Resources

Our Lady, the Most Holy Theotokos, lived the most perfect life of any mere human. Of the 12 Great Feasts of the Church, a full third of them are dedicated to her and to her life. The last major feast of the Church Year is her Holy Dormition, on August 15th. But what is a Dormition?

Fasting is one of the three pillars of a Christian’s spiritual life (alongside prayer and almsgiving). Fasting is a gift from God, a tool that assists us in aligning our hearts and minds towards Him and His saving work, a tool that delivers us from the passions.

On August 6th, we commemorate the Transfiguration of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Why is this event so significant, so much so that it is one of the Church’s 12 major feasts?

The Second Sunday of Lent can be called a “Triumph”, for on this day we celebrate St Gregory of Palamas’s staunch defense of hesychasm: the process of attaining divine quietness, which in turn allows us to experience God directly and intimately, in this life.

Nine months before the birth of Christ, the Virgin Theotokos is visited by the ArchangelGabriel with the gladdest of tidings: that she shall conceive and bear a son, and that this son’s nameshall be Emmanuel (meaning “God with us”).

Prostrating (kneeling and touching one’s head to the floor) is a mainstay of Orthodox Christian piety. We do itas a physical way to cultivate humility and to focus our prayers, literally lowering ourselves as we request God’s mercy.

Since Great Lentis a time of preparation for that Resurrection, a time characterized by remembrance of our sinfulness and ourseparation from God, we do not perform the regular Divine Liturgy during the weekdays of Lent.