May 25, 2020. + Orthodox Calendar

Orthodox Calendar 2020

Пятидесятница

Old Style

May 25

Sunday

New Style

June 7

Pentecost—Trinity Sunday. Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Disciples. Tone 7.

No fast.

Third Finding of the Precious Head of St. John the Baptist (ca. 850).

Hieromartyr Therapontus, bishop of Cyprus (4th c.). St. Innocent (Borisov), archbishop of Kherson (1857). St. Thaddeus, archimandrite, of Svatogorsk Monastery (1758).

New Martyr Tavrion (Tolokontsev), monk, of Veliki Ustiug (1939).

“Lesna” Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos (1683).

St. Aldhelm, bishop of Sherborne (709). St. Bede the Venerable, hieromonk and chronicler, of Wearmouth and Jarrow (735). St. Gennadius, bishop of Astorga (ca. 936). Commemoration of the reunion of three million Uniates with the Orthodox Church at Vilnius in 1831. Martyrs of Adjara who suffered under the Turkish Yoke (18th c.). 1,290 New Martyrs of Piva (Montenegro), killed by the Nazis (1943). Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Chelm and Podlasie (Poland).

Repose of Recluse George of Zadonsk (1836).

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

The Sunday of Holy Pentacost. [Acts 2:1–11; John 7:37–52; 8:12]

The economy of our salvation is accomplished! The operation of all the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity have now come into effect to accomplish it. What God the Father has willed, the Son of God fulfilled in Himself, and the Holy Spirit has now descended in order to impart it to the faithful. For our salvation is according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ (I Pet. 1:2). For this sake we are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, obliged, to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you (Matt. 28:19–20). Those who do not confess the Most Holy Trinity cannot participate in the saving action of Its Persons and thus receive salvation. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, the Trinity one in essence and undivided, granting us confession of Itself! “O Father Almighty, and Word, and Spirit, one nature united in three Persons, transcendent and extremely divine! Into Thee have we been baptized, and Thee shall we bless throughout all ages.”

Articles

The Nativity of St. John the Forerunner and Baptist of Christ

Six months before his appearing to the most holy Virgin Mary in Nazareth, the great Gabriel, archangel of the Lord, appeared to Zacharias the High Priest in the Temple in Jerusalem. Before he revealed the miraculous conception by a virgin who had not known a man, the archangel revealed the wondrous conceiving by an old and barren woman.

The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

St. John of Shanghai

Being born exactly half a year before Christ, John the Forerunner by the exact time of his birth depicted his mission of preparing the way for the Lord. He was born at the time of the year (June 24) when the day begins to grow shorter after the summer solstice, whereas the Nativity of Christ occurs (December 25) when the day begins to grow longer after the winter solstice. These facts are an embodiment of the words spoken later, by the Forerunner, after the beginning of Christ's preaching: He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30).

Homily on the Feast of the Beheading of St John, the Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord

St. Justin Popovic

What is this? Could it be that this world has become a madhouse? People do not want God, they do not want the greatest Righteous One in the whole world. Whom do you want? Whom would you prefer? Whom would you set in Christ’s stead? With whom would you replace St. John the Baptist? With yourselves?! О moth! О, tiny mortal insects! Yes, when people become maddened by pride, when out of egotistical pride they lose their reason, they have no need of God, they have no need of God’s Truth. They declare themselves to be gods. They present their petty, shallow, false likeness of truth as the great and salvific Truth.

The Untold Story of the Head of St. John the Baptist

Priest Maxim Massalitin

Unfortunately, few of the faithful have recourse to the help of such a lamp of grace as the precious head of St. John the Baptist, “the first among martyrs in grace”.[2] Many Orthodox Christians come to France, but not all of them know how many holy relics there are still on French soil despite the outrages committed against them during the French Revolution and subsequent forgetfulness of France’s Christian past.

Nativity of St John the Forerunner

God has given us the greatest of prophets, to show us how we should prepare ourselves to greet the Lord. Like John, we are to continue to remind ourselves of the prophetic words which awakens our barren soul from the slumber of sin. Like John, we are called to direct our lives toward repentance by which we are drawn into the embrace of the Giver of Life.

The Beheading of the Holy Prophet and Forerunner John the Baptist

Archpriest Andrew Phillips

Our Lord Himself said that St. John was the greatest prophet “among those born of women” (Luke 7, 28). Some hearing these words are surprised. They ask: Surely, Christ Himself is the greatest man born of women? However, Christ was not born of a woman (i.e. a married female), he was born of a Virgin. Therefore, in obedience to our Lords words, that St. John is the greatest born of women, the Church duly honors him.

The Life of St. John the Baptist

St. Sebastian Dabovich

This John was called by God to be the forerunner of his Divine Son, to usher Him into the world, and to prepare mankind by repentance to receive the Redeemer, whom the prophets had foretold at a distance through every age from the beginning of the world, never ceasing to instill in the people of God faith and hope in Him by whom alone they were to be saved.

Homily on the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist

St. Justin Popovic

Today is a little Great Friday, a second Great Friday. For today the greatest man among those born of women, John, the Holy Forerunner and Baptiser of the Lord, is murdered.

Nativity of the Holy Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist, John

Holy Fathers in Praise of St. John the Baptist

And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment; behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet.

The Beheading of the Holy Glorious Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist John

The Beheading of the Prophet, Forerunner of the Lord, John the Baptist: The Evangelists Matthew (Mt.14:1-12) and Mark (Mark 6:14-29) provide accounts about the martyric end of John the Baptist in the year 32 after the Birth of Christ.

Commentary of St. John Chrysostom on the Beheading of the Precious Forerunner

St. John Chrysostom

But not without a purpose doth the evangelist signify the time, but to make thee observe also the haughtiness of the tyrant, and his thoughtlessness, in that not at the beginning did he inform himself about Christ, but after a very long time. For such are they that are in places of power, and are encompassed with much pomp, they learn these things late, because they do not make much account of them.

Third Finding of the Honorable Head of the Holy Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John

The Third Discovery of the Venerable Head of the Holy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John occurred in about the year 850.

Hieromartyr Therapon the Bishop of Cyprus

The Hieromartyr Therapon, Bishop of Cyprus, lived a life of asceticism in a monastery, and afterwards he served as a bishop on the island of Cyprus.

Venerable Bede, the Church Historian

Saint Bede was a church historian who recorded the history of Christianity in England up to his own time.

Saint Bede of Jarrow

Saint Bede was a church historian who recorded the history of Christianity in England up to his own time. He was probably born around 673 in Northumbria. We do not know exactly where he was born, but it is likely that it was somewhere near Jarrow.

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