On Saturday, August 29, Archbishop Elpidophoros of America visited Saint John’s Greek Orthodox Church in Bluepoint, New York, presiding over a Divine Liturgy commemorating the Feast of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist.
His Eminence asked the parishioners to imagine themselves with Saint John, the church’s Heavenly Protector, as the forerunner of the Savior awaited his fate in prison.
“I want you to imagine with me—just for a few moments—what it must have been like for John, as he waited in prison for the end that he surely knew was coming. The Forerunner was unafraid to ‘speak truth to power,’ and he was equally willing to pay the price for his honest declaration,” Archbishop Elpidophoros said.
“The Message that the Lord sent to His Baptizer is the same message that He sends to us today. Because the miracles of the soul that take place every day through faith in Him are of the same character as the physical miracles the Lord wrought throughout His Holy Ministry.”
Photos by Orthodox Observer/Yannis Malevitis
