Category Archives: Blog

N.B.:  The links included in this post are not visible to everyone for some reason.  They can usually be found if you hover over the black space where they should be.  Sorry for the inconvenience! ———– We’re so excited for Holy Week! Here are some family traditions that we do this week. I want to […]

O Holy Angel, who stand by my wretched soul and my passionate life: do not abandon me, a sinner, neither depart from me because of my lack of self-control. Leave no room for the evil demon to gain control of me through the violence of this mortal body. Strengthen my weak and feeble hand, and […]

O Holy Angel, who stand by my wretched soul and my passionate life: do not abandon me, a sinner, neither depart from me because of my lack of self-control. Leave no room for the evil demon to gain control of me through the violence of this mortal body. Strengthen my weak and feeble hand, and […]

(Part IV in a series encouraging reverence of the Holy Places and Things) Along with the Holy Table and the Table of Oblation, inside the altar areas is the Table of Service, in Greek, the diakonikon.  This table stands to the right of the Holy Table and opposite the Table of Oblation.  In the early church […]

(Part III in a series of posts encouraging reverence of the Holy things) Along with the Holy Table, there are two other tables in the Holy Place.  The table to the left of the Holy Table (under the icon of the Holy Trinity in our temple) is the called the Table of Prothesis (“placing before/offering”), […]

(Part II in a series of posts encouraging reverence of the Holy things) When the priest stands at the royal doors and blesses the altar at the end of the Little Entrance (the one where he or the deacon carries the Gospel book), he says “Blessed is the entrance into your holy of holies…”. He […]

(Part one in a series of posts encouraging reverence of the Holy things) At the end of the Divine Liturgy, during the Ambon Prayer, the priest asks God to “sanctify those who love the beauty of your house…”.  This reference comes from Psalm 25:8 (26:8 in most bibles) which says “Lord, I love the beauty […]

  -Not one of the 12 Apostles, but one of the 70 Disciples. -Born in Antioch in Syria and died after many years of ministry in Thebes. -Companion of Our Lord (by tradition he was the unmentioned traveler on the road to Emmaus Luke 24:13ff.), the Theotokos (by tradition she shared with him his infancy […]

Ardently desiring to find the Cross upon which our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, Saint Constantine sent his mother, the pious Empress Helen, to Jerusalem. Saint Helen journeyed to the holy places connected with the earthly life of the Savior, building more than 80 churches, at Bethlehem the birthplace of Christ, and on the Mount […]

And, behold, an angel of the Lord stood by, saying: Anna, Anna, the Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth; and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world. And Anna said: As the Lord my God lives, if I beget either male or female, I will […]