Byzantine Catholic Mission
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Holy Resurrection Byzantine Catholic Mission |
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O ye incorporeal angels who stand before the throne of God, luminous with the brilliance thereof and everlastingly shining with radiance. As secondary luminaries, entreat Christ, that He grant unto our souls peace and great mercy. O immortal messengers of the truly incorruptible Life, ye most blessed ones who received life from the first Life, ye have become holy beholders of the eternal Wisdom, full of light, and reflecting lamps shown forth as is meet. O ye archangels and angels, principalities, thrones, dominions, six-winged seraphim, and divine, many-eyed cherubim, instruments of wisdom, virtues and powers most divine. Pray ye to Christ, that He grant our souls peace and great mercy. Archives:
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HOLY RESURRECTION BYZANTINE CATHOLIC MISSION
Slava Isusu Christu! Slava Na Niky!
Divine Liturgy begins at 4 p.m. Every Sunday
Potluck supper follows Liturgy on the third Sunday of the month
AUGUST 5, 2007
Our Offerings
GOSPEL THOUGHT: IS IT POSSIBLE TO IMITATE CHRIST?
Does the Lord ask us to imitate His life on Earth? Indeed, He does! Christ would have us live the way He lived some two
thousand years ago. God does not expect us to live as Christ under our own power; but with God’s help, His grace, we are
enabled to imitate Christ. Christ, Himself, told us, “With men, many things are impossible; but with God, all things are
possible.”
We are to imitate Christ in our thinking. Our thoughts, attitudes, and reactions must be Christ-like; that is,
Christ-oriented. Our behavior comes from deep inside. Therefore, deep inside ourselves, we must be like Christ. We must also
imitate Christ in our speaking. Even though we do not speak Aramaic, we speak the language of Christ which is the language of
truth, honesty, purity, and love.
And finally, we must imitate the Lord in our doing or in our daily deeds. St. James warns us in His Epistle: “Be
doers of the Word and not only hearers. Faith is not enough for the Christian. Faith is the given form in charity and love.
Our faith has no saving power if our deeds do not accompany it. Deeds, that is, that come from love. Our Lord, Himself, said,
‘Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only those who hear the Word of God and keep
it.’”
Two other things are needed for the Christian life that the Apostles lacked in today’s Gospel which prevented them from
healing the sick boy. They are prayer and fasting. Prayer gives us true communion with God and fasting is designed to give us
a certain mastery over ourselves.
We must never forget that our earthly goal is eternity with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
PRAYER OF THE THIRD ODE OF THE PARACLISIS IN HONOR OF THE THEOTOKOS BEFORE HER DORMITION
“O virgin, help me who am pressed by incurable ills and distressing passions, for I know that you, all-blameless one,
are a perfect and abundant treasury of healing.”
THE TRANSFIGURATION OF OUR LORD
AUGUST 6
The Transfiguration of Christ is one of the central events recorded in the Gospels. Immediately after the Lord was recognized
by his disciples as “the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” He told them that “He must go up to Jerusalem
and suffer many things... and be killed, and then, on the third day, be raised.”
This announcement of Christ’s approaching passion and death was met with indignation by the disciples. After rebuking
them, the Lord took Peter, James, and John “up to a high mountain,” (by tradition, Mount Tabor) and was
“transfigured before them.”
In the Transfiguration, the disciples see the glory of the Kingdom of God present in majesty in the Person of Christ. They see
that in Him, “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” They see this before the crucifixion so that in the
resurrection they might know who it is who has suffered for them, and what it is that this one, who is God, has prepared for
those who love Him.
Besides this meaning, the presence of Moses and Elijah is also of great significance for understanding the feast. These two
figures actually stand for the Old Testament itself: Moses for the Law, and Elijah for the Prophets. They also stand for the
Living and the Dead, for Moses died and his burial place is known, while Elijah was taken alive into heaven.
THE BLESSING OF FRUIT: The blessing of grapes, as well as other fruits and vegetables, on this day is the most beautiful and adequate sign of the final transfiguration of all things in Christ. It signifies the ultimate flowering and fruitfulness of all creation in God’s paradise, where all will be transformed by the glory of the Lord.
Prayer, Fasting, and Mercy
Perseverance in faith, devotion, and virtue is assured by three things: prayer, fasting, and mercy. Prayer knocks at the door,
fasting gains entrance, mercy receives. These three things, prayer, fasting, and mercy, are all one and they give life to each
other.
Fasting is the soul of prayer; mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them, for this is impossible. If
we have only one of them, if we have not all three together, we have nothing. Whoever prays, then, must also fast; whoever
fasts must also show mercy. If we want our own petitions heard we must hear the petitions of others. God’s ear will be
open to us if we do not turn a deaf ear to other people.
When we fast we should understand what it means to be really hungry. If we want God to take account of our hunger we must feel
for the hunger of others. If we hope for mercy we must show mercy. If we look for kindness we must show kindness. If we want
to receive we must give. Only a shameless person would ask for himself what he refused to give to others. In showing mercy
this should be the rule: show it in the same way, with the same generosity, with the same promptness as you would wish it to
be shown to you.
—Peter Chrysologus
Last updated: 5-Aug-2007 |
