Category: Saints and Blesseds

St Gregory of Nyssa

St. Gregory of Nyssa (335-395AD), whose memory we celebrate today – January 10th – was one of the great spiritual and mystical writers of the early Church. He was the younger brother of St. Basil the Great.

Born in Cappadocia (modern Turkey), he played a leading role at the Second Ecumenical Council that gathered in Constantinople in 381AD, which proclaimed the Holy Spirit as fully God and completed the writing of the Creed that we still confess in Church at every Liturgy as our personal statement of faith.

One of the books he’s best known for writing is “The Life of Moses” in which he uses the story of Moses’ life – his birth in Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, his wanderings in the desert and ascent of Mt. Sinai to encounter God and receive the 10 Commandments – as an image of the soul’s journey towards God in Christ through the Holy Spirit.

Gregory was also one of the first Christian voices to say clearly and unequivocally that slavery as an institution was inherently sinful and wrong. He believed that the institution of slavery in the ancient world violated human dignity, as all human beings are created in the image and likeness of God and are therefore of inestimable worth. He believed, on the basis of the Book of Genesis in the Bible, that freedom is an essential characteristic of human nature.

Human fulfillment, Gregory believed, consists of a life lived in the Light of Christ, becoming luminous, and offering that Light to everyone.

The fun thing about being Catholic is the diversity of liturgical calendars. We live in full communion in the Catholic Church thinking of the 5 liturgical families. This feast day gives us this perspective.

St Stephen’s Day

A blessed name day to all those named Stephen or Stephanie – also special festal greetings to all deacons on this day! Thank you for your ministry!

“First-martyr and apostle of Christ, you fought the good fight. You convicted the tyrants of their wickedness. When you were killed by stoning at the hands of sinners, you received a crown from God’s right hand while you cried out: Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” [Troparion of the feast]

The Church gives us the feast of St. Stephen immediately after Christmas to make something clear. On Christmas we learned “the son of God became man,” and today we see the purpose—“so that we might become God” (CCC 460). The account of Stephen’s preaching and martyrdom shows us what it looks like to become like God.

The Holy Prophet Haggai

Today, December 16, the Church liturgically recalls the memory of the Holy Prophet Haggai.

The prophet Haggai, in 520 B.C., preached that the temple must be rebuilt for the sake of the faith of the people. In this way he foreshadowed that Jesus, the Messiah to come, would be the Temple of the New Covenant in his body. His birth, then, is the completion of God’s promise to make his dwelling among his people.

Haggai foretells God’s consolation, “For I am with you – says the Lord of hosts. This is the commitment I made to you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit remains in your midst; do not fear! (2:4-5)”

Yet Christmas still challenges us, as Haggai immediately adds: “For thus says the Lord of hosts: In just a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.”

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras

The Holy Apostle Thomas

The story of the Holy Apostle Thomas shows us that the evangelists had a clear and intelligent idea of who Christ is – our Lord and God. They were not a primitive, ignorant, superstitious people, Thomas’ actions show that they accepted the truth of Jesus as Son of God only through a rigorous process of observation and reasoning. For us, it is through the testimony of these honest and trustworthy witnesses that we believe in Christ and constitute a “one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” Hear their witness, Jesus tells us, for “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed. (John 20:29)”

We believe because we hear the apostles, and, for us, the “doubting” Thomas becomes the strong support of our faith in Jesus, our Lord and God, risen from the dead.

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras

Patroness of Catechists in the UGCC

Blessed Josaphata Hordashevska (1869-1919) was designated as the Patroness of Catechists in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
Her biographer said, “Josaphata speaks to modern people about the beauty of a radical life according to the Gospel and the need for compassion and solidarity with those in need. She shows that even small acts of love can change the world.”

~Bishop Michael Kwiatkowski
Eparch of New Westminster and Chairman of the Patriarchal Catechetical Commission

The Great and Holy Prophet Moses

Today, September 4, the Byzantine Church liturgically recalls the memory of the Holy Great Prophet Moses. The Troparion for this feast is sung in Tone 2 and reads:

O prophet Moses, you reached the summit of virtues. By this you came to see the glory of God. You received the tablets of the grace-giving Law and became the crown of prophets and a mystery of piety; for you carried grace deep within you.

The biographer for the Prophet Moses says:

On Mt. Horeb the great prophet Moses saw God in the bush that burned without being consumed, and God revealed his Name to him, “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14). It is this Name of God that we invoke in the Anaphora of St. Basil the Great, “O Eternal Being … “On Mt. Sinai God revealed a portion of his glory to Moses when he gave him the ten commandments. On Mt. Tabor, Moses stood with Elijah to witness the glory of God revealed though Jesus. Today we honor this Great Prophet who has led us into the presence of God, who led his people into the land promised by God, who today leads us to an understanding of God, essential Being, the Creator of all that is, the Cause of all that is good and the Lover of each and every person, “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras, edited

The Fourth Sunday of Lent: forming virtue

On the 4th Sunday of Lent on the Byzantine liturgical calendar, we remember a great monastic father, St. John Climacus (579-649). He wrote a book called, “The Ladder of Divine Ascent,” encouraging his monks to grow in virtue. Various virtues and asdcetical practices are compared to rungs on a ladder. These are good disciplines for us also during the Lenten season.