Saint Anna Day at the Park (March 26)

St. Anna Family Park Day

When: March 26-Sunday (after liturgy)

Where: Harry Crab Park, 1000 Scarborough Dr. Roseville, CA

Come after church on Sunday the 26th of March, bring a meal to share and don’t forget to bring plates, napkins, and/or utensils for your meal. We ask each family to bring some drinks with them as well. We can only make it successful if you join in on the fun. We will have some fun fellowship team-building games. Please review the available slots below and click on the button to sign up. Reach out for any questions to Nicole at 310-710-5718. Thank you and God bless you all.

Please review the available slots below and click on the button to sign up. Thank you!

Patriarchal Homily for Great Lent (CATECHETICAL HOMILY At the Opening of Holy and Great Lent)

Prot. No. 71

CATECHETICAL HOMILY

At the Opening of Holy and Great Lent

+ BARTHOLOMEW

By God’s mercy Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome

and Ecumenical Patriarch

To the Plenitude of the Church

May the Grace and Peace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

Together with our Prayer, Blessing and Forgiveness Be with All

Most honorable brother Hierarchs and blessed children in the Lord,

By the goodwill and grace of the all-merciful and all-benevolent God,

already living in the blessed and reverent period of the Triodion, tomorrow

we enter Holy and Great Lent, the arena of fasting and “venerable

abstinence” that eliminate the passions, during which the depth and wealth

of our Orthodox Tradition and the vigilant care of the Church for the

spiritual progress of its children are revealed. As we are reminded by the

Holy and Great Council of Crete (June, 2016), “the Orthodox Church, in strict

conformity with the apostolic precepts, the synodal canons, and the patristic

tradition as a whole, has always proclaimed the great significance of fasting

for our spiritual life and salvation” (The Importance of Fasting and its

Observance Today, para. 1).

In the life of the Church, all matters have a solid theological foundation

and soteriological reference. Orthodox Christians share the “common

struggle” of ascesis and fasting “giving thanks in everything” (Thess. 5.18).

The Church invites its children to run the race of ascetic exercises as a

journey toward Holy Pascha. It is a central experience of the life in Christ

that genuine asceticism is never despondent, since it is imbued with the

expectation of resurrectional delight. Our hymnology speaks of the “spring

of fasting.”

2

In this sense, far from the trappings of Neoplatonist dualism and the

alienating efforts to “mortify the body,” genuine asceticism cannot

conceivably aim at the eradication of an “evil body” for the sake of the spirit

or the liberation of the soul from the torment of its shackles. As emphasized,

“in its authentic expression, ascesis is not directed against the body but

against the passions, whose root is spiritual because the intellect is the first

to fall to passion. Thus, the body is hardly the great opponent of the ascetic.”

The ascetic endeavor pursues the transcendence of egocentrism, for

the sake of love that “does not seek its own” and without which we remain

enslaved within ourselves, in the “insatiable ego” and its unquenchable

desires. Being self-centered, we shrink and lose our creativity, as has been

said: “Whatever we give is multiplied; and whatever we retain for ourselves

is lost.” For this reason, the wisdom of the Fathers and the experience of the

Church associate the period of fasting with the “showering of mercy,” with

good deeds and philanthropy, which are the evidence of surpassing self-love

and acquiring existential fullness.

Such wholeness is at all times the characteristic of life in the Church.

The liturgical life, ascesis and spirituality, pastoral care and good witness in

the world, are expressions of the truth of our faith, interconnected and

mutually complementary elements of our Christian identity, which share the

eschatological Kingdom as a point of reference and orientation, as well as

the completeness and fulfilment of the divine Economy. While church life in

all its expressions reflects and depicts the coming Kingdom of the Father,

Son and Holy Spirit, it is the mystery of the Divine Eucharist that above all,

as underlined by the late Metropolitan John of Pergamon, recently of blessed

memory, “expresses the Church in its fullness” (The Image of the Heavenly

Kingdom, Megara 2013, p. 59). “Pure communion,” the rendering of our

existence into that of the church, as participation in the Holy Eucharist,’ is

the “end” of fasting, the “crown” and “prize” of ascetical struggles (see John

Chrysostom, Homilies on Isaiah VI: On the Seraphim, PG 56.139).

Today, in an age of desacralization of life, when humankind

“attributes great importance to entirely insignificant things,” our Christian

mission is the practical elevation of the existential depth of our Orthodox

“triptych of spirituality,” as the inseparable unity of liturgical life, ascetic

3

ethos and solidarity, the essence of the revolution of values in the fields of

ethos and civilization constituted by faith in Christ and the divinely-granted

freedom of the children of God. We consider it of paramount importance

that we should live Holy and Great Lent as a revelation and experience of

the true meaning of freedom “for which Christ has set us free” (Gal. 5.1).

With these thoughts and sentiments of love and honor, we wish you,

our most honorable brothers in Christ and spiritual children of our Mother

Church throughout the world, a smooth course in the arena of fasting,

invoking on all of you the grace and mercy of Christ our God, who always

delights in the ascetic struggles of His people. To Him belongs the blessed

and glorified power of the Kingdom, now and always, and to the ages of

ages. Amen.

Holy and Great Lent 2023

X BARTHOLOMEW of Constantinople

Your fervent supplicant for all before God

Metropolis of San Francisco Summer Camp

2023 SUMMER CAMP DATES

Staff Orientation Week: July 3- 8

Session I: July 9 - 15  

Session II: July 16 - 22

Session III: July 23 - 29


REGISTRATION PRICE

$625 Early Registration (February 7 – February 28)

$650 Regular Registration (March 1 – May 31)

*A $100 non-refundable deposit is required to register.


CAMPER AGES

The youngest campers will be 8 years old (or entering 3rd grade in Fall 2023) and the oldest will be 18 years old (or will be graduating High School in Spring 2023). 

2023 REFUND POLICY 

All payments must be made IN FULL by June 1, 2023

-Cancellations before June 1, 2023 - You will receive all money paid EXCEPT for the $100 non-refundable deposit

-Cancellations June 1 - June 30, 2022 - 50% refund

-Cancellations July 1 or later - No Refund

SUMMER CAMP STAFF 

We are still looking for summer camp counselors who are 19 years of age or older. Applications are open until March 18. Apply here 

CLICK HERE

MEDICAL STAFF

We are always in need of medical staff while at camp. If you know of any licensed medical professionals, please encourage them to contact me directly at this email or apply on our website CLICK HERE. We especially love having MD's, NP's, and RN's!

The Raising of our Crosses in Roseville (Monday, January 23 at 730 AM)

On September 14, the Orthodox Christian Church commemorates the Elevation of the Holy and Life-Giving Cross on which our Lord was crucified.  This feast is a double commemoration of sorts; we celebrate the finding of the true Cross in 326 by Saint Helen and its lifting up on high for all the people to see, and we celebrate the recovery of the Holy Cross in 614 from the Persians who had taken it as a prize of war.  Realizing the significance of the Holy Cross for the life of the world, we so fervently chant:

O most glorious wonder! The most holy Cross, the life-giving Tree, is lifted up on high today and shown to the world. All the ends of the earth give glory, all the devils are affrighted. How great a gift is here bestowed on mortal men! Through Thy Cross save our souls, O Christ, Thou who alone art full of compassion.  

The Orthodox Christian community of Roseville will also celebrate a raising of the Holy Cross on January 23, for on this day at approximately 7:30 AM, we will raise and install our gold-gilded Crosses on the bell tower and dome of our new Holy Sanctuary! As the crane is getting set, we will offer a brief prayer, asking the Lord to bless the Crosses that our own parishioners fabricated. They will then be raised up and placed four and five stories up on our construction for all to see.  You are encouraged to join us in person or view the raising of the Crosses on our lifestream of construction at www.saintanna.org  

May the Holy Cross be the strength, hope, and glory of Orthodox Christians. May the Holy Cross - visible for all to see on East Roseville Parkway - our Lord Who was crucified in the flesh for our salvation, and our Orthodox Christian Faith also be sacred gifts to our beloved community of Roseville.