September 8, 2018. + Orthodox Calendar

Orthodox Calendar 2018

Рождество Пресвятой Богородицы

Old Style

September 8

Friday

New Style

September 21

17th Week after Pentecost. Tone 7.

Fish, wine and oil allowed.

The Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary.

Sts. Ioane (Maisuradze), archimandrite (1957), and Giorgi- Ioane (Mkheidze), schema-archimandrite (1962), confessors, of Georgia. St. Serapion, monk of Spaso-Eleazar Monastery (Pskov) (1481). St. Lucian, abbot, of Alexandrov (1654).

New Martyr Alexander Jacobson, at Solovki (1930).

Icons of the Most Holy Theotokos: Syamsk (1524), Glinsk (16th c.), Lukianov (16th c.), and Isaakov (1659). Icons of the Most Holy Theotokos: “Kursk Root” (1295), Pochaev (1559), Domnitsk (1696), Kholmsk (1st c.), and Lesna (1696).

St. Ina, King of Wessex, and his wife Queen Ethelburga (8th c.). New Martyr Athanasius of Thessalonica (1774). St. Sophronius of Achtalea in Georgia, bishop (1803).

Repose of Archbishop Dionysius of Ufa (1896), Elder Daniel of Katounakia, Mt. Athos (1929), and Priest Dimitrie Bejan of Romania (1995).

Thoughts for Each Day of the Year
According to the Daily Church Readings from the Word of God
By St. Theophan the Recluse

St. Theophan the Recluse

Friday. [Eph. 4:17-25; Mark 12:1-12]

In the parable about the vineyard is depicted the Old Testament Church and God’s care for it. The New Testament Church succeeded the Old, and so this parable can be applied to it as well. Since each Christian is also a living church of God, it can be applied to him as well. The latter is more needful for us. What is the vineyard? It is the soul that has received remission of sins, the grace of rebirth, the gift of the Holy Spirit as a promise of the heritage of the eternal kingdom, the word of God, the holy mysteries, a guardian angel. Who are the husbandmen? Consciousness and freedom. They receive the gifts and give a commitment to cultivate them and bear fruit to the Lord. Who are the careless husbandmen? Those who want to use the advantages of being a Christian as befits the external order of their lives, but do not bring worthy spiritual fruits to the Lord. Who are those sent from the Lord? The conscience and the fear of God, the word of God, teachers and pastors by whom the Lord wants to give understanding to the careless. Those who do not want to change themselves do not heed them; some drive them away and try to muffle their voice. Others even start to war against the Lord Himself, when they reject faith in Him in various forms. In the end, they will be miserably destroyed (cf. Mt. 21:41).

Articles

Sorrow and Joy: A Homily on the Day of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God

St. John of Kronstadt

We solemnly celebrate, dear brothers and sisters, the Nativity of the Most Holy Virgin Mary from her barren parents, pious Joachim and Anna. The Holy Church established this feast during the first centuries of the Christian Faith.

Feast of the Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary

The Feast of the Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary is celebrated on September 8 each year. The Feast commemorates the birth of the Mother of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

The Nativity of the Theotokos Icon

Together, the Great Feasts serve to tell us the story of the Incarnation, which has its climax in the centre of the year with the celebration of the “Feast of Feasts” – Pascha. It is therefore fitting that the first Great Feast of the Church year, which begins in September, is that of the Nativity of the Theotokos.

Sermon on the Nativity of the Mother of God

The Mother of God so fully and vividly expressed herself concerning herself with the words of the hymn: My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior (Lk. 1:46-47). Her whole life lies in this: Her soul magnifies the Lord for the wisdom of creation, for love and goodness. And this regardless of the sorrows and suffering that filled her heart at the foot of the Cross.

Sermon on the Nativity of the Virgin Mary

St. Andrew, Archbisop of Crete

The radiant and bright descent of God for people ought to have a joyous basis, opening to us the great gift of salvation. Such also is the present feastday, having as its basis the Nativity of the Theotokos, and as its purpose and end, the uniting of the Word with flesh, this most glorious of all miracles, unceasingly proclaimed, immeasurable and incomprehensible.

Sermon for the Nativity of the Theokotos from the Hermitage of the Holy Cross

There is no great event which is not proceeded with great longing and expectation. This Great Feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God is no exception. This first of Feasts, celebrated on the eighth day of the New Church Year, was certainly preceded by great longing and expectation.

The Wonderworking Kursk Icon of the Mother of God "Of the Sign"

The frightened monastic brethren rushed immediately to the cathedral, where they beheld a scene of horrible devastation. The force of the blast had shattered the gilded canopy above the icon. The heavy marble base, constructed of several massive steps, had been jolted out of position and split into several pieces. A huge metal candlestick which stood before the icon and been blown to the opposite side of the cathedral. A door of cast iron located near the icon had been torn from its hinges and cast outside, where it smashed against a wall and caused a deep crack. All the windows in the cathedral and even those in the dome above were shattered. Amid the general devastation, the holy icon remained intact and even the glass within the frame remained whole. Thinking to destroy the icon, the anarchists had, on the contrary, become the cause of its greater glorification.

Icon of the Mother of God “Kursk-Root”

The Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God “Of the Sign” is one of the most ancient icons of the Russian Church.

Icon of the Mother of God of Pochaev and Her Miraculous Intercession

On July 23/August 5 we commemorate the wonder-workin Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God and the appearance of the Mother of God in 1675 which saved the monastery from the attacks of the Tatars and Turks.

Saint Edwin of Northumbria, King and Martyr, and Saint Ethelburgh, Queen and Abbess of Lyminge

Dmitry Lapa

The ferocious pagan called Penda soon afterwards began to rule over the Kingdom of Mercia in present-day central England. The northeastern part of the country then was called Northumbria, which was later ruled by Edwin, who was still a pagan but who was destined to become one of the apostles of his Kingdom. Let us now recall his life.

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