Fasts & Feasts

February 15 - March 26

The Holy and Great Fast

February

21 - 1st Sunday of the Great Fast (Sunday of Orthodoxy)
27 - All Souls Saturday
28 - 2nd Sunday of the Great Fast (Palamas)

March

6 - All Souls Saturday
7 - 3rd Sunday of the Great Fast (Veneration of the Cross)
13 - All Souls Saturday
14 - 4th Sunday of the Great Fast (Climacus)
18 - Canon of St. Andrew of Crete
20 - Akathistos Saturday
21 - 5th Sunday of the Great Lent (Mary of Egypt)
25 - Annunciation to the Mother of God

March 27-April 4

Great and Holy Week

28 - Palm Sunday

April

4 - Pascha

You are here : Home News New rash of bombings hits Iraqi Christian churches

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New rash of bombings hits Iraqi Christian churches

Kirkuk, Jan. 9, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Three churches in Kirkuk, Iraq, were hit by car bombs on Wednesday afternoon, January 9, the AsiaNews service reports.

The bombings follow closely after a series of blasts at Catholic churches and Church-run institutions in Baghdad and Mosul on January 6. Following those Sunday attacks, Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had issued a promise that the government would provide adequate protection for Christian institutions and would apprehend the Islamic terrorists who are presumed to be responsible for the intimidation campaign.

The attacks in Kirkuk came just one day after the prime minister offered that public guarantee. The bombs hit 2 Eastern Catholic churches; the third church struck by the car-bombing campaign has not yet been identified. The bombings were the first such attacks against Christians in Kirkuk, AsiaNews pointed out. The city's Christians had been living in peace, relatively unaffected by the threats of violence that have troubled the Christian minority elsewhere in Iraq.

O Savior, save me!

O Master, I have not kept Your Commandments. By my own free choice I yielded to the passions of sensual pleasure. I have stripped myself of grace. I lay wounded and naked. I pray to You, O Savior: save me!

Matins of the Fourth Sunday of the Fast

Wisdom from the Church Fathers

Wrath is a reminder of hidden hatred, that is to say, remembrance of wrongs. Wrath is a desire for the injury of the one who has provoked you. Irascibility is the untimely blazing up of the heart. Bitterness is a movement of displeasure seated in the soul. Anger is an easily changeable movement of one’s disposition and disfiguration of soul.

St. John Climacus, “The Ladder of Divine Ascent"
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