St. Raphael of Brooklyn Orthodox Church

06/09/2026

Today marks the beginning of the Apostles’ Fast.

After Pentecost and the Sunday of All Saints, the Church enters a period of fasting that leads to the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul on June 29.

The Apostles prepared for their ministry through prayer and fasting before going out to preach the Gospel. The Church continues this ancient practice, inviting us to slow down, pray more intentionally, and examine our own lives as we seek to follow Christ.

The traditional fasting discipline includes abstaining from meat and dairy products, with fish permitted on many days during the fast. As always, each person’s fasting rule should be practiced with the guidance of their priest and according to their health and circumstances.

The purpose of the fast is not simply to change what we eat, but to change how we live. It is an opportunity to grow in prayer, practice self-control, and become more attentive to God and to those around us.

May this time help us prepare our hearts to bear witness to Christ with the same faith and courage shown by the Holy Apostles.

06/08/2026

06/08/2026

Today Fr. David offered a special prayer of blessing for our students and graduates as they begin their summer. We ask God to grant them wisdom, strength, and His loving protection in all they do.

Following the Divine Liturgy, our parish family gathered for Fellowship Hour to share a meal, enjoy an ice cream social, and celebrate together. Thank you to everyone who helped make the day so special.

May God bless all of our students and graduates with many years! ☦️

06/07/2026

Prior to arriving in the United States, St. Raphael lived in several centers of Orthodoxy, from his native Damascus, to Constantinople and the island of Halki where he studied, and to Kiev and Moscow.

It is in this way that, through his extensive travels and his acquisition of multiple languages in both colloquial and liturgical contexts, St. Raphael, by God’s providence, was well-prepared to undertake his mission in this new land: to help establish parishes for newly-arrived Orthodox immigrants of various ethnic backgrounds.

St. Raphael’s ability to move between cultures and to draw on the best of Orthodox customs makes him a model for our own time. He could speak to people in their own language and understood their traditions because of his life experiences, while also encouraging them to adapt to their new homeland. He upheld the teachings of the Church with vigor and protected his flock from ravenous wolves, while adapting to the realities and norms of the American experience without compromising the faith.

What, then, can we learn from St. Raphael’s life as we celebrate 250 years of the American democratic experiment?

Read more from His Eminence Metropolitan Saba of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America at the link in the comments below. Photo courtesy of St Nicholas Cathedral Archive

06/03/2026

Join us this Sunday at St. Raphael Orthodox Church as we recognize our graduates and students and ask God’s blessing upon them for the months ahead.

At the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, Father David will invite graduates and students to come forward for a special blessing.

Following Fellowship Hour, we will continue the celebration with an Ice Cream Social dessert. We invite everyone to stay, enjoy fellowship, and congratulate those who have completed another year of learning and growth.

Visitors are always welcome.

06/01/2026

A Wonderful Feast Day! Tongues of Fire Chili Festival. Pentecost 2026

06/01/2026

06/01/2026

🔸 The Reversal of the Tower of Babel 🔸

Just as the Resurrection of Christ signified the reversal of the fall of Adam and Eve, so too does the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost reverse another tragic event from the Old Testament: the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-8). After the Great Flood, the descendants of Noah multiplied and spread across the earth, eventually giving rise to the various peoples and nations of the world. Yet before they were scattered abroad, the Book of Genesis tells us that “the whole earth was of one language and one speech” (Genesis 11:1).

They journeyed from the east, and found a plain in the land of Shinar, the southern region of Mesopotamia, and they dwelt there. With bricks for stone and asphalt for mortar, they said to one another “let us build ourselves a city and a tower, whose top will reach to heaven; and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face or the whole earth”. The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, and said,

“Indeed, the people are one race and one language, and they have begun to do what they said. Now they will not fail to accomplish what they have undertaken. Come, let Us go down there and confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over every face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city and the tower. Therefore its name is called Babel, because the Lord confused the languages of all the earth; and from there the Lord God scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

At Babel, humanity, united in pride, sought to build a tower to ascend to heaven apart from God, and their common language was divided by Him. However, at Pentecost, God unites what had been scattered, as the Holy Spirit descends upon the Apostles, granting them the gift of speaking in tongues so that people of every nation and language might hear the Gospel and be gathered into one Body. Thus, the unfinished tower of Babel gives way to the Church, the spiritual house and city of God, through which mankind is united to heaven not by its own power and pride, but by divine grace.

05/29/2026

Summer is just around the corner…Here are some favorite reading suggestions from members of our North American Board (NAB).

Find a cozy chair & start turning the pages! 📚

05/29/2026

Did you know how the Orthodox Church understands “speaking in tongues”?

In the New Testament, “tongues” originally referred to real human languages miraculously spoken and understood, especially on Pentecost when the Apostles preached to people from many nations (Acts 2:4–11). The early Church saw this as a sign of the Gospel reaching all peoples.

In the Orthodox tradition, we recognize this miracle, but speaking in tongues — especially as practiced in many charismatic or Pentecostal churches today — is not a regular or encouraged part of our liturgical life. Our services are always celebrated “with understanding,” as Saint Paul urges in 1 Corinthians 14: “If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful... I would rather speak five words with my understanding than ten thousand in a tongue.”

That means the Divine Liturgy and all our prayers are meant to be heard and understood by the faithful. The Church avoids confusion or disorder in worship—our worship is meant to reflect the peace and order of heaven.

God can work in people’s lives in powerful ways. Some Orthodox Christians may have had personal spiritual experiences they describe as “tongues.” Still, the Church does not encourage or incorporate this into its prayer life. Instead, the Orthodox Church focuses on inner prayer—simple, deep prayer from the heart and the fruit of the Holy Spirit—especially humility, love, and repentance—as the true signs of life in the Holy Spirit.

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