Celebrating a parish's feast day is an important part of the community's life. It's so important that the services surrounding the feast are elevated to the rank of a major feast. One of my professors used to say that there are 17 Twelve Major Feast Days. What he simply meant is that in the liturgical life of any given parish, in addition to the twelve major feasts of the Church, there are three more feasts that are celebrated as if they were a major feast day. For us here at St. Mary's one of these feasts is October 1, the Protection of the Theotokos.
This evening at St. Mary's Cathedral we will celebrate the vigil service for our parish's feast day.Vigil is not something that we serve often here at the cathedral. Instead, on Sundays and on feasts, we normally serve Great Vespers in the evening and Matins in the morning. But, don't be afraid of its length. If you can only come for an hour, then please do! Personally, the vigil service is one of my favorites when done properly.
A highlight of the this evening's vigil service is the hymnography and special melodies. Some of these melodies we've incorporated into our Advent/Christmas concert - so they should be familiar to you. One of them we even sing to It is Truly Meet - so this one you should definitely know.
At Saturday's Divine Liturgy we will meet the bishop at 8:30. Please be prompt. It's our feast day!
