FEASTDAYS IN THE ORTHODOX YEAR

Unlike the Resurrection of Christ, the mysterious character of Mary’s death, burial and ascension were not the subject of apostolic teachings extant but were preserved in the oral tradition of the Church. 19 Aug 2014 – Neos Kosmos DEAN KALIMNIOU “If her Fruit, Whom none may comprehend, on Whose account she was called a heaven, submitted of His own will …

In the Old Testament Pentecost was the feast which occurred fifty days after Passover. As the Passover feast celebrated the exodus of the Israelites from the slavery of Egypt, so Pentecost celebrated God’s gift of the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai. In the new covenant of the Messiah, the Passover event takes on its new meaning as the celebration of …

By Fr Kyril This Great Feast of the Lord commemorates His final moments on earth before being taken up into heaven. Jesus led His disciples to the Mount of Olives, and after blessing them and asking them to wait for the fulfillment of the promise of God the Father (which was that He would send to them the Holy Spirit), …

Jesus did not live with his disciples after his resurrection as he had before his death. Filled with the glory of his divinity, he appeared at different times and places to his people, assuring them that it was he, truly alive in his risen and glorified body. To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing …

ST THOMAS SUNDAY: ANTIPASCHA Every day during the week of Pascha, called Bright Week by the Church, the paschal services are celebrated in all their splendour. The Pascha baptismal procession is repeated daily. The royal gates of the sanctuary remain open. The joy of the Resurrection and the gift of the Kingdom of eternal life continue to abound. Then, at the end …

Mark 15:43-16:6 By St. Theophylact, Archbishop of Ochrid and Bulgaria *42-47. Now when the evening was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a noble counsellor, who also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and asked for the Body of Jesus. And Pilate wondered …

By Dr Philip Kariatlis   PART I Two weeks after Easter – known in the liturgical calendar as the third Sunday of Pascha – the Orthodox Church celebrates two events, which are recounted in the Gospel reading designated for the Divine Liturgy of that day (Mark 15:43 – 16:8). Firstly, the day honours the action taken by Joseph of Arimathea, …

In the Orthodox Church, the feast day of St Thomas, the faithful disciple of the risen Lord, also known as ‘the Twin’ (Didymus)[1] is celebrated precisely one week after Easter – that is, on the Sunday following Pascha, which is known both as the ‘Sunday of Thomas’ and the ‘After-feast of Pascha’ (Antipascha). Even though popular piety has wrongly attributed …

  A little before midnight on the Blessed Sabbath the Nocturne service is chanted. The celebrant goes to the tomb and removes the winding-sheet. He carries it through the royal doors and places it on the altar table where it remains for forty days until the day of Ascension. At midnight the Paschal procession begins. The people leave the church building singing: …

The Church Fathers have much to say about how we should approach Great Lent and Holy Week in all its aspects – fasting, prayer, our actions. They recognise that simply going through the motions of abstaining from certain kinds of foods while not paying attention to how we live our lives amounts to following the letter of the law, not …