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THE WESTERN FEAST OF ST. JOHN THE APOSTLE AND THEOLOGIAN (DECEMBER 27TH)
St. John, the beloved disciple of Christ, holds a unique place in Christian history as the "Apostle of Love" and "Theologian." A Galilean fisherman turned Apostle, John witnessed Christ’s most profound moments - His Transfiguration, agony in Gethsemane, and Crucifixion. At the Cross, Christ entrusted His mother to John, who cared for her faithfully until her Dormition.
John’s Gospel reveals Christ as the eternal Word, emphasizing His divine nature and the mystery of the Incarnation. His epistles call believers to abide in love, and the Book of Revelation unveils the ultimate victory of Christ and the hope of the New Jerusalem.
Tradition honors St. John as the only Apostle to die of natural causes, with his tomb in Ephesus becoming a site of pilgrimage.
COLLECT
Merciful and Almighty Lord, we beseech thee to cast thy bright beams of light upon thy Church, that it being instructed by the doctrine of thy blessed Apostle and Evangelist Saint John, may so walk in the light of thy truth, that it may at length attain to everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Read more: chineseorthodoxy.blogspot.com/2021/12/st-john-apos…
#StJohnTheApostle #StJohnTheEvangelist #BelovedDisciple #HolyGospel #ApostleOfLove #BookOfRevelation #Logos #GodIsLove #ChristianMysticism #Theotokos #EarlyChurch #OrthodoxChristianity #AnglicanTradition #LightOfTheWorld #FeastDay
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ST. STEPHEN THE PROTOMARTYR (DEC. 26TH)
Today, on the 26th of December, we commemorate the First Martyr of the Church, one of the First Deacons of the Church, and one of the First Christian Evangelists in Christian History - St. Stephen the Protomartyr! Today marks one of the most joyous feasts in the 12 Days of Christmas, a day when children would traditionally go caroling from house to house in the name of the glorious saint, recounting his life and death, and receiving sweets and hot drinks in memory of his great sacrifice for the love of Christ and the preaching of the Gospel!
Scripture tells us his story in Acts 7:54-60 -
When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Collect:
ALMIGHTY GOD, grant that in all our sufferings here upon the earth, for the testimony of Thy truth, we may steadfastly look up to heaven, and by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed; and, being filled with the Holy Ghost, may learn to love and bless our persecutors, by the example of Thy first Martyr Saint Stephen, who prayed for his murderers to Thee, O God, and now standest before Thy throne with all the company of martyrs. Hear Thy martyrs’ cries and succor all those that suffer for Thee. Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Who livest and reignest with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Christ is Born! Glorify Him!
Original Text: chineseorthodoxy.blogspot.com/2021/12/st-stephen-p…
#StStephen #Protomartyr #StStephenTheFirstMartyr #ChristianMartyrdom #ActsOfTheApostles #DeaconOfTheChurch #FirstMartyr #FeastOfStStephen #12DaysOfChristmas #ChristianFeasts #HolyTradition #OrthodoxChristianity #WesternOrthodox #AnglicanRiteOrthodox #GospelProclamation #HeavensOpened #ForgiveYourEnemies #MartyrsCrown #ChristmasSeason #ChristIsBorn #GlorifyHim #ChristianWitness #AncientChurchoftheWest
#OrthodoxArchdiocese
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Midnight Liturgy for Christmas Eve at St. Alopen’s, a beautiful time of welcoming the Christchild into our hearts and lives! Blessed Christmas!
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CHAPEL MEDITATION
Sitting in silence in our chapel tonight, commemorating Emmanuel, “God With Us” (Matthew 1:23), my thoughts turn to the breathtaking hope of a universe transformed by the union of God and Man. In the vastness of a cosmos spinning with unfathomable complexity - billions of stars, trillions of planets, and an immeasurable expanse of space - we, mere specks of dust, are filled with yet greater universes of order: cells, molecules, and atoms.
Into this grandeur and mundane materiality, the eternal Word entered. The Creator stooped to His creation, stepping into the drama of this tiny blue world. Here, in the fleeting history of human consciousness, is encapsulated the whole divine history of salvation. “When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman” (Galatians 4:4), not only to redeem mankind but to infuse all creation with divine life, bringing the cosmos into harmony with its Creator.
The Incarnation is not just the solution to the Fall; it is the mystery of the union of Creator and created, Spirit and matter, God and man. Christ, the Second Adam, has inaugurated a New Creation, recapitulating all things in Himself (Ephesians 1:10). His throne in Heaven is not a throne of abstract divinity but one where a man - Jesus of Nazareth - now reigns forever (Hebrews 1:8). He is both fully God and fully man, and in His glorified body, He bears the marks of His passion (John 20:27), eternally testifying to and bridging between God and humanity.
This union began in the humble submission of the Theotokos, the Virgin Mary, who bore the infinite God within her finite womb. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), and in that flesh, He reconciled the world to God (2 Corinthians 5:19). By His Incarnation, Passion, and Resurrection, Christ has established a New Covenant in His Blood (Luke 22:20), inaugurating a new race of redeemed humanity - those who are “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).
Emmanuel - “God with us” - is not a passing moment but an eternal reality. Christ is the Head of a new humanity (1 Corinthians 15:45), and through His Body, the Church, we are being conformed to His image (Romans 8:29). As we partake of the Holy Mysteries, we are drawn deeper into His life, becoming what He is by grace: the redeemed, deified sons and daughters of God.
This is the great mystery of salvation: that God has not only come to dwell among us but has made us His dwelling place (1 Corinthians 3:16). The end of history is not an ending at all but the eternal return of God among men, when “the dwelling place of God is with man” (Revelation 21:3). Heaven and earth will be united, and the cosmos itself will be transfigured by His glory, as “God will be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28).
This is Emmanuel. This is God with us - and us with God.
Original Post: chineseorthodoxy.blogspot.com/2024/12/chapel-medit…
#Emmanuel #GodWithUs #Incarnation #UnionWithGod #ChristTheSecondAdam #NewCreation #Theosis #SalvationHistory #GloryOfGod #GodAndMan #DivineMystery #ChristianHope #CosmicRedemption #EasternOrthodoxTheology #PatristicWisdom #JesusReigns #NewCovenant #HeavenAndEarth #ChristianMeditation #EternalLife #ChristOurHope
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ST. MODESTOS OF JERUSALEM (DEC. 18TH OR 23RD)
St. Modestos (AD 580–634), Patriarch of Jerusalem, is remembered as the “Healer of the Church” during the Persian invasion of AD 614. He restored the desecrated holy sites, ransomed captives, and comforted the faithful. Known for his care for all creation, he blessed and healed livestock, ensuring the livelihood of struggling families.
A champion of the Orthodox faith and a steadfast shepherd, Modestos reminds us of the call to rebuild what is broken in both Church and soul. As we prepare for Christ’s Nativity, may his example inspire us to serve with humility and love.
COLLECT
O God, who didst raise up thy servant Modestos to heal thy Church in her affliction and to restore thy holy places, grant us the same zeal for thy house and compassion for thy people, that we, being strengthened by his example, may labor for thy glory and the good of thy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Read the whole story: chineseorthodoxy.blogspot.com/2024/12/st-modestos-…
#StModestos #OrthodoxSaints #HolyJerusalem #AdventReflections #WesternOrthodox #ChurchRestoration #FaithfulShepherd #PersianInvasion #HolySepulchre #PastoralCare #GodsCreation
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A MEDITATION ON EMMANUEL (O EMMANUEL) FOR DECEMBER 23RD
“O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Desire of all nations and their Salvation: come and save us, O Lord our God.”
The final O Antiphon, O Emmanuel, proclaims the glorious truth of Advent: God is with us. In Christ, the eternal God has entered into our brokenness, taking on our humanity to save and restore us.
As King, He reigns in love; as Lawgiver, He fulfills the commandments in grace; as Savior, He unites all peoples in Himself. This Advent, let us rejoice in the nearness of Emmanuel and prepare to welcome Him into our hearts.
COLLECT
O Emmanuel, God with us, our King and Lawgiver, the Desire of all nations and their Salvation: Come, we beseech Thee, and dwell among us, that we may behold Thy glory and be transformed by Thy grace; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Read the Whole Article: chineseorthodoxy.blogspot.com/2024/12/a-meditation…
#OEmmanuel #OAntiphons #AdventReflection #AdventMeditation #GodWithUs #KingOfKings #DesireOfNations #AdventPrayers #WesternOrthodox #BCPCollect #LiturgicalYear #ComeLordJesus #PrepareTheWay
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A SERMON FOR THE 4TH SUNDAY OF ADVENT
By Fr. Duncan Richards (Ancient Church of the West)
“Let your moderation be known unto all men,” from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen
Good morning! Today we have made it to the 4th and final Sunday in Advent, in our journey walking towards Christ’s birth in Bethlehem. As we draw most near to our remembrance of the nativity, we don’t get a reading about the Gabriel coming to the Virgin Mary or anything like that, rather we get a reading about John the Baptist being asked who he is.
They ask him if he is the Messiah, Elijah, or the Prophet. John responds straightaway that he is none of these, but just a simple messenger declaring the coming Messianic King. But John is not just another of the prophets of old, telling of the Messiah to come from afar off, no, John is the forerunner of Christ, the one who comes when the world is on the cusp of its salvation. John’s crying in the wilderness for the people to repent and return to God. The Father uses John’s voice to cut through the desert and make a highway for the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah to be announced to the world.
But this is no small task, the image from the prophet Isaiah is not just of some nice Roman road being build on flat ground, but of a highway that cuts through a place where the desert sands inevitably encroach upon any road that is built – making a highway like this, a rather miraculous endeavor. Thanks be to God though, that the true voice that cuts out the path, is not John’s own oratory skill, but the Logos of the universe, its creator become incarnate, Jesus the Son of God.
Here we have that John is the one who temporally comes before his cousin Jesus in terms of his ministry, but at the same time, Jesus in his divinity, is at the same time working through John’s ministry and is the cause and end of it as well. We can take comfort in this in our own day and in our own lives. Christ has called us to serve him by obeying his commandments, do good works, and proclaim the gospel, all by loving our neighbors through our love of God. In all that, we don’t do what God has called us do in our own power, but we do with the empowering of the Holy Spirit and the goal of the glory of God in Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Being imaged well by the last verse of St. Patrick’s breastplate:
Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
And in this we can join with the Apostle Paul as he says in his letter to the Philippians to “rejoice for the Lord is at hand…[and do] everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.”
While John the Baptist isn’t the reincarnation or return of the prophet Elijah, he is a fulfillment of the Old Testament type. In Elijah’s ministry, he declares boldly the commands of God, as well as being a one through whom God displays His mighty power, challenging the ruling king in Judah and his corruptpagan priesthood. This servant of God was also persecuted mightily by King Ahab and Jezebel. John the Baptist mirrors Elijah in all these ways: he defies the brood of vipers that is the rabbinical and priestly classes as well as King Herod in both his excesses of power and his adulterous and perverse marriages, leading ultimately to his beheading at the command of the Ahab and Jezebel of his time at the court of King Herod.
Additionally, just as Elisha had a double portion of the prophetic spirit of power, so likewise, the greater prophet is not in John, but in Jesus. In his ministry, Elisha performed many more miracles and signs than Elijah, as does Jesus compared to John. And as Elijah was taken away by God into heaven, so was John taken away at his beheading, both allowing for a greater pouring out of the Spirit of God – in the case of Christ Jesus, the ultimate pouring out in one who is not only prophet, but priest and king and most importantly God our Savior. This is summed up nicely here by St. Cyril of Alexandria:
For I, he says, am bringing in an introductory Baptism, washing those defiled by sin with water for a beginning of penitence and teaching them to go up from the lower unto the more perfect. For this were to accomplish in act, what I was sent to preach, Prepare ye, I mean, the way of the Lord. For the Giver of the greater and most notable gifts and Supplier of all perfection of good things, standeth among you, unknown as yet by reason of the veil of flesh, but so much surpassing me the Baptist, that I must deem myself not to have the measure even of a servant's place in His Presence.
And so as we journey these last few days to Bethlehem to view with wonder and amazement at the virgin mother giving birth to the infant savior who is God Himself, let us meditate on how we can imitate John’s submission to God’s use of his life and let the great gifts that Jesus has given us in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and his renewing graces daily in our prayers, praises, and participation in the Sacraments enable us to grow closer to God in holiness and righteousness.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
chineseorthodoxy.blogspot.com/2024/12/a-sermon-for…
#4thSundayOfAdvent #AdventSermon #PrepareTheWay #JohnTheBaptist #VoiceInTheWilderness #RejoiceInTheLord #Philippians4 #StPatricksBreastplate #ChristWithUs #AdventJourney #NativityOfChrist #WesternOrthodox #AncientChurch #HolinessAndRighteousness #AdventReflection #ComeLordJesus
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A MEDITATION ON THE DAWN (O ORIENS) FOR DECEMBER 21ST
“O Day-Spring, Brightness of Light Eternal, and Sun of Righteousness: come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.”
Christ is the Day-Spring, the true Light who breaks the darkness of sin and death. He is the Sun of Righteousness, rising with healing in His wings, bringing hope to those who long for the dawn.
As we prepare for His coming, let us welcome His light into our hearts, allowing it to transform us and guide us in the way of peace.
COLLECT
O Dayspring, Brightness of the everlasting Light and Sun of Righteousness: Shine, we beseech Thee, upon our souls, and scatter the darkness of sin, that we may walk in Thy light and rejoice in Thy presence forever; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Read the Whole Article: chineseorthodoxy.blogspot.com/2024/12/a-meditation…
#OOriens #OAntiphons #AdventMeditation #AdventReflection #LightOfTheWorld #SunOfRighteousness #AdventPrayers #LiturgicalYear #WesternOrthodox #BCPCollect #ComeLordJesus #PrepareTheWay
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We rejoice in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, given to us as we grow as a family, in the knowledge of truth and the pursuit of holiness! Blessed Christmastide!
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LAST SUNDAY OF ADVENT (DEC. 22ND)
INTERIOT
Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness; let the earth open, and bring forth salvation. (Psalm 19:1, 4–5) The heavens declare the glory of God: and the firmament sheweth his handiwork. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
COLLECT
O Lord, raise up, we pray thee, thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through the satisfaction of thy Son our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be honour and glory, world without end. Amen.
OLD TESTAMENT: Isaiah 7:10–16 -
Moreover, the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.
PSALM 80:1–7 -
Hear, O thou Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; shew thyself also, thou that sittest upon the cherubims. Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up thy strength, and come and help us. Turn us again, O God; shew the light of thy countenance, and we shall be whole.
EPISTLE: Philippians 4:4–7 -
Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
GOSPEL: St. John 1:19–28 -
This is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.
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