“Faithfulness shall spring from the earth and justice look down from heaven. (Psalm 84 [85]:12)”
The Venerable Head of the Holy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John was first found on the Mount of Olives, where it had been hidden by Joanna, wife of Chusa, after the Saint's beheading. The second finding was at the city of Emesia during a time of unrest at Constantinople. The third finding came during a period of iconoclastic persecution. In around the year 850, after the veneration of icons was restored, Patriarch Ignatius saw in a vision the place at Komana where the head was buried in the ground. He revealed his vision to the emperor, who sent a delegation to Komana. There the head was found and transferred to Constantinople on May 25/ June 7.
Part of the Holy Forerunner's head is now on Mt. Athos. The main portion rests at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady, in Amiens, France. In recent years, Orthodox molebens and sometimes Divine Liturgies have been served there.
The Venerable Head of the Holy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John was first found on the Mount of Olives, where it had been hidden by Joanna, wife of Chusa, after the Saint's beheading. The second finding was at the city of Emesia during a time of unrest at Constantinople. The third finding came during a period of iconoclastic persecution. In around the year 850, after the veneration of icons was restored, Patriarch Ignatius saw in a vision the place at Komana where the head was buried in the ground. He revealed his vision to the emperor, who sent a delegation to Komana. There the head was found and transferred to Constantinople on May 25/ June 7.
Part of the Holy Forerunner's head is now on Mt. Athos. The main portion rests at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady, in Amiens, France. In recent years, Orthodox molebens and sometimes Divine Liturgies have been served there.
“I come to You, O Christ,
Blind from birth in my spiritual eyes
And I call to You in repentance:
You are the most radiant light of those in darkness!”
The miracle described in the Gospel reading (John 9:1-38), for the Sunday of the Blind Man (Sixth Sunday of Pascha), is even more remarkable than it might seem at first.
St Basil and other Fathers tell us that our Lord didn't just give sight to a blind man born "who was blind from his birth" (John 9:1). He placed clay in the man’s empty sockets and told him to wash in the pool of Siloam. When the blind man, did this, the eyes of clay became living eyes!
Saint Demetrius of Rostov, in his Great Synaxarion, mentions that the blind man's name was Celidonius. One tradition ascribes to St. Celidonius the founding of the Christian church at Nîmes in Gaul (present-day France).
Blind from birth in my spiritual eyes
And I call to You in repentance:
You are the most radiant light of those in darkness!”
The miracle described in the Gospel reading (John 9:1-38), for the Sunday of the Blind Man (Sixth Sunday of Pascha), is even more remarkable than it might seem at first.
St Basil and other Fathers tell us that our Lord didn't just give sight to a blind man born "who was blind from his birth" (John 9:1). He placed clay in the man’s empty sockets and told him to wash in the pool of Siloam. When the blind man, did this, the eyes of clay became living eyes!
Saint Demetrius of Rostov, in his Great Synaxarion, mentions that the blind man's name was Celidonius. One tradition ascribes to St. Celidonius the founding of the Christian church at Nîmes in Gaul (present-day France).
Serbia’s Patriarch Pavle will be remembered for his wise leadership of the Church in difficult times, personal modesty and life in accordance with the gospel. He never asked someone to fix, sew, make something for him. He would do it himself. Even when he was proclaimed patriarch, he would get up in the morning to wash the stairs of the Patriarchate building in Belgrade. When they told him that someone else was in charge of that job, he replied that he was used to it and that it was not difficult for him to do it.
"If Christ could work as a carpenter, can't I do all the work that is needed? It is not work that humbles a man, but a bad life, sin..."
His room in the Patriarchate was so modest that it resembled a monk's cell. Patriarch Pavle spent almost the entire year fasting on the water, he ate fish very rarely, and meat almost never. He was often seen walking or riding on public transport. [1/2]
"If Christ could work as a carpenter, can't I do all the work that is needed? It is not work that humbles a man, but a bad life, sin..."
His room in the Patriarchate was so modest that it resembled a monk's cell. Patriarch Pavle spent almost the entire year fasting on the water, he ate fish very rarely, and meat almost never. He was often seen walking or riding on public transport. [1/2]
Patriarch Pavle died in his sleep in 2009 at the age of 95, and half a million people passed by his bier in the Cathedral Church. According to his own wishes, he was buried in the Rakovica monastery in Belgrade.
[2/2] Let's beware of inhumans, but let's be even more careful that we don't become inhumans," said Patriarch Pavle. He advised: "Take care of your enemies and pray for them, because they do not know what they do.”
[2/2] Let's beware of inhumans, but let's be even more careful that we don't become inhumans," said Patriarch Pavle. He advised: "Take care of your enemies and pray for them, because they do not know what they do.”
St. Paisie Olaru on setting a prayer rule
"Each one does what he can, just as the bee does not take all the nectar from the flower. But it’s very good if you do a little rule. I know this myself, if I get up and do a little of my rule, it seems as if I’m a different man all day long. But if you get up in the morning and you whirl around the house because you have this and that to do, then your whole day goes poorly. So do a little of your rule every day, like the righteous Job, who offered sacrifice every day for his children in case they had sinned in their thoughts (cf Job 1:5)."
Photo: St. John Orthodox Cathedral, Eagle River, Alaska
"Each one does what he can, just as the bee does not take all the nectar from the flower. But it’s very good if you do a little rule. I know this myself, if I get up and do a little of my rule, it seems as if I’m a different man all day long. But if you get up in the morning and you whirl around the house because you have this and that to do, then your whole day goes poorly. So do a little of your rule every day, like the righteous Job, who offered sacrifice every day for his children in case they had sinned in their thoughts (cf Job 1:5)."
Photo: St. John Orthodox Cathedral, Eagle River, Alaska
Dear “John” (New Orthodox Convert): “Are you expecting a kind of earthly paradise with plenty of incense and the right kind of music?
Do you expect to go straight to heaven if you cross yourself slowly, pompously and in the correct form from the right side?
Are you an expert in kissing three times on every possible or improper occasion? … Can you prostrate elegantly without dropping a variety of stationery out of your pockets?
OR….. Have you read the Gospels?
Have you faced Christ crucified?… Above all, are you prepared to accept all things as from God?
If we are meant, always, to be ‘happy’, why the Crucifixion? Are you prepared, whatever happens, to believe that somewhere, somehow, it must make sense? That does not mean passive endurance, but it means constant vigilance, listening, for what is demanded; and above all, Love. [1/2]
Do you expect to go straight to heaven if you cross yourself slowly, pompously and in the correct form from the right side?
Are you an expert in kissing three times on every possible or improper occasion? … Can you prostrate elegantly without dropping a variety of stationery out of your pockets?
OR….. Have you read the Gospels?
Have you faced Christ crucified?… Above all, are you prepared to accept all things as from God?
If we are meant, always, to be ‘happy’, why the Crucifixion? Are you prepared, whatever happens, to believe that somewhere, somehow, it must make sense? That does not mean passive endurance, but it means constant vigilance, listening, for what is demanded; and above all, Love. [1/2]
[2/2] Poor, old, sick, to our last breath, we can love. Not sentimental nonsense so often confused with love, but the love of sacrifice – inner crucifixion of greed, envy, pride. … And never confuse love with sentimentality.
And never confuse worship with affectation.”
—excerpts from a 2009 letter to a new convert, from Mother Thekla, Abbess of the Monastery of the Assumption, Normandy
Mother Thekla reposed Aug 7, 2011 at the age of 93.
And never confuse worship with affectation.”
—excerpts from a 2009 letter to a new convert, from Mother Thekla, Abbess of the Monastery of the Assumption, Normandy
Mother Thekla reposed Aug 7, 2011 at the age of 93.
“Christ Has Ascended!"
After the feast of the leavetaking (Apodosis) of Pascha, we replace the greeting, “Christ is Risen!” "Indeed He is Risen!" with the Ascension greeting , “Christ has Ascended!” “Into to the Heavens!” or, “God has gone up with a shout!” “The Lord with the sound of a trumpet!” (Psalm 46:6)
The psalm continues "Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with understanding. God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne. The princes of the people have gathered together, The people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; He is greatly exalted." (verses 6-9)
After the feast of the leavetaking (Apodosis) of Pascha, we replace the greeting, “Christ is Risen!” "Indeed He is Risen!" with the Ascension greeting , “Christ has Ascended!” “Into to the Heavens!” or, “God has gone up with a shout!” “The Lord with the sound of a trumpet!” (Psalm 46:6)
The psalm continues "Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with understanding. God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne. The princes of the people have gathered together, The people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; He is greatly exalted." (verses 6-9)
The holy and righteous Emilia (also Emily or Emmelia) is often called “the mother of saints.” Influenced by Emilia’s loving zeal for Christ and His Church, five of her ten children are also commemorated as saints: Sts. Macrina, Basil, Peter of Sebaste, Gregory of Nyssa, and Theosebia, a deaconess.
In addition to giving birth to saints, St. Emilia, was the daughter of a martyr, the wife of St. Basil the Elder, and daughter-in-law of saint Macrina the Elder.
Later in her life, St. Emilia and her daughter Macrina withdrew to a secluded family property in Pontus to begin a convent. The angelic life of this model monastic community, which included liberated female slaves, is said to have been undefiled by anger, jealousy, hatred, or pride.
St. Emilia is commemorated in many Orthodox Churches on May 8/May 21 but in the Greek Church on May 30 or May 8, along with her husband St. Basil the Elder and her mother-in-law, Saint Macrina the Elder.
Holy mother of saints, Emilia, pray unto Christ for our salvation.
In addition to giving birth to saints, St. Emilia, was the daughter of a martyr, the wife of St. Basil the Elder, and daughter-in-law of saint Macrina the Elder.
Later in her life, St. Emilia and her daughter Macrina withdrew to a secluded family property in Pontus to begin a convent. The angelic life of this model monastic community, which included liberated female slaves, is said to have been undefiled by anger, jealousy, hatred, or pride.
St. Emilia is commemorated in many Orthodox Churches on May 8/May 21 but in the Greek Church on May 30 or May 8, along with her husband St. Basil the Elder and her mother-in-law, Saint Macrina the Elder.
Holy mother of saints, Emilia, pray unto Christ for our salvation.
Among the 318 bishops who gathered at the First Ecumenical Council (7th Sun. of Pascha) were many confessors who bore the marks of torture upon their bodies. At Nicea, they would confront not the instruments of physical torture, but the heresy of Arianism which was spreading across the Empire and infecting the Church.
Arius, a priest, denied the divine nature of Jesus Christ and His equality with God the Father. He falsely taught that the Saviour is not consubstantial with the Father. Arius' Christ was a creature, a most honourable one, but a creature nonetheless. Arius' Christ was not the true Saviour for Whom the martyrs gave their lives. Arius' clever teachings received their "walking papers" at Nicea.
At Nicea, the Church stood victorious in unity against the gates of hell and its disguises.
Our Lord's promise, “I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mt. 16:18), was fulfilled at Nicea and continues to be fulfilled until His coming again.
Arius, a priest, denied the divine nature of Jesus Christ and His equality with God the Father. He falsely taught that the Saviour is not consubstantial with the Father. Arius' Christ was a creature, a most honourable one, but a creature nonetheless. Arius' Christ was not the true Saviour for Whom the martyrs gave their lives. Arius' clever teachings received their "walking papers" at Nicea.
At Nicea, the Church stood victorious in unity against the gates of hell and its disguises.
Our Lord's promise, “I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mt. 16:18), was fulfilled at Nicea and continues to be fulfilled until His coming again.
☦️ I will come into Your house in the greatness of Your mercy: and in fear I will worship toward Your holy temple. Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness because of my enemies; make Your way straight before me, that with a clear mind I may glorify You forever, One Divine Power worshiped in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. ☦️