CATECHESIS & DAILY INSPIRATION |
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The Venerable Martyr Stephen the New,
of Mt. St. Auxentius (767)
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The NATIVITY FAST
A time for preparation!
May our spiritual efforts bring us renewal in Christ!
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Reflections and Daily Inspiration |
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Bound up with this is a disease of today's Orthodox Christians which can be deadly: the 'correctness disease.' . . . If you are critical of others, self-confident about your correctness, eager to quote canons to prove someone else is wrong, constantly 'knowing better' than others--you have the germs of the 'correctness disease.' These are signs of immaturity in spiritual life . . .
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Stumbling Blocks in the Orthodox Christian Spiritual Life
Hieromonk Gabriel
2,068 views
An interview with Orthodox priest-monk and blogger, Hieromonk Gabriel of Holy Cross Monastery in Wayne, WV.
In this episode, Hieromonk Gabriel the dangers of abstraction in the spiritual life, and the need to learn unswerving obedience and patience.
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Celebrity Chef Sophia is returning. She joins myOCN Community live on Monday, 12/14 at 7pm EST. She will be baking Christopsomo (Christ’s Bread), which is a Greek Christmas family tradition. Join for a one-hour interactive video session on Zoom with limited availability for two-way discussion. We will also be live-streamed on myOCN Facebook. Join us and thousands online for prayers, baking, and discussion. Families and children are welcome. You will have the opportunity to ask questions. If you would like to attend, please register here to receive sign-in instructions.
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Echoes of a Fresh Start
10 DECEMBER 2020
Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have perfected praise,
Because of Your enemies,
That You may silence the enemy
and the avenger. (Psalm 8:2)
There are many things about the “elder” years of my life that I prefer to my youth. Had I known then what I know now, perhaps the statement would not be true. Nonetheless, the providence of God has preserved me and brought me to a place of peace. Reviews are now appearing for the movie, Hillbilly Elegy. I have not seen the film, though I read the book when it first came out. It is the not-so-unusual account of an Appalachian life that managed to escape the cycle of dysfunction and poverty that mark this area of the world. I have known many versions of that story, not all with happy endings. It is also a version of the story written by a man who is still young. I wonder about how it continues to play in his head.
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The program is dedicated to the young people, consisting of a wide range of talks and discussions, commencing with a Live Divine Liturgy from the Archdiocesan Chapel at 09:00 a.m. (London)
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Online event by the Youth Office of the Archdiocese of Thyateira
The Youth Office of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain planned an Online Day event, on Zoom, which will take place on Saturday the 12th of December and the topic is
“What have we learnt from the pandemic?”.
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SAINT OF THE DAY
DECEMBER 11 / NOVEMBER 28
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The Venerable Martyr Stephen the New, of Mt. St. Auxentius (767)
As at one time Hannah, the mother of Samuel, prayed to God to give her a son, so did Anna, the mother of Stephen. Praying thus in the Church of Blachernae before the icon of the Most-holy Theotokos, a light sleep overcame her, and she saw the Most-holy Virgin as radiant as the sun, and heard a voice from the icon: “Woman, depart in peace. In accordance with your prayer, you have a son in your womb.” Anna indeed conceived and gave birth to a son, the holy Stephen. At sixteen, Stephen received the monastic tonsure on Mount Auxentius near Constantinople, from the elder John who also taught him divine wisdom and asceticism. When John entered into rest in the Lord, Stephen remained on the mountain in a life of strict asceticism, taking upon himself labor upon labor. His holiness attracted many disciples to him. When Emperor Constantine Copronymus was persecuting icons more ferociously than his foul father, Leo the Isaurian, Stephen showed himself a zealous defender of the veneration of holy icons. The demented emperor accepted various obscene slanders against Stephen and personally plotted intrigues to break Stephen and get him out of the way. Stephen was banished to the island of Proconnesus, then taken to Constantinople, chained and cast into prison, where he was met by 342 monks, brought from all over and imprisoned for their veneration of the icons. There, in prison, they carried out the whole church typicon as in a monastery. Then the wicked emperor condemned Stephen to death. The saint foresaw his death forty days in advance, and asked forgiveness of the brethren. The emperor’s servants dragged him from prison and, beating and pulling him, dragged him through the streets of Constantinople calling upon all those loyal to the emperor to stone this “enemy of the emperor.” One of the heretics struck the saint on the head with a piece of wood, and the saint gave up his soul. As St. Stephen the Protomartyr suffered at the hands of the Jews, so this Stephen suffered at the hands of the iconoclastic heretics. This glorious soldier of Christ suffered in the year 767 at the age of fifty-three, and was crowned with unfading glory.
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