My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
On the 6th of October, the Holy Orthodox Church
Commemorates the Holy Apostle THOMAS.
O holy Apostle Thomas, make intercession
to our Merciful God, that He grant our souls
forgiveness of offenses.
Kontakion Hymn. Mode 4
Thomas, the faithful servant and disciples of Christ,
filled with Divine grace, cried out from the depth of
his love: You are my Lord and my God!
Oikos.
Peter called out to the divinely eloquent Thomas, the
disciple of the Lord and great initiate of the mysteries:
We have seen the Lord! His friend said to him, crying
out: Unless I see the wounds of His hands, I will not
believe! Then the Master of All, in His desire to save
all came as a servant and said to Thomas: Touch My
hands and my side and do not be unbelieving, for I
am Your Lord and God. In repentance he cried out:
You are my Lord and my God!
Exaposteilarion. Mode 2
O wise Apostle, you were sent to India by Christ the
Great and Divine Sun, like a brilliant ray of sunlight, O
Saint Thomas; You went and mightily drove out the
darkness of idolatry enlightening all to worship the
Trinity in one Godhead, by which we are all protected.
THOMAS, the holy Apostle, surnamed Didymos (which means "twin"), the child of poor parents. In his youth, he cherished the law of Moses greatly an diligently studied the Sacred Scripture of the Jews. He led a godly life, occupying himself constantly with physical labor or the activity of the soul. By trade he was a fisherman, and his life was a struggle for subsistence; yet he was accustomed to poverty and hardship. When our Lord Jesus Christ, during His sojourn on earth with men, passed through the cities and villages, teaching the people and healing all manner of diseases, Thomas, on hearing His preaching and seeing His miracles, cleaved unto Him with all his heart. Thomas followed Him and was accounted worthy by the Lord of a place in the choir of the Twelve Apostles, with whom he followed Christ until the very time of His Saving Passion. When the holy Lazarus reposed (he who to remain dead for four days in the tomb), it was Thomas who, as a good and faithful servant , said in the midst of His disciples, "Let us go, that we might die with Him" [John 11:16].
After the Resurrection of the Lord, Saint Thomas, by his disbelief when the other Apostles told him that the Savior was risen, strengthened the Faith of the Church of Christ; for when the other disciples of Christ said, "We have seen the Lord," he would not believe them unless he himself beheld Christ and touched His wounds. Eight days after the Resurrection, when all of the disciples, including Thomas, had gathered together, the Lord appeared to them and said to Thomas, "Bring thy finger here, and behold My hands; and bring thy hand, and put it into My side. And cease being unbelieving, but believing." And when he saw Christ and touched His Life-bearing side, Thomas cried out, "MY LORD AND MY GOD!" [John 20:24-29].
This incident involving Saint Thomas convinces everyone of the Truth of the Resurrection of the Lord in the most graphic manner, because Christ appeared to His Disciples not as a phantom, and not in some other body, but IN THE VERY ONE IN WHICH HE HAD SUFFERED FOR OUR SALVATION.
After the Ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven and the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the holy Apostles cast lots amongst themselves to determine where each of them should go to preach the Logos/Word of God. To Thomas feel the lot to go to India, to the Brahmans and the other divers and obscure peoples of those parts, to enlighten lands benighted by paganism and to teach the True Faith to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Hyrcanians, and Bactrians.
Thomas was dismayed to be sent to such savage people; but the Lord appeared to him in a vision, strengthening him and commanding him to be valiant and not to be afraid; and He promised to abide with him Himself. And soon He showed him a way to enter those lands. According to Heracleon, the Apostle died a natural death; according to other accounts, he was martyred at Meliapur. His tomb was known by Saint John Chrysostom to be at Edessa in Syria, to which city his holy relics may have been translated from India in the 4th century. [Source: The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church)
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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 