With the beginning of Great Lent, Bishop Michael of Boston officiated the divine services for the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy in St. Xenia Church in Methuen, MA.

On the evenings of Monday the 23rd through Thursday the 26th of February, the vicar of the Eastern American Diocese served Great Compline with the reading of the Great Penitential Canon of St. Andrew of Crete.

On Friday evening, the 27th, and Saturday morning, the 28th of February, the feast of the Holy Great-Martyr Theodore the Tyro, His Grace officiated the divine services.

On March 1, the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, Bishop Michael celebrated Liturgy and served the Rite of Orthodoxy. Serving alongside the hierarch were parish clerics: Priest Alexei Klar and Deacons Dimitry Doohovskoy and John Sarantakis.

Upon conclusion of Liturgy, His Grace addressed the gathered faithful with a sermon, in which he said, in part:

"Today we sing ‘Memory Eternal’ to all those who came before, who stayed true to the Orthodox Faith. It was not easy for them, it was at least as much of a struggle as it is for us. But hour by hour, day by day, they chose life. Atheism, heresy, drinking deep of modernity with all of its exterior glamour and false promise, lead to the death of the soul – which is the worst kind of death. It seems an obvious choice but, living in the world, it is not an easy choice. We are lured and deceived by the evil one.

"But we all have the grace of the Holy Spirit, imparted to us in Holy Baptism, to guide our way – if we indeed want to be guided. We have the victorious power of Jesus Christ, having ‘put on Christ’ to wage the unseen warfare. But ultimately we have free will, and we can either, like Adam, put our trust in other than God, or hear the Word of God in Scripture and Tradition that informs and encourages us to even radically trust in God and so find, that is be led, to salvation. In this life, ‘the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law’ (Gal. 5:22-23). And in the life to come, eternal bliss! Let us not be cut off. Let us choose life."