Contrary to popular belief, Mother's Day was not conceived and fine-tuned in the boardroom of Hallmark. The earliest tributes to mothers date back to the annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to Rhea, the mother of many deities, and to the offerings ancient Romans made to their Great Mother of gods, Cybele. Christians celebrated this festival on the Fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of the Annunciation of the Ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of God. In England this holiday was expanded to include all mothers and was called Mothering Sunday.

Then there is Saint Paul. The Apostle is known as the foremost advocate of justification by faith. In the above text of Gal. 2:16-20, Saint Paul seems to say something very different than His Master about faith and works. These words of Saint Paul reflect his conversion by which he left behind the Law of Moses and joined Christ wholeheartedly. Previously the Mosaic Law was the center of his life, but after Damascus Christ became the core of his being. Christ dwelt in Saint Paul: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20).

"Knowing that a man is not justified by works of the Law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the Law, because by works of the Law shall no one be justified...For through the Law I have died to the Law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:16-17, 19-20).

Most of the Orthodox Christian faithful do not know about this holy feast. Apart from priests and a few other Christians who are more closely involved with the Church, most don't even suspect that the Wednesday after the Sunday of the Paralytic is celebrated by the Church as a great feast of the Lord, the Feast of Mid-Pentecost. And yet this feast was once a Major Feast of the Great Church of Constantinople and crowds of people attended it.

The Holy Martyr Christopher lived during the 3rd century and suffered about the year 250 A.D., during the reign of the pagan Roman emperor Decius (249-251 A.D.). There are various accounts of his life and miracles, and he is widely venerated throughout the Christian world. Saint Christopher is especially venerated in Italy, where people pray to him in times of contagious diseases.

So, the Lord Jesus gives us this possibility to unite with God and return to the primary purpose which God ordained for man. Therefore He is described in Holy Scripture as the Way, the Door, the Good Shepherd, the Life, the Resurrection, the Light. He is the New Adam Who rights the wrong of the first Adam. The first Adam separated us from God with his disobedience and his egotism. With His love and His obedience to the Father, obedience unto death, to "death on the Cross," the Second Adam, Christ, brings us back once more to God. Once again He orients our freedom towards God, so that by offering Him our freedom, we unite with Him.