The glorious Feast of the Annunciation of the Mother of God is celebrated on March 25. It was because of Mary’s yes to the Angel Gabriel that Christ was able to come among us in the flesh and lead us from the desert of “sin” to the Crucifixion and Resurrection. On this feast, we celebrate the Incarnation – the conception in Mary’s womb at the announcement of the angel and the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.
Like the Gospel narrative of the Evangelist Luke (1:26-38), the Church’s Divine Services and the Icon of the Annunciation is permeated with a deep inner joy. It is the joy of the Old Testament promise being fulfilled through the Incarnation – the coming in the flesh – of the Redeemer of the world: Today is the beginning of our salvation and the revelation of an Eternal Mystery: the Son of God becomes the Son of a Virgin and Gabriel announces the Good News of this grace. Therefore, let us join him crying out to the Mother of God: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you. [Read more…]
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On Saturday of the first week of Great Lent, we remember the miracle of St Theodore and the boiled wheat. Fifty years after the death of St Theodore, the emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363), wanting to commit an outrage upon the Christians, commanded the city-commander of Constantinople during the first week of Great Lent to sprinkle all the food provisions in the marketplaces with the blood offered to idols. St. Theodore appeared in a dream to Archbishop Eudoxius, ordering him to inform all the Christians that no one should buy anything at the marketplaces, but rather eat cooked wheat with honey (kolyva). 
On Monday, February 19, we begin the holy season of Great Lent. It is a very valuable season of the Church Year and the appointed time for our spiritual renewal. In truth, it is a Gift from God.
SUNDAY OF ORTHODOXY