St. Constantine and Helen

St. Helen- Today is my dear mother's middle name (Helen) Feast Day! 

Here is something that i would like to share with you that i thought was interesting.

St. Helen is the mother of St. Constantine, and the daughter of an inn-keeper. She married a 

Roman Solider. Constantine, her son- who soon became Constantine the Great, was born in 

Nish, Serbia soon after, in 272. In 293, when Constantius was made Caesar, or junior emperor, he was persuaded to divorce Helen to marry Theodora the stepdaughter of Emperor Maximian. He lived for fourteen years after the divorce of St. Helen, and when he died at York in 306 his troops at York proclaimed their son Constantine caesar.

Happy Feast Day MOM! :)  love, Kassiani

After He has MIRACULOUSLY Ascended...

"Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
  
    no Hands But  Yours ... 

      no feet but yours. 

Yours are the eyes through which Christ's

compassion looks out on the world. 

Yours are the feet with which Christ is to 

          go about doing good.          
                                                                         

Yours are the hands with which Christ is to

Bless all people now.    St. Teresa of Avila

Joyous Feast of the Ascension!!!

++ Blessed, Joyous Ascension!!  Here we are at the 40th day after Pascha... how befitting and how perfectly our faith prepares us for each moment... each feast, each little thing that the Lord wants to show us, to teach us... to truly live our lives each day... each moment, as though we were walking with Christ by our side, in the time that He lived!  We DO WALK each moment with Christ, with our precious Lord and Savior by our side... and each and every day and feast is a reminder to us, to our children, to our hearts, to our souls.  We have all just been JOYFULLY proclaiming EVERY DAY FOR 40 days and 40 nights... CHRIST is RISEN!  XRISTOS ANESTI!  Not only do we say it as a greeting when we awaken, throughout the day, when we answer the phone, and when we say good bye and good night, but we sing it in our morning and evening prayers!!!  Not just one time, THREE TIMES!!  We open AND close our services and our prayers by singing this MOST JOYFUL hymn, proclaiming: "Christ is Risen from the dead, by death, He has trampled... down... death, and to those in the tombs bestowing life!!!" This hymn is so very joyful and the children love singing it so much... the joy is so full in our prayers... one can see if on the faces of the youngest to the oldest!  Christ lived for 40 days among his disciples and loved ones, and on the 40th day, just as we celebrate today, He miraculously ASCENDED to Heaven, and was seated at the right hand of the Father.   How truly unworthy we are, and how BEAUTIFUL, that each of us celebrates this glorious Divine Liturgy today, and take part in the day of His Ascension.  Bishop Savvas spoke so beautifully today and at the Vespers last night about the Ascension of Christ.  He brought to our minds... the memory of what these 10 DAYS MUST HAVE BEEN LIKE, AS THE DISCIPLES AWAITED THE HOLY SPIRIT... THE COMFORTER... THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, to come and be with them.  We know the end of the story, just as on Holy Friday... we are never able to fully  comprehend what the disciples and his loved ones must have felt felt after this most Holy day of Christ's Ascension... until Pentecost, 10 days later!!  

And now may we all truly prepare a place worthy for the Holy Spirit to stay in our souls- and touch others with love each moment, as the Lord would call us to, as we prepare for Pentecost/ the Holy Spirit on this coming Sunday, the 50th day after Pascha/Easter!!   love always in +Christ, georgia

 

Joyous Leave-Taking of Pascha!

Below is the sharing I wrote from my heart 4 years ago, when i truly discovered this glorious service of the Leave-taking of Pascha.  +   :)

                                                                              

We were at Antiochian Village 4 yeas ago over Mem. Day Wkend for a wonderful Orthodox family retreat, and after the weekend, we were able to go to the Monastery right by there, for this amazing service....  Thanks be to God, their little house was available so we ended up being able to stay there....  for the leave-taking of Pascha. This is the glorious service we have on the 39th day of Pascha!!! They had Vespers and Orthros the eve before with the Litugy the next morning. After that we were heading to Detroit so we would have completely missed that evening service if we had had the long drive to Detroit that day. This service is soooooooo AMAZING. For any of you who aren't that familiar with it, it is a 2nd PASCHA. IT is the EXACT same service that begins after we receive the Light on Pasha evening!!! It is such a blessed service to be in with your children, especially in a monastery or somewhere where it is done in its entirety! We sang Christos Anesti /Christ is Risen sooooo many times, even though we tried to remain somewhat calm, we were so filled with joy, we could hardly stop smiling!!!!!!

   Father Demetri was so joyful and these were some of the most joyful services I have EVER experienced. Many many times throughout the services, Father Demetri was walking down the aisle, to the back, into the Nathex, and back down the middle censing all of us, the icons, the angels and saints all around, and LOUDLY JOYFULLY TRIUMPHUNTLY calling out  "CHIRSTOS ANESTI" / "CHRIST IS RISEN!" and we would all respond back-"ALITHOS ANESTI! / Truly He is Risen! "  it was triumphant - it was a 2nd Pascha, it was a level of Paradise I have not been to before. Glory to God for all things! How could it be that I didn't totally experience and realize the blessings of this iincredible leave-taking service until I was 40 years old... unworthy though I am... Again and agian, with the beautiful chanting of the nuns and the children's voices---we all sang Christos Anesti so many times... Pascha...Pascha (that incredible hymn)... the angel cried... fotizo fotizo... shine shine.... awwwwww- it just got better and better and better- throughout those services that evening and the next morning,

   

  I remember feeling this joy some of the other Pascha nights in my life and especially when we have been blessed to be in vigils at Holy Cross, at St. Nektarios, at other monasteries and in when we have been blessed to be in  Arizona with Yeronda Ephraim for Holy Week/Pascha. Yeronda Ephraim has this same kind of contagious joy which Father Demetri had, it is something which is very difficult to describe in words-- it is Salvific, it is peaceful - it is joyful-- it is Holy Spirit filled- it is full of Light and Love and Hope -- it is Transforming -- it is contagious -- it is a taste of Paradise and when you are experiencing it, you are IN PARADISE... in the Kingdom of Heaven.  Father Alexios and Father Kyrilos, who had this vigil at St. Nektarios last year have this incredible joy!!!  

     At the monastery a few years ago, when we went to that service, we went downstairs after the service with Father Demetri,  and we asked him if he could tell us a miracle, as we often love to do with the children at monasteries or when we are around priests or just hanging out with people in our home or anywhere in these very special blessed moments of life. Father Demetri replied to us with his prayerful, faithful eyes and voice, "I'll tell you a miracle... it's the service that just happened upstairs and the fact that the Lord brought us all together in exactly the way He did... he went on to say and put into words exactly what we were feeling in our hearts-- he said something about the place in Paradise where he had been. We needed no exchange of words... we were all feeling the same. the Holy Spirit had touched each of us in such a special way. Father Demetri also said that he didn't want the service to end. That was EXACTLY what I was feeling. There was something so beautiful also about the children's responses as he would proclaim Christ's resurrection as he walked down the aisle and the children would look up to Father Demetri's heartfelt, loving faithful, repentent, joyful eyes and respond right back with their big hearts and souls and eyes.... there is someithing about "the little children" especially after the 40 day Paschal period which we had experienced this year.

         ( I will explain: Being at Holy Cross this year during the 40 days after Pascha was really really incredible. Because we go to so many services and activities there each day, we are constantly running in to many people within the community and proclaiming again and again " Christ is Risen!!!" Truly He is Risen!! Being so interconnected with your community is such a blessing and we all had Christos Anesti written all over the tablets of our hearts and souls and bodies!!! Father Gerasimos had also given a sermon on how this is truly the way we should all be greeting one another morning and night each time we see someone, when we awaken, when we answer the phone, b4 we sleep, etc. Then, even more people started saying it around our community, it was so BEAUTIFUL... We were proclaiming the truth ALL over the place. Glory to God in the Highest- it was so beautiful. .. The children and Philip and I were proclaiming it in MANY different languages morning and night as we closed our prayers..... it covered us with so much JOY!!!!! Have you ever tried to say Christ is Risen/Christos Anesti!!!! with a frown? It is impossible! ) So my heart was almost beginning to mourn the end of the Paschal period, though I know the ascension is also such a blessing and I yearn to ascend up to Heaven with Christ in my heart... and then await for the Holy Spirit to come down once again... Anyway my final point in my heart is that the Lord truly heard and knew our whole experience- of the 40 days- for the children and for us... and he gave us EXACTLY what we needed to end the forty days and be filled with a peace in letting that time period go, and begin another... he gave us the MOST BEAUTIFUL, FULL Leave-taking of Pascha that we could've ever imaginged, which also truly prepared us walk toward the Ascension and Pentecost. ++ 

++ May we all prepare a place worthy for the Holy Spirit to stay in our souls- and touch others with love each momnet as the Lord would call us to, as we prepare for His Ascension on the 40th day, and for Pentecost/ the Holy Spirit on the 50th!!   love always in Christ, + georgia&co.