Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I remember when I was a kid picking up the rotary phone and calling our house number, thinking I would prank my mother.  After I dialed, however, all I heard on the other end was the “phone is busy” ring; that quick, rhythmic, single-note tone that let one know the connection could not be made – that the line was tied-up.  That still happens with our landline (yes, we still have one and we will not get rid of it…) if I call it, but with the cellular phones, it goes straight to voicemail.  Either way, the principle is the same: dialing up one’s own number either leads to nothing or a soliloquy. 

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Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, This Sunday, March 21st, is the Sunday of Orthodoxy.  This is the day we remember when the heresy of iconoclasm was defeated by the Orthodox Faith and Tradition, particularly through the zeal of St. Theodora the Empress.  For over 100 years icons were destroyed and the faithful Orthodox who promoted them were often persecuted; some were even killed.  After the 7th Ecumenical Council, convened by Empress Irene in 787 A.D., which affirmed the faith of Orthodoxy against the heresy of iconoclasm, the adherents to iconoclasm still were able to promulgate their ideas until St. Theodora finally put an end to iconoclasm in 843 A.D.  To this day we remember the triumph of Orthodox over heresy by processing with icons on the first Sunday of Great Lent.