One's identity has always been sacred and something that could never be violated. In recent years, however, there has been a deliberate and consistent attempt to steal one's identity. It is referred to as 'identity theft.' People who have experienced an identity theft feel violated and devastated. Currently, there are many ways or measures for securing one's identity and preventing this breach from taking place.

Today is the commemoration of the translation of Saint Bartholomew's holy relics, while his main feast falls on June 11th. When this Great Apostle was crucified in Ourbanopolis in Armenia, Christians took his body and buried it in a leaden coffin. When numerous miracles had been wrought over the Apostle's grave, especially healings of the sick - which led to an increase in the number of Christians - the pagans took the coffin containing Bartholomew's holy relics and cast it into the sea.

Take away from me, O Lord, every destructive pride and give a prudent countenance to my eyes; set a bridle on my tongue, make my ears obedient to Thy Holy Commandments, provide me with patience in afflictions, make my heart wise and strong in forbearance, in goodness, in restraint, in sympathy, in charity, in love, in humility, in peace toward myself and all others, and in rejecting the indolence and slothfulness of the demons in which I once indulged as if they were mere confections.

The human person is the temple of the Living God. This is an Apostolic teaching of our Church, which means that, just as the grace of God, the grace of the Holy Spirit, resides in a Church, the same is true of the human body and we are temples of the Living God. We call God living because He's not cut off somewhere in the heavens and we simply believe in Him, accept Him, but because He resides in us and we are His temple.

While the glorification of Saints in the Orthodox Church has been taking place for nearly 2000 years, few people today are certain about how this really happens. Does the Church "make" a Saint? Are there special panels which decide who can be a Saint? Are Saints "elected" by a majority vote? Does the person have to perform a certain number of miracles in order to qualify as a Saint? The answer to these questions may be surprising to some.