January 18th, 2022

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Today we celebrate the feast of Sts. Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria, both archbishops of Alexandria in Egypt and great fathers and teachers of the Church, who both participated in the council of Nicea in 325, Athanasius as Archbishop and Cyril as Deacon. This evening we will serve the Divine Liturgy for their feast at 7pm.

Tomorrow, Wednesday the Zoom Webinar will take place at 7pm focused on our Holy Father among the Saints, Basil, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, the patron Saint of our parish. 

Last weekend, I served the Divine Liturgy in Monroe, LA with a small group of Catholics, Eastern and Western, in a lovely chapel that is part of the studio of Michael Lofton’s “Reason and Theology” program. Please do visit his website for more information about this community and also for excellent videos and webinars about Catholicism and the faith: https://reasonandtheology.com.

This newly established outreach was blessed especially by the reception of Stacy Tatiana, Elijah Elisha and Jassiel Anna into the Byzantine Catholic Church through Chrismation and the Eucharist. Let us keep them and this outreach in our prayers. 

You may be interested to know that our parish will soon have four outreaches which means that we who are an established parish are participating in the growth of our church through spiritually and canonically supporting these new communities that God-willing may become missions and eventually parishes. This was our beginning at St. Basil’s as an outreach from St. John Chrysostom in Houston many years ago. Until they become a mission, they are a part of our parish and are parishioners at St. Basil’s. Please pray for these communities, that God may bless their efforts and grow them to His glory. The outreaches are:

Austin, Texas (served by Fr. Peter Davids of the Ordinariate)

Waco, Texas (served by Fr. Elias)

Monroe, Louisiana (served by Fr. Elias and Fr. Deacon Greg Haddad of St. Nicholas Byzantine Catholic Mission in New Orleans)

Tulsa, Oklahoma (in process)

I am also blessing homes and will continue to bless homes as long as it takes. To set up a convenient date and time, please contact me by email at [email protected] or at 713-256-8953 (mobile, text or voice).

Regarding the Liturgical Calendar, please note the weekday Liturgies, especially as we get closer to the Great Fast, since the season of the Fast is a busy liturgical season.

The Calendar also lists the days for the next three webinars in February, the last one, on Feb. 23 will be focused on the Great Fast and how we keep the Fast. These webinars are recorded and will be uploaded to the parish YouTube page (which is being worked on at this time).

 I wish you all a blessed week.

Fr. Elias