Sunday's a fast day, Monday's a feast

The practice of living the life in Christ: fasting, vigil lamps, head-coverings, family life, icon corners, and other forms of Orthopraxy. All Forum Rules apply.


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Matushka Anna
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Sunday's a fast day, Monday's a feast

Post by Matushka Anna »

Just a reminder -- time to get water bottles ready.

Sunday is a strict fast day in anticipation of the Feast of the Theophany of Christ.
Monday is a feast, with the Great Blessing of the Water.

It is traditional to have the priest come bless ones home after this feast.

One nice thing this year -- since many people have the day off for Martin Luther King Day, more people than usual can get to church without having to take a vacation day or lose pay.

OrthodoxyOrDeath

Post by OrthodoxyOrDeath »

I have always been told, and I beleive there are canons, that we can never have a strict fast on the Lord's day, and for this reason we can have oil once.

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Re: Sunday's a fast day, Monday's a feast

Post by priestmark »

aml wrote:

Just a reminder -- time to get water bottles ready.

Sunday is a strict fast day in anticipation of the Feast of the Theophany of Christ.

The Eve is appointed as a strict fast day, but on Saturday or Sunday, just like in Great Lent, it is observed as a Wine and Oil Day.

aml wrote:

Monday is a feast, with the Great Blessing of the Water.

Depending on particular parish situations, the two appointed Blessings of Water, like other services, are subject to some variation and abbreviation in observance.

In the Greek practice the Great Blessing of Waters takes place after Liturgy on the Eve, and the Vigil consists of Vespers and Matins.

In the Slav practice, Liturgy on the Eve is followed by Great Vespers for the Feast and the Great Blessing of Waters. Vigil consists of Gr Compline and Matins.

In both practices the second blessing of waters takes place after Liturgy on Theophany itself.

aml wrote:

It is traditional to have the priest come bless ones home after this feast.

One nice thing this year -- since many people have the day off for Martin Luther King Day, more people than usual can get to church without having to take a vacation day or lose pay.

Here in Oklahoma this day is still not universally observed. While my kids are out of school, and my Michigan-based employer (Delphi) is shut down everywhere else in America, here in "northern Mexico" we follow the schedule of our plant in San Luis Potosi and are supposed to show up for work. I had to burn one of my few vacation days.

In Christ,
o.Mark

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Theophany Bulletin

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The following is the textual content of the Sunday Bulletin of St John Chrysostom parish for Jan 6/19, 1992.

This was the last Theophany my spiritual father spent on earth. Already quite ill, he reposed on Veterans Day the next November. This was also the day I found out I was to be ordained on the next Great Feast (Feb 2/15, Meeting of our Lord).

Theophany is very special to me. Like the early Christians who had no separate celebration of Nativity, I will always consider it second only to Pascha.

In the year 1987, Theophany at St John's was celebrated most gloriously. Still with us was Fr Michael Azkoul, and by the great blessing of the Mother of God, Brother Jose Munoz was moved to bring the Myrrhstreaming Portaitissa icon to our community for four days. An entire book could be written about the events, multiple miracles, and consequences of that visitation. When I compiled this bulletin, these memories were as fresh in my mind as were the self-renewing myrrh-soaked cotton balls from that visitation (which miraculously renewed only until Br Jose's murder).

===================

Saint John Chrysostom Orthodox Church
3774 Gravois Road, P.D.Box 536, House Springs, Missouri 63051
34th Sunday after Pentecost
January 6 / 19
The Holy Theophany of Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ
Titus 2:11-14; 3:4-7; Matthew 3:13-17

OUR LORD”S THEOPHANY

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 One of the greatest and most important feasts of the Church is the Feast of Our Lord's Baptism. This feast is also called Epiphany meaning "manifestation," or Theophany, meaning "manifestation of God," or "God is revealed."

 The holy Prophet John, the Baptist and Forerunner of the Lord, was called by God to prepare the way of the Lord; that is, to tell the people that the Kingdom of God was at hand and that they should make themselves ready through repentance and baptism.

 At this time Jesus was about 30 years old, and He came from Nazareth to the Jordan River to be baptized. John, recognizing that Jesus was much greater than any prophet, felt unworthy to baptize Him. But Jesus reassured him, saying, "Let it be so, for we must thereby fulfill all righteousness"; that is, fulfill the law of God and show an example to the people.

 When Jesus was baptized and came up out of the water, the heavens suddenly opened, and John saw the Spirit in the form of a dove descending upon Jesus. And there came a voice from heaven saying, "Thou art My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased." Then John, together with many others, was convinced that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world.

 Here, for the first time, all three Persons of the Holy Trinity were revealed to the world: the voice of God the Father calling down from heaven, the Holy Spirit descending from the Father in the shape of a dove, and God the Son in the person of Jesus Christ.

 But why, one might ask, did Christ--Who is sinless--need to be cleansed through baptism? We find the answer to this question in the Feast day services: "Though as God He needs no cleansing, yet for the sake of fallen man He is cleansed in the Jordan." Just as mankind fell away from God through the sin of its forefather Adam, so it is renewed and cleansed through the Baptism of Christ, the New Adam, in Whose Baptism we see also an example for our own baptism.

 This feast was celebrated with great solemnity by the early Church. In memory of the Lord's Baptism, catechumens would prepare to be baptized on the vigil of this day. For this reason it is called: “the Feast of Lights," for in baptism a person is 'illumined' by the light of Christ. During the Liturgy, in place of the Trisagion "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal..."), we sing "As many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ..."

 The day before the Feast is kept as a strict fast. In church we hear special readings from the Old Testament prophets. On this day the priest blesses the water as a reminder of the baptism which took place traditionally at this time in the early Church. Another blessing of the water is performed the following day after Liturgy in memory of Our Lord's Baptism in the Jordan, for which reason it is, if possible, performed outdoors near a river or stream.

ON HOLY WATER

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 At the Feast of Theophany, every year a great miracle is performed. The Holy Spirit, coming down upon the water, changes its natural properties. The water, even seemingly soiled stream or lake water, becomes incorrupt. It does not spoil, remains transparent and fresh for many years, receives the grace to heal illnesses, to drive away demons and every evil power, to preserve people and their dwellings from every danger, to sanctify various objects whether for church or home use. Therefore, Orthodox Christians with reverence drink Holy Water--a great Agiasma (holy thing), as the Greeks call it.

 One should have at home enough Theophany water so that it will last the whole year, and make use of it at every need: in cases of illness, leaving on a journey, whenever one is upset, students when going to examinations. They do well who daily, before eating any kind of food, drink a little Holy Water. It strengthens the powers of the soul--if it is done, of course, with prayer and reverence, and one does not merely expect from it a mechanical result. 

ON THE DOGMA OF THE HOLY TRINITY

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 God is One in Essence and triple in Persons. In other words, God is a Trinity,  is Tri-hypostatical, is a Trinity One in Essence. The Hypostases have personal (or hypostatic) attributes: God is unbegotten; the Son is begotten from the Father; the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father.

 Because/God in His very Essence is wholly consciousness and thought and self-awareness, each of these three eternal manifestations of Himself by the one God has self-awareness, and therefore each one is a Person. And these Persons are not simply forms or isolated manifestations or attributes or activities; rather, the Three Persons are contained in the very Unity of God's Essence. Thus when we speak of the Tri-unity of God, we speak of the mystical inward life hidden in the depths of the Divinity, revealed to the world in the fullness of time, by the sending down of the Son of God from the Father into the world and by the activity of the wonderworking, life-giving, saving power of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. The sending to earth by the Father of God the Word and the Holy Spirit constitutes the content of all the New Testament writings. Of course, this manifestation to the world of the Triune God is given in the Bible not in a dogmatic formula, but in an account of the manifestations and deeds of the Persons of  the Holy Trinity.

 The dogma of the Three Persons indicates the fullness of the mystic, inward life in God, for God is love and the love of God cannot merely be extended to the world created by Him: in the Holy Trinity this love is directed within the Divine Life also. The dogma of the Three Persons indicates even more clearly for us the closeness of God to the world: God above us, God with us, God in us and in all creation.

 Above us is God the Father, the ever-flowing Source, as it is expressed in the Church's prayer, the Foundation of all being, the Father of mercies Who loves and cares for us, His creation - for  we are His children by grace.

 With  us is God the Son, begotten before the ages by Him, Who for the sake of Divine love has manifested Himself to men as Man so that we might know and see with our own eyes that God is with us most intimately, partaker of flesh and blood with us [Heb 2: 14] in a most perfect way.

 In us and in all creation - by His power and grace - is the Holy Spirit, Who fills all things, is the Giver of Life, Life-creator, Comforter, Treasury and Source of good things.

 Having an eternal and pre-eternal existence, the Three Divine Persons were manifested to the world with the coming and Incarnation of the Son of God, being "one power, one Essence, one Godhead" [Stichera for Pentecost, Glory on Lord I have Cried]. The manifestation of God in Trinity was accomplished at the Baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is why this Baptism itself is called the 'Theophany' or 'manifestation of God.' The Son of God, having become man, accepted baptism by water; the Father testified of Him; and the Holy Spirit, by His manifestation in the form of a dove, confirmed the truth spoken by the voice of God, as is expressed in the troparion of this Feast:

 When Thou wast baptized in the Jordan, O Lord, the worship of the Trinity was made manifest. For the voice of the Father bare witness to Thee, calling Thee His beloved Son; and the Spirit in the form of a dove confirmed the certainty of the Word. O Christ our God who hast appeared and hast enlightened the world. Glory be to Thee.

ref:
Blessed John Maximovitch, in Orthodox America, Vol Iv, #6, Jan. 1984
Proto presbyter Michael Pomalansky, Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, pp 73-77

St John Chrysostom Orthodox Church
3774 Gravois Road
P.O. Box 536 House Springs, Missouri 63051
314-677 -1116

Hieromonk Kallistos, Pastor
Hierodeacon Nicodemus
Rev Fr Christopher Stade
Deacon Seraphim Holland

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