Recently, the Church of Our Lady of Damascus has witnessed a most welcome improvement – an electronic bell system. This systen greatly enhances the performance of the three bells which have called the faithful to the Church’s functions for the last sixty years. Apart from enabling the conventional manual ringing of the three bells, this electronic system offers a wide variety of pre-recorded melodies which automatically play on particular days of the ecclesiastical calendar. This electonic bell system was installed by the Italian company ALFA GROUP S.R.L. of Pozzuoli, Naples. Parishioners, Valletta residents and visitors to Valletta have welcomed this improved bell system with great enthusiasm. 
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6th December: Today's SaintO Saint of God, intercede for us.
Christmas Lent: Today we abstain from meat, fish, oil, wine, dairy products, and eggs.The Saint of the day 6 December
† Our Father among the Saints Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra (345)
audio.ancientfaith.com/sotd/12_06_nicholas_pc.mp3
Our beloved holy Father Nicholas is, along with St George (and second to the All-holy Theotokos), probably the best-loved Saint of the Church. His numberless miracles through the ages, on behalf of the countless Christians who have called on him, cannot be told.
He was born in Lycia (in Asia Minor) around the end of the third century, to pious Christian parents. His love of virtue, and his zeal for observing the canons of the Church, were evident from his infancy, when he would abstain from his mother's breast every Wednesday and Friday until the evening. From early youth he was inclined to solitude and silence; in fact, not a single written or spoken word of the Saint has come down to us. Though ordained a priest by his uncle, Archbishop Nicholas, he attempted to withdraw to a hermit's life in the Holy Land; but he was told by revelation that he was to return home to serve the Church publicly and be the salvation of many souls.
When his parents died, he gave away all of his inheritance to the needy, and thereafter almsgiving was his greatest glory. He always took particular care that his charity be done in secret. Perhaps the most famous story of his open-handedness concerns a debt-ridden man who had no money to provide dowries for his daughters, or even to support them, and in despair had resolved to give them into prostitution. On three successive nights the Saint threw a bag of gold into the window of the man's house, saving him and his daughters from sin and hopelessness. The man searched relentlessly to find and thank his benefactor; when at last he discovered that it was Nicholas, the Saint made him promise not to reveal the good deed until after he had died. (This story may be the thin thread that connects the Saint with the modern-day Santa Claus).
God honored his faithfulness by granting him unparalleled gifts of healing and wonderworking. Several times he calmed storms by his prayers and saved the ship that he was sailing in. Through the centuries he has often done the same for sailors who call out to him, and is considered the patron of sailors and all who go to sea.
He was elected Bishop of Myra not long before the great persecutions under Diocletian and Maximian (c. 305), and was put in prison, from which he continued to encourage his flock in the Faith. When the Arian heresy wracked the Church not long after Constantine came to the throne, St Nicholas was one of the 318 Bishops who gathered in Nicea in 325. There he was so incensed at the blasphemies of Arius that he struck him on the face. This put the other bishops in a quandary, since the canons require that any hierarch who strikes anyone must be deposed. Sadly, they prepared to depose the holy Nicholas; but in the night the Lord Jesus and the most Holy Theotokos appeared to them, telling them that the Saint had acted solely out of love for Truth, not from hatred or passion, and that they should not act against him.
While still in the flesh, he sometimes miraculously appeared in distant places to save the lives of the faithful. He once saved the city of Myra from famine by appearing to the captain of a ship full of grain, telling him to take his cargo to the city. He appeared in a dream to Constantine to intercede for the lives of three Roman officers who had been falsely condemned; the three grateful soldiers later became monks.
The holy bishop reposed in peace around 345. His holy relics were placed in a church built in his honor in Myra, where they were venerated by throngs of pilgrims every year. In 1087, after Myra was conquered by the Saracens, the Saint's relics were translated to Bari in southern Italy, where they are venerated today. Every year, quantities of fragrant myrrh are gathered from the casket containing his holy relics.
Troparion — Tone 4
In truth you were revealed to your flock as a rule of faith, / an image of humility and a teacher of abstinence; / your humility exalted you; / your poverty enriched you. / Hierarch Father Nicholas, / entreat Christ our God / that our souls may be saved.
Kontakion — Tone 3
You revealed yourself, O saint, in Myra as a priest, / for you fulfilled the Gospel of Christ / by giving up your soul for your people, / and saving the innocent from death. / Therefore you are blessed as one become wise in the grace of God.
5th December: Today's SaintO Saint of God, intercede for us.
Christmas Lent: Fish, oil, and wine are allowed.The Saint of the day 5 December
† Our Venerable, Godbearing Father Sabbas the Sanctified (533)
audio.ancientfaith.com/sotd/12_05_Sabbas_pc.mp3
" Sabbas was born in 439 in Moutalaska, a small village of Cappadocia. He entered the arena of the monastic life from childhood and was under that master trainer of monastics, Euthymius the Great, the teacher of the desert.
He became the spiritual father of many monks and an instructor for the monasteries in Palestine, and was appointed leader (archimandrite) of the desert-dwellers of Palestine by the Patriarch of Jerusalem.
In his old age he went to Constantinople, to the Emperors Anastasius and Saint Justinian the Great, in behalf of the Orthodox Faith and the dogmas of the Council of Chalcedon. Having lived ninety-four years, he reposed in 533.
The Typicon for the ecclesiastical services had its beginning in the monastery established by this righteous one." (Great Horologion)
Troparion — Tone 8
With the streams of your tears you cultivated the barrenness of the desert; / and by your deep sighs, you bore fruit a hundredfold in your labors. / You became a luminary, shining upon the world with miracles. / O our righteous Father Sava, intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved!
Kontakion — Tone 8
From your youth you offered yourself to God as a blameless sacrifice, / having been dedicated to Him before your birth, blessed Sava. / You were an adornment of the righteous and a praiseworthy citizen of the desert. / Therefore, we cry to you: “Rejoice, ever glorious Father.”
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6th December: Today's SaintO Saint of God, intercede for us.
Christmas Lent: Today we abstain from meat, fish, oil, wine, dairy products, and eggs.The Saint of the day 6 December
† Our Father among the Saints Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra (345)
audio.ancientfaith.com/sotd/12_06_nicholas_pc.mp3
Our beloved holy Father Nicholas is, along with St George (and second to the All-holy Theotokos), probably the best-loved Saint of the Church. His numberless miracles through the ages, on behalf of the countless Christians who have called on him, cannot be told.
He was born in Lycia (in Asia Minor) around the end of the third century, to pious Christian parents. His love of virtue, and his zeal for observing the canons of the Church, were evident from his infancy, when he would abstain from his mother's breast every Wednesday and Friday until the evening. From early youth he was inclined to solitude and silence; in fact, not a single written or spoken word of the Saint has come down to us. Though ordained a priest by his uncle, Archbishop Nicholas, he attempted to withdraw to a hermit's life in the Holy Land; but he was told by revelation that he was to return home to serve the Church publicly and be the salvation of many souls.
When his parents died, he gave away all of his inheritance to the needy, and thereafter almsgiving was his greatest glory. He always took particular care that his charity be done in secret. Perhaps the most famous story of his open-handedness concerns a debt-ridden man who had no money to provide dowries for his daughters, or even to support them, and in despair had resolved to give them into prostitution. On three successive nights the Saint threw a bag of gold into the window of the man's house, saving him and his daughters from sin and hopelessness. The man searched relentlessly to find and thank his benefactor; when at last he discovered that it was Nicholas, the Saint made him promise not to reveal the good deed until after he had died. (This story may be the thin thread that connects the Saint with the modern-day Santa Claus).
God honored his faithfulness by granting him unparalleled gifts of healing and wonderworking. Several times he calmed storms by his prayers and saved the ship that he was sailing in. Through the centuries he has often done the same for sailors who call out to him, and is considered the patron of sailors and all who go to sea.
He was elected Bishop of Myra not long before the great persecutions under Diocletian and Maximian (c. 305), and was put in prison, from which he continued to encourage his flock in the Faith. When the Arian heresy wracked the Church not long after Constantine came to the throne, St Nicholas was one of the 318 Bishops who gathered in Nicea in 325. There he was so incensed at the blasphemies of Arius that he struck him on the face. This put the other bishops in a quandary, since the canons require that any hierarch who strikes anyone must be deposed. Sadly, they prepared to depose the holy Nicholas; but in the night the Lord Jesus and the most Holy Theotokos appeared to them, telling them that the Saint had acted solely out of love for Truth, not from hatred or passion, and that they should not act against him.
While still in the flesh, he sometimes miraculously appeared in distant places to save the lives of the faithful. He once saved the city of Myra from famine by appearing to the captain of a ship full of grain, telling him to take his cargo to the city. He appeared in a dream to Constantine to intercede for the lives of three Roman officers who had been falsely condemned; the three grateful soldiers later became monks.
The holy bishop reposed in peace around 345. His holy relics were placed in a church built in his honor in Myra, where they were venerated by throngs of pilgrims every year. In 1087, after Myra was conquered by the Saracens, the Saint's relics were translated to Bari in southern Italy, where they are venerated today. Every year, quantities of fragrant myrrh are gathered from the casket containing his holy relics.
Troparion — Tone 4
In truth you were revealed to your flock as a rule of faith, / an image of humility and a teacher of abstinence; / your humility exalted you; / your poverty enriched you. / Hierarch Father Nicholas, / entreat Christ our God / that our souls may be saved.
Kontakion — Tone 3
You revealed yourself, O saint, in Myra as a priest, / for you fulfilled the Gospel of Christ / by giving up your soul for your people, / and saving the innocent from death. / Therefore you are blessed as one become wise in the grace of God.
5th December: Today's SaintO Saint of God, intercede for us.
Christmas Lent: Fish, oil, and wine are allowed.The Saint of the day 5 December
† Our Venerable, Godbearing Father Sabbas the Sanctified (533)
audio.ancientfaith.com/sotd/12_05_Sabbas_pc.mp3
" Sabbas was born in 439 in Moutalaska, a small village of Cappadocia. He entered the arena of the monastic life from childhood and was under that master trainer of monastics, Euthymius the Great, the teacher of the desert.
He became the spiritual father of many monks and an instructor for the monasteries in Palestine, and was appointed leader (archimandrite) of the desert-dwellers of Palestine by the Patriarch of Jerusalem.
In his old age he went to Constantinople, to the Emperors Anastasius and Saint Justinian the Great, in behalf of the Orthodox Faith and the dogmas of the Council of Chalcedon. Having lived ninety-four years, he reposed in 533.
The Typicon for the ecclesiastical services had its beginning in the monastery established by this righteous one." (Great Horologion)
Troparion — Tone 8
With the streams of your tears you cultivated the barrenness of the desert; / and by your deep sighs, you bore fruit a hundredfold in your labors. / You became a luminary, shining upon the world with miracles. / O our righteous Father Sava, intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved!
Kontakion — Tone 8
From your youth you offered yourself to God as a blameless sacrifice, / having been dedicated to Him before your birth, blessed Sava. / You were an adornment of the righteous and a praiseworthy citizen of the desert. / Therefore, we cry to you: “Rejoice, ever glorious Father.”
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