Sunday, May24th 10:30 a.m.

 Sunday Reader’s Typica

Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council and Afterfeast of the Ascension

A mystery held in tension:

Christ ascends into glory… yet remains with us.

Not distant. Not absent.

The Ascension is not Christ leaving the world behind, but filling all things with His presence.

This Sunday, the Church remembers the Holy Fathers gathered at Nicaea, who defended the truth that Jesus Christ is truly God of true God. Not a created being. Not a lesser light. But the eternal Son, one in essence with the Father. Through their faithfulness, the Church preserved the living proclamation we still confess today in the Creed.

 Epistle: Acts 20:16–18, 28–36

St. Paul gives a final exhortation to the elders of Ephesus:

“Keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock…”

A call to faithfulness, courage, and shepherding with love.

 Gospel: John 17:1–13

Christ prays to the Father before His Passion:

“That they may be one, as We are one.”

The prayer of Christ becomes the heartbeat of the Church.

 The Fathers of Nicaea did not invent the Faith.

They protected the apostolic truth handed down from the beginning, so that the Church could continue to proclaim Christ clearly in every generation.

 “The Church was strengthened into one faith through the preaching of the Apostles and the doctrines of the Fathers…”

— Kontakion of the Holy Fathers

Reader’s Typica

Sunday Morning

All are welcome. Come and see.