Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Congratulations with the feasts of the Resurrection of the Lord, the Procession of the Precious Cross, of the memory of the seven holy Maccabean martyrs, their mother Solomonia, and their teacher Eleazar, as well as with the beginning of the Dormition Fast!

It is not by chance that on the first day of this short, but very full of meaning lenten period, we celebrate the memory of the Old Testament Maccabean Martyrs. Of course, these martyrs did not suffer for the sake of Christ, Who came to earth many decades later, but for the sake of their ancestral Jewish Law. After the successful campaigns of Alexander the Great, Greek culture, language, morals, and religion were spread throughout the ancient world. This process affected the Jews as well. On the one hand there were those Jews who accepted this new world order with relish, while on the other there were those who fought to preserve national independence, the Law of Moses, and, most importantly, faith in the True God! Although there were many Jews who suffered for these ideals, the brightest examples of such martyrs are today’s saints, who preferred death to compromising their ancestral traditions. Therefore, they refused to obey the decree of the king to eat forbidden, unclean meat. We could say that they were ready to suffer all for the sake of keeping the fast!

Today, on the fist day of the fast, the Church is, of course, offering to us as examples these saints and impressing on us the need to zealously fulfill all our lenten obligations. This means that we have to not only keep the fast in regards to food, but to also spend less time on the internet and in front of the television, to increase our prayers both at home and in church, to read the Holy Scriptures and other spiritual literature, to show mercy to those in need, and to participate in the sacraments of repentance and Communion.

When we read about the Maccabees in Holy Scripture, we see that they, more clearly and forthrightly than the other Old Testament saints, confessed faith in the general resurrection of all mankind. Their faith in the general resurrection is very much relevant on the first day of the Dormition Fast, because we are preparing to mark not only the death of the All-Holy Theotokos, but also her bodily resurrection. Remember how on the third day after her repose, the tomb was opened so that the Apostle Thomas, who had arrived late, could bid his farewell, and how it was found empty!

Dear Brothers and Sisters, today, on this festive first day of the Dormition Fast, let us joyfully cast aside all that is sinful, let us zealously begin this fasting period, with deep faith that through our struggles we will inherit an eternal and blessed life in the Kingdom of Heaven after the general resurrection, through the prayers of the Most-Holy Theotokos and the Holy Maccabean martyrs!

priest Alexis