Universal Exaultation of the Venerable and Life-giving Cross (September 14)
On September 14th, for centuries, when the feast of the Elevation of the Cross was celebrated in cathedrals, the bishop would take his place in the center of the church and, surrounded by a great assembly of clergy, would majestically raise the cross high…
Emanuel Kolyvas
The Feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos (September 8)
The Church’s veneration of Mary has always been rooted in her obedience to God, her willing choice to accept a humanly impossible calling. The Orthodox Church has always emphasized Mary’s connection to humanity and delighted in her as the best, purest, most sublime…
The Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos (August 15)
In August the Church celebrates the end of Mary’s earthly life, her death, known as her Falling Asleep or Dormition, a word in which dream, blessedness, peace, calm, and joy are all united.
We know nothing of the circumstances surrounding the death of Mary, Jesus…
The Sanctification of Time and of Life
Fr. Alexander Schmemann ( 1963 )
As I was preparing for this lecture I was thinking of my impressions of the last two weeks which I spent in Montreal where I attended a meeting of theologians from almost every country of the…
JOURNEY TO PENTECOST
T HE F EAST OF P ENTECOST
Fr. Alexander Schmemann
In the Church's annual liturgical cycle, Pentecost is "the last and great day." It is the celebration by the Church of the coming of the Holy Spirit as the end - the achievement and fulfillment - of the entire…
THE JOURNEY TO PENTECOST
The Ascension of Christ: What is the Ascension and What is Heaven?
Fr Alexander Schmemann
“The feast of the Ascension is the celebration of heaven now opened to human beings, heaven as the new and eternal home, heaven as our true homeland. Sin severed earth from…
