May
22, 2012
Brooklyn,
NY:
The
Patronal
Feast
Day
of
the
Church
of
our
Lady
"The
Inexhaustible
Chalice"
in
Brighton
Beach
On
Sunday, May 20, parishioners of the
Church of our Lady
"The Inexhaustible Chalice" in Brighton Beach celebrated their
parish’s patronal feast day. After a moleben, the faithful processed
through Brighton, carrying with them an icon of our Lady "The
Inexhaustible Chalice," whereon the Mother of God is depicted with
her pure arms open, facing Heaven, while the God-Child is depicted
standing in a chalice. This chalice is truly inexhaustible or
unabating, because its lamb is "ever eaten and never consumed." In
the same way, there is no surer means of obtaining the love and good
will of God’s Mother, than through Communion of Christ’s Holy
Mysteries.
The procession of the cross, in which the parishioners took part, is
truly a procession after Christ. As the Most Pure went herself to
Golgotha, so the faithful follow her, desiring to crucify their
passions and lusts. It was symbolic that this parish, whose primary
goal is to tend to those suffering from alcohol abuse, chose as its
heavenly intercessor this icon, which is believed to heal the sin of
alcoholism. Molebens to the icon "The Inexhaustible Chalice" help
lift up people who, it seems, have drowned in the sin of
drunkenness, and have lost hope in finding any help besides that of
the Mother of God. Miraculous healings take place before
parishioners’ own eyes, as yesterday’s homeless and alcoholics,
forgetting the bottle, return to a normal life, find work, and even
receive healthy children from the Lord.
Greater and greater numbers of suffering people continue to come to
the Church of our Lady "The Inexhaustible Chalice" on Brighton
Beach, because in today’s world, all of us are suffering. We suffer
from a lack of love and faith. There is no other "Inexhaustible
Chalice" in the Orthodox Diaspora, but there is the Brighton parish.
Help it build a new church, which will be able to accommodate all of
the faithful and will fortify the Orthodox Faith in Brighton’s
godless sea.
