On July 26th Our Holy Orthodox Christian Church commemorates the holy Feast of Our Holy Mother, the Martyr Paraskevi (Paraskeva) of Rome. Born in Rome of Christian parents, she was brought up from her earliest youth in the Christian faith and gave herself wholeheartedly to the fulfilling of God's Commandments in her life. She brought others to the Way by means of her true and deep faith and devout life.

As all of you know the feast of the Dormition (Koimisis) of the Theotokos celebrated on August 15th. For those Churches using the Julian Calendar, this feast falls on August 28th. The Feast of the Koimisis commemorates the falling asleep (death) of the Mother of God, Translation (Metastasis), and glorification of Christ's Holy Mother.

Two dogmas concerning the Mother of God are bound up, in closest fashion, with the dogma of God the Logo's (Word's becoming man.) They are a) Her Ever-virginity, and b) Her name of Theotokos. They proceed immediately from the dogma of the unity of the Hypostasis of the Lord from the moment of His Incarnation--the Divine Hypostasis.

Let us be happy, beloved brothers and sisters that we belong to the Holy Orthodox Church, worthily and rightly glorifying the Most Holy Sovereign Theotokos on this eminent day out of all the day of the year with special solemnity. There exists on earth many societies and entire governments that do not consider the need nor the obligation to call upon and glorify the Queen of Heaven and earth, the Mother of Our Divine Lord Jesus Christ, and other Saints and Angels; to submissively serve Her lovingly, as the True Mother of God.  

We find ourselves in one of the graphic villages of Zaire (today's Congo). The tropical vegetation around is bountiful. The banana trees further down are filled with fruit, their branches are tilted and the palm tree next to the grass hut proudly boasts its strength!

It is a fact that we are living in apocalyptic times, given that we are witnessing the prevalence of an epic apostasy by people from God's will - and of course from the Living God. The problem, however, is how one should confront this situation.