Metropolitan Anthony Bloom of Sourozh (Extract from a sermon preached at the University Church of Great St Mary’s, Cambridge, on 19 May 1985) And then, lastly, two events which I would like to bring together. The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple and the Crucifixion. Every male child first-born of a woman was to be brought to the Temple as an offering. If we read back into the Old Testament about the institution of the
Introduction On the Fifth Sunday of Lent the Orthodox Church commemorates our Righteous Mother Mary of Egypt. The feast day of Saint Mary of Egypt is April 1, however, she is also commemorated on this Sunday due to her recognition by the Church as a model of repentance. Life of the Saint Our holy mother Mary was born in Egypt. She had left her parents at the age of twelve to go to Alexandria, where
Commemorated on March 25 The Feast of the Annunciation is one of the earliest Christian feasts, and was already being celebrated in the fourth century. There is a painting of the Annunciation in the catacomb of Priscilla in Rome dating from the second century. The Council of Toledo in 656 mentions the Feast, and the Council in Trullo in 692 says that the Annunciation was celebrated during Great Lent. The Greek and Slavonic names for
The Synaxis of St. John the Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord is an Orthodox feast day established in honor of this saint. The Church has a custom of glorifying those righteous servants of God who most closely served in a celebrated event on the day following certain great feast days. On the next day after Holy Theophany, or the Baptism of the Lord, we celebrate the Synaxis of the Forerunner and Baptist John, who
Alexandros Christodoulou With His incarnation, His humanization, God entered the innermost core of our lives in the most obvious way. He entered our circulatory system, our heart, the centre of everything, the centre of the universe. After He’d been expelled from our world, our body and our soul through our voluntary sin, He returned, through His incarnation, to our world, our body and our soul, becoming completely human and working for us as a human
~By Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov), 1/8/2019 Translation by Nun Cornelia (Rees) In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit! Dear brothers and sisters, today we celebrate the second day of the great feast of the Nativity of Christ. This day is called the day of the Synaxis of the Most Holy Theotokos, because in antiquity, on the second day of the feast of the Nativity of Christ the first Christians gathered in the
Saint Symeon the New Theologian When God, the Son of God, entered the womb of All-Holy Virgin and took flesh from her, He was born a perfect person and perfect God, without confusion. When has anything more important ever happened for us? We all believe in this Son of God and Son of the ever-virgin Mother of God, Mary, which is why we confidently accept this information about Him and this event. If we confess
~By His Eminence Metropolitan PANTELEIMON of Antinoes The Entrance of the Ever Virgin Mary and Theotokos in God’s Temple is considered to be one of the most important events in the History of Salvation. All the Orthodox Church around the world is celebrating the Entrance of the Mother of God, the Theotokos and Ever Virgin Mary, into the Holy of Holies. The faithful and all the heavenly Powers conjoin and concelebrate. Earth rejoices and the
Saint Gregory Palamas If ‘the death of the saints is precious and the memory of the righteous is blessed’, with how much greater praise should we keep the memory of the ‘saint of the saints’ through whom the whole of sanctity came to them, that is the memory of the Ever-Virgin Mother of God? This is what we do when we celebrate the anniversary of her holy Dormition or transferal, in which, even though she
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, August 7, 2019 In my childhood, it was not unusual to hear someone ask, “Who are your people?” It was a semi-polite, Southernism designed to elicit essential information about a person’s social background. The assumption was that you, at best, could only be an example of your “people.” It ignored the common individualism of the wider culture, preferring the more family or clan-centered existence of an older time. It was possible
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