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The Descent of the Spirit came with a great wind that rushed through the building, and tongues of fire danced on the heads of the disciples. This event, at nine o’clock in the morning, is commemorated every day in the Divine Office at the Third Hour. As a result of the descent of the Holy Spirit, Saint Peter is transformed and he begins his preaching ministry in the street outside of the house, and thousands are converted to faith in Jesus as the Son of God and the true Messiah of Israel.

Each day of the church year is dedicated to a saint or group of saints. But there are many saints that no one knows or guesses about. In God's Providence, their names are recorded in the Book of Life. Therefore, in order to pay their respects, the Church has dedicated a day to honor all Saints who are not included in the annual cycle of the church calendar.

This Summer Lent is a preparation for the great feast of SS. Peter and Paul on June 29th. These two apostles are the two pillars of the Church. It is also related to what Jesus said in Matthew 9:15, in reply to the Pharisees’ complaint that the apostles were not keeping fast days according to the Law: But the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast."

June 24 is the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. He is the only “ordinary” saint whose conception, birth and death are commemorated on the Church Calendar. He is the Forerunner of Jesus, the last of the Jewish prophets, the one who prepared “the way of the Lord” for Jesus’ ministry.

Peter and Paul are considered to be the two pillars of the Church. From radically different backgrounds - Peter a commercial fisherman from Galilee, Paul a well-educated Pharisee and Roman citizen from the colony of Tarsus. Our two saints are responsible for the preaching to the Gentiles (Paul) and approving that mission (Peter).

On the Sunday between the 13th and the 19th of July, the Eastern Churches commemorate the first Six Ecumenical Councils. These began in 325 AD, just 14 years after the Christian Faith was given legal status in the Roman Empire, as the Church sought to define Who Jesus Christ is, and how we are saved by His Precious Blood on the Cross and brought to new life in Him.

The feast of St. Elias / Elijah is commemorated on July 20 every year, by Catholics, Orthodox, and by the Carmelite Order, which sees Elias as its spiritual ancestor. His icons are noted for the bright colors that are used, fiery red especially. He is the patron saint of wheeled vehicles, due to his heavenly chariot, and cars and other vehicles are blessed on his feast day.

August 1 is a multiple feast. First off, today marks the beginning of the Dormition Fast. Next it is the remembrance of the Procession of the Life-Giving Cross: on this day the True Cross was carried through the streets of Constantinople and laid on the altar of Hagia Sophia. Then on the eve of the Dormition, it was returned to its usual resting place near the palace. On both days, the clergy would pray for God’s blessings upon the city and the empire. Some places still do this with a relic of the True Cross being carried around the church.

August 6 marks the holy day of the Transfiguration. Jesus takes his three closest friends – Peter, James and John, who He will also take into the Garden of Gethsemane - to the top of Mount Tabor. There He is finally revealed in all His glory. He is accompanied by Moses, the giver of the Law, and Elijah, the greatest of the prophets, who come to confirm His divinity as the Son of God, the long-awaited Messiah.

The liturgical year, which is the image of the life in Christ, is also defined by two events in the life of Mary, her birth and her death. In fact, the first feast of the liturgical year is the Nativity of the Virgin (September 8). The last major feast of the liturgical year is the Dormition, celebrated on August 15.

Because of his importance, John the Baptist is the only saint, other than Mary the Mother of God, whose conception (Sept 23), birth (June 4) and death (Aug 29) are all commemorated. Along with those dates are the commemorations of finding of his head (Feb 24: First and Second times, and May 25 the Third); and the Synaxis on January 7, the day after the Baptism of the Lord (Theophany, January 6).

Among the ancient Mediterranean cultures, it was common to begin a new year in the autumn, with the end of the previous year's harvest. The civil year of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire began in September, and September 1, the first day of the civil year, also called the "Indiction", became the first day of the Church's year as well. The First Ecumenical Council (325) decreed that the Church’s year should begin on September 1.

We celebrate the birth of the Virgin Mary on September 8 as the first big festival of the Byzantine liturgical year, which began on September 1. All icons of this feast show the elderly but happy parents, SS. Joachim and Anne, and the birth is usually presented in a cozy family setting of women attendants bustling around Saint Anne.

September 14 marks the second great feast of the liturgical year, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The Cross was being broken into small pieces to provide relics for churches and the devout by the 340s. The remaining main part of the Cross was lost after the Muslim reconquest of Jerusalem in 1187.

October 1, is the patronal feast of our eparchy: the Holy Protection of the Mother of God (Pokrov in Slavonic). This feast, on the first day of October, celebrates the reality of Mary, the Mother of God (Theotokos) interceding for us before the throne of the Almighty. Both our own eparchy and the oldest Byzantine Catholic eparchy, Mukachevo, have this title.

Today we remember the Fathers of Nicaea II, or the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787. Called to gather at the site of the first council, which had determined who Christ was, these Fathers had to grapple with the heresy of iconoclasm. The location was an appropriate choice, for the iconoclasts were close to denying the human nature of the divine person, Jesus Christ. His humanity and divinity had been affirmed at Nicaea back in 325.

Saint Luke is the author of both his gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, which should be read as one unit. A Greek physician from Antioch, he was converted by the preaching of Paul. The Acts are dedicated to an unknown governor of the province of Antioch. He is also said to have been the companion of Cleophas on the road to Emmaus. Another tradition claims that he was among the Seventy Disciples who followed Christ during his preaching.

The church calendar is filled with warrior saints, soldiers who served in the military faithfully but stood up for their Christian faith when necessary. Demetrius was an officer in the Roman army, and belonged to one of Rome’s ancient patrician families with the right to speak in the Senate. He was killed in the last big persecution of Christians under the emperor Diocletian.

Blessed Theodore Romzha, the youngest Catholic bishop at 33 in 1944, became the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church's defiant leader amid Soviet annexation, as the sole free bishop in the USSR by 1946. He resisted pressure to join the state church, preached martyrdom, and secretly consecrated successors, ensuring the faith's underground survival after his October 31, 1947 martyrdom. Beatified in 2001, his feast honors that date. He is the patron of Bishop Artur's vocation.