St. Raphael of Brooklyn Orthodox Church

09/08/2026

🔸 September 8 - The Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos 🔸

Today we commemorate the Great Feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos. The blessed Virgin Mary was born in the small city of Galilee, Nazareth. Her father the Righteous Joachim was of the tribe of King David, and her mother Anna was from the tribe of the First Priest Aaron. The couple was without a child and old in age, but they did not lose faith in God’s mercy, and maintained their hope that He would be able to overcome their barrenness.

They vowed to dedicate the child which the Lord might give them to His service in the Temple. Childlessness was considered a divine punishment for sin among the Hebrews, so Joachim and Anna were slandered by their own countrymen. On one of the feastdays at the Temple in Jerusalem, Joachim brought his sacrifice to offer to God, but the High Priest would not accept it, considering him to be unworthy since he was childless.

In deep grief, St Joachim retreated into the wilderness, and there he prayed with tears entreating the Lord for a child. When St Anna learned what had happened at the Temple, she also wept bitterly in her own garden, not complaining to God, but rather praying for His mercy. In that moment, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to them separately, and announced the joyous news that St Anna would conceive and bear a daughter named Mary, who would be blessed and become a mother to the Savior of the world.

On the right of the first icon, St Joachim receives the revelation from the Archangel Gabriel that he would bear the most blessed daughter. In the top left, he and St Anna share an embrace having received this joyous news. St Anna is shown reclining on her bed as she contemplates this miraculous birth. She gazes at the infant Theotokos who is wrapped in swaddling bands in a cradle.

They are attended to by midwives who have prepared a feast for this joyous event. The Nativity of the Theotokos marks a dawn of salvation, for in her birth the way is prepared for Christ’s coming. Where Eve brought disobedience, the purity of the Mother of God made possible the Incarnation, through which the Fall is reversed and mankind is redeemed.

09/07/2026

🔸 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.

09/01/2026

Wishing you a blessed New Ecclesiastical Year, filled with peace, joy, and spiritual growth! 🙏

08/27/2026

08/26/2026

🔸 August 25 - The Apostle Titus of the Seventy 🔸

Yesterday we commemorated Saint Titus, the Apostle of the Seventy. He was a disciple of the Apostle Paul who ordained him as the first Bishop of Crete. St Titus was a native of the island of Crete, and the son of an illustrious pagan. In his youth he studied Hellenistic philosophy and led a chaste life, not devoting himself to the vices and passions characteristic of the majority of pagans.

For living in such a virtuous manner, Titus was blessed to hear the voice of the Lord in a dream instructing him to abandon Hellenistic wisdom and seek that which would save his soul. Thus, Titus began to read and familiarize himself with the teachings of the Prophets of God, the first being the Book of Isaiah. When news reached Crete about a miracle-working Teacher in Jerusalem, the governor of Crete (who was Titus’ uncle) sent him there to investigate.

There, Titus saw our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh, and inspired by his Divine preaching, he came to believe in Him. Titus witnessed death of the Savior on the Cross, His glorious Resurrection, and His Ascension to Heaven. On the day of Pentecost, he heard the Twelve Apostles speaking in various languages, including the tongue of the Cretans (Acts 2:11). Titus accepted Baptism from the Apostle Paul and became his closest disciple, accompanying him on his missionary journeys, and helping him establish many churches.

Titus was numbered among the Seventy Apostles, and was made Bishop of Crete by the Apostle Paul. As Bishop, Titus peacefully guided his flock and enlightened many pagans with the True Faith. He was also granted the gift of wonderworking, and during a pagan feast in honor of the goddess Diana, he prayed for the Lord to show to the people the falseness of their idols, and immediately the idol of Diana fell and shattered.

By his miracles and tireless preaching, St Titus brought many pagans to Christ, and died peacefully at age 97. His holy skull is today kept at the Church of St Titus in Heraklion, Crete, where they were returned in 1966 after being taken to Venice for safekeeping during the Ottoman occupation.

08/16/2026

The icon of the Holy Face of Jesus Christ, The Saviour, “The Image Not Made by Hand” (Mandylion) was made by the Lord Himself, who pressed His Holy Face on a cloth and gave it to an artist commissioned by Abgar, who ruled at Edessa, in Syria. The commemoration of its translation to Constantinople is commemorated on Aug 16/ Aug 29.

Abgar, who was stricken with leprosy, had sent the artist, Ananias, to Jerusalem to paint a likeness of the Divine Teacher. When Ananias returned to Edessa with the cloth, it brought Abgar a miraculous healing. The ruler put the Holy Napkin in a gold frame adorned with pearls and placed it in a niche over the city gates. On the gateway above the icon he inscribed the words, “O Christ God, let no one who hopes on Thee be put to shame.”

Arabs, who later seized the city, did not prevent the veneration of the icon, which by that time had wrought countless miracles. In 944, emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitos paid a ransom for the icon. It was then brought to Constantinople.

Christ our God, as we behold the victorious image of Your true incarnation, we honour it with veneration.

08/15/2026

Blessed Feastday! ☦️

"St. John of Damascus confirms the Paschal nature of the feast of the Dormition by calling the death of the Theotokos 'The Deathless Death.' It resulted in her translation into life eternal, into glorification and union with the Lord."

Blessed great feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos! Read more at https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/724