The Divine Liturgy will be served on Saturday, January 6 at 10:00 a.m. for the feast of Holy Theophany. The Great Sanctification of Water will also happen.
Join us for prayer and the Great Blessing of water.
Tag: Theophany
Preparation for Theophany
Eve of Theophany on January 5th
In preparation for the Feast of the Theophany of Our Lord, the Eve of the Feast, which is Thursday, January 5th, is a day of fasting/strict abstinence for all Byzantine Catholics.
All feasts have a period of time of preparation which calls us to prayer with fasting and/abstinence.
Great Compline will be prayed on Thursday at 6:00 p.m. in Church. Join us.
Circumcision of the Lord and St Basil the Great
Today on the Byzantine calendar, the Church commemorates both the Circumcision of the Lord and our father among the saints Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia.
Our Lord was circumcised on the eighth day after His Nativity in accordance with Jewish law as a sign of God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants. The significance of this is manyfold; in emptying Himself, He who wrote the Law submitted Himself to it, which He came not to destroy but to fulfil. This submission also demonstrated that Christ was truly incarnate, truly robed in flesh, and not simply appearing to be a man.
Saint Basil the Great was born to a wealthy yet pious family at Caesarea in 330. Highly educated in philosophy, philology, oratory, law, naturalist, astronomy, mathematics and medicine, he developed a close friendship with Saint Gregory the Theologian in Athens. He later returned to Caesarea, where he became an ascetic and laid the foundations of Eastern monasticism, later being joined by Saint Gregory.
As the heresy of Arianism spread through the Empire and even to the imperial throne, Saint Basil arose as one of the principal defenders of Orthodoxy, being consecrated Archbishop of Caesarea in 370. He died on 1 January nine years later, shortly after blessing his friend Saint Gregory to accept consecration as Archbishop of Constantinople, and was immediately acclaimed as a saint. The Church continues to celebrate the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great today and on nine other occasions during the year. (SSC)
Theophany
“When You, O Lord were baptized in the Jordan / The worship of the Trinity was revealed, / For the voice of the Father bore witness to You / And called You His beloved Son. / And the Spirit, in the form of a dove, / Confirmed the truthfulness of His word. / O Christ, our God, You have revealed Yourself / And have enlightened the world, glory to You!” (Byzantine Troparion-hymn of Theophany)
The Lord “reveals” Himself; He appears unto us. That’s what He does, on this great feast of Theo-phany (θεο-φάνεια, Бого-явление, or «appearance/revelation of God»)…. He doesn’t hide Himself from us, but exposes Himself, immersing Himself into, and giving His light and “enlightenment” to, the “waters” of my world in the river Jordan.
Let me not hide myself from Him either, today, but come to Him in honesty, in some heartfelt prayer. Let me respond to His openness to me, and to His readiness to immerse Himself in all the “waters” of my life, opening my heart to His enlightening presence, and letting myself be immersed in it. Thank You, Lord, for sanctifying all our “waters,” however muddy they may be. “You have revealed Yourself and have enlightened the world. Glory to You!”
Sr. Vassa
text of 2019
Holy Theophany 2021
Holy Theophany, Wednesday, January 6 –a holy day
9:15 a.m. Great Compline
10:00 a.m. Divine Liturgy with the Great Blessing of Water (in Ukrainian)
6:00 p.m. Divine Liturgy (in English)
Schedule for Liturgies on Theophany Jan. 6
Christ is baptized!
The Kontakion verse for Theophany we pray: “Today, you have appeared to the world and your light, O Lord, has been signed on us, who with knowledge sing your praises. You have come, You have appeared, O unapproachable light.”
His Beatitude, Patriarch Sviatoslav wrote to the Church saying, “In our tradition the feast to commemorate Christ’s Baptism is called Theophany, because it is the first time that God revealed Himself as Trinity: the Father, who allows his voice to be heard, the Beloved Son, who in the Jordan waters receives his mission, the Holy Spirit, who in the form of a dove let’s know that He accompanies the Son in all things. And because we believe in a God who is community, we Christians are also called to live in community and be community.”
The Divine Liturgy for Holy Theophany, Monday, January 6 — a Holy day of Obligation
9:15 a.m. Great Compline
10:00 a.m. Divine Liturgy and the Great Sanctification of Water followed by Myrovann—in Ukrainian
7:00 p.m. Divine Liturgy followed by an Anointing —in English
Since the second century, the Church has celebrated the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan River for our sanctification. Join us in prayer on this important day.
Great Blessing of Water on Theophany
Father Iura prayed the prayers for the Great Blessing of Water on Theophany (Jan. 6, 2019) with Father Stepan concelebrating.
“The voice of the Lord upon the waters cries aloud saying, “Come you all, and receive the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of understanding, the Spirit of the fear of God, from Christ who is made manifest. Today the nature of the waters is sanctified, and the stream of its own waters, seeing the Master being baptized.”
The Holy Theophany is yet another feast of the Nativity and the beginning of the ministry of the Lord with his baptism in the Jordan.
Striking is the theology used in the prayers that through the waters we are given the grace of redemption, … that Satan be swiftly crushed beneath our feet and that every counsel that is directed against us by the Evil One may be made of no effect, … that we may be enlightened by the light of knowledge and godliness through the descent of the Holy Spirit, … that the blessed water be an instrument of a remission of sins, for the healing of soul and body and for every purpose that is expedient… and be a fountain springing us into eternal life.
Schedule for Holy Theophany and Julian Christmas
Schedule for Holy Theophany
on January 6 and Christmas (Julian Calendar) on January 7
Holy Theophany, January 6
9:00 a.m. Great Compline followed 10:00 a.m. Divine Liturgy and 11:15 a.m. Great Sanctification of Water
Christmas (Julian Calendar), January 7
9:30 a.m. Great Compline and 10:30 a.m. Divine Liturgy
Blessing of Water
As a cradle Byzantine, my memories of church when I was a young boy are spotty. They touch only those aspects that somehow grasped my attention. One of these was the blessing of the water on Theophany: the solemn prayer, the priest lifting up the trikirion and thrusting it into the water, the going up to receive the holy water for our home. I don’t remember how much I understood, but this was a very powerful part of our faith.
The Christian faith does not depend on exotic substances, in magical elixirs, in secret formulas, but the Christian faith is the transformation of simple gifts of life – of water, of bread, of wine, of oil. Our water is no longer ordinary water, but it has been touched by the feet of God incarnate. Merely to see this day, merely to drink this water, merely to pray to Jesus baptized by a human hand transforms us. We need water to live, to drink it for nourishment, to wash with it to be kept clean, and now to be baptized with it for the life and cleansing of our souls as well as our bodies. The prayer for the consecration of water on Theophany may be said to be thrilling. We use words in ways we do not usually use them. The words come to the water, and all creation is transformed.
And so the priest prays: “By your will you brought forth all things from nothingness into being; by your might you control creation, and by your providence you govern the world. You created all things from four elements, and crowned the cycle of the year with four seasons. The spiritual powers tremble before you. The sun praises you, the moon glorifies you, the stars serve you. Light obeys you, the depths tremble before you, and the springs adore you. You spread out the heavens like a tent. You established the earth upon the waters. You fringed the seas with beaches of sand. You poured forth air for breathing. The angelic powers serve you; the ranks of archangels worship you; the many-eyed cherubim and the six-winged seraphim stand before you or hover over you, yet they dare not gaze at your unapproachable glory. Although you are God, boundless, indescribable, and without beginning, you came upon earth, and taking the likeness of a servant, became like one of us.”
Theophany – God is manifest! Nothing will ever be the same again, and it is in all these created elements that are free and available to us all.
No wonder Isaiah the Prophet invites us in today’s reading: “All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come, buy grain and eat; Come, buy grain without money, wine and milk without cost! Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what does not satisfy? Only listen to me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare. Pay attention and come to me; listen, that you may have life” (Isaiah 55:1-2). The prophet Isaiah also tells us what our response must be: “With joy you will draw water from the fountains of salvation, and you will say on that day: give thanks to the Lord, acclaim his name; Among the nations make known his deeds, proclaim how exalted is his name” (Isaiah 12:3-4).
There is no better day to be a Christian.
Meditation by Archpriest David Petras