Newsletter August 6, 2026

For the Great Feast of the Transfiguration. Orthros 5:00 PM Liturgy 6:00 PM

Meditations on the Feast of the Transfiguration

Earthly glory is by definition passing, a mirage of the life to come and a cause of perdition. But the promised glory—the glory of man’s transfiguration in God’s light—is the perfection of the image with the divine likeness, the lasting and original glory, the reason for the creation of man. If this glory does not exist, then what justifies human life? And what makes people bear their personal suffering and the suffering of others? And what gives them the capability to continue with the painstaking effort of life? Life without this divine purpose becomes a heedless passing between strangers who uselessly go along their way, life from the womb to the grave. History becomes merely a succession of vain mirages. Life, the life of every person, is a short series of events with no justification for its past, no meaning to its present, and no possible end to its suffering. Mention of human suffering and the torments of humanity becomes something unbearable.

But we know that this is not the case. God manifests this in His having also become human. He will show His disciples the transformation that will happen to mankind in His kingdom of heaven, when they too will enter into glory. “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it… For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works” (Matt. 16:25, 27; cf. Luke 9:24, 26); and also, “But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:27), “till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom” (Matt. 16:28).

Read the entire article: https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/1694

Please remember that our full calendar continues to be available at our parish web site. Here is a link:
https://stjfc.org/Pages/Calendar/calendar.php

Full schedule:
https://stjfc.org/Pages/Ministries/Prosphora/Docs/prosphora sched 2026 web.pdf

Full schedule:
https://stjfc.org/Pages/Ministries/Altar/Docs/epistle readers for 2026.pdf

Epistle: ST. PAUL’S FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS 4:9-16

Brethren, God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the off-scouring of all things. I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.

Gospel: MATTHEW 17:14-23

At that time, a man came up to Jesus and kneeling before him said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; for often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” And Jesus answered, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move hence to yonder place, ‘ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. But this kind never comes out except by prayer and fasting.” As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.”

Oxygen and Food for the Soul
Ninth Talk on the Divine Liturgy, Part A

Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol

So, the perfect God became Man, received flesh from the Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit. Christ was born of the Holy Spirit, not from the union of man and woman, as all of us, and therefore He didn’t inherit the predisposition to sin that is inherent to fallen human nature. In Him, the consequences of the fall found no foothold, and He became the New Adam, with Whom we can unite in the Holy Mysteries of the Church. By uniting with Christ in the Sacraments, we heal our sin-damaged nature, our inner man, and we “graft” ourselves onto the blessed state of the New Adam.

This is why it’s necessary to live by the Sacraments of the Church. Sometimes we hear people say: “I believe in Christ, I read Holy Scripture. Isn’t that enough?” That’s all good, but to live the new life of Christ, to unite with Christ, to be “grafted” onto the Body of Christ, to the Church, we must first receive Holy Baptism, then commune of the Body and Blood of the Lord, and participate in the other Sacraments of the Church, which are the source of life for the soul. Communion with Christ in the Mysteries is as essential for the human soul as breathing oxygen and eating food is for the body.

The Church and the Gospel aren’t some kind of ideology or philosophy. It’s not enough just to believe in Christ or consider yourself His follower. If you don’t live by the Sacraments, then none of this will do you any good. Then you’re no different than the followers of some philosophical trend. Christ said clearly: Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His Blood, ye have no life in you (Jn. 6:53). We’re dead if, for one reason or another, we don’t commune of the Body and Blood of the Lord—of course, after appropriate preparation, praying with humility and repentance to unite with Christ.

Read the entire article: https://orthochristian.com/179180.html