Reflection from His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon on the Great Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos
Last week we celebrated the beginning of a new ecclesiastical year; now we mark the first great feast of the year, the birth of the Theotokos. The outer proclamation of the Gospel began with Christ’s Forerunner, whose conception we celebrate later this month, but the inner mystery of the Church, the Incarnation of the Word, begins with the Theotokos. Through her as through a gate that remained shut, the Son of God has entered into his creation, and henceforth we shall always know him as the Son of Mary. Though her role in our salvation was unique and unrepeatable, it does provide for us a model and a goal. With respect to the goal, we recognize that she bore Christ in her womb so that we could give birth to Christ in our lives and our hearts. ...
Read more here: https://www.oca.org/reflections/metropolitan-tikhon/reflection-great-feast-nativity-theotokos
#ocareflections
Last week we celebrated the beginning of a new ecclesiastical year; now we mark the first great feast of the year, the birth of the Theotokos. The outer proclamation of the Gospel began with Christ’s Forerunner, whose conception we celebrate later this month, but the inner mystery of the Church, the Incarnation of the Word, begins with the Theotokos. Through her as through a gate that remained shut, the Son of God has entered into his creation, and henceforth we shall always know him as the Son of Mary. Though her role in our salvation was unique and unrepeatable, it does provide for us a model and a goal. With respect to the goal, we recognize that she bore Christ in her womb so that we could give birth to Christ in our lives and our hearts. ...
Read more here: https://www.oca.org/reflections/metropolitan-tikhon/reflection-great-feast-nativity-theotokos
#ocareflections
Today we commemorate Holy and Righteous Ancestors of God, Joachim and Anna
Read the account: https://www.oca.org/saints/id/lives/102546
More saints commemorated today: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2025/09/09
Music downloads: https://www.oca.org/liturgics/music-downloads/september
#saints #feastsandsaints
Read the account: https://www.oca.org/saints/id/lives/102546
More saints commemorated today: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2025/09/09
Music downloads: https://www.oca.org/liturgics/music-downloads/september
#saints #feastsandsaints
www.oca.org
Holy and Righteous Ancestors of God, Joachim and Anna
Saint Joachim, the son of Barpathir, was of the tribe of Judah, and was a descendant of King David, to whom God had revealed that the Savior of the world would be born from his seed. Saint Anna was the daughter of Matthan the priest, who was of the tribe…
Today we commemorate Venerable Paul the Obedient, of the Kiev Caves
Read the account: https://www.oca.org/saints/id/lives/102560
More saints commemorated today: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2025/09/10
Music downloads: https://www.oca.org/liturgics/music-downloads/september
#saints #feastsandsaints
Read the account: https://www.oca.org/saints/id/lives/102560
More saints commemorated today: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2025/09/10
Music downloads: https://www.oca.org/liturgics/music-downloads/september
#saints #feastsandsaints
www.oca.org
Venerable Paul the Obedient, of the Kiev Caves
Saint Paul the Obedient was an ascetic in the Far Caves at Kiev. Upon assuming the monastic schema at the monastery of the Caves, the monk underwent very burdensome obediences without a murmur, on which the monastery’s Superior had sent him. He was never…
On Sunday, September 7 and Monday, September 8, 2025 His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon made an archpastoral visit to Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Yonkers, NY, to celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos with the seminary community. This marked the first primatial visit of the new academic year. ...
More photos and information: https://www.oca.org/news/headline-news/his-beatitude-metropolitan-tikhon-visits-svots-for-feast-of-the-nativity-of-the-theotokos
Photo credit: Scott Strickland
More photos and information: https://www.oca.org/news/headline-news/his-beatitude-metropolitan-tikhon-visits-svots-for-feast-of-the-nativity-of-the-theotokos
Photo credit: Scott Strickland
Today we commemorate Saint Euphrosynus the Cook, of Alexandria
Read the account: https://www.oca.org/saints/id/lives/102581
More saints commemorated today: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2025/09/11
Music downloads: https://www.oca.org/liturgics/music-downloads/september
#saints #feastsandsaints
Read the account: https://www.oca.org/saints/id/lives/102581
More saints commemorated today: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2025/09/11
Music downloads: https://www.oca.org/liturgics/music-downloads/september
#saints #feastsandsaints
www.oca.org
Saint Euphrosynos the Cook of Alexandria
Our Holy Father Euphrosynos (Euphrósynos)1 the Cook was born into a peasant family, and had no schooling, but he was truly devout and faithful. As an adult, he became a cook, and was able to save money out of his expenses by depriving himself, but only…
Today we commemorate Hieromartyr Autonomus, Bishop in Italy
Read the account: https://www.oca.org/saints/id/lives/102585
More saints commemorated today: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2025/09/12
Music downloads: https://www.oca.org/liturgics/music-downloads/september
#saints #feastsandsaints
Read the account: https://www.oca.org/saints/id/lives/102585
More saints commemorated today: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2025/09/12
Music downloads: https://www.oca.org/liturgics/music-downloads/september
#saints #feastsandsaints
www.oca.org
Hieromartyr Autonomus, Bishop in Italy
The Hieromartyr Autonomus was a bishop in Italy. During the time of the persecution against Christians under the emperor Diocletian (284-305), Saint Autonomus left his own country and resettled in Bithynia, in the locality of Soreus with a man named Cornelius.…
The Orthodox Church in America Announces Restructuring and Expansion of the Clergy Wives Ministry
https://www.oca.org/news/headline-news/the-orthodox-church-in-america-announces-restructuring-and-expansion-of-the-clergy-wives-ministry
#clergywives #pastorallife
https://www.oca.org/news/headline-news/the-orthodox-church-in-america-announces-restructuring-and-expansion-of-the-clergy-wives-ministry
#clergywives #pastorallife
www.oca.org
The Orthodox Church in America Announces Restructuring and Expansion of the Clergy Wives Ministry
The Orthodox Church in America announces the reorganization and expansion of the Clergy Wives Ministry under the Office of Pastoral Life.
This transition affirms the Church’s ongoing…
This transition affirms the Church’s ongoing…
Today we commemorate Hieromartyr Cornelius the Centurion
Read the account: https://www.oca.org/saints/id/lives/102594
More saints commemorated today: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2025/09/13
Music downloads: https://www.oca.org/liturgics/music-downloads/september
#saints #feastsandsaints
Read the account: https://www.oca.org/saints/id/lives/102594
More saints commemorated today: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2025/09/13
Music downloads: https://www.oca.org/liturgics/music-downloads/september
#saints #feastsandsaints
www.oca.org
Hieromartyr Cornelius the Centurion
Soon after the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross and His Ascension into Heaven, a centurion by the name of Cornelius settled at Caesarea in Palestine. He had lived previously in Thracian Italy. Although he was a pagan, he distinguished himself…
Today we commemorate the Universal Exaltation of the Life-Giving Cross
Read the account: https://www.oca.org/saints/id/lives/102610
Saints commemorated today: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2025/09/14
Read sermon: https://www.oca.org/fs/sermons/the-cross-the-preserver-of-the-universe
Music downloads: https://www.oca.org/liturgics/music-downloads/elevation-of-the-lifegiving-cross
#saints #feastsandsaints
Read the account: https://www.oca.org/saints/id/lives/102610
Saints commemorated today: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2025/09/14
Read sermon: https://www.oca.org/fs/sermons/the-cross-the-preserver-of-the-universe
Music downloads: https://www.oca.org/liturgics/music-downloads/elevation-of-the-lifegiving-cross
#saints #feastsandsaints
www.oca.org
The Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross
The pagan Roman Emperors tried to obliterate the holy places where our Lord Jesus Christ suffered and rose from the dead, so that they would be forgotten. Emperor Hadrian (117-138) ordered that Golgotha and the Lord's Sepulchre be buried, and that a temple…
Reflection from His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon on the Great Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross
The final chapter of the Didache refers to a sign of outspreading, or expansion, and many have understood this sign to be the sign of the Cross. On the Cross, Christ stretches out his arms in order to embrace all creation. In his Incarnation, he becomes small; on the Cross, he displays the magnitude, the unfathomable greatness, the sheer and inconceivable bigness, of divine love. Let us therefore make the sign of the Cross, the sign of this divine love, with reverence and deliberateness. This is not just a matter of rote external piety; it is a way constantly to call to mind the saving self-emptying and crucified love of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ.
#ocareflections
The final chapter of the Didache refers to a sign of outspreading, or expansion, and many have understood this sign to be the sign of the Cross. On the Cross, Christ stretches out his arms in order to embrace all creation. In his Incarnation, he becomes small; on the Cross, he displays the magnitude, the unfathomable greatness, the sheer and inconceivable bigness, of divine love. Let us therefore make the sign of the Cross, the sign of this divine love, with reverence and deliberateness. This is not just a matter of rote external piety; it is a way constantly to call to mind the saving self-emptying and crucified love of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ.
#ocareflections
Today we commemorate Greatmartyr Nikḗtas the Goth
Read the account: https://www.oca.org/saints/id/lives/102615
More saints commemorated today: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2025/09/15
Music downloads: https://www.oca.org/liturgics/music-downloads/september
#saints #feastsandsaints
Read the account: https://www.oca.org/saints/id/lives/102615
More saints commemorated today: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2025/09/15
Music downloads: https://www.oca.org/liturgics/music-downloads/september
#saints #feastsandsaints
www.oca.org
Greatmartyr Niketas the Goth
The Holy Great Martyr Niketas (Nikḗtas) was a Goth (a Germanic tribe). He was born and lived on the banks of the Danube River, suffering for Christ in the year 372. The Christian Faith was already spreading throughout the territory of the Goths at that time.…