The Immaculate Conception, the motherhood/maternity of St. Anna, or The Conception of Saint Anna, is the feast when we celebrate St. Anna conceiving the Mary, the Theotokos. This feast is generally celebrated in Eastern Churches in December 9th. However, Roman Catholics celebrate this feast on December 8th. And in countries such as the United States, …
The Holy and All-Praiseworthy Apostle Andrew the First-Called On November 30th we celebrate the Apostle Andrew the First-Called. St. Andrew gets this title since he is one of Jesus’ first followers, having departed from being a follower of John to Baptist to join Christ. Besides being the first disciple of Jesus, we recognize St. Andrew …
The Entrance of the Theotokos (also called the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary), is November 21st. This feast, which is one of the twelve major feasts, is an early tradition based on writings we have from the Church. There is some evidence that this feast was celebrated in the 400s, but the most solid …
The Nativity Fast That Nativity Fast, or St. Philip’s fast (because it begins after the feast of the Apostle Philip), starts November 15th. I wrote a short article last year about slowing life down in preparation for the Nativity. Looking back on the post, I don’t think I found enough ways to truly answer “How …
The Theotokos’ Great Commission: Pray the Rosary On October 7 in the Roman Rite, we celebrated Our Lady of the Rosary, or a commemoration of the Victory of Lepanto. This feast was celebrated for the 448th time this year. The Church attributed this Title to the Theotokos. Both as the heavenly originator of the Holy …
On August 16th we celebrate the Feast of the Image Not Made by Hands, the very first icon. We also know this icon by other names, including the Holy Napkin/Cloth, the Icon Not Made by Hands, The Image of Edessa, and the Mandylion (which is Greek for facecloth). This is the third Christological feast in …
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever! August 1 to August 15 marks another special season in the liturgical calendar of the Byzantine Church. A season dedicated to preparing with prayer and penance a heart like our Blessed Mother, the Holy Theotokos. We try to create a heart like Her’s because on August 15 the Theotokos …
Tomorrow we celebrate Jesus’ love for us, in both Eastern and Western churches. In the East, this Friday is called Christ, Lover of Mankind and in the West it is called the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart and is traditionally celebrated on the Friday 19 days after Pentecost. This Friday we focus upon the image …
The next feast day coming up is the Nativity of John the Baptist. John the Baptist, or John the Forerunner, is highly venerated in the Byzantine Churches. There are a couple reasons for this. First of all, he baptized Christ. And he is the last prophet, the one to prepare the way for Jesus (see …
In the East, we call the second Pascal Sunday (the seventh day after Easter) Thomas Sunday, Sunday of St. Thomas or Antipascha (The “antithesis” of the Octave of Easter). The eighth day after Easter is also commonly known as Divine Mercy Sunday, particularly since St. Faustyna (St. Faustina) shared her private revelations about Christ’s mercy …