Fasts & Feasts
1 - Liturgical New Year (7519)
8 - The Nativity of the Mother of God
14 - The Universal Exaltation of the Cross
1 - Protection of the Mother of God
3 - Respect Life Sunday
17 - Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council
Latest Forum Discussions
 << Pope Benedict XVI visits Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople (Istanbul) in November 2006. In 1963, Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras sent greetings to the newly enthroned Pope John XXIII. In reporting this, the official newspaper of the Ecumenical Patriarchate spoke of new relations between "sister churches," anticipating language to be adopted in due course by the Churches themselves. Pope John Paul the Great, in Orientale Lumen (1995), wrote that: "[s]ince, in fact, we believe that the venerable and ancient tradition of the Eastern Churches is an integral part of the heritage of Christ's Church, the first need for Catholics is to be familiar with that tradition, so as to be nourished by it and to encourage the process of unity in the best way possible for each." |
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Nativity of the Mother of God
Your nativity, O Virgin Mother of God, heralded joy to the universe; for from you rose the Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God. He redeemed us from the curse, He gave the blessing, and by trampling Death, He gave us everlasting life.
Troparion for September 8th.
Wisdom from the Church Fathers
| Our distresses are notorious, even though we leave them untold, for now their sound has gone out into all the world. The doctrines of the Fathers are despised; apostolic traditions are set at nought; the devices of innovators are in vogue in the Churches; now men are rather contrivers of cunning systems than theologians; the wisdom of this world wins the highest prizes and has rejected the glory of the cross. Shepherds are banished, and in their places are introduced grievous wolves hurrying the flock of Christ. Houses of prayer have none to assemble in them; desert places are full of lamenting crowds. The elders lament when they compare the present with the past. The younger are yet more to be compassionated, for they do not know of what they have been deprived. All this is enough to stir the pity of men who have learnt the love of Christ; but, compared with the actual state of things, words fall very far short.... Saint Basil the Great (Letter 90) |