What is an angel?  

The word angel means a “messenger” of God. An angel of God is one of the spirits of heaven sent down by God to announce His will and to fulfill His orders.  The Holy Scriptures give us many accounts of the deeds performed by the angels by the order of God, such as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah or guarding Paradise after the fall of Adam. The New Testament tells of angels who appeared to Zacharias, and the Virgin Mary. “An angel,” says St. John Damascene, “is an intelligent substance, always active, having free will and bodiless, serving God: a being that has received immortality as a gift of God. The Creator alone knows its essential nature.” Concerning the Orthodox Faith

According to Orthodox Scripture and Tradition, there are nine ranks of bodiless powers or the Hosts: angels, archangels, principalities, powers, virtues, dominions, thrones, cherubim and seraphim (cf. Col. 1:16).  The Cherubim and Seraphim are described as offering continual adoration before God with the incessant and ever-resounding cry: HOLY!  HOLY!  HOLY!  (Isaiah 6:3, Rev. 4:8). We refer to this when we sing the Cherubic Hymn in the Divine Liturgy: Let us mystically represent the Cherubim and sing the thrice-holy hymn to the life-creating Trinity. Together with them, we sing: Holy!  Holy!  Holy!

The Vesperal Divine Liturgy for this Feast will be celebrated on Wednesday evening, November 7, 2018, at 6:00 pm.

The Feast of the Patronage of Mary, the Mother of God, is celebrated on October 1^st.

This Feast was placed on the Church calendar to commemorate the apparition of the Mother of God in Constantinople in the 10^th century.  The account of the apparition is found in the life of St. Andrew, the fool for Christ’s sake.  The Saracens were trying to take the city of Constantinople and had begun the decisive battle.  The terror-stricken people had gathered in the various churches.  The event took place at the Church of Balchernae near Constantinople.  During the Office of the Vigil, at about 4 o-clock in the morning, St. Andrew and his disciple, Epiphanius, saw a majestic woman supported by St. John the Baptist and St. John the Theologian, accompanied by several saints.  On reaching the center of the Church, the Mother of God knelt down and remained long in prayer, her face bathed in tears.

When she prayed again before the Altar, she took the veil that covered her head, holding it above her head, extended it over all the people in the Church.,  Andrew and Epiphanius alone were able to see the appearance of the Mother of God, but all who were present felt the grace of her protection.  The next day the city was freed from danger.