Partakers of Divinity - Fr. Gregory - June 13, 2021

Each year this Sunday stands between two Great Feasts of the Church, the Ascension and Pentecost. Today in Orthodoxy we celebrate the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council. Thousands of Bishops were invited by the Emperor Constantine to unify the Church’s belief and teaching about the nature of Jesus Christ. Arias, a presbyter from Alexandra, Egypt, was teaching that Jesus was first in the created order, but He could not be God. Three hundred and eighteen bishops, guided by the Holy Spirit, convened in Nicaea, to share their experience of what had been passed down from the Apostles; that Jesus Christ is fully God. Father Gregory examines and shares three points; public truth, the nature of the Church as a receptacle of the truth and why it is important for us and our salvation. The purpose of our lives as Christians, is to imitate Jesus Christ and to follow His Divine teachings. In doing so, we can become partakers in His Divine Nature and have communion with God Himself.