06/08/2026
GOOD FEAST to all who celebrate!
'… in truth He became a man like us and in our flesh He revealed the Divine perfection, making Himself a sign for us, whom many prophets and righteous men “desired to see". And this we must now realise, each one of us in our own lives, so that through the likeness to Christ, in the image of His earthly life, we may become like Him and in the image of the Divine existence.
'I beg you, that we may not faint in hearing the words of this teaching... this is the orthodox faith and the unshakeable hope, which will not be put to shame, because its foundation is the unfalse testimony of the Lord. And if false humility wishes to call this excessive boldness or even foolishness, then let us remember the Apostle Paul, who, cutting off faint-heartedness on the one hand, and on the other the unreasonable pride of the carnal mind, says that "it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe," rejecting the wisdom of the wise, and turning the wisdom of this world into foolishness. Every day the experience of humanity firmly shows us that the "wise and prudent" of this age cannot follow Christ either to Tabor, or to Golgotha, or to the Mount of Olives. So, beloved, let us also, through the power of faith, ascend to the "mountain of the Lord", stand invisibly in the city of the Living God, and, walking in the spirit, see the immaterial Divinity of the Father and the Spirit shining forth in the Only Begotten Son. Let us ascend not with proud boldness, but with fear and trembling, as unworthy of this ascent and vision, yet with hope that even “for us sinners,” according to the immeasurable goodness of the Heavenly Father, “the indescribable Light” of the Godhead will shine, the unbridled radiance of which cast the chosen Apostles prostrate on Tabor.'
- St Sophrony of Essex
(on the Transfiguration)