St. Nicholas Orthodox Church Scarborough, Toronto, English Language Orthodox Church Toronto,Orthodox Services English

English Orthodox Church in Toronto, English Language Christian Orthdox Services

Father Anthony Rout

Celebrating the Upcoming Feast of Saint Nicholas

By

St. Nicholas English Orthodox Parish

Dear and Faithful Orthodox Christians,

As the Feast of our holy Patron Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker approaches, and as we continue our Fast in preparation for the Feast of the Nativity of Our Saviour, it is a good time for us to look back and consider the many blessings we have received from Christ through the intercessions of Saint Nicholas!

Chief among these blessings, we are grateful to God that we have Hierarchs and Clergy that are diligent and faithful in our holy Orthodox Faith! And secondly, we are blessed with a caring and loving community of Faithful, journeying together on the path of salvation with the help of our Saviour and the Saints.

I am reminded of the words the Priest says quietly during the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, ‘For all these things we give thanks unto Thee, to Thine Only-begotten Son, and to Thy Holy Spirit, for all Thy benefits which we know, and which we know not, benefits manifest and concealed which have been wrought for us.’

We recall with thanksgiving and joy so many blessings: the baptism of our brother Anthony in March, receiving our dear sister Gabriela into the Church in May, celebrating the Liturgy of Saint James the brother of God for the first time at Saint Nicholas in November, receiving the magnificent icon of Saint Elizabeth the Grand-Duchess and New Martyr, written for us at Holy Nativity Convent, and the vibrant discussion we had together at our talk, ‘On the Divine Liturgy’ in October. The excitement of our parishioners who participated at the Saint Peter the Aleut Camp in August, being blessed by the prayers of our Elder Isaac and dear Mother Seraphima, and for me personally, the honour of serving at our Church of the Mother of God in Calgary and visiting the faithful in Montreal. Most recently on December 9th, we all rejoiced together at the holy Baptism of George and Paraskeve, the newly illumined.

With all these blessings and so many others in mind, we will come together to honour Saint Nicholas our heavenly intercessor in just a few days. There will be the Vigil and Hierarchical Liturgy with our Metropolitan Gregory and other visiting clergy, a celebration Lunch and a talk with the Metropolitan on the following Sunday. Let us put aside as much of the daily commotion as we can and dedicate time for prayer with our beloved Saint. Come to the Vigil in his honour for the full evening, for as your able for a few hours of the Service, and rejoice in the Liturgy on his Feast Day. In our homes also we should pray his Dismissal Hymn in our Icon Corner:

Saint Nicholas Dismissal Hymn – Tone 4
The Truth of things hath revealed thee to thy flock, * as a rule of Faith, and Icon of meekness, and a teacher of temperance. * For this cause though hast received the heights by humility, * riches by poverty.* O Father and Hierarch Nicholas,* intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.

Celebrating The Feast of Saint Nicholas – Wed Dec 18 and Thurs Dec 19

We will celebrate the Feast of Saint Nicholas with the following Services and activities:

6:30pm Wednesday Dec 18, Vigil on the Feast of Saint Nicholas

8:45am Thursday Dec 19, Hierarchical Divine Liturgy with Metropolitan Gregory, Bishop John, Elder and Abbot Isaac, and visiting clergy
Festive Luncheon following the Divine Liturgy on Thursday Dec 19.

3:30pm Saturday Dec 21, Vigil Service

8:45am Sunday Dec 22, Hierarchical Divine Liturgy with Metropolitan Gregory presiding
Q&A with Metropolitan Gregory at Coffee hour following Divine Liturgy

Honouring Saint Nicholas

As our forbears have done for centuries, we look forward to coming together on these festal days to honour Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas, the wonderworking Bishop of Myra! The defender of Orthodoxy at the First Council! The instructor in humility! The Protector and Father of our Church.

Let us make real our thanks to God for our blessings and attend and participate in as much as we can!

O Saint Nicholas, the Wonderworker of Myra, intercede for your flock, for we call upon thee with faith!

Father Anthony’

Exaltation of the Holy Cross and Instruction on the Divine Liturgy

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Exaltation of the Holy Cross
and Instruction on the Divine Liturgy

–Message from Father Anthony–

Dear and Faithful Orthodox Christians,

We have all entered into a new Orthodox Liturgical Year, and already celebrated the first Great Feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God. This week we gather in the Church on the evening of Thursday Sept 26 at 6:30pm and the morning of Friday Sept 27 for the Divine Liturgy at 9:00am to worship at the second Great Feast of the year — the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord!We will honour Christ at His Feast with Vigil prayers, the Divine Liturgy, and then an Instruction on the Great Mystery of the Liturgy at 6:30pm on Friday Sept 27.

Icon of the Exaltation of the Cross

Evening Instruction on the Divine Liturgy
6:30pm Friday Sept 27

At 6:30pm on Friday September 27th, we invite you to participate in an Instruction on the Divine Liturgy. This will be an opportunity for us to come together as a Parish, to deepen our Faith, to ask questions and thereby enhance our participation in the Liturgy with greater spiritual insight. This will include a discussion on the preparation of the Offering of the Liturgy, as well as the structure and both the practical and spiritual meaning of the Divine Service. The talk will be in the Church Hall followed by a gathering in the Church itself to underscore the discussion. Please join us on Friday beginning at 6:30pm.

Exaltation of the Honoured and Life-giving Cross
Vigil 6:30pm Thursday Sept 26
Divine Liturgy 9:00am Friday Sept 27
Instruction on Divine Liturgy 6:30pm Friday Sept 27

On Thursday evening at the great Vigil we will chant:

Today the Cross is lifted up, and all the world is sanctified.  For Thou, while throned with the Father and with the All-holy Spirit, by stretching out Thy hands thereon, hast drawn the whole world to Thyself, that it might know Thee, O my Christ.

In a homily by Saint John of Kronstadt he reminds us of the importance of keeping this Feast, saying,

‘The Cross of the Lord is being raised! On it was crucified the God-man, the only begotten Son of God, who deigned by His sufferings and death on the Cross to redeem mankind from eternal torment!’

Then for three hundred years the Cross was hidden, resting in the earth, and for three hundred years the Church of God, the believers in the Lord were under a terrible cross of persecution and martyrdom. Then, the pious Emperor Constantine appeared on the royal throne, with his mother Helen. The Lord revealed His Cross to Constantine in the Heavens and with this sign, this victorious ensign of Christ, he conquered the pagan enemies of Christ and ended the persecutions. (312 A.D.) Saint Constantine favours Christians, accepts the Christian faith himself, zealously honours the Crucified One and not only allows, but commits everyone – clergy, senate, army, and people to reverently worship Christ.

Empress Helen, his mother, journeys to the holy land and uncovers the precious Cross of the Lord in Jerusalem and it is solemnly raised from the ground, elevated, exalted, oh joy! All the Christians come to behold the holy Cross, and worshipping fall down in prostration crying, Lord have mercy!

And we Orthodox Christians following their example praise Christ and worship the holy Cross on this Feast as they did. As Prophet Isaish foresaw:
‘And the glory of Lebanon shall come to thee, with the cypress, and pine, and cedar together, to glorify My holy place; and the place of My feet will I glorify! … And thou shalt know that I am the Lord that saveth thee and delivereth thee, the God of Israel.’ (Isaiah:60)

And as King David pronounces:
‘Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship the footstool of His feet; for He is holy.’ (Psalm 98:5 Septuagint; Ps 99:5 KJV). And again, ‘Let us worship at the place where His feet have stood.’ (Psalm 131:7 KJV Ps 132:7).

Therefore beloved Christians kindle your love for Our Saviour and the Feasts of the Church and come with piety to worship Him at His holy Feast, that through the hymns, readings, prayers and instruction, by exchanging our time in worldly pursuits with spiritual pursuits, we may receive from Him divine grace and mercy.

We will close with this beautiful Hymn of Vespers as we await the blessed days ahead.

‘As the Cross is lifted up, it urgeth all of creation to praise the immaculate Passion of the One Who was lifted up thereon.
For by means of the Cross, He made the dead to live again, making them beautiful, granting them the Heavens as dwelling place, because He is compassionate.’

With prayers in Christ,
Father Anthony

Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul

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Feast of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul

–Message from Father Anthony–

Icon Fresco of Saints Peter and Paul circa 375 AD
Catacomb of St Thecla, Rome

Feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul

Dear and Faithful Orthodox Christians,

Honouring the holy Apostles in the keeping of their fast, we now prepare to rejoice in the grace-filled days of their Feast.  Tomorrow, Thursday July 11, we begin our Vigil at 6:30pm, and on Friday July 12 at 9am (June 29 according to the Church Calendar) we will celebrate the sacred and Divine Liturgy of the Feast.

Consider how different was the beginning of these two men!  And yet, united in love of Christ, they gave themselves entirely to Him and His Church, and through these two and their companion Apostles, the whole world has received the enlightenment of the Salvation of Our Saviour.

Peter a simple fisherman, walked with God incarnate, received the fullness of the Holy Spirit on the great day of Pentecost, and filled with all knowledge of the mysteries of God set forth to build up the faithful on the rock of the Orthodox Faith.   And Paul, who had been fiercely persecuting the Church, encountered Christ the True Light on his journey to Damascus.  Receiving the restoral of his physical sight and illumined with spiritual revelations he tirelessly preached Christ, and often through difficult journeys, in trials and deprivations, He persevered until the end that we might come to the True Faith.

The power of Christ, His victory over death, the forgiveness of sins, and the light of Truth were made manifest to the world and to us through their labours in love.

Now, let’s hear from them directly!  As Saint Peter declared in his second Epistle, having already been shown of his coming departure from this life by Christ:

    Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.
Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;
Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.
Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.   (2 Peter 1:12-21)

Saint Paul from prison writing to the faithful at Phillipi calls them and us to continue to advance in our faith even as Paul does,

    Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which
are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.  Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.
(Phillipians 3:13-15)

Desiring to encourage us to reach the heights, Saint Paul continues:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are 
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.   (Phillipians 4:8)

The Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul this Friday, and the Feast of the twelve Apostles on Saturday are days of rejoicing, and days to renew ourselves.  As they have spoken to us confirming that they were eyewitnesses of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and received His heavenly revelations, they call us even now to pursue and advance in our Faith even in times of difficulty, and to raise our minds to things true, and just, and heavenly.

As our ever-memorable Metropolitan Andrew said to us in prayer on their Feast in 2020,

‘May the prayers of Saints Peter and Paul cover us and make us zealous for the Orthodox Faith and piety;
that on the great and final day we may be found in their company, praising God unto the ages.   Amen.’

With prayers in Christ,
Father Anthony

Icon of Saints Peter and Paul by Photios Kontoglou

Treasured at Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Brookline

Thou hast Ascended in Glory, O Christ our God!

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Thou hast Ascended in Glory, O Christ our God!

–Message from Father Anthony–
  

Icon of the Ascension of Christ in Glory
Russian, early 18th century

Dear and faithful Orthodox Christians,

As we gather tonight in prayer and celebration, as Our Saviour’s anthem of Victory over Death, ‘Christ is Risen from the dead, by death hath he trampled down death and on those in the graves, hath he bestowed life,’ is chanted for the last time until next Pascha, let us all keep the joy of Resurrection, and the certainty of our Faith that Christ our God has destroyed death, is the triumphant Victor over Hades and darkness, and has bestowed light and life on all who believe in Him!.

In the Vigil tonight beginning at 8pm, we celebrate the Ascension of Christ. The hymns and readings in the Service will bring us deeper into the meaning of this event and the magnitude of the mercy of God.  Our Saviour leads us from the Resurrection to the next wonder of His glorious Ascension into the Heavens.

Saint Luke the Evangelist tells us in the first chapter of the Book of Acts, that the Holy Apostles, ‘…to whom also He showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.’  After Christ had spoken to them of many things, that the Apostles, ‘while they beheld, He was taken up and a cloud received Him out of their sight.’  And two Angels spoke to them saying, ‘This same Jesus, Who is ascended from you into heaven, shall come thus in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven.’

Saint John Chrysostom in his sermon delivered on the Feast of the Ascension around the year 390 A.D. said,

‘What then is the present Feast?  It is venerable and great!  O beloved, surpassing the mind of man and worthy of the largesse of God who made it.  For on this day of the Ascension has taken place the reconciliation between God and mankind. Today, the ancient enmity and the lengthy war have been abolished. Today, a wondrous peace has returned, one that was inconceivable before. We who proved ourselves unworthy of the earth, have today been raised up to heaven, have even surpassed the heavens, and assumed the royal throne.  And that nature which the Cherubim were assigned to keep out of Paradise is today seated upon the Cherubim.’ He continues with the beautiful response of the Angels to men, ‘For it is this that the Angels long yearned for; it is this that the Archangels long desired: our nature gleaming from the Royal Throne, resplendent in immortal glory and beauty.  Christ led up our nature across all the distance and height.

From the Feast of the Ascension tonight until Friday, the 21st of June when we take leave of the Ascension feast, let us add the Hymn of the Ascension to our daily prayers and rejoice in Christ’s work of Salvation for us!

Dismissal Hymn of the Ascension
Tone 4

Thou hast ascended in glory, O Christ our God, and gladdened Thy disciples with the promise of the Holy Spirit; and they were assured by the blessing, that Thou art the Son of God and Redeemer of the world.

With prayers,

Father Anthony

The Chapel of the Ascension, Jerusalem

Visit of His Eminence Gregory, Metropolitan of Boston and Toronto

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Visit of Gregory, Metropolitan of Boston and Toronto,
and his Grace Bishop John of Woodside,
on the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman

June 1 to June 3, 2024

Dear and Faithful Orthodox Christians,

We were blessed with the visit of our Metropolitan Gregory and his Grace Bishop John of Woodside from Saturday June 1st to Monday June 3rd, 2024. The Metropolitan’s time with us at Saint Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral was part of a larger programme during which he is visiting, serving, and gathering with the faithful at the Churches of the Holy Orthodox Metropolis of Toronto including: St Seraphim Mission Parish (Toronto), St Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral (Toronto), the Church of St Andrew the Apostle (Saskatoon), the Church of Sts Peter and Paul (Ispas, Alberta), and the Church of the Mother of God, Keeper of the Portal (Calgary).

At Saint Nicholas the Saturday Vigil was held, and then on Sunday June 2, 2024, the Hierarchical Liturgy Concelebration with Metropolitan Gregory of Boston and Toronto, together with his Grace Bishop John of Woodside, Father Sergey of St. Seraphim Parish, and Father Anthony and Father Protodeacon George of St Nicholas. It was a full day and evening on Sunday! After the sacred Liturgy on Sunday morning, we joined together in fellowship, sharing a meal and then hearing spiritual insights from our Metropolitan and Bishop John on the many questions that parishioners had submitted. There were so many great questions that we couldn’t finish them all!

Great Vespers for Saints Constantine and Helen followed the Q & A as we began our commemoratoin of these two great Saints of the Church. And then on Monday, we served the Liturgy with Metropolitan Gregory presiding and enjoyed a wonderful luncheon together afterwards.

Our Metropolitan reminded us in his Sunday sermon that as Orthodox Christians we must never be complacent, but to thirst for Christ! He said,

‘In this great mystery of which all of us are members and parts, that is, that we of all peoples, unworthy, sinful though we are….we have been given this marvelous opportunity to be true worshippers of God, in Spirit and in Truth, to be members of Christ’s body, to have received holy Baptism, of being clothed over by Christ Himself, of having the opportunity to receive the Body and Blood of Our Saviour.’

With thanksgiving to God for all these blessings, let each of us offer a prayer of ‘Many Years!,’ for our steadfast and faithful Hierarchs Gregory and John!

With prayers,

Father Anthony

Most holy Saint Nicholas, intercede in our behalf!