Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy: The First Sunday of Holy and Great Lent
About the Sunday of Orthodoxy: The restoration was accomplished in the year 842 A.D. when Empress Theodora, on the First Sunday of the Fast, Venerated an Icon of the Theotokos in front of Patriarch Methodios and she led the way in hanging up the Icons to adorn the Churches considering them to be representations of their original elements, not idols…
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Prayers
Apolytikion: O Christ our God, begging forgiveness of our sins, we Venerate Your pure image O Good One. Of Your own will You condescended to ascend upon the Cross in the flesh and delivered those you created from the bondage of the enemy. Wherefore, thankfully we cry out: When You came to save the world You filled all things with joy, O our Saviour.
Kontakion: The undepictable Word of the Father became depictable when He took flesh of you, O Theotokos; and when He had restored the defiled image to its ancient state, He suffused it with divine beauty. As for us, confessing our Salvation, we record it in deed and word.
Who is so great a God as our God? You are the God alone Who works wonders.
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Confession of Faith on the Day of Orthodoxy
As the Prophets beheld, as the Apostles have taught, as the Church has received, as the teachers have Dogmatized, as the Universe has agreed, as Grace has shown forth, as Truth has revealed, as falsehood has been dissolved, as Wisdom has presented, as Christ awarded. Thus we declare, thus we assert, thus we preach Christ Our True God and honour His Saints in words, in writings, in thoughts, in sacrifices, in Churches, in Holy Icons; on the one hand worshipping and reverencing Christ as God and Lord, and on the other hand honouring as true servants of the same Lord of all and accordingly offering them Veneration. This is the Faith of the Apostles, this is the Faith of the Fathers, this is the Faith of the Orthodox, this is the Faith which has established the Universe!
Saint Theodora the Empress, who restored Orthodoxy
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