St George Orthodox Church Memphis

09/06/2026

🔸 September 6 - The Miracle of the Archangel Michael at Chonae 🌊⛪️ 🔸

Today, we commemorate the Miracle at Chonae (modern-day Honaz, Turkey) by the Archangel Michael which took place in the second century. The Holy Apostles Philip and Bartholomew preached the Gospel in Colossae. Having converted many pagans to Christianity, they foretold that this place would be visited by the commander of heavenly forces, the holy Archangel Michael. Soon after, by the Lord’s providence, a spring of healing miraculously sprung up at Chonae.

Everyday, sick and disease ridden people visited the spring to be healed, and many, having received health, were baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity. A Greek pagan man, who was in great sorrow since his daughter had been mute since birth, received a dream telling him that she would be healed at the spring of the Archangel Michael. The pagan man awoke trembling, and brought his daughter there.

Beholding the many afflicted people being healed at the spring, the pagan man asked what name they were invoking as they drank the water and poured it over their wounds. The Christians told him that they invoked the name of the Holy Trinity, and without hesitation, the pagan man believed. Entreating the Lord as they drank from the spring, the man was healed of his ailments, and his daughter regained her speech.

In gratitude, he built a church in honor of the Archangel Michael at the spring. After several years, a pious man named Archippus was placed as the guardian of the church, and he labored in fasting and prayer. Envious of the miracles at the site and the piety of Archippus, pagans sought to destroy the church and spring. The pagans plotted to flood the holy site by joining the Lykokastros and Kouphos rivers which encircled the church, and directing their combined flow downward towards it.

Archippus recognised their wickedness, and through his prayer, the Archangel Michael appeared, and with his staff he opened a fissure in a rock and commanded the rushing torrents of water to flow into it. The church was saved, and this place was named “Chonae” meaning “plunging” because of the river’s water plunging into the fissure.

09/06/2026

Do you understand why the rules of the Church impose strict penalties on those who do not go to Church on Sunday? Because every church service, every dedication of Sunday to God, is a rung on the ladder, which brings us up to bring us closer to Christ. If you do not climb it because you give more importance to something else, then where will you end up when your life ends?

☦️ St. John Chrysostom

09/03/2026

The premiere episode of "Come and Sign with Deacon Tigran" is out now! Head over to the Ancient Faith Kids YouTube channel to watch.

“Lord, have mercy.” There are many reasons for us to ask God for His mercy! When we ask God for His mercy, we are asking for healing, forgiveness, and peace. Learn to sign this important phrase with Deacon Tigran!

All content for Ancient Faith Kids is carefully created and reviewed to align with Eastern Orthodox teachings. We are excited to create this resource for the very small orthodox deaf community, and hope to inspire our followers to get involved in the incredible work being done by the OCDA! https://www.orthodoxchristiandeafassociation.org/

09/03/2026

How to benefit from the liturgy (part I)
Source The art of Orthodoxy.

1) Attend early: be on time. Do not come after the gospel or even after the first reading. Would you arrive late to work? Could you arrive late to work? The later you arrive, the less the grace of God and heavenly blessings will permeate your soul and the less time you'll have to spend in that short and precious 2 hr window into heaven.

2) Sing passionately: do not stand there like a statue. Do not fail to offer God due reverence and honor through singing the grace-filled hymns of the church composed by our saintly ancestors. Sing when the congregation sings. Sing when it is your sides turn to sing. Do not deceive yourself as benefiting from the service without singing. St Theophan the Recluse says, "All of our liturgical hymns are instructive, profound and sublime. They contain the whole of our theology and moral teaching, give us Christian consolation and instill in us a fear of the Judgment. He who listens to them attentively has no need of other books on the Faith."

3) Be reverent: one of the best way to do this is to do the sign of the cross reverently, consciously, attentively, neither too fast nor too slow, during the countless times we say "Lord have mercy" in the liturgy. This may initially be awkward, make us become fearful of what others think and lead us to develop prideful thoughts because we think we are holy. Hence isolate yourself somewhere quiet in the altar or somewhere isolated in the pews or first practice reverence in quiet weekday liturgies. Other examples of reverence are: prostrating when everyone prostrates, responding with the congregation, raising our hands in prayer formation, closing our eyes and lifting our head up slightly to the heavens. Just like body language is such a profound aspect of effective communication between humans, so is bodily reverence a profound aspect of communicating with God and acquiring His grace.

4) Pray the prayer before and after Holy communion: do this in every liturgy without fail. We learn this from the life of St John of Kronstadt. There is no saint in the history of the church who united himself the most to God in the liturgy than St John (his life story is incredibly amazing). He said that if there was little time and he would have to shorten other prayers, he would still never fail to pray the prayer before and after Holy Communion. Preparation for anything always increases our benefit.

09/03/2026

09/03/2026

09/02/2026