The Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord, God, and Saviour Jesus Christ

The Feast of the Trans­fig­u­ra­tion  is cel­e­brat­ed each year on August 6 (o.s.). The feast com­mem­o­rates the trans­fig­u­ra­tion or meta­mor­pho­sis of Christ on Mount Tabor, when our Lord appeared in His divine glo­ry before the Apos­tles Peter, James, and John short­ly before his sav­ing Passion.

Thou wast trans­fig­ured on the moun­tain, O Christ our God, show­ing to Thy dis­ci­ples Thy glo­ry as each one could endure; shine forth Thou on us, who are sin­ners all, Thy light ever-unend­ing. Through the prayers of the Theotokos. O Light-giv­er, glo­ry to Thee.

On the mount Thou wast trans­fig­ured, and Thy dis­ci­ples, as much as they could bear, beheld Thy glo­ry, O Christ God;  so that when they should see Thee cru­ci­fied, they would know Thy pas­sion to be will­ing, and would preach to the world that Thou, in truth, art the Efful­gence of the Father.

An Excerpt from St. Gregory Palamas’s Homily on The Transfiguration.

But let us not tire our atten­tion with the fur­ther­most inter­pre­ta­tions of the words of the Gospel. We shall believe thus, as those same ones have taught us, who them­selves were enlight­ened by the Lord Him­self, inso­far as they alone know this well: the Mys­ter­ies of God, in the words of a prophet, are known to God alone and His perpetual 

prox­im­i­ty. Let us, con­sid­er­ing the Mys­tery of the Trans­fig­u­ra­tion of the Lord in accord with their teach­ing, strive to be illu­mined by this Light our­selves and encour­age in our­selves love and striv­ing towards the Unfad­ing Glo­ry and Beau­ty, puri­fy­ing our spir­i­tu­al eyes of world­ly thoughts and refrain­ing from per­ish­able and quick­ly pass­ing delights and beau­ty which dark­en the garb of the soul and lead to the fire of Gehen­na and ever­last­ing dark­ness. Let us be freed from these by the illu­mi­na­tion and knowl­edge of the incor­po­re­al and ever-exist­ing Light of our Sav­ior trans­fig­ured on Tabor, in His Glo­ry, and of His Father from all eter­ni­ty, and His Life-Cre­at­ing Spir­it, Whom are One Radi­ance, One God­head, and Glo­ry, and King­dom, and Pow­er now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.1Source