Commemoration of the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council
Celebrated Oct 08
Today the Church remembers the 350 holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council under the holy Patriarch Tarasius (February 25).
The Synod of 787, the second to meet at Nicea, refuted the Iconoclast heresy during the reign of Empress Irene and her son Constantine VI.
The Council decreed that the veneration of icons was not idolatry (Exodus 20:4-5), because the honor shown to them is not directed to the wood or paint, but passes to the prototype (the person depicted). It also upheld the possibility of depicting Christ, Who became man and took flesh at His Incarnation. The Father, on the other hand, cannot be represented in His eternal nature, because “no man has seen God at any time” (John 1:18).
Living the Golden Rule
Excerpts from artcle by
PRIEST LUKE A. VERONIS | 05 OCTOBER 2020
Let’s be the change we want to see in the world. What we want to see in others, let us start doing to others! Even if we don’t see a change in the world, we’ll see a change in ourselves!
Interestingly, the world’s religions agree on the Golden Rule, yet most of them approach it from the negative perspective – “DON’T do something bad to others, which you DON’T want them to do to you.”
Obviously, this would change our world if we didn’t do things to others which we don’t want them to do to us. Yet, our Lord Jesus emphasizes the Golden Rule in today’s Gospel reading from a positive perspective, precisely because He realizes that it’s not simply enough NOT to do something bad to someone else. The Christian goal isn’t simply to NOT do something, but we must go a step further and DO GOOD THINGS to others.
As follows of Jesus Christ, who is Love Incarnate, we understand that love isn’t the absence of bad, but it is the presence of good. We must consciously and actively display love to others; Christians live out the fulfillment of their faith by DOING GOOD ACTS for others, just as we want others to treat us well. Thus, Jesus calls His followers to take a proactive stance of love.
Read the whole article here: Living the Golden Rule
Venerable Pelagia the Penitent
Commemorated on October 8
Saint Pelagia the Penitent was converted to Christianity by Saint Nonnus, Bishop of Edessa (Saturday of Cheesefare Week). Before her acceptance of Christianity through Baptism, Pelagia was head of a dance troupe in Palestinian Antioch, living a life of frivolity and prostitution.
One day Pelagia, elegantly dressed, was making her way past a church where Saint Nonnus was preaching a sermon. Believers turned their faces away from the sinner, but the bishop glanced after her. Struck by the outer beauty of Pelagia and having foreseen the spiritual greatness within her, the saint prayed in his cell for a long time to the Lord for the sinner. He told his fellow bishops that the prostitute put them all to shame. He explained that she took great care to adorn her body in order to appear beautiful in the eyes of men. “We... take no thought for the adornment of our wretched souls,” he said.
Saint Pelagia with Saint Nonnus
On the following day, when Saint Nonnus was teaching in the church about the dread Last Judgment and its consequences, Pelagia came. The teaching made a tremendous impression upon her. With the fear of God and weeping tears of repentance, she asked the saint for Baptism. Seeing her sincere and full repentance, Bishop Nonnus baptized her.
By night the devil appeared to Pelagia, urging her to return to her former life. The saint prayed, signed herself with the Sign of the Cross, and the devil vanished.
Three days after her baptism, Saint Pelagia gathered up her valuables and took them to Bishop Nonnus. The bishop ordered that they be distributed among the poor saying, “Let this be wisely dispersed, so that these riches gained by sin may become a wealth of righteousness.” After this Saint Pelagia journeyed to Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives. She lived there in a cell, disguised as the monk Pelagius, living in ascetic seclusion, and attaining great spiritual gifts. When she died, she was buried in her cell.
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An Introduction to the
Orthodox Christian Church
Adapted from: John Meyendorff. The Orthodox Church
Brotherhood of St. John
THURSDAY OCTOBER 5@PM
Meetings 1st and 3rd Thursdays
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Open to all men of the church
Extensive and excellent guide to Orthodox
Christian vocabulary
by the Orthodox Church of the Mother of God
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We are currently reading
Mere Christianity by CS Lewis
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Gaining the Attention of the Mind
One of the major challenges in our prayer life
"Always practice the "Golden Rule""
Oct 01, 2023
"As ministers of God have patience in tribulations, in needs, in distresses"
Sep 24, 2023
10 Essential Conditions for Coming to Know
God’s Truth and Finding Life
PROTOPRESBYTER THOMAS HOPKO (+2015) | 13 APRIL 2016
Essential Truths needed for salvation
- Accept God's power and be afraid
- Always live in the Now and don't expect anything
- Confess sins and beg God's forgiveness
- Truly believe in forgiveness. Forgive yourself and forgive others
- There really is a path to salvation
- Acknowledge mysteries, miracles, angels, and saints
- Believe in the devil; don't be distracted by his tricks
(This list was offered by an old friend and is his personal list which helps him during his struggles and are of course shared by many believers)
How We Should Conduct Ourselves in Church
ARCHPRIEST JOHN WHITEFORD
JUNE 2020
O Lord, I Have Loved The Beauty of Thy House
Psalms 25:8 (LXX)
Children in Church
“Suffer little children to come unto me,
for of such is the Kingdom of God.”
(Luke 18:16)
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