridays at 4:30 PM.