FEB 26: CONFESSION – 08:30 AM, DIVINE LITURGY OF ST. BASIL – 9:00 AM (LIVE-STREAMED), DIVINE LITURGY OF ST. BASIL – 11:00 AM.
PROPERS: 02-26-23_GF1_Sunday_DL
Streaming via Facebook Live. https://www.facebook.com/saintscyrilandmethodius/
Parishes live-streaming in the Diocese can be found here: https://www.eparchyofpassaic.com/livestream
GOD WITH US ONLINE – SUNDAY OF ORTHODOXY: https://godwithusonline.org/reflections/the-sunday-of-orthodoxy-ruthenian/
Today’s Gospel is John 1: 43-51 in which Jesus Calls Philip and Nathaniel. The Gospel today teaches us a simple way to our Christian life. When Nathaniel was called, he learned the simple way to approach his doubts; and thus, this applies to every doubt and difficulty in our life. We must heed the words of Philip, “Come and see!” For with God in our hearts the Lord seeks out each of us, telling us to follow Him. This is a process that must be cultivated, and if we do, the “greater things” that Jesus promised to Nathaniel will be ours as well. On Saturday we also remember the miracle of St. Theodore and the boiled wheat.
The first Sunday of the Great Fast is called the “Sunday of Orthodoxy” or the “Sunday of the Triumph of the Holy Images.” Thus, the Byzantine East commemorates “the restoration of icons, which had been banned for several decades, to their rightful liturgical use.” The English word “Orthodoxy” is rooted in the Greek word “ortodoxia” (or “thos” which means right and “doksa” which means praising)/ It signifies the true faith and the true worship of God. The “Orthodoxy” celebrated on the first Sunday of the Great Fast is the “universal-catholic orthodoxy, professed by the entire Church of Christ of the first eleven centuries in the battle against the heresy of Iconoclasm. “(“breakers of icons”). The Council of Constantinople designated the first Sunday of Great Lent, in the year 842, as the Triumph of Orthodoxy and decreed it be celebrated yearly.
