THE HOLY TRANSFIGURATION (Gr. METAMORPHOSIS) OF OUR LORD, GOD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.

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.

THE HOLY TRANSFIGURATION (Gr. METAMORPHOSIS) OF OUR
LORD, GOD, AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.

Apolytikion (Dismissal) Hymn. Grave Tone

THOU was transfigured on the mountain, O Christ our God, showing
to Thy disciples Thy glory as each one could endure. Shine forth Thou
on us, who are sinners all, Thy Light-Ever-unending, through the
prayers of the Theotokos. Light-bestower, glory to Thee.

Kontakion Hymn. Grave Tone

ON the mount Thou wast transfigured, and Thy disciples, as much as
they could bear, beheld Thy glory, O Christ our God; that when they
should see Thee crucified, they would know Thy Passion to be willing,
and would preach to the world that Thou, in truth, are the
Effulgence of the Father.

OUR Lord had spoken to His disciples many times not only concerning His Passion, Cross, and Death, but also concerning the coming persecutions and affliction that they themselves would endure. Since all these evils were near at hand, but the enjoyment of good things which they hoped to receive in their stead was yet to come, our Saviour desired to give them full assurance, evidently and openly, concerning that glory which is prepared for those who endure to the end. Therefore, fulfilling that which He had promised shortly before, that "there be some standing here which shall not taste death, till they see the Son of man coming in His Kingdom" (Matthew 16:28), He took His three foremost disciples and ascended Mount Tabor where He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as the light. Suddenly, together with this dread and marvelous effulgence of light, there appeared those pinnacles of the Prophets, Moses and Elias, who spoke with the Lord Jesus concerning His Saving Passion which was about to take place. Standing before Him as reverent servants, they showed that He is the Lord of both the living and the dead, for Moses came forth from Hades, having died many centuries before, and Elias, as it were from heaven, whether he had been taken up while yet alive. After a little while a radiant cloud overshadowed them and out of the cloud they heard that same voice which had been heard at the River Jordan at the Baptism of Christ, testifying to the Divinity of Jesu and saying: "THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, IN WHOM I AM WELL-PLEASED; HEAR YE HIM" (Matthew 17:15).

Such are the marvels, truly worthy of God, celebrated in this present Feast, which is an image and prefiguring of the future state of the righteous, whose splendour the Lord spoke of saying: "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun" (Matthew 13:43). It is because of this that the Kontakion of this Feast is said daily (when there is not a great feast) in the Service of the Typica in perpetual commemoration of the glory that will be the lot of the Saints. According to tradition, the Lord’s Transfiguration came to pass forty days before His Crucifixion; this is why the Transfiguration is celebrated forty days before the Exaltation of the Cross (September 14th). [Source: The Great Horologion]
[Rest from labor.  Fish allowed]

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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
+ Saint John Chrysostomos

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With sincere agape in Christ’s Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George